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New Comics Distribution Ends
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Part of Email I got from Mile High @ 1224PST 03/24/20
New Comics Distribution Ends

 
Howdy!
Our world of comics profoundly changed today, perhaps forever. For the first time in my memory, all shipping of new comics has ended. We received that information in a letter from Diamond Distributing yesterday, in which they announced that whatever comics that they received from publishers this week would be held at their main warehouse, at least until the Coronavirus pandemic subsided enough for a critical mass of comics shops to reopen.
Were this temporary publishing shutdown taking place in a vibrant and healthy market, I would have no concerns. Modern comics publishing is, however, an 87 year-old business (born in 1933), that has been in failing health for years. If even 20% of the comics shops in America cannot reopen after the pandemic restrictions are lifted, I doubt that we will see a revival. Simply put, both AT&T (Time/Warner’s (DC comic) new parent company) and Disney (Marvel’s parent company) are in dangerous financial stress right now. Expecting them to allocate precious resources to restoring print publishing is simply not logical. Maintaining intellectual property rights might have (barely) justified their decisions to continue to issue paper comics on a monthly basis up to now, but the vast financial losses currently being absorbed by those two media giants are going to require severe cost-cutting if they are to survive as ongoing enterprises. Sadly, keeping comic book publishing alive may well rank among the least of their concerns.
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7 minutes ago, Tarn Kronos said:

Part of Email I got from Mile High @ 1224PST 03/24/20
New Comics Distribution Ends

 
Howdy!
Our world of comics profoundly changed today, perhaps forever. For the first time in my memory, all shipping of new comics has ended. We received that information in a letter from Diamond Distributing yesterday, in which they announced that whatever comics that they received from publishers this week would be held at their main warehouse, at least until the Coronavirus pandemic subsided enough for a critical mass of comics shops to reopen.
Were this temporary publishing shutdown taking place in a vibrant and healthy market, I would have no concerns. Modern comics publishing is, however, an 87 year-old business (born in 1933), that has been in failing health for years. If even 20% of the comics shops in America cannot reopen after the pandemic restrictions are lifted, I doubt that we will see a revival. Simply put, both AT&T (Time/Warner’s (DC comic) new parent company) and Disney (Marvel’s parent company) are in dangerous financial stress right now. Expecting them to allocate precious resources to restoring print publishing is simply not logical. Maintaining intellectual property rights might have (barely) justified their decisions to continue to issue paper comics on a monthly basis up to now, but the vast financial losses currently being absorbed by those two media giants are going to require severe cost-cutting if they are to survive as ongoing enterprises. Sadly, keeping comic book publishing alive may well rank among the least of their concerns.

 

Consider the source. He has been wrong on a lot of things.

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There is real money to be made in the next 1-3 months for collectors / speculators. Many books that were ordered won't ship, making print runs tiny. Some books probably won't officially ship at all but might leak out in small numbers due to preview issues or misc. snafus. Time to make back some stock market losses, let's go baby. Put it all on X-Men.

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DC is apparently sourcing one or more alternative printers (to replace their current printer, which has suspended operations) and is exploring non-Diamond distribution options. Especially if they run comics at multiple different printers simultaneously, folks should be on watch for oddities and unplanned variants once distribution resumes.

Marvel, meanwhile, is Disney, and has all the money there is. The idea that this will put Disney in financial hardship is ... not realistic. They can weather the storm better than almost anyone else, despite theaters and parks and comic stores all being shut down right now.

I would not count the industry out yet, although the toll for LCSs -- especially in oversaturated markets -- may well be very steep.

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Diamond sent out a survey to retailers yesterday. Ostensibly to help them plan for what the restart will look like. 

It asked about the current local situation (are you forcibly shut down, can you do curbside, can you do mail order, are you selling gift cards online, etc). 

It asked about what percentage of your revenue comes from comics and trade paperbacks, then separate questions for statues/toys and for games. Was really odd to me that if they were bothering to ask for breakdowns they would lump comics and trades together. 

And it asked (open ended response) what assistance would be most helpful when things do restart. 

I take it as a good sign that they’re trying to get feedback. Though you can tell a lot by what questions get asked and which ones don’t.

For the record, my response was 61% comics and trades, though in the essay section I explained that was 28% new books, 20% back issues, and 13% trades. Don’t want Diamond thinking they supply 75% of my inventory when you add in statues and toys, when it’s really around 60% total. 

In the open ended section I reiterated the same feedback I’ve given all three reps I’ve talked to. Don’t send us 8 weeks of books all at once. Pretend a couple months didn’t exist and just roll everything forward. That’s far more important to me than Marvel increasing my discount to 70% or all the small publishers making everything returnable. Don’t bury me with 3300lb of comics the first week I’m back. 

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3 hours ago, lighthouse said:

Diamond sent out a survey to retailers yesterday. Ostensibly to help them plan for what the restart will look like. 

