The '90s comic book crash wasn't just about foil covers and pouches

I keep seeing people online blame the whole market collapse on gimmick covers and overprinting, but that's only half the story. The real killer was the direct market distributors going under, which wiped out hundreds of shops overnight. My local store in Cincinnati, 'The Final Page', closed in '96 because their distributor folded and they couldn't get new books. It wasn't just that people stopped buying, the whole supply chain broke. Anyone else have a shop that vanished for that reason?

2 comments

2 Comments

david_henderson63d ago

Yeah, the distributor collapse was brutal, but honestly, the speculator bubble bursting first is what set the whole domino chain in motion.

markm273d ago

My uncle ran a shop in Toledo that got wiped out when Capital City Distribution went under. He had loyal customers, but his shelves were empty for weeks. The distributor crash was the final nail, but you're right that the speculator mania made the whole system weak. It was a perfect storm that wrecked the whole industry for years.