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Thank FOC It's Friday – and Jim Lee is Watching You

Published Fri, 25 Jan 2019 19:38:23 -0600

Last updated Fri, 25 Jan 2019 19:38:51 -0600

Welcome to Thank FOC It's Friday, a weekly mailing list, similar to The Daily LITG, but every Friday and planned to coincide and cover the demands of Final Order Cut Off. The date when retailers have a last chance to amend their advance orders for comic books without penalty.

A last chance for publishers to promote books while orders can still be added. And a time for credits to be amends, new covers to be revealed and a final push given. This is an attempt to sift through them all and find the most relevant items.

You can sign up here or with the form at the bottom.

Now, many retailers will know all this, but some things may slip through even the most diligent retailer's attention. And if nothing else, it may be useful to try for a one-stop shop that may start some thoughts, even if it doesn't finish them.

Thank FOC It's Friday – and Jim Lee is Watching You

So what's been going on?

Well, we got the big news that the direct market sold 6% fewer comics in 2018 than in 2017 – as Diamond made a mistake on their initial figures on numbers being half a point up. Not really within the margin of error… and DC Comics SKU numbers are way down.

A petition against the upcoming Second Coming comic from DC/Vertigo has been launched. Though without his winky on display. Batman neither. And don't be expecting any more Hanna-Barbera comics from DC after Scooby Doo Apocalypse is cancelled. Still, Iron Maiden is coming back to comics with Heavy Metal.

Comic retailer Brian Hibbs unveiled his secret shame, while Rod Lamberti feared for the future. And Savage Sword of Conan tops advance reorders.

We looked at a comic store in Houston being built. One comic store crowdfunded to fund a libel defence. while another is just trying to survive.

The big DC Comics restructuring is still going down. Reaction to Mark Chiarello being fired by DC Comics was so widespread that it trended on Twitter.

Catwoman gets a solicit change that no one else noticed yet. And that Hush Omnibus won't be coming to your store. But Diamond Summit attendees are invited to tour the local comic stores.

Bleeding Cool helped comics retailers catch the Batman million dollar thief. A smaller theft we had no impact on, sadly.

There are lots of second and third prints up for grabs. Some with added pages. Some with brand new covers – such as Buffy #1 with an all-new cover by Amelia Vidal. Did your store have secret signed Buffy variant covers? And did the Firefly fans freak out at this one?

So what's FOC'ing this week? From Dark Horse, we have Anthem #1, with ten copies getting retailers additional discount. Hellboy Day's Seed Of Destruction is available in 25-issue packs.

DC Comics has Doomsday Clock #9 up for FOC. Again. And again. How did Naomi #1 do? #2 is up. Oh and this is a thing. Jim Lee has put himself on the cover of Brian Bendis and David Mack's final issue of Cover #6…

Image Comics has the first issue of Mark Millar and Simone Bianchi's Lobo-Meets-Lemmy Sharkey The Bounty Hunter, which will be totally and fully returnable with no qualifiers.

Marvel has Age Of X-Man: The Amazing Nightcrawler with secret bagged variant cover and added discount, as well as the launch of Hulkverines. More of them… and a final issue for the Return Of Wolverine for him to return properly. With Scott and Logan together again in Uncanny X-Men #12. And straight into Wolverine & The Infinity Watch #1. And for those who order 100% of orders for Venom #8 with orders for Venom #11 regular cover get to order this cover on top.

Black Badge #7 now includes an all-new, open-to-order, virgin art FOC cover by Jay Shaw (Night of the Living Deadpool). Firefly #4 now includes an all-new, open-to-order, virgin art FOC cover by Jonathan Case (Green River Killer).

Dynamite has Crackdown #1 launching by Jonathan David Goff and Ricardo Jaime, based on the Xbox game of the same name. Bleeding Cool has had a lot of love for Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt – and issue 2 is FOCing right now.

Aftershock is launching Phil Hester and Ryan Kelly's Stronghold.

Valiant has Andy Diggle, Alex Paknadel and Doug Braithwaite's Incursion with a maximum Diamond discount for all retailers, not just the big ones, and fully returnable with no qualifiers.

And Zenescope has Zodiac #1 written by Joe Brusha. But no idea, it seems, who is going to be drawing it.

What's on your FOC?