Comics UK

I don't think that Forbidden Planet has much choice even with there large buying clout.

I think they still use Diamond as there suppliers I once looked into them when I was made redundant from my retail managers job with allsports. I wanted to sell comics on a market stall to get some income coming in. Diamond where happy to supply me with what I needed which was 4 issues of the main titles from the big 4 US comic produces plus a few odds and sods for some regular customers that I had at the time. the only problem was that Diamond's minimum order is £250 plus I had to include certain lines they wanted to push on me these were all non refundable and no return. This would have left me with more and more guff every month that I would not be able to shift.

If this is the way that most distributors work today I can now understand why most comics have disappeared from Newsagents. I used to live in Melton Mowbray in the late 80's early 90's. There used to be a small newsagents there and they sold all the great British comics of the time plus a large selection of US Comics too. plus if you wanted a comic they would order you the one copy. Most of the UK comics that didn't sell which was a small amount would be bundled up and sent back with the newspapers and If the US ones didn't sell the guy would offer them to me at a discount and if he still had some copies left he would send them back to I think at the time it was W.H. Smiths. But if today a large amount of guff is pushed on a seller and then they couldn't be sent back it would end up making a loss for the seller and also take up valuable shelf space it is not attractive to most Newsagents.
This would also apply to small press comics if they won't sell through and couldn't be returned newsagent etc would be reluctant to stock them let alone the content of some would mean they couldn't be placed in a kid friendly place.

Speaking from experience but old experience as I've been retired from the comics busines for quite some time, I don't remember having to take titles from Diamond that they were pushing just so I could have my order fullfilled. It was the same with Neptune and Capital City -both now sadly long gone. As all purchases from distributors of new, advance order comics were non-returnable, it was/is important for shops to get their orders bang on, or as close as possible and there is a bit of a science to that. But British comics and distributed american titles - i.e. sea freight and usually 2 to 3 months after the advance issues - were bought on a sale or return basis. A big comic shop, or a chain, doesn't have to worry about the minimum order as they have more than enough turnover and customer base to never have to think about it. For instance, and this is from memory, our shop had in the region of 400 standing orders. Even allowing for defaulters, monthly orders were very high.
However, it is difficult nowadays for a single, small comic shop to compete with the chains. The 2 localish shops, one in Falkirk, one in Stirling, closed recently amid tales of orders arriving late, orders being delivered to the wrong town, or worse, stuff not arriving at all. You can't keep a loyal customer base if you can't supply the product on time, and the pressure of keeping a decent cash flow takes it's toll. Plus the cost of a floppy can be off-putting. nor are there as many comic book buyers and I feel that running a small comic shop, based on comics and tpb alone is no longer viable. Look at FP for instance, toy shops with comics, as a retail pro said recently.
Anyway, there are fewer British comics nowadays to stock and in a one man operation, plowing your way through Diamond's catalogue every month is a bit of a time consuming chore. Apart from the camaraderie with punters and pros, I'm glad I'm out of it.

Hopefully with the campaign to reduce plastic and packaging it will stop the trend for wrapping and sealing hardback comic books in cellophane.For instance The Works have stocked a number of superhero books given this treatment .
Although everyone is familiar with the characters it would be nice to be able to flick through the books to see the example of the artwork before buying , confirming whether it is the new manga style or faithful to the old style graphics.
ForbIdden Planet have some expensive books one I noticed costing £89 sealed in cellophane which means you have to buy blind with just the cover to go on.
Also many comics are sold in bags containing gifts and to me these are the equIvalent to lucky bags .
The comic or magazine itself is not checked out until the whole package is bought.

At the moment I'm buying mainly U.S. 80's comics to READ once a fortnight from my favourite charity shop with only the printed price tag having any connection with U.K. comics so not really relevant to this forum.
Sue Ryder shop in town as a few Bunty comics 3 for a £1 with the photo type covers which makes them not that old I don't think and as a collector I don't count them as a priority buy.
The same shop is selling annuals at £2 each some of which are in a terrible state with pages coloured in and I was going to buy a Beverley HillBillies annual which I needed for my collection when luckily I noticed part of one of the comic pages had been cut out.
As indicated not finding much in the way of U.K. comics and annuals as collectors pieces at the moment.Still it gives the keyboard a rest