People who listen to the show send us stuff, some of it is even mildly edifying. Here's a letter from long time Friend Of The Show (and just plain long time friend) Nick J:
August 27, 2010
I would like to point out Ryan IS WRONG!! Star Wars Legacy ended but will be back as a 6 issue mini-series called Star Wars Legacy War.
Unlike other publishers, Dark Horse has never been one for prolonging a series simply to do so. Our comics come from a place of creativity and artistic expression, and this applies to all of our titles, whether creator owned or licensed property.
One of our promises to ourselves, our fans, and George Lucas himself was that we would treat our line of Star Wars books with the highest level of respect. We hope that you'll agree that we've achieved this goal, and trust you'll take our word when we say that we'll continue to strive for such high standards.
We are proud to say that the quality of Star Wars: Legacy has never dropped. John Ostrander and Jan Duursema have consistently created issue after issue of excellent art for nearly four years straight. Very few creators can claim such landmark success, and we hope John and Jan are as proud as we are of delivering such great material.
We have never felt that John and Jan's work dipped below the benchmark of fine sequential art. So, it was a hard, but ultimately necessary, decision to close this chapter of the Star Wars universe with issue #50.
I don’t see anything about sales but I guess it always could be. I just like saying Ryan is WRONG!!!
Response:
Of course I'm wrong. You've been listening to the show for three years and there's still some vestige of novelty in the concept that something came out of my mouth with no relationship whatsoever to reality? Go figure.
Except in this case, I'm not really wrong. What I actually said on the show was "...the sales figures did not justify continuing the series." That was my take.
If you parse through that bullshit press release, you can plainly see that I'm mostly right. They're cancelling the book because of respect for the franchise??? And then they go through extolling the virtues of Ostrander & Duursema. The quality never dropped, so naturally we killed it.
Except they didn't kill it. They're going to bring it back with a new # 1 as a mini-series. Sales on Star Wars: Legacy was right at the 20,000 mark. This is in the black, but not by much. Those numbers absolutely crush something like Fear Agent, so I might have been strong by implying its existence isn't justified. But if you really believe that move was predicated on some mythical "higher standards" instead of looking to defeat attrition with a # 1 re-boot...you deserve your fate.
So I still maintain I'm right, but it's perfectly appropriate for you to assume that I'm wrong, and also to enjoy it.
Bob Bird posted this on our Facebook wall!
August 30
"Love the market spotlight! Just picked up a copy of Nightwing Year One for five bucks!"
Response: Good on ya, Bob! Nice to see somebody is putting the information to good use. That particular book is an easy sell in basically any condition at $20, and easy to flip in nice shape for $30-$35.
Nightwing is one of those weird properties that does absolutely nothing in floppy form, but Dick Grayson fans will pay big money to read their favorite hero in collected form. Rough Justice and Hunt For Oracle are the ones I've had the most success with, followed closely by Ties That Bind, Knight in Bludhaven, and Year One. You can often get cover or more for Big Guns, Lost Year, and even Darker Shade of Justice is edging toward $20 or better.
PS: Suck it, Remington! People love making money and dumping it back into their collections. It just makes sense, man, and this is shit we're doing that you pretty much can't find anywhere else on the CPN. If anybody knows different, please let me know - I'd love to listen to another show that tackles the subject.
Here's a missive from Jesse:
August 30
Response: Tough to say exactly where that new influx of Ultimates Omnibi came from, but it isn't unprecedented for Amazon to make a warehouse find. This happened with Deadpool Vol 1 Premiere Hardcover recently. Right now the low listing for that book in the $60 range, but I'd be a bit wary of believing that Amazon actually has that book in stock when I see the "usually ships in 2-4 weeks" message. It should actually read "won't ship even if Hell freezes over."
Sit tight on Ultimates Omnibus, that carousel should come around again. When it hits that $120+ range, time to dump. I'll have my eyes open and ears to the ground - listen to the show, I'll let you know when it's time to pounce!
As for Marvel's reprinting practices, well, we're all scratching our heads. I could make a list of really obvious itches that need to get scratched in about five minutes. Aside from the New X-Men Omnibus, they really need to go back to press on the Frank Miller Daredevil Ominbus, the Bendis Daredevil Vol 1, Eternals Omnibus, Tomb of Dracula Vol 1, Fantastic Four Vol 2, and the Alias Omnibus.
That's just for starters off the top of my head. There are many, many people out there begging for the Marvel Knights Punisher material and the Jurgens run on Thor, and it just isn't available. Marvel loses money every day failing to pay attention to this stuff. Incidentally, Dan Buckley, if you're out there: I would love to fix this for you, and I am available. Just sayin'.
Thanks to everyone who takes the time to listen and chime in!
- Ryan
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