Coronavirus knocks out direct market - Diamond stops deliveries

[superduperman]

Anyone who doesn't think DC cuts are next is fooling themselves. AT&T has no use for a print division and they certainly didn't buy Warners for it. I am firmly of the belief that cutting ties with Diamond was more Warners or AT&T than DC's decision. We may be looking at another year or so before we see where all this is going but I highly doubt AT&T will keep a non-profitable division around.

[Ascended]

Anyone who doesn't think DC cuts are next is fooling themselves. AT&T has no use for a print division and they certainly didn't buy Warners for it. I am firmly of the belief that cutting ties with Diamond was more Warners or AT&T than DC's decision. We may be looking at another year or so before we see where all this is going but I highly doubt AT&T will keep a non-profitable division around.

But if they sell DC, they sell the movie rights and everything else too.

Nobody cares about the comics, but the films and everything else are another matter. Maybe AT&T will sell DC, who knows? But y'all are forgetting this isn't about comics at all, it's about DC's properties across all media. The comics are just part of the package and a cheap and easy way to storyboard adaptations and maintain legal ownership.

[Digifiend]

Yeah. They can license the comics out I guess, but selling DC outright would be a dumb move. Hell, who else would be interested except Marvel owner Disney?

[superduperman]

But if they sell DC, they sell the movie rights and everything else too.

Nobody cares about the comics, but the films and everything else are another matter. Maybe AT&T will sell DC, who knows? But y'all are forgetting this isn't about comics at all, it's about DC's properties across all media. The comics are just part of the package and a cheap and easy way to storyboard adaptations and maintain legal ownership.

Oh, I have no doubt they will keep the IPs but that doesn't mean they will keep the comics division.

[Flash Gordon]

DC will be fine. WB wants the IPs. Batman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman- these are huge successes.

With DC's move they're opening their line up to be more diverse and less niche.

[Noodle]

Oh, I have no doubt they will keep the IPs but that doesn't mean they will keep the comics division.

No company is going to buy DC without the IP rights. The profit margin from comics is so low that it wouldn't be worth it to any company. The money comes from the IP (merchandising, movies, tv shows).

AT&T would just shut down the comics division to cut losses before anyone would buy it.

[cranger]

Anyone who doesn't think DC cuts are next is fooling themselves. AT&T has no use for a print division and they certainly didn't buy Warners for it. I am firmly of the belief that cutting ties with Diamond was more Warners or AT&T than DC's decision. We may be looking at another year or so before we see where all this is going but I highly doubt AT&T will keep a non-profitable division around.

DC should cut. So should Marvel. However, DC is not going anywhere. The company did not go through all these moves to get comics out to shops and set up new distribution channels just to call it quits.

[skyvolt2000]

Oh, I have no doubt they will keep the IPs but that doesn't mean they will keep the comics division.

You still need a printing division for all thsoe OGNs. Even AT&T knows that. That is why they are looking beyond the direct market.

The division is profitable. I am sorry folks think only Batman and his entitled friends should have books and screw everybody else from John Stewart to Young Justice.

I am sorry a company chose to pander to a certain faction of fans and are now paying for it.

Not everybody wants to read about Batman. There are folks who want to read about Wally West.

I am sorry that comic book store has issues with certain characters having books.

Dc is a business and the direct market is standing in the way of it. maybe they finally realize who the issue is.

[Holt]

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.

The New 52 stuff has also, for better or for worse very obviously had an impact on what they've been doing in both their movies and TV shows. The Harley Quinn TV show and movie were both very heavily based on the recent Jimmy Palmiotti/Amanda Conner run, for instance, and Suicide Squad was based mostly on the New 52 run of that team as well.

[skyvolt2000]

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/the-...iamond-demand/

Dennis Berger Will Still Be Pissed

So these new DC packs are just repackaged comics that LCBS already had, just at a cheaper price right? Well yes, but the discount is almost to the point that the comics offered here at $8.98 a set is as good a deal or better then some LCBS get wholesale, with each comic costing $2.25 a comic before tax. However, these are all comics from the past month or the month before that, but some of these comics are so recent, Action Comics #1022 came out just 2 weeks ago in LCBS that that is quite a turn around. Except one thing that is shown is despite how DC may delay their Walmart announcements until right before the books come out, these deals take time to coordinate.

One thing to consider is that past packages like this that Walmart has sold, be it for DC or Marvel, is that the books are at least two months old or older. The top variant cover, or top comic may be very new, but the main cost saving measure that makes these sets worth selling is that they are taking comics that LCBS have had, most likely returned as damages, or didn't buy all the copies of to begin with, meaning they are then liquidated and bought up. There are several companies that do this with several convention sellers making a good profit selling older exclusives that Diamond never sold all of the print run of.

