DC Cuts Ties with Diamond

[SixSpeedSamurai]

AOL only cares about the IP rights to these characters. They care very little for the floppies that don't bring a lot of money in. They took on huge debt to buy Time Warner and than the pandemic hit. They are looking for ways to save where they can and this decision most likely came from a non-DC person at the company.

I see this could be bad for getting a more diverse amount of characters having books. Pretty much anything non-Batman doesn't sell well these days, so why publish them in physical format and barely make money or even lose money on it?

They are heading to digital only for monthlies. I'll be done then. I have currated a collection of nearly 700 straight issues each of Batman and Detective. Not many people can say that. Digital makes it not special. Anyone can have gather all issues going forward in minutes.

My hope is that AOL gets in such trouble they start selling off pieces and Disney buys DC.

[Flash Gordon]

Sounds good to me, let's see how it plays out. Graphic novels and TPBs going through Penguin is pretty big news.

As for shops- times change. Part of owning a business is being able to meet changes in the market place. Maybe this will force a lot of them to become more welcoming/inclusive places (though I'm not counting on that).

[iron chimp]

DC does want you as a customer. That's why they're trying a new distribution model rather than dropping monthlies altogether. However, I understand that for non-US readers, there are still further obstacles that DC needs to address.

It takes a lot of work to set this new system up, and so I have to believe that DC is committed to keeping monthlies as a viable option in spite of how they don't bring all that much money into the company.

If the rumors are true about Pam Lifford not being in love with the monthlies, I can see her point. We live in a world where Captain Underpants graphic novels have sold 80 million books worldwide -- based on just 12 books in the series published. Why the hell aren't Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest selling that? Even a tenth of that would be spectacular for any comics company.

Given that nothing DC or Marvel has tried over the last several decades has resulted in a massive influx of new readers into comic shops -- not even Free Comic Book Day where they're giving the stuff away, it makes sense for her to explore other options in getting the very recognizable DC characters in front of the public.

Rather than trying to get new readers into comic shops, Lifford may just be thinking, "Hey, let's try it the other way. If we can't get readers into comic shops, let's get comics into the places where readers already are going -- namely bookstores -- and with lots of new material not just trade reprints." If that's her thought process, that's not stupid at all.

But the fact that DC has taken the time to set up three new distributors for the comic shop market does indicate that they aren't going to abandon it. I understand the fears and frustrations of the comic shop owners, but DC is a publishing company, and to stay in business and thrive not just barely make it by the skin of their teeth, they have to make decisions that they feel will help themselves.

Really, this has been a long time coming. DC and Marvel have to get their characters out of the comic shop ghetto and in front of the general public. It's crazy that characters that star in billion dollar movies aren't more widely read.

I think the fact there isnt any uk/euro distribution set up is enough for a lot of people to say... ok bye.

Im waiting to see what my dealer says but i cant see how they can get stock and im ready to say ok just take dc off my pull list and I will find other things to add.

The maths just dont stack up.

Say usa market shifts 80m comics a year. Uk will be about 15% on top of that - 12 million. Dc has about a 1/3rd of market so 4 million books or 75k books a week. I cannot see how its economically viable for someone to step in and set up a warehouse and distro for such small numbers unless its one of the big retailers like forbidden planet or place in space who might not have even have the storage. Even then you are back to the problem of one retailer selling to other retailers.

On top of that its going to take months to get that set up.

Changing distro but not bothering to put in euro distro is a complete f u to euro buyers.

[SebastianS]

I think the fact there isnt any uk/euro distribution set up is enough for a lot of people to say... ok bye.

Im waiting to see what my dealer says but i cant see how they can get stock and im ready to say ok just take dc off my pull list and I will find other things to add.

The maths just dont stack up.

Say usa market shifts 80m comics a year. Uk will be about 15% on top of that - 12 million. Dc has about a 1/3rd of market so 4 million books or 75k books a week. I cannot see how its economically viable for someone to step in and set up a warehouse and distro for such small numbers unless its one of the big retailers like forbidden planet or place in space who might not have even have the storage. Even then you are back to the problem of one retailer selling to other retailers.

On top of that its going to take months to get that set up.

Changing distro but not bothering to put in euro distro is a complete f u to euro buyers.

Yep. Whenever I buy from US-based retailers, I spend around 30 to 40 euros in shipping for a parcel containing around 25 single issues. And that is the cheapest shipping service, it comes without tracking number, and takes anywhere between 3 to 8 weeks to be delivered.

I can only imagine that for retailers in Europe/UK, it would be impossible to really put DC comics in their stands.

[Jekyll]

If I was a comic shop, I would also drop DC from my orders. They are not even putting out quality books right now to justify ordering for my shop, that and the fact that they have little to no direction on where to go as a company. See ya DC!

[Flash Gordon]

If I was a comic shop, I would also drop DC from my orders. They are not even putting out quality books right now to justify ordering for my shop, that and the fact that they have little to no direction on where to go as a company. See ya DC!

