The Direct Market: Goodbye, Baby, And Amen.
Sep 09
Chris Butcher has a terrific piece up on the failings of the current Diamond distribution system; Tom Spurgeon agrees. I think Frank Santoro got there first.
What struck me most though was a passing comment in Heidi Macdonald’s link to the piece:
We’d quibble with that a little– doing business with multiple distributors is something most retail outlets have to deal with, so for those retailers willing to put on their big boy pants, it’s perfectly fine.
“…something most retail outlets have to deal with…”
“…big boy pants…”
To me, that’s the key here.
If we’re really saying farewell forever to the comics retail direct market as it was known for, what, 20-odd years? then we’re really saying “howdy” to an environment built from the outset to support multiple points of view, to place the power of selling and fostering the artform at the hands of (mostly) intelligent retailers instead of at the whims of a single monolithic terrifying and often incompetent distributor; the comic book store as we knew it will no longer exist, and something better will hopefully take its place.
I feel like it’s time to skip ahead to the end and call this corpse while it’s still fresh. The experiences outlined by Butcher in his piece are undoubtedly the same experiences many savvy comics retailers are already having. These are the folks interested in supporting a variety of artistic viewpoints and serving readers with the type of customer service that nurtures their habits and embraces their enthusiasm, not the “superhero convenience stores” Alan David Doane has written about.
For a retailer like Butcher–or, I expect, Brian Hibbs or James Sime or others across the continent–the direct market isn’t dying; the direct market IS ALREADY DEAD.
Where does this leave us?
Stuff We Like This Week: September 4 Edition
Sep 04
In an effort to combat our occasional…okay, okay, near-constant negativity, we give you a regular feature full of nothing but love — Stuff We Like This Week. Appearing every Friday, SWLTW will recap the things that have set our little nerdly hearts aflame within the past seven days.
More Nerdly Advice
Sep 01Nerds have questions, and we have the answers.
Every week, Jeff dips into the Alert Nerd mailbag and sheds the light of his questionable wisdom onto the things you want to know. We call it Nerdly Advice.
This week, we have an etiquette question about the One True Batgirl.
Catching Fire Giveaway!
Sep 01
You all read The Hunger Games, right?
If the answer to that question is “no,” please stop reading this IMMEDIATELY and get thee to a bookseller/library/other place where you might find book-like things. Because this is easily one of my favorite things I’ve consumed all year, and when asked who I would recommend it to, I usually say something like “you know, people who like things that are awesome.”
Suzanne Collins’ gripping story focuses on a post-apocalyptic future wherein a ruthless government selects a group of random kids to battle it out to the death in a televised game of survival. When 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen’s younger sister is chosen to compete, Katniss volunteers to go in her place. What follows mixes a heady cocktail of crazy-brutal adventure, delicious teen romance, and deft commentary on our increasingly televised culture.
And now there’s a sequel, Catching Fire, and you — yes, YOU, lucky Alert Nerd Reader! — can win the book and some exciting swag.
Three lucky folks will win…
*A limited edition Catching Fire t-shirt, suitable for wearing to cons and post-apocalyptic death battles
*A collectible mockingjay pin, like the one Katniss wears in The Hunger Games
*Your very own copy of Catching Fire
To enter, simply leave a comment answering the following question: are you Team Peeta or Team Gale? (If you have no idea what this means, guess. We won’t bust you for not being intimately acquainted with the Games-verse just yet.)
Rules/fine print: The giveaway is open to participants with a United States mailing address only (international readers can enter if you have a friend in the States who can accept your prizes by mail!). Entrants under age 13 must have parent or guardian permission to enter. The giveaway runs from September 1 to September 25. Winners will be announced on or around September 30.
Check back with us throughout the month as we’ve got some thrilling Games/Catching Fire-related posts cookin’.
In the meantime, here’s the book trailer.
Stuff We Like This Week: August 28 Edition
Aug 28
In an effort to combat our occasional…okay, okay, near-constant negativity, we give you a regular feature full of nothing but love — Stuff We Like This Week. Appearing every Friday, SWLTW will recap the things that have set our little nerdly hearts aflame within the past seven days.
