All-Star Batman and Robin #10 - The Fallout

We brought you the story about All-Star Batman & Robin #10 a while back. Basically, the issue was chockful o' wirty dords and they blacked them out. Unfortunately, the ink wasn't opaque enough and you could plainly see the naughty language. In the industry, this is a major printing error.

DC Comics had to soak the printing costs of the entire print run, as well as shipping, delivery, and general distribution, and also the new printing. This probably cost them a few hundred thousand bucks! Granted, they can handle the hit, but make no mistake about it: it's a real blow to them, financially. I was as amused by this story as anyone, and said then that no one should be surprised if all the copies are not destroyed or returned, as DC asked.

I haven't been able to make the rounds as well as I used to lately, so since I got quite a bit done here and am gearing-up for the third season Heroes debut in about an hour, I figured I would take the time to do exactly that. That's how I came across Neptune's great post on it just today.

Regular readers know Neptune's Comics is one of our good blogger friends found in the trusty BlogRoll there to your right. While Lisa and I have frequently disagreed, it is never hostile and almost every time, it is because we work in different arenas within the industry. I am a writer and sometime sequential artist and she and her husband run a retail outlet. Of course, we are both bloggers and I respect her opinion and take on things specifically because it usually differs from mine (usually because she works retail); I hope she respects my viewpoint, as well. I really have learned a lot from her posts, since I haven't worked in a retail comic book/collectibles outlet in over 15 years.

This is one of those cases.

I suppose I was thinking about ethics when I said "fat chance" to the idea that everyone would burn their copies. Let's face it: that really is a dumb idea. Granted, it is the ethical thing to do, and I agree with Lisa that Diamond (and even DC) should look into finding out who the individuals/businesses are that have so eagerly sought to profit from this gaffe - if for no other reason than to reward those retailers who did the right thing - but as a collector, of course a lot of people are going to hang onto at least a handful of copies! After all, this was DC's error! And you already know the uncensored copies of this issue are going to skyrocket in price and be in high-demand for years to come.

Honestly, if I were a retailer, I would have held onto at least 10-20 copies of the shipment myself. I would have returned the rest and I wouldn't even have thought about offering them on eBay, in-store, or anywhere else for several years, but I would have thrown them in a fireproof box, put them in the bank, and started spending money on shit like tie-dyed Cadillacs, polka-dotted bow ties, and everything else I have absolutely no need for.

Because those issues are going to be worth megabucks.

Now, I consider myself to be an ethical person - to whatever extent I can be fair about such - but I also consider this a golden opportunity for collectors. After all, no matter whatever else, what few copies survive the recall are going to become the very cornerstone of collections. In several years, at least one or more will end up in sequential art displays in cons and museums, as well as printing and publishing presentations/displays, and on and on. This is kind of like having one of the few remaining, original copies of Nosferatu - the silent film horror classic Bram Stoker's wife fought most of her life to have destroyed. And that film is now a true classic of the field!

Had every copy of Nosferatu been destroyed, as Ms. Stoker had wished (and vigorously fought to have done in her waning years), a litany of fields and mediums would be the poorer for it. Horror films, silent films, the horror genre overall, the vampire sub-genre... The imagery of that film is legendary and while the filmmaker had no legal right to adapt Dracula into a movie, it remains one of the more faithful adaptations to this day!

I sincerely doubt ASB&R #10 can be elevated to the same level as Nosferatu, but the point remains: DC screwed-up - not the collectors, not the retailers. And I, like many others, wonder just how much of this really was a marketing ploy. Granted, DC makes no more money on privately-traded stock, but the entire thing probably drove sales of this particular issue, and this title overall, much closer to the numbers DC would like it to have. After all, though I just started reading (before this debacle - I didn't know Miller was doing it), it's pretty much been panned by everyone.

Still, retailers are pretty upset with this and they are all asking if anything is going to be done about those "bad apples" who disobeyed DC and Diamond and the sad reality is: no. Flatly.

For one thing, neither DC nor Diamond is willing to shell-out the money to do anything - they've already taken a bath as it is! For another, DC couldn't ask for better publicity and - I can attest to this, personally - their PR department is not that good. They can't even be bothered to work publicity online and a story this big accomplished, in one fell swoop, what they couldn't be bothered with up to now.

Again, I am a very moral person, but - and I mean forget the state of the economy, the fact that America is blanketly morally bankrupt, on and on - I would definitely have held back 10-20 copies! (Scratch that: 12-22, because I need two for my own collection!) I could justify this as preserving Americana or whatever - and honestly, that is not just an excuse - but the truth is, as a collector, this is one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. And though I constantly bitch about how opportunistic this country and our modern world is, this isn't exactly like looting TVs during a hurricane.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008