So, um, make his Marvel?
In a curious case of venting, Entertainment Weekly critic Ken Tucker throws up his hands in frustration over the lack of review copies from Marvel Comics:
He then goes on to review Powers #18.
After a couple of months of frustration, I figured, Why not share this with you and get it off my chest? I started this comic-book review spot on the EW.com website in the hope of offering guidance and opinions on every sort of mainstream or small-press comic book in a reasonably timely fashion — i.e., the week the book under scrutiny is published. It's worked out fine with publishers ranging from DC to Drawn & Quarterly, with one exception: Marvel. I've interviewed Charlie Huston for his Moon Knight writing gig, but I've written only one review of a single Marvel comic so far — the debut of Secret War — and that's only because an editor here scored a copy and loaned it to me (thanks, Nisha!). As for everything else Marvel, nada. The behemoth company doesn't seem interested enough in being covered by a general-interest magazine like EW to send out review copies. So, just wanted to tell you, if and when I review a Marvel comic, it'll be one that's either on the stands at the moment, or a back issue you can find at your local comic shop. Don't like that situation and want timely recommendations? Please bombard Marvel Comics. Thank you — and now, back to comics reviewing ...
posted by Kevin Melrose @ 7:21 AM
4 Comments:
Or, he could just do like the rest of us and make friends with a comic store owner and read their copies of Marvel's titles in the First Look program.
I'm just jealous -- DC doesn't send me anything, either. But I've never asked.
That's hilarious; Marvel used to be extremely good about sending out review copies to the press until 1999, when their in-house publicity person was let go.
I don't much see the point of bemoaning the fact, he should just concentrate on reviewing companies that WANT their product covered.
Alternately, he could use BitTorrent, the easy way around Marvel's refusal to cooperate with the press.
Yeah, the reviewer is (rightly) complaining that he doesn't get early copies, not that he doesn't get free copies from Marvel.
That actually hurts both Marvel and the reviewer, because they don't get pre-pub publicity and he looks like he's ignoring 48% of the comics market, which hurts his credibility as a reviewer.
Still, professional comics reviewer-- now that's a sweet gig. You read early, free comics all day, and someone pays you for your opinion which they then print for the world to see. Awesome!
I didn't know this, but it surprises me not one little stuffed bit. I recently did a long kinda-ranty blog entry about Marvel's poor display at BooKExpo America--the giant trade show for trade bookstores across the country--and their mis-managed approach to promoting titles that would work and be popular in bookstores (hey, how about some promotion on books that tie into a big-ass movie that might be opening the weekend after the BEA?) consisted of them handing out free copies of Storm and Moon Knight floppies to booksellers who stock TPBs, not floppies.
My god, I know my ideas won't "save the industry," but golly, Marvel not only isn't addressing the future potential of the comics medium into other, non-comic stores markets, they're chopping their potential lost business up into tiny pieces and throwing it onto the fire.
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