For the first time in a loooong time, and certainly for the first time I’m aware of there will be absolutely NO NEW COMICS from Diamond Comics Distributors on the shelves of your local comic shop in the week following Christmas. Instead the last new comic book day in the UK for 2009 will be 24th December. Then the next new comic book day will be Thursday 7th January:
From the Diamond Advisory:
Diamond Skip Week Advisory: No New Product Shipments Week of DECEMBER 28.
In consideration of UPS’ holiday delivery schedule, and in consultation with retailers and publishers, Diamond will not be shipping product to customers the week of December 28.“Most of our customers receive their shipments via 1-Day, 2-Day, or 3-Day UPS, with 3-Day shipments tendered to UPS on Friday,” explained Diamond Vice President of Operations Cindy Fournier. “With Christmas and New Year’s falling on Friday this year, we would not be able to tender product for 3-Day retailers until Monday, December 28. But because there will be no UPS service on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, product which could reach 1-Day and 2-Day retailers on December 30, would not reach our 3-Day UPS customers until January 4. In light of this, and based on conversations with our customers and suppliers, we agreed that a skip week was the fairest, most prudent way to proceed.”
It’s bad enough for the US, but in the UK things are potentially even worse. UK stores get their comics on either Wednesday or Thursday, but aren’t allowed to put them on sale until Thursday.
That’s Thursday 24th December – Christmas Eve. Inevitably the day folks are trying to get to wherever they’re going to hunker down for the next couple of days of eating too much, drinking too much, being disappointed in their presents and watching Doctor Who. It’s never that busy a day in comic shops. And new comics coming out that day may not make all that much difference.
Then there are no comics from Diamond the week after so no new comics on Thursday 31st December – New Years Eve. It means double shipment of new comics the week after new year – Thursday 7th January. It means retailers faced with empty shelves for a week, traditionally one of the really good sales weeks of the year with folks itching to spend all the money Auntie Vera gave them for Christmas. It means comic fans wandering around comic shops with a lost and forlorn look on their faces. It means that the first week of January will see a glut of new comics on the shelves and inevitably will see customers coming in intending to only spend a budget of one weeks comic buying.
Whichever way you look at it, things seem bleak.
Unless…….
There is a possibility here. Good retailers might even see this as a real opportunity to really work their butts off to sell to these customers looking to spend their weekly new comic budget.
A good retailer may take the opportunity to flog the hell out of some comics or graphic novels and really make a killing this week. Instead of losing sales because of this no comic week, these retailers, if they pick their targets properly may be able to open up huge new sales areas. For every comic fan buying their couple of Marvel titles that you manage to turn onto graphic novels such as Preacher, Sandman, Fables, 100 Bullets, Parker, Kane or even Love & Rockets, Persepolis, Bone or (insert retailer’s favourite here), you’ve suddenly created a massive source of future income for your store and even more importantly opened up a completely new area of comics to an existing customer. A marvellous opportunity.
Heavens, we may look back on this week and realise that this was the moment that something really important happened – you never know. This might be the moment the comic pamphlet dies a death.
Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating for effect. But it’s certainly going to have an effect. Comic buyers, particularly those locked into a cycle of new comic day buying are often creatures of habit, buying books purely because they always have, whether they like them or not. But give them an opportunity to stop and some of them will take it. Whether it’s Heroes Reborn, Spider-Man’s Clone Saga, Batman Death In The Family, Spider-Man One More Day, The Death Of Superman or countless others – I’ve seen long time fans drop titles and never come back to them because they finally broke the habit and each time it was one moment that gave them the chance to. This complete skip week may be the moment a lot of comic fans leave.
Or maybe not. What do I know?
The other thing that may happen in this no comics week, something that started here on the Blog at Newsarama website as far as I can tell is this:
Well, why not? There’s nothing on the stands for new comic day from any of the big publishers who ship through Diamond. Why not get in touch with a few comic shops and sell them on the idea of your comic that week?
August 24th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I think the fact that new comics day is 24th just about makes this OK. Most people will only come in for their stuff in the week between Christmas and New Years. Likewise few people shop on Hogmanay (certainly in Scotland historically one of the quietest days of the year) and will come in the following week. All in all not a good thing though, had new comics day been the 21st with a gap week would be horrendous, give people an excuse not to bring their Christmas money to the store and a good part of it will be gone before they get there.