Tom Spurgeon has an extensive write up and analysis on the announcement that Fantagraphics has signed a deal with Diamond Comic Distributors to be the exclusive distributor to the comics direct market.
As for why Fantagraphics made this move, the fundamental reason is likely to be found in what they describe as the declining fortunes of the DM side of their overall business and what they as a small company with limited resources is able to invest in that side of their business in order to give it the best chance running smoothly and perhaps enabling it to grow. While that department at the comics publisher saw a slight boost in cost-efficiency moving from Greg Zura to Jason Miles — at least one would assume this, given Zura’s long-time tenure at the company — the new deal frees Miles from physically taking retailer orders and accounting for them in favor of the salesmanship and support aspects of his position. Designing their own catalog section has to have some appeal given the nature of their books compared to most of what’s available in the DM and the relative skill of their design staff as currently constituted Both should aid Miles in his attempts to drive retailers to the company’s books.
As long as I get my Complete Pogo, I’m happy.
I own the complete run of Fantagraphics’ Prince Valiant series, having bought each one faithfully at the time of release. I would continue buying the volumes if they continued with the John Cullen Murphy run, as is being done in Scandanavia.
That said, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to see what else they’re publishing, on the back covers of the PV volumes. I’ve just never been interested in anything else they’ve brought to market. I would suspect it is the subject matter, not the distribution, that has caused their decline in sales.