A while back I decided that I wanted to incorporate news items in to my posts. While this wasn’t a bad idea in itself, it developed in to a lazy habit which I have currently decided to break.

When I first started trying to post the news I would scour the internet looking for the latest gossip on other people’s weblogs, or at google news. Then it hit me: press releases were what I needed. So I did some research and came up with a list of nearly every comic book company in existance. I emailed each and every one of them individually and asked for press release updates and “review material” (free comic books).

That was a month ago. Out of the twenty companies I emailed, three replied and one gave me review material.

Marvel added me to their press release list, but claimed that they couldn’t send review material as they don’t keep any in stock. Image added me to their press release list and very generously decided to send me review comics each month. Viz told me to get press releases from their website (now why didn’t I think of that?) and gave me further instructions in order to obtain review material.

As for the others? I emailed DC and Dark Horse again a few weeks back and still no reply, nor a reply from the others. While it is possible that these people have a hard time responding to the massive amount of email they no doubt recieve, it is very probable that they are simply ignoring my request.

I mentioned this to the owner of a local comic book shop and he told me that DC won’t send out review material. At one time they did, and then discovered that these were being sold on ebay or traded for Marvel and Image comics. They got mad and decided to punish everyone.

I can appreciate DC taking these steps, but at least have the curtsey to deny my request! The same goes for the 16 other companies that can’t seem to find the reply button in their email program.