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Twilight Manga Holds Leaks… Mostly

Published Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:50:08 -0600

Last updated Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:08:00 -0600

So shops who ordered Twilight: The Graphic Novel Vol 1 through Diamond received their copies on Tuesday/Wednesday this week, with a rushed through shipping date order to hold the books until the street sale date of next Tuesday.

And, just as with Blackest Night #6, most people did. Which is probably a massive act of restraint considering the sales bonanza some shops could garner if they released them early – and competitors did not. It's co-operative game theory, played out across comic stores.

There are of course a few exceptions. A Utah branch of Borders. There have been reports of Borders selling the book already. The Comic Book Market based in New Jersey has confirmed they are selling copies. eBay seller supermegabot is selling copies "in hand" with overnight delivery. There are possible reports of Nostalgic Comics in California selling the book to pre-order customers a week early. And at The Beguiling, Canada's most famous comic store, manager Chris Butcher was front-page blogging on Tuesday that the shop would be selling copies the following day, despite his lack of enthusiasm for the book. It may be he wasn't aware of the Diamond notice at that point, and there's no evidence that the shop did sell copies, but the notice hasn't been changed yet and emails were not returned. At was indeed an error. No Twilight Manga at The Beguiling…

Nevertheless, even given worst case scenarios here, this is a very small leak indeed, probably within acceptable bounds, and probably from people who didn't know they were breaking any street date. And it's a sign that the comic industry, far from being a network of poorly organised mom'n'pop shops rushing for short term gain, is maturing into a responsible retail industry with an eye on the big picture.

Now isn't that sparkly? I think I might buy a copy on Tuesday. Just to see what all the fuss is about.

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