Monday, March 23, 2020

This Post About Diamond Shutting Down Comic Distribution Morphed Into a Piece About Sadness and Hope

Diamond Comic Distributors is basically the only comic distributor around. There has been plenty of talk before about the problem with this and the direct market itself, but that isn't the focus of this post. Instead, the fact that Diamond is going to be shutting down the distribution of new comics after this week for the foreseeable future is what I'm covering. This means that zero new comics are coming out next week, or the week after, indefinitely.

Comic stores were maybe struggling due to COVID-19 having to rely on curb service or delivery, and so forth, but now they will lack any new items on Wednesday. It'll be all back-issues are relying on people wanting to buy board games or trading card games if they have those as well. This must be terrifying for comic stores and all the local comic shops are in my mind during this trying time as they are wondering how to pay the rent without any foot traffic or even new comics to sell to folk who order those releases every week. Between the lack of sports, comics, restaurants struggling, and the World basically in a mess I just hope everyone is able to weather this okay. The scariest thing is not knowing how long COVID-19 will be here, and that is terrifying.

All of the little things we took for granted are evaporating. Watching a new episode of, "The Bachelor/Bachelorette," due to production shutting down, grabbing some new comics every week to read and enjoy, sitting at a restaurant with our loved ones. Routines have been disrupted and it is incredibly hard. It has made me depressed and my doctor has helped me add on to my medication dosages a good bit due to how depressed and irritable I have been with everything seeming to go wrong in the World. I want people to be okay and instead feel hopeless. I worry about so many people from my family to friends.

I want everyone's health to be fine, I want their businesses to be successful, and we have to stay cooped-up to prevent a very real threat from killing a lot of folk who are susceptible due to age, compromised immune systems, etc. I am very sad, stressed, and anxious. I want to keep my wife and son safe, but I also don't want my son bored with us stuck at home even for safety reasons. It is a tightrope of sorts staying safe but keeping us entertained and busy. I don't want to be crabby at my wife who just wants to be there for me, but I have been snippy because, just look at everything, this stuff is hard. I know things will eventually improve, we just have to be patient and safe. Trying to have people go back to work before things are better is foolish and will kill people. We need to self-isolate, we need to practice social distancing, and we need to be patient.

It is really hard right now for everyone in different ways, but I know patience and hope will help us through this. I just need to remember that when I'm at my saddest. Well, this piece about Diamond delaying the delivery of new comics until things get better really morphed, but I feel better having shared all this, and hope everyone stays safe. We will get through this, it just is going to be hard.

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