It took me a couple tries to get past the busy signal. I wasn’t surprised; there were suddenly a lot of people needing to do business by phone. We briefly made sure he had my order right, I gave him my credit card information, and then I drove out to him. When I got there I honked, and he unlocked the door, left a plastic crate on the sidewalk, went back inside, and locked the door. I got out of my car, opened the crate, grabbed my order from inside, and got back in my car to drive home.
I felt like a spy. It probably sounds like a drug deal, or some weird shenanigan on The Apps, but I was actually just buying my weekly stack of comic books in the middle of a pandemic.
Comic books — and specifically superhero comics — are a medium that relies on their history and longevity, but also on the fact that their adventures never end, continuing on every week into, we hope, infinity. Superman debuted in 1938, and has been in continuous print for over 80 years; comic events like DC One Million depict Superman and his brethren still existing hundreds of thousands of years into the future, and while that’s obviously fiction, it’s fiction predicated upon the fact that these characters’ iconic legacies have endured for nearly a century, and will thus likely continue on beyond us all.
Personally, I’ve been driving over to Captain Blue Hen Comics in Newark Delaware every Wednesday for almost fifteen years now to pick up new comics. In that time, the lives of both myself and the characters whose adventures I follow have changed immensely, but what never changed was the fact that the adventures kept chugging along every week, and I had a place I could go to chat with like-minded fans about those adventures and everything else geek-related. A good comic shop is worth holding onto; when I started going there it was just because I worked across the street, but now I work over 20 minutes away but still go out of my way to get to the Captain once a week.
Or, at least, I did.
The past few weeks, as the Coronavirus pandemic started ramping up in the United States, saw the store — and comic shops across the country — instituting new procedures, such as curbside pick-up of books (as I describe at the open of this newsletter) and even delivery, in order to accommodate social distancing. But last Wednesday’s practically-clandestine trip will be my last for a while; Diamond Comic Distributors have ended all comic shipments until the pandemic has been contained.
Diamond Distributors — now there’s a loaded story. Without turning this newsletter into “Do You Know What I Hate the Most?”, Diamond has had a monopoly on comic distribution since the 90s. If you’re a comic shop, you get your merchandise from Diamond and that’s that. If they’re late, you’re not getting books. If they damage your books or forget to ship a title or two, oh well, they’ll get around to fixing it when they get to it. You can’t switch to a company that will treat you better — there’s literally no competition.
So Diamond’s decision to end shipments means that there are no more new comic books coming to shops. Any shop. The publishers could keep making comic books, could keep printing them even, but without Diamond there’s no way to get them to the shop to be sold. It’s the end of New Comic Book Wednesday for the foreseeable future, and obviously not only are fans disappointed, but comic book retailers are understandably worried.
But maybe there’s a silver lining.
I’m not an economist or a business owner, so I can’t speak to the full accuracy of this statement, or even its universality; I’ve seen plenty of shops that are still upset about Diamond’s decision, and that’s valid, but I personally see some grace in it. Diamond’s decision cannot make sense from a business perspective; they’re clearly not making any money by discontinuing their distribution. That means it’s a decision made with the safety of others in mind, and one that will also ease the burden of the many shops with no or limited ways of selling the new merchandise they’d otherwise be receiving and paying for. I hate to give any big business credit, but it feels like a pretty stand-up decision on Diamond’s behalf. And, let’s face it, it was probably the only way to get me to stop leaving the house to go buy comic books, no matter how bad this pandemic got. It did what it was supposed to.
This doesn’t necessarily mean the end of new comic books even during this pandemic. DC Comics have announced that they intend to continue releasing new comics digitally on the Comixology platform while Diamond is shut down, and I wouldn’t be surprised if other publishers eventually follow suit. My hope would be that prices of digital comics would be reduced during this time (new digital comics sell for the same price as physical copies, which always felt a bit ridiculous to me, and this would be a perfect opportunity to slash even just a dollar off to try to entice some physical-only customers), and that perhaps physical collections of the digital-only issues would be released once regular shipping resumes. Even if publishers didn’t want to go this route, they could use this break for creators to get ahead on their books, perhaps even eliminate the need for fill-in artists or hiatuses for a while. There are a lot of options, and I’ll admit I’m a bit disappointed to hear rumors of creators being given “pencils down” orders in such uncertain times.
