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BBretall

Name: Bob Bretall

Bio: Bob has been a comics reader/fan since 1972, and owns over 50,000 comics, reading >120 new comics every month.Bob is also co-host of the ComicBookPage family of podcasts that can be found at http://www.comicbookpage.com


Reviews
BBretall's Recent Comments
April 22, 2011 4:53 pm I hope that some Marvdel editor has the balls to keep Adams on-target for the issue.  His Batman series @ DC is unreadable.
April 13, 2011 5:33 pm @nukethewhalesagain  To some extent the publishers are helping break readers of their addiction.  I used to slavishly get all the books from Marvel (for instance) until they started publishing so many books that it became impractical to buy them all.  Then I realized I didn't need to get them all after all.
Then I'd get all the books in a particular franchise, until there was a combo of putting out so many books in the franchise AND crossing over with something else so getting all those became impractical.
And, I'd get all the event books, until that finally got impractical.

I understand the obsessive nature of collecting probably better than most (as anyone who's seen my collection) BUT, once you realize you cannot get it ALL, then it becomes easier & easier to cut way back and pick and choose what you enjoy most.

This is an unintended consequence of flooding the market, you get even your most obsessive fans to stop getting everything.  Declining sales may be an indicator of this.
April 13, 2011 4:38 pm @Wood Fair point, but I think the owners who "get it" (like James Sime of Isotope) are few & far between.   They don't "think" their customers will buy Indie books, so they sell out of Nonplayer in 2 hours (if they even ordered it in the 1st place).  Yet they continue to build up $1 bin stock.

As you said, the business acumen of the average comic shop owner is a debate for another day.
April 13, 2011 4:07 pm To me, it's not so much being "forced" to buy all the tie-ins (I don't),  but rather these big Marvel/DC content-blasts eating up retailer $$ that is then not available to purchase Indie books (for the 30% of comic shops that actually bother to get Indie books in any depth).

Even Indie friendly shops need to manage their spending budget, and even those shops make the lion's shjre of their money selling Marvel/DC, less available $$ for purchases means less choice on the racks for customers who come in & buy off the rack.

People who have pull-lists and do pre-orders are not affected, they should get what they order, but that will not help the industry grow.
April 6, 2011 8:26 pm @wallythegreenmonster wrote "You can't sell whats not on the shelf"

 This is too true.  Classic "chicken & egg" problem.  Many smaller stores stock Marvel/DC & licensensed stuff, it's all their customers see so it's all they buy.  It's just too much effort for these guys to look around & do some reasearch on smaller books (Nonplayer & most all Image books have 6-10 page previews available on line, and Retailers are often provided PDFs of the full #1 issue, if they care to download & look at it).

Best way to help is to be an informed consumer & ask your LCS to stock what you want to buy.
April 6, 2011 1:26 pm Great article!  Never thought of this before!
April 6, 2011 12:48 pm This book is stunning.

Get out to your comic shop and buy it TODAY. 

This will be sold out FOR REAL by Friday (not just "sold out thru Diamond" which means there are still copies on the shelf.   Once people flip through this book they'll buy it.

@WeaklyRoll - When I interviewed Nate on the ComicBookPage podcast 2 months ago, I specifically reminded listeners to go tell their shop to order the book because so many shops (like yours, apparently) just don;t order things like this unless osmeone asks them to.
April 6, 2011 12:42 pm Thanks for pointing this out!   I got me a Flash wallet!  :-)
April 3, 2011 12:24 pm @thefreakytiki  I'm with you Tiki.  This is EXACTLY what I hate in a reprint of material I already have.  They add in 8 pages of new stuff so I either rebuy 2 GNs that I supported the 1st time around to get 8 pages, or I skip it and miss out on some new Darwyn Cooke.

I'm kind of disappointed in IDW for pulling this stunt.

I like seeing sketchbooks, scripts, etc. in a collected edition, but NOT new comic material "available nowhere else".

It just encourages me to NOT buy materail when it is first solicited.
April 3, 2011 12:21 pm The art style is different.   Not to my personal taste, so I'll be skipping this one, but I'm sure some fans will be loving it.