92615_RAA_LooseCannon_Text_R1_PROOF

Jemas gets on his weekly conference call and says, and this is a direct quote: “It was sort of an IQ test for retailers - you can count the digits in their IQ based on their enthusiastic response to the no-overprint. The smart guys who like to make money are very happy with the increased overall con sumer interest and with the just general increase in Marvel’s quality that’s really directly related to the additional dough that we have to spend on top creators. And then you have the other end of the spectrum, and they speak for themselves pretty constantly, so I’ll just leave it at that.”

Let’s look at that again.

To paraphrase: “Retailers who don’t agree with me are morons.”

And since a fan can’t buy a comic his retailer doesn’t stock, most hip pub lishers know that the retailer is his first customer. Know how to best ensure your comics aren’t stocked? Insult your customers. Ergo, retailers cut orders on Marvel books. The opposite of what Jemas was hired to do.

And I thought I was a loose cannon.

Got a lot of email from people last week who took offense at my misspelling of Jackson Pollock’s name off and on throughout the column. (this embar rassing inattention to detail in 2001 of course corrected for this edition. — Ed.) This wasn’t on purpose; it’s just that one of the most superlative comic stores I’ve ever had the pleasure of going into is Big Planet Comics in Bethesda, Maryland, owned by the sage-like and well-spoken Joel Pollack. While Jackson is an esteemed and rightfully well-regarded painter, I submit that Joel has done more for comics and has thereby earned the right to be forefront in my brain. A special tip of the loose cannon to Clemson professor Allen Swords who not only took me to task for the misspelling of Pollock’s name but also invented an excellently entertaining, although ultimately convoluted, assumption as to why I had so willfully misspelled it. When advised that this was merely an unfortunate typo, we exchanged thereafter a few quite pleasant emails. Hopefully, users of the Internet worldwide can learn from this lesson, that not every “insult” is what you make of it, and reason and civility should be the order of the day in any case even in the most adver sarial circumstances. Just in case, you know, there was an innocent mis understanding. I commend you, Professor Swords. As a University of Georgia football fan, though, I still look askance at Clemson, no matter how much gentility their faculty comports themselves with in correspondence. How ‘ bout them Dawgs! Woo!

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