Posted in: Batman, Comics, Comics Publishers, DC Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: leak, reddit

Marvel And DC Comics Leaked Earlier And Earlier Now

A Reddit user posted leaked pages from next week's Batman #138 to Reddit's Batman board yesterday.... that was just the start.

Bleeding Cool is also often sent photos of a Los Angeles store putting all their new comic up on the shelves from the Monday of the week. And Bleeding Cool often posts leaked images, especially from DC Comics titles, ahead of publication – though we do try to pick them well, to generate excitement and discussion ahead of publication, rather than spoiling them for the sake of it. But should we bother trying? After all, DC Comics itself makes all its comics available digitally through Amazon Australia from 10am ET/7am PT on the Monday morning before going on sale in shops on Tuesday. All you need to do is let Amazon think you live in Australia…

When DC Comics kicked off the New 52 in 2011, it was accompanied by new trading practices, negotiated by then-DC Comics VP Sales and former retailer Bob Wayne, with Diamond Comic Distributors. Diamond would deliver comic books on Tuesdays or before, for sale on Wednesday. Stores court breaking that street date would lose that early delivery privilege. And stores would pay into a fund of mystery shoppers to ensure those street dates were adhered to. When people first started checking, 2% stores broke street date. That number dropped to almost nothing. But that was then.

First, DC Comics dropped Diamond for Lunar and moved their on-sale date to Tuesdays to match bookstore distribution. And many retailers started getting those comic books the previous week. When Diamond returned, the mystery shoppers scheme was dropped. And then Penguin Random House started distributing Marvel, IDW, Dark Horse and now Image Comics earlier and earlier too. Bleeding Cool has received multiple reports of many comic book stores selling to favoured customers early, or even just putting them on open sale, as early as the Thursday before the Tuesday/Wednesday. And, of course, comic book store employees get early access too. Nothing beats the Death of Ms Marvel, which was spoilt by people involved in the actual printing process.

Back in the days of multiple distributors, this was common, with one comic book store getting the jump on their rivals by using a faster, different distributor. It may have cost more to ship comics air freight, but you could sell them sooner, undercutting rivals by time, if not price. Millions and millions of dollars were spent by comic book stores trying to get that week's comics on the shelves a day before their rivals to clean up.

And if comic book publishers and distributors don't keep an eye on things or a compliance system that Diamond used to do, will the Wild West be upon us again?

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