Marvel Comics Single Issues Won’t Be Available At Barnes & Noble, Other Bookstores

Without tipping off my exact age, let me just say that I got my start reading comic books by buying individual issues at corner stores, newsstands, grocery stores and the like. It wasn’t until I was in middle school that I discovered comic book shops, and even then I’d make the occasional impulse purchase here and there at Waldenbooks or wherever I’d run into comics.

The closest thing we have to that in this part of the 21st Century is in the big magazine sections inside Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million (which in my neck of the woods has stepped in to fill the void left when Borders went under). But even that could be coming to an abrupt end. Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool has reported that Marvel won’t be selling single issues at B&N, and today he went even further by finding out no bookstore retailers will be able to carry Marvel’s “floppies” as of the new year.

Johnston notes that B&N and BAM will still have DC and Dark Horse comics, and that Marvel’s graphic novels and trade paperbacks will still be available. Still, this is an easy slippery slope to see in two different aspects. Not only is it quite possible the other big publishers will follow Marvel’s lead sooner rather than later, it’s also very likely any other place that currently has single issues won’t be selling them before too long.

The good news is that this would make your LCS more important than ever, and I’ve always been a firm believer in supporting them. But there’s something just a little sad about the thought of not seeing super hero comics turn up in the most random of places, and that future generations of fans won’t have any chance to discover them just by pure happy coincidence.