Direct Distribution & Niche
Direct distribution has two main areas in which it can be distinguished from other types of marketing. One is that it attempts to sell directly to the consumer without the intervention of the media, this may involve commercial communication eg. direct mail or e-mail. The second way is that it focuses in on "call-to-action", this is where it focuses on the response of the consumer no matter what the medium. In the comic book industry direct distribution focuses on non return-ability, which is unlike bookstore and newsstand distribution, it stops distributors and retailers returning their unsold merchandise for refunds. Its differences were: condition, the direct market outlet would try to maintain good condition of its product, whereas the normal drug or toy store would not necessarily pride itself on this. Also content was a difference, they catered to older audiences due to the non return-ability and the materiel could be found offensive. The price was different too, because the target was older, they were not overly fussed about the price of the product and sometimes were willing to pay over the normal drug store price for better quality.
Diamond Comic Distributors is a huge comic book distributor. It has exclusive arrangements with the likes of DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics and Marvel Comics. They transport comic books from big and small publishers or suppliers, to the retailer. Diamond is a dominant force in the American direct market. They publish a monthly preview catalog which showcases upcoming books, graphic novels and toys, as well as any other pop culture related items. Diamond calls itself an "open door policy", meaning that anyone that makes a comic book, that they see has potential in sales, they will distribute it to a host of retailers.
However smaller distributors saw that with such a big company like diamond, with such flexible ideas and marketing methods, it may leave a small niche for the smaller companies, that specialized in back orders and re-orders. FM International used niche distribution to get successful. Although refilling paperwork for re orders and returns proved a hard business, Diamond was less than willing to get involved half the time, so this way FM could slot into this gap in the market and build up relationships with smaller business' and quickly move them on. DC and Dark Horse were available to Diamond but not to any old distributor, which left FM out of the equation, many of the names have left Diamond out of their strategies for fear of bankruptcy, however, IDW was successful with FM then signed into an exclusive deal with Diamond.
DC & Marvel Comics
DC is one of the worlds largest comic book producers and companies. It is the publishing division of DC entertainment Inc. DC comics produces a number of well known comic book characters such as, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The name DC came from a well known comic series known as Detective Comics, which became a part of the companies official name. DC has a partnership with Diamond, who distribute their comics directly to the specialist shops.
Marvel Comics produces American comic books and related media. It has produced characters such as The Fantastic 4, X-Men and Spider Man. Most of the Marvel industry characters operate in the Marvel Universe, which is widely involved. The Company began in 1939 and by the 1950's had become known as Atlas Comics. With the launch of Fantastic 4 and other super hero titles, they soon became a substantial force to compete with DC in the comic book world.
Promotion
Readers can get to hear about new comics and graphic novels by simply going to their favorite sites on the internet such as, The comics journal or read yourself raw. New and old comics can also be promoted in monthly catalogs as Diamond Distribution did, this previewed any new and up coming material that was set to be released, this way the reader and the overall audience would know what they may have wanted to purchase and when it was going to hit stores. Adverts for new comics could also be placed in previous comics, such as an advert for a new character, a whole new book or simply the next issue of the same book. All of which help to promote comics and novels to the target audience. Also older readers may be able to inform new readers of comics about previous classics and older books, knowledge of information about novels and comics may be passed down from father to son or grandfather to grandson, but this still promotes old and new comics to the reader.
Web-comics
Web-comics are online comics that are published on websites. These are then easily accessible to its audience, some still feature in newspapers and magazines but maintain an online archive. They are self-published and almost anyone can create and publish one. There are over 1500 online comics that exist today, ranging from comic strips to graphic novels. However, very few sustain good enough financial income. There are several pro's and con's involved with this medium. With web based comics, the usual restrictions that you may have involved with a newspaper or a normal magazine comic can be lifted and there may be more room to explore. For instance the content could change to that of a more adult nature or flash animation could be used to add variation to the style. Some comics have stopped publishing print, such as Carla Speed McNeil Finder, and have begun serializing their comics on the internet as web-comics in order to reach a wider audience. Some web-comics explore the fact that they are independently published and have no restrictions due to the lack of internet censorship in the US and UK. There is a distinctive style difference in some online comics compared to that of some printed ones, mainly the style of drawing has to change because of the computer interface, the designs online could look more modern due to the hard bold colors that a computer can display, however, a computer can never replace the imagination of a person ad the ability to think and draw/write at the same time, this lets the story in the comic flow, something that may be hard to achieve by using computer animation. Some web based comics are enough for some artists to not need a day to day job such as, these are comics by professional web-comic artists. Some of these designers and comics include, Randall Munroe of xkcd, Brian Clevinger of 8-Bit Theater, Eric Millikin of Fetus-X, Tim Buckley of Ctrl+Alt+Del, and many others. However, an online comic could also make money by providing a link that is sent to a subscriber after a subscription fee has been paid, the comic may arrive weekly by e-mail or monthly, but this may not have been fully explored yet.
