Its been about 10 years since I have done this. The first thing I have noticed is...no Previews!
I learned about 2 weeks ago my LCS has canceled his Diamond account. As someone who has ordered all off his comics from Previews for about 30 years. This was quite a shock. I\ve also worked there before, and I understand his problems. Hell, they haven't even had a sales associate in over 10 years.
So, all of the books will be between Penguin, Lunar, etc. Anything that is Diamond only he is trying to work out. A new dynamic for me for sure. I do understand his frustrastion. Shorted on comics, damaged comics, and just being left in limbo.
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I remember "Thoughts While Filling Out Previews"! I used to make note of all my orders each month, then I'd try to go back to that thread for comment when the items from that month actually shipped. It became to difficult to keep track of what with late shipping and whatnot, so I eventually transitioned over to "Your Favorite Things of the Year!" and commenting when the things I ordered would actually ship. I feel yiour pain, though, and I'm also familiar with some of the headaches retailers have to put up with from the owner of my LCS. From what I hear, I wouldn't be just too surprised if Diamond went out of business before to long.
I always liked this thread... but things are so sprawling now! Good luck keeping track of everything.
And "Your Favorite Things" is also a remnant of another bygone thread...the Cappies. Man, that was ages ago now!
Yeah, that's right. I had forgotten about the thread's original raison d'être.
Now, for old time's sake, here are some thoughts that occurred to me while filling out the November '24 Previews, #434.
I've been thinking about what I might do if Diamond goes under. Apart from periodicals, the vast majority of what I collect these days are pre-orders, for which I receice a substatial discount. Cap's weekly "Comics List" and "Comics Guide" are excellent sources for determining what's shipping in a give week but, discount notwithstanding, if I don't know when things are solicted, I won't know to order them.
Thanks for the kind words all. I've thought about bringing it back a few times over the past year or so, but I was afraid it would be too negative with me spending a lot of space bitching about prices, or storylines I thought were terrible.
A couple of other things the owner of my LCS shared in a long post. His bill has gone up about $1000 per week over the past year. He has a pretty small shop (as Jeff can attest to), and shops don't have terms, they have to pay that bill every week. Also, he pays on average $3.50 per comic. If you figure the average comic in $4.99, and he gives a 20% discount to subscribers, he is making about 50 cents a books on people like me.
Apparently, he has also toyed with stopping new comics altogether and only sell back issues. His ROI is just so much higher on those.
Last Wednesday's Diamond comics shipped to my LCS on Monday, but today is the second week in a row they have failed to ship on Wednesday.
Diamond's response: "We're workingon it."
This is the third week in a row Diamond has not shipped on time. for some reason, Previews did ship, but only three copies. I inquired about it, so I got one. My LCS also receive two nonconsecutive issues of Comic Shop News.
SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN by DeMATTEIS & BUSCEMA OMNIBUS: An omnibus of J.M. DeMatteis and Sal Buscema's Spectacular Spider-Man (#178-216+) has been solicited for July release. These are some good comics, but they're not great comics. To be perfectly honest, I was not even collection Spectacular Spider-Man during this run and have not read most of these issues. But do I really need to own it in omnibus format? FULL DISCLOSURE: When I first met Rich Lane at the Pittsburgh ComiCon I bought a large chunk of this run out of the bargain bin and still have not read them. What I need someone to do now is to talk me out of buying the omnibus (or talk me into it).
This looks interesting...
Described as "an ongoing, zig-zagging anthology series about the compromised clicks of our clocks-full of one-shot stories both beautiful and ugly, tragic and redemptive, surreal and somehow all too familiar."
Diamond shipped late today, but at least there was a new Previews catalogue (#437), so that's sometning, I guess.
The new series Lost Marvels (from Fantagraphics) looks interesting.
The never-collected horror anthology series featuring stories by Jim Steranko, Neal Adams, Barry Windsor-Smith, Stan Lee, John Buscema, and other Silver Age masters.
In 1969, with its revolutionary superhero line well established, Marvel took a chance on the kind of supernatural, EC-style anthology series that had been banned since the formation of the Comics Code in the 1950s. Tower of Shadows featured a staggering array of artists and writers, including Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Gene Colan, Wally Wood, Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, John Romita, Johnny Craig, Marie Severin, Gerry Conway, and Bernie Wrightson, to name a few. Freed from the conventions of the superhero adventure, these creators brought their storytelling skills to a more quietly sinister genre, producing atmospheric gems of twisted suspense and sardonic horror.
Not only do these nine issues feature Marvel's best creators working at their peak, but Tower of Shadows is one of the lost, never-collected Marvels. In the first of a new series of Lost Marvels, Fantagraphics and Marvel join forces to introduce these pages to a new generation of readers and restore this series to its rightful place in comics history. This gorgeous volume brings every Tower of Shadows story and cover to life in vivid color and features background and analysis by comics journalist Michael Dean.
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