A while back I brought some software so that I was able to print out my own barcode labels. The software was not really that good as it would never properly create my barcode labels. In the end I found a British labels company who printed my barcode labels for me at a low cost. It saved me a lot of messing around really!

Seriously, the 2 big problems I see with a unified ratings system are:

1. Who rates the stuff? Marvel has a ratings system that, bless their hearts*, is incomprehensible. While we don’t know the criteria for their different ratings, we also don’t know who is placing them on the books. who would rate the items in a unified system? Diamond? The Publishers? An independent organization? While we’re at it, who’s going to pay for it?

2. How and when will the items be rated? Thanks to digital delivery, the content of a comic or graphic novel can change right up until the printers start printing. To be a useful tool, the ratings would have to be available at the time of SOLICITATION, and the sad fact is that even with Marvel and DC, the books are solicited before they are done most of the time. It does no one any good for a book to be solicited as a TEEN book (to use the video game ratings system) and have it show up as a MATURE book. That opens a whole BOX of cans of worms.

As much as I would like to have an easy system that can be explained in a brochure that I can hand to Jane Mom or Joe Dad, I just don’t see how it could be done in a way that satisfies ANYONE, much less EVERYONE.

Back to barcodes: Heidi, I started a poll in the CBIA for retailers asking who uses barcodes. I know that the CBIA membership isn’t universal, but I think it’ll be a good barometer of what reality might look like. I know you’re on the CBIA occasionally, so you can check it for yourself, if you want.

* That’s my required Southernism for the month of September.

In no way shape or form am I saying anything should be censored, but I just think some unified “letter code” for all comics would be great. (Do I sound old? I hope I don’t sound old. Sheesh!)

I don’t understand why so many people are so resistant to the idea of allowing stores (and Diamond) to better keep track of sales of smaller publishers. It’s not like we’re going to order LESS of their products with a barcode on it. I only see the potential to order MORE, because it won’t get lost in the shuffle.

And I can’t imagine running a shop without it. It is possible to run a great shop without POS… one of the best stores in the area doesn’t use POS, which I was shocked to learn from the owner in San Diego a couple years ago. And they’re as indy-friendly and booming as you get. But having a POS does make it a whole hell of a lot easier to track sales, figure out what’s selling and what isn’t, etc.

That said, I’m still kinda baffled by the required barcode thing. We’ve been using a barcode scanner for years, but when books don’t have a barcode, we still have them in the system via the more cumbersome typing method. We’re still tracking the sales. Yes, it saves time at the registers, and yes, it’s great to have a barcode, but I was never particularly put out that *everyone* didn’t have them. Although I guess I will admit to flashes of annoyance when there’s a line at the counter and, say, Spawn comes up and the barcode is inside the front cover, which is as good as not having one, taking away valuable time in running the transaction.

Overall, this is probably a good thing, and Hibbs nails it when he talks about this having a positive impact akin to Marvel’s cash register program on the basic level of professionalism in the industry. But I remain unconvinced that the requiring of barcodes was a necessary step in POS implementation, and more convinced that it’s more of another way to raise the bar for small press to get into Diamond’s catalog, and thus into your average shop.

Dan Cooney
Writer/Illustrator of Valentine
redeyepress.net

Lee Hester
Lee’s Comics of California