Date: Mon, 17 Apr 1995 11:36:56 -0400 From: [g--l--n] at [falcon.bgsu.edu] (Metroplex) Subject: FTP 528 Administrivia: You may have noticed that our numbering doesn't quite match the numbering in CBG. Apparently CBG runs FtP when is has the room and, to maintain some sort of continuity, numbers them sequentially so as to avoid confusion. This means that not ALL of cat's FtP's will see print, but you WILL see them here. So, even though we're two ahead in numbering, we're right where we're supposed to be. ==== FIT TO PRINT by cathrine yronwode for the week of April 17, 1995 THIS IS FIT TO PRINT NUMBER 528: Well, the music has stopped playing? Did you wind up in a chair, or will you be forced off the dance floor? Marvel no sooner let it be known that their much-rumoured acquisition of Capital City Distribution was not going to happen than they announced that Marvel Comics will be handled exclusively by Heroes World Distribution, starting in July. People were still calling each other up to comment on this surprising turn of events when Marvel announced that they had just acquired Skybox trading cards. Almost at once a cute hoax press release flew around the internet. It claimed that, having bought out every other company in the world, Marvel had now made its biggest acquisition of the year-itself. After the laughs died down, a kind of numb awe set in, silencing even the most rampant insider gossip. Capital has laid off 50 employees, about 1/10th of their work-force. Diamond cancelled its annual sales meeting. When i put a few questions to one of the better "business side" sources in the industry, i received only cursory replies: "What do you think is going to happen to Skybox's license to publish DC cards?" "I'm sure DC's lawyers are working on that right now." "Do you think Heroes World will take Fleer and Skybox cards into exclusive distribution like they have with Marvel?" "I don't even want to speculate." Of course my source didn't want to speculate. Many dollars-and possibly his job-hang in the balance. Diamond and Capital have gone heavily into card distribution. If they lose Fleer and Skybox, they will not be happy campers. Meanwhile, the rumoured "alliances" i first mentioned when the Marvel-HWD deal was still in negotiation have come out of the closet. They can now be called what they are: serious discussions among those at Diamond, DC, and Image about exclusivity. The Marvel conglomerate is moving fast, though. Heroes World has already reportedly signed Boingo (The Simpsons) and Motown Comics to a distribution deal. If Diamond does manage to sign exclusive contracts with DC and Image, what will happen to midrange publishers like Dark Horse and smaller outfits like Aardvark-Vanaheim and Claypool? Will they join the Diamond line-up, thus effectively removing Capital from competition, or will Diamond cut them loose and leave Capital as a much-weakened distributor of indies? What will happen to regional distributors like Friendly Frank and Comics Hawaii? You can bet the farm that few of the people involved in the "alliance" talks give a darn about the fate of small publishers or regional distributors. Dave Sim claims that he and Gerhard will work on Cerebus until the magnum opus is complete-but will it matter if they can't get the books into stores? And speaking of stores-now we hear that Marvel has laid out their new trade terms. The result is a combination of carrot and stick discount structuring. Retailers will get less advantageous discounts than they did from their old free-market distributors, unless they order more Marvel product or give Marvel more advertising. As the possibility of Marvel launching its own stores seems likely, one wonders how many retailers will go along with this new Marvel program. I'm not a retailer, but it looks like a bad deal to me. The more successful you are, the more incentive Marvel will have to move into your neighborhood and set up a competing outlet. The result of this is fairly predictable: if you run and independent stores that carry a full line of Marvel and other products, you will be driven under, sooner or later. There are still a lot of variables in this situation, of course. Marvel may not roll out a line of stores. Diamond may not sign DC and Image to exclusive contracts. And-a long shot-the public may decide that Marvel Comics suck and stop buying them. I tell ya, it's like those slo-mo shoot-outs in "The Wild Bunch." You don't want to look, but you can't look away. ==== Fit to Print appears in print each week in Comics Buyers Guide and is available via e-mail. Tell your friends! To subscribe to Fit to Print via e-mail send a request with the words "Subscribe FtP" in the subject header and your address in the body of the message to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] You will be added to the list and receive the next available issue. Back issues are available. FTP to nspace.cts.com and look in the Comics/About Comics/Comics News/Fit to Print directory. FtP is also available on the World Wide Web at http://www.scar.utoronto.ca/~91mithra. Responses are welcome and should be directed to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] Fit to Print is Copyright Cathrine Yronwode. All rights reserved.