Howard the Duck MAX #1/Steve Gerber
This is the third part of a three-part series dealing with the possible ramification of the Disney/Marvel acquisition. You can read part 1 here and part 2 here.
Since Disney announced the acquisition of Marvel Comics on Monday, there have been a lot of people saying a lot of things, either that Disney was going to destroy Marvel or save it. Over the past two days, we’ve examined both sides of the arguments, and tried to bring a little rational reasoning to the arguments. Today we’re going to explore what could be the most important story that not many people have realized.
This buyout could spell the end of Diamond Comics Distributors or the direct market, or at least signal a fundamental change in how the direct market works.
To fully understand what happened with distribution and the comic book industry in general in the early 90s, you have to understand the very convoluted business-side of the comic book publishing industry at the time. Comic Wars: Marvel’s Battle for Survival by Ben Raviv is essential reading, and Chuck Rozanski’s series of essays about direct market distribution is fascinating. But here is a summary of the situation in the early 90s.
- Newsstands and newsstand distribution were failing.
- There were a number of smaller, regional distributors that supplied comic book specialty shops.
- The top few comic book publishers (Marvel, DC and a few others) utilized all the distributors in order to reach the largest audience.
Marvel bought one of the distributors, Heroes World, in order to save some money and streamline their operation. This would lead to a massive shakeup in distribution as publishers started signing exclusive deals with distributors, forcing most of the smaller ones out of business.
Eventually, all we were left with was Diamond Comic Distributors, publishers of the monthly Previews comic catalog. Even Marvel eventually signed an exclusive with Diamond, giving them a virtual monopoly on comic book distribution on North America.
The relationship Diamond has with the major publishers is either symbiotic or mutually parasitic, depending on your point of view. Diamond can’t afford to lose one of its publishers to a smaller distributor, and the publishers can’t take the risk with another distributor.
So how is the Disney/Marvel acquisition going to impact comic book distribution?
Disney has no real foothold in comic book publishing. They’ve tried on and off for years with no real success, except through licensing. However, they are very successful in magazine publishing and they have their own division to distribute magazines. They don’t need Diamond, and they don’t really need the direct market. If they wanted, they could take Marvel’s comics and put them back on the spinner rack at the corner convenience store by the end of the year.
And those Disney Stores that are in every city across the US? They could quickly convert sections of their stores into a Marvel-themed area for merchandise and the Marvel Adventures line of kids’ comics.
I have heard people argue that Time Warner could have done this years ago and didn’t, so why should Disney? It is true that Time Warner is the largest magazine publisher in the US, but it has two important differences: 1) Most of TW’s magazines skew for a much, much older crowd than the audience Disney is shooting for; and 2) TW never saw a need to get back into newsstand distribution because it never had any competition. If Disney, who skews younger, reaches an audience by shelving Marvel Adventures Avengers (on of the best titles on the stands today, by the way) with Winnie-the-Pooh Magazine in Wal-Mart, you can bet your Black Lantern ring that TW’s going to follow suit.
Even though Diamond may seem like the major player in the direct market, this is a very small industry, and Diamond is hiding in the shadows of monoliths like Time Warner and Disney. Once Disney realizes it doesn’t need Diamond, the shockwaves felt through the industry could be as strong as those we’ve felt this week. Expect a new distribution model to develop within the next five years or so, where the major publishers distribute their own products and the smaller, creator-owned houses form into consortiums not unlike Image Comics to help with the cost of production, promotion and distribution.
What is everybody saying about the Disney/Marvel deal?
Is Archie really the #1 comic?
Which two pasty-faced DC characters are coming to the big screen?
Comments