Stream of Comicness Wednesday

I really hate it when work gets in the way of blogging. Between bill-paying efforts and the hours and hours of end-of-the-year number crunching I did for my first Comics by the Number contribution to PopCultureShock -- which should be available as soon as Saturday -- it’s been about a week since I’ve really paid attention to what’s going on in comics. I feel so disconnected. Here's some rambling randomness while I catch up.   

I’m a business geek. I may be more of a business geek than I am a comics geek. I love reading about how businesses run and Brian Hibbs’ latest Tilting at Windmills is at the intersection of my two geeky obsessions. If you want to understand how Diamond works and the implications of the current distribution model on the Direct Market, this is a must read. It’s probably a must read for anyone who has ever complained about not being able to get a certain book from their LCS, which is to say, all of us. Here are my two initial thoughts in response:

1) I really think the DM will have an alternative to Diamond for small press distribution in the near future. And by near future I mean the next five years or so. And by alternative I mean potentially a variety of alternatives serving specific niches or regions. One inevitability is that the alternatives are going to require more work on the part of the LCS’s. I’ve got a number of thoughts on how this might go, and will happily lay them out at which time as I should decide not to pursue them myself.

2) Hibbs made the point (at least twice) about how “precarious of a situation it is when 2 of your suppliers are 70%-ish of your sales” in regards to Diamond’s dependence on Marvel and DC. But this is standard for most businesses. Talk to anyone who sells to Wal*Mart or Costco. It’s called Pareto’s Principle, or more commonly, the 80-20 Rule: simply, for this situation, 80% of your revenue is generated by 20% of your suppliers. Diamond’s reliance on the big two, or even the superhero genre in general, doesn’t strike me as a particularly risky one given the exclusivity they’ve been able to secure. As long as competition exists between Marvel and DC (which should ensure that at least their products meet certain quality and marketability standards) Diamond can rest relatively easy. Who should be worried? Well, it strikes me that it’s actually the retailers who have all their eggs in one basket (and I understand they have little choice) and as such they’re probably who should be working most actively towards developing alternatives. 

Who wants to be a superhero? I’m going to predict right now that they’ll have three times as many people lining up for Who Wants to be a Supervillain? And Stan Lee’s involvement is obvious, but wouldn’t it be great if they had a big half-circle dais with a bunch of people dressed like Legionnaires giving the thumbs up or down. I used to love those issues where they’d let Gas Girl or Chlorophyll Boy try out. Or maybe they could get Bruce Campbell to drop a car on the finalists, and then yell, “Sidekick!”

BlueTights.net is the official fan site for Superman Returns. You’ll find Bryan Singer’s video journal there and tons of exclusive clips and goodies. Be wary, you can kill a few hours in a hurry. (And why is there such an urge in the movies to put Luthor in a toupee?)

Okay, I’ve gotten a few emails about how to get on my blogroll. As you can tell, it’s not too difficult. I don’t subscribe to the “limit your blogroll” school of thought, although I have no problem with those who do. (And apparently my excessive linkage devalues this site’s Blogshares in some way, which is just dumb.) For the record, I have two criteria: You need to blog primarily about comics – other stuff is okay but the majority of it needs to be comic book related; and you need to post at least once a week. Pretty simple really. If you only occasionally write about comics I probably won’t link your site. Doesn’t mean I won’t read you -- I read tons of sites not linked here -- or that I’m uninterested in what you have to say, it’s just a comics thing. Sorry in advance for being such a pedant about  it. If you feel you belong in such an exclusive club simply drop me an email. On the flip side, if you don’t link me you are a schmuck and may you die a death by a thousand denial of service attacks. No, not really. Link me, don’t link me, it’s your blog, do with it as you will. Know that I appreciate it if you do and usually don’t notice if you don’t. Whew. That should take care of all the housekeeping for another six months.