I was in a Barnes and Noble today. They were in the midst of pulling the comics from the shelves. I'm not sure what they are going to put in their place, but as of now it had a very unsightly emptiness.

Anyways, if you really want a hard copy book, you should probably just buy from Amazon anyway. They usually have better deals.

Amazon exclusive? I thought that Steve "No comic gets sold without my say-so!" Geppi had the monopolistic death-grip on comic distribution.

Thanks subby,

now I want a quesadilla

FirstNationalBastard: So, that's both major remaining national bookstores pulling DC Comics.

Way to go, DC. Now there's nowhere for regular people and casual buyers to see your products.

/haven't seen failure like this since the New 52.

except, you know, comic book stores.

I was in a Branes and Noble today. Plenty of DC comics on the shelves. NTTAWWT.

The shroud of the dark side has fallen. Begun, the Comic War has.

Vertdang: FirstNationalBastard: So, that's both major remaining national bookstores pulling DC Comics.

Way to go, DC. Now there's nowhere for regular people and casual buyers to see your products.

/haven't seen failure like this since the New 52.

except, you know, comic book stores.

Read comics as a kid, mom bought them for me at the local grocery store from a spinner rack. Now there isn't a place within 50 miles that sells comics that I could buy for my children. Well, there is one creepy comic book shop about a half-hour away but I'm looked at like an intruder if I don't walk in pulling a filing cabinet's worth of MtG cards. Going direct pushed comics into the back alley, fetish pornography is more mainstream than comics now.

Hopefully the move to digital will reverse the death spiral they've been in for decades. A reasonable pricing model would be helpful to, every single price increase has been because of "the increase in price of paper", lets see if virtual-item comics can get back to the 99 cent range. Not holding my breath, if there is a way to screw this up DC/Marvel will find it, but waiting to see.

In the DC area I gotta recommend Big Planet Comics. There are four stores, so it's not big or widespread or anything, but it is a fantastic place, especially for people who are more casual about comics. Brightly lit, clean stores with friendly employees (Which should be a lot more common than it is). It's just a good store and proof that not all comic book stores are dank dungeons where ogreish cashiers rule with an iron, cheeto covered hand.

the opposite of charity is justice: Vertdang: FirstNationalBastard: So, that's both major remaining national bookstores pulling DC Comics.

Way to go, DC. Now there's nowhere for regular people and casual buyers to see your products.

/haven't seen failure like this since the New 52.

except, you know, comic book stores.

Read comics as a kid, mom bought them for me at the local grocery store from a spinner rack. Now there isn't a place within 50 miles that sells comics that I could buy for my children. Well, there is one creepy comic book shop about a half-hour away but I'm looked at like an intruder if I don't walk in pulling a filing cabinet's worth of MtG cards. Going direct pushed comics into the back alley, fetish pornography is more mainstream than comics now.

Yes, I don't think that many comic book owners understand that one of the reasons they are struggling is because they view themselves as owning an "exclusive" shop. If comic shops want customers, they need to open their stores and create an open atmosphere. When I went to out local comic shop the first time, everyone in there fell silent like one of those "outlaw enters a saloon" scenes and basically stayed that way until I bought the comics I wanted for my kid. I returned a few times, specifically to show off my geek cred, but I've learned not to mention my job or my family while in the store. Though the owner is pleasant enough, he lets way too many people gather there. One of them has bad BO that you can smell throughout the store; another is an absolute prick who has literally claimed to know everything about sci-fi. He literally looked like he was going to kill me when he was talking about Battlestar Galactica and I referenced the 70s show. After a pause he said that the 70s one "didn't matter," and continued on his speech. A few weeks later, noticing I had picked up a Doctor Who comic, he proclaimed that it was one of the worst shows out there. I almost found myself in a geek fight.

/it is just hard for "normal" people to buy comics
//BaM or B&N and everyone looks at you like a weirod
///regular comic store and everyone treats you like an outcast

karl2025: It's just a good store and proof that not all comic book stores are dank dungeons where ogreish cashiers rule with an iron, cheeto covered hand.

Odd, those guys should be in the game stores between the boxes of M:TG commons and dice racks. You must have seen a couple that escaped or got fired.

