The 2020 Comic book crash

[clearspira]

I have said on here in a previous thread that print comic books are dying - they have shown a year on year fall in actual sales, propped up only by an increasing cost which is unsustainable in the long term.

As it turns out, most comic book shops only had enough spare capital to last them a couple of weeks. Covid-19 is threatening to end American comics as we know it. And the kicker? Diamond (whom many of you may remember from Chucks excellent series on the speculator boom) has gone one step further and said that they will not pay the shops to return any unsold stock meaning that those already dying stores that no one can now get to because of the lockdown have shelves and shelves full of comics that no one will ever buy. And the beauty is that because Diamond is a monopoly (again, watch Chuck's series as to why) there is no alternative.

You would THINK that Marvel and DC would be concerned by this, and maybe they would be if the films and games were not so profitable, but I would not be surprised if they have been looking for an excuse to get rid of this stone around their necks that is print comics.

Just to recap: we have an industry that was already dying propped up by unsustainable price rises, most stores had no savings because of this, Covid-19 means that no one can reach their stores, Diamond is not helping them out, Marvel and DC don't seem to be helped either and the monopoly means that there is no chance of going somewhere else. When the dust settles, it looks as if comics will be digital or on supermarket shelves and nowhere else.

[Captain Crimson]

I think going digital is not gonna work. At least in my experience, and this is reflected in all the people I know, part of the joy in reading comics is the collectible quality to them. And that it's a physical book, on top of that. With all this SJW stuff they push more and more, like the new woke warriors, I don't think it would translate well over to a digital medium - not unless they actually decided to tell a good story. Plus there's literally hundreds of thousands of pages in merely DC or Marvel alone. How long would it take to upload that? Probably years.

[ProfessorDetective]

My guess is, if the industry survives, it'll be shifted to digital sales and trade paperbacks in the chain, big-box/book, stores with the non-Big Two gaining a stronger foothold.

Also...

Plus there's literally hundreds of thousands of pages in merely DC or Marvel alone. How long would it take to upload that? Probably years.

Take a look at Comixology sometime, a LOT of DC and Marvel's back-catalogs have been up for a while.

[Captain Crimson]

My guess is, if the industry survives, it'll be shifted to digital sales and trade paperbacks in the chain, big-box/book, stores with the non-Big Two gaining a stronger foothold.

Also...

Plus there's literally hundreds of thousands of pages in merely DC or Marvel alone. How long would it take to upload that? Probably years.

Take a look at Comixology sometime, a LOT of DC and Marvel's back-catalogs have been up for a while.

I shall put that on my list. I'm not the most hardcore comic reader, but I do indulge when I get the chance.

[Darth Wedgius]

I think it's been the rule for most comic publishers that the comics the LCS (local comics store) orders are non-returnable. DC is making certain print date ranges affected by SARS-COV-2 returnable, and Image Comics has stepped up and said that all the new books will be returnable. Of course with Diamond down, I don't know how the comic books are supposed to get back to the publisher, but maybe that was always supposed to be UPS or FedEx or whatever.

Diamond has said it's not going to pay vendors what they owe on the usual schedule, but pay it out over time:

Last week, we held vendor payments to allow for careful analysis of information from our industry, our business and the effects of COVID-19. We assured you that we would communicate our revised payment schedule when we were able, and I appreciate your patience and the many supportive messages I've received this week.

Working with what we know today, below is the outline of vendor payments from Diamond Comic Distributors and Diamond Book Distributors:

- Beginning this week, the week of April 6th, you will receive 25% of the weekly amount due under your contract terms
- Each subsequent week, you will receive a 25% payment of that week's balance due
- This reduced payment schedule will continue for 6 weeks, with the remaining 75% due in each of those weeks being deferred
- Following that 6-week period, we will begin payment of the deferred balance in equal payments over a 13-week period

DC and Marvel have big parent companies, though AFAIK Disney was hit hard by SARS-COV-2 too (theme parks and movies aren't so hot right now...), and has Marvel publishing and Marvel movies separate inside the overall company, so if Disney wanted to shed Marvel publishing now would not be a bad time to do it. But I'd be surprised if Marvel and DC didn't come out the other side of this; Marvel seems to be Disney's best purchase and I'd be surprised if the House of Mouse wanted any shade there.

OTOH, IDW has been losing money for some time now, and has recently had some Netflix deals turn out not to be as successful as they'd hoped. And I wouldn't be more than mildly surprised to see Diamond fold.

I don't know how many LCSs are going to come back. I'm afraid this is probably landing really hard on them. I confess, I haven't patronized a LCS in a long, long time; my purchases, which have been IDW and Dynamite lately, have been through Comixology. I've written off DC and Marvel as not for me.

The industry has been in a decline in several ways for a long time now, and it's kind of like how COVID 19 works individually. A healthy person will usually shake it off, but someone with serious health problems can get a lot harder, and may not survive.

[Mecha82]

Over all printed media as whole is less popular than it was in past so of course comic books are also less popular. It has nothing to do with any imagenary politics that some people like to blame from everything that they don't like or feel that isn't for them when they think that everything should be for them. Main thing that has taken over place of comic books are video games that are also bigger industry than Hollywood movie industry. If Hollywood movie industry is losing to video game industry then what chance comic book industry have in comparison.

[Gekired]

Hmmm i've been wondering on this issue myself for a while. The future of the Industry especially with the crash going on. I don't see Digital working out as well as many think. Many comic collectors such as myself prefer having a physical object to store and put away. To have something to collect basically. Something we can touch and feel. Not just stare at through a screen.

Many myself included would bail if that was the future of the industry.

[Captain Crimson]

Hmmm i've been wondering on this issue myself for a while. The future of the Industry especially with the crash going on. I don't see Digital working out as well as many think. Many comic collectors such as myself prefer having a physical object to store and put away. To have something to collect basically. Something we can touch and feel. Not just stare at through a screen.

Many myself included would bail if that was the future of the industry.

There is also the issue that converting all written media to digital format, even with, say, a full crew of 500 working eight hours a day uploading them, could do so for months, and still have only touched the surface.

[ProfessorDetective]

Hmmm i've been wondering on this issue myself for a while. The future of the Industry especially with the crash going on. I don't see Digital working out as well as many think. Many comic collectors such as myself prefer having a physical object to store and put away. To have something to collect basically. Something we can touch and feel. Not just stare at through a screen.

Many myself included would bail if that was the future of the industry.

So, even if the books were fantastic, you'd give up on the medium entirely if said fantastic books weren't printed on physical paper? Really?

I get into this debate a lot with my family and digital vs paper photographs. What's more important: the container or it's contents?

[Madner Kami]

Hmmm i've been wondering on this issue myself for a while. The future of the Industry especially with the crash going on. I don't see Digital working out as well as many think. Many comic collectors such as myself prefer having a physical object to store and put away. To have something to collect basically. Something we can touch and feel. Not just stare at through a screen.

Many myself included would bail if that was the future of the industry.

So, even if the books were fantastic, you'd give up on the medium entirely if said fantastic books weren't printed on physical paper? Really?

I get into this debate a lot with my family and digital vs paper photographs. What's more important: the container or it's contents?

You should have learned by now, that the content does not matter on anything. It's the packaging that sells the product to the vast majority of the customers.