Comic Book Resources reported the shocking announcement from Diamond Comics today that for the first time since anyone can remember in the current system, in December there will be a week without new comics being shipped out to stores.
Diamond will ship comic books to stores for release on December 23, but the next time you'll see new books at your local comic book shoppe will be January 6. That means that Wednesday, December 30th will be bereft of comic books. That's 13 days between new comic book shipments for those keeping score at home.
I know, kid. I know.
So what will comic book readers do with that extra week? Make a dent in their post holiday trade paperback stack? Stroll through the park arm-in-arm with that special someone? Spend more time bitching on the internet?
Only time well tell, my friends. Only time.
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At least we can be sure of one thing. That last option is an inevitability. Oh well.
WHAT?!?!
I have an iphone, I can stroll the the park AND bitch on the internet at the same time.
You know… last year, getting books amid the holiday travel gauntlet that week was a nightmare about a headache during a disaster. I’m not even factoring in the snow. (Reason 479 I’m pulling for Longbox to succeed.) Frankly, I bet I’ll appreciate the break.
Factoring in Christmas specials and such…does this mean that we’re gonna get hit like really hard with a huge week of books on the 23rd?
WHAT? I have time off to actually go to the store…and now it won’t matter 🙁
*pout*
Won’t that hurt retailers a LOT?
meh – I wouldn’t have been picking up my books anyway on the 30th…so, for me its no huge deal. The question is, what is iFanboy gonna do? That podcast is gonna be interesting…full of awesome potential
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! ::Vehement fist shaking.:: Last December was double Thursday shipping right?
At least we won’t miss a week of comics when the guys do their Year in Review podcast.
@NJBaritone: actually, reading the article and seeing the way Christmas and New Years falling on Friday warps the shipping schedule, it sounds like this may actually be less of a logistical clusterfumble. It might be different if they weren’t getting new product the week BEFORE Christmas.
I’m going to walk down the street with my back pack on the side of the highway, like Bruce Banner.
Or just hit up my comic shop and buy me some trades.
You know, I thought about this alot on my bus ride home tonite and this what I’ve come up with.
From a business stand point, Diamond was damned if they did, damned if they didn’t.
If they shipped the books as they normally did, and some stores got their books and some stores didn’t, then everyone would be screaming and be up in arms.
If they skip the week (Which they’re doing), everyone will be up in arms.
But, there was a third option that I’m curious if they investigated or not:
Why not cover the cost of shipping to make sure ALL their retailers got their books on 12/30 as normal, as a thank you to their customers and the industry that keeps them in business? Wouldn’t that have been a much better way to say thank you for a year’s worth of business and make it so everyone could win?
Sure it would come with a cost, but that’s the cost of doing good business and keeping their customers happy – and imagine the positive PR they would have gotten.
@CaptainPrimate: Historically, we’ve skipped that week anyway.
@Prax: Yes, it was.
I think it is completely worth it because I got to see that picture. I am still laughing. I’ll bookmark this article and then on December 30th, if I am feeling down (like Jimski, I’ll most likely enjoy the break) I’ll simply take a gander. Hi-larious!
that is so retarded.
@conor Really – can’t believe I didn’t remember that…then again, I’ve got trouble remembering what happened last week.
Does this mean that, knowing this, Marvel, DC, Image, etc won’t be producing comics that week, or they will be and the LCS-going populous won’t be able to get their hands on them for an extra week?
This makes total sense.
Remember last year and how X-Mas and New Years totally screwed up the shipping schedules? This way, we’ll get comics on time and there won’t be a clusterfuck of problems with LCS’s those 2-3 weeks. It sucks I know, I mean it’s a break for me from school so not having comics is a downer. But from a total business decision it’s perfect.
Guess ifanboy.com and other websites will have to work double shifts to make their websites perfect 😉
I have to agree with Ron.
Though it’s a sad state of affair when just doing their job – distributing comics to the direct market on a weekly basis – could actually earn Diamond some (admittedly, much needed) positive PR.
This could, theoretically, be a small relief for my wallet. Or just stress my wallet our even more on 12/23 and 1/6. Probably the latter.
@NJBaritone: I think it will. Obivouly many customers will know not to come in that week. That is why I’m going to suggest to my retailer to have somekind of sale to draw customers back and maybe sale merchandise that otherwise may just sit there.
My LCS could have like a ‘Post X-Mas’ sale for that week. Stores could totally take advantage of the situation. The owner for my store hates Diamond with a passion, so he’ll need a week off from them anyways.
What kind of sale would you guys suggest to your retailers???
There will still be 4 Wednesdays (as we know them) in December. I am being optimistic.
Dude, that’s kind of lame. Will definately hurt retailers. That’s a week worth of sales gone, not moved, gone.
wah!!!
"Positive PR?" Yah right, like any comics readers or retailers would be grateful? No.
It’s better off this way, because sometimes I go in and they don’t have the books due to missed ship dates. This will save everyone a trip.
Huh. A lot of stores I know use January 1 as a sale day. I’m sure they’ll appreciate the no-new-books they have to sell :-/.
God damn it…this means I have to actually socialize with my family during the holiday season. That sucks balls
I think that means January 6th will be slammed with books. I don’t like it. I definitely understand though.
@drake: That is the biggest problem of this whole thing.
At least we get presents….I guess (pouts)
so the stores won’t have any new comics on the 1 week of the year when young people have all that christmas money spend. That really sucks for the retailers. Doesn’t make me too happy either.
):(
Hammer of Thor… 🙁
Aquaman declares this is unacceptable!