Books-A-Million is still around??
They were always the white trash cousin to B&N or Borders.

The BAM that was near where I lived had a huge Bible section and not much of a world religion section. Friggin' South.

Of course DC going with Amazon is a huge mistake! Amazon, who the hell are they? I'm pretty sure this upstart'll be put back in it's place and besides they aren't going to have anything near the global distribution network of B&N or Books-a-Million. It's a major mistake on DC's part and it won't end well for them.

What? Check the Internet? Fine fine, give me a second.

Well fine they're a big company with a global distribution network and a household name but they don't have a portable colour device I can just download comics to from their website now do they? Afterall digital is the future.

Ohh.

Well I guess Books-a-Million are farked then.

Sadly, I think this is another of the death throes of the bookstore.

FirstNationalBastard: So, that's both major remaining national bookstores pulling DC Comics.

And DC Comics' sales drop one half of one percent.

FirstNationalBastard: Vertdang: FirstNationalBastard: So, that's both major remaining national bookstores pulling DC Comics.

Way to go, DC. Now there's nowhere for regular people and casual buyers to see your products.

/haven't seen failure like this since the New 52.

except, you know, comic book stores.

There are less than 3000 comic shops in the US. Comic Shops not only have a stigma of geek loser surrounding them, but are generally not friendly to regular people, and aren't necessarily somewhere a regular person would go.

However, if a regular person was in a bookstore, they would stand a chance at being exposed to comics.

Yes, if only Borders had reached out to comic books, they'd still be around.

WTF is Books-a-Million? Never heard of 'em.

I think I'm on the side of the booksellers here.

Exclusivity deals are bad for consumers and completely unprecedented in the world of book publishing.

I find it strange when people talk about not having a shop near them. I'm in Mississippi and from where I sit there are 4 shops in a 10 mile radius..

Crudbucket: Come join the anonymous and loving embrace of the internet. I get anywhere from 20-30 books a month, never once stepped foot in a comic shop. Or a Barnes & Noble.

That might be fine for this old collector, its not quite as satisfying for the younger generation who might wish to thumb through some issues to see what they enjoy.

the opposite of charity is justice: fetish pornography is more mainstream than comics now

Failing to see the problem.

Why do people still go to BN/BAM their in store prices are higher than amazon and they don't carry most older books. Why not support local bookstores if you want to buy in person or order off amazon if you are worried about price.

Find yourself a LCBS. There are plenty of clean, well-informed and helpful shops out there. They would love to do nothing better than to make you feel welcome into their stores and help promote the hobby. If you're in a major metropolitan area and you go into one that doesn't suit your fancy I can damn well guarantee that there's another one fairly close by that will.

Any comic shop staff worth your patronage is going to be more personable, knowledgeable and helpful than any BAM or B&N could ever be about comics, games and general geekery. This stigma that they're all smelly, unattractive and unwelcoming is a holdover from a time when the hobby was completely dominated by the hobbyist trying to make a living in a field that they loved, but had no practical business sense.

I'm not saying it doesn't still happen, but those are not the only type of shops out there.

I'm gong to leave this right here:

Link (new window)

Hit up a LCBS. There are many of us that won't disappoint you and would love to help and if we don't have what you're looking for we'll do our damn level best to try and get you what you want.

Spiderman never did recover from one more day.

People on the Internet like to say this a lot, but it's never actually been true. Amazing Spider-Man didn't leave the top 20 books at any time following OMD and it was shipping three times a month.

Once they managed to get some decent writers and artists on the book things turned around in a big hurry.

karl2025: In the DC area I gotta recommend Big Planet Comics. There are four stores, so it's not big or widespread or anything, but it is a fantastic place, especially for people who are more casual about comics. Brightly lit, clean stores with friendly employees (Which should be a lot more common than it is). It's just a good store and proof that not all comic book stores are dank dungeons where ogreish cashiers rule with an iron, cheeto covered hand.

Seconded, especially the friendly-employees thing.

FirstNationalBastard: Or, to put it another way... do you really think Watchmen would have sold hundreds of thousands of copies a couple years back without real bookstores?

And the high, like really high, majority of them were bought through Amazon. I know I bought 5 of them for different friends of mine who requested it.

Your point, if you had any, completely falls apart.

