Fast news cycles beat out slow comics distribution system.

Augie DeBlieck shows how, when out of the blue, a comic gets major news coverage (such as the recent Capt. America #25, and the death of Superman in Superman #75 over a decade ago.), the Direct Market has limits as to flexibility.

It's only a shame that the retailers didn't listen to Marvel when they were told how big an issue this would be. Marvel can't give out the full spoilers to impress upon retailers how big an issue this was going to be. Retailers don't trust Marvel for various reasons. Marvel did as much as it probably could do, in overprinting the issue and giving as much warning as possible for weeks in advance.

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In some ways, it's a no-win scenario. The Direct Market doesn't have the infrastructure necessary to handle this kind of event, period, and that's everyone's fault. We've built our house of cards and have to live with the consequences now.

Read the whole thing, it has some good analysis, and warnings against panics about the future of the business.