Happy New Year and Welcome, 2023!
It’s still a time of transition when it comes to local comics shops and where they get their, well, wares!
Diamond has been celebrating their 40th anniversary recently, and they still call themselves “the largest distributor of English-language comics, toys, games, and preservation supplies worldwide.” I’m just not sure if that’s still the case, but they do remain at least “one of” the biggest around. Only time will tell if that continues in the years ahead.
Penguin and Lunar have certainly taken a huge bite of the distributor numbers, and I don’t see that slowing down as 2023 progresses. In fact, I see them grabbing even more of the LCS orders! A lot of my friends still think that the shake-up of comics distributors is not yet over. There are still at least two other companies standing on the sidelines, waiting to jump into the game. I think they need to make their moves sooner rather than later, and I expect things to happen before Free Comic Book Day in May.
When I’m looking up products I need to keep track of, I go to the Lunar site more than ever now! Granted, I am a big DC guy, but I see more and more companies being part of their services. I’ll be closely watching what transpires this year when it comes to how many comics companies they partner with.
I wondered just how long Batman would reign supreme at DC! Apparently, not long, if the signs and portents I’m seeing are predicting correctly!
Last year, I talked about how the Dark Knight was so popular that he was generating what I called “Bat-alikes,” heroes and other characters that he obviously inspired.
This year, it sure seems like Superman is the head of DC’s future—at least, that’s how it looks to me!
The new leaders of the Warner Bros. Discovery company have turned their focus to the Man of Steel, looking for a younger actor to play him. It sure sounds like they are going to “restart” the DCU when it comes to the big and small screens.
This all is borne out by the “reboot” of their animated line with a Superman film last year. It was called Superman: Man of Tomorrow. It’s much like I think the new live-action movies will be, showing the Man of Steel as he begins his career.
May I please say, though, to Henry Cavill that I will support anything you are involved with moving forward? I’m grateful that I got to enjoy you as Superman, and I will miss your version of the character tremendously!
I have to say that, in 2022, I found myself being more and more frustrated by the comiXology site that is part of Amazon.
Now I find that once I choose a digital comic there, I have to go to the Kindle app to read it! I don’t like how either the Amazon site or the Kindle app work! They are both very difficult to navigate. They still are trying to shift me to pages on Amazon that I have absolutely no interest in, like homewares and clothing and such!
In fact, I’m actively looking for other digital comics sites that make the books I want available more easily! I’m open to suggestions!
I know that many LCS’s are struggling with when books are released. DC wants their comics out on Tuesdays (the day of the week many “regular” books come out) while Marvel and the other companies seem to favor Wednesdays, the day comics have been put up for sale the last several years. (Hey, I remember when Friday was the day comics were released!)
Some stores hold back the Tuesday haul until Wednesday so they don’t have to have TWO “release” days a week. On the other hand, some stores are quietly selling DC books on Tuesday while saying the new comics don’t come out until Wednesday. They don’t want customers to spend their money at other stores, after all! Other than that, some stores are okay with both Tuesday AND Wednesday attracting customers to their front doors!
There’s been another interesting and confusing thing that’s been happening lately, and that is when DC sends stores not one, but TWO weeks worth of comics occasionally. For instance, it happened during the recent holiday season.
See, I make up the list of the books I am looking forward to buying and take it to the shop I frequent. I recently wondered if DC would release more than one week around Christmas, and they sure did that! Some stores sold both (it saves customers a trip to the shop one week) and some held them back so they would come out on their release date.
The bad news was that not all the books were shipped! I’m still missing a few of the comics that were hitting the stands on the 20th (or the 21st, depending on the shop). If they don’t come soon, I’ll have to turn to other stores or even eBay to try and catch up! ARGH!
I get that they were trying to save some money by shipping them all at once, but on some levels, I’m having to work harder since I didn’t get them all!
The year 2022 saw a serious improvement over 2021. Conventions came back, stores re-opened, and creators got to actually SELL materials some of them had been working on for two years! Free Comic Book Day is back on the first Saturday of May, and I can hear cash registers already getting ready to sell lots of comics on that day again! Maybe that Halloween comics day will actually gear up to be something fun in 2023!
I’m actually buying more Marvel than I have in years! I like the Namor mini-series, but I am still ticked about how Ben Reilly has been handled! Boooo, House of Ideas!
However, I’m very optimistic about this year! When I hear about comics that are scheduled to come out in the months ahead, I’m happy as I can be!
The fly in the ointment for me is DC. I hope Warner Bros. Discovery actually gets their act together and doesn’t hurt the heroes and characters I tend to favor. The Henry Cavill fiasco (as I like to call it) really got me worried! That was just plain chaos! I’m also afraid that the Batman bubble has burst, and we’ll see less instead of more stories featuring the Dark Knight.
I want HBO Max to continue in some form, maybe taking in and bringing new episodes about the heroes formerly on The CW. Stargirl would be a great start! It’s great to read Geoff Johns stories again, by the way!
Still, 2023 looks to be another great improvement over recent years. I hope everyone stays well, gets the books they are hoping for, and we actually see some major steps forward! Just what those might be, I’m not sure. But a nice surprise or two would be excellent!
What do you think? What would you like to see happen this year? What can your LCS do to help make you a better customer? What comics are you looking forward to? Whatever your opinions, be sure to share your thoughts below!
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