2000 AD to hit US shores – every week

[Molch-R]

Individual 'progs' to become available through Diamond in US

2000 AD is proud to announce a step change in the way it is distributed in the USA.

From August, the legendary weekly British title will be featured in Diamond Distribution's Previews magazine as individual issues, known as 'progs' – with October's Prog 1754 being the first retailers and consumers can order as a single issue.

Presently, copies of 2000 AD are bound in monthly packs of four or five issues that can be ordered from Diamond. This means readers have to shell out up to $25 for a single item.

However, this distribution change means that 2000 AD will once again be a weekly comic on both sides of the Atlantic – giving readers the chance to pick up thirty-two pages of action EVERY week for a fraction of the cost of one of the monthly packs.

Overseas readers who prefer their comics digitally can also download copies of 2000 AD via Clickwheel.net, with digital releases only a week behind physical copies, and for just £1.49 ($2.44) – making them great value in the current market.

Matt Smith, editor of 2000 AD, said:
"This is a great step forward in 2000 AD's mission to bring the best of British to American readers and we're delighted that we are to become a weekly publication in the US, just like we are in the UK.
"Twenty dollars for one of the monthly packs is a lot of cash to hand over for a single purchase, especially for what to many in the US remains an unknown quantity, so by distributing each issue every week we're hoping American readers will be tempted by our blend of high-octane action and first class comics talent."

http://tinyurl.com/US2000AD

[mygrimmbrother]

Yay!

[Bolt-01]

Individual 'progs' to become available through Diamond in US

Tharg, editor of 2000 AD, said:
"This is a great step forward in 2000 AD's mission to bring the best of British to American readers and we're delighted that we are to become a weekly publication in the US, just like we are in the UK.
"Twenty dollars for one of the monthly packs is a lot of cash to hand over for a single purchase, especially for what to many in the US remains an unknown quantity, so by distributing each issue every week we're hoping American readers will be tempted by our blend of high-octane action and first class comics talent."

Fixed that for you...

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Well done  

[Proudhuff]

i think a couple of our boarders are going to be very happy bunnies

[Colin YNWA]

Just seen this over at Bleeding Cool.

Hope for Grant and co's sake that Diamond actually manage to stick to this. Well done for getting the agreement though and fingers crossed all goes well.

[Jim_Campbell]

*applause*

Well done!

Jim

[Steve Green]

Fingers crossed and applause. *ow*

Nice one.

[Peter Wolf]

Not the best time to do this but well done to whoever got it together as it needed to happen.

[lukethecartoonist]

It's ironic this announcement comes shortly after I recently chose to give up my print subscription in favor of a digital one because I'm tired of how poorly Diamond handles the print version of the comic.  Up until a few years ago, the US actually was shipped individual issues of the comic instead of monthly bundles.  We'd get two issues every other week.  And that was a gamble every time they were supposed to come in.  There was no guarantee we'd get an issue, and if we didn't, there was even less of a chance they'd send a replacement copy.  I'd end up having to find someone in the UK to pick me up a copy or order one from 2000AD directly.  I actually preferred the monthly bundles because then we at least knew that Diamond would ship us all the issues from that month.  Of course, there was no guarantee my store would actually get all those orders, and we'd have the same old problem again.

I told this story on ECBT2000AD, but I figured I'd tell it again here for anyone who doesn't listen to the show: a couple years ago I got the chance to ask my comic store's Diamond rep why they inconsistently shipped foreign comics like 2000AD, and why they never sent us replacements.  His two-word answer was "It's foreign."  I know one person isn't indicative of an entire company, but his apathy was quite telling.

Don't get me wrong, I think this is a great opportunity for 2000AD and I really want it to succeed.  But after almost 10 years of dealing with nonsense like this, Diamond has used up their last bit of favor with me.  It's just not worth it for me to deal with their nonsense in the hopes they'll send me something I actually ordered from them.  And I really, REALLY hope 2000AD has some sort of contingency in place to avoid this happening to other customers going forward.  This is too good an opportunity to lose on distributor apathy.

[Hoagy]

Great news!

[Grant Goggans]

Pulling the plug on the print editions was like a bullet to the head, but I can't justify the cost of print and digital (and the 150-mile round trip to the comic store I use!) with a new baby in our lives, so I actually canceled my subscription a couple of months ago, and am just digital-only for now.

Having said that, I'm extremely happy for 2000 AD and hope this new, more sensibly priced thrillpower finds its way to thousands more readers, and that retailers who are about to feel the blow of DC's forthcoming blunder will sell the heck out of it!

[Gavin_Leahy_Block]

Good news.

[TordelBack]

Fantastic stuff,  well done all involved.  Let's hope it's not too late for print full-stop (or rather 'period').

[Emperor]

It seems to be doing the rounds:

www.bleedingcool.com/2011/06/08/2000ad-to-be-a-proper-weekly-title-in-the-usa/
www.digitalspy.co.uk/comics/news/a323891/2000ad-goes-weekly-in-the-us.html
http://2000ad.wordpress.com/2011/06/08/2000ad-goes-weekly-that-sounds-wrong-hard-in-the-us/

One question: Will this help Diamond ship things properly or have they been given a boot up the ass since early 2010?:

www.bleedingcool.com/2010/01/17/2000ad-the-usa-diamond-and-bill-schanes/