I think this can only help small comic book stores. With Borders gone and these two pulling DC (which won't last, it's not smart business to sit on inventory).

I'm a comic collector and the comic book store I go to is hands down much more easy and pleasant to deal with than any big book store or from the publishers directly.

Well last night Comixology was listed as number one in the Highest Grossing Apps category in the iPad app store and the DC Comics app was number 7. So they might be doing something right.

I buy all my comics digital now.

thattitanguy: Find yourself a LCBS. There are plenty of clean, well-informed and helpful shops out there. They would love to do nothing better than to make you feel welcome into their stores and help promote the hobby. If you're in a major metropolitan area and you go into one that doesn't suit your fancy I can damn well guarantee that there's another one fairly close by that will.

Those of us who live in rural areas, though, are screwed. There are three comic shops within thirty minutes. Here are two in my town, which are ironically side by side:
1) comics are generally crumpled and in godawful shape; no subscription or pull services
2) owner has a full-time job elsewhere...the shop is populated by the weirder among us and they have yet to get my pull list right...it has been eight months now and many of the things I requested be pulled end up on the shelf rather than in my folder

So, I drive thirty minutes to a little hovel of a shop that has a decent selection and relatively nice people. They also stock primarily superhero titles with even IDW and Image getting small showings. The question becomes: am I willing to drive 30 minutes each way in order to pick up comics at least once or twice a month? Nope.

I know someone else asked if I did online buying; I use mailordercomics now, but they have changed their Web site to a far more confusing layout. I also don't get the opportunity to examine a book I purchase there, as I buy mostly non-superhero indie graphic novels. As you can imagine, the quality is sporadic. I just got a shipment from mailordercomics a few days ago, and of the nine graphic novels that came in for the month, about three were ones I would legitimately buy if I flipped through them in a store. Four of them were so-so, and the other two were godawful in both art and writing.

/about to give up altogether

Problem: "Electronic media is threatening the future of book stores!"

Solution: "Let's stop selling some high-margin books!"

Let's see how that works out for them.

cefm: Problem: "Electronic media is threatening the future of book stores!"

Solution: "Let's stop selling some high-margin books!"

Let's see how that works out for them.

I think you've mis-stated the problem.

The problem isn't electronic media. B&N has embraced electronic media.

The problem is exclusivity - which is a wholly new development in the book publishing, and a bad development for consumers. The prospect of nnly being able to go to one retailer to buy a book is not one I find appealing.

I have been in comic book stores in seven states, a total of 10 or more stores, and I've never been shunned or scared off by anyone. I'm a girl too. Maybe I give off an aura of nerd.

1) Buy eComic
2) Convert file if necessary with one of thousands of available, free, highly-available one-click options to an open format with 0 loss of quality and 100% compatibility
3) Read eComic on device of your choice

I understand how, in theory, the exclusivity should be bad for consumers. But in practice, there's no actual problem.

For consumers. B&N lose out on sales but they could have just as easily lobbied DC to not do this, or even to give them exclusive deals.

Worst.Fark handle. ever.: Amazon exclusive? I thought that Steve "No comic gets sold without my say-so!" Geppi had the monopolistic death-grip on comic distribution.

You must be someone in the industry. My brother had a store back in the '80s and '90s. I haven't heard the name "Steve Geppi" for probably fifteen years.

Braindeath: Never been shunned...I'm a girl too

They aren't going to shun you. They're going to be awestruck and silently coveting.

Straelbora: Worst.Fark handle. ever.: Amazon exclusive? I thought that Steve "No comic gets sold without my say-so!" Geppi had the monopolistic death-grip on comic distribution.

You must be someone in the industry. My brother had a store back in the '80s and '90s. I haven't heard the name "Steve Geppi" for probably fifteen years.

Steve's been laying low, but a lot of the reason why many indie comics just don't see the light of day is because Geppi has a monopoly on comic distribution (or had). He made it impossible for an indie to come out with the next TMNT because Geppi would demand that you come through with guaranteed sales figures that only the top 10 publishers could reach, otherwise he would actually impose a fine on you or drop you from distribution entirely. And unless you wanted to sell your comic on a street corner by hand, kissing Geppi's ass was your _only_ option.