I actually like this! One less wacky wednesday at work.
Well this is going to suck for LCS’s.. yes its the holidays, but having a potential double ship week is going to hurt them. I know the store I worked at will have trouble displaying a double week of titles, and a lot of people will not buy more books, because there are more out there, they might actually get critical and drop books.
I wonder how publishers are going to deal with this.
I need to become an optimist.
What will I do that week and a half in Dec? Given the time of year, I’ll spend time with family, hang with friends, Eat, drink and be merry. In a way, it’s a good thing, because I’ll probably be too broke after the holiday to get new books that week anyhow.
Overall, aren’t they still going to be selling the same amount of product? I mean, over the course of the 2 months, even if they skip a week, they’re not cancelling books, so they’ll just be distributed out slightly differently.
The thing is, I can worry about this all sorts of ways, but I can’t do anything about it, and I hate armchair quarterbacking retailers and distributors, because I don’t know a thing about it, and all the reactions seem overheated.
So for me, hey, a week off. Awesome.
So does that mean there will be no ifanboy podcast? Madness! Could it be an all trade show?
People spending more time bitching on the internet. Makes me glad I’m a trade reader.
I guess it wouldn’t kill me to actually spend New Years with the family instead of reading books…they’ll appreciate it.
Well Modern Warfare 2 will be out by then so I can use the extra time to advance as many levels I can in multiplayer modes. Oh yeah, my PSN account is ROBBYDZWONAR609 if there are any COD players round here.
We’ll be out with family, with friends. Playing our video games, watching the DVD’s, reading the books. Trying out new clothes, spending the money and/or gift cards we receive.
Reading comics will be the last thing on anyone’s mind that week. Except for the LCS owners…
Maybe I’ll make a dent in my PRE-holiday trade stack. It’s in the triple digits. I just file most of them away as I get them now. Damn my laziness!
MAY-HEM!!!
So this means that I have a whole week to run like crazy at my local park.
Wow. If I wasn’t already getting my books monthly from DCBS, this’d really, really suck.
…they do realize this is what keeps me from doing drugs, right? Right?! Argh! Someone give me a bong and some lines…
Did anyone else look at Diamond on Wikipedia and check out their annual revenue?
….. Just saying….
@Ron: The only problem I see with Diamond taking the hit for shipping costs is that I don’t think that the majority of comics fans know that they exist. As a retailer I sure would rather the customer assume that I was giving them the discount rather than the distributor. I agree with your premise though.
I’m sad about this because I leave for three weeks in England on January 4th, so I won’t get my
perscriptionsubscription filled for a month. Oh, the humanity.@GungaDin – Revenue information is relatively meaningless if you don’t have cost information to go along with it. Not to get all professory, but Profit=Revenue-Cost. From what I have heard on this site, from people with a lot more knowledge of the industry than I possess, Diamond isn’t nearly as profitable as it should be given its monopoly status. This may be the only viable option for them.
If anything, I think we can all agree that the blame clearly falls on global warming.
Guh. For those of us pre-ordering from someplace like DCBS, it means those comics that are shipping a week late for the rest of you ship a month late for us.
I would think it would cause some revenue issues with the publishing companies, especially it being the end of the year. I know our company craps masonry if a book ship date slips into the next month, much less next year.
December 30 is my birthday. I’m taking this whole thing personally.
It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again!!!!!!!!!
@Ron – great concept, only one problem – Diamond doesn’t have to be nice to their customers. Being the only game in town, they pretty much have the retailers over a barrel. A shitty way to do business, but in the end, retailers have to pretty much suck it up if they want to get their biggest selling books.
I for one, welcome the break. I mean, everyone (including myself) is usually pretty tapped out after the holidays financially, mentally, and physically. A week off where I can just catch up on any trades I got during the holidays, or simply just relax and focus on something else. In my situation, the closest comic shop is either a 40 minute to an hour walk (and that’s a shitty one that I hate going to), or the next closest shop that I like and actually go to is a half hour drive, or hour plus bus ride. Not fun to get books on Wednesdays for me. I’m definitely in the GO LONGBOX camp. I can’t wait.
eh, I’ll be busy those days anyways. no biggie.
ifanboy should do a podcast with 1:03:52 of silence.
Hmm…this will be the first week in like 4-5 years that I haven’t picked up new material. Then again, NO new material is coming out that week, so my streak remains intact.
I’m not going to complain, especially if it’s a serious business reason to why they are doing this. Besides, I’m probably going to be buying back issues on that Wednesday anyways.
I think they should have done it around the other way and not shipped on the 23rd and shipped on the 30th. I always struggle to find the time and the money at xmas to get my comics
Here’s to hoping my LCS instead has a big end of year sale. If we can keep it quite until then I’ll totally forget this is going to happen and show up at the LCS anyhow with intent to buy something. I know on slow weeks I spend close to the same as regular weeks cause I break my rule and by a handful of something till I feel I’ve sated my new book jones.
What´s the deal with monopolies?
How many unilateral (because I asume this would be) decisions can diamond take until retailers and publishers have enough?
WHAT!!!! WHY!!
lol have HOPE Blue Lantern you’ll rough through this…
My guess is people will bich first and ask questions later. Which is totally understandable. In the meantime I’m grateful that I’d be saving some cash… or wait… that means I’ll have TWICE AS MANY BOOKS ON JAN 6!! SHITT!!! >_>
TOUCHE’ DIAMOND… TOUCHE’.
[sigh of disgust]
Did we get a definite answer as to wether or not it will just be a non shipping week, or if the following week will be a double shipping week?