It asked about the current local situation (are you forcibly shut down, can you do curbside, can you do mail order, are you selling gift cards online, etc). 

It asked about what percentage of your revenue comes from comics and trade paperbacks, then separate questions for statues/toys and for games. Was really odd to me that if they were bothering to ask for breakdowns they would lump comics and trades together. 

And it asked (open ended response) what assistance would be most helpful when things do restart. 

I take it as a good sign that they’re trying to get feedback. Though you can tell a lot by what questions get asked and which ones don’t.

For the record, my response was 61% comics and trades, though in the essay section I explained that was 28% new books, 20% back issues, and 13% trades. Don’t want Diamond thinking they supply 75% of my inventory when you add in statues and toys, when it’s really around 60% total. 

In the open ended section I reiterated the same feedback I’ve given all three reps I’ve talked to. Don’t send us 8 weeks of books all at once. Pretend a couple months didn’t exist and just roll everything forward. That’s far more important to me than Marvel increasing my discount to 70% or all the small publishers making everything returnable. Don’t bury me with 3300lb of comics the first week I’m back. 

having several months of inventory in the form of completed stories I think could easily be absorbed over time assuming them did not already print them and are continuing to print them even now.  They could insert a few months with 2 issues per title, or print some double sized issues and if it's say, 3 months worth of material spread out over a year, it would probably not be very noticeable considering theres probably a decent percentage of publishers that will fold, never print, never ship that will reduce future orders anyway. If I was Marvel or DC I'd being selfishly looking at this as an opportunity to increase market share and squash the indy publishers. Mergers and consolidation are always the result of hard times.

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5 hours ago, lighthouse said:

Diamond sent out a survey to retailers yesterday. Ostensibly to help them plan for what the restart will look like. 

It asked about the current local situation (are you forcibly shut down, can you do curbside, can you do mail order, are you selling gift cards online, etc). 

It asked about what percentage of your revenue comes from comics and trade paperbacks, then separate questions for statues/toys and for games. Was really odd to me that if they were bothering to ask for breakdowns they would lump comics and trades together. 

And it asked (open ended response) what assistance would be most helpful when things do restart. 

I take it as a good sign that they’re trying to get feedback. Though you can tell a lot by what questions get asked and which ones don’t.

For the record, my response was 61% comics and trades, though in the essay section I explained that was 28% new books, 20% back issues, and 13% trades. Don’t want Diamond thinking they supply 75% of my inventory when you add in statues and toys, when it’s really around 60% total. 

In the open ended section I reiterated the same feedback I’ve given all three reps I’ve talked to. Don’t send us 8 weeks of books all at once. Pretend a couple months didn’t exist and just roll everything forward. That’s far more important to me than Marvel increasing my discount to 70% or all the small publishers making everything returnable. Don’t bury me with 3300lb of comics the first week I’m back. 

Cant send 8 weeks of books if the printers aint open......

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2 hours ago, MYNAMEISLEGION said:
6 hours ago, lighthouse said:

Diamond sent out a survey to retailers yesterday. Ostensibly to help them plan for what the restart will look like. 

It asked about the current local situation (are you forcibly shut down, can you do curbside, can you do mail order, are you selling gift cards online, etc). 

It asked about what percentage of your revenue comes from comics and trade paperbacks, then separate questions for statues/toys and for games. Was really odd to me that if they were bothering to ask for breakdowns they would lump comics and trades together. 

And it asked (open ended response) what assistance would be most helpful when things do restart. 

I take it as a good sign that they’re trying to get feedback. Though you can tell a lot by what questions get asked and which ones don’t.

For the record, my response was 61% comics and trades, though in the essay section I explained that was 28% new books, 20% back issues, and 13% trades. Don’t want Diamond thinking they supply 75% of my inventory when you add in statues and toys, when it’s really around 60% total. 

In the open ended section I reiterated the same feedback I’ve given all three reps I’ve talked to. Don’t send us 8 weeks of books all at once. Pretend a couple months didn’t exist and just roll everything forward. That’s far more important to me than Marvel increasing my discount to 70% or all the small publishers making everything returnable. Don’t bury me with 3300lb of comics the first week I’m back. 

having several months of inventory in the form of completed stories I think could easily be absorbed over time assuming them did not already print them and are continuing to print them even now.  They could insert a few months with 2 issues per title, or print some double sized issues and if it's say, 3 months worth of material spread out over a year, it would probably not be very noticeable considering theres probably a decent percentage of publishers that will fold, never print, never ship that will reduce future orders anyway. If I was Marvel or DC I'd being selfishly looking at this as an opportunity to increase market share and squash the indy publishers. Mergers and consolidation are always the result of hard times.

As much as I hate that idea I am quite sure its being discussed in detail. Excellent point.

 

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