Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: c2e2, chicago, Comics, dan didio, dc, dc comics, dennis barger, entertainment, retailer, wonderworld

Dennis Barger On That DC Retailer Chicago Summit

This morning, Bleeding Cool ran a report on a recent DC Retailer Summit at Chicago a couple of nights ago. During which our anonymous retailer clerk took exception to some comments from Michigan retailer Dennis Barger of Wonderworld Comics. We offered Dennis a right to reply. And boy did he take it…

This is exactly the kind of thing our industry doesn't need.  An anonymous retailer regurgitating a a veiled sales pitch, and attacking the only retailer asking the hard questions that they said repeatedly that they were there to hear.  I didn't hear this retailer report on Dan's admission that he and DC dropped the ball on post 52, that they admit zero and villains months weren't handled right. The retailer neglected to mention that every other sentence out of Bob Wayne's mouth was an attack on Marvel and their lack of roadshows, sales reps and other things DC offers us. Except for the fact that they are too busy treating there talent with respect, putting out books on time, coordinating a climatic universe with some comic continuity and making retailers more money than DC.  But yeah the retailer brings up DC has the number one book (whose sales are sliding), and not that total circulation is lower than pre new 52 numbers.  How dare I, as an invited guest of DC's, ask them to prove they mean what they say, even after they say one thing and then completely contradict it five minutes later.  So this cowardly anonymous retailer attacks me, and is so near sighted as to not see that is what they want.  They want us fighting each other, one person dissents, point and scream like the pod people until they fall into place.  I got nothing to fight this retailer about, I agreed with most of what the cowardly retailer said, when he wasn't just regurgitating Didio's power point presentation and not bothering to take anything he had to say with a grain of salt.  What I saw was a scared Co-publisher grasping onto variant covers, gimmicks, box sets, artist editions, rehashed old ideas, trying to maintain what dwindling market share he has left… guess what 41 mass produced 3D future covers with no secondary retail value aren't going to save you or us.  Talking to retailers, asking them what you are doing wrong, asking them for fresh ideas, talking with them instead of at them, owning your mistakes and not reliving them and forcing us and our customers to relive them with you is what you need to do.  On a side note, I ran into Sr VP of Marvel sales David Gabriel the next day, and guess what, he did all of that in fifteen minutes, and didn't need get bribe me with a variant comic, wine and springs rolls to get it from me, he does it the other way, by making me money and showing me respect as his customer.

I don't know, Dennis, I think I'd have quite liked the spring rolls. Nevertheless, we do appreciate this shot of Dan DiDio wearing the Joker mask, to add to our Jim Lee version…

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