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Has DC Comics Joined The Overship Game With Legion Of Super-Heroes #2?

Published Thu, 09 Jan 2020 12:30:51 -0600

Marvel Comics has a reputation for overshipping comic books for free to retailers, but it's not really a deserved one these days. Once upon a time it was, the idea being that comic book retailers were naturally a 'small-c' conservative lot and ordered what they thought they could absolutely, definitely sell through easily. Overshipping was intended to give retailers the opportunity to discover that maybe they could sell a few more and so they would up their orders for subsequent issues. Or maybe engage in passing free samples on to customers, and get some more orders for future issues as a result. It also had the side-benefit of upping Marvel's numbers in Diamond Comic Distributor's monthly statistics. For unit ranking and market share at least, if not for dollar ranking and market share. Bleeding Cool first reported on Marvel doing this back in 2012 and it came and went sporadically since. When it happened, again and again, we ran articles about it. But it hasn't happened to any statistically significant degree for a couple of years now, just an occasional fillip on a book Marvel wants to give a little push to. Maybe once or twice a month.

In comparison, DC Comics has not overshipped comics. They prefer to make titles returnable to encourage retailers to order more. Often tiered to the percentage of sales of other titles ordered. Everyone's a mathematician now.

But I am told of one comic book store last week giving away copies of Legion Of Super-Heroes #2 to their customers. They had ordered much lower on issue 2 than on issue 1, anticipating – and getting, a much-reduced demand for the title past its launch issues. Only to find that DC Comics send him a bundle of copies just to give away. And maybe increase demand for future issues?

Could DC Comics be getting into the overship game? Let us know if your own comic shop received similar, or if it was more of a targetted promotion…