September 5, 2002

SPILLED MILK PRESS RELEASE #6
For Global Release

Spilled Milk is now published.  After six long years since Spilled Milk was created, the four issue miniseries “CiCi” hit the stands in August after a much anticipated release by long time fans.  Creator, Parker Smart, finally considers himself published even though he’s printed the CiCi Preview in August of 2000 and the CiCi Color sampler in July of 2001.

He’s not breathing a sigh of relief just yet, because there are still three more issues to hit the stands.  Issue #2 is currently at the printers and is scheduled to be in stores September 18th.

Smart made the rounds to his local comic shops a week after the official release date of CiCi #1.  He met some new faces and got caught up with old acquaintances.  In many areas the book hit the stands as scheduled, but in the Denver market it was a week late due to a shipping error from one of the distributor’s docks.  So instead of finding out how the book was doing a week later, he saw a few shops just selling out as the book hit the stands.  Many shops didn’t want to take the risk on the book and ordered very few books, but Smart ran into a retailer that was actually writing up a reorder and CiCi #1 was on it.  For the stores that didn’t order the book, Smart had some extras that he gave out and the stores hung the San Diego promotional poster up in a predominant spot in order to support the local publisher.  All of the retailers appreciated the personal touch and said they would let Smart know if there were any problems with receiving shipments of new books.

As his way of saying thanks to the retailers, Smart is sending out 3,000 free copies of issue #2 to the top stores that purchase his genre of comic.  He’s hoping that the improvements in the color and the fan letters page will show shop owners that they should pick up a few and watch them sell.  Chances are those people will want to get the whole series, including the #1 that they might have missed.

Smart asked for feedback in the back of the first issue and it keeps coming in.  He is pleased that people are taking a chance on the book and now they are glad they did.  All in all the first issue has been well received by the fans.

“the intriguing story makes this title a must-read”
- Bucky Carter – www.ComicBookInsider.com

"solid book with wide appeal"
- Jason “Cows” Colgin, www.ComicBookRadio.com

"Now that I have seen it, I am hooked!"
- Tracy Powers

"best original series I have read"
-Adrian Aycock (aycock98@earthlink.net)

"great deal of planning has gone into this series"
- Jared Baggin - Temecula, CA

"I've been reading comics for the last 45+ years and find the story very intriguing and the visuals are superb."
- John Hyson - Fort Thomas, KY

If you haven’t already, please go bug your retailer to order the book.  The market for independents is “Fan Demand”, walk into your store and demand that they carry CiCi, but do it nicely.

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