Dark Horse Comics, the second-largest publisher of comic-book trade paperbacks and graphic novels, recently signed a deal with Berkley Publishing to distribute their trades into bookstores nationwide. "But to show the comic-book specialty stores that we won't strip-mine one business in favor of another," said Dark Horse vice-president of sales Lou Bank, "we're giving the comic stores something special."

That "something special" is an upscale edition of various Dark Horse trades. The program began as an experiment with the Star Wars: Droids and Tank Girl 2 collections. Star Wars: Droids featured a foil-embossed logo, which would appear on the first printing only; the first-printing copies of Tank Girl 2 which shipped to the comic-book specialty stores featured a new cover painting exclusive to that edition.

"The next book in the program is Star Wars: Dark Empire II, which shipped last week," said Bank. "All initial orders placed by comic-book specialty stores should have been filled with copies of the book sporting a foil-embossed logo. We've not increased the cover price to compensate for the additional expense - this is a gift to comic-book specialty store owners, a way of saying thanks for the years of support, both past and future. Copies going to the bookstores, or copies placed by comics stores as reorders, will not have the foil-embossed logo."

In the future, when Dark Horse intends to create one of these direct-market exclusive editions, they will be solicited as such. "In these cases, we didn't have the plans confirmed until well after solicitation," said Bank. "We hope retailers appreciate the surprise bonus, and promise to alert the market to such plans in advance in the future."