Indy Comic Book Week

In the comic book industry there are many different issues and difficulties to deal with and one of the big ones is distribution.  Distribution is so bad in the comic industry, that Diamond was investigated by US Justice Department to see if Diamond had a monopoly on comic distribution.  The sad thing is that the Justice Department did find that Diamond has a monopoly on comics, but no further action was needed because there were other book distributors.  That is sad on several levels, one being that book distributors really haven’t touched comics until the past several years, years after the Justice Department’s decision (2000).

Recently Diamond decided to skip the last week of the year for shipping product (That would be the week of Dec 30th).  They explain the reason was that because of all Christmas and New Years falling on Fridays, that will play havoc with shipping times, so they figured to skip the whole week altogether.

So what some creators have come up with is a clever plan.  I wish I could take credit for it, but I just jumped on the bandwagon.  Diamond isn’t shipping comics that week, then there would be comics stores open with no new product on Wednesday when their customers habitually come in.  So the plan is that this is an opportunity for Indy Comic Creators to provide books for stores during a week there will be no competition from the big publishers, fighting for shelf space.

Now what you can do, is ask if your local comic book store is participating in the event and if not tell them to go by http://www.indycomicbookweek.com/ and check it out.  Also when Dec 30th does come around to go to the comic book store and check out some of the indy books on the shelf.  You may find a hidden gem you wouldn’t have noticed before because there was too many copies of the Darkest Reign Secret Crisis Countdown of M pushing out all the other comics.

Oh and while you’re helping out to spread the word of Indy Comic Book Week, why don’t you suggest to your comic book store to order my Dusk One-Shot that I’m releasing to support Indy Comic Book Week.  They can order it directly through me, or via Haven Distribution http://www.havendistro.com/ . Haven is one of the few alternatives to Diamond.

Here’s a bit more about the Dusk One Shot Special for Indy Comic Book Week -

“Eve’s life is a living hell of her own choosing. She struggles to survive in a dark world of magic and horror, all in an attempt to please her vampire master. Now Eve has crossed a line and and innocents have been harmed. This hasn’t gone unnoticed by a well meaning cabal of occultist that’s mandate is to police the occult world. What will happen when these two forces clash? Is there ever a “winner” in the supernatural underworld of Dusk?”

36 Pages
B&W Interior Pages
$3