The DC 100 page giant comics are definitely at Walmart.  I have a set in my hands.  They’re not going to be easy to find if you don’t know where to look, so let me help you with that.

The above is what you’re looking for.  It’s not that big.  You know how a lot of people were talking about how, omigod, Walmart could sell 40 or 50 copies per store and these would be the bestselling comics?  I’ve got a big reality check for those people (who probably haven’t been to a Walmart before): there are FIVE copies of each title being shelved.  I don’t think you could even fit more than five copies in one of those top two slots.

Now maybe they’ve got some more copies in the back and they can restock.  Maybe they can order more from the warehouse.  But you’d have to refill that display completely 4 times to get to 20 copies.  I cannot confirm this, but I’ve been told that a lot of the items in that aisle are stocked by third party vendors (which is apparently normal for things like Magic cards), so the whole restocking thing is a little fuzzy right now.  But it sure looks like if there are 3,000 participating stores, the initial shelving is going to be 15,000 copies per title.

This is where the comics are located.  Top shelf toward the end of the aisle.  The view is as you’re leaving the store after you’ve checked out.  There may be a minor bit of variation from store to store, but there usually an aisle on one side or the other of checkout that’s filled with collectibles: baseball cards, Magic cards, Walking Dead collector figures… that sort of thing.  You need to find that aisle and enter it.

This is not a high visibility aisle.  That picture?  I had to wait for a family to finish checking out before taking it.  If I’d have taken the picture while they were checking out, they would have blocked the comics from view.  That also means they can be hard to get at if someone checking out is effectively blocking the aisle.  You also will not physically be able to see the comics from the shopping side of the checkout aisles if every store places them in the exact same spot.  (I suspect they could be anywhere in that aisle.)  You may not see them while exiting the store if somebody checking out is blocking your view.  If you used the self-checkout section you can see in the background, you’d never walk by them at all.

In early posts, I expressed some concern about how visible these comics were going to be?  The were placed roughly where I figured they would be and you should be able to get a sense why I was scratching my head at some of the hype.

Now, all that said, these comics appear to be selling.  Since they weren’t on sale when I checked on Wednesday, you have to figure they were either put out yesterday or today… in a low traffic area… before too many people would know they were available (most people seemed to be interpreting the press release’s “by July 1” as a July 1 street date)… and three copies of the Teen Titans Giant had already sold by the time I arrived.

  • 2 copies were left of Teen Titans.
  • 4 copies were left of Superman.
  • 5 copies were left of Batman.
  • 5 copies were left of Justice League.

That’s after either a half day or day and a half.  It *might* pick up a little when word gets out that they’re now available or they might languish because there isn’t a lot of foot traffic near them.  Time will tell and it sure isn’t going to take a lot of purchases for those to sell out if they can’t immediately restock.  If I go back in a week and there are 4 copies of Teen Titans, we’ll know they re-stocked.  Until then, all we know is what was on the shelf.

23 COMMENTS

  1. I can’t see the average Wal-Mart customer shelling out 5 bucks for a comic book. I can’t see the typical collector making a special trip for 12 pages of original content. I think this idea is going to be a bust.

  2. Called it when it was announced, this will be a fail. I thought they’d be in the toy aisle, but the aisle they are in at the Walmart is off in a corner in the front of the store close to the office supplies… and no traffic was there. At least Archie comics at the super market years ago had them as you were checking out and were an impulse buy. 5 copies of each is just testing the water. They won’t be worth crap either unless you are some kind of completist.

  3. In my Walmart it was in the isle of forgotten collectibles, mostly card stuff like Pokemon. Got one of each. Seems like a really great deal, hopefully it drags people into the hobby.

  4. I bought all 4 titles yesterday morning at my hometown store…an hour away from the nearest comic shop. Went back later just to check and there were only 3 of each except for Titans, of which there was only one left. Hope this works for them because I’d buy more comics on impulse if they were available. Driving an hour or ordering online means I only bother with it once a month or less.

