Major Marvel Announcement

As of today we're not sure what the big announcement is, but we've been promised that it IS big! It has to do with Captain America and takes place in issue #600 of Captain America.

It is SO big in fact that in an unprecedented move Marvel comics and Diamond Distribution are partnering to get that issue into comic book stores the day the news hits the wire - Monday, June 15th. This advanced sale opportunity is extremely unusual, in fact aside from the midnight release of The Stand #1 I don't recall another time in the years Neptune has been open in which retail stores were sent a comic book before it's Wednesday release date and allowed it to be sold before that date. Marvel seems to be banking on the fact that this will definitely be news that not just comic book readers, but the general public, will be interested in and want to own.

Not every comic book retailer is taking advantage of the advanced release, but we are at Neptune Comics! Our UPS typically arrives between 11 am and 2 pm, and we will have the comic book ready to be sold as soon as we can tear the box open.

There will be an additional wave of the comic arriving on the regular Wednesday release day, so if you miss out on Monday you should be sure to put your name on a list for Wednesday. But personally I recommend heading to Neptune or another store that will have the books for sale on Monday and browsing while you wait for the issue to arrive. By then the word should be out on what the big news!


UPDATE: Comic Book Resources Cup O Joe, Joe Q says about Cap #600: From the retailer standpoint, what they simply have to observe is the sort of investment we're making in this. We're putting a lot of effort into promoting #600. If we didn't think #600 was going to be something that's going to blow off the stands, we wouldn't be doing this. I can't think of an occasion where we sat here and bait and switched people. "You have to buy this monumental issue. You have to order hundreds of these" – and then not have something significant happen in the story. You may notice in the preview pages an emphasis on African American characters, reinforcing Craig's Theory I blogged about a couple of weeks back.

Newsworthy

Most of the time comic books are our private little thing - the thing that the 5-6% of cool Americans enjoy. But every once in a while the media jumps onto a comic book event and suddenly people who haven't bought comics in years, or ever, want to see what's going on and buy a piece of that history. Of course many are doing so in the hope that if they save it for a few years it will be worth big money.

You may have seen that recently even Archie comics has been getting in on the media action. Diamond notified retailers in our daily mailer that, "Coverage on Yahoo.com, in the New York Post, ABC News’ Good Morning America and CNN are sure to drive curious readers to the newsstands and comic book shops, some of whom may not have picked up a comic book in years"

And keep your eyes peeled because Marvel is insisting that the media will jump on Captain America #600 with such force that retailers can get an advanced release of this issue (more on that as events unfold!)

As always, if you want to be sure to get a copy you can reserve one from Neptune in advance. Once the buzz hits there's no guarantee you'll be able to get one if you want it unless you have asked ahead.

Captain America is Back and Black

Not to focus on Marvel or Captain America, but I'm doing another post on Captain America rumors floating around. As I mentioned in my last post, there is a LOT of buzz about what is/might be going on with the title and with Steve Rogers.

You may have picked up the May Previews catalog and seen a solicitation in Marvel's catalog for "Reborn," a Captain America story without any description in the solicitation. You may also have noticed in recent Marvel comics a "July 2009" teaser featuring a black background with a white star, resembling Captain America's logo. Marvel has been VERY hush-hush about the story, even with retailers, encouraging order increases on the title's final-order-cutoff deadline, but not providing reasons why other than we NEED to have a lot on hand because there WILL be demand.

You might also know if you're a movie fan that there had been talk of a Captain America movie coming out mid 2009. That doesn't seem to be happening now, but you Hollywood insiders probably heard the talk. And MTV said that they'd heard rumors that Will Smith would play Captain America.

AND you might have seen back in February the collected edition of "Captain America: The Truth" return to comic book retailer's shelves. Marvel did a nice hardcover reprint of it. In case you don't know, here's Marvel's summary of the story: "In every war, people demand their champion. In World War II, that hero was Captain America. TRUTH is the controversial, declassified story of the African American men involuntarily subjected to the U.S. War Department's "Super Soldier" project, in a race to develop a serum that might turn the tide against the Axis powers ... if the Nazi's didn't get to it first. An epic spanning the time just before the attack on Pearl Harbor into the present day, TRUTH finally reveals the tragic sacrifice that a Black infantry unit made for their country — and what those sacrifices mean to a white man named Steve Rogers." Basically before Steve Rogers received the Super Soldier serum that made him Captain America, the US tested the serum on black soldiers. Also note that in that story the experiments were called "Project Rebirth." AND the cover of issue #1 (pictured) shows a black shirted individual with a white star on the shirt.

