Hey all!

Back in 2016, I wrote an article about my suspicions about a new online comic website Island Earth and how it caused me concern. The reason I was concerned was that Island Earth seemed very similar to an online retailer I had used that had vanished with my own money but hundreds of others also, Disposable Heroes.

You can read all about it here.  I reported Island Earth to who I could just in case and hoped my article could save some people money, just in case. I never thought anything would happen following this.

A few weeks ago, Graphic Policy chief sent me an e-mail where a user described an all too familiar story.

I would comment on this article, but comments seem to have been disabled. I guess you’ve probably noticed that Island Earth have now done a disappearing act. They emailed the following in September last year, and nothing since:

‘UPDATE ON DELAYED ORDERS

Hi Guys,

Nikki here. Just wanted to take a few minutes out to update everyone on where Island Earth is at as there are rumours floating here there and everywhere that we have vanished.

Just to put things straight that we haven’t. Though with the amount of Facebook beeps I hear from my phone on my personal account I wish my phone would vanish for a day or two :)

As many of you know James (Island Earths co-founder) was undergoing personal issues after the passing of a family member who was suffering from a long term illness. Due to this and ongoing issues following that he has made the choice to step away from Island Earth as he feels he cannot give 110% at this point in time.

This has left me in a bit of a hole both in terms of how to progress with the management of Island Earth on my own plus the loss of the equivalent of a full time staff member and the only person fully trained with certain operations within the business so….. yay!

As it stands I have decided to knuckle down and carry on so orders are and will still be going out. I have set myself a target of ALL outstanding orders including those released tomorrow to be in the hands of customers by Wednesday 4th October or sooner.

Moving forward Island Earth will not be taking any pre-orders for November or December. There are 2 reasons for this.

Firstly, and this is the saddest part, there is no profit currently gained by trading in comics online. The business has entered a strange period when retailers feel the need to sell comics at cost or less just to maintain a customer base. That means everything sold is at a loss. This is something that we can’t continue to do. At the end of the day as much as I love comics the business needs to turn a profit. Bills need paid including staff wages so for us to follow this trend would not make any sense.

We are in contact with various sources to cut costs when and where we can so that we can come back to running pre-orders from January onwards.

Secondly we are opening a bricks and mortar store in the new year. As it stands we have way too much stock spread out over 3 storage units which is costing us a fair amount in storage costs. The next 3 months will be spent consolidating this stock and also running a clearance sale with bulk lots and full boxes of comics. I believe that with the current climate online that going the traditional route in retail is the best way forward and will create an anchor for us to create our online presence around once we return to it. And as a side note we haven’t even began sorting through all the boxes of bronze and silver age books so expect to see a few key books popping up for sale over the next few months.

I would appreciate it if customers could give myself a chance to get back up to date with you all in terms of orders by the date stated above. The situation over the last few weeks has not been great and I do appreciate all the patience shown so far.

Island Earth aren’t going anywhere……..

Thanks again,
Nikki

Lets party like its 2016?  So after two years, it seems Island Earth have gone the way of Disposable Heroes. The gentleman who e-mailed us thankfully didn’t lose any money but I would highly encourage anyone waiting on refunds and/or orders to file a paypal claim asap. Its how I got my money back when this happened with Disposable while others waited and got nothing.

It could all be coincidental but the similarity of why its happened, the delayed comics, the promise of an eventual return/physical store is all the same. Once again IF Island Earth is different, they’ve chosen to do things remarkably the same.

Those who read the original article may remember a ‘Nikki’ also coming to the defense of Disposable and chastising me for my words. Again, could all be coincidental but eventually I have to maybe except that 1 and 1 does make 2.

Will they be back again? Who knows, I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to get rid of excess stock at local cons and then move forward to their lives.

I’m not here to paint anyone as the villain, I’m here because I love comics and I hate people using them to take money from others with ill intent. The industry is in a fragile place with some of the best content in decades being sold to a smaller audience. Genuinely good comic shops need support and places like Disposable and perhaps Island Earth give retailers a bad name. They drive people to trade wait or even out of comics. It might sound like an odd step to take but in today’s world, if you lost £30 or more to comics when you could have bought I don’t know…food, would you really be as quick to do so again?

Maybe its all a coincidence and if that’s the case, I hope Island Earth gets past this hard difficult time and goes back to supporting its customers.

If its not and they’re stealing scum bags who have used the same trick twice well I’ll be keeping an eye out for attempt number three.

As the man used to say, keep em peeled.

Glenn