If you’re anything like me, you probably read my columns approximately 97 times after I post them, intent on finding typos and turns of phrase that you think could be improved upon. In fact, if you’ve ever gone back and read a column again only to notice that a word has been changed or a misplaced modifier has been re-placed, that’s probably because I caught the error after one of my meticulous re-evaluations and made the change, which for some reason my wife finds tremendously amusing. But in the course of that obsessive re-reading, you may remember that last week I discussed the news that Mad Cave Studios is going to be publishing a comic book based on the classic 80s film The Last Starfighter. I was, of course, terribly excited about this news and I couldn’t wait to order a copy from my local comic shop. But as I pondered this, something quite disturbing occurred to me. I want to order a copy…but I’m not entirely certain HOW.
The comic book market is in quite a quandary at the moment, and like most other problems in the universe, I think it’s at least partially Marvel’s fault. I’m going to give you a heavily condensed version of what’s happened to the comic market over the past 30 years or so, so buckle up. Once upon a time, there were several companies that distributed comic books to the stores of North America. Publishers had deals with multiple distributors, and comic shops and newsstands were free to pick and choose which distributors they wished to do business with. But in 1994, as part of a series of bad business decisions that eventually led to the company’s bankruptcy, Marvel Comics decided to purchase one of those distributors and begin using their own distribution company exclusively. The ONLY way to get Marvel Comics was going to be by ordering through their distributor, Heroes World.
This understandably caused a lot of the other publishers to be concerned. Marvel was – and remains – the biggest publisher of comic books in North America, and everybody knew that all the stores would HAVE to use Heroes World to get Marvel Comics, which meant that many of these stores would start dropping the OTHER distributors, making it harder for publishers to get their comics on shelves. The other publishers, then – DC, Dark Horse, Archie, and more – realized that the last thing they wanted was to put their biggest competitor in charge of their distribution system, and they all rushed to sign exclusive deals with another distribution company, Diamond. Pretty soon, most of the other distributors frittered and died, leaving only Diamond and Heroes World, and even though Marvel was the biggest kid on the playground, they came to realize that even they were NOT bigger than every other kid on the playground put together. Furthermore, Heroes World itself didn’t have enough infrastructure to handle 100 percent of Marvel’s orders, and the company fell into chaos. By 1997 Marvel gave up on self-distribution, shut down Heroes World, and signed their own distribution deal with Diamond.
And then, for about three decades, Diamond had a virtual monopoly on comic book distribution in North America.
This was a situation that pleased nobody (except, presumably, Diamond’s shareholders), but that’s the way things were until a few years ago. The many, many problems Diamond had – such as frequent late, lost, and damaged shipments among other things – finally made some of the same publishers that made them a juggernaut jump ship and look for alternative means of distribution. Without the revenue of the big boys like DC, Marvel, and others, Diamond itself began to atrophy, and now it’s going out of business. Other distributors are beginning to rise again, and for the most part I think that’s a good thing. I sincerely believe that competition helps people – and companies – get better, and the fact that Diamond turned to crap while it had no competition to speak of is evidence of this.
However, there is one thing from the Diamond Era going to cause real problems if it’s gone for good. Once a month, Diamond published Previews, a massive catalog that listed all of the comics, graphic novels, toys, clothes, statues, collectibles, and other paraphernalia that the distributor handled. Comic shops sold the catalog, or sometimes gave it for free to their regular customers, and those customers could then easily look through the listings of virtually every publisher to tell their shop what they wanted to order. When the other publishers started jumping ship, the bigger ones (Marvel, DC, IDW, Image) started publishing their OWN catalogs for readers to use.
The problem, hopefully, is becoming clear now. The Big Boys have their own catalogs. But Mad Cave – to get back to my Last Starfighter conundrum – does not. So how will we know when the new comic is available to order? How will we know when it’s scheduled to be released? If and when Diamond goes away entirely, how will we know which of the 38 different variant covers we want reserved for us?
“Well Blake, have you ever heard of a little thing called the INTERNET?” you may be asking, if you’re the kind of person who feels like being a jerk about it. Well yeah, duh, I know about the internet. It’s this box on my computer that I use to edit my columns 194 times after I publish them. And I suppose it’s useful for other things too. If I know a book is going to be solicited soon I can keep an eye out, do searches, even set up a Google alert. But that’s for ONE comic. Are people going to be willing to do that EVERY time they hear about a new comic book they want to read? And what’s worse, what about the stuff that ISN’T made into news but that they would be interested in, if only they knew about it?
What I’m getting at is that this lack of unity could be a crippling blow to a lot of smaller publishers.
Of course, the smaller publishers in question ARE finding distribution. There’s a new distributor called Philbo, for example, that recently started putting out a catalog featuring a sizable number of smaller publishers, including the likes of Red 5, Abstract Studio, Antarctic Press, and Monarch Comics. (Unfortunately for The Last Starfighter, Mad Cave is not among their number, at least not yet.) And even though that physical catalog isn’t necessarily showing up in every shop, it’s available on their website. More good news.
The bad news is that if we want a system where readers can find EVERYTHING that’s available, it doesn’t exist anymore. That puts much more of the burden on the potential customer to actively try to stay aware, which also increases the burden on the publishers to find ways to MAKE the customer aware. We’ve built a system where readers will have to fight to stay abreast of virtually every publisher and every distributor and seek them out once a month if they’re to have any chance of finding what they’re looking for. Promotion has always been a challenge for small publishers, and this is only going to make it more difficult.
So what’s the solution? As much as the Diamond monolith hurt comics, I think having a one-stop location for solicitations was beneficial to most publishers, and I think we need that back. There’s a proposal that I wish somebody would take up. Not me, mind you, because I don’t have the time or the technical know-how to build a resource of the type I’m about to suggest, but if anybody else sees this idea and decides to run with it, all I ask is that you tell me when it’s ready.
I think we need a resource that collects the solicitations of all the distributors that service the comic shops of North America. One website, maybe even one app, that breaks these things down so that we can browse and search everything easily. It could, perhaps, be organized by publisher, with links to each distributor that particular publisher works with. Readers and retailers could set alerts for new solicitations featuring their favorite publishers, creators, or IPs. And, of course, customers could read through all the solicits and, at a click, build a list of the books and assorted merch they wish to order that month, which could then be provided to their local comic shop. I know that there have been efforts in the past to build an app that customers could use to send their orders to their shop, but to the best of my knowledge there hasn’t been one that’s as comprehensive or successful as what I’m proposing – certainly not one that has the widespread coverage that the former Previews catalog had.
I think readers and retailers alike would probably welcome such a system, although as I said, I wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to go about creating such a thing. But if you do, give it a shot.
And if you DO know of an app that’s already doing something similar to what I’m suggesting, for Heaven’s sake, let me know about that, too. This is a problem in desperate need of a solution.
Of course, this only applies to people who read PHYSICAL comics. Digital comics are a whole different animal with a whole different set of problems. But there are – fortunately – people seeking a solution to that one.
We’ll talk about that next week.
Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. You can subscribe to his newsletter by clicking right here. He’s also started putting his LitReel videos on TikTok. He lives for the day when he can set an app to alert him to new Captain Carrot merchandise.
Blake M. Petit 