Coronavirus knocks out direct market - Diamond stops deliveries

[married guy]

On the upside, as a worker in the tourism industry this thing has pulled the rug out from under me.
Seeing as I no longer have the income to afford it, books not shipping means I don't miss anything for the forseeable future.

[Digifiend]

Looks like Comixology will still have new DC comics.
https://bleedingcool.com/2020/03/28/...day-april-1st/

[skyvolt2000]

A lot of local authorities are shutting those down especially the ones with state stay at home orders.

There are stores still functioning.

One of mine has the owner by HIMSELF sending out books and even delivering them to homes.

Another store is doing shipping and even having online auctions live to keep going.

For those arguing against continuing digitally (and anyone else who wants to answer): How long do you think print comics can be paused before the direct market collapses?

If you toss stuff in trades what are you going to lose?

For a book like Marvel's New Warriors that would have started next month that first trade would hit September. A delay would just push that back.

For a book in the 3rd or 4th issues of a storyline-makes ZERO sense to publish 5-6. Just do a trade.

For the most part there should an elimination of all floppies at both companies for the rest of the year. Put it all in trades. Sell your digital single issues and leave that as your option for the rest of the year.

We are talking 9 months of digital solo issues and trades. IF there must be floppies during that time-do a stand alone SINGLE story issue for stores. Yeah you will get some mad folks but we are not worrying about them now.

[Digifiend]

ONLY trade, not first. New Warriors is a mini.

[cranger]

I've read everyone's posts in response to mine, and I simply don't find their opinion viable. Again, if there are fans who will leave the industry completely if and when they go all digital, then adios, as far as I'm concerned. I feel if you love stories and characters, how you read them should be mostly irrelevant to you as long as they survive. If you're willing to walk away because of a necessary change in format, well I feel sorry for you but can't say I'll miss you.

I do not enjoy reading digital. It is an inferior format. Why would I pay money for something I do not enjoy? Do you pay good money for bad comics to support your favorite characters? I hope not. Being a fan of the industry (and please define, because the industry I am a fan of is printed periodicals) does not mean being foolishly loyal. If the industry tanks, I have more than enough books to reread, there will still be vendors and shows selling back issues, I won't be missing anything, but thanks for the "well wishes" friend.

[cranger]

Looks like Comixology will still have new DC comics.
https://bleedingcool.com/2020/03/28/...day-april-1st/

https://www.comixology.com/release-d...=0&publisher=1

Looks like they have 3 digital first and a few trades that were expected to go on sale digitally. If there were some 'select titles' being talked about, that would be my guess and would make BC "correct".

[Starter Set]

Well, for me, and i dare to imagine for also a lot of people living outside of north America, digital and trades are often the only solutions to satisfy our comic books needs.

Cause very simply floppies aren't avaible at all. So thanks Zeus for that. (even if digital for me is really not a great way to read comics, but i do am happy that this option exists)

[cranger]

There are stores still functioning.

One of mine has the owner by HIMSELF sending out books and even delivering them to homes.

Another store is doing shipping and even having online auctions live to keep going.



If you toss stuff in trades what are you going to lose?

For a book like Marvel's New Warriors that would have started next month that first trade would hit September. A delay would just push that back.

For a book in the 3rd or 4th issues of a storyline-makes ZERO sense to publish 5-6. Just do a trade.

For the most part there should an elimination of all floppies at both companies for the rest of the year. Put it all in trades. Sell your digital single issues and leave that as your option for the rest of the year.

We are talking 9 months of digital solo issues and trades. IF there must be floppies during that time-do a stand alone SINGLE story issue for stores. Yeah you will get some mad folks but we are not worrying about them now.

My guess is this shutdown lasts a month. A lot of people who need to make a lot of money are working on this to find a way to get comics moving again. There is no money for them in digital. Digital is a gateway to other markets that they are not in or making money from.

Even if the delay was another month, if anything was canceled it would be books like New Warriors and any of the many one-shots and new series/minis that have been announced or in planning that honestly the publisher knows are not going to sell big. The big sellers will keep being printed. People will wait. People waited for Doomsday Clock. People have waited for Three Jokers. People are waiting for Abrams' Spider-Man. People will wait, for the big names at least.

I find it more likely that people would just drop whatever they were in the middle of rather than pay more than what they already paid for (e.g. $16 for 4 issues, $16 to $25 for the trade to collect the one or two missing issues) to finish it. Digital to trade is something that would not impact me much, as I have been meaning to move to trades anyway, but it would be a tough transition for a lot of people, and not one the direct market is prepared to gamble on as trades are a much bigger investment than single issues if they do not sell, and a lot of people would be likely to turn to Amazon. It would also be a much different market, as publishers are also not as likely to flood the shelves anymore. A lot of offerings would cease to exist.

[Digifiend]

New Warriors can't be delayed unless Champions is too - issue 3 of NW guest stars the Champs.

