No Marvels around here

There are many weird things about the way superhero comics have changed over the years, but the strangest thing might be that while everyone knows who Thanos is now, and you can get a Groot tee-shirt in the local chain-store fashion outlet, you are shit out of luck if you just want to read a new Spider-Man comic. 

The movies might be racking in billions - and all the toys and lunchboxes and other tat even more - but you can only get new comics from the biggest comic publishers in the English language at one comic store in the whole goddamn South Island these days.

It isn't a complete drought, There are still issues of the Beano in the bookstores that have held on, and sometimes I even find a precious 2000ad. And there is always bloody Phantom comics everywhere, because of course there are bloody Phantom comics everywhere. But nothing by the big American companies, apart from occasional remaindered collections of random shit at the big box stores.

You can, of course, order what you want over the internet - I've kept up with the usual Love and Rockets and Punisher comics by Garth Ennis on mail order, and you can order any comics you ant from all over the world with relative ease.

But you can't just walk into a shop and buy a new Marvel comic book anywhere. So there is no chance of picking up something random, just because the cover looks aces, because there is nothing there.

And they really did use to be everywhere, long before Robert Downey Jr started flying around in his iron jocks. There were a couple of dozen places, even in my small town - bookstores, corner dairies, supermarkets, post offices, cafes, you could find a Marvel Team-Up or Avengers West Coast or What The-?! or Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition in all of them.

The direct market was just really kicking in when I was a kid, and it might have saved the comics industry in the 80s, but now you can't find the actual issues anywhere, it's no wonder the original publications are viewed as no more than IP farms.

So no chance of grabbing a Captain America because it's got Diamondback in it, or spying a Daredevil with a great cover while I'm down the store, or picking up an Uncanny X-Men on a whim. They are just not there, even as they cinematic counterparts are universal. I know I could just grab that Groot tee-shirt - it even has actual Kirby art! - but it's just not the same.

It's just not the same.