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Comic Stores Stop Ordering Dark Horse Comics For The Shelf Over Digital Price Point (UPDATE)

Published Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:24:46 -0600

Last updated Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:25:30 -0600

UPDATE: Dark Horse report that their price plan has been taken erroneously. Expect a statement to this effect later today, clarifying exactly what they will be charging – and when.

Last week, Dark Horse announced that it too was going day-and-date digital for all its comics. However, unlike other publishers, it was charging a lower price for digital from the get go.

Starting on December the 14th, it will see the whole line available digitally on the Wednesday of publication at a price $1 or $1.50 cheaper than the print price, effectively undercutting the comic shop on day of release. Dark Horse had been releasing lower priced digital versions at a later date, though even that had been getting closer to print date of late. Now they're all in.

To the extent that New Hampshire comic shop Jetpack Comics and Massachusetts' Larry's Comics have decided to stop stocking any Dark Horse comic at all, for the shelf. If you shop there and want a copy of Buffy Season Nine, the Origin of the Jedi, the new Brian Wood/Becky Cloonan Conan, Hellboy's decent into Hell, or the increasingly impressive Dark Horse Presents, you'll have to make a special order.

While shops have mostly bristled against digital incursion, they've mostly accepted their existence as long as they don't offer the same product for a lesser price, at least not initially.

Of course what happens in Marvel follow suit? Or DC?

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