Slide from Newsstand Rarity Discussion & Estimates; discussion below.
mid-1980s-direct-takes-over
This slide is part of my post entitled
Newsstand Rarity Discussion & Estimates where I have collected quotes and graphics related to the discussion of relative newsstand rarity over the years, compared to direct edition copies. In this slide, I am discussing a quote from the book Economics of Digital Comics by Todd Allen and Mark Waid:
“Starting in the mid-1980s, in addition to being the primary distribution outlet for thest new or “independent” publishers, the Direct Market began to take on a greater ofer-all percentage of comic book sales for the traditional publishers, who were seeing a decline in the number of newsstands carrying their product.”
— Todd Allen, Economics of Digital Comics
What is particularly interesting to me about this quote is that it corroborates the discussions by Chuck Rozanski and Jim Shooter that the middle of the 1980’s marks the point in time when direct edition sales would overtake newsstand sales. In another slide, Shooter discusses how in 1986 the “pendulum had swung too far” in the direction of direct edition; and in the slide with Rozanski’s 1980’s estimates we see that he pegs the 1985/1986 time-frame as the 50/50 point between newsstand and direct.