Just like movie theaters, comic book stores are being hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic, and there's concern that many of them will be unable to re-open by the time life returns to normal. With Diamond Comic Distributors forced to temporarily shut down, there's no way to distribute physical comic books to retailers (who won't be unable to sell them anyway due to lockdowns).
However, while a number of publishers (including Image Comics and Dark Horse) are halting the release of physical and digital copies of the comic books, DC Comics has now confirmed that this Wednesday's titles will go on sale digitally as per usual.
Based on comments from Adam Phillips, DC's Director of Marketing Services, this will be the case moving forward as well. "All our data shows the digital consumer and the physical consumer are two different audiences. For now, we're going to continue to release digital comics, but will revisit this if the pipeline for physical distribution continues to be challenged and disrupted."
As for whether DC Comics will consider allowing retailers to sell codes for digital comics, he said: "Not yet, but we'll look into it."
Marvel Comics is expected to also release titles as normal on Wednesday, but they haven't confirmed that one way or the other yet. It would be a surprising move for the big two comic book companies to halt digital sales, and while that will hurt retailers, it's not realistic for publishers to site on hundreds of comics for the foreseeable as it will then be the creators not getting paid to produce new ones!
It's a tricky situation all round, and the hope is that COVID-19 won't be a problem in late 2020 so that things can return to normal sooner rather than later. As things stand, though, the future of comic book stores looks to be even more at risk than movie theaters right now.
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