FOC is the last chance to put in your orders with your comic shops and likely get at a discount for pre-ordering.
Kicking off this weeks FOC list with the Marvel picks..
Amazing Spider-Man #76 is first up. Oh no, what’s happened to our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man? Well, new writers so I’ll be checking out since Spencer’s run on this title had me yawning..
The Amazing Spider-Man #76 (Jusko Marvel Masterpieces Variant) is a pretty cool variant as well. I love the old school looking Green Goblin.
World War She-Hulk continues in Avengers #49. Will this one have anything special within or are they waiting until the big #50 (#750 Legacy)? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Avengers #49 (Cabal Stormbreakers Variant)
Avengers #49 (Liefeld Deadpool 30th Variant)
Avengers #49 (Jusko Marvel Masterpieces Variant)
Hoping for just a good read with Black Panther Legends #1 (of 4) but hopefully there’s more on the speculative side with this title as well. Only one way to find out right? Buy it, read it and then talk about it (unless there’s nothing to really talk about).
Black Panther Legends #1 (of 4) (Stelfreeze Variant)
Black Panther Legends #1 (of 4) (Artist B Variant)
Crimson Dawn invades Star Wars Doctor Aphra #15 Wobh. These are must pick ups for me. If and when Doctor Aphra gets her own Disney+ show, all her books gonna have potential from the stories and characters within.
Star Wars Doctor Aphra #15 (Frenz Handbook Variant) Wobh
Star Wars Doctor Aphra #15 (Sprouse Lucasfilm 50th Variant) Wobh
Star Wars Doctor Aphra #15 (Pichelli Carbonite Variant) Wobh
The 2nd, 3rd and other additional printings for Marvel:
Dark Ages #1 (of 6) (2nd Ptg)
Moon Knight #1 (3rd Ptg Cappuccio Variant)
And if Omnibuses are your thing (which they should be, make great bookshelf pieces while also making it easy to read your favorite issues without man/woman handling them), this should be on your hit list, Star Wars Legends Empire Omnibus HC Vol 01 Sandra Cover pictured below. Best time to buy Omnibuses are pre-order, saves you money and most shops don’t order more than a few of these for the shelf stock being as pricey as they are.
There’s a variant cover which is pretty bad ass: Star Wars Legends Empire Omnibus HC Vol 01 Wilkins Dm Var
For you Gunslinger Spawn fans, comes the new Gunslinger Spawn #1.
Tons of covers, gonna be over printed with retailers acting like consumers.. pick the cover you like and leave it at that.
Department of Truth has over a handful of 2nd printings spanning 6 issues. I’m not gonna post their images here, they all look the same to me. But for you Tynion fans and completists of this title, you know you’ll buy them to love them, cherish them briefly while bag and boarding them to then tuck them away into that Tynion-only titles Longbox of Love!
I’m probably buying After Dark One Shot (Cover A – Tony Harris) just for the cover art alone. I like Tony Harris. We need more of his art on covers.
Chicken Devil #1 (Cover C – Mask Variant) came a little after the initial regular cover Chicken Devil #1 (Cover A – Hayden Sherman). I love it being I’m a chicken and all..
Who doesn’t love a good Jack the Ripper story? I can’t be the only one who loves the mystery murder crimes type of stories. So Cross to Bear #1 (Cover A – Banovic) is on my hit list. Just hoping for a decent read, any heat is bonus if you ask me.
And it’s not a comic but a hardcover of one my all time favorites, Mega Man.
Mega Man X Official Complete Works HC looks great. Someone buy it for me as a gift for entertainment when I’m all alone and afraid in Anthony’s basement please.
I’m kidding about buying it for me but seriously, for you Mega Man fans out there, it’s a must.
I think Lee Weeks is underrated. His B Cover for Batman 89 #3 (of 6) (Cover B – Lee Weeks Card Stock Variant) is pretty slick. I’m digging it.
She has her fans but not as much heat now as retailers are keeping up with demand I think, but her work is hit or miss with some out there but I’m liking Future State Gotham #6 (Cover B – Rose Besch Card Stock Variant).
It’s going to either be a hit or a miss. Nubia and the Amazons #1 (of 6) (Cover A – Alitha Martinez) is a new Amazonian story coming out of Infinite Frontier. Could be one of those titles though that come back later on depending on if DC keeps tabs on them in future stories, etc.
Tfaw is a disaster right now. I know you guys get traffic revenue from them, which I totally support as I know websites can be quite expensive. Do you have any contact info from them aside from the general customer service number/email?
