It happens to all of us. We see an article on our favorite comic book news website (and that better be Big Shiny Robot, or else….) about a new comic that was just announced, but it won’t be on the rack at your local comic shop for another four months. “I’ve got to get that comic!” we say to ourselves. Four months pass, and we read a review about that same comic on that same website (yes, Big Shiny Robot still better be your independent source for nerd news and reviews in four months, or else…), and by the time you make it into your local comic shop, the comic has sold out and is not orderable from the warehouse.
There is currently one company on which the entire (print) comic industry hangs: Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc.
The comic industry has endured extreme heights and bone-crushing depths over the past 80+ years. There is currently one company on which the entire (print) comic industry hangs: Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc (DCD). DCD is the go-between for every major comic book publisher and your local comic book shop. How DCD became the only distributor in an industry of this magnitude is a long story that I will revisit at a later date. For now, let’s just say that they don’t take any chances in “dead” inventory.
Local comic shops place orders at least once a month (what DCD calls the monthly initial order). These initial orders are the products DCD publishes in their monthly catalog, “Previews.” The majority of the items in an initial order will have publication dates within two to three months. Many other items within the initial order will not be available for purchase five to eight months down the calendar.
These product orders are made so far in advance in an attempt to print only what will sell. Publishers base their printing numbers off of the orders comic shops make with DCD. There is a very small window in which a local comic shop can make adjustments to their monthly orders. The last date for a retailer to make a change to an order is called the “Final Order Cutoff” and “Order Increase Cutoff” (FOC/OIC). Every Monday, FOC/OIC adjustments are due for items coming out in about five weeks. If that window is missed, the comic shop will receive only the amount they initially ordered.
The whole process weighs heavily on the shoulders of your local comic book shop.
The whole processes weighs heavily on the shoulders of your local comic book shop. If they order too many issues, they are stuck with comics that no one wants and that DCD won’t take back. If they order too few issues, customers are forced to (dare I even mention it) shop online via big-box comic shops/Ebay or even just switch to digital comics.
DCD does a great job, along with comic book publishers, to buzz market comic books in the days before the products show up in the “Previews” catalog. However, nowhere in the catalog can you find listings for any of the products’ FOC/OIC dates. These are the dates that really matter for you and your local comic shop.
It is possible for a comic shop to make order increases (but never decreases) after a products FOC/OIC date. However, there is no guarantee that the increased amount will be shipped.
So, what does this all mean to you as the comic book consumer, and didn’t I start out talking about not getting the comics that are hyped months in advance?
As the comic book fan, it means being aware of what comics have FOC/OIC dates every Monday, a task that (up until now) has virtually been impossible without access to the DCD retailer’s website (I still have no idea why they don’t publish this list for the consumer). The best thing you can do to secure an issue is to order it from your comic shop ASAP! Even if it is passed the FOC/OIC date, the closer you make a special order to that date, the more likely DCD will be able to fill that order.
So stay tuned to Big Shiny Robot, as every Sunday we will give our preemptive picks for the best comics and graphic novels that have a FOC/OIC date the following Monday. Additionally, we will be linking to a complete list of the products with approaching FOC/OIC dates, courtesy of our friends over at Death Ray Comics.
Trent Hunsaker is a podcaster and popculturalist. Podcasting for Kevin Smith’s SModcast Internet Radio and the A Part of Him Podcast Network, he also operates Death Ray Comics, sweats, and reads comics – but mostly just sweats.