Continuing the Previews conversation with 'Manda (slightly edited for context), and posting it here to keep the momentum going:

Previews is what, five bucks? Two-thirds of which are for stuff that most end-consumers never order directly? I mean, sure, there are consumer exceptions, and retailers need it, and there are folks that want to trawl through that stuff, and that's great, but i've never ordered a magazine, a dvd, a tshirt, an action figure, or a jack osbourne bobble-head through previews. it's great for retailers looking to run pop-culture emporium-type stores; for consumers like me that want as much information about comics as possible, it's wasted, embarrassing space. They already have "retailer packets" that differ from cosumer versions... and i know from most retailers that ancillary knicknacks are a pain in the ass to deal with regularly. Do t-shirts ship on time? Do you really want to worry about it?... and so on.

I think if you had a comics-only previews and an everything-else previews, readers may be more inclined to spend time looking through the book. shit, keep it the same size and price and give every publisher double the space and watch what happens.

If Diamond put their mind to making a CD-ROM, and had adequate staff to do it, and made an earnest commitment to, you know, THE GODDAMN FUTURE, it would be incredibly simple, fairly low-cost, and would pay for itself in spades. imagine if there was a CD with three, four pages of preview art representing books solicited by each publisher. you wouldn't cut the pie into more pieces, you'd be making more pie.

Preordering dies on its own petard because either so much stuff ends up sucking after the three months between ordering and receiving that preorder-ers are fed up with being burned, or because no retailer can afford to stock everything that sounds interesting based on the 100 words of copy and the inch-by-half-inch preview art provided on the page. since no one is willing to remake the 7-day sales cycle for whatever reason, you've got to maximize product exposure to retailers and make them see your product in its best possible light. A disc with 3 pages of art, extended text (scripts, press, etc.), and shelf talkers, flyers, etc., could help retailers get a better idea of a publisher's wares for next to no cost, by getting word to their customers, also for next to no cost. a better informed retailer makes for a better informed consumer. everybody orders more because they can browse more than that stupid, stupid catalog allows.

Comics need to be thought of as a brand. From the marketing, the production, the distributing... the whole thing. Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Foot Locker, the NBA, everyone positions shoes not as shoes but as something emblematic of lifestyle, of a type of idealized consumer that "everyone" wants to be a part of. (i'm not saying that comics will ever have as broad an appeal as running shoes-- just that Nike doesn't sell "shoes," they sell a lifestyle image. The same way that Marvel, Diamond, or Muse shouldn't sell "comics".)

Yet anyone that isn't Marvel or Diamond are forced to take it like sheep and bow to their whims. Free Marvel Spider-Man Comic Book Day Movie Tie In Day Spider-Man 2003 Day is a perfect example. To continue the shoe metaphor, this is like Free Shoe Day being held, and everyone gives away free shoes with a little Nike swoosh on them, regardless of make, manufacture, or point of sale. Welcome to Nike's Footlocker, may I interest you in some new Nike Adidas Air-Jordans?

Communicating the diversity of the medium to as many as possible, as richly and as simply as possible, is the first step to comics as an industry asserting itself as a brand. Otherwise the industry remains 0wned, waiting in its little cove for the inevetable Malthusian die-back.