Paul Stock of Librairie Astro in Montreal, Quebec saw the article on Dark Horse's plans to keep the Sin City trades available (see 'Dark Horse Plans Sin City Flow') and says he can't get what he needs:

 

I have no doubt that Dark Horse has learned something from events like the Hellboy fiasco, but I'm afraid that they haven't learned quite enough.

 

At the moment (Saturday, March 26), six of the seven Sin City titles are out of stock at Diamond.  I think two of them are expected in April 6th (one of these is a first shipment of Hell & Back), the other two on the 13th.

 

Booze, Broads was supposed to have shipped March 16th.  It has yet to arrive.  Dark Horse has provided some sort of justification for this, but after a while this retailer's ears sort of switch off when the flow of product turns into a flow of excuses, no matter what the publisher or product might be.

 

I took NO solicitation order position on Sin City TPBs, not trusting Dark Horse to deliver on time.  Once I found out a title shipped, I re-ordered.  Heavily.  I will NOT lock in a potentially large liability with a company that has proven time and again to be unable to deliver when the market needs it most, but seems quite content to ship books anywhere from a month early to several months late.

 

I also disagree with using the term 'flow' when talking about the Sin City shipping.  'Waves' is a closer term, because it describes a stop/start sort of thing.  A flow would mean we had continuous availability of product.  Reality is we do not.  Reality is that Dark Horse will have to learn how to manage inventory and delivery before I will trust them enough to promote their products.
 
The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.