Again let's be clear here what this initiative from Diamond is. It is not Diamond going out and putting spinner racks of new material in random businesses where people might encounter them. It is Diamond giving incentives to comic shops to find local businesses where pop culture awareness of super-heroes and comic content may exist and setting up a subcontract with that business for the comic shop to supply them with a spinner rack (only $299 from Diamond) and stocking it with whatever comics the comic shop wants to put in the spinner rack, whether it's new material, back stock, leftovers from Free Comic Book Day or Halloween Comicfest, or whatever. It is up to the comic shop and the business to determine the nature of the subcontract-selling the books outright to the business, putting the books there on consignment, etc. etc.

This is not putting spinner racks back in pharmacies, convenience stores, or what have you. This, if it gets any traction, is comic shops serving as outreach to other pop and geek culture outlets to put comics in front of people who are fans of comic and geek culture but who may not be comic shop customers.

So you might have a vintage toy store in a neighborhood near a comic shop. There's some crossover but not every toy collector buys new comics or even any comics. The comic shop makes a deal with the toy shop owner-Let's put a spinner rack in and stock it with Transformer, GI Joe, Masters of the Universe, some Star Wars, some Star Trek, some TMNT and a few basic Marvel and DC stuff-properties your customers collect but maybe not follow the comics. It's not getting comic in front of people who do not know the properties, it's getting comics in front of the fans of the properties who may not go to comic shops.

Now a few blocks over there may be a used video/game used DVD kind of store, that buys/sells/trades a la Game Stop but independently operated. The comic shop owner might approach him and set up a spinner rack that includes Sonic the Hedgehog, Megaman, Halo, Assassin's Creed, some Batman Arkham, some DC Injustice, etc. and maybe some basic Marvel and DC books etc. that appeal to more video game fans

Again it's not about getting all comics to the mass audience, it's about curating a spinner rack in locations where there are potential customers who might already be interested in the properties featured in the product. Could a comic shop potentially look to put a spinner rack in a grocery store or pharmacy?-sure, but that's not the intent, and the owner of said business would have to work out a deal with the owner of the lcs for it to happen. This isn't going to put spinner racks into places that don't have local comic shops because it is run through local comic shops as the point men of the initiative and the ones stocking/supplying the spinner racks in other locations.

If we are going to discuss the merits or lack there of of this initiative, let's actually understand what it is trying to do and what it is not trying to do. It is trying to get more comic readers, but it is doing so by trying to get people who are already at least tangentially connected to and aware of comics to buy comics, not create new readers whole cloth who have never been exposed to comics or comic properties.

It's a baby step and it might not work. Combined with the Game Stop initiative, the Wal*Mart initiative and programs like DC's Zoom/Ink line, it is part of an overall attempt by publishers and Diamond to reach out beyond the narrows of the comic shop audience, but it is not an all encompassing attempt to return the days of newsstands. It shows that the industry is finally gaining awareness that the if you build it they will come approach to the direct market/comic shop model has not brought people in to replenish the ranks of diminishing readers and that there is growth in comic readership in other markets and models. They are slowly adapting to this and, to coin the old trope, if you can't bring Mohammed to the mountain, bring the mountain to Mohammed idea, they are trying this in varied and small steps. No one of these initiatives is going to "save the comic industry" but cumulatively they can slowly make some inroads into gaining a number of new readers and then gradually begin tailoring the packaging and distribution of their product to attract these slowly growing new customers, then in the long run it could be win. I am sure there will be plenty of missteps along the way, many failed initiatives along the path, but it is the right direction to be moving in, and it's going to take a long term plan with a long term vision for there to be any chance of success. The industry didn't fall into the mess its in overnight, and it won't emerge overnight in a blaze of glory either. It's going to take time, planning, persistence, patience, and building on small gains to lead towards a bigger result in time. To that end, I applaud this step even if it does fail in the short term.

-M

Are these new stories or reprints?

These are the ones being done with Archie Comics, right?

Exactly. The indicia says "published by Archie Comics Publications", and most of the ads are for Archie collections.

I did finally find Disney selling some comic books in the gift shop of the Star Wars meet-n-greet-characters building at Disneyland. They weren't on a spinner rack, doubtless for the reasons enumerated earlier in this thread. Racks are a cheap method with a small footprint compared to a cabinet, but they don't have the visual appeal or protective aspect either.

Candy and/or bags of weird flavorings of popcorn to go along with a few comic books. A good deal if you think about it