Broken System Article by aviewaskewed, 04:00 PM 09th May Disclaimer: The following column is entirely the opinions of the author (even at that we aren‘t sure), any similarity to the opinions of any other staff or affiliate of theendlesscrew.com is entirely coincidental and unintentional. Unless specifically noted otherwise, all creator comments have been gleaned from other sources and no creators have actually endorsed any aspect of this column. DC is changing their logo, anybody else starting to think that they’re ready to do just about anything to score some headlines? So today, we’re going to talk about the distribution system, and publishers solicitations, and why these things need to change to a degree. A few years back, when Blade 2 came out, Marvel solicited a book called “Blade: Duel With Dracula” which was going to reprint a bunch of issues of Tomb of Dracula (the storyline near the end of the series where Deacon Frost created a vampire Blade), so being a big Tomb of Dracula fan, I ordered it. Then I waited, and waited, and waited, and it never came out. I’ll finally be able to get my hands on those issues when my long delayed copy of Essential Tomb of Dracula volume 3 arrives at my store. These two examples illustrate a point that really needs to be addressed in comics: the distribution system is seriously broken. It is insane to me that a publisher can solicit a book, and then decide not to publish that book, in the case of the first Blade book I mentioned, Marvel did not see fit to tell my retailer, either personally, or through Diamond (the comics distributor that just about every retailer uses) that the book would not be published, and to at least tell anyone who had placed an order for it that that would be the case, and/or to make it up to us (which may have actually happened on a silent note when Marvel began to put out the whole series in chronological order with their Essentials program). The other example, is a situation which I believe falls on both Diamond and Marvel, as I was unable to acquire the book at either my local Waldenbooks, or at my comic shop, in both cases, I was told Marvel’s solicits were once again wrong, and that the book did not exist (hell, when I went to the bookstore, I had an ISBN for the book for god’s sake, and they STILL couldn’t find it in they’re system!). How is this good business? How is soliciting product, creating a demand for it, and then not meeting that demand, going to keep customers coming back? It won’t, pure and simple, and it’s going to be yet another barrier to industry growth. We’ve seen retailers sue over this (the bigger ones anyway), and yet even with that suit settled, I still see the goofs popping up. You can’t entirely blame the publishers though, there’s books Diamond has been responsible for putting out (such as reprints of Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg) that have never turned up (I know that because I’m one of the people who ordered it through their retailer, and still have yet to see the book), why is this happening? Is it incompetence? Or is it just that these people think they can jerk their customers around, and they’ll just keep coming back like junkies for their next fix? I happen to think it’s more the latter, and that Diamond is simply unable to deal with being the dominant distributor in this industry. To the first one, I point to what I said above about new customers, at this point, those of us really entrenched in the industry, who have followed it for years, ordered and bought books for years, we are cynical, we KNOW there’s a lot of garbage that’s going on behind the scenes, that ultimately comes out in the books that make us wonder why we even bother. Sadly, we’ve actually come to expect this kind of jerking around to a degree, but you think this is a way to build new customers? To build support? No way! Nobody is going at the age of the average comic reader is going to come into the industry fresh, and accept these sorts of practices, and really, we shouldn’t either, it’s insane as I said to go to the store, and if you can’t find what you want, or you have to order it, and then wonder to yourself when the store says “yeah, we can try and get this for you” whether you’ll ever get it or not. Out of print is one thing, but if it’s supposed to be new product, it’s ridiculous that publishers, and Diamond, are not seeing it as they’re responsibility to have a system in place for customers who get jilted when the product doesn’t come. That’s the biggest thing that I’m pushing for right now, and that retailers and readers should demand, that a system be put into place, either by Diamond, or by the individual publishers, to inform readers when plans change, and things aren’t coming out on time, or simply not coming out. I find it ridiculous that no such system exists, and that retailers wind up just as clueless as the reader, hey, these people are running a business guys, and their business is selling your product! If Joe Average consumer walks into a comic store, and the clerk at the counter is clueless as to why they can’t get the book(s) they want, who do you think they’ll blame? The retailer, and then they don’t shop at his store, and if that happens enough times, he goes out of business, and you lose another outlet to sell your wares. There really needs to be more cooperation between publisher, distributor, and retailer, that’s what I want people to take away from this article, we just shouldn’t see stories of people having to wait months and months, only to give up when they hear no word of a books existence, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and damages publisher credibility (the amount of Marvel I buy dropped off very sharply after some of my orders weren’t filled). Fix the system, and the industry is in a better place to create new customers now, rather then just continuously aiming at kids, and indoctrinated them into the hardened cynics we’ve become. Back to Rants