And what if, in the wake of a natural disaster, those same publishers decided to stop production due to the crash of their most favored distribution node? What if, at the same time, America's book-sellers refused to accept new product from alternate sources in so-called "solidarity" with both the monopolistic distributor and the shuttered stores in hard-hit areas?
You'd think these people were nuts, would you not? No functional industry would ever leave itself susceptible to a single-point failure. (Or, at the very least, no functional industry should.) And no functional industry would embrace the failure of all just to prevent the "unfair" failure of some. If a tornado plows through Main Street destroying dozens of restaurants in its wake, the local Waffle House (if it's been left unscathed) stays open. (Indeed, Waffle House is famous in the South for that very reason. As folks say, "If the Waffle House is closed, you know you're effed!")
Alas, key members of comic book industry have apparently decided that functionality is passé.
Due to stuff that happened in the 1990's, Diamond has basically had sole control of the direct market in comics for the past few decades. I was a normie not too long ago -- but once I started getting into comic books, even I didn't need a global pandemic to recognize that the complacency re: Diamond was both deeply weird and deeply stupid. Again: why on Earth would any smart business leave itself that vulnerable to total collapse? What the hell was everybody thinking?
Fortunately, there's at lease one brave soul at DC who possesses half a brain cell. Realizing that it makes no sense at all to arrest the sale of their finished (and nearly-finished) books just for the sake of maintaining the pre-corona status quo ante, this wise salesperson (or salespeople) has decided to look for ways to work around the flailing Diamond and get his/her/their product to market. This is good! This is exactly how the industry can keep fans engaged and creators gainfully employed.
Yet a hearty "reeeeee!" has risen up in certain quarters over DC's decision to seek out new distribution channels. Within these circles, DC's thoroughly logical move has been treated as an unconscionably greedy breaking of the ranks -- because in the view of these bizarre communist ideologues, every comic book publisher, creator, and retailer is morally obligated to remain on the sinking ship and not make a run for a lifeboat.
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My eyes rolled so hard just now that I actually saw my own optic nerves.
I understand wanting to help creators and retailers who are struggling. But you can't do that with rainbows and unicorn farts. You can only do it with cold, hard cash -- and that means you have to keep selling books by any means necessary. You can't just sit around and wait for municipalities to lift their public health restrictions. You can't just sit around and wait for Diamond to get its shit together. Stopping everything out of some misguided quest for "equality" will only leave creators and retailers equally unable to pay their rents.
In short, if you want to ensure your fellow professionals survive, you must act like you're members of an industry, not a commune. This is not the time for grand suicidal gestures; this is a time for common sense.
Fortunately, there's at lease one brave soul at DC who possesses half a brain cell. Realizing that it makes no sense at all to arrest the sale of their finished (and nearly-finished) books just for the sake of maintaining the pre-corona status quo ante, this wise salesperson (or salespeople) has decided to look for ways to work around the flailing Diamond and get his/her/their product to market. This is good! This is exactly how the industry can keep fans engaged and creators gainfully employed.
Yet a hearty "reeeeee!" has risen up in certain quarters over DC's decision to seek out new distribution channels. Within these circles, DC's thoroughly logical move has been treated as an unconscionably greedy breaking of the ranks -- because in the view of these bizarre communist ideologues, every comic book publisher, creator, and retailer is morally obligated to remain on the sinking ship and not make a run for a lifeboat.
...
...
...
My eyes rolled so hard just now that I actually saw my own optic nerves.
I understand wanting to help creators and retailers who are struggling. But you can't do that with rainbows and unicorn farts. You can only do it with cold, hard cash -- and that means you have to keep selling books by any means necessary. You can't just sit around and wait for municipalities to lift their public health restrictions. You can't just sit around and wait for Diamond to get its shit together. Stopping everything out of some misguided quest for "equality" will only leave creators and retailers equally unable to pay their rents.
In short, if you want to ensure your fellow professionals survive, you must act like you're members of an industry, not a commune. This is not the time for grand suicidal gestures; this is a time for common sense.
I wouldn't expect Marvel to break ranks, as Disney would probably prefer to close down the comic book part of the business. They are in the IP businesses, not the selling of comic books business. So in Diamond going under gives them the excuse to shed a part of the company that wasn't making much money anyway, why try to stop it?
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