Hey, Folks!
Boy howdy, is it an exciting week here at Monarch Comics!
As many of you are already aware, next week will be the first week that Penguin Random House will be distributing Marvel Comics! It’s been a somewhat nerve racking couple of days trying to figure out how to use PRH’s back end retailer website in order to cull the information I used to get from Diamond in order to get the Shipping List and Subscription Form up and running. I mean, with Diamond my invoice for the following week is available Wednesday morning which gives me a little time in order to sort through special orders and get the titles (and images that go with them) ready to be added to the sub form. Unfortunately, PRH’s invoicing system is a lot different from Diamond (or even Lunar) and it looks like there will be learning curve to figuring out how it is going to work for me. I mean, I was poking the PRH website with a stick all day Tuesday and Wednesday in order to figure out the best and easiest way to get the information that I need to do a proper sub form. I eventually found the files I needed, but the “simple” part was eluding me. It was a nice surprise to find a temporary patch to the issue that PRH added to help comic retailers after the inevitable complaints started rolling in, but it’s not a perfect solution and I’m expecting more fixes to be implemented as we move forward and PRH gets a deeper understanding about the kind of service comic retailers need. My biggest issue now that I finally got the shipping/sub lists ready is when I am actually going to see my first shipment of Marvel books from PRH. As of this morning there was still no invoice generated and one of PRH “things” is that they don’t post invoices until the shipment is packed and ready to go. From everything I’ve read PRH is currently planning on getting our books out via UPS for a Monday delivery. I will feel a lot more confidant about the process after I receive my first shipment.
My Lunar shipments have been coming in pretty reliably since I switched from FedEx to UPS for delivery. Unfortunately, I just ran into another problem with Lunar this morning as only one of the two boxes of next week’s D.C. books made it to me. The other box is currently showing as not having left the warehouse yet. I’ve got an e-mail to them asking what happened to the second box, but I haven’t heard back yet. I can’t tell you how annoying it is that Lunar does not allow their customers to call up their offices for explanations about issues like this. I mean, I didn’t care as long as I didn’t have any major problems, but an entire box of missing items is pretty serious and having to wait for someone to answer an e-mail and then continue the game of “e-mail tag” until the issue gets resolved is incredibly time consuming and very irritating. Hopefully it is simply a computer snafu and the box will suddenly show up tomorrow, but until I get some kind of answer from Lunar it’s a mystery!
Okay…I now have to confess to a mistake of my own. D.C. Comics Justice League Infinity #4 is being published next week, but as I was constructing the sub form I realized that I somehow missed ordering the issue at FOC. Ling time readers will know that this is the second time this has happened in the last month with the first time being the Batman Superman Annual. Well, in the case of the Annual it was no biggie because Lunar still had copies easily available. With this Justice League Infinity title, however, any orders are currently going to backorder. Of course, I only sell a fraction of the copies of Justice League Infinity that I do of Batman Superman and I am pretty sure that the copies I currently have on order will ship out once Lunar finishes processing any damages or shortages that may pop up this week. So, those of you enjoying the title can be relatively certain that I will have it in stock although it will probably not have it in stock until 10/22 due to the turn around time with Lunar. Sorry about that…I will endeavor to be more careful during my Lunar FOC time!
It is also my great pleasure to announce that we finally have Monarch Comics logo shirts available for sale! It was quite surprising to have the requests for the t-shirts ever since I had some made for employees and cosplayers, but I have listened and the shirts were just delivered this afternoon by my beloved t-shirts guru, Nichole Smith! They are comfortable and soft white cotton t-shirts with the Monarch Comics logo emblazoned across the chest. There shirts are currently available for $19.99 in a variety of sizes…😊
Okily dokily…that’s it for me this week! While writing this little missive I was hit by a big business rush and now I have to do some interesting dance party moves in order to catch up! Hopefully the distributor trials and travails described above will be dealt with easily and there will be no problems with getting the shipment up and running on time next week, but rest assured I keep y’all up to date on any changes as soon as they become apparent to me.
Have a GREAT weekend!
Eddie