These new DC sets though do not contain books old enough to have gone through this cycle meaning DC sent these books to be packaged specifically. The indices in the comics match the indices in copies sold at LCBS, and the covers are not different at all, meaning that these copies came from the same print run and printers that the ones sent out through Lunar, UCS, or Diamond. For LCBS this can be a bit of an issue as many of the titles in these sets were back ordered the week they came out, such as Action Comics #1022 Main Cover, at Diamond, meaning their print runs were sent instead to Walmart to be sold instead of being available for retailers at LCBS to get after their initial orders were canceled. This combined with the huge price cut is another sign that DC doesn't seem to really have much of a priority for LCBS.

It's pretty much Batman, Hal, Barry, WW, Aquaman, Superman, Supergirl, Teen Titans and JLA.

No Naomi, Far Sector, Young Justice, Nightwing and the rest.

[superduperman]

It's also cheaper to just wait a month or two and get them at Wal-Mart than your LCS. Which I'm sure they will be ecstatic about.

[Factor]

Those are some weird collections of issues. I can't see this initiative being a big success.
I hope they make better products geared towards kids at Wallmart.

[Ascended]

Oh, I have no doubt they will keep the IPs but that doesn't mean they will keep the comics division.

I don't work in a big corporation like AT&T, but from my angle of the business world I think they *might* shut down the publishing division, but if they did they'd probably just license the rights out to IDW or one of the other indies.

And with the comics shut down, all those creators would go to other publishers.....like IDW.

For us, on the consumer level, odds are not a lot would change. We'd have a lot of the same books with a lot of the same creators and editors. There'd be fewer DC books on the shelf in any given month, since the profits getting split would make those low-ranking titles even less appealing to publish. But the major names and (most of the) mid-tier and above titles would all get licensed and published (even a bunch of DC mid-tier books are a big step up for IDW), and for us, the only real change would be the company logo on the cover and some fresh blood creators who've been toiling away with the small publishers and haven't broken big yet. It'd be a shakeup, but probably not much worse than what we've seen in the past. Keep in mind, comics might not make much money compared to what AT&T usually deal with....but the comics *do* make money. You ever met a corporation that would let even a nickle slip through their fingers when they didn't have to let it go? I haven't. I assume AT&T will ride the direct market into the ground and rip every penny out of it that they can. Just like WB. And I'd do the same.

And AT&T isn't going to pass on even licensing; comics are stupid cheap storyboards for adaptations. Most of the time, movie and game studios have to hire writers to come up with ideas and treatments, run those past focus groups and all that right? That normally costs money I assume. But with comics, you get 80-100 pitches a year, ran past huge focus groups (in the form of us readers), and it actually puts a little cash in your pocket. That's a good deal.

Not to mention comics help maintain legal ownership.

Now, maybe AT&T shuts down all the comic publishing, doesn't license the IP's out....I don't work with this kind of business so I can't say. But WB didn't shut down the publishing, and I doubt AT&T will either. If that was the goal, why bother setting up new distributors?

No, if I were gonna worry about anything I'd worry about AT&T shifting focus to bookstore OGN's. Lots of reasons to make that switch, and even then I doubt they'd stop floppies altogether; not until floppies are losing money instead of making it. So the worst case scenario there is we're all forced to basically trade wait. Not a huge problem in the grand scheme.

I mean, sh*t, we all had these exact same discussions and worries when Disney bought Marvel. The sky didn't fall then, the sky won't fall now.

[skyvolt2000]

It's also cheaper to just wait a month or two and get them at Wal-Mart than your LCS. Which I'm sure they will be ecstatic about.

Well the thing is you have wait until someone else buys it and tells everybody what is in it.

Those are some weird collections of issues. I can't see this initiative being a big success.
I hope they make better products geared towards kids at Wallmart.

I don't think they have kids in mind.

Not with that line up.

I could understand if it was Far Sector, Naomi, Yougn Justice, Supersons, Future Quest, Raven, Wonder Twins, Cyborg, Batman & Signal, Batman and Outsiders or Terrifics.

Something like this is NOT for a kid.

This is for someone like me or most of us. If I wanted say the pack with WW 755. I know it's the start of an arc-lets say it was part 3.

Me-I would go to Half price books and see if I could get the other issue for at LEAST $1.99 (some store might have it for less) or head to Midtown or Ebay. To find it cheaper.


Yes LCS are going to get ROYALLY screwed.

I could excuse it if it was just one newish issue and stuff from no more than 6 months to a year ago.

This???? NO.

[Factor]

Well the thing is you have wait until someone else buys it and tells everybody what is in it.




I don't think they have kids in mind.

Not with that line up.

I could understand if it was Far Sector, Naomi, Yougn Justice, Supersons, Future Quest, Raven, Wonder Twins, Cyborg, Batman & Signal, Batman and Outsiders or Terrifics.

Something like this is NOT for a kid.

This is for someone like me or most of us. If I wanted say the pack with WW 755. I know it's the start of an arc-lets say it was part 3.

Me-I would go to Half price books and see if I could get the other issue for at LEAST $1.99 (some store might have it for less) or head to Midtown or Ebay. To find it cheaper.


Yes LCS are going to get ROYALLY screwed.

I could excuse it if it was just one newish issue and stuff from no more than 6 months to a year ago.

This???? NO.

Yeah I know they're not for kids. But they definitely should create better products aimed at kids.