Episode 53: DC Dumps Diamond

Two Must Read notes before listening to this podcast:

First, it was recorded on Saturday morning while news and rumors were still in the midst of breaking and I hadn’t even read much of them yet. I almost didn’t publish this because parts of it felt incomplete in the light of new thoughts. But the second half is so “timeless,” that it didn’t seem right to bury it.

Second: DC does not own the two new distributors that are launching to carry their books. But when two smaller companies rely on one client for 99% of their business, that client controls the game. DC might as well own them.

Also, I think of UCS and Lunar as one distributor. Since they broke up the country into exclusive halves but have the same deal with DC, then it might as well be one. I suppose they chose to split things up like this in case one can’t handle it and they can hand the other half of the business off to the more successful distributor?

Links of interest:

ComicsBeat.com has the news: “DC Pulls out of Diamond…”

Brian Hibbs and Dennis Barger agree on something: This is Bad.

The Script:

This episode started with a script, and I’m including that below. I don’t know how faithful I was to it, exactly….

Let’s cut to the chase:

AT&T wants to own the whole vertical stack.

They already own enough of the multimedia properties.  By buying Warner Bros, they have all the infrastructure they need to make all the tv shows, movies, streaming shows, etc.  I don’t think they own any of the Big Five publishers, but that’s likely only because they’re cash strapped now.

They own a comic book company, which is just a low stakes way of feeding the IP beast of everything else.

But the comic book company operates at the will of other “partners.”

And so DC started up their own distributors, in effect, and left the one that they weren’t connected to.

I thought AT&T would rather have TWO in case ONE failed. No, now it looks like they just want to control everything. 

But, what would be next for AT&T to own?

The printing press!  Problem is, owning an entire plant just for comics is overkill.  You need to run those machines far more regularly to get your money’s worth, and they don’t own another book publisher.  Does Warners own other magazine companies?

Next, digital distribution!  Do they want to fight Amazon, though?

Finally, comics production!  They need their own bullpen. Stop relying on unprofessional freelancers and their constant whining about being artistic and needing more time and watching deadlines fly past them.  Bring that stuff in house!  Make your own bullpen.

Yes! It’s time for CrossGen 2.0.  A page a day, ten issues a year, monthly books. Regular, recurring product of a certain quality.

It’s right up their alley.  Corporate management and control, a bunch of cubes, an HR department that’s likely as ineffective as every other company’s, but it’s the kind of thing you’re supposed to have, or so your MBA taught you, etc.

I could very easily see creators moving towards Burbank for the health care plan, 401k, etc.  Real estate is likely cheap right now.  Just buy a mall and stock it full of creatives.  Artists doing a page a day.  Writers doing two or three books a month.

CrossGen didn’t work for everyone, but it works for enough people that you could really create a strong line of books with strong creators who thrive in such an environment.

This is likely crazy talk, but really — what’s so crazy anymore?  Every other crazy thing we couldn’t imagine ever happening is happening these days.

But the big question here is, will this new distribution plan work?  Or is DC about to prove the old truism about those who don’t learn from history being doomed to repeat it?  Did Marvel and Heroes World prove nothing?  It IS a different situation.  We don’t have a dozen different distributors. We have, effectively, two.  And now Marvel is exclusive to one, and DC to the other. 

We thought DC created their own distribution network so they had redundancy in place.  Instead, they’re trying to own it outright.  Great plan, until there’s a pandemic and the government shuts you down like they did Diamond not too long ago…