Arizona's biggest comic store chain closes.

[BlackLantern]

Atomic isn't the only store to go under recently. I live up in Scottsdale, used to have a shop right across the street from me that lasted a couple years, Comic Zone. It was Scottsdale's ONLY comic shop, it didn't last either.

It sucks where the print industry is going. Look at the recent stuff with Borders. I am a professional Graphic Designer and I have worked for print shops. Lately I have found it hard to find work and have stopped buying the books all together cause I can't justify driving down to Tempe every week to go to my old shop, Ash Ave Comics, from my days at ASU.

@ JJJ's Ulcer, Atomic was like Newbury. They sold Tshirts, toys, posters, and more. They had a pretty good selection of hard to find alternate covers due to the high volume they ordered every week (it is easy to meet Diamond's minimums when you are ordering for 4 stores).

Another thing that is killing the industry: Diamond's monopoly. Store owners won't talk about it because of their fear of losing their ability to stock product, but really Diamond's monopoly needs to be broken up. It really amazes me that the Federal Gov't allows this to happen, it is clearly a violation of Federal Law.

unless you can prove that Diamond is actively sabotaging or suppressing other comic distributors....good luck with that

or just realize that it's only comics, no one gives enough of a damn to say anything, and the federal government has bigger fish to fry

 

[8wid]

Comics are only going to be found in collectors museums soon when printed. They will hopefully become more like ebooks to make them easier to read. When more print meets this media I think there will be a greatly reduced profit in publishing them because they can simply be pirated and reading content will be demanded for free one day.

 

[SuperFerret]

Ebooks? Easier to read? What is this sorcery?

 

[Will Nolte]

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/...kin-man-blues-with-diamond-comics-distributo/

More on why Diamond is bad for the comics business. Seriously, the things mentioned in this article happened FREQUENTLY to many shops. My friend who used to own Comic Zone here in Scottsdale has a ton of stories about them. The thing is, Diamond doesn't care cause they have a choke hold on comics distribution.

 

[BlackLantern]

Distributors **** up....it happens

welcome to retail

Im sure any retail store has similar stories with certain product again...what PROOF do you have? Im talking hard evidence that Diamond is actively seeking to sabotage or undercut other distributors

 

[Teelie]

Uh, that's the point. There aren't any real competitive distributors out there so they've gotten lazy and sloppy. It isn't just that this happens, which it does in distribution, it's how frequently it happens with no attempt to improve. What are shops going to do when their distributor keeps messing up orders on a regular basis? Go to another... oh, that's right, there aren't any other distributors to go to.

 

[BlackLantern]

and why aren't there any others?

genuinely curious

 

[Teelie]

Diamond bought, bullied, pushed or eliminated the competition to form a monopoly. It shouldn't have happened, certainly shouldn't be legal but it's one of those situations where they now have a stranglehold on the comics distribution market.

Antitrust litigation

In 1997 Diamond's position in the comics industry, as "the sole source of most new comics products to comics specialty shops," ultimately saw the company become the subject of "an investigation by the U.S. Justice department for possible antitrust violations."

In the summer of 1997, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an antitrust investigation into the comics industry and the alleged monopoly of Diamond Comics. The investigation was closed in November 2000, with no further action deemed necessary on the basis that, although Diamond enjoyed a monopoly in the North American comic book direct market distribution, they did not enjoy a monopoly on book distribution (books including non-comic books).

Wikipedia

 

[Will Nolte]

Mainly what it comes down to is the Government really doesn't care about comics enough to break up a monopoly that clearly breaks the anti-trust law. Honestly I don't think any of this will matter in 10 years if it all stays the same. People will get fed up with Diamond to the point that print comics will die off completely. By then publishers will be providing everything digitally.