So Bleeding Cool reporters called both UCS and Lunar earlier today. No one picked up, but UCS diverted an answerphone machine for Hal at Midtown Comics. One of the largest comic stores in the US, Midtown Comics of New York also handles Marvel and DC Comics subscriptions as well as comp copies for creators and other talent. Lunar just had an answerphone message with no identification but further investigation identified it as an operation being run by DCBS, the largest mail-order comics company in the US, based in Forth Worth, Indiana.

So, here's an attempt to help explain why @DC is making all of the wrong moves with their latest announcement. I especially hold Jim Lee DC, DC's current publisher, accountable for this. Hank, Nancy, I also have to call you out here. You three are the visible leadership. Time to answer this.

1) Most of the country is shut down, and WILL NOT be ready to open on the date of 4/28 that DC says they'll be shipping comics again. In San Francisco, we're at a minimum of first week of May, and I'm fairly certain we won't be allowed to open to walk-in business without semi-extreme rules until well into June.

2) DC, itself, is in Burbank California, and they're not able to go into the offices themselves.... again, probably well into June, and, again, there will probably be significant rules in place from California about who can do what and when and how -- possibly mandatory temperature checks, etc. The *notion* that they're expecting us to be "open" when *they* aren't is horrifying to me.

3) The "distributors" that DC has picked are NOT. It is Midtown and DCBS, the #1 & #2 *retailers* of comics. These are COMPETITORS to the overwhelming majority of Direct Market retailers. There is nothing in place to protect competition, there's no guarantee of sales or (more importantly) payment-terms.

4) We've been given FOUR DAYS to set up accounts and get right with our new Overlords (being in Cali, we're "assigned" to DCBS.) Sorry, you can't unleash an entire new way of doing comics in that short of a time span. I have genuine and serious questions about being forced to do business with an entity that I personally consider a "bad actor" in comics, and to hand them key business documents like my resale license. Where's our contract?

5) Margins are shitty enough that making a profit in comics retail is pretty hard to begin with, and everything is magnified and multiplied when all you can do it mail order. It's even harder for me in SF, where my cost-of-rent and cost-of-labor are considerably higher than most of my peers. I've been doing the best mail order I can (probably pretty shitty) from https://comix-experience.myshopify.com/, but the BEST CASE HERE is that I am working three times as hard, for no more than one third of the revenue. And that's with $20 graphic novels being the primary thing we're doing. I absolutely, positively, in no way can *profitably* sell $4 periodicals via mail order -- that's not the business we are in.

Please, understand, I've got the credit card info and (emphatic) permission-to-charge from most of our pre-order customers... but without the walk-in, this is IN NO WAY enough cash flow to even pay for the labor to handle it. Let alone COGS, let alone rent and utilities, etc.
And that's assuming that everything goes PERFECTLY... which, History has already told us, IT ABSOLUTELY WON'T

6) DC is asking us to ABANDON Diamond. They claim they've "cancelled all orders" (though, honestly, can they even do that?), and that we have to buy from Midtown and DCBS. Diamond and Steve Geppi specifically have acted as the "bank" of the Direct Market, saving and protecting the great mass of retailers again and again and again.. Do I have some problems with DCD's operation? Sure: I'd be an idiot not to -- but on the balance they've done more to preserve DM retailers than ANYONE EVER, so "walking away" from them in this time of challenge is completely entirely a non-starter for me

ESPECIALLY FOR DCBS. Are you crazy? They are literally our enemy. Why not ask Amazon to distribute to us?

7) The very notion of changing to a Tuesday release is pure "fuck you" to the channel that, I'm pretty damn sure is two-thirds of the mechanism of their cash-flow.

8) They could have not chose a more half-ass and broken way of releasing comics -- the ONLY way to make money doing periodicals is to depend on the "economies of scale". Just WRITING THE ORDER for the five comics nomatively on-sale on 4/28 would cost me more money than I could ever hope to realize from them. That wouldn't even begin to account my costs to receive those books, the labor to handle sub, the additional new labor to send those books out.....Same for the following three weeks.

9) And what about the SHIPPING COSTS on this tiny slate of garbage? If it's more than "free", then our already low margins are shot to shit

I REMEMBER HEROES WORLD -- the COSTS of doing business with a fraction of the sales of a universal distributor makes it so you can NOT sell that line profitably for most retailers.

9a) I STOPPED RACKING MARVEL COMICS DURING HEROES WORLD, AND MY SALES WENT UP

(this

10) Seriously? This is your "re-launch" slate? DAPHNE BYRNE, THE DREAMING, second prints, and some Wal-Mart comics? What the serious fuck is wrong with you DC? YOU HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO REDEFINE DC FOR THE NEXT DECADE, and your choice is clear out the pile of mediocrity the editors have already committed to? SERIOUSLY? You having that little faith in what DC can be says more to me than almost anything else.

11) If they do this, my only possible response can be "well, I guess most new DC periodicals are subs only". This will cut ~60% of their sales at Comix Experience, forever. Listen: every single copy of HAWKMAN or JUSTICE LEAGUE ODYSSEY, and probably upwards of ninety percent of their output that I order for the rack is a PURE GIFT TO DC COMICS. I've LONG THOUGHT I should stop subsidizing Marvel and DC's excess for, realistically, something like 90% of thier output.... and you actually want to give me a clean, simple and actionable reason? REALLY?

12) In even the best possible world (and we're not -- this is a DARK timeline, yo), mainstream superhero comics are supported by the faith of the retailers on the balance. Is your faith in DCBS and Midtown so absolute? IS IT REALLY?

13) The business model of Midtown and DCBS is largely based on massive discounts, and undercutting the asking price of the cover price. Changing that would seem to be a incredibly dangerous idea, in what will almost certainly be lower demand on the other side of this. If you ask me, going the other way with Minimum Asked Pricing (MAP) is the much smarter way to go. The people who are the new "distributor" should not be the people who also sell for 40%+ off. Not if you want to have physical stores representing your output.

14) Non-American accounts are just thrown to the wolves? Really? REALLY?

15) There is no world in which creating "haves" and "have nots" is ever a good idea. #EverEverEverEver

16) I'm calling it now, in terms of how it actually plays out: Heroes World 2: Electric Fuckaloo. Those who do not learn History, etc etc

17) I've learned this last month: I DO NOT WANT TO BE A MAIL ORDER BUSINESS. It is a horror-show, and a low-margin one at that. Just trying to EVEN VAGUELY "compete" with a "free shipping" at $50 means sometimes I'm just giving away 20% or more of my profit on shipping, depending on the size/shape of the books. It is FLATLY impossible to pay RETAIL rent and wages in California, DC's home state, on that velocity and volume. Can't be done.

18) We are not "open". We are not allowed to be "open" in California. Most states that sell the MOST COMICS are not allowed to be open. DC is not allowed to be "open" in California. There is no way for me to legitimately sell comics to anything other that preorders (which sure as fuck should be the minority for any legitimate retailer, if you ask me, if you want "comics" to be here in another decade)). SO WHY IS DC RELEASING COMICS???????????

I'm not on board. In fact, I am so not on board that this would permanently poison my relationship to DC Comics, and impact their long-term sales here unless they change their direction.... not just within my individual store, but everything I can ever do when I interact with both my peers and the consumers I serve.

I would truly regret that.