Reply To: DC comics open to other distributors

[philipspace]

This may be bad for Diamond, but I can’t imagine that it’s anything but good ultimately for consumers. I have a negative opinion about direct-market distribution though, in part because my community hasn’t had a dedicated “Comic Store” since the mid-90’s. I live about 70 miles from the nearest place that sells comic books, and there are areas more rural than mine. If Diamond had gone out of business entirely it wouldn’t have affected a substantial portion of potential buyers, if only because they don’t have a specialty store in their community to purchase from in the first place. Any discussion about declining sales in the comic industry should be framed in the light of distribution; the less people you put your product in front of, the lower your sales are going to be.

If anything, my hope is that this pushes publishers to find new ways to distribute books to the buying public (not just digitally), or possibly finding new formats for people to purchase stories in. My kids grew up reading either old Trade-paperbacks, or the “Spider-Man” anthology magazines carried at Wal-Mart, because those were the only comics available to them. Subsequently they haven’t grown up to be regular comic readers. I would like to see the next generation of children be able to grow up with access to stories aimed at their tastes specifically, not just time-capsules of stories from the 80’s or 90’s that Dad has on his bookshelf.

[philipspace]

This may be bad for Diamond, but I can’t imagine that it’s anything but good ultimately for consumers. I have a negative opinion about direct-market distribution though, in part because my community hasn’t had a dedicated “Comic Store” since the mid-90’s. I live about 70 miles from the nearest place that sells comic books, and there are areas more rural than mine. If Diamond had gone out of business entirely it wouldn’t have affected a substantial portion of potential buyers, if only because they don’t have a specialty store in their community to purchase from in the first place. Any discussion about declining sales in the comic industry should be framed in the light of distribution; the less people you put your product in front of, the lower your sales are going to be.

If anything, my hope is that this pushes publishers to find new ways to distribute books to the buying public (not just digitally), or possibly finding new formats for people to purchase stories in. My kids grew up reading either old Trade-paperbacks, or the “Spider-Man” anthology magazines carried at Wal-Mart, because those were the only comics available to them. Subsequently they haven’t grown up to be regular comic readers. I would like to see the next generation of children be able to grow up with access to stories aimed at their tastes specifically, not just time-capsules of stories from the 80’s or 90’s that Dad has on his bookshelf.