Jamie Colville at CollectorTimes.com chats candidly with Bob Layton about the ins and outs of the comic book business, particularly in regards to his time at Valiant and Future Comics, as well as about his new webcomic, The Colony.
Of note are Layton’s comments that Diamond and comics printer Quebecor want to put independent comic companies out of business:
Jamie: On your site, you’ve mentioned you think Diamond and (printer) Quebecor want to put indy comics out of business. I’ve heard this about Diamond before, but never about Quebecor. Why would they want to hurt indy comics?
Bob: It’s all about the bottom line . . . money.
Quebecor and Diamond pretty much control the entire business side of the comic industry.
During the time when we were publishing Future Comics, there was more than a hint of collusion between Quebecor and Diamond. Our books began to get printed days or weeks past the scheduled press time and were frequently mishandled in shipping and customs. All of this resulted in nothing but huge financial problems for us.
It was a regrettable miscalculation on our part to accept Diamond’s offer to co-distribute our products instead of staying the course with our original business plan. However, the promise of doubling our sales and reaching profitability in our first year of operation was too great of a temptation.
As I said earlier: “Greed–is a bitch.”
It was no secret that Diamond wanted our continuing self-distribution to cease. In analysis, it was more advantageous for them to put us out of business than to promote us.
It was a win/win situation for them, looking at it in hindsight. If we suddenly took off-Diamond had another major publisher and a new source of continued revenue.
If they squeezed us out of business, then self-distribution was dead and there are more rack spaces for their existing companies. Quebecor has a huge investment in the printing of comics for the larger publishing companies. Small press eats up press time and resources while representing a large financial risk for them. I know for a fact that Quebecor financially ate a huge ’shit sandwich’ with the bankruptcies of CrossGen and Future Comics. Since then, they’ve been working in concert with Diamond to stack the deck in their favor, as far as indy comics go.
So– to take our lumps, Mark Alessi and I are somewhat responsible for this.
But this sort of behind-the-scenes collusion has been going on long before there was ever a CrossGen or Future Comics.
In hindsight, it now seems clear that getting rid of the small press is the best way for the two (Quebecor and Diamond) to insure spreading the finite amount of consumer dollars evenly amongst their larger and more profitable clients.
So today, Diamond is placing Draconian regulations on distributing small print runs of comics.
End result: More rack space and press time for their larger clients with less financial risk for them.
Currently Layton is publishing a webcomic, The Colony, on his website, while “negotiations are ongoing” with an unnamed entity to bring the Future Comics material back into print.
September 5th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
I think former Marvel employee Layton mistakes the asskissing treatment Marvel receives from Quebecor for status quo. The fact of the matter is that Quebecor gives its big-money clients deluxe treatment, and its smaller clients whatever attention they have left over. Welcome to the real world. What of it?
The Journal is printed at Quebecor as well, and while we don’t get the careful, loving attention we once got at our former, smaller printer, I’ve never seen the slightest evidence to indicate some collusion between them and Diamond in a wacky effort to screw us over. Bob’s just nutty, I think.
September 5th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Wait, I thought Bob blamed the death of Future Comics on retailers failing to recognize his genius? Now it was collusion between Diamand and Quebecor? Well, so long as it couldn’t possibly be his fault, then.
September 5th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
Is Bob a Spinal Tap fan? If so, that “shit sandwich” reference is awesome.
September 5th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
I’m not sure why anyone would be surprised that these mega-companies are using their power to kill the small guys; that’s just the way these guys do business. Marvel will sue practically *anyone* at the drop of a hat (i.e. City of Heroes; the producers of “Zoom”; etc.); and then there’s the history of the Ultraverse and how Marvel keeps it dead because they cannot stomach sharing any revenue with the creators.
These things are just reality; and another reality is that Diamond is an unchallenged monopoly. That’s why we have laws against monopolies; monopolies work to abuse their power and squeeze businesses out.
September 5th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
Hughes, the problem with your agrument is that it assumes that someone, somewhere considered Future Comics to be a threat to Marvel in the first place. That’s highly unlikely.
September 5th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
This is the same Future Comics that gave away … what was it, hundreds of thousands of free comics for Free Comic Book Day and saw no increase in sales afterwards, right?
It may be easier to try to blame other folks but I think the reality is, not very many people wanted what they were selling - very throwbacky comics that just looked dated. Layton et al did not evolve with the times, or the fans.
September 5th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Well, I think there is a market for the “throwbacky” comics, as matchesmalone put it, but the audience looking for those comics are seeking out the real thing, in the form of affordable (or high-end) reprints from DC and Marvel.
Other publishers are also putting out the older material, from Dark Horse to IDW, from Dynamite to Checker.
September 5th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
I love that something on the level of Future Comics on some level (albeit part of a larger picture) gets Dirk’s attention not once but twice. And then you get Don “reviewer legend” MacPherson to weigh in no less.
I dare one of the Blog@Newsarama contributors to post an item about CrossGen, see if we can get Mark Waid to post a comment. Then I’ll be really impressed.
And in the land of cheap shots, is the unknown entity interested in publishing Future–could it be–Kinkos?
(If there is a God, let Future not be Mr. Giordano’s last major ripple in his comic career…)
To end on a positive note, modern day Layton does not grab my attention, but his 1980s Iron Man remains my favorite version visually.