Coronavirus knocks out direct market - Diamond stops deliveries

[skyvolt2000]

As others have surely said, it's astonishingly easier to get into manga than Western superhero comics. There are some series that are popular enough to have spin-offs, but generally speaking you're usually only dealing with a single series that has clearly labelled sequential volumes to read. You don't have to worry about crossovers or reboots or relaunches or anything like that.

I saw a comment a few years ago that summed up the problem rather nicely. If you're a person who just saw a hit Marvel or DC film and want to start reading the trade paperbacks starring those characters, you're likely gonna find at least half a dozen different Volume 1s for them, and that's if there's any sort of numbering at all.

Don't forget who DC/marvel shows and film showcase tend to be many of the characters you can't find in the books-especially characters that are not liked by management or fans or retailers.

Black Aqualad- aside from his upcoming OGN-what does he have in comics? 1 TT arc, the few older YJ trades and background duty in now delayed Aquaman trades.

Black Lightning daughters-we are now talking a decade of them not in comics.

Static-EVERYTHING with him is out of print. The new 52 Static trade at my library that copy has been read to death and any other trade with him-folks stole those trades including Teen Titans runs.

John Stewart-a ton of stuff with him is not in trade. He has the same issue as Guy Gardner, anyone who was in Justice league, Justice League Europe and a few others. The writer was Gerard Jones. We know that stuff will never hit a trade.

Manga does not have that issue. Kid see One Punch on tv- everyone on that show is in that manga. Even if they don't act like their counterpart.

All books being returnable? Sure. Publishers won't like it but it'll probably benefit the industry long term by encouraging retailers to take a few more risks in their orders, which will lead to at least some fans getting books they otherwise wouldn't have tried. I'm not sure how big a return anyone would see on this, since most LCS customers are established readers who, by and large, know what they're after, but it's definitely worth a try from what I understand. It'd suck for publishers in the short term but might make things more stable long term and remove some of the publisher's reliance on their biggest sellers to the exclusion of other products.

It depends does or can that publisher turn and sell those copies to someone like Half Price Books or Movie Trading Post or Thrift stores or an unnamed vendor.

Half Price is getting some of those books from somewhere besides the public.

I have been to too many thrift stores where polo golf shirts with major companies names on them in mint condition (with tags)like Capital One.

And where are these 3 comics for X amount coming from and the constant Living Social ad for 50 DC/marvel book for $20 on Facebook.

Someone is selling that stuff wholesale to others.

[docgymll]

As others have said above, delaying trades and delaying digital release is just going to be non-productive. I already buy the majority of my issues digitally. If you add a significant delay to the digital releases, I wouldn't go back to buying print. I'd just wait the 12 months for the issue to be available on DC Universe for my flat fee. For the books that I buy in trade currently, the extra delay doesn't mean I'm going back to buying print issues. It just means there's even less buzz about the story by the trade comes out, and I'm just less likely to buy anything.

[Frontier]

As others have surely said, it's astonishingly easier to get into manga than Western superhero comics. There are some series that are popular enough to have spin-offs, but generally speaking you're usually only dealing with a single series that has clearly labelled sequential volumes to read. You don't have to worry about crossovers or reboots or relaunches or anything like that.

I saw a comment a few years ago that summed up the problem rather nicely. If you're a person who just saw a hit Marvel or DC film and want to start reading the trade paperbacks starring those characters, you're likely gonna find at least half a dozen different Volume 1s for them, and that's if there's any sort of numbering at all.

And of course, again, price is a huge factor as well. Your average manga collection is like half the price of a superhero trade despite often having more pages, and that's not even getting into the sheer ridiculousness of floppy prices. Adults with disposable income are more willing to pay 4-5 dollars for 20 pages of story, but that's a terrible value if you're a kid with limited money.

It's kind of the tragedy of comics, at least with the Big Two, is that what makes them what they are makes it unfeasible to sell them like manga.

[Digifiend]

Alterna Comics have ditched Diamond and will self-distribute. They also claim Diamond won't resume distribution until August. That means all comics would be four months late.
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/diam...gust-earliest/

[LordMikel]

As others have said above, delaying trades and delaying digital release is just going to be non-productive. I already buy the majority of my issues digitally. If you add a significant delay to the digital releases, I wouldn't go back to buying print. I'd just wait the 12 months for the issue to be available on DC Universe for my flat fee. For the books that I buy in trade currently, the extra delay doesn't mean I'm going back to buying print issues. It just means there's even less buzz about the story by the trade comes out, and I'm just less likely to buy anything.

Can I ask a question. What is the difference between buying individual issues on digital vs the trade on digital?

[Chcknman69]

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/new-...ooner-mid-may/
And the story keeps changing, I don't think any one knows for sure until you hear from your local comic shop that books are in!
Every day is a new opinion and a new optimistic outlook.

[docgymll]

Can I ask a question. What is the difference between buying individual issues on digital vs the trade on digital?

It depends on the trade. There may be bonus material included in the trade. And the trade may be cheaper than buying the individual issues. The experience in reading is largely similar but for some storylines it’s nice to just read all the way through without the need to open the next individual issue.

In general, if I’m buying a trade I will buy it in print. But sometimes comiXology has great sales on a series I’ve wanted to try. That’s when I’m most likely to buy a digital trade.

[9th.]

Can I ask a question. What is the difference between buying individual issues on digital vs the trade on digital?

A lot of the times trades include extra content like bonus art pages, sometimes though depending on the series buying individual issues all together is cheaper than the trade.

