Ilan Strasser of Fat Moose Comics and Games in Whippany, New Jersey saw the comment by Rich Waldbiesser of Six Feet Under Games on Sharpening the Sword (see 'Rich Waldbiesser of Six Feet Under Games on Sharpening the Sword'), and feels 'it's all about selling:'

Rich Waldbiesser wrote that the distribution exclusive between WizKids and Alliance could help bring about not only game price fixing, but also could lead to distributor and retail store failures.  He may or may not be right, but the collapse of the comics distribution system due to exclusive distribution contracts (Marvel/Heroes World, DC/Diamond, etc) several years ago would certainly seem to indicate he is more than a little right to be scared.  It should not be forgotten that as the number of distributor fatalities kept piling up, there was also a concurrent rise in individual store failures; even some small chains fizzled out.

The death of the industry, at least in its current form, may have already begun.  This is mostly due to the almost total lack of concern by the two main publishers in keeping their houses in order.  The chronic issue of lateness always affects periodical sales and Marvel is worse now than they ever were before.  Perhaps Brian Hibbs will launch a second class action suit against Marvel; hopefully there was no language in the first settlement that did not allow for additional claims if Marvel's future behavior mirrored its behavior in the past -- if not, let the uncaring Marvel brain trust pay again.  And this time, throw DC into the mix as well as they allow even their bestselling titles to fall into the pit of apathy and disinterest.

Besides lateness, there are several other factors that may do us all in, and far quicker than we might think too.  There is the continual surge in prices that must be stopped, if not actually reversed to whatever degree possible.  There is no justification for a $3.99 comic book (Wisdom, the Civil War one-shots, etc) let alone the majority of the DC and Marvel lines priced at $2.99.  Another price increase and even the most devoted patrons of the pamphlets will start leaving stores in ever increasing numbers.

There is also the problem of lack of quality control.  Each week brings with it comics that are either damaged in shipment or have printing errors, mostly the former.  Dark Horse is forcing me to pay the shipping to return a King Kong statue that is defective in manufacture even though I followed the damage protocols when it was new, checking for damage within 24 hours as required.  It wasn't damaged per se -- the problem though is that now, a year later, I find that the connective parts of the statue won't hold (they don't line up properly) and the statue is unsellable.  Why do I have to foot the bill for return charges for a badly designed statue?

Rich and everyone else can forget about railing about individual issues both large and small.  The reality is that anyone with any power in the industry (i.e., the distributors and publishers and manufacturers) doesn't care about the retailers or end consumers.  It's all about selling, selling, selling with hardly a thought beyond the minimal in addressing the retailers' and consumers' concerns.  The stores are merely conduits in their licensing schemes, the retailers cogs in the stockholders' machinery.  And the consumers?  Simply wallets to be bled dry, taken advantage of because they had the audacity to care about an art form and with rare, individual exceptions, the prima donnas that provide it.

The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.