SHIPPING CHANGES AS OF 04.04.05

[MattBrady]

According to Diamond, the following books from its premier publishers have had shipping changes. The first date listed is the original in-store date, the second, the revised date.

As with the lists of changed-shipping, the original in-store may itself have been adjusted from the originally solicited in-store date.

DC COMICS

Aquaman #29 04/13/05 - 04/20/05
Outsiders #23 04/27/05 - 05/04/05
Adam Strange #8 04/27/05 - 05/11/05
Green Lantern: #6 03/23/05 - 05/11/05
Vimanarama #3 04/27/05 - 05/11/05
100 Bullets #61 05/11/05 - 05/18/05

MARVEL COMICS

Hercules #1 04/13/05 - 04/20/05
Marvel Knights 4 #17 04/13/05 - 04/20/05
Marvel Milestones: Venom & Hercules 04/13/05 - 04/20/05
New Avengers #5 Reg./Granov Var. Cvr. 04/13/05 - 04/20/05
X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #6 04/13/05 - 04/20/05
Young Avengers #3 04/13/05 - 04/20/05
Powers Vol. 8: Legends TP (MR) 04/13/05 - 04/27/05
Rogue #10 04/20/05 - 04/27/05
Spider-Man/Human Torch #4 04/08/05 - 04/27/05
X-Force: Shatterstar #3 04/13/05 - 04/27/05
New Avengers #6 Reg./Mystery Var. Cvr. 04/27/05 - 05/04/05
Fantastic Four #526 04/27/05 - 05/04/05
Astonishing X-Men #10 04/27/05 - 05/11/05
Spider-Man/Human Torch #5 05/04/05 - 05/11/05
Astonishing X-Men #11 05/25/05 - 06/08/05
Astonishing X-Men #12 06/29/05 - 07/13/05

[Marxist 64]

Yay! Marvel are back to having an insane amount of late titles!!!

The world is in balance.

Really though the Astonishing delays are bitches.

[marvscap2killer]

Garsh, I hate those devil worshiper bastages at Marvel for bringing out thier titles late. They sure do suck! Now I feel superior for the dsay since I made fun of marvel! Ahyuck!

[magellan]

5 TITLES of this on my pull list. Multiple volumes of each. However, Certain ones are only pulled back to equal out a monthly schedule, and waiting an extra week never hurt anyone (Except for the extraclimactic Y The Last Man delay followed by the anticlimactic resolution 3 months later)

[palefire]

Hmmmm..............

Adam Strange #8 is now scheduled to come out the same day as Rann/Thanager #1 and GL rebirth #6 is edging ever closer to GL #1.

If the Astonishing X-men delays keep up - maybe Joss Whedon will not need to take time off prior to starting his second "season" (or what ever you want to call it). However, something tells me.......NOT.

And with out further wait, let me turn it over to the Marvel bashers that haven't had anything to bitch and cry about the last two weeks. Ladies, the floor is all yours.

[tridon]

Alright, we all know that that 'certain somebody' didn't reply at all to the last two 'Shipping Changes' due to DC being the one with the most late titles. How much do you want to bet he pops up on this one?

[daryldens]

Pathetic showing from both companies lately. Will they ever learn that soliciting a book every six or eight weeks from titles may be the way to go? It seems like a lot of the titles on these lists are repeated over and over. Outsiders, Adam Strange, Green Lantern: Rebirth, New Avengers, and Astonishing X-Men seem to have permanent spots on this list.

I don't mind delays in favor of high quality books, but I really get annoyed when I see the same titles or early issues of a series or mini-series (Vinaramma #3, Hercules #1, Spider-man/Human Torch #4, Shatterstar #3, and FF #526 because its a new, hyped creative team) on the list as to me its the publishers saying they really don't look at their solicitation dates as more than a possible projection. Retailers and Consumers are making their purchasing and budgeting plans based on some of these dates.

For purchasers its probably not that major, but I wonder how some of these affect a retailer's business plans. A lot of top selling titles seem to make permanent homes on these lists. Are the shops having capital tied up? What are the effects of having the top titles skipping months? I don't know, but I'd be interested to hear from retailers how these delays impact their operations.

[wishlish]

It wouldn't be Monday without people on Newsarama complaining about late titles.