[Ascended]

I suspect that in the short term, publishers will just hold off on things. Maybe they'll release digital copies, or print a limited selection of titles they know will sell even now, and other books can just wait (even if it screws up the timing between books like with New Warriors and Champions), but they've never built their product to properly utilize the digital format so it's unlikely that a few weeks with limited/no floppies will suddenly change that. They've refused to change their methods despite all the years of a dying direct market, they're not going to change anything in a major way now just because of a few weeks of quarantine. They'll just hunch down and weather the storm like the rest of us.

If this lasts longer than a month or two? Publishers might have to start looking at other avenues for distribution whether they want to or not. There's already talk of finding regional distributors since Diamond is shut down, but with so many LCS closed and people staying home I'm not sure if that'll make much of a difference. It'll buy them a little time, but probably little else.

If this becomes a long-lasting thing, publishers will have to look into non-physical options or else find themselves in serious trouble. I'd guess they'll try mail-orders or something first. They've resisted changing production to benefit from digital formats or seasonal OGN's and that'd probably be a time consuming and costly effort. They won't want to do that when they've gone months with little to no revenue.

No, I suspect that if we actually see drastic change to production/distribution, it'll come after the crisis has gone.

[DragonPiece]

DC's statement on digital releases: "Here's where we are on digital. All our data shows the digital consumer and the physical consumer are two different audiences. For now, we're going to continue to release digital comics, but will revisit this if the pipeline for physical distribution continues to be challenged and disrupted."

https://bleedingcool.com/2020/03/29/...irus-shutdown/

[Vampire Savior]

I don't really know what these companies can reasonably do other than continue to publish digital content. Regardless of the distribution issue, a lot of comics shops are forcibly closed right now and a lot of people aren't going to be going to any that are open, because (a) they're staying home, and (b) many people aren't going to be buying comics at a time like this.

It has been really interesting to see that when the rubber hits the road, comics fans are SO conservatively stuck in their ways that probably a good number of them would drop the hobby altogether and drop these characters that they obsess over instead of doing something a little differently for a change, even when it's for the sake of their physical health. What I don't know is if it's really because the digital experience really is THAT bad, or if it's a matter of just doing something that's different that appalls them. I kind of already knew all of this, but I guess when the situation really arises where it just make more than good sense to read digital comics and many still won't no matter what, it's an eye opener.

[cranger]

DC's statement on digital releases: "Here's where we are on digital. All our data shows the digital consumer and the physical consumer are two different audiences. For now, we're going to continue to release digital comics, but will revisit this if the pipeline for physical distribution continues to be challenged and disrupted."

https://bleedingcool.com/2020/03/29/...irus-shutdown/

Interesting. I am not sure that is the right move, but I guess it depends on what Marvel does. Even though I agree with DC (8+ years has shown digital grew in addition to physical and no signs it caused any loss to physical at launch or since) retailers are a different bunch and if they feel burned by a publisher, as it is sometimes pointed out the retailers are the customers and could shelf a lot less DC.

I don't really know what these companies can reasonably do other than continue to publish digital content. Regardless of the distribution issue, a lot of comics shops are forcibly closed right now and a lot of people aren't going to be going to any that are open, because (a) they're staying home, and (b) many people aren't going to be buying comics at a time like this.

It has been really interesting to see that when the rubber hits the road, comics fans are SO conservatively stuck in their ways that probably a good number of them would drop the hobby altogether and drop these characters that they obsess over instead of doing something a little differently for a change, even when it's for the sake of their physical health. What I don't know is if it's really because the digital experience really is THAT bad, or if it's a matter of just doing something that's different that appalls them. I kind of already knew all of this, but I guess when the situation really arises where it just make more than good sense to read digital comics and many still won't no matter what, it's an eye opener.

We get it. You read digital. You would like to keep getting your comics. Personally, I could care less if they kept releasing digital, I will just wait til they get physical comics rolling again. And they will. And they will spread things out so the stores and readers can catch up. And that means the pacing of books will be pushed back. So, while you will get a couple books to read now, ultimately digital is going to get delayed due to publishing changes.

As for this your criticism of fans... not everyone is obsessed with characters anyway. If TV went down, I don't know if I would care to read the shows I watched in prose books "just because I am such a fan", unless I was already reading similar fiction and the quality was better than what I was already reading. Format matters. For a lot of comic book fans, the book is the product, not the characters. As sales charts show, barely any characters have enough of a following to keep a title as it is.

[Jadeb]

Demanding print and only print, though, may be the end of print.

[cranger]

Demanding print and only print, though, may be the end of print.

Not quite sure what you are getting at, other than maybe if DC/Marvel don't release digital books over the next two weeks they will go bankrupt? That is not going to happen, both of these publishers are more than big enough to outlast this. Several much smaller publishers have already commited to no digital. Also, the small amount they make from digital is not going to pay the costs for the creators on those books. Remember, DC says they are two completely different audiences, digital sales will not go up anything noticeable.