[superduperman]

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/new-...ooner-mid-may/
And the story keeps changing, I don't think any one knows for sure until you hear from your local comic shop that books are in!
Every day is a new opinion and a new optimistic outlook.

Even the article says May at the earliest and that's if everything pans out the way it's supposed to. And some places still might not be able to get stuff.

[ohfellow]

Comic Book Retailers Plans to Fix the Direct Market When It Returns
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/comi...en-it-returns/

There are a lot of good ideas, and others where people could quibble. I think I agree far more often that I disagree.

For many reasons I find DC Previews Extras to be very well laid out, while I find Marvel Preview Extras to be an incoherent mess. (Just as the DC section of the order form has a rational layout, so you know almost exactly where to look to check off some book, while the Marvel section of it is anarchy.) I could list several more good things about DC Previews Extra and bad stuff about Marvel Previews Extra, but only if someone really wanted me to get into the weeds about them.

The main points are:

a) I get the monthly Previews Extras for both, but absolutely don't want to have the massive full Previews magazine. It's not that expensive, but it's just too big and heavy to deal with. I just don't want it and would never look at it, but I can and do read through the DC and Marvels Previews booklets; and,

b) If the Previews books were merged, the nice DC format would probably be lost, subsumed into some other format. Maybe it would not be into something as incoherent as the Marvel Previews disorder, but it still would be a shame.

Other areas covered that come to mind:

The suggestions about returnability when comic shops are exposed to risks outside of their control seem reasonable to me.

I have lots of thoughts about variants. I'm no speculator, but like to buy the cover I happen to prefer each month, either the main or the variant, which is easy to do since DC's variants are open order. (DC has offered retailer incentives on fewer than a handful of times over the last 2 years. For instance, Dark Metal has some incentive covers. Regular monthlies virtually never do. Not even #1s. Some limited series titles don't have any variants except for one open order variant for #1 - like for most limited Wonder Comics titles.)

It would be a lot easier if the variants were visible by the Initial Order date, but some are literally not ready by then. It's possible that some covers are held back until FOC to stagger the work - if all covers have to be ready by the Initial Order date, maybe that puts too much pressure on all cover artists to get their work done by a certain time every month. Keeping some covers back until a week or a few days before FOC allows covers to be produced on a staggered weekly basis through each month. Otherwise you might need to split the work across more cover artists... or, have the regular stable of artists produce more work far in advance.

But perhaps the scheduling with artists could be fairly easily adjusted to get all covers ready by each month's Initial Order date. In that case, DC should do that. And if they have some variant cover artwork already in hand but deliberately hold them back until FOC - they should cease that practice immediately.


I gather some of the points about getting series codes straight is to make subscriptions work better. Which is only rational! Not doing it is sloppy business. It is to no one's obvious advantage to make it easy for retailers to miss books they should be ordering for their customers who have subscribed to various titles. It is downright - stupid! Annuals should indeed also be included in that, because they currently have to be ordered separately, and it's no wonder fewer Annuals sell than their related monthlies.

[Zaresh]

It's kind of the tragedy of comics, at least with the Big Two, is that what makes them what they are makes it unfeasible to sell them like manga.

When I recommend something to start reading into some saga, character or verse, I go for certain "collections" or certain "tittles" that share an author or a style. For example, for someone who would feel curiosity about Hawkeye, I would give and have given Fraction/Aja's. For Moon Knight, Ellis, for Spiderman, JMS (everyone knows Spiderman), for Constantine, either Ennis or Carey (most people know a bit about him, or are familiar enough with the tropes he plays with as an occult detective/trickster. I actually love Delano's, you could argue he actually built the character as he is; but it's maybe a too old of a read for some people I guess).

If someone wants more, I can throw a few other recommendations. It usually works and people get interested. I do the same when someone asks me for comics in general: I point them for certain runs, trades or graphic novels. Webcomics, too (it's easier* for otakus to switch into western comics with them as a bridge of sorts, somehow, I think).

[Gaastra]

Graphic novels and young readers trades still coming out but not with diamond.


https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/...siness-goes-on

[Vampire Savior]

Webcomics, too (it's easer for otakus to switch into western comics with them as a bridge of sorts, somehow, I think).

Probably because, like manga, webcomics are generally easy to make sense of. You usually start where they begin, and end where they end (if they do), and that's the story. I've never, ever seen a webcomic event, where you have to read other webcomics to get the full story (such a thing might exist, I don't know). Or where there are multiple #1's or anything like that. People can more easily tell where they should begin reading.

Comics may make sense to those who follow them, but there is quite a sturdy barrier of entry to mainstream DC and Marvel comics. Oftentimes, it seems that only those who REALLY want to can make it through at all. Usually, because they become obsessed with some comic IP from seeing it on TV or something.

[Digifiend]

Whelp. Diamond have furloughed most of their staff.
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/diam...ghs-employees/

[SebastianS]

As others have said above, delaying trades and delaying digital release is just going to be non-productive. I already buy the majority of my issues digitally. If you add a significant delay to the digital releases, I wouldn't go back to buying print. I'd just wait the 12 months for the issue to be available on DC Universe for my flat fee. For the books that I buy in trade currently, the extra delay doesn't mean I'm going back to buying print issues. It just means there's even less buzz about the story by the trade comes out, and I'm just less likely to buy anything.

I would argue you are one step from ditching comics altogether.

A publisher's efforts -after everything is said and done- should be to attract new readers. Digital sales are, as far as the rumor goes- negligible, and thus it would make more sense to put more effort into mass marketing physical copies.