The Independent Comic Book Creators Association (ICBCA) is a new cooperative, launching on July 4, 2023, that is designed to bridge the gap between creators and retailers, allowing comics that were previously unavailable to comic shops to make their way into the direct market.
Founded by comics creators Blake Seals and Phil Avelli, ICBCA will provide printing and distribution services for creators, and for retailers, they will offer a catalog, ordering infrastructure, and other support.
Retailers in the U.S. and Canada will receive the ICBCA’s quarterly catalog, Fanfare, in both print and digital format, and can order from that, with discounts up to 55% off the cover price. There is a returns program for unsold copies, and there is no minimum order. All items will have bar codes to simplify ordering and inventory, and no comic will be solicited in Fanfare until it is complete.
Each issue of Fanfare will feature three months of upcoming releases, with the first month’s releases shipping two to three weeks after the order deadlines and subsequent months about four weeks after that. These releases will be denoted “first ICBCA edition,” and ICBCA will not sell any of its editions to the public until they have been available to retailers for at least two weeks, Seals and Avelli told ICv2. Once the back catalog is established, print-on-demand backlist items will be available within two to three weeks of ordering.
Retailers who want to participate can register with ICBCA and will be designated “Indie Comics Ambassadors”; ICBCA will offer them free swag and promotional opportunities. All retailers, whether they register or not, will receive print and digital editions of Fanfare.
Creators will pay a monthly membership fee to tap into the infrastructure ICBCA will set up for printing, soliciting, and distributing their comics, as well as creating promotional materials and convention signage. There is no fee for retailers to participate.
Comic Distro, founded by Austin Oesuke in 2021, also offers print-on-demand and distribution services, but it is designed as a service rather than a coop and has no membership component.
“Offering new creators the opportunity and excitement that we personally experienced when entering the comics community decades ago is important to us,” Seals said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “There is a wellspring of diverse authors and artists out there right now making amazing comics, and we are honored to help share these new voices with retailers and readers.
Source: ICv2
