A month or two back, I took a swip at Marvel for the fact that their weekly shipment included a couple of original issues, and a huge fistful of Dynamic Forces signed alternate covers. Sadly, I was demonstrating my ignorance of the world of comic shipping.
Eric wrote to me, and put me right.
Hey,
I love your website, read PPP inside out every time a new issue comes out. And I agree with your words on the front page, that Marvel needs to be producing more quality titles, without a doubt. However, to be fair, they are not to blame for this weeks low shipment. I work in a comic book store, and perhaps you were not aware of the "skip week" phenomenon.
A skip week happens four times a year, when those pesky 52 weeks do not divide into 12 months with 4 weeks exactly. This menas 4 times a year there are 5 wednesdays (new comics day) in a month. But the books are monthly, and not 4-weekly. What DC does is have an event. Most of the recent DC events have been on skip weeks. This month, it was sins of youth, in the past its been Amalgam, Amalgam 2, Tangent, New Years Evil, Girl week, Golden Age thing. They don't put out regular titles that week, just specials.
Marvel just splits their shipment in two, so March 22 and 29 together is what is normally marvel's fourth week shipment. So you have to give them _some_ credit, they do average 7-10 original titles a week.
Thanks Eric!