Dynamite Reduces Comics, Increases Discounts, Anticipates Delays

Last week, Bleeding Cool told you that there was comic industry talks to reduce published content in July, focused around industry bestsellers. We have already reported that Vault is delaying titles, Aspen is closing for the foreseeable, and Valiant Entertainment are also downing tools. Now Dynamite Entertainment has announced a reduction of published material in July, and I understand this may be the case for many publishers – they are just first out of the gate. They are also anticipating major printing and distribution delays across the industry, with standardised distribution across the USA on the same day coming to an end. Publisher and CEO of Dynamite, Nick Barrucci, told us.

To our Retail Partners and Fans,

As we stated previously, these are extremely trying times and we've been monitoring what you, our retailer partner have been saying as much as possible during these trying times.  From what we can see of the online retailer discussions regarding  the backing up of titles to retailers all over the world, and the news that keeps morphing, we have had many internal discussions on taking decisive actions.  Dynamite, as other publishers, are working on May coded titles for July in store releases, and this may be an additional burden to retailers and fans with so many titles currently, and potentially more titles, being pushed back.  We don't know what is happening next.  We know that more and more states are shutting business and that retailers and fans will not be getting titles for a few weeks at least, and that may be extended.

We hope that things are back up and running between now and then but it seems the best course would be to limit the number of July releases to only our best sellers, especially considering it is a Five Wednesday month.  This way, if things are still being pushed back, it's less of a commitment of titles for fans and retailers.  If things are back in place, retailers and fans will have the best sellers to enjoy. We are also moving all of our merchandise out of July all together.  This is in addition to taking returns of new titles starting this past Wednesday and at least through the next 4 weeks.

At the moment, we will be releasing Vampirella #13, The Boys #4, Red Sonja #18, Sacred Six #3, Bettie Page #2 and Green Hornet #2.  We will also be deep discounting our best-selling collections for retailers should things turn for the better, including  Vampirella, Red Sonja and The Boys Omnibuses in time for Season 2 on Prime.

We are a community – the Publishers, retailers, creators, distributor and fans – together, we will get past this.  It's time to make safe and calculated decisions.  We hope that this one will help us all through for our part.

Keep up with Bleeding Cool's coverage of the coronavirus impact on the comic book industry, right here.

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