That's a 100% personal opinion, and would be suicidal as a business. Just because you won't stock DC, doesn't mean I'm going to stop reading them- I'll just go elsewhere.

[Robanker]

That's a 100% personal opinion, and would be suicidal as a business. Just because you won't stock DC, doesn't mean I'm going to stop reading them- I'll just go elsewhere.

This. You're essentially cutting off your nose to spite your face.

[Frontier]

My hope is that AOL gets in such trouble they start selling off pieces and Disney buys DC.

I don't know what Disney would even do with both DC and Marvel. I just don't see it happening.

If I was a comic shop, I would also drop DC from my orders. They are not even putting out quality books right now to justify ordering for my shop, that and the fact that they have little to no direction on where to go as a company. See ya DC!

I mean, DC has it's issues, but I don't think it's fair to make such a blanket statement about the company when they are putting out so much different stuff.

[Korath]

honestly, I already pay the monthlies around 50% more than the US pricetag anyway. May as well go the 50% more at my store for the three series I still buy in this format (JLO, LOSH, TLG); all the rest have been digital only for quite some time.

[iron chimp]

This. You're essentially cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Anyone who stocks dc now is putting themselves out of business.

[Samm]

AOL only cares about the IP rights to these characters. They care very little for the floppies that don't bring a lot of money in. They took on huge debt to buy Time Warner and than the pandemic hit. They are looking for ways to save where they can and this decision most likely came from a non-DC person at the company.

I see this could be bad for getting a more diverse amount of characters having books. Pretty much anything non-Batman doesn't sell well these days, so why publish them in physical format and barely make money or even lose money on it?

They are heading to digital only for monthlies. I'll be done then. I have currated a collection of nearly 700 straight issues each of Batman and Detective. Not many people can say that. Digital makes it not special. Anyone can have gather all issues going forward in minutes.

My hope is that AOL gets in such trouble they start selling off pieces and Disney buys DC.

What an emotional reaction to have! Disney buy DC? God no!! That would be terrible because then Disney would own the two biggest franchises in Hollywood history and that’s a huge No for me!

Besides it’s only a matter of time until Marvel follows DC and does the same.

[iron chimp]

honestly, I already pay the monthlies around 50% more than the US pricetag anyway. May as well go the 50% more at my store for the three series I still buy in this format (JLO, LOSH, TLG); all the rest have been digital only for quite some time.

Unless yr store has a teleporter im not sure how you think they are going to get hold of books, let alone charge you the same price as before

[Flash Gordon]

Anyone who stocks dc now is putting themselves out of business.

That's untrue.

Part of doing business is rising to meet the market place, not just your personal opinions and tastes.

[iron chimp]

That's untrue.

Yr going to end up paying more to stock dc books, whilst yr biggest rival is going to pay even less. Every dc book you sell in yr store makes yr rival richer.

Dcbs can under Amazon on trades. They can already undercut the shops by $1.50 an issue. With no distro fees of their own and the shops actually paying them they can undercut even further.

Its entirely true. Do the maths.

Anyone who stocks dc now is a chump

[Ascended]

They want the IPs and potential content. From the gossip itÂ’s not that they want to stop print, but they want change how they print.

I think we can assume that is very much the case. I mean, what're the alternatives? Digital comics are popular but comic publishers haven't figured out how to really profit from them and trying to go mainly-digital would be a massive risk; I mean we're talking about replacing the publishing's main source of revenue. Book order/Scholastic? How much cash can DC expect to bring in from that? Probably not enough to replace the LCS. No comics at all? Comics are too valuable as IP farms, serve as cheap storyboards for adaptations, and help keep legal ownership intact.

No, DC is still going to make comics and they're almost certainly going to stick with print in some fashion. The question is how they change things up and get that product to retailers. Are they gonna do bookstore-focused content with more OGN's? Five page weekly comics sent to the LCS? Diversify and try to do everything?

Just a guess but I imagine they'll lean into the bookstore OGN's and trades. They've had a lot of success doing that, generate revenue from them longer than floppies, and reach a wider audience.

What that'll do to shared continuity.....who knows? This might be the end of the shared universe as we understand it, or they might release imprints where everything is connected. It wouldn't be hard to do self-contained books (like that "teen Bruce builds the car" thing) and then slap a "DCU" label on the books that share the same world. That would be the end of crossovers but guest stars and team books would still be possible. And it seems like crossovers aren't as popular as they used to be; people complain about them derailing a book's plots so this might not really be missed by most readers anyway.

And I gotta laugh at the stores saying they won't stock DC. I understand being upset but if you're gonna do that you might as well just close up shop now; Marvel and the indies alone won't keep your bills paid. Do we know yet if DC's new distributors will have any kind of cost control in place to help stores recover from the loss of the Diamond discounts?