Contraband Comics Cerfluffle!

Gotta go! Its Friday, October 14, 2011, I meant to have typed most of this up last night but i discovered MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE is now streamable on Netflix, and, well, you know, and this is The Side. I'm not even sure that "streamable" is a real word but spellcheck thinks it is, which is good enough for me even though it doesn't think "spellcheck" is a real word.

...

Great, now I'm confused.

COMIX!!

There's been a bit of a hitch with DC and their electronic distribution plans. This is referring to people being able to download and read comics on e-readers. I'm not into it because I guess I'm a bit old fashioned and prefer to hold an actual book in my hand. That's me though. There's plenty of people who love their readers and its been pretty helpful to college students. I'm not against them, but they just aren't for me.

Anyhow, it seems there's choices to be made as to which e-reader you get, and which one you distribute through. DC seems to have gone exclusive with Amazon, leaving Barnes and Nobles out in the cold. B&N aren't too happy about this.

Part of me is reminded of when Marvel went exclusive with Diamond, but this is really different. When Marvel did what they did, Comic Shops had to get in line with this. If you're a comic book shop, you better have Marvel Comics or you're not going to stay in business very long. Barnes and Nobles doesn't need DC Comics. They can pull all the DC books off their shelves and not take a significant financial hit. I understand that there was probably a good looking deal with Amazon on the table, and it looked like a good idea at the time. But, when you have major booksellers felling slighted at you and you're in the business of publishing, then you've got a problem on your hands.

The local Barnes and Nobles have a decent selection of graphic novels and trades. They've also begun carrying a decent selection of floppies as well. This was new since when I worked there years ago they had a policy against carrying the monthly floppies. You had this major bookstore expanding their policies about carrying comics, but now they aren't going to carry a major publisher. DC has handed Marvel an early Christmas present.

This is baffling to me. We were told that the entire point to their relaunch of everything was to gain new readers. They were going digital to gain new readers. It seems like every other week they do something that shuts a door on potential new readers. Fortunately for them, the sales are pretty strong on their relaunch still. This is also pretty good news for comic shops as they'll have less competition in a certain area for the time being.

MUSIC!!

This video is directed by Calvin Muusse, and isn't the official video for this song, but it absolutely should be. Beautiful work. Take something from it.



Alright, I'm out the door. Got some reviews lined up for Sunday. See y'all then.