ComicPro, the comic retailer organization that started up a couple of years ago, released a position paper that requested the independent publishers refrain from selling their books at conventions before they release the books to retailers.

Seems reasonable to me.

Anyway, since I probably lose only a couple sales a year to pre-releases at conventions, I really don't have strong feelings.

What was interesting to me is how this relatively mild request set off a firestorm of controversy in the comics world. (For point of reference, 'direct' market is the non-returnable, but higher margin specialty market.)

All the comic shop haters came out of the woodwork.

Independents are a small fraction of the comic pie, and comic shops who sell independents are an even smaller slice of the pie, so convention sales are important to publishers. Why should we hold off, they ask, if so few of you retailers carry our product at all?

But then this punishes the few stores who do carry the product, and make it less attractive to them to carry their offerings.

I don't see that the advantage of selling early, is equal to subverting the retailer's ability to satisfy the customer, if just on a fair-play basis. But then, I'm a retailer.

But to me, this problem is just a smaller subtext to the bigger problem of independent books selling in the world outside direct comic book stores. And that problem is only going to get bigger.

The 'mainstream' comics, by which we mean mostly superhero comics from Marvel and DC, are still the vast majority of comics. But I think the trend is toward older comic buyers, who are not being replaced. So, in a sense, I think the direct market is doomed if they cling too tightly to the superhero comic model. I've gone way over to the independent book side, indeed, to all books, all illustrators, all kinds of material that isn't traditional to comic stores.

But the anti-comic store bias is alarming. I don't believe that the mass market will end up supporting the comic world anywhere near the level that the direct market does.

It's going to be a painful transition.

As the independent graphic novelists come out with their once a year offerings, it may be that the mass market bookstores will be more accommodating overall, at first. But I don't believe they can afford to lose the direct market. There are enough 'enlightened' shops like mine who carry a good cross section of graphics and cultivate interest, that I think we're at least partially responsible for creating enough interest for the mass market to carry them.

In other words, if the anti-comic shop people got their way, I think it would be the end of comics, independents and mainstream alike. I've been told that once again, the local Bend Barnes and Nobles wants to reduce their graphic novel section; two previous managers have come to the same conclusion, only to have the 'national' office order them to keep the section up. But what it says to me is that the local B & N isn't selling all those independent graphic novels. Whereas, I am. Or maybe I'm satisfied with selling two or three copies of an obscure book.

There is a whole raft of mid-list titles I carry that the mass market will never carry. It's too bad that the majority of comic shops can't be bothered to carry anything other than Spider-man and Superman and the ilk, who cater to fanboys, who keep dark and dirty clubhouse type stores. But those of us who are trying hard to create a more enlightened atmosphere shouldn't always be lumped in with the 'comic book guy.' We shouldn't be penalized because of what the majority of our compatriots do.

Bestseller lists don't tell the whole story. It comes out that the latest Naruto book sold billions at B & N, but only a few in the direct market. No doubt the local B & N sold way more than I did. But I'm carrying over 3000 other manga titles, and I keep them in stock, and long after the best-seller lists have moved on to other titles, as a specialty store I'm still selling that book.

The comic books store is squeezed in the middle by the dissatisfaction of publishers above us, and customers below us, who don't think we're doing the job. But things are changing slowly, and many of us are responding. I think the leap to the mass market, and/or the internet could be premature.

Meanwhile, I continue to mainstream my store just in case.