Coronavirus knocks out direct market - Diamond stops deliveries

[superduperman]

The Giants have been axed.
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/dc-r...cks-of-comics/

Well, crap.

[Holt]

In their place DC is selling 4-packs of comics through Walmart.

[skyvolt2000]

Well, crap.

So in other words all those unsold batman and his entitled friends will have a new home.

Because they are not going to do new books for some blind pack are they?

[Zaresh]

Oh, another news bit I don't know how I feel about. If I were a bit more paranoid, I would think they're aiming to close for bhsiness. I know no way it's like that, they are announcing new things and stuff, but...

[Digifiend]

So in other words all those unsold batman and his entitled friends will have a new home.

Because they are not going to do new books for some blind pack are they?

No. It's a poor move, a backwards step. The trouble with blind packs like this is, if you buy six to get that entire JL image (which shows the Rebirth JL team) what are the chances that out of 24 comics, you only have 16 different ones, the others being duplicates? And of course, there's likely to be gaps. You might get part 1 and part 4 of a story, but not parts 2 and 3.

[superduperman]

Oh, another news bit I don't know how I feel about. If I were a bit more paranoid, I would think they're aiming to close for bhsiness. I know no way it's like that, they are announcing new things and stuff, but...

You may not be paranoid. Some sources inside Warners suggest that they want to phase out monthly books altogether. AT&T inherited a print division when the deal went through. Whether or not they wanted one is up for debate.

[Rise]

Well, I just find out this.

AT&T Cuts 3,400 jobs today with another (roughly) 40,000 predicted from outside sources in the coming weeks.

Source

The direct market might be indeed in its last legs.

[iron chimp]

I thought giants were good idea and supported them in UK. Now UK wont get them at all as they are stopping distro via comic shops so i cant finish story and now stopping them in usa too. Complete waste of time and money. Thanks DC

[numberthirty]

Well, I just find out this.

AT&T Cuts 3,400 jobs today with another (roughly) 40,000 predicted from outside sources in the coming weeks.

Source

The direct market might be indeed in its last legs.

One doesn't really have much to do with the other.

Even more so when you look into the specifics of those 3,400 jobs cut.

[Rise]

It kind of does because it proves that AT&T isn't doing too hot if they are planning to cut 40k in the coming weeke. DC comics division isn't really profitable to begin with to justify its existence so they might either make big changes or get rid of it entirely.

[numberthirty]

It kind of does because it proves that AT&T isn't doing too hot if they are planning to cut 40k in the coming weeke. DC comics division isn't really profitable to begin with to justify its existence so they might either make big changes or get rid of it entirely.

Take a close look at where they just cut jobs(never mind that said 40k is still pretty clearly in "Maybe?..." territory).

A lot of dominoes would still need to tumble just to hurt the direct market. Never mind start the beginning of the end.

[Vampire Savior]

Take a close look at where they just cut jobs(never mind that said 40k is still pretty clearly in "Maybe?..." territory).

A lot of dominoes would still need to tumble just to hurt the direct market. Never mind start the beginning of the end.

I think that is being especially hopeful. AT&T is looking to sell a big money making division and is looking to cut a huge amount of jobs. I'd say it's well within the realm of possibility that the relatively rinky-dink DC Comics could be affected. Also, this new deal with Wal-Mart--if the products are really random blind-packs--doesn't sound good at all. The Giants were much better than that, and I wasn't even crazy about those.

The IPs are valuable, true, but what the heck does AT&T need to be printing these comics for? They don't need new IP, they already have a massive stable of IP in their library. And the last character DC made (which was actually made by WB Animation), to really be worth a damn was Harley Quinn, and that was back in like...1992?

[Noodle]

And the last character DC made (which was actually made by WB Animation), to really be worth a damn was Harley Quinn, and that was back in like...1992?

The Court of Owls concept has been used in both live action and animation at this point. They also based their entire animated move line melding the New 52 with older stories for the past number of years.

[Ascended]

It kind of does because it proves that AT&T isn't doing too hot if they are planning to cut 40k in the coming weeke. DC comics division isn't really profitable to begin with to justify its existence so they might either make big changes or get rid of it entirely.

It's an economic collapse, outside of online companies like Netflix nobody is doing too hot right now.

AT&T might sell off DC. Who knows? But selling DC means selling the rights as well, which means no movies, video games, etc. The comics aren't necessarily worth keeping; the money they generate is a pittance compared to the sums AT&T usually deal with (and this was true with WB too). But DC is still a multi-billion dollar entity.

I imagine it'd be more likely that AT&T will license the DC IP's out to other publishers like IDW, if they do anything at all.

[Zaresh]

In any case, this sounds pretty dire for a company that was approaching the century, relatively speaking.

Hum, maybe Netflix would buy, if they're cheap enough. I don't know how much Netflix does worldwide, or how much debt they own, but it's within the market they aim for. That said, would they do, they are shifting to digital entirely, I guess.