The “Death” of indie comics?
Posted on January 22, 2009 by Matt-M-McElroy
Steve Bennett posted in his Confessions of a Comic Book Guy column It Was Fun While It Lasted and then Michael Churchill of Pulp Nouveau Comix responded with Stop with the Doom and Gloom.
Basically Diamond has raised its minimum order level quite a bit and many of the small press/indie comics don’t sell enough to meet the new levels. This means several of these titles won’t be on the local shelves of your comic shop. You can check out Newsarama ‘s interview with Diamond’s Bill Schanes for a bit more information.
I haven’t actually been in a local comic shop for some time. However, I still enjoy supporting small press comic publishers whenever I can. I buy them at conventions like Wizard World Chicago and occasionally directly from the publisher’s website.
I also shop online at DriveThruComics.com and IndyPlanet.com.
Here at Flames Rising we are hoping to further support small press comics with new comic reviews and the occasional promotion. If you have a favorite Horror or Dark Fantasy comic, we encourage you to write up a review and send it our way.
So, what do you think, are indie comics dead? Why or why not?
Tags | ebooks, horror comics, industry news
No, and I’ll tell you why: While many indie publishers will give up with the fact that they can’t jump onto Diamond anymore (which I’ll talk about in a bit), they will still continue in many other ways.
I’ve seen many indie writers sell their comics at conventions or open up their own stores online to help get comics out there. Some publishers offer special deals if you order an entire run off their website as well! I’m not dismissing the idea that this will gravely hurt some publishers, but I don’t think it’s the end of the indie comics.
Diamond reminds me of Games Workshop with their selling practices. They are trying to streamline their businesses, but at the same time they are affecting their chief clients (comic book stores) and are alienating more people by preventing them from getting their own comics on teh shelves. While I know that “this struggling economy” is a factor, I think Diamond should reconsider what they are doing.
when the comic book industry fails, blame diamond