Let us also not forget that here in the United States we now have a black President. And that same President has enormous popularity, and even claims to read comic books himself.

All of these little things point to a theory that Craig, yes our Neptune Craig, put out there - there will be a new black Captain America story. As one retailer pointed out on a comic book forum where Craig shared his theory:

It's the only thing that hits all three of the main criteria:

1. It'll get media coverage.

2. It fits the title.

3. It'll sell.

What do you think? Does this idea have legs? Would YOU buy it? Would the media jump on it? Other speculation?

Captain America Lives?

According to a new Marvel Comics announcement, starting in January 2008, with Captain America #34, there will be a NEW Captain America.

Yes, Steve Rogers is still dead. But, someone else will be wearing the costume, designed by Alex Ross in cooperation with the comic's current writer, Ed Brubaker.

AND - take a look at the picture - Cap's got a gun. That's not the Cap we know, so this is going to raise some eyebrows! And a knife too, by the way.

I think it's Bucky. Brubaker had to have brought him back for a reason, and the gun/knife combo just makes me think it's him.

Happy Birthday, Jack!

Today in 1917 a baby boy named Jacob Kurtzberg was born in NY, NY.
He began drawing comic strips sometime in the mid to late 1930's under the pseudonym "Jack Curtiss."
At the end of the 1930's he left and worked as a fill-in artist for Popeye cartoons being made by Fleischer Studios. He wasn't happy at Fleischer and left soon after. Around that time comic books were just becoming popular. But they were not what we know them as today. Rather they were a collection of comic strips, like you would find in the newspapers. He worked for a few of these comic book publishers, and eventually ended up collaborating with Joe Simon at one called "Martin Goodman's Timely Comics," which would eventually become "Marvel Comics."
Together Jack and Joe created Captain America.
In 1942 Jack got married and changed his last name to, you guessed it, "Kirby."
Kirby died at age 76 of heart failure in his Thousand Oaks, California home.

Jack Kirby is credited for his work on the following comics:

Marvel

* Captain America Comics (Golden Age) #1–10 (1941-1942)

* Various issues of "pre-superhero Marvel" science-fiction/fantasy stories in Amazing Adventures, Journey into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, Strange Worlds and World of Fantasy (1958 to early 1960s)

* Fantastic Four #1–102 (1961-1970)

* Incredible Hulk #1–5 (1962-1963)

* X-Men #1–17 + Annual 1 (1963-1970)

* Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1–7 (1963-1964)

* Avengers #1–8 (1963-1964), #14–17 (1965)

* The Mighty Thor #126–177,179 (1966-70; continued from Journey into Mystery)

* Captain America (modern) #100–109 (1968-1969; continued from Tales of Suspense), #193–214 (1976-1977)

* The Eternals #1–19 (1976-1978)

* The Black Panther #1–12 (1977-1978)

* Devil Dinosaur #1–9 (1978)

* Machine Man #1–9 (1978)

* 2001: A Space Odyssey (comics) #1–10 (1976)

DC

* Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #133–148 (1970-1972)

* Forever People #1–11 (1971-1972)

* New Gods #1–11 (1971-1972)

* Mister Miracle #1–18 (1971-1974)

* The Demon #1–16 (1972-1974)

* Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth #1–40 (1972-1976)

* The Sandman #1–6 (1974-1976)

* OMAC #1–8 (1974)

* Challengers of the Unknown #1–8 (May 1958 - July 1959)

* Adventure Comics #250–256 (July 1958 - January 1959)

* World's Finest #96–99 (September 1958 - February 1959)

I was lucky enough to see some of his original comic book art pages last summer at the Masters of American Comics art exhibit, when it arrived in Milwaukee. Really detailed and incredible. People like Kirby are amazing - he could create comics in no-time flat, and they were incredibly detailed drawings with fantastic stories. One count says he created over 250,000 pages - and that's not counting his comic strips and animation work.

Even though he's not with us anymore, Kirby's work stands out as an example of what great comic book creators can do. Happy Birthday, Jack.

Death Sells

After the death of Cap, and around the time the death of Flash was being speculated upon, I had said that I think these death "stunts" are a way for publishers to jump up sales numbers on the issues. Now that both the death of Captain America (Marvel) and The Flash (DC) have taken place, I wanted to share some solid store data to prove that death does sell.

Let's start with Captain America, since he was the first to "die."

Issue #20 was pre civil war and will be my base line.

