Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 13:10:39 +0500 From: [g--l--n] at [falcon.bgsu.edu] (Metroplex) Subject: ftp 508 ==== c a t h e r i n e . y r o n w o d e . ,, /^^^^^^\ //////\\\\ V ((((((O))))) V # ((((((OO)))))) # # ((((((OOO))))))) # # ((((OOOO)))))))) # V # (((OOO)))))))))) # V # # (((OOO)))))))))) # # # #=>====>===>=>=v ((OO)))))))))) v=<=<===<====<=# # # V (O)))))))))) V # #===>====>==>===>==> V \VvvvvvvV/ V <==<===<==<====<===# V V /^^^^^^\ V V V V///00\\\\\V V \((((00))))))/ >====>===>===>-(((00)))))))-<===<===<====< >> _(((0~~~~))))_ << >> >==>===V \\~ oo /// V===<==< << >> >V ^v oo v^ V< << >> >> {, ,} << << >> >> (^^) << << || >> [ ] << || :: >> << :: :: || || :: #: |< >| :# /\ :: :: /\ :# #: /\ /\ for the week of October 24, 1994 THIS IS FIT TO PRINT NUMBER 508: Late night at the thought factory. HOT NEWS?: Well, the faxed press release that made the rounds September 7th about Gemstone Publishing (sister company to Diamond Comic Distributors) buying the Overstreet Price Guide barely had time to sink in when a new rumour-that DC Comics is in negotiation to buy, is going to buy, or has bought Malibu-started burning up the lines. Perhaps by the time you read this the full story (or non-story) will be public; right now, all i can say is that people are talking and they have been doing so for about two weeks. Remember back in the 1980s when frantic rumours of Marvel buying DC made the rounds? We can laugh now, but a lot of people fell for those reports. One thing you've gotta learn: nothing is true until proven true. In fact, the only reason i mention this rumour du jour at all is that bringing it out in the open may stop people from phoning me to whisper it in my ear! WHAT DOES IT MEAN?: Well, if DC really does buy Malibu, (just speculating here, folks; i don't know anything more about it than you do), one might wonder why none of the big outfits has bought out of the various moribund and recently-defunct comics publishers that litter the highway of life. Majestic never found a buyer. Neither did Eclipsexor Innovation. Defiant is still up for grabs, or so i have heard. Of course, if DC is really preparing to digest Malibu, its appetite may be too sated to nibble on that offering. Meanwhile, it is also said in hushed tones among the prophets of gloom that Marvel's meal of Fleer is proving a tough lump to swallow. It was a little on the doughy side, you see. Well, i have no doubt that the resultant debt is being retired on schedule, because that's what the math-heads who read the fine print in Marvel's annual reports tell me, but these fine-print readers also say that until the bolus slides down the old esophagus, Marvel won't be able to pick up any of the small companies shaken off during this go-round of economic crack-the-whip. I guess i have had my fun over the past decade, running around in sackcloth and ashes prophesying Doom and Destruction one year, then dressing in gold and pearls to tout the Glory of the Industry Reborn the next. This latest round of Collapse-of-the-Second-Tier-Publishers is no worse than expected, and only a little bit more savage than the last episode, but it has been none the less chilling for all of that. As you know, a periodic glut that knocks minor-to medium-range players out of the game strikes our field every few years, the same way it ravages the commodities market, laying low the prices on pork belly futures. I used to laugh at the small farmers in the Ozarks who would bet the homestead on those darned weaner pigs. When they won, they won big, but most years they had to take out a loan to pay off the loan they had taken out to buy the sows that birthed the glut of piglets that drove the market down. You'd think they'd have gotten wise to the cycle, but they never did. Comics as pork bellies? What a concept! Man, that's crazy talk. I better hang it up before i get in trouble! E-MAIL: One brief electronic item to mention: Due to Fit to Print's non-exclusive reprint rights with CBG, this column is now available electronically to net-folks one week after it is received by CBG subscribers. (Yes, i know, you already have it; you don't need to know this.) Please don't apply to me for this e-mail service; the Fit to Print e-mail subscription list is maintained by Greg Pallenik, at <[g--l--n] at [falcon.bgsu.edu]> and if you contact him, he will add you to his subscription base. FtP is also being archived at some ftp site or other (yep, FtP at an ftp!) by some nice being, but woe unto me, i have mis-placed the name and net-address of the man who is handling it. When he reads this, he'll contact me with the info, right? Let's hope so. === Ascii art this time by: Chip Patton ([c r patton] at [chipster.b15.ingr.com]). To see your name here, create some Ascii art with "Fit to Print" and "catherine yronwode" in it somewhere and send it to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu] ==== 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. Responses are welcome and should be directed to the address above. Fit to Print is Copyright 1994 Cathrine Yronwode. All rights reserved.