I went to Flying Colors today on my monthly sojourn to pick up my comics. Not that I have some sort of subscription list with them; come to think of it I don't know if they even offer that. Some comic book stores offer a service to their customers where you can subscribe to certain titles, then they'll hold those titles for you and maybe even give you a discount. It gives a comic book store repeat customers who come in and buy other things, an easier time estimating wholesale orders, and guaranteed sales.

The Flying Colors web site is rather plain and not very helpful. At least it gives you the store location and hours and even directions. Other than that it is remarkably uninformative. I was hoping for a way to sign up for a subcription service without having to talk to people. But then again I'd have to talk to them to pick up my comics each month.

This thinking comes about because I heard that Marvel Comics will now only print as many comics as are ordered. For the last 20 years or so Marvel has printed lots and lots of comics, especially first issues. The normal procedure was that stores would preorder a certain amount, and if the comic takes off they can reorder additional copies. It's a very retailer-friendly policy, but unfortunately Marvel would print 300000 copies of a comic and usually only sell half or less and have lots of extras to get rid of. This costs Marvel money and floods the market.

Another problem is the collectors' perspective. The price of most any old comic published in the last 20 years by Marvel is still fairly reasonable. And that's because there are a *lot* of extra issues floating about. Too much supply means comic prices don't soar means those people who collect comics for the resale value got screwed. Personally I like it that way since it's been easy to buy comics from my youth, but I can see why some people would not want that.

So Marvel is going to print less comics. Which means that stores have to order more initially, or they don't and there's a bigger chance to miss a particular issue that happens to sell out (because it's a special issue or a popular item for whatever reason). I really don't like missing an issue, because it can take months to get it and then I've missed a bit of the story which means it's jarring.

Therefore subscribing to the regular comics I get would be a good thing. Before I had not done this because I don't want to be tied down to one store and my aforementioned problem talking to people. So if I'm going to subscribe to comic books I'd rather do it from my local comic book store rather than say Mile High Comics which has a nice subscription program but they're out of Colorado (with a few stores scattered across the US). I do use Mile High Comics to get back issues because they have the occassional 30% off sale, have a big selection of back issues (far more than any small comic books store can have displayed), and they have a searchable database.

But maybe I'm just worrying too much. The comics that sell out are usually first or second issues. First issues because lots of people want a first issue to either collect or to see what the new series will be like. The first issue is sometimes a special "collector's edition" with a cool cover or better printing value or bigger or whatever justifies a higher price. But the first issue is usually overprinted a lot so it's hard to sell out completely. The second issue on the other hand is printed in normal numbers and if the first issue was really good the second issue is liable to sell out. That's also when people find out that the first issue was a fluke because the second issue sucks and sales drop off to more normal levels.

Since I'm not planning on starting to collect another series, I should be ok and not notice anything. I'll still miss the occassional issue (happens about once a year for the half dozen comics I collect) but if it's not any more than normal that'll be fine. Marvel's position is sensible. You don't want to print comics you can't sell and that will sit in a warehouse for years or be sold at a loss or destroyed. I will still keep collecting comic books and this won't affect my buying habits after all.