Broken Frontier

Following up on an earlier announcement, DC Comics has prepared relief plans for comic book retailers whose stores were affected by Hurricane Katrina.

" We remain very concerned about the welfare of our retailers in the Gulf region, " says Bob Wayne, DC ' s VP - Sales. " Coming from a retail background as I do, I am very much aware of how difficult these circumstances are. We ' re happy to extend whatever help we can now and in the coming weeks. "

DC has laid out its relief plans for stores affected in several different ways:

STORES THAT ARE CLOSED INDEFINITELY:

DC Comics will provide the seriously damaged stores with four weeks of free DC Comics items. No returns are required for this credit. DC Comics will credit these retailers via Diamond Comic Distributors for 100% of their DC purchases for the following in-store weeks:

* August 3
* August 10
* August 17
* August 24

All orders for items scheduled to arrive after August 24 are cancelled.

Late orders will be accepted without penalty.

When and if these stores are ready and able to reopen, DC Comics will provide each location with a credit for free backlist books equal to 10% of each retailer's 2004 DC purchases.

Upon reopening, DC will offer these stores a 75% co-op reimbursement rate on approved ads for their first two months of business to help rebuild store traffic.

Stores will be notified by Wednesday, September 28 if DC and Diamond have assigned them to this category. If you are not contacted by this date and believe you are in this category, please contact Vince Letterio at DC Comics.

STORES THAT ARE OPEN WITH SEVERE BUSINESS DISRUPTION:

DC Comics will provide the seriously impacted stores with ten weeks of free DC Comics. No returns are required for this credit. DC comics will credit these retailers for 100% of their DC purchases for the following in-store weeks:

* August 3
* August 10
* August 17
* August 24
* August 31
* September 7
* September 14
* September 21
* September 28
* October 5

Note: This does not include order increases placed after August 28.

All outstanding orders may be reduced or cancelled. Late orders will be accepted without penalty.

DC will offer these stores a 75% co-op reimbursement rate on approved ads running in October and November 2005 to help rebuild store traffic.

Stores will be notified by Wednesday, September 28 if DC and Diamond have assigned them to this category. If you are not contacted by this date and believe you are in this category, please contact Vince Letterio at DC Comics.

STORES IN AREAS WITH LARGE EVACUEE POPULATIONS:

On a case-by-case basis, DC Comics will provide free overships through the October 5 in-store week to retailers with a large influx of new customers. Please contact Vince Letterio at DC Comics to apply.