"As much as people complain about “event fatigue” I haven’t seen enough people add up the numbers and realize that what DC and Marvel are doing with their massive flood of new titles, variant covers, crossovers, events and reprints is what they’ve always done- try to flood the market to prevent other publishers from gaining a toe-hold (while also maximizing short-term profits for their investors of course)."
-Joe Williams, Comics Worth Reading Blog (in comments)

How well the direct market (what those in the industry call comic book stores) is serving not just their own bottom lines but comics in general has been the topic of the year -- perhaps the topic of the last few years in the industry. It's been going on since I got here, certainly, and I don't expect it will end. Ever. See the Publishing Weekly blog The Beat and SLG Prez Dan Vado's comment in the CWR post linked to above for a little more (also for a little more on the print-on-demand musings that have gone on in SLG headquarters lately).

More later. Train to catch! Eek!