It’s No New Comics Week
Back in the days before direct sales and specialty shops overwhelmed comic book sales, you couldn’t find a new comic book on the newsstands to save your soul. The theory was, nobody buys magazines between Christmas and New Years Day, and even now “weekly” magazines like Time and Newsweek skip that week. The fact was, the newsstand distributors and shippers thought that would be a swell week to take off, so they did.
Well, those sing-along days are back. Diamond will not be shipping anything the week of December 30, 2009. Nada. Zippo. Nothing.
There’s a bit of a difference between modern times and those thrilling days of yesteryear. Maybe the old mom and pop stores could survive selling Brylcream and Ipana, or maybe they’d take the week off as well. But today’s comics shop owners can’t afford to close down that week – yes, comic book selling is that marginal a business – and they’ve still got to pay the rent.
Expect a lot of in-store post-Christmas sales, which might be lucrative for those retailers whose customers get cash as holiday presents.
The shop I go to (Stand-up Comics in Lansing) actually does have a holiday party at the end of every year. Its a good time and I like to think the other subscribers there and myself are happy to make sure the place keeps the doors open. It will sting a bit to go a week with nothing new to read.
Yet another reason to have more than one distributor serving your store.