A Welcome Haven

It's been a mixed time of it since my assessment of the Diamond situation last week. The bad news we received was that Diamond will not now be distributing Dick Turpin due to inital orders falling short of those pesky revised thresholds. Obviously a big disappointment for us, but half-expected. Diamond UK are keen for us to continue submitting all our future one-shots so the door is not closed, but for the time being we may need to give it a bit of a shove.

At the same time we've been taken on by Haven Distribution, who for many are being hailed as the saviour to all those publisher's unable to get a Diamond deal. It's great they want to take us on, but it's no secret that they're a much smaller operation and with that not as all-encompassing as Diamond are. That said, they seen very enthusiastic to support the smaller publishers and have found themselves in the eye of the storm in the last couple of weeks, so hopefully everybody will benefit. For us, it means we get some Time Bomb prescence State-side, which is very good news. I've also directly sold 20 copies each of Dick Turpin and Ragamuffins off to a New Jersey based comic shop who sells mostly online, so it proves that if the Diamond Highway is closed to new traffic then the journey can still be completed on the B-roads!

Other better news: The Sisterhood:Morningstar is currently being printed up, and I should receive them back in time to pack some into my Hi-Ex flight bag come Thursday. The online preview is up on myebook and has already had a fair few viewings (as can you if you follow this link) and we've had some good online coverage of it already. The official launch date in May at the SPExpo seems a way off, but it's great to have something completed so far in advance for a change!

Time Bomb are also receiving a fair few submissions at the moment, which bodes well. Some are showing a lot of promise, so hopefully before too long we'll be making some official announcements, but to me it's great that other creators are seeing Time Bomb Comics as a viable means of showcasing their work and that we're steadily moving to a publishing schedule that's a good mixture of different talents. It's also a good feeling that not only are all our 2009 publishing slots full but our 2010 and 2011 slots are filling up too!

However that's still a long way off. The immediate focus now is Hi-Ex taking place next weekend, where we introduce Time Bomb Comics to Scotland, we get our first feedback on The Sisterhood and I introduce Suzanne to the delights of haggis and deep fried Mars bars!