Seriously, how many people really are hurt by the slight, or even serious, delay in a title? Iron Man's on your list? Go try Ocean. Green Lantern's late? Scrounge the back issue bins for some classic Green Lantern Mosaic. Stop looking at a title's delay as frustrating- try another book in its absence. You might find that you like it better than the book you were waiting for.

It sucks that books run late, but stop crying when a company hands you lemons. Make some lemon-flavored Kirby dots out of it and ENJOY your hobby!

[tridon]

Originally posted by daryldens
FF #526 because its a new, hyped creative team)

Actually, Straczynski and McKone don't start until #527. However, there will probably be a lot of late FF books from that team because JMS is going to be writing more than I think he can handle (FF, Amazing Spider-Man, Supreme Power, a one-shot and his new upcoming Icon ongoing). Personally, I think it's time to hand the Amazing reigns over to a new writer.

[Tom Daylight]

The Astonishing schedule seems all right to me: roughly one issue every five or six weeks; not that much of a difference. I would have liked to see it finish the current storyline before the start of House of M, but you can't have everything I suppose.

[Tiger47]

I can deal with more delays from GL, AXM, and New Avengers, but Young Avengers?? They can't give us two amazing issues and then start with the delays

[Tom Daylight]

Originally posted by tridon
Actually, Straczynski and McKone don't start until #527. However, there will probably be a lot of late FF books from that team because JMS is going to be writing more than I think he can handle (FF, Amazing Spider-Man, Supreme Power, a one-shot and his new upcoming Icon ongoing). Personally, I think it's time to hand the Amazing reigns over to a new writer.

JMS can handle it now that he's effectively moved into comics on a full-time basis.

I would suspect that you're just hoping he stops writing Amazing because you don't like what he's doing on it. Personally, there's not many writers I'd prefer to see writing it. I'm happy that he's there, and clearly for the long haul...

[Jason Seaver]

Originally posted by MattBrady
New Avengers #5 Reg./Granov Var. Cvr. 04/13/05 - 04/20/05
New Avengers #6 Reg./Mystery Var. Cvr. 04/27/05 - 05/04/05

Spider-Man/Human Torch #4 04/08/05 - 04/27/05
Spider-Man/Human Torch #5 05/04/05 - 05/11/05
[/b]

Yep, issue n is late, but issue n+1 will come out two weeks later. I believe this, truly I do.

[tridon]

Originally posted by Fetsur
JMS can handle it now that he's effectively moved into comics on a full-time basis.

I would suspect that you're just hoping he stops writing Amazing because you don't like what he's doing on it. Personally, there's not many writers I'd prefer to see writing it. I'm happy that he's there, and clearly for the long haul...

Actually, you're quite wrong. I like JMS and I think his Amazing run has been pretty good. His next arc dealing with the New Avengers should be a lot of fun. I just think it's time to give a new writer a shot at Spider-Man considering JMS has been on the book for a very long time now. Anyway, I started a thread about this in the Talk area. Let's keep this place about the shipping changes.

[Ben543250]

Marvel Milestones: Venom & Hercules 04/13/05 - 04/20/05

What is this?

[algertman]

Originally posted by Jason Seaver
Yep, issue n is late, but issue n+1 will come out two weeks later. I believe this, truly I do.

I could buy that on Spidey/Torch

ain't no way NA is gonna have 2 issues within 2 weeks of each other

[Conor E]

Hercules #1 04/13/05 - 04/20/05
Marvel Knights 4 #17 04/13/05 - 04/20/05
Marvel Milestones: Venom & Hercules 04/13/05 - 04/20/05
New Avengers #5 Reg./Granov Var. Cvr. 04/13/05 - 04/20/05
X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #6 04/13/05 - 04/20/05
Young Avengers #3 04/13/05 - 04/20/05

Six books, all scheduled for the 13th, all delayed by only one week? There has to be something seriously wrong with the printer.

[wishlish]

One last point about late books...

When Marvel solicited their books for this month, they solicited that the following books would be out this week:

Amazing Fantasy #7
G.L.A. #1
Incredible Hulk #80
Marvel Adventures The Thing #2
Marvel Team-Up #7
Power Pack #1
Punisher #19
Runaways #3
Shanna, The She-Devil #3
Spider-Girl #85
Spider-Man/Human Torch #4
Strange #5
Ultimate Spider-Man #75
X-Men Unlimited #8
X-Men/Fantastic Four #5
X-Men: Age Of Apocalypse #6
Alpha Flight Vol. 2: Waxing Poetic TPB
Fantastic Four/Spider-Man TPB
Mystique Vol. 4: Quiet TPB
Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One TPB

According to Diamond's Comics Next Week list from last week (this week's 100% accurate list doesn't come out until later today), only Marvel Adventures: The Thing, Runaways, Age of Apocalypse, and the Spider-Man/Human Torch books are not going to ship on time.

