Once More Around The Mulberry Bush

Two responses -- one direct, one not -- to issues of Diamond's shift in emphasis in 2009.

* the gossip columnist and creator Rich Johnston puts on display the strangest definition of "wrong" ever, when he agrees with my assumption that there could be other issues at work driving these moves beyond a four percent decline in business by providing examples of exactly what I'm suggesting.

Johnston further asks if I think it's important that Diamond survive. Of course I do. Diamond collapsing would be disastrous, both for the decimation to comics' infrastructure and the way it would lock up money in a system that's under-capitalized to begin with. But if that's what at issue, let's have that discussion, then, and not this low-key barrage of vaguely portentous press releases, deck-chair rearrangement and obfuscation. For a start, let's have some reconciliation on the idea that the elimination of items in which we're told relatively no one has any interest significantly helps solve problems hitting the part of the business that doesn't traffic in them. I don't get that. If Diamond and the DM is as sick as Johnston suggests, or is even at risk to the extent many people watching the general worldwide economy might guess, refining a system so that it excludes Crickets seems to me like the 49th of 50 moves you'd want to make. Where are the reforms that hit comics that people actually buy? If DC or Marvel or Diamond itself has wet the bed, why should Rick Veitch sleep on the floor? Who does that help?

In my original piece I expressed sympathy with Diamond. I want them to be a better business, too. I'm in no way a Diamond basher: I think in their period of dominance they've done many things surprisingly well, some things they've done well according to any standard. I just don't get these decisions. All I'm suggesting is that 1) strict minimums may not be the smartest way to engage in reform, but is in fact an easy way to do that and one that keeps with comics' archaic standard of "fairness" and perhaps even Diamond's lingering self-conception as one comics distributor among many. 2) These changes could have a drastic long-term effect much bigger than the immediate impact and in effect close a lot of doors and options forever. Forever. 3) They are taking place in a way that suggests either no Big Picture for the Direct Market or one that emphasizes a Big Picture that the Direct Market is in many ways ill-suited to fulfill. 4) The moves have been made too quickly. 5) Other options are available to them that accomplish many of the same goals.

* the retailer and industry advocate Brian Hibbs looks at the Chris Butcher's post on Viz having a huge swathe of their back catalog de-listed as less of a big deal, because those books don't sell. I don't think anyone who's pointed this out hasn't freely admitted that the books feeling the impact are marginally successful at best, irrelevant at worst. Butcher's post in particular is much less alarmist than even my own.

What I believe Butcher's argued and the point on which I think we find agreement is that it's yet another example of Diamond quickly and perhaps irrevocably shifting away from one model -- the traditional comic shop model, no less -- to another, vaguely defined one. It's weight loss with a chain saw. It's a winnowing of options with a risk of permanency. With the rise of other options for buying comics, I'm uncertain whether these are the wisest decisions, particularly long-term. Just because it's unlikely that a majority of comics stores would ever have become like The Beguiling or Comix Experience doesn't decrease my sorrow when that likelihood gains structural force to bolster its cultural and economic momentum. Just because the markets have been largely unable to support certain books doesn't mean I didn't hold out hope that it one day would, and that the DM could lead.

You know, I used to argue that if the Direct Market system would embrace reform, a first step could be to make it an industry-wide value whereby anyone could walk into any comics store and be able to receive accurate information about any comic and, if they wanted, order any comic still in print with a reasonable expectation to receive that book. Not only does this seem less likely than ever to happen, it appears increasingly beside the point of what the DM insists on becoming. Comics history is full of stories of late-comers and second chances. It breaks my heart to see comics shutting doors instead of keeping them slightly ajar.
 
posted 7:15 am PST | Permalink
 

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