VILLAINS UNITED #1 SELLS OUT, SECOND PRINTING COMING

[MattBrady]

Press Release

The excitement of COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS continues with the early sell-out of VILLAINS UNITED #1 more than two weeks before reaching stores on May 4!

Now, DC Comics rushes this issue back to press for a new printing featuring a striking new sketch cover spotlighting The Secret Six by interior artist Dale Eaglesham.

VILLAINS UNITED #1 Second Printing (FEB058477) reprints the story by Gail Simone with art by Eaglesham & Wade von Grawbadger. This new printing is scheduled to arrive in stores on May 18.

"A new printing means infect... I mean, entertaining a whole new group of readers," says Simone. " Now if people say I sold out, I can say it 's a good thing! This has been one of the most fun projects I 've ever worked on, and I think people ' s eyes are going to explode when they see the art by Dale Eaglesham and Wade von Grawbadger. Being bad has never looked so good!"

"Retailers and readers have responded very strongly to VILLAINS UNITED and the other COUNTDOWN-related miniseries, " says Bob Wayne, DC ' s VP - Sales. " We urge retailers to order both this new printing and more of upcoming issues to meet reader demand."

VILLAINS UNITED #1 Second Printing (MAR050424) is available for order now and is scheduled to arrive in stores on May 18 with a cover price of $2.50 U.S. To ensure delivery on that date retailers must place orders by Sunday, May 8; please note that quantities will be limited and may sell out before May 8. DC recommends that retailers place orders as soon as possible to avoid missing out.

Retailers may order the issue by contacting their Diamond Customer Service Representative or DC Sales Representative, or by email at reorders@diamondcomics.com.

Upcoming issues are available as follows:

* VILLAINS UNITED #2 (APR050358) is solicited in the April Previews (Volume XV #4) and is scheduled to arrive in stores on June 1.

* VILLAINS UNITED #3 (MAY050254) is solicited in the May Previews (Volume XV #5) and is scheduled to arrive in stores on July 7.

[GeorgeG]

and the initial print run was.....????

I think we'll be seeing a lot of these "sold out" press releases. DC has these down to a science.

[palefire]

How large a print run did it have? It's difficult to figure out if this "sell out" is impressive or not without knowing that piece of information.

[skaly]

Just because it sold out at the publisher doesn't mean it will sell out in the stores. I hope the retailers aren't getting screwed.

[Alfonso]

Originally posted by GeorgeG
and the initial print run was.....????

I think we'll be seeing a lot of these "sold out" press releases. DC has these down to a science.

By "these", I take it you mean "making great books that everyone wants to buy." Considering OMAC overprinted by nearly 50% in their last sold-out announcement, these DC sell-outs are indeed nothing to scoff at. They're actually incredible and show the strength of the interest they've built around the Countdown event.

[Ironhorse]

Originally posted by palefire
How large a print run did it have? It's difficult to figure out if this "sell out" is impressive or not without knowing that piece of information.

That's always my problem with this "sell out" news, no matter DC or Marvel, without a number, is hard to believe in this kind of news. Anyway VU is awesome . Peace

[Groovie Mann]

I remember buying OMAC Project and the guys at my comic shop actually thought they were selling me the second printing and were surprised to find out they had copies of the first printing.

Guess I'll have to reserve a copy of this to ensure I'll get it.

[The Escapist]

Doesn't this just mean that DC sold all their copies to Diamond (and any other distribution channels)? And then the retailers buy them from there?

[Robert]

Originally posted by The Escapist
Doesn't this just mean that DC sold all their copies to Diamond (and any other distribution channels)? And then the retailers buy them from there?

Yes, regardless what that DC suckhole Alfonso says. It is just DC spinning things to make it seem like these are in high demand. My CS still has both Countdown and OMAC. While I am sure they are both great reads (I though Countdown was, haven't read OMAC yet) I don't think that they are the "it" thing every fan must read.

