CoVID-19 putting the nail on the coffin of Comic Books Stores?


anatess2
 Share

Recommended Posts

Diamond Comics Distributors - the major distributor of comic books in North America just announced that due to CoVID-19 they are halting distribution of all new comics.  This might just be it - the nail on the coffin of the Comic Book Retailers.

Comic Book Retailers are already struggling with low sales due to the diminished excitement over comic books.  The comic book collectors I know say it started after SJW nonsense permeated Marvel and DC.  I kinda have to agree especially with the "New and Exciting Characters!!!" offerings of Marvel's New Warriors (would you believe that 2 of the main characters of New Warriors are gender non-binary twins - yes, that is the way they are promoted - named Snowflake and Safe Space, and another character is an internet-connected kid named Screentime that got his powers because of an experimental internet gas leak?  Internet gas... Hah hah!) and Children of the Atom (new mutant characters who are promoted as "Zoomers" that do progressive things like go on Reddit... Hah hah).

Anyway, retailers have been starving for anything that sells other than multiple collector covers of the same popular comic books.  But with Diamond Comics stopping new distribution, they won't even have that!

Marvel writers are saying, "digital comics is the future".  That may be.  But that's a completely different beast than the Comic Book audiences that are into the thing not just for iconic characters but, more importantly, for collections.  They've been digital for a while and digital sales have shown to be abysmal.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robsalkowitz/2020/03/24/final-crisis-diamond-comic-distributors-halts-shipments-of-new-comics-in-response-to-covid-19-shutdowns/#346870182c71

Image result for new warriors snowflake safe space

Edited by anatess2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Colirio said:

Wouldn’t a digital comic be a cartoon movie/show? 
 

 

Because it seems that a digital comic with still frames would be an exceptionally boring thing to read through... 

I've read quite a few Marvel comics on my smart phones the last few years.  I enjoy them.  The app goes frame by frame zooming in on some parts and pulling back on others.  It's not the same as physical comics, but the convenience is nice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Comic... Books?  Is that like an app or something?

Seriously, I don't expect COVID to have any impact.  Star Trek Discovery is delaying their season 3, and sharing info on how various production elements can make progress with people working from home, and other elements just have to be done in a studio with people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, anatess2 said:

Diamond Comics Distributors - the major distributor of comic books in North America just announced that due to CoVID-19 they are halting distribution of all new comics.  This might just be it - the nail on the coffin of the Comic Book Retailers

Good. Comic books today are a waste of trees. Not that they were ever anything really special (maybe certain individual issues like Action Comics 1), but today they're worse than useless, as illustrated by Snowflake and Safespace.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest MormonGator
36 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

Seriously, I don't expect COVID to have any impact. 

It won't. Those of us who collect will get right back on the train after this craziness ends. In fact, the downtime has given me more time to reorganize my collection. 

22 minutes ago, Vort said:

Comic books today are a waste of trees. Not that they were ever anything really special

That you dislike yet another one of my hobbies fills my heart with joy. If you suddenly talked about how much you liked comics I'd take my 4,000 books out to the backyard and burn them. 

Edited by MormonGator
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

That you dislike yet another one of my hobbies fills my heart with joy. If you suddenly talked about how much you liked comics I'd take my 4,000 books out to the backyard and burn them. 

I overstate for humorous and/or dramatic effect.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest MormonGator
Just now, Vort said:

Which is it?! Humorous or dramatic? Be specific, man!

lol. 

Comics have always been a hobby for losers (not insulting anyone, like I just mentioned I'm a lifelong collector). Growing up the cool kids thought it was childish, dorky, etc. Now, the comic movies have become "hip". I'm ambivalent about that. On one hand, it's nice to see my childhood heroes get widespread acclaim and admiration. On the other hand, I hate the Marvel universe movie fans with a passion because they weren't there when the true comic fans were getting beaten up in 6th grade. Now, I guess the cranky conservatives are complaining about them too. Oh well.  We've heard it all before, so it's just noise. Comics will survive. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, MormonGator said:

On the other hand, I hate the Marvel universe movie fans with a passion because they weren't there when the true comic fans were getting beaten up in 6th grade.

Oh, they were there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest MormonGator
3 minutes ago, Vort said:

Oh, they were there.

True. It's funny in some ways, but if you were the one getting teased, it loses it's humor. Not because it's not funny, but because we've heard it all before. 

I guess we (comic fans) won the end. We've gotten great enjoyment from our hobby and made wonderful, lifelong friends from it. I'll take that. 

Edited by MormonGator
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest MormonGator
27 minutes ago, Vort said:

I deeply admire people that can retire on $20.

