Spoilers! Batman #139 Is Out And About In The Wild

Posted in: Batman, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics | Tagged: Batman #139, Mindbomb

Batman #139 could also be printed by DC Comics on Tuesday. Officially. But it’s out and about within the wild as of final night time…

Key Points

Batman #139 was unofficially launched earlier than DC Comics’ stipulated date.
Shifts in comedian distribution have affected official gross sales dates and practices.
Many comedian e-book shops reportedly promote new points to favored clients early.
Increased early releases could point out a return to a ‘Wild West’ of comedian e-book gross sales.

Batman #139 could also be printed by DC Comics on Tuesday. But it’s out and about within the wild as of final night time. Whether only a cowl posted to Reddit or the first and last pages on Twitter X. I’m typically requested how this type of factor is even doable. I’ve written about it earlier than, so I’ll write about it once more.

When DC Comics relaunched with the New 52 in 2011, it was accompanied by new buying and selling practices, negotiated by then-DC Comics VP Sales and former retailer Bob Wayne, with Diamond Comic Distributors. Back then, comedian e-book shops within the US would get comics on Wednesday on the market on Wednesday. In the UK they might get them on Wednesday on the market on Thursday. But then issues modified.

Diamond would now ship comedian books within the US and the UK on Tuesdays or earlier than, on the market on Wednesdays. Stores caught breaking that avenue date would lose that early supply privilege. Stores would pay right into a fund of thriller customers to make sure these avenue dates have been adhered to. When folks first began checking, 2% shops broke avenue date. That quantity dropped to virtually nothing.

In 2020, within the peak of the lockdown, DC Comics dropped Diamond Comic Distributors in favour of Lunar and UCS, fashioned from their very own greatest clients. In doing so, DC moved their on-sale date to Tuesdays to match bookstore distribution practices. And many retailers began getting these comedian books the earlier week. When Diamond returned, the thriller customers scheme was dropped. And then Penguin Random House began distributing Marvel, IDW, Dark Horse and now Image Comics earlier and earlier too. Bleeding Cool has acquired a number of reviews of many comedian e-book shops promoting to favoured clients early, and even simply placing them on open sale, as early because the Thursday earlier than the Tuesday/Wednesday.

Back within the days of a number of distributors, this was extra widespread, with one comedian e-book retailer getting the soar on its rivals by utilizing a sooner, completely different distributor. It could have price extra to ship comics air freight, however you possibly can promote them sooner, undercutting rivals by time, if not value. Millions and tens of millions of {dollars} have been spent by comedian e-book shops making an attempt to get that week’s comics on the cabinets a day earlier than their rivals cleaned up.

And if comedian e-book publishers and distributors do not keep watch over issues, or a compliance system that Diamond used to do, will the Wild West be upon us once more?

Bleeding Cool is commonly despatched images of a Los Angeles retailer placing all their new comedian up on the cabinets from the Monday of the week. And Bleeding Cool typically posts leaked photographs, particularly from DC Comics titles, forward of publication – although we do attempt to choose them nicely, to generate pleasure and dialogue forward of publication, reasonably than spoiling them for the sake of it. But ought to we trouble making an attempt? After all, DC Comics itself makes all its comics out there digitally via Amazon Australia from 10am ET / 7am PT on the Monday morning earlier than happening sale in outlets on Tuesday. All it is advisable do is let Amazon suppose you reside in Australia…

BATMAN #139 CVR A JORGE JIMENEZ
(W) Chip Zdarsky (A/CA) Jorge Jimenez
NEW STORY ARC BEGINS! BATMAN VS. THE JOKER, MORE BRUTAL THAN EVER! Following the cataclysmic occasions of The Gotham War, Batman finds himself fully remoted from his household, struggling to maintain the fad of Zur in examine. But he cannot cease, as a result of he is on the market, haunting the town, taunting the Dark Knight: The Joker. And the brand new Batman is able to cease him as soon as and for all. Mindbomb begins! Retail: $4.99 In-Store Date: 11/7/2023

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