What did he mean by this?

What did he mean by this?

>a monopolistic distribution system

I'm actually not sure what they mean this time

So glad I picked this up.

It's talking about how you can only find comics in LCS rather then every where.

Monopolistic as in "Monopoly".

Paperbacks specifically right? You're not able to get hardcovers online?

It's talking about how there's literally one comic distributor left in America.

is this real?

How Diamond is fucking everyone's shit up

Yep

So, is the comic books industry actually dying?

>Why,
This interjection always cracks me up when it's brought up like this, holy kek.

Diamond has a strong chokehold on the industry, other distributors have tried and failed to set up shop but Diamond's just too damn big

So the "diversity" shit by Marvel (and DC in the past) was more of a currently failing attempt at trying to reinvigorate interest in comics that's been dying since the early 2000s. It fixed NONE of the real issues that's causing comics to die out and instead pissed off the remaining fans.

It means so long as what he describes persists, no amount of "diversity" is going to save Marvel or DC.

>So, is the comic books industry actually dying?

Yes and no. The industry has been in shambles since the 90's and is being held up be the big 2, but the only reason THEY are still alive is because companies fund them since they're effectively glorified IP farms now. The medium is completely unviable outside of that.

It was never the "diversity" that kept people away, it was the stupid as fuck gimmicks in general turning old fans off (new 52, Marvel since Civil War, etc), and the overall dark/"mature" tone combined with the stigma comics have purposefully placed themselves in alienates any possible newcomers as well.

Tl;Dr the industry has been fucked since the late 80's-early 90's and it's really feeling the consequences of it now.

The way Marvel handled the "diversity" angle lately, it might as well counts as a gimmick as well.

Only floppies fuck up
Graphic Novels like Smile and American Born Chinese actually sell and make it on best seller lists

For the most part, it IS a gimmick. They have no actual intention on keeping the majority of them around for more than a few years, because status quo trumps all. The only exception are character is a genuine improvement like Ms. Marvel was.

True, graphic novels still sell. But unlike comics which are more or less exclusive to LCS', graphic novels are sold in any bookstore and can be bought up by schools/libraries. I know that American Born Chinese is required reading for certain schools.

>Lack of variety
>It's the "everything is capeshit" meme again

How can the industry fix itself?

Didn't you do this exact same thread only four hours ago?

DC and Marvel hold the strongest shares of space in the industry when it comes to keeping the monthly comics industry alive. You walk into a store, what is the first thing you see? Superheroes.

that's fucking savage,spongebob

the lack of variety I understand but can someone explain the importance of the monopolistic distribution system line

Diamond is really the only distributor and nothing else can compete with it. Similar to how Amazon drowns competition from not being able to keep up with a behemoth.

get compitition for diamond