Interesting times in the comic biz.

Had a really bad dream last night.  Usually I'm alone in some nameless city, lost, no job, no friends, no family, trying to find a place to hide.

It's weird how things can be going so well in my life and yet I have these horrid dreams. I think these dreams are warnings not to get cocky and to be nice.

I'm having to take a step back in my opinions, basically. This really is a time to listen and absorb, to meantime, take care of the basics. The store is doing surprisingly well. In fact, I think we'll come out of this essentially unharmed. I'm out the money I spent on the flooring, but that was an investment.

I've become one of those old guys who talks about how I've lived in Bend my whole life, and how my store has been around for 40 years, and the "good (bad) old days." But I really am proud of it. Not just that we've survived, but that we continually improve. That's the hard part--not just limping to the finish line but thriving.

I do hope the store can get passed along.

I keep thinking I'm going to get back to writing, but then another disruption comes along. As I posted a few days ago, DC comics (30% of the market) has changed distributors. As I posted on one of the retailer forums, "Name one tangible benefit from this development." Three days later, I'm still waiting.

It's going to add costs and complications, but that's sometimes the way business goes. More alarmingly, it puts the rest of the industry in jeopardy, and I'm not certain the industry as a whole is strong enough to withstand it.

I'm always fascinated by people's reactions to these events. What comes out from the outside observers, the customers and creative people, is a certain hate for Diamond Distribution. I think this is mostly because some retailers have so continually complained about our distributor that everyone thinks they are horrid, when in fact, they are pretty good. (A little secret--I believe some retailers use the distributor as their whipping boy, "Oh, I don't have that comic because Diamond shorted me" or the like. Which is sad, because when I legitimately need the explanation, I think the customers wonder if I'm lying. I try to never lie.)

But the same people who hate Diamond, generally hate comic shops in general. We're all the "comic book guy" stereotype. These people would like for nothing more than that comic shops and Diamond distributors to be swept away.

Here's the thing: There is nothing that will replace them. No one has the money or interest to come in and save the day. I suspect instead that the monthly comics model would essentially disappear as an industry (maybe survive as some sort of boutique type business) and be replaced by graphic novels only, distributed by book publishers and wholesalers. This would represent a significant but not fatal percentage of our sales.

But for most "comic" shops, as well as for most creators, it would be the end. This isn't hyperbole--we may really be reaching the buggy whip\ stage of our devolution. Oh, well. The comic industry has been dying since it began, (From millions of sales for single issues, to hundreds of thousands, to tens of thousands, to thousands....) so it will probably keep limping along.

We'll just keep continually adjusting, as we always have. We were on course for a record year in March, and I'm hoping that we'll still have a decent one.