Looking forward to picking up your weekly stack of comics tomorrow? Sorry, but you’ll be waiting an extra week this time. Diamond Comics Distribution, the de facto monopoly in comic book distributors, has declared this week a “skip week” for comics. They usually ship out the new comics to retailers on Friday, with the shipments arriving at shops on Wednesday. Since last Friday was Christmas Day, and DCD was closed, they would not have shipped out the new books until Monday. With New Year’s Day falling on Friday of this week, they felt the delivery date would be too uncertain, so they’ve mandated that there will be no new comic book releases until next Wednesday, January 6.
Diamond usually adjusts shipping schedules on holiday weeks, but skipping an entire week of new comics is fairly unprecedented. What do you think about their unilateral decision and what it means for comics retailers?
