Episode 45: Retailers Are Brainstorming
First of all, go read Brian Hibb’s latest “Tilting At Windmills” column at The Comics Beat.
At the end of it, there’s a link to a document that a group of retailers are working on. It’s their suggestions for ways to improve and stabilize the Direct Market in ways that would be friendlier towards retailers.
That document now requires permission to read. I don’t know how freely they’re granting that, to be honest. This podcast’s dramatic reading of the article may be as close you get to it.
The topics on the suggestion list cover everything from trade paperbacks being released too soon to new ways to handicap digital comics even more to attempts at sticking it to Marvel and DC as often as possible to save the retailers from themselves.
OK, that last part might be overstating it. But just a little… Take a listen and see what you think.
The New York Times Asks: Can Comics Survive the Coronavirus
Previously on the Pipeline Comics Podcast: Direct Market Doom and Gloom
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My first reaction to this document was, hmmm this sounds awfully like micro-management. How to solve traffic problem, first make sure all the cars are blue. I’m sure all those points are valid from a retailer’s standpoint, but they’re awfully minute details, there is nothing in there about the big picture, overall flaws of the system. The comparison I was looking for is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Looks like they know the system is doomed but they’re hiding their heads in the sand, focusing on the ants.
By big picture I mean, kids don’t read anymore, unless it’s manga. Someone in the business ever analyzed why that is ? Entertainment is to be consumed on a phone, at best on a tablet. Etc, etc…