DC Comics’ ‘100 Page Giants’ will be expanding beyond Walmart. DC began publishing these collections, which retail for $4.99 last year, for sale exclusively at Walmart stores. These books contain 12 pages of all-new material, plus full reprints of three recent comics. The line was just expanded to six titles, with ‘The Flash’ and ‘Swamp Thing’ joining ‘Superman’, ‘Batman’, ‘Wonder Woman’ (formerly ‘Justice League’) and ‘Titans’ (formerly ‘Teen Titans’). The books will increase the amount of new material, and begin marketing to comic shops.
Rumors surfaced that DC was canceling these books entirely, but publisher Dan DiDio addressed these rumors and clarified the new direction, taking to Facebook to say:
These books have been controversial from their launch. Some fans have been unable to find them. I used to work at Walmart, so I get this. Magazines and collectibles like game cards aren’t stocked by Walmart employees, but an outside vendor. So when would-be buyers of the ‘100 Page Giants’ have been unable to find them, Walmart employees have been no help, since they had no idea what this product was or where to find it in the store. (Also, Walmart is so compartmentalized that most employees don’t know where ANYTHING is, unless they work in that specific department And 99.9% of them don’t CARE.) This has also led to the comics being mis-stocked, since technically, they aren’t on Walmart’s in-store “planogram.” I’ve also heard that in some stores, they were tossed in dump bins to be manhandled and mangled to the point that they were no longer collectible.
On top of that, some older readers who fondly recalled the ‘100 Page Giants’ they read in the 1970s weren’t interested because these new books, which were created for actual children, only contain contemporary reprints. Even so, some sellers have been able to sell them at a sizeable markup on eBay and other sites, drawing the ire of those who weren’t able to find them at Walmart.
DC still seems to have a relationship with Walmart, as it was just announced that a line of black and white mini-figures from DC Collectibles was going to be sold exclusively at Walmart, before later being offered through comic shops.
Are you a fan of these ‘100 Page Giants’? Are you relieved that you will soon be able to find them at comic shops with even more new material?
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
