The Four Color Media Monitor

About 2 weeks ago, Newsrama reported DC's suffering from scheduling delays for their pamphlet releases because of supply chain issues, which has affected some of their most prominent titles:

Supply chain issues continue to plague DC's comic book publishing line, leading the publisher to announce delays to two of its higher-profile titles, Justice League and Wonder Woman.

The most recent issue of Justice League, #71 hit stands on January 25 - itself delayed a month due to these same supply chain issues, which led to #72 being delayed as well.

But these new, unspecified supply chain wrinkles have led DC to once again reschedule Justice League #72, now to February 15. That was the originally-planned release date of the next issue, Justice League #73, leading to a cascading delay with that issue now being moved to March 1. The next issue, Justice League #74 - the finale of Brian Michael Bendis' run on the title - remains scheduled for the moment for March 15. [...]

The entire publishing industry - comic book included - has been suffering from supply chain issues as the COVID-19 pandemic has longer-term effects on paper mills, transportation companies, and the people who keep them running. In August 2021, DC made the first of many major schedule re-alignments as a result.

"DC faces an unprecedented strain on the global supply chain, affecting all of us in the comic industry and beyond," read a statement from DC at the time. "Up to this point, we've been able to keep delays and shortages to a minimum, but with recent notifications about covid-related port closures, international and domestic freight delays, workforce shortages, and a severely allocated paper supply, we are unable to continue to manage this situation without disruption."

This tells, if anything, that the industry isn't out of the woods yet, and it could cripple their businesses even more before things get better. But, will things improve for the Big Two? Not if their artistic value is as sorely lacking as it's been for years now, and has gotten worse as their partisan politics became worse within the pages and panels. Nobody who's aware of the role Bendis played in bringing down the mainstream is even going to care that his JLA run's had its finale delayed; it's not their concern. As I've mentioned before, and will again, I just don't see why the industry as a whole continues its refusal to switch to simpler formats like paperbacks and hardcovers, or graphic novel formats. Their continuing failure to adjust is exactly what's enabling this joke to keep on.

Labels: dc comics, Justice League of America, msm propaganda, sales, Wonder Woman