When the Civil War tag went on the comic book, starting with issue #22, we saw a 50% increase over issues #21 and #22. This new number stayed about the same until the "death of" issue.

Issue #25 was the "death of" issue and it sold 100% over the Cap. Civil War issue numbers (#22-24), and 200% over the sales base Captain America had pre Civil War (#20-21)

Issue #26 saw a 27% decrease in sales from what we'd sold of issue #25, but was still 115% over the pre Civil War issues (#20-21), but only 50% more than the Civil War crossover issues (#22-24).

With issue #27 Captain America sales numbers returned to the level of the Civil War issues (#22-24).

Now Flash.

Let me start out by saying that we saw a 200% increase with the One Year Later issue - which was Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1, from the last issue of the series The Flash - issue #230.

However, that number quickly fell. Issue #2 was only 100% over the old series numbers (#228-230's average) and by issue #10 it was down to about 6% over the earlier series and held tight there until....

The final issue of the series, where Bart meets an untimely end, was issue #13. So far that issue has sold 130% over the average per issue sales of Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #9-12.

Now we just have to see where the book ends up when it returns this fall, back to the original numbering.


So there you go - it seems that events, in this case apparent deaths of characters, definitely do sell more comic books.

Opinion on Cap #25

I finally got around to reading Tilting @ Windmills by comic book retailer Brian Hibbs. I thought he put it well, expressing opinions similar to those I've had on the topic.

"Finally, we come to Trust, and this is the part of this that really bothers me the most: our suppliers don’t feel they can trust us enough to make a proper informed judgment of our stocking levels.

Let me be perfectly clear about a couple of things: its not just a Marvel problem, DC has certainly done it as well (most recently on the first month of Countdown, where they wouldn’t even officially confirm the series existed until the day Previews shipped). Further, I do really understand how much the impact of the internet has upon the ability to keep a “secret”.

On the other hand, I’m pretty largely unconvinced there’s a need for secrets when it comes to things like this. It was absolutely common knowledge when Superman died that it was going to happen, yet, even among comic fans, there was an enormous desire amongst the readership to see the execution of the story.

Here’s the difference between that and this: for Captain America #25, it’s not just that I didn’t have enough copies to meet demand from the waves of media interest. That’s pretty much a given, but nothing that could be planned for in any case. No, I think that the more fundamental problem is that I didn’t order enough copies to meet demand from regular readers who might be interested in the event. Even without the media frenzy, I think the book would have swiftly sold-through at retail, nationwide, regardless. Not in a day, no, but before the end of the weekend most certainly.

I don’t like telling customers “no”. I don’t even really like telling customers “Yes… but not today”.

Yes, indeed, we were told, in some venues (though certainly not ones available to the totality of comic book retailers), by means of personal assurances that we should order lots. And that’s always appreciated. But without the “why” attached to it, it’s virtually impossible to tell the difference between “lots” and “Lots” and “LOTS!”, if you see what I mean?"

He's right! Had we known about Cap #25 and been asked to keep it a secret, I think we could have. Maybe we'd have hyped it, saying "you'll want to be SURE to pick up Cap #25" but we could have kept it a secret, if it really needed to be a secret. We had people calling, wanting to know when that issue was coming out, not knowing we'd sold out two days prior. That is an indication to me that the secret could have been leaked earlier and not have hurt the sales momentum of the book. In fact, retailers not knowing could have hurt it MORE because we simply didn't have enough copies--none of us.

"Finally, I think there’s some very real concern about Wizard magazine having advance knowledge of this event (and, as a print magazine, clearly they had to have that information weeks ago), and it either accidentally, or very much on purpose leaking to their sales arm, and their affiliated retail stores, giving them a clear market advantage.

For myself, giving an opinion as an individual, I believe that Wizard did engage in “insider trading”. I believe this because of the sheer scope of the eBay listings (all since taken down, by the way, once the story got out), and because there is a long history of anecdotal stories from the Valiant and early Image days of Wizard where they engaged in such practices in their local regional market of upstate New York. Having a circumstance where one source is the disproportionately largest disseminator of information (to the point where Wizard can “make” the news), where that source is also one of the most widely used “price guides” (and therefore can “set” the prices for an individual item), where that source also has arms that deal in direct consumer sales, as well as conventions and their “exclusive” manufactured goods, then I think that can not help but be a recipe for trouble.

Wizard is not doing anything, that I am aware of, that is illegal. The comics aftermarket isn’t a regulated one. However, I believe it is deeply unethical to report on news and prices while at the same time selling items that can capitalize on that news and those prices."