  5. “I can’t see the average Wal-Mart customer shelling out 5 bucks for a comic book.”

    Only fans are crazy enough to pay that much for a comic book!

    “They won’t be worth crap either unless you are some kind of completist.”

    I think the point is to get people to READ comics, instead of putting them in a longbox and hoping they’ll someday pay for college tuitions.

  6. The display you describe in your article is a full case; there are only 2 copies of the Teen Titans and 4 of Superman title per retail display.

  7. You think you’ve got problems? Walmart Canada isn’t stocking them at all, according to their Twitter. Too bad: I’d have bought a Derington Batman comic if it was available to me. Nice going, DC.

  8. My Walmart was cleaned out of all titles… probably an eBay reseller because I can’t see people buying them all when they were in such an obscure location

  9. “The typical Walmart shopper doesn’t have 5 dollars to spend on deodorant, much less comic books.”

    Believe it or not, most Walmart shoppers are middle-class suburbanites. They’re not toothless, barefoot hillbillies from the back woods.

    Maybe Vincent has them confused with Dollar General shoppers? ;)

  10. They were in the collectibles section at my Walmart, but in this store that section is actually in one of the checkout lanes. Assuming they started with 5 of each title, they had sold 4 Teen Titans, 2 Supermans, and 1 each of Batman and Justice League as of this morning.

  11. Hit six Walmarts across the SF east bay, not a single one had them. The only one that even still had that section in the pictures didn’t even have a space for them, just piles of Magic, Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh cards. No one even seemed to have an idea of what I was talking about. The first I heard of this was a quarter to six this morning and I was in for all of them. After that experience, I’m back out. If any of them even got the comics, they’re probably still sitting in the back where they’ll remain for months on end, until piles of them suddenly show up in the clearance aisle at a steep discount (after someone found the boxes shoved in a deserted corner, collecting dust) long after the whole experiment is written off as a failure. Meanwhile, scalpers have a whole new revenue stream. Hey, DC, maybe don’t partner with a company notorious for not giving a rip about their exclusives or decent distribution.

  12. Just went about an hour ago. I only found the “display” thanks to this article. They were indeed on the top shelf of the section, at eye level for me (I’m 5’10”). Bad visibility. There were two copies each of Batman and JLA left.

  13. Checked 2 stores in the South Eastern Cleveland area (Geauga & Portage Counties stores) none had the new 100 pagers. One store had the DC showcase comic magazine + the packaged comics. They were near the self checkout area as mentioned above. Non in the magazine/book section.

  14. These are NOT totally NEW comics. I scanned through the Superman and and Justice League Walmart “Ex “Exclusive” comics and both lead stories are RE-PRINTS. Maybe the other stories are new, but sorry a big disappoint. Why would I spent $5 for a reprint?

  15. Thanks for the help locating them. I went to 2 local Walmarts looking for them in the “book” section with no luck. Went back a third time and found them exactly where you said.

  16. Found one copy each of the Batman and JLA books. Haven’t found any more at any Walmarts I’ve checked. Went back today (which is the day I was told they are restocked) and was told that they were restocked, but every copy was bought by one person immediately. So the scumbag scalpers are ruining this for everyone else. If they’re comic shop owners (who I understand are the ones doing it), I hope they all go out of business. Worthless neckbeards.

  17. Some pretty moronic comments up top^.
    Idiots. Looks to me like they’re selling quite well, there’s far more demand than there is inventory right now.

    The reason they are up front in the “aisle of forgotten collectibles” (which sell quite well), is because the distributor who leases/stocks that section of the store is also who stocks the books.

    Lastly, they aren’t just reprints. There are new stories in each book as well, and the Titans 1 has a first appearance.

  18. The display boxes were there with a shrink wrapped bag of 2 or 3 comics each in it way before the 100 page giants came out. I’m just looking for the release schedule. How often are they coming out?

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