It was new comic day yesterday! What’d you all get? What’d you like? What’d you dislike? Sound off in the comments below! While you think about that, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.
It’s a new week and we’ve got lots on tap coming your way from interviews, reviews, and more! While you wait for things to get rolling, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.
It’s a new week and we’ve got lots coming at you including interviews, exclusives, and so much more. While you wait for that, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web.
Tales From the Comic Shop is a weekly podcast about the business side of nerd culture. Fusing together the fans with creators, historians, shop owners, publishers, and more to get the most accurate news right from the source, without the spin and sensationalism of comic news sites.
Turmoil has engulfed your local comic shops. The distribution of DC Comics to outlying distributors is in dispute. Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Comic Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo. While the Congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched three Podcasters, the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to talk about the conflict…
In their latest episode, they take on the news that DC Comics will no longer be distributed throughDiamond Comic Distributors. If you want the inside scoop from folks directly impacted by the decision, this is the podcast to listen to.
In an attempt at a Friday news dump, DC Comics will no longer be distributed by the industry-leading comics distributor, Diamond Comics Distributors. The announcement was made in an email sent to retailers Friday morning.
Instead, DC has instructed retailers to fulfill products through Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributors for monthly comics and Penguin Random House for graphic novels and collected editions.
Retailers have responded negatively, tearing the comic publisher apart. One described the decision as a “bloodbath.” So far, DC has not responded to retailer criticism. Lunar and UCS are sister companies of two comic retailers, forcing stores to add profits to competition. DC claimed the move was to “improve the health of, and strengthen, the Direct market as well as grow the number of fans who read comics worldwide.” It’s unknown and unclear how the cutting of a distribution channel will grow fans worldwide.
The email claims that the new decision allows for an “efficient operational supply chain,” though again, having to deal with multiple contacts for distribution (now at least three) isn’t exactly optimal.
Retailers have expressed anger and frustration as the decision will increase costs for them and seems to be a move to eventually move out of the direct market. It is absolutely a move to be less reliant on it.
One retailer told us:
DC Comics is a prime example of wartime profiteering in 2020. Publishers — if you want an example of how to appear tone deaf in the middle of two global crisis, look no further than DC Comics and their actions since March.
Another retailer told us:
This action is not about breaking a monopoly, or they wouldn’t be reducing the distribution options. This decision reeks of men in suits with no connection to comics as an industry or art form making decisions with mo respect for it.
This is a direct threat to the periodicals market, and there is no rational reason for this action other than a shift away from publishing periodicals and moving purely to digital and OGN formats.
Putting this decision out at any time is atrocious. Fling it in the middle of a pandemic and national unrest is nothing short of insulting
Diamond will be fulfilling orders through June 1 and will not solicit DC titles further. DC had been exclusively distributed through Diamond until earlier this year. After Diamond shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March, DC announced plans to find alternate distribution methods and announced a partnership with Lunar and UCS which were spun up as businesses in April. Multiple smaller publishers have also made the decision to no longer distribute through Diamond.
Some excellent thoughts on the arrangement by DC with the two new distributors can be heard by our friends at the Tales From the Comic Shop podcast:
DC has been consistently the second biggest publisher in the market with roughly 30% of units and dollars sold through Diamond. The move comes in curious decisions over the past year including making it more difficult for press to review comics, which is the antithesis of helping to “grow the number of fans who read comics worldwide,” and seems to have decreased the number of reviews gathered by aggregate sites.
Alex and Joe try to talk about whether you’re going to be buying more or less comics once shops are open (if they’re not doing curbside pick up already), again, and actually do for a bit. For a bit.
As always, Alex and Joe can be found on twitter respectively @karcossa and @jcb_smark if you feel the need to tell them they’re wrong individually, or @those2geeks if you want to yell at them together on twitter, or by email at ItsThose2Geeks@gmail.com.
Alex and Joe try to talk about whether you’re going to be buying more or less comics once shops are open, but get entirely distracted by something else.
As always, Alex and Joe can be found on twitter respectively @karcossa and @jcb_smark if you feel the need to tell them they’re wrong individually, or @those2geeks if you want to yell at them together on twitter, or by email at ItsThose2Geeks@gmail.com.
Source Point Press has announced that they are dropping Diamond Comic Distributors instead going “direct” to retailers using Corner Box.
Corner Box is a new distributor in comics spinning out of D6 Publisher Resources. Their website launched in April of this year. D6 Publisher Resources is a Canadian company that’s a marketplace/digital store for publishers to retailers primarily focused on the board game community. They’re taking this model that’s worked for the game industry and are applying it to comics.
The decision by Source Point Press came from the current shakeups going on within the industry and pressures on distribution created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The publisher never quite makes clear what issues this new distributor resolves.
Along with Source Point Press, Red Stylo Media and Scout Comics are also listed on the Corner Box website.
Retailers will order product “directly” through their Corner Box store. The orders are fulfilled by Corner Box.
Diamond Comic Distributors and Alliance Game Distributors, Geppi Family Enterprises companies, have announced the launch of Back The Comeback, a multi-phased campaign focused on supporting local comic and game stores as they reopen, restart and rebuild. Centered around the rallying cry of, “Our Comeback Will Be Bigger Than Our Setback,” Diamond and Alliance created the campaign in partnership with publishers and industry influencers to shine a light on the unique relationship consumers have with their local comic and game retailers while raising funds to support restart efforts.
Back The Comeback launches today with a social media challenge. In a video message posted on Twitter, Facebook, as well as various YouTube channels, Steve Geppi challenges five friends to #BackTheComeback and post messages of support for their favorite comic or game store while asking their friends and fans to do the same.
Viewers can visit the official website for additional information including tools to help make their own social messages and a link to purchase campaign T-shirts. All from T-shirt sales will be distributed to charities that support comic and game stores.
The second phase of this campaign begins later this summer when Diamond International Galleries (DIG) launches a Back The Comeback charity auction. Steve Geppi has kicked off donations to the auction with items valued at approximately $50,000. The winning bidders will donate directly to one of three charities that support comic and game retailers and submit proof of donation to DIG to claim their item.
The third phase of this campaign focuses on in-store promotion. Alliance will offer weekly promotions to retailers and Diamond will partner with publishers to place the Back The Comebacklogo on the cover of select comics to commemorate this time period and the emphasis on rebuilding. More information on these additional phases of the campaign will be released in the coming weeks.
Alex and Joe talk about…. uh… I really need to write the descriptions sooner. DC, probably.
As always, Alex and Joe can be found on twitter respectively @karcossa and @jcb_smark if you feel the need to tell them they’re wrong individually, or @those2geeks if you want to yell at them together on twitter, or by email at ItsThose2Geeks@gmail.com.
