Just be patient. Can you do that?

The comic business is completely shut down. Some stores are selling online, but they have no access to new comics, just reorders. Personally, it looks like 4 times the effort to make 1/10^th the sales.

Went and got lunch for the boys, and on the way back found out via phone that DC comics is trying to go around the regular distribution system by selling comics through a couple of new entities. Turns out, the people behind them are the biggest mail order outfits.

So DC wants us to buy from our biggest online competitors.

That’s a big nope.

DC monthlies account for (very roughly) maybe 5% of my total sales. (I’m 20% comics/30% graphic novels/50% books and games.) Problem is, probably a good half of my comic customers buy DC comics, so that’s a worry. But I’ve decided to wait for my regular distributor to offer the same comics. If I lose any customers over this—well, frankly, they aren’t the kind of customers I want.

Look, we’re all hurting. I don’t see why the online competitors should be given preferential treatment. Just wait another few weeks to a month and then distribute to everyone at the same time.

Meanwhile, since DC has proven to be an unreliable partner, I’m going to cut their orders to shelves, and no longer give them an entire rack to themselves. They’ve been declining for years, not to mention my discount with them is actually lower than with Image, Dark Horse, IDW, and Marvel. They will join the other non-Marvel companies as just another comic publisher.

This was a slimy move on their part.

New novels are a better seller right now than monthly comics—which, believe me, I never expected. Plus they are much less risky and easier to do.  

The diversification of the store was—to some extent—because of situations like this. I don’t ever want to be at the mercy of any one product line. In some ways, the fact that I could never completely depend on comics to pay all the bills has been a blessing. It made me look for other answers.

Meanwhile, my regular distributor, Diamond Comics, it looking to restart about mid-May to June 1, which I think is acceptable. I mean, I think it’s going to be impossible for all stores to start at the same time. As long as I can point to a date within a couple of weeks of everyone else, I think most of my customers will wait.

I hope.