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That is completely and utterly unfair. Wasn't Wizard B&W when it started out?

Who knows? Diamond Distributors may have been trying to let him down easy. The magazine this kid is trying to get out could just be utter crap and Geppi's gang may have noticed that.
I'm also curious about his "fresh, exciting" content.
How many comic fanzines do we need on the market? Exactly how different would this kids' mag be from the others out there? As well, would it be a bomb like Hero and Overstreet's FAN?
Perhaps that what Diamond really thought and is trying to save this kid from wasting his money on a venture that could go bust.
Yes, Wizard's first issue was B&W. But, it also happened to come out at a time when CBG, Comics Journal, and CSN just weren't enough. Those publications, while respected, were fast becoming "your grandpa's" comic fanzines. Something new was needed then. I don't think that's the case now. Wizard (despite their growing problems) is still on top. As I stated with Hero and FAN, a new mag would probably fail. Both Hero and FAN promised "fresh, exciting" material...and look where they are now.
But, I could be wrong. There could be a need for a new mag to compete against Wizard. I'm just one monkey who doesn't see it that way.

A new fan/magazine about comics could do well, but I'm always wary when people used descriptives like "fresh" "exciting" and "new" without actually explaining why it garners any of those descriptions.

I guess I'm cynical and if I knew more about their podcasts, I would be less leery of vague descriptions.

I'm not sure that the direct market wants another comic book magazine, but it surely wouldn't hurt to have some middle ground between Wizard and the Journal.

It's possible Foundry is doomed to failure, but I'm sure you could say that about any number of products Diamond does carry. I'm not sure what the harm is in giving (or selling? that seems even more obvious) them a bit of space in Previews, and then cancelling the book if, in fact, nobody orders it.

Then again, Diamond's monopoly is absolutely ridiculous. I wonder how different things would be if a model more akin to the distribution of music was adopted. Maybe it'd be a disaster. I've known several music distributors who not only lost their own shirts, but indirectly led to several small music stores losing their own.

Diamond having complete control of everything is dumb, but to be fair, the rep has a point - a $7 b&w comic magazine sounds terrible. Write! is in b&w? Well, yeah, it's about writing. Draw! is in b&w? Well, it's not called Color! And if you're going to be upset when you get compared to Wizard, don't make a magazine that's covering the same territory...

Dude got annoyed at being compared to Wizard, but I'm really not seeing what this magazine would be accomplishing that Wizard isn't. I think that Ian Brill and Graeme McMillan are really good writers, and it sucks that these guys worked hard for nothing.

But I'm not seeing ANYTHING on their site that describes a specific niche that needs to be filled and that they're filling.

I think the reason people get upset when they hear about material being rejected by Diamond is because of the astoundingly huge amount of crap included in each month's Previews. You have to ask yourself, how bad does it have to be to be rejected by Diamond?

It's a shame about Comic Fuondry, because I did like their online version. It was like Wizard, but with half a brain. (BTW, there's like a year or two worth of archived Foundry on their website, so there's really no reason to be confused about what its content would be.) I don't know how it would have done in the marketplace, and why they decided to move from online to print, which is pretty much the opposite trend of the rest of the publishing industry!

[Having trouble posting this, and I'm not sure why ... but here goes attempt #3:]

"There could be a need for a new mag to compete with Wizard"? Yes, and you certainly could be wrong.

While I'll agree that any claims that they're doig something that's never been done before sound like hyperbole, I've read Comic Foundry online and found it the content both fresh and well worth reading. The design is also great, and I'd love to see what that level of professionalism would translate to in print.

One thing's certain: It's no Wizard. And amen for that. Check them out before you speculate that "this kid" is producing "utter crap"!

http://www.comicfoundry.com

p.s. Not that it matters, but Tim Leong sure doesn't look like a kid to me.

I liked what I read of the Comic Foundry and I agree that it was a middle ground between Wizard and the Journal. I probably wouldn't have bought it, but I don't know why Diamond would reject them when you see the rest of the crap in Previews.

Diamond is well known for screwing over the independents. I would not be surprised to hear that Mr. Huckelbery told Mr. Leong that Diamond might 'reconsider' carrying the magazine if he agreed to pay in advance for a guaranteed six months worth of full-scale advertising in their PREVIEWS catalog at $2500 to $3000 per ad. That seems to be the M.O. of Diamond in recent year.

There are many small press and self-publishers who Diamond has effectively castrated over the past eight to ten years. I've worked at publishers who were putting out books on time regularly without hassle and then suddenly - BAM! - the orders drop 65% overnight across the boards. No book drops in sales like that, let alone the entire line. Not unless you later discover after Diamond's canceled your books for lack of orders that retailers were being short-shrifted their orders (about half the retailers were getting their orders halved if they were big enough accounts, or being told by Diamond they "sold out" and we didn't meet the orders if they weren't a big enough account). And no, retailers don't want us to go back to print and refill the missing orders, Diamond. Both the publishers and the retailers expect you to do your fucking jobs right the first time around.

And Diamond also rejected books from this same publisher I once edited for. Their reason? "The quality of the materials does not measure up to our standards, and the book is in B&W."

Keep in mind the book in question is a TPB collection of three different concepts which were all previously ACCEPTED, SOLICITED and SHIPPED ON TIME by Diamond.

How, pray tell, is the material not "up to standards' now that it's collected into a trade, when you accepted it for minis before, hm, Diamond representatives?

Answer: You wanted the publisher to pay $3500 for advertising and the publisher told you to piss off, because the orders we would have likely received based on your craptacular services in the past demonstrated that the publisher would not come close to recouping that expense, let alone turn a profit.

So instead we ran a 750 copy print run and sold it online and directly to readers at shows.

My advice to Mr. Leong is to print a "0" issue of his magazine at about 2,500 copies and go to a few summer cons and build himself a market. Push for mail order subscription and for direct service to retail shops. The hell with Diamond.

Interesting points, BR. Thanks for sharing.

I thought the middle ground between Wizard and The Comics Journal was things like The Comics Buyers Guide and Comics International.

Regardless, he should be given a chance.

Hm. An additional post on this I made never got put up. What's up with that, Brian?

Going to try again - maybe what I'd tried to post earlier was too long and needed multiple postings or something.

Yo Go Re:

The suggested price point for the magazine is not at all out of line. If you'll go to your average bookstore and look at the SF / F / Horror magazines -many of which are entirely black & white interiors - you'll find they range between $5.95 and $9.95 an issue. Without knowing the page count or the advertising involved, it is really not anyone's place to opine on the price point of the magazine.

Now, the Diamond Committee presumably reviewed the materials, so they do know what the magazine is, and yes, it's plausible that they feel the magazine doesn't have enough content or something. But that really wasn't was expressed as their sentiments. There can be a valid explanation for turning COMIC FOUNDRY down. But it hasn't been offered to Mr. Leong, based on what information has been publicly presented.

I'm sure much of what I said in my first posting on this thread comes across as 'sour grapes' to those of you who aren't familiar with what goes on behind the scenes in the business.

I want to make clear that Diamond's practices (such as they are) are only one piece of the overall puzzle. There are always numerous factors that apply whenever any publisher fails. It just so happens that Diamond does at times contribute their own complications and problems, as do the printers sometimes, and fans should be aware of this possibility, even if it is not publicly addressed in a press release. Many times a publisher simply cannot address such things publicly because doing so can lead to further complications down the road.

Hm. An additional post on this I made never got put up. What’s up with that, Brian?

Yeah, I think if a post is really, really long, the spam blocker gets it.

Sorry, BR!!

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