Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, HRL

Lenticular Covers? It's All Greek To Relax Comics In Athens

Published Sat, 02 Sep 2017 13:00:56 -0500

Last updated Sat, 02 Sep 2017 19:38:01 -0500

Bleeding Cool has been covering comic book retailer reaction to the Marvel Legacy lenticular covers offered for October, which encourage retailers to rapidly overorder standard covers, yet market the lenticular cover to consumers at cover price. Some stores have chosen to boycott, some to raise prices, some to just but the bullet and hope. But how are other countries reacting? Costas Kariaskos of Relax Comics writes:

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My name is Costas Karaiskos, one of the founding members of the Greek comic shop Relax Comics. Even though currently no longer a partner, I am still organising their signing events, managing their Facebook page, etc.

Relax Comics was founded back in 2001 and is one of the biggest dedicated comic shops in Greece at the moment. As the Greek market cannot be compared with those of the U.S. or the U.K. combining with the economic crisis of the past years, most single issues were ordered upon request with a few of the most popular issues or new #1s hitting the stands.

Even with these facts Relax Comics did their best to qualify for all kinds of variants. The last gimmick of the Marvel Lenticular covers, though, it was the last straw. When we heard of the line-wide lenticular cover event, we were pleased, but also wary of what the price might be. Reality, though, was far more horrific. Those covers were announced as variants with the qualifications for getting them being downright ridiculous, with sometimes asking to order 200% more on the regular cover compared to a past issue of the same series.

This is where we drew the line. We all decided that out of principle, we will NOT order any of the lenticular variants at all — even those that we may qualify for, strictly by chance in low-selling titles. We know that the impact to the market as a Greek comic shop is practically zero, but we were glad to hear that retailers like MyComicShop and Big Bang Comics follow the same path!

Don't get us wrong — we don't mind variant covers as a rule. After all, we were the only comic shop here participating in the Amazing Spider-Man #666 Retailer variant initiative, but the Tier System that Marvel uses is downright ridiculous and completely impractical. We are hoping that this will turn out to be a big shake up in Marvel's business model and help change it for the better for all involving parties.