Marvel Comics recently ended its 27-year exclusive deal with Diamond Comic Distributors. Starting this October, Penguin Random House will be the new exclusive Direct Market distributor of Marvel's comic books and graphic novels. Comic book store owner Jenn Haines -- who was recently sworn in as president of ComicsPRO, a trade association for comic book retailers -- offered her thoughts on the matter, noting that she believes the pros of this development outweigh the cons.
"This news brings both positives and negatives," Haines said in an interview with Newsarama. "On the downside, a lot of stores are worried about losing their discounts and about the workload of ordering from an additional distributor. However, the positives seem to outweigh these negatives."
"Penguin Random House is an excellent company that has been a central piece in growing graphic novels in the book market. They also bring certain perks with them, such as displays, terms and free shipping, which will help stores in the long run. As long as they can get a handle on the trickiness of packing comics and books without damages, this should be a good step forward for the industry as a whole," Haines elaborated. (Notably, Penguin previously explained that it would be shipping comics and graphic novels separately in an attempt to prevent damages.) "And for those retailers who are uncomfortable with this change, we are really pleased that Diamond will still be there to support those shops."
Marvel is not the first major comic book publisher to end a long-standing exclusive deal with Diamond. DC Comics did the same last June, enlisting Lunar Distribution to distribute its comic books and UCS Comic Distributors to handle its graphic novels and collected editions. DC amended its model once again in October, and now distributes its books exclusively through Lunar.
However, as Haines alludes to, retailers will still be able to order Marvel comics from Diamond if they so choose. After the news of Marvel's new deal with Penguin broke, Diamond founder Steve Geppi released a statement explaining that the company will begin purchasing Marvel books from Penguin wholesale once the House of Ideas' new distribution model goes into effect this fall. In other words, retailers used to ordering its Marvel products from Diamond can still use the company as a middle-man if they're not ready to switch to Penguin.
Source: Newsarama (GamesRadar+)
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