START // 11.07.02

WINDS OF CHANGE
By Dave Potter

I put off writing this until after the midterm elections here in America, because I'm a political junkie and I was far too distracted in the run-up to Tuesday's balloting to focus my brain on writing about comics. Hell, Election Day is like Christmas, New Year's, and my honeymoon all rolled into one with the Super Bowl on in the afternoon for good measure.

Sadly, I'm still very distracted by the results of Tuesday's vote. Not so much in the "what" happened, but the "how" and "why" that it occurred. Its not something to write about here, except that a noticeable change in American's political direction will now occur in the next two years, and that change is based on narrow voting margins in a low voter turnout election-and that doesn't even get into how many registered voters there are versus how many citizens there are.

But (to borrow the phrase) I digress. Although not entirely…

In the days leading up to the election, a couple of noteworthy and seemingly unrelated events in the comics industry happened that zipped under the public consciousness. And they probably should have, as they are business matters that aren't really a big concern to the average customer. In working with Robert Scott (owner and proprietor of Comickaze, the best damn comic store in San Diego) on his piece for this week's issue, the instances were brought to my attention, and their potential implications stayed with me even through my election day obsession.

In mid-October, Marvel (big surprise to see that name come up in a discussion, I know), asked Diamond to let their customers know that the TANGLED WEB Volume 3 trade paperback had been shipped to them early, a week ahead of the street date, and asked that the item not be sold to consumers until the street date, so that comic stores wouldn't have an advantage over other outlets-primarily bookstores--for the product.

Not an unreasonable request. I'd expect that many comic shop owners complied.

But not two weeks later, the ORIGIN trade paperback shows up in some bookstores. BEFORE it ships to the comic shops.

You think Marvel asked the bookstores to hold the product back, so that they didn't have an unfair advantage of the comic shop retailers?

Of course not. That would be bad for this new and extremely profitable distribution stream that they are in the process of growing for their company.

It's far too early to say if this is a trend. But if you look at how profitable having a distribution stream for comics outside of comic stores is for publishers, you have to realize, this is where the big growth market is right now. And if you also consider that comic stores order other products-mass market paperbacks, DVDs, and toys, to name a few-through Diamond and often receive them AFTER the mainstream distribution outlets do, you have to ask-is this what's next for comics: trades and graphic novels available at Barnes and Noble before the comic shops?

It's not a crazy possibility. A lot of people have been ranting about getting comics out of comic shops and in front of the general public again for a long time. While most people focused on the newsstand as a means to do that, it just doesn't seem to work widely on a practical scale anymore. Which is what led us to the bookstores and the trade paperback form.

Like I said, one instance isn't a trend. It's nowhere near a trend. But this important business decision by the publisher begs an important question for you, the comics consumer: is it important to you where you buy your product?

I've always seen expanding into bookstores as a chicken-and-the-egg situation. There hasn't really been a pent up demand for comics in the general population that a bookstore can capitalize on. Most people that want comics get their comics from a comics-centric retailer. Barnes and Noble or Waldenbooks is a second option, or option of last resort to find something. Ergo, getting them to start stocking a healthy supply of sequential art is dependent on either getting non-regular comics customers to start snapping up comics when the bookstores put it out, and/or poaching existing customers away from comics retailers.

Don't get me wrong-getting comics into bookstores is a wonderful thing for the medium as a whole. It will move comics up from the ghetto medium perception that it has and start to legitimize it in the eyes of John Q. Public. But the cold hard truth is that growing the market in bookstores means putting them in direct competition with comics stores and rooting for the bookstores to do well, which will probably come with some price to some comics retailers.

So as that bookstore market continues to grow, if the bookstores start getting more and more product, and they get their product first…where are you, as the consumer, going to shop? Are you going to stick with your retailer, and potentially wait a little longer than others to get your hands on a book, or are you going to fall prey to the American gotta-have-it-now lifestyle? Think carefully, because even though these business decisions about how comics are sold into the retail marketplace will be made without your input, what you do in response may determine how well your retailer is able to cope with such a situation.

First off, and I doubt any loyal SAVANT reader would do this, but if you've ordered a book from a retailer and you see it in a bookstore-DON'T BUY IT. If you do, you're taking money right out of the retailer's pocket. Worse, you're sticking him with a product he ordered, believing it to be a guaranteed sale, and possibly sticking him with it as something he can't sell. Now you've not just taken the profit you were promising him on that book, but you're sticking him with a loss on the costs he incurred getting the book for your sorry ass in the first place.

It may not seem like much, but say you do it a few times a year. Now imagine that even half of the retailers customer base does that to him once a year. That's going to have a significant, noticeable effect on his bottom line.

People who do that to a retailer ought to get the shit kicked out of them. If you commit to buying something there, buy it there. No matter what crazy policy Marvel decides to pursue or how the shipping gets screwed up to your retailer, buy it there.

More importantly for the long term, whether or not you support your retailer over a local bookstore may determine if the retailer stays in business or not.

Again, hard cold truth: the bookstore market growing will probably result in the market death of comic stores who are unable to compete and entice their customers to remain with them. It's inevitable, and honestly, it'll probably weed out some bad stores that it would be best if they just disappeared anyway.

But if you like your store, and want to see it continue-if you want to see it remain as a contributor to the comic marketplace-you need to be sure that you support it and not give in to any temptations to do otherwise. You may think this isn't that big of a deal, but trust me, it is. Being a smart, informed consumer goes a long way to affecting what happens to the comics industry because we're still a relatively small medium and market. Comics in bookstores is a great thing, but not at the expense of removing a good comic store from the same town.

The winds of change are blowing-be careful you don't just get swept along because that's the direction its pushing you in. Shop wisely this holiday season, and in the future.