Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Okay, I know I said I wasn't going to talk the business side of comics, but... (how I went Orange Lantern this week at ABC)

Holy smokes.

I was walking into Austin Books, ran into an old pal, Jason C., and he only had Action Comics and OMAC in his hands.  Jason is a comics nut, and a DC aficionado (he wrote part of his dissertation on Crisis on Infinite Earths, for example) and this surprised me.

"What's up?  Just Action and a book written by Didio?"
"It's all sold out," he explained.  "No Animal Man."
"Wha-?"
"Yeah, its pretty cleared out in there."
"That's...  good?"
"I think I'm getting an iPad."
"Yeah.  WOW."

Now, I had used the Austin Books Weekly Pull List, and so I had my issues held for me, but, YEAH.  It was largely sold out.  Batgirl, Animal Man, a bunch of other stuff was just gone.  Action, OMAC, Static and Men of War had copies left, but there were several comics missing, including Swamp Thing.

Pretty good first week out of the gate, DC Comics.

Saddest of all were two separate grown men who, dammit, just wanted Stormwatch.  Just...  you know, they wanted to see what the Midnighter was up to.  Nothing big.  And they seemed kind of lost and sad.

In retrospect, I probably should have surrendered my copy to one of them, but I was in full on Larfleeze mode.



People, Austin Books and Comics does NOT do this wrong.  They do NOT under-order.  There's just that kind of demand.  It's...  I've not seen anything like it.  This is what we call demand.

Anyway, I had dinner with Jason and Amy, and so I'm a little behind tonight, so you'll have to excuse me while I read Action Comics #1, Batgirl, JLI and Animal Man.  That isn't all I got, and I guess I should fess up that I grabbed pretty much everything this week.  And Punisher #3.  And Planet of the Apes.

What are you guys seeing in your neighborhood shops?

2 comments:

JMD said...

I ordered from Midtown Comics and should be receiving my shipment shortly. I'll chime in on your reviews once I've had an opportunity to read them. One of the exciting things about the reboot is that now I feel like I can actually participate in these discussions with you.

The League said...

Very much looking forward to it!