Even the first appearance of him (different from the series, of course) is worth only about 150-200$ in mint. Anything below 9 would get you a lot less. I don't collect a lot of X-Men, so if I'm wrong, I'm doing it from memory and a rough estimation. 

Edited by MormonGator
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, MormonGator said:

Even the first appearance of him (different from the series, of course) is worth only about 150-200$ in mint. Anything below 9 would get you a lot less. I don't collect a lot of X-Men, so if I'm wrong, I'm doing it from memory and a rough estimation. 

Hah. I just got mine back from CGC about a month ago. 7.5 grade might get me 3 large pizzas. This is what happens when as a teenager you actually read your comics and then think they are still going to be worth money = not.

1001705353_Untitled-1copy.thumb.jpg.91bb1ad1848ba201cbff1dbccaaad88f.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, many kids used to read the comics when I was young.  Some of the characters looked a little different, and I don't believe Marvel was a big comic book company at the time.  They also used to have serials in the paper on the comic section.  I think they had those at least until the 80s.  I think Flash Gordon used to be one, Annie I think was another and then there was the Phantom.  One of the later ones that I felt was kind of notorious was more of a soap opera type comic called Brenda Starr (or I think that is what it was called).  Even as an adult I used to read those on the comics pages in the newspaper so I suppose I was an avid comic reader for a time even as an adult as I read those every day (and you had to or you'd lose the plot after a week of not reading).

Comics used to be available all over the place as a kid, but as I've gotten older they've disappeared a great deal.  I had a few from when I was a kid, but I have no idea what happened to them.  I think my children most likely found them and read/confiscated them at some point.  If I do have them they are somewhere in our storage boxes, but no idea where.  Maybe I should go looking for them.  I don't think anyone would be interested in them today as they were very different than what I see today.  They were normally self contained adventures in the books themselves and some of the characters looked different. I did pick up a few later on that seemed to be bigger things than other ones.

One of the BIG events that I think got everyone interested was when my kids were still at home.  They had the Death of Superman.  Everyone got excited about that.  I don't think it was necessarily a nerd thing or geek thing, but something everyone sort of related to.  They brought him back later, but at the time it was a major event. 

I think part of the problem with comic books after that is that they saw the success of that event and then started making it a regular thing.  They started killing off the star Super heroes like candy and then brining them back.  Instead of the rare event it used to be, it turned into something that happened every year or more often.  I do not know how many times Superman or Batman or the Flash or another hero has died since then.  What used to be a major event is no longer all that startling. 

In addition, they don't have those serials (or they don't in the local papers) in the comic pages anymore.  They still have kids who like comics though.  I found that a little while ago they started having comics again at Walmart and I picked them up for a grandson that absolutely loves comic books.  He has loved the comic book characters since he was really little.  He just became a teenager.  He has a LOT of TV shows at home with Comic book characters that his parents let him watch.

I was trying to collect sets of them for his birthday of the various heroes.  He told me he prefers the trade paperbacks though these days which collect entire stories in one go.  I had picked up a few of these I suppose at the hardware store as they were selling these on the racks and I thought of him.  If he is any indication of the trends (and I know it is anecdotal as he is ONE kid out of millions) it seems that the hot thing today is not necessarily the comic books on the stands, but the trade paperbacks.  That seems to be what he wants rather than what ever is being released these days.

I'm not sure what I'll get him this Christmas, but it will probably be trade paperback comics.  I don't know how the bookstores will be doing after this, but I do know that they seem to have shelves and shelves of those comic books (that are more like paperbacks that have collected a LOT of the past stories within their covers).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest MormonGator
7 hours ago, NeedleinA said:

This is what happens when as a teenager you actually read your comics and then think they are still going to be worth money = not.

Yup. Happens with baseball cards too. We think we'll send out kids to college by selling our baseball card collection, but it's not worth much when your best card is a D-list catcher from the 1992 Seattle Mariners. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You have to have the right Collectible in the right shape to be able to sell anything for good money. It is doable but The accessibility through the Internet killed a lot of prices.  I had planned on selling all my comics years ago until I saw what the Internet did to the values. I’ve told my boys to try selling them in about 30 or 40 years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, NeedleinA said:

Hah. I just got mine back from CGC about a month ago. 7.5 grade might get me 3 large pizzas. This is what happens when as a teenager you actually read your comics and then think they are still going to be worth money = not.

1001705353_Untitled-1copy.thumb.jpg.91bb1ad1848ba201cbff1dbccaaad88f.jpg

I'll buy it from you for $20.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share