Comments on: FM International Not Dead; Coming Distribution Crisis

By: Is the Last Independent Comic Distributor Calling It Quits? » Comics Worth Reading

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:49:49 +0000

[...] Capital City staff tried to make a go of it with FMI, but after going backlist-only in 2006, they shut down a couple of months later. That left only Cold Cut Distribution, who [...]

By: David Lillie

David Lillie — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:25:14 +0000

I think the industry will be around in 10 years, but not in it’s current form. As Diamond continues to contract comic readership by stagnating market diversity, comic retailers will be the first to pay the price. Retailers need to realize that their superhero fanbase isn’t going to be growing and coming to the rescue – and that unless they stock their shelves with a variety of titles, nobody else is going to be interested in contributing business either.

I think if the Direct Market continues on it’s current trajectory, it’ll either collapse or shrink to an even more negligible size. However, taking a breif tour around the internet, and marketing my own stuff, there is a massive potential readership for comics out there – and a growing army of new, progressive creators. Comics are headed for a renaissance – and the market will inevitably follow. The only question is, are retailers going to be able to get on the inside of this movement in readership, or will they stay trapped on the outside with Diamond?

By: shawn

shawn — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:59:08 +0000

the industry will always be messed up.as long as diamond is in the driver seat. comic shops dont get to choose what there customers want.it is a monopoly the industry will not be around the next 10 years.

By: Matthew High

Matthew High — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 00:45:02 +0000

Probably a lower percentage than that. A run-of-the-mill, decent independent small-press comic book will usually only be available in between 300-500 comic book stores worldwide — but most of those stores are only ordering one or two copies for pull-and-hold customers. Maybe 100, possibly 200 of those stores actually order enough to rack in the “new releases” section of their store — and I’m willing to bet that if we took a day or two we could probably put together a comprehensive list that covers 90% of those “indy-friendly” retailers.

Most comics retailers only use or two suppliers on a regular basis, simply because more suppliers == more work. But, then again, I think I could safely say that retailers that use few suppliers are not the type of retailer that is prone to order heavy on indy comics titles, anyway.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:29:49 +0000

Brian does go into that in his comments, but it requires a progressive, in-touch comic retailer who’s willing to work with more than one distributor. I think that percentage of all comic shops is as low as the percentage that actively stock and support independent titles. (Somewhere from 10-20%?)

By: Alex Cox

Alex Cox — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 04:42:00 +0000

What people are failing to mention, is that it is pretty easy to get books through distributors that aren’t comic-centric…. many of our orders come from “real book” distributors, who can keep us eyeballs deep in titles from Pantheon, Scholastic, etc…

It’s not like the loss of FM entirely signals the dominance of superheroes or the narrowing of market content… it could be that stores are using their resources towards other distribution sources….

We get books from over seven suppliers, not counting FMI, and we still haven’t set up a Last gasp account.

That’s a lot of choices out there for a store our size- more than I expected at least….

-a

By: Dave Carter

Dave Carter — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 00:49:29 +0000

I think that distribution has been the secret story all along. The funny book business is still dealing with the fallout of Marvel’s decision to buy Heroes World lo those many years ago…