Injury Latest Victim Of DCD Minimums



Ted May notes that he's delaying plans to release the third issue of his Injury comic book until he can figure out how to work around the new Diamond minimums, which will deny it a place in that catalog. It also looks like this will be the last issue of the comic book, as it was a project designed for that market.

I'm sure Injury sells poorly, if not really, really poorly. What's distressing about the Diamond minimums isn't that you can't make an argument these books sell crappy, but that it shuts a lot of doors forever in terms of a certain kind of comic and a certain kind of material. I reject the notion floated that alternative comics cartoonists abandoned serial publication -- if you sit down and make a list, there were until recently a fair number of solid comic books of this type done in this format out there, just nothing other than Adrian's that succeeds along the lines of a Hate. So it was clearly a broken part of the market. My regret stems from the fact that when Diamond finally addressed it they seemed to view this market as a hassle rather than an opportunity.

I think low entry-point comics are desirable generally because that's something the DM store can do better than any other venue, and I think low entry alternative comics are specifically valuable to the wider comics world because they buttress an interest in a lot of adult patrons that can lead to a good, dependable source of income for many shops. No Injury, no Crickets, no Or Else means three fewer trips to the comic shop for me, and up to $50 less money spent on other comics at the same time I'd be buying these. Again, I'm not a representative buyer, and my $50 isn't a big deal to anyone. And like I said, this was a part of the market that didn't function well. Still, the DM chose amputation over doing anything to support or even try to fix things, and I think that says a great deal more about where that market is heading than the success or failure of any specific project.
 
posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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