September - a few polite requests

Hi folks, just a quick update and a polite request.

As you probably know, September is DC's Villains Month and as such there is A LOT on. To facilitate the correct allocation of our allotted 3D and 2D covers, I'm having to run an additional, separate system of checks and processes alongside our usual Reservation Service pull lists. I'm trying to make sure everyone gets what they ordered back in July, to the best of my ability after DC cut our orders back.

It's a serious amount of extra work for my merry little mostly one-man-band and there's only so many man hours in the day, so I need to ask you to bear with me on a few other matters that may have to slide during this time. Most notably any correspondence - be they emails, Facebook messages or posts, tweets or even good ol' fashioned snail mail - may take a little longer for me to respond to, but don't worry I will get to you eventually!

Secondly, I'm afraid we can no longer take any orders or reservations for Villains Month issues. I'm really sorry, but we did ask for pre-orders for these back in July. Since then we've had allocations and all manner of other nonsense make this publishing stunt even more chaotic than the previous years' launch of the New 52 and Zero Month.

If there's a 3D cover you want (and assuming we have any left after allocations) then you need to get in here quick smart please from 10am onwards on a Wednesday! It really has to be first come, first served now for the shelf stock. Most of the people who pre-ordered back in July will be receiving the 3D covers, so it's worth remembering for the future that it really does pay off to preorder in advance!

In addition, my busiest two days of processing comics each week in September will be Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Which is pretty much the standard every week to be fair, it's just that it's an EVEN BIGGER workload because of Villains Month. So to help me out, can I ask all Reservation Service customers to please avoid making any changes to their pull lists in store on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. By all means use email, etc. to inform me of any changes you'd like to make. I'll take any cancellations as being dated from the date I receive your correspondence, so you won't be held accountable for any extra days just because I might be slower than usual in replying!

Finally, blog posts may also be delayed going up. We have some shiny reviews from Matt Puddy in the pipeline of The Star Wars and X-Men Battle Of The Atom. He's written both of them, but I have yet to edit, format and upload them. They are coming! Full apologies to Matt and many thanks for to him for his patience with me as his humble editor.

Apologies that any of this has become necessary and many thanks to everyone who has offered support and understanding during this difficult endeavour. Hopefully normal service will resume next month from both myself and DC Comics!

Ben Fardon is also adjusting to a new school run routine and new medication which has a side effect of making him quite drowsy. Fun times!