Villains' Month - the home stretch and further problems

September is almost over and normal service will resume starting next week! But that's next week. Before that we have one last raft of issues. On top of the additional allocations on 3D covers for Bane, Doomsday and Parasite (affected customers should already have been notified) announced last week, now a box of our latest delivery has been delayed at the courier's transport hub.

There's several important issues held up in that box, including 3D covers for Aquaman #23.2 Ocean Master, Justice League Of America #7.4 Black Adam, Nova #8, Saga #14 and Wolverine & The X-Men #36 (Battle Of The Atom, part five). Diamond assure me this box will be with us by midday on tomorrow, but be advised that should you have reservations or orders for any of the items listed below, you may want to delay your visit to us until after 1pm on Wednesday 25th September. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Here's the full list of what is expected to be in that delayed box:

JUL138009   ACTION COMICS #23.4 METALLO STANDARD ED 

JUL130167   AQUAMAN #23.2 OCEAN MASTER 3D COVER

JUL138013   BATMAN #23.4 BANE 2D COVER

JUL138019   BATMAN SUPERMAN #3.1 DOOMSDAY 2D COVER

JUL130068   DARK HORSE PRESENTS #28

JUL131385   GFT NO TOMORROW #2 (OF 5) C CVR PATTERSON 

JUL131413   GFT REALM KNIGHTS #2 (OF 4) B CVR LAISO

JUL130059   ITTY BITTY HELLBOY #2

JUL130163   JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #7.4 BLACK ADAM 3D COVER

JUL130596   NOVA #8 INF

JUL130538   SAGA #14 

JUL130500   WALKING DEAD 100 PROJECT TP 

JUL130175   WONDER WOMAN #23.2 FIRST BORN 3D COVER

Ben Fardon is looking forward to October immensely.

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!

Copies of The Movement #1 and Red Sonja #2 signed by Gail Simone now available in store

Many you will probably remember that during the kerfuffle DC created when they briefly took Gail Simone off the ongoing Batgirl title, I wrestled with an appropriate response. Gail's writing had always been work I had admired, but her New 52 Batgirl run in particular had silenced the initial misgivings I'd had when DC had announced Babs wouldn't be Oracle in the reboot. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I don't think anyone else could have won me over on this matter.

Coupled with the fact that Gail was one of the few female writers on the New 52 in an industry that needs to continue to strive towards a greater gender balance, I was left furious and reactionary.

My initial thought was to boycott Batgirl as it moved forward without Gail, but cooler heads prevailed as I realised that would have no positive effect. It would only serve to punish my loyal customers who were collecting the title regardless of the creative team (and there is nothing wrong with that); it certainly wouldn't register with the Powers That Be at DC. It would't send any message to the money-men at the parent corporation. We're a small store, in a pretty but tiny town in the UK. It's not even as if we're a small store in their home market for goodness sake.

Instead, I looked for a positive angle. A way to promote what I love, rather than bashing what I hate (words to live by folks, especially when you are part of comic fandom).

Since Gail Simone is a great writer, she was going to get more work. That was a given! New comics, even new titles, I was certain. So I vowed that we would support whatever Gail did next, by ordering extra copies and offering them at a discounted rate. If we could show the publishers that Gail Simone's work was loved, perhaps there would be less chance of such a foolish decision like kicking her off of Batgirl arising in the future.

Thankfully, a couple of stars aligned and a vocal section of the internet also rallied behind Gail. I'm not sure of the full in and outs of it all, despite watching the news cycle at the time and doing some further research earlier today, but it matters not. We had several wonderful outcomes. Firstly, Gail was restored as the writer of Batgirl! Huzzah!

Secondly, Gail Simone was announced as the writer on a new DC comic - The Movement - and the relaunch of Red Sonja over at Dynamite Entertainment. We ordered a bunch extra of these and did that at £1.50 and £2 an issue respectively to all pre-orders. Both titles have exceeded my expectations for ongoing Reservations! We'll continue to support Gail's new titles for the foreseeable future, the next up being a Tomb Raider comic for Dark Horse which will be official canon set between the recent game and the next one. We're very excited about that one in our house!

We were lucky enough to meet Gail at the Cardiff Comic Con last weekend, and took a few of our last few copies of The Movement #1 and Red Sonja #2 (the incredibly fun Stephanie Buscema subscriber cover, no less!). These are no available in store, for cover price! That's right, no additional mark up for a signed cover! These aren't available to reserve however, you must pop in the store if you want one - first come, first served I'm afraid.

Many thanks to Gail and her husband, who were very lovely and incredibly gracious with their time. I hope you both had an excellent weekend and are enjoying the rest of your trip!

Ben Fardon is ready to face Villains Month. Though this could be famous last words.

Proud Lion - minor opening times revision for the W/C 02/09/13

Monday 2nd September is the first Monday of the calendar month and as such, we'll be open 12pm-2pm for our Monthly Monday.

Conversely, the store will be closed on Tuesday for two hours between 2pm-4pm whilst I meet our little lion cub (aka Kiddo aka The Watcher Junior) after his first day at junior school.

This should be an isolated occasion, as we have alternate arrangements for his usual school routine, but I want to make sure all goes well after his first day. I hope you can understand. Many thanks.

Ben Fardon is off to the Cardiff Comic Con today!