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Diamond and Grant Morrison: The Early Years

TimCallahan

07:43 / 16.07.08

Just a bit of news to pass along. Many of you have probably already picked up the first edition of "Grant Morrison: The Early Years," but Diamond has signed a deal to become the exclusive distributor of the book for a while. What that means is that your comic shop can now order a copy for you--instead of dealing with Amazon or whatever--or you can order a copy through your LCS. It's in the July Previews--use order code JUL084473 for the book and let me know if you liked it.

By the way, it's a slightly revised and expanded edition with a revamped cover. You can see a bit more about it HERE.

(Also, I've been posting commentary on Morrison's recent Batman run if you haven't stopped by to check that out yet)

Thanks for your support on this stuff over the past year or two! And I'll pass along info about the "Teenagers from the Future" book when that becomes available. (Should be soon.)

Mike Phillips

17:28 / 22.07.08

You guys can help support comics scholarship here. At Sequart.org we're publishing books that take comics seriously, and Tim's book about some of Grant's early work is very good. Make sure you speak to your local comic store owner about ordering a copy soon. The Diamond/Previews deadline is in a few days.

A Haus of Minions
(prev. Jenna Elfman's Hollywood Haus)

22:15 / 22.07.08

Great news, guys! Congratulations!

Lunch with Lenny
(prev. Secret Bat-Fairies)

23:01 / 22.07.08

Tim/Mike -- there's some discussion over here regarding your plugging your academic works, so you might want to take a look at that and perhaps respond there. An existing thread is available in the Convo for Barbenauts to plug their outside interests and work, and we'd really appreciate it if you made use of that, or maybe focused on a general "Comics & Academia" / "Comics Scholarship" thread which would hopefully include more genuine content and discussion aboard the Good Ship Barbelith itself.

As brb said, "Of course, if they'd like to talk about their ideas here, that would be most welcome and would not only benefit Barbelith by stimulating discussion, it would probably more effectively entice people to look into buying their books. Win-win."

Mike Phillips

18:17 / 23.07.08

Is there a Barbe-plug in the comics section, or is there just the main one in the general area?

Lunch with Lenny
(prev. Secret Bat-Fairies)

19:07 / 23.07.08

Just the one in the Convo.

TimCallahan

00:48 / 05.08.08

Someone raised the question: "why Diamond?" and although Mike could probably answer the question with, I don't know, actual facts, my impression is that Sequart wants to have a relationship with Diamond for a couple of reasons:

1. They are basically the only game in town if you're talking direct market distribution, so it's foolish to not have a relationship with them.

2. It allows Sequart to get the book in more people's hands so they can see the quality for themselves.

3. It allows Sequart to print-to-order, which they may or may not take advantage of--but it's certainly an advantage when you know how many copies you need to print to meet demand.

The downside is that book won't be available through other markets until after it's out in comic shops. But the Sequart guys don't see that as much of a drawback at all, especially with a book that should have perennial interest.

I think.

A Haus of Minions
(prev. Jenna Elfman's Hollywood Haus)

00:53 / 05.08.08

Ok, so help me out. When you say:

2. It allows Sequart to get the book in more people's hands so they can see the quality for themselves.

What's the logic, there? As I understand it, Diamond will only get it into comic shops. Is the thinking - which I think is perfectly reasonable - that people in general interest bookstores will not be interested in reading a book about Grant Morrison's early work (especially in the US, where it wasn't released in the first place)? Conversely, if Diamond is _not_ distributing it, would that make it hard to distribute to comic book stores?

TimCallahan

01:10 / 05.08.08

Let me answer the second part first. If Diamond's not distributing it, it's practically impossible to get it into comic stores. They each have to order it individually from the publisher. Which Meltdown in LA has done, but nobody else has (at least not with Sequart).

And while it's available in theory through general interest bookstores, it's not on many shelves. So it's pretty much been just at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com so far (mostly), and that doesn't allow readers to flip through the book, really.

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