Something To Consider When You Don’t Support Your Local Comic Shop
Remember this when some other website hawks the Amazon steal of the day, and then complains about how all the local shops are going away.
Glenn Hauman
Glenn is VP of Production at ComicMix. He has written Star Trek and X-Men stories and worked for DC Comics, Simon & Schuster, Random House, arrogant/MGMS and Apple Comics. He's also what happens when a Young Turk of publishing gets old.
That’s not a “local comics store”, as you can see from the signs in the background; it’s a Borders, part of a major national chain that did its level best to run local comics stores out of business by stocking their product at a discount. (Before they got eaten by an even bigger, more efficient chain.) This article should really be titled, “Support your soulless corporate behemoth.”
Yes, it\’s a Borders. But that doesn\’t make Amazon\’s impact any softer on individual comics stores.
In fact, if Amazon figured out a way to distribute and sell floppy comics, we\’d see individual stores dropping at an even faster rate across the country. As it is, it reminds me how some independent video stores were able to hold out against Blockbuster– because there was an entire category of stock that Blockbuster wouldn\’t carry, and that let some independents survive.
It’s okay to say it: porn. I know a local video store owner and he has told me 70% of his business these days is porn.