Books solicited: 20
Books late: 4

And the four that are late?
Age of Apocalypse will ship 4/13.
Spider-Man Human Torch will ship 4/20.
Runaways will ship 4/20.
Marvel Adventures: The Thing will ship 4/13.

So in other words, 80% of the books will ship on time; the other 20% will be no more than 2 weeks late. But do we say, "Nice job, Marvel"? No, we say "OMG MARVEL AND DC SUCK HUGE HORSE PARTS LATELATELATELATE"

We'd all like a world where all of the books are on-time every time; it would make things smooth and easy for buyers and retailers alike. We don't have that. But for other than a handful of books- Green Lantern and Iron Man are off the top of my head right now- most Marvel and DC books are shipping either on time or no more than 1 or 2 weeks late. Let's not condemn whole companies for a few late books.

[BRease]

The GL Rebirth delays are really making me angry.
I mean, I just read Countdown and there's Hal Jordan totally back as GL, and yeah I knew it was happening, but come on!
Can we finish bringing him back first?!

[Conor E]

According the BKV, Runaways was delayed for marketing reasons. They wanted #2 to ship the same week as the reprint of #1, and the subsequent issues were pushed back to resume a monthly schedule.

[domuhde]

Originally posted by Fetsur
The Astonishing schedule seems all right to me: roughly one issue every five or six weeks; not that much of a difference.

Yes, but if you look at the dates they finally come out, that's not true at all. They come out about every 7 or 8 weeks, if I'm not mistaken. Number ten will come out on May 11 if it isn't delayed again (and it probably will be!). At best, there will have been 6 weeks between it and issue 9! At that time, if they do what they've been doing since issue 5 or 6, 11 will be pushed back 2 or 3 weeks and 12 too. When 11 comes out, 12 will be pushed back again. Finally, they will come out every 6 or 7 weeks, at best! I wouldn't care if they had sollicited them bi-monthly or nearly so, but why don't they know by now the writers and artists that are never on time? Every fan knows that Whedon and Von Sciver and Finch can't deliver 22 new pages monthly!!! Are the people at DC and Marvel that stupid?

Dominique

[wishlish]

Between May 2004 and February 2005, an issue of Astonishing came out every month except for October and January. Hardly an 8-week schedule. There may be bad gaps between certain issues, but I'm sure Marvel's quite happy with 8 of the best-selling issues in the last year in 10 months.

And how do we know the delay is Whedon's fault? It could be the artist, John Cassaday's, or problems in the X-Office.

[Michael P]

Originally posted by MattBrady

Astonishing X-Men #10 04/27/05 - 05/11/05
Astonishing X-Men #11 05/25/05 - 06/08/05
Astonishing X-Men #12 06/29/05 - 07/13/05

*Beats head against wall*

[daryldens]

I don't think an 80% success rate is all that great, but in fairness, I think most weeks that percentage would be higher. For me it comes down to professionalism and what we should expect as consumers. If people are satisfied with 80% of their books being on time good for them, but I have a right as a consumer to voice my displeasure, in a respectful manner, if I find that to be less than desirable. Again, the thing that really irks me is the pattern of the same books being on this list over and over and new books/new creative teams being late. I would like to see the companies just be more professional with their solicitations like Marvel did with Ultimates vol2 (although the jury is out on that one with one issue already having been pushed back a week). That is responsible business and that is what we deserve as consumers. When series are new and when the same titles appear time after time, it leaves the impression that the companies don't care enough to address the problem.

As an aside, that is fine as I think high quality should be the most important thing about the books, not making their ship dates. For me personally lateness isn't a huge deal as I buy enough every week that there is always plenty at the shop for me to enjoy. But if you only pick up a couple titles, getting to the shop and seeing you're book not there may not be a pleasant experience. Yes the delays are online, but as consumers should people really have to do research to see if items made the on sale date?

[SanityOrMadness]

Originally posted by Conor E
Six books, all scheduled for the 13th, all delayed by only one week? There has to be something seriously wrong with the printer.

Especially when you consider that one of those books (Milestones) is purely a reprint book.