[pez dispenser]

Originally posted by Alfonso
By "these", I take it you mean "making great books that everyone wants to buy." Considering OMAC overprinted by nearly 50% in their last sold-out announcement, these DC sell-outs are indeed nothing to scoff at. They're actually incredible and show the strength of the interest they've built around the Countdown event.

Actually, I think he meant the OMAC book, not these "great books that everyone wants to buy"

I certainly didn't buy it.

~scoff~ ~scoff~

Sorry, I must be coming down with a cold or something.

[blankpoint]

Doesn't this just mean that DC sold all their copies to Diamond (and any other distribution channels)? And then the retailers buy them from there?

This was true to some extent when there were multiple distributers, as the they too were in on the speculation game and would stock up on certain books in greater numbers than they had initial orders for. Diamond is not known for doing this now. They pretty much just collect all the orders from Diamond customers (comics shops, mostly) and give that number to the publisher. So let's say the number for VU #1 was initially 75,000 copies. Bob Wayne, or maybe now it's the new woman there who's stirring shit, feeling strongly about the title, might have decided to print not 75,500 copies, but 115,000 copies. What this announcement means is that, based on advance reorders alone, those extra copies have already sold. DC needs to print more. DC usually does not go back to print unless they are pretty sure they can sell at least another 20,000 copies.

[Comic-Reader]

The problem is that retailers often order relatively conservatively on new DC projects as opposed to Marvel.

They ordered DC Countdown up the wazoo, but other stuff like GL Rebirth, Batman, JLA-Crime Syndicate, Seven Soldiers spinoffs, and these Countdown spinoffs have to go through second and third printings because retailers won't order enough up front.

Unfortunately, the way retailers spend their money is: Marvel first, DC second, and the other 150 companies get what's left over if anything.

This is why I, and a lot of other fans get upset with Marvel pumping the marketplace full of X-books. Retailers are afraid NOT to order those by the caseload, but that siphons money from what else is out there.

I guarantee if "Villains United" and "OMAC" were Marvel projects, the initial orders would have been double.

By the way, AC Comics' "Golden Age Men of Mystery" sells out every issue also and it's a damn good comic! Of course, they only print like 500 copies max. I've never even seen it on the Top 300, I think.

[Mr Wesley]

No, we don't have the final numbers yet, and we'll only have projections when the final 'numbers' do come out. But you have to remember that DC doesn't do 'Print-to-order' like Marvel does.

A couple of things to consider:
1) Retailers knew that Countdown was going to be DC's big push for the summer, and would be hyping it to the gills, past the level of Identity Crisis last year.

2) Retailers also knew that The OMAC Project would be the series that most directly ties into Countdown and Villians United is most directly tying into threads from Identity Crisis.

3) DC has already stated, when they annouced that The OMAC Project had sold out, that they had overprinted by nearly 50% on the book. It's safe to assume that they overprinted Villians United by a similar number.

When they make these kinds of 'sell out' announcements, it means that there are no more new copies to be had for the retailer. No reorders are available. When you consider that this sold out two weeks before it's being made available to the public, it just means that retailers severely underestimated demand for the book and are looking to get enough for the demand.

And when we finally do get those projected numbers, I'm betting that they are going to be huge.

[Goodman]

Originally posted by skaly
Just because it sold out at the publisher doesn't mean it will sell out in the stores. I hope the retailers aren't getting screwed.

OMAC Project sold out early the first day in every comic shop I visited in Austin, Texas. It sold out in two hours at the popular Austin Books. It was sold out by around 2 pm at Dragon's Lair.

[GeorgeG]

Here's the problem w/ trotting out the "50% overprint" number. If no one knows the intitial print run, then we can't know what that 50% equates to.

For example, let's say an initial print run is 25,000. A 50% overprint would be 12,500. Totaling the print run at 37,500.

Is the initial print run for Villains United higher than 25,000? One would hope so. But, would I put it past DC to purposely set a low print run to begin with? Nope.

