January 19, 2009:
THE BLUEWATER COOLER: Publisher Darren G. Davis rants and raves about the comic industry: ISSUE 5
As many of you have heard, Diamond is changing their benchmark. If you have not heard you can read it here:
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/01/diamond-raises-order-benchmarks-for-publishers/
I have had a lot of people ask me "What does that mean for Bluewater?".
Simple we push forward.... Diamond changing the benchmark is not new
information to us. We have been planning for this for months. You will
notice a change in our solicitations from books like "Bartholomew
of the Scissors" to proven titles like "10th Muse." We
need the more high profile books to make it through the rough time.
It is one reason we have picked up some of the licenses like "Warlock"
& "Vincent Price Presents." Our Diamond brand manager
spoke to us months ago about the upcoming change. Many people seem shocked,
but the writing has been on the wall for months. If you look over my
last few blogs, you will note that I have been referencing the problems.
There is a bunch of good stuff coming through the pipeline at Bluewater.
We are a company that is on the verge of breaking out. Coming this may
we are launching a new chapter with "William Shatner Presents."
We are also working on an ongoing Isis series. This means for the most
part, we will not be taking risks at this point with non-proven titles.
So nothing is really going to change at Bluewater. Diamond is not the
only place to get your comics distributed. Haven is taking on "Missile
to the Moon" as an exclusive to them. Diamond We plan on doing
some titles through them as well as Diamond.
We will be working with Haven Distributors on some titles. "Missile
to the Moon" that was canceled is now going to be exclusive to
them.
The next few months are going to be rough for the industry, if you have the extra income -- but independent books. They do not have to be Bluewater, but the industry needs the boost. This is a really bad thing for comics, I can't stress that enough. There was a post on CBIA that said Diamond will be cutting 50% of their catalog in the next few months. So a lot of books that are cult favorites will be gone or will be online comics. Personally I do not want to read comics on the Internet. For the last couple decades I have enjoyed sitting on my couch reading comics.
Diamond is a business and I understand where they are coming from. I used to work with retailers/distrbutors when I worked for Lionsgate. This was during the time a lot of the mom and pop video stores were going out of business. We have had the ax fall on us with "Ret Romanne," "Missile to the Moon" and "Waterbury." Just because Diamond is not picking them up does not mean they will not be seen. I don't have to like it but I understand, maybe it is because Bluewater has a great brand manager and took the time to explain everything in advance.
I had my call today with the head of Diamond which went well. There were no surprises for us. We have been planning for this for a while. The call was not all bad, we did get some great news from Diamond. We will will be making the annoucement in a couple weeks.
Once again, Bluewater is fine for now. But really I can't stress enough, go buy one independent book this week. It is going to get worse for the industry before it gets better. There are some rumors floating around about a couple big layoffs in the industry. I'll comment on them if they happen.
Sorry for being short today, but it has been a long day! Next week I will talk about WOWIO and the email I just got from them.
Until next time.
Darren
