Comic book fans, worry not! In these uncertain times where your local comic book shop has shut its doors, single issues of your beloved titles will return to your weekly pull list. If there has been one epiphany throughout the Coronavirus saga, it’s the idea that maybe giving one company control over the shipping and distribution of ALL the comic books is a bad idea.
For years, Diamond has been the only real game in town, grabbing all of the lucrative comic book distribution contracts and establishing a monopoly that either went uncontested or resulted in the competition being bought out. With the distributor temporarily ceasing operations in March, publishers finally began to realise that maybe there were alternative ways in which to get their products out to market.
DC Comics is taking a stab at that idea, with the Distinguished Competition setting up a new deal with Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributors to get their wares out to market. “To assist with the immediate distribution of DC titles during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, we’ve secured the assistance of two distributors to help facilitate orders of and shipping of our revised publishing schedule,” DC said to retailers in an email Friday afternoon via Newsarama.
Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributors have agreed to work with us to distribute these new comics. To that end, instead of simply ‘lifting and shifting’ the same scheduled titles for each of the missed in-store dates, we’ve made changes to the publishing schedule. The new schedule is designed to allow each of you to begin ordering a limited amount of DC product at first, and then ease back into the number of books that represents a normal release schedule from DC when your business can accommodate it.
Lunar and UCS are sister companies created by mail-order comics giants Discount Comic Book Service and Midtown Comics respectively. DC is planning to use these distributors to target specific states and provinces in the USA and Canada, urging retailers to use one of their distribution methods. It’s nod a bad idea to sell comic books again, but it certainly does have its share on detractors!
Brian Hibbs of Comix Experience in San Francisco is one of those dissenting voices, claiming that the new model could put even more comic book shops out of business. More on that, right here at Bleeding Cool. It’s a cutthroat business, and one that seems ready to only get bloodier in the months to come. Until then, here’s a look at the comic book covers of the week that’ll be covered in distributor gang blood!
Comic book covers of the week credits:
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #105 by Sophie Campbell
- Firefly #16 by Daniel Warren Johnson
- Blade Runner 2019 #8 by Jesus Hervas
- Killadelphia #6 by Jae Lee
- Ronin Island #12 by Giannis Milonogiannis
- Excellence #7 by Chris Brunner and Rico Renzi
- Bang! #3 by Matt Kindt
- The Clock #3 by Colleen Doran
- Protector #4 by Vlad Legostaev
- Pretty Violent #7 by Derek Hunter
- Red Sonja & Vampirella Meet Betty & Veronica #11 by Fay Dalton
- Transformers Vs. Terminator #2 by Gavin Fullerton
- Aliens Vs. Predator: Thicker Than Blood #4 by Chun Lo
- Quantum & Woody #4 by David Nakayama
- Ghostbusters: Year One #4 by Dan Schoening
- The Visitor #5 by Caspar Wijngaard
- Faithless II #1 by Kris Anka
- Alien: The Original Screenplay #1 by Guilherme Balbi
- Killing Red Sonja #2 by Adam Gorham
- Wellington #5 by Piotr Kowalski
- Heart Attack #6 by Eric Zawadzki
- Stranger Things: Into the Fire #4 by Evan Cagle
- Lucy Claire: Redemption #5 by John Upchurch
- Gung Ho #5 by Thomas van Kummant
- Van Helsing Vs. League Monster #3 by John Royle
- Judge Dredd: False Witness #2 by Jonboy Meyers
- Conspiracy: Men In Black #1 by Leonardo Colapietro
- Aero #10 by Keng
- Black Widow: Widow’s Sting #1 by Toni Infante
- Force Works: 2020 #3 by Ryan Brown
- Marvel #2 by Alex Ross
- Scream: Curse Of Carnage #6 by Philip Tan
- Star Wars #5 by Chris Sprouse
- The Amazing Spider-Man: Daily Bugle #3 by Rahzzah
- Werewolf By Night #1 by Takashi Okazaki
- X-Factor #1 by David Baldeon
- Action Comics #1022 by Lucio Parrillo
- Basketful Of Heads #7 by Gabriel Rodriguez
- Batgirl #46 by Inhyuk Lee
- Batman Beyond #43 by Francis Manapul
- Birds Of Prey #1 by Ray McCarthy and Emanuela Lupacchino
- Detective Comics #1022 by Brad Walker and Andrew Hennessy
- Red Hood: Outlaw #45 by Paolo Pantalena
Last Updated: April 20, 2020
Jeremiah39
April 20, 2020 at 19:39
As a comic book store employee, I too am not a fan of DCs decision. I’m all for a new competitor to Diamond but, are online competitors to LCSs who sell new comics at 40-50% discounts the right choice? It would almost be like Walmart suddenly becoming local grocery stores distributor. Whose best interests would they have in mind? When it comes to damages, discounts, exclusives, etc. Also not happy DCs open comic shop locator embedded in their announcement is riddle with errors. 3 shops in IL alone are listed with contact information of shops in IN, SC & BC, Canada.
The D
April 20, 2020 at 20:47
I’m honestly confused over the whole brouhaha, as I’ve been reading up both angles of the story and it is clearly massively polarising. But if anyone has any real insight to the ongoing mess, it’s definitely you guys with your boots on the LCS ground.