Will Marvel want to try something similar to the DC deal with Walmart?

[MajorHoy]

What time period were they selling comics drug/convenience stores? When I was coming up I had to get my comics from eBay, Barnes and Nobles, and the occasional mall comicbook store.

Can't say for sure about drug stores and convenience stores, but I know some Stop & Shop supermarkets around me (in Fairfield County, Connecticut) had spinner racks as late as 2010-2011.

[CentralPower]

I remember spin-racks in convenient stores and super-markets until sometime in the 90s. Since then, all I have seen are kiddie books (Archie or Marvel Adventures) at supermarkets or big-box stores. But, they are inconsistently available and usually in poor condition.

If DC was selling the remainder of the Doomsday Clock series or whatever big book they have exclusively to Wal-Mart, then I could see a reason to bitch about it.

But these issues are chiefly comprised of reprinted material and the new stuff they contain will be collected eventually.

Not everything is compiled. And, depending on the nature of the contract with Wal-Mart, there may be restrictions on how (or if) the content can be reprinted or distributed elsewhere. Wal-Mart has the clout to make the content truly exclusive.

I'm excited to share my hobby with more people and am hoping for/looking forward to having new fans branch into comic shops. I'm not the target audience for this initiative and that's ok with me.

I like comics. I want more people to like comics. I want the industry to do well.

But, the hobby stops being fun if I cannot easily get my comics.

If the comics were non-exclusive content (or nothing more exclusive than variant covers), that would be fine. But, DC is selling new content (by legitimate talent) through a different channel than most readers buy their comics from.

Do you really want to go to Wal-Mart or Target every week for the vague possibility of finding a copy of your favorite comic, in condition worth buying?

I can already see a cottage industry sprouting up, with speculators waiting to be the first in line to check the new books for that stray 1:1000 variant.

Are there variants with the DC books?

There could also be a cottage industry of redistributing the comics to/through regular comic shops.

That is not either of the companies's issue. Especially if I am an employee who knows how much of a cesspool some stores are from experience. I wouldn't do it.

Wal-Mart and Target do not have moral or practical reason to send their customers to other stores, especially for the same type of product.

Some local comic shops do need to clean up. But, that is not the issue here. The issue is that DC is selling *exclusive* content through a non-standard channel (Wal-Mart).

[Digifiend]

I wonder if they're planning to launch 100 page giants like DC? The current Archie digests have been cancelled.

[Hypestyle]

Strike a deal with Target, Marvel. Might as well. But we'll see.