Why is DC getting so many sell outs? Is it because of a high demand? Or is it because of a low supply?

I know these press releases are for retailers. I'd just like to see the numbers behind these sell out issues. Is is too much to say, "with an initial print run of XXX, this title has already sold out at the distributor level."

Why can't someone get the figures behind these "sold out" press releases?

[shetquaker]

I don't care about the numbers. I don't buy a comic because it's "hot". I buy a comic because it appeals to my interests.

Countdown was a great read.

OMAC was a great read.

I'm looking forward to Villains United and am relieved that I asked my comic shop to reserve me a copy.

[marvscap2killer]

Originally posted by Alfonso
By "these", I take it you mean "making great books that everyone wants to buy." Considering OMAC overprinted by nearly 50% in their last sold-out announcement, these DC sell-outs are indeed nothing to scoff at. They're actually incredible and show the strength of the interest they've built around the Countdown event.

aaah alfonso, ever the defensive little fanboy

[Jack Lazer]

Originally posted by GeorgeG

Is the initial print run for Villains United higher than 25,000? One would hope so. But, would I put it past DC to purposely set a low print run to begin with? Nope.

So are you saying that there is some sort of conspiracy on DC's part to not sell comics? That doesn't make any sense. DC is in the business to sell comic books!

[holtom2000]

As a non-partisan, all I have to say is "Why don't people get pull lists?"

[Slayton]

My LCS didn't realize the significance of OMAC and only order 5 copies (of which I had one because I knew the significance and put it on my pull-list). He didn't have any copies left when I picked up mine, and he asked me to read the issue and tell him about it because he didn't even have one for himself.

[adamcasey]

Originally posted by GeorgeG
Why can't someone get the figures behind these "sold out" press releases?

Sales figures are taboo for some reason.

Given Marvel's printing policies, if I was a company that regularly overprinted, I'd readily give out those numbers when a title sells out to turn the heat up a bit.

[holtom2000]

the guy that only ordered five copies, all i have to say is huh? how big/small is his shop?

[Kevin T. Brown]

Originally posted by Mr Wesley
No, we don't have the final numbers yet, and we'll only have projections when the final 'numbers' do come out. But you have to remember that DC doesn't do 'Print-to-order' like Marvel does.

A couple of things to consider:
1) Retailers knew that Countdown was going to be DC's big push for the summer, and would be hyping it to the gills, past the level of Identity Crisis last year.

2) Retailers also knew that The OMAC Project would be the series that most directly ties into Countdown and Villians United is most directly tying into threads from Identity Crisis.

3) DC has already stated, when they annouced that The OMAC Project had sold out, that they had overprinted by nearly 50% on the book. It's safe to assume that they overprinted Villians United by a similar number.

When they make these kinds of 'sell out' announcements, it means that there are no more new copies to be had for the retailer. No reorders are available. When you consider that this sold out two weeks before it's being made available to the public, it just means that retailers severely underestimated demand for the book and are looking to get enough for the demand.

And when we finally do get those projected numbers, I'm betting that they are going to be huge.

Talking about #2 here: Not true. They didn't know until after their initial orders had been placed. Hence the reason it's selling out now, because they're doubling or tripling their initial order.

DC kept this secret too well. Now it's costing the retailers and the fans. A second print is great, but they should have informed the retailers better.

[algertman]

DC kept this secret too well. Now it's costing the retailers and the fans. A second print is great, but they should have informed the retailers better.

They kept the story lines from fan? So it's hurting everyone?

WTF type of argument is that?

[BlueThunderArmy]

Best reason for DC not to underprint: while yes, reprinting costs significantly less than printing something for the first time, it's still more expensive than printing enough copies the first time around. You can say, well, having a "sell-out" increases the hype, they can sell two copies to each fanboy by slapping a different cover on, etc. But trust me, there are more effective ways to gain publicity, and most of them are cheaper and MUCH less risky than intentionally not printing enough books.