Again, this is dead-on. While Wizard did not engage in anything illegal, it does appear that they might have profited on insider knowledge - looks like they're ones Marvel and DC can't trust. Wizard has been accused of similar things in the past, and there are many people who point out every month the insane prices Wizard lists for comics in their monthly - while also selling these same comics on their web site.

I think this was a great discussion of some of the things going on in the comic book industry that often get swept under the rug. Click here to read the whole column.

Cap Survey

Everyone has been discussing, both in the store and on the internet, if Steve Rogers is really dead and how long he will be dead. Marvel has said he's dead for the forseable future, but they also are continuing the Captain America comic book. Is he dead? Will he stay dead? Will there be a different man in the Captain America suit? Share your opinions!

Captain America buying requirements

I saw this on Johanna Carlson's blog, Comics Worth Reading (link on right) and so I had to go to John Kovalic's Dork Tower web site and see it for myself. Click on the image to make it bigger, or just head to the Dork Tower site by clicking here.

Pretty funny! It might just come to that here as the list of people wanting the Death of Steve Rogers issue continues to grow at a rate 3 times larger than the rate in which we've been able to accrue additional 1st print copies.

Yes, we DID get more, by the way, but they're all claimed at this point. However, the second print, Marvel says, will arrive March 28th. Oh, and you won't be buying a condo in aspen with the issue in 10 years, even if it is a first print. So if that was in your plans you might want to scrap them right now. Maybe the issue will buy you a pair of socks in 10 years, depending upon the rising cost of cotton.

Cap Pics

The beautiful spring weather arrived here a week ahead of schedule (March 21st is the first day of spring). The weather is SO beautiful that people must be enjoying it instead of shopping - the whole mall here is rather quiet. I can't blame them either - I'd be out enjoying it too if I wasn't here working to get ready for Wednesday. But on the plus side, MY part of the Wednesday setup is now finished and I can maybe catch up on some comic book reading.

Anyway, I wanted to share a couple of these funny pictures. You can click to make them larger if you want. The guy (aside from Captain America) is my husband and business partner, Craig. Let me just say I look FINE in that Wasp costume! LOL!! We put these out on our Captain America shrine.

Thanks again to Scott King for Photoshopping for us. He's working on our TV ad today! Be sure to visit his blog--it's in my links to the left.

Farwell Steve Rogers

I thought that, in light of the assassination of the current Captain America, Steve Rogers, we should put up a shrine in the store to honor our fallen hero.

Good Stuff

The 300 premiere was a blast! The movie was great and it was fun seeing so many customers there. We're pretty sure we had louder applause than any of the other sponsors ;)

Captain America is big news today. If you haven't heard then you probably are living under a rock. It's even on the CNN News scroll. We didn't order enough because, of course, we didn't know they were going to pull this stunt. So, we have to limit everyone to one copy. Hopefully that will make it possible to let everyone who wants one in the next couple of days get one. We do have more on order--but it's on back order so we'll have to see if we're able to get that to fill at all. If it does then people can always pick up another copy if they want another cover or one for prosperity. We haven't run out YET, but we've gotten calls from people who are not regular customers that are looking for it, so I think that with the big media push it we will run out. Marvel says they'll do a second print, but it won't be for a while. Why they can't do larger print runs when they know there's a big event like this that stores didn't know about to increase orders is beyond me. They're loosing money this way!

Civil War Alternate Ending

Guest post by Scott King on the Civil War ending Marvel refused to use:

Scott King’s Much Cooler Way to have Ended Marvel’s Civil War:

Without any other way to settle the conflict, Iron Man and Captain America decide to have a dance-off and since they needed impartial judges they use Blink to teleport them to the real world. Once here they talk to some Hollywood producers at Fox and ABC to do a first every cross-network-reality-show-crossover! The dance off commences with “Dancing with the Stars” format while being judged by American Idol’s Randy, Simon and Paula. At first Captain America does well, the fox trot and several other dances invented prior to World War II earn him hire scores with the judges. However, Tony’s ability to pull off a retro-disco-hip-hop one two step puts him in lead. The two then square off in a dancing duel (which is seen on the cover of Civil War #7). Tony’s whips out the hustle and Capt struggles to defend himself, and then using his suit, Tony does a wicked Robot that earn him Simon’s praises. Defeated, Captain America quits the super-hero biz and becomes the newest employee at Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch.

Check Scott's site for my alternate endings, plus more fun pop-culture stuff.