Ever wonder why the comics you are looking for this week aren’t on the shelf?
Comics are such a fun hobby, they let us escape from reality or take a closer look at it, often with a fictional twist.
What’s not as fun, is the process of ordering comics. It can be admittingly tricky and at times stressful to try our best to have whatever anyone is looking for when they walk into our stores. Our California location wrote a fantastic article last year about how the comic ordering process works and how to use that to your advantage to make sure you never miss out on any comics you want! You can read that here… https://www.grahamcrackers.com/blog/2021/09/29/murrietas-not-so-secret-secret-guide-to-making-sure-you-get-all-the-new-books-you-want/
Insanely short version … we order comics two months before they release, then at Final Order Cutoff (FOC) approximately three weeks before they arrive in our stores, we get to readjust our numbers. This allows us to add copies or remove them based on what folks like yourself have told us they want. It’s a wonderful system that when utilized the way it’s intended from publishers to distributor to retailer to reader actually helps all of us.
Sometimes publishers choose to kind of ignore the standard ordering process and add covers/titles at the last minute before an FOC. That means it has no time for you to even know about it if you aren’t familiar with this process. It also means we have to place non-returnable orders with absolutely no real idea of what the demand for something is. That could mean we have a lot of copies on the shelf that nobody wants, or it means we don’t have anywhere near what everyone wants.
That brings us to Image comics and their 30th Anniversary variant covers featuring Spawn. Not sure what I’m talking about? That’s likely because at approximately 7 pm EST on November 10th it was announced that there will be 48(!) Spawn variant covers that are part of various Image comics releasing in December. The FOC for the first 12 was this past Monday 11/14/22, with some images still missing, mind you. The remainder will be divided over the next two weeks which fall over the Thanksgiving holiday when many people are traveling.
What this means is… we have no time to advertise this and let everyone know about these covers to try and make sure if you want it, you get it. Many times, in the past, companies (us included) just order and hope things sell, but that just isn’t an efficient model for doing business when we aren’t provided with a realistic chance to get the information out there, so we don’t end up with tons of unsold copies. Just because someone buys Spawn or Image comics, doesn’t mean they want 48 Spawn variants of various Image comics that aren’t Spawn. It leaves us with few options for how to order and none of them are great choices.
After much internal debate, we have decided to order these for anyone that preorders them BEFORE the FOC deadlines (11/14, 11/21 and 11/28) ONLY. That means we will not have any of these variants on the shelves in any of our stores and the website will not have extra stock to fill any special orders received after the deadline for each title. We understand how this may cause some to miss out on some of these covers, but we also can’t gamble on stocking these when this is so last minute.
We are providing the current list below of all 48 titles as given to us by Image Comics. If you’re already subscribed for ALL COVERS/VARIANTS on a title on this list we will automatically be ordering and holding you a copy of the Spawn cover so you do NOT need to order it separate.
3Keys #3 Cover C by David Messina – Diamond Code SEP228056
20th Century Men #5 Cover C by S. Morian – Diamond Code SEP228055
All Against All #1 Cover E by Caspar Wijngaard – Diamond Code SEP228057
Art Brut #1 Cover D by Martín Morazzo – Diamond Code SEP228253
Blood-Stained Teeth #7 Cover C by Christian Ward – Diamond Code SEP228058
The Bone Orchard Mythos: Ten Thousand Black Feathers #4 Cover C by Andrea Sorrentino – Diamond Code SEP228059
Creepshow #4 Cover D by Javi Fernandez – Diamond Code SEP228060
Dark Ride #3 Cover E by Andrei Bressan & Adriano Lucas – Diamond Code SEP228061
The Dead Lucky #5 Cover C by French Carlomango – Diamond Code SEP228062
The Deadliest Bouquet #5 Cover B by Chris Campana & Tom Chu – Diamond Code SEP228063
The Department of Truth: The Wild Fictions Special Cover B by Martin Simmonds – Diamond Code SEP228117
Do A Powerbomb #7 Cover C by Daniel Warren Johnson – Diamond Code SEP228064
Eight Billion Genies #7 Cover C by Ryan Browne – Diamond Code SEP228065
Flawed #4 Cover B – Diamond Code SEP228066
Golden Rage #5 by Lauren Knight – Diamond Code SEP228110
Gospel #2 Cover B by Will Morris – Diamond Code SEP228067
Hell To Pay #2 Cover C by Will Sliney – Diamond Code SEP228111
Hexware #1 Cover D by Tim Seeley & Valentina Cuomo – Diamond Code SEP228113
Hitomi #3 Cover D by wraparound cover by Ashley Wood – Diamond Code SEP228069
I Hate Fairyland #2 Cover G by Skottie Young – Diamond Code SEP228070
Ice Cream Man #33 Cover C by Martin Morazzo – Diamond Code SEP228071
Image! #9 Cover B by John McCrea – Diamond Code SEP228072
Junkyard Joe #3 Cover E by Gary Frank – Diamond Code SEP228073
Kaya #3 Cover C by Wes Craig – Diamond Code SEP228074
Killadelphia #26 Cover D – Diamond Code SEP228114
Kroma #2 Cover E by Lorenzo De Felici – Diamond Code SEP228075
Little Monsters #8 Cover C by Dustin Nguyen – Diamond Code SEP228076
Love Everlasting #5 Cover C by Elsa Charterrier – Diamond Code SEP228077
Lovesick #3 Cover E by Luana Vecchio – Diamond Code SEP228078
Manifest Destiny #48 Cover B by Matthew Roberts & Owen Gieni – Diamond Code SEP228079
Night Club #1 Cover D – Diamond Code SEP228112
Nita Hawes’ Nightmare Blog #11 Cover C – Diamond Code SEP228115
Nocterra: Val Special Cover H by Tony S. Daniel – Diamond Code SEP228080
Plush #2 Cover D by Daniel Hillyard – Diamond Code SEP228081
Radiant Black #20 Cover D by Jonathan Glapion – Diamond Code SEP228082
Radiant Black #20 Cover E by Marcelo Costa – Diamond Code SEP228255
Radiant Pink #1 Cover D by Emma Kubert – Diamond Code SEP228083
Rogue Sun #9 Cover C by Marco Renna – Diamond Code SEP228084
Shirtless Bear Fighter 2 #5 Cover C by Matteo Scalera – Diamond Code SEP228085
Starhenge Dragon & Boar #6 Cover F by Liam Sharp – Diamond Code SEP228086
That Texas Blood #20 Cover C by Jacob Phillips – Diamond Code SEP228087
Undiscovered Country #22 Cover C by Giuseppe Camuncoli – Diamond Code SEP228088
Unnatural Blue Blood #5 Cover C by Ennio Bufi & Andrea Meloni – Diamond Code SEP228254
Vanish #4 Cover K by Ryan Stegman – Diamond Code SEP228089
Voyagis #2 Cover C by Sumeyye Kesgin – Diamond Code SEP228090
The Walking Dead Deluxe #52 Cover D by David Finch & Dave McCaig – Diamond Code SEP228091
The Walking Dead Deluxe #53 Cover F by David Finch & Dave McCaig – Diamond Code SEP228092
What’s The Furthest Place From Here? #9 Cover D by Tyler Boss – Diamond Code SEP228093
At the end of the day, we want to you to buy/read/collect what you love, but we don’t want you to buy things simply because you are afraid you will miss out on something if you don’t. If we are past the deadline to order any of these and you still want us to try, we will happily attempt to reorder them, there is just no guarantee if they will be available at that point, but we are ALWAYS happy to try.
