Comics UK

Call the old progs 2000-2014 prog 2000 (Annual) etc.

Prog 2000 sold out within 48 days! Great news... yes? No, the management should have been shot at dawn! How can a British weekly ever sell out? Has that ever happened? I'm not privy to 2000 ad's weekly output; but let's say it's around 30,000 - now, considering there were 2 variant covers (3 if you count the exclusive Glen Fabry cover for Diamond distributors that totalled 2,000) and management decided to split the covers 50/50 with same output, then they really do deserve an execution. Your average 2000 ad collector will collect all covers on offer. If management did not foresee this, then they deserve to be shot - no argument. I know they rushed a reprint; but isn't that more expense in the end? How many do you reprint for heaven's sake? Get a grip and know your readership. I reiterate: how can a weekly sell out in 48 hours?

geoff42 wrote:Prog 2000 sold out within 48 days! Great news... yes? No, the management should have been shot at dawn! How can a British weekly ever sell out? Has that ever happened? I'm not privy to 2000 ad's weekly output; but let's say it's around 30,000 - now, considering there were 2 variant covers (3 if you count the exclusive Glen Fabry cover for Diamond distributors that totalled 2,000) and management decided to split the covers 50/50 with same output, then they really do deserve an execution. Your average 2000 ad collector will collect all covers on offer. If management did not foresee this, then they deserve to be shot - no argument. I know they rushed a reprint; but isn't that more expense in the end? How many do you reprint for heaven's sake? Get a grip and know your readership. I reiterate: how can a weekly sell out in 48 hours?

Three times you're calling for publishers to be executed and you ask them to get a grip?

I'm not sure where you read it was "sold out" but there were still copies in shops around here until it was replaced by the following issue.

Hi, lew, 2000 ad prog 2000 needed a 2nd print; I ask again: when has that ever happened in a British weekly? Sorry about my ott reaction with management - but still... those variant covers, I feel, have added to complications.

geoff42 wrote:Hi, lew, 2000 ad prog 2000 needed a 2nd print; I ask again: when has that ever happened in a British weekly? Sorry about my ott reaction with management - but still... those variant covers, I feel, have added to complications.

The final issue of The Dandy went to a second printing (with gold foil logo) four years ago.

I don't see why it adds to complications. It's just another comic to collect if you wish to. No one's compelled to buy the variant covers if they don't want to. Lots of comics and magazines do it these days.

geoff42 wrote:Prog 2000 sold out within 48 days!

That's seven weeks... not impressive at all. Of course, you actually meant 48 hours...

er... yes, Digifriend, 48 hours. Ahem... right, next subject...

Digifiend, even... this isn't going well..

Hi, Lew; of course, I agree that no one is compelled to buy more than one variant cover but, all the same, why do publishers offer them for sale? Because they know that the completest (and there are many a completest out there) will buy every variant cover on offer. It's a sure-fire winner... you only have to see the US market as regards variant covers. It becomes a complication (for the pubisher, that is) if one doesn't foresee the potential of such a gimmick and publishes insufficient numbers to accommodate the "collector". No more than an inconvenience, perhaps, but still... it's an extra inconvenience, especially when you're dealing with a weekly publication that an editor could do without.

geoff42 wrote:Hi, Lew; of course, I agree that no one is compelled to buy more than one variant cover but, all the same, why do publishers offer them for sale? Because they know that the completest (and there are many a completest out there) will buy every variant cover on offer. It's a sure-fire winner... you only have to see the US market as regards variant covers. It becomes a complication (for the pubisher, that is) if one doesn't foresee the potential of such a gimmick and publishes insufficient numbers to accommodate the "collector". No more than an inconvenience, perhaps, but still... it's an extra inconvenience, especially when you're dealing with a weekly publication that an editor could do without.

I think this is the first time 2000AD has done it so it wouldn't be much of an inconvenience to the editor, and may even have been his idea for all I know.

Variant covers are just the latest fad, that's all. 20 years ago it was foil variants, hologram variants, etc. At least now we get actual new artwork for each variant. Well, except for the blank covers, but they serve a purpose because the reader can commission his own covers! (I have several Doctor Who covers to draw on those blank Titan covers for a fan later this week.)

If anyone is inconvenienced it's the comic shop retailer, in a position where they need to order more copies of the same comic just for the variants, therefore diverting cash away from independent comics.

2000 AD has done the variant cover thing a few times before.
I wouldn't get too wound up over the sold out headlines, its primarily for marketing, all of Rebellions stock of 2000 AD had sold out, it does not mean that they have sold out of every newsagents and comic shop in the country.
2000 AD gets to release a statement saying the demand for Prog 2000 is such that it is sold out. The media attention is invaluable to reach lapsed reader who may think that 2000 AD is long gone, and then search it out on Google. Its a positive.