For a newsletter that’s supposed to be about things I love, I guess there’s a lot to not love in this installment, huh? That’s very true. But I chose to write about this subject because it brought up a lot of feelings in me, and reminded me of a lot of things I do love, and a lot of ways we can all make things better in these trying times.
Maybe there won’t be any new comics for a while, but this is the perfect time for any fan to dig into their back-issues. I’ve got a dozen boxes in my room filled with over a decade’s worth of comic books that I don’t get nearly enough opportunities to reread. I can’t wait to pop them open and remind myself of some of my favorite stories (and I’m sure we’ll talk about some of them here in future installments). There’s also a bit of an element of “you don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone” in play here — it’s been feeling like a hassle for me to go out to buy my comics over the past few months, but I know I’ll never take the opportunity to do so for granted ever again.
But this is also a prime opportunity for us to continue to support comic shops — most of which are small businesses that play important roles in their communities — while we can. They may not be getting new books, but any shops still open will have plenty of back issues, graphic novels, statues, manga, trading cards, board games, and other items for sale, and as I mentioned earlier, many shops are offering curbside pick-up or delivery options during the pandemic. If you have the means, it’s a great cause. And if you’ve never read comic books before but are curious — or even if you’ve only dabbled in the medium before — now’s a great time to order a few collections and see what all the fuss is about.
CHECK OUT
All the new comics in my stack were pretty great this week, but I’m hesitant to recommend any ongoing series when there’s literally zero idea when the next chapter will be released.
But if you’re new to comics, I do have a few ideas as to where you could start. If you’re interested in superheroes, check out Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye series from 2012-2015. The series ran 22 issues, and is collected in four trade paperbacks, or one supersized hardback omnibus. It’s a stand-alone story that requires no knowledge of the Marvel universe or even the characters involved. It’s heartfelt, hilarious, and harrowing; at least one issue will absolutely break your heart. Hawkeye is also a perfect introduction to the infinite possibilities of sequential storytelling, with many issues pushing the boundaries of how to tell a story or what a comic even is.
If superheroes aren’t your speed, let me instead recommend Saga. Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan’s original story is about a pair of starcrossed lovers attempting to protect their child from an intergalactic war, and it’s equal parts poetic and poignant, bizarre and profane, thematically rich and visually stunning. It’s about love, family, loss, violence, and identity, but also about magic and bounty hunters and dudes with television sets for heads, which is a helluva winning combination. The series was already on a hiatus even before COVID-19, but the series-to-date is available in nine trade paperbacks, or three hardback omnibus, and they’re absolutely engrossing. Just try to stop yourself from speeding through the whole series in a day.
ABOUT
“Do You Know What I Love the Most?” is a newsletter from Spencer Irwin. Spencer is an enthusiast and writer from Newark, Delaware, who likes punk rock, comic books, working out, breakfast, and most of all, stories. His previous work appeared on Retcon Punch, One Week One Band, and Crisis on Infinite Chords, and he can be found on Twitter at @ThatSpenceGuy. If you like this newsletter, please subscribe and share with your friends!
I was looking at a digital format for some of the earlier Image comics the other day and noted the almost comparable price to paperback. Seems like it would be cheaper to just scan and upload with no physical costs of production. Oh, well. As my bookshelves can attest, I prefer graphic novel/TPB collections. I do like comics, but they get messy, and most of the nostalgia that I feel for them seems tied up in the classic ads contained between the pages. I hope that your birthday was amazing this year, despite the looming fear of economic collapse and apocalyptic demise.