I’m getting preorders 2-3 months after release date, and they’re sending me incomplete orders. I ordered three copies of a 2nd print of the nice house on the lake, which isn’t sold out as of this date and to my knowledge wasn’t allocated. They’ve since decided to ship them to me one at a time in 1 month intervals, completely separate from the other books I pre-ordered. They then sent a couple other orders months after release that were missing widely available books (not spec stuff, just titles I read and preorder to save a little money). Their customer service hasn’t responded to me in weeks, and I’m pretty sure their phone line is disconnected or something, as I get a weird message when I call it. I checked a couple forums and this seems to be a problem with some other customers, and their Twitter and Facebook are starting to get some negative comments. I get that staffing is tough with COVID, and I myself worked 70 hours last week to cover shortages, but this is getting insane. I also preorder a couple months in advance, so my orders get locked in and I now have no way to cancel them since they’re refusing to respond to anyone.
Just to clarify, “I know you guys get traffic revenue from them” is not completely accurate. We use affiliate links. If someone clicks on a link we provide that’s been affiliated and it leads to an actual purchase, then we get commissions. But we don’t get paid unless you click and then buy and only those cookies last so long.
Sadly we would love if there were more comic retailers doing affiliate programs to spread the links around, but TFAW is one if only the major comic retailer that does affiliate links. CHU is not that cheap to host/maintain nowadays either with the amount of traffic it generates, it’d be great if could do away with ads, affiliate links, etc but the world just doesn’t work that way.
And yes, they’ve had a rough year so far and hopefully straighten their recent woes out with shipping delays and such. I still pre-order with them but I’ll admit, I haven’t had any damaged books in quite a while and the ones that did come damaged appeared to be damaged prior to shipping cause 80% of the rest of the order was okay while no noticeable dings on the package that aligned with the damages. They quickly replaced the copies for me.
And also, their chat feature is the quickest response to fixing issues. I’ve never called them myself but yes, I think they’re email ticketing is way behind as last I heard they’ve only got 2 people in customer service. I’ve done my fair share of customer service, it’s not easy as it’s stressful so the best thing you can do is be super nice and work with them when you do get a hold of them. None of the shipping delays or damages is directly their fault, they’re the ones who are trying to make things right so they’re the last people you want to stress out or it just leads to them not caring when they get shit on all day from unhappy customers.
Shitting on your readers leads to them not caring, by the way. But thanks for the lecture, it was both informative and mean. I see a big tfaw ad as I write this, so I figured you also had pay per click from them now, but I realize that’s not the case now. Not getting orders from me won’t hurt tfaw in the least, nor will me not visiting your website make any sort of dent in your traffic, but it will make me feel better. Toodles!
What do you mean, “shitting on your readers”? You asked questions, I responded. I wasn’t shitting on anyone directly or in partcular, just sharing information to resolve issues you might have. We have affiliate links to TFAW but we are not TFAW. Their problems are their own problems.
I just made a general statement that people should be “nice” to the customer service reps who are trying to help in such situations. It’s like being nice to wait staff at a restaurant, no reason to get nasty as it seems a lot of folks get too bent out of shape when they have to contact customer service and take all their frustrations out on the people who answer the chat, email or calls. That’s all I was implying. It goes beyond TFAW, be nice to all customer service reps everywhere. It’s a shit job and none of them deserve to be mistreated.
So I’m not sure why you’re saying I’m being “mean” and “lecturing”, which is not either. Please do enlighten me why you think so.
I’m not sure what was said that would’ve made you angry… I thought the response was strictly informative and neutral.
TFAW did change their customer service email a little while ago. I was waiting for a response myself and finally had to use their chat feature. Apparently their new email address is help@tfaw.com
Poyo gave you very factual information with no undertone of sarcasm or arrogance. I know text is hard to determine ones attitude in their response, but I got no such vibe from it as to what you speak of.
You should always start from the position someone has best intentions before assuming they do not. I’m baffled by how you came to perceive it to be negative in any way.
Likely everyone else reading your response is also confused by where you are getting this.
I give up. Just delete my comments and I won’t ever come back. I get that you’re not tfaw (I’m not an idiot), and turning down affiliate revenue from anyone would be insane (I’m still not an idiot). I don’t yell at servers (I managed a bar for five or six years and got yelled at enough for one lifetime), but I am a little frustrated that I was driven to presales from them through your links (you guys also post when preorders for variants are available on their website) and they are having trouble even fulfilling orders at this point. If I wasn’t still occasionally getting books from them I would think they were on the brink of going under. I will leave now, please delete everything I wrote.
Didn’t say you were an idiot. You seem to be a little sensitive by words on a screen.
We link to a lot of places. This is first a information website driven by speculation, pop culture news and we may link to products to numerous websites around the web, some are affiliate links, some aren’t. We try to point users/readers to the best possible price or inform them of hot new books they might have as in a time to sell themselves (the speculation side of things).
But seems like you’re overreacting a bit from my general response of advice (which wasn’t directed entirely at you, take it or leave it, it’s just an opinion). But no where do we say, click here to buy this item we’re talking about. That’s all upon you and your own decision to either buy from a link. But no reason to get all huffy puffy with assumptions I think.
Cheers and I hope you get your orders fulfilled or taken care of from TFAW.