A Taste of The Devil's Cut: A Retailer's Take on DSTLRY's First Shot

Starting a week long look at "disrupters" with the latest company to carry the reputation.

I’ve become unglued from time.

When the screen glows blank, and my hands waver helplessly, I always turn to music to push me along. I hit shuffle on a playlist, and I hit a song called “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl” by Broken Social Scene - something indelibly connected with my early days in comics retail. Repetitive and despondent and twee and Canadian. A nectar that finds my brain lingering in easier times, clearing the cobwebs.

I’m coming at you from the mid ‘00s, motherfuckers, and I can’t be stopped.

Open-to-order main cover by Jock

Hi there. It’s me, your favourite, very professional comic book retailer, cussing at you before you’ve even settled in. That’s the exuberance of youth, coursing through my veins again, riding the syncopation of old melodies that gave me fire. This is what I’ve replaced alcohol with to get the words out, and according to my doctor, my liver will thank me for it.

Welcome back to The Indirect Market, where we take a look at the comic book industry, past and present, and attempt to forge a future from the lessons learned. Less screaming into the void, and more screaming to push that sweet, sweet release away.

Today, we’ll be talking about The Devil’s Cut - the very first release from DSTLRY, a company that has been building their own version of the future of comics. This is a pretty time sensitive thing, because retailers will be sending in their final orders today or tomorrow, depending on which distributor they’re ordering from. That means, for the health of all involved, we should probably dig our hands into some of this rich soil that’s lying around here all willy-nilly.

That First Hit.

Some folks are going to be wondering some of the basics regarding DSTLRY. A while back, I covered the foundational stuff, and how things felt right from announcement, so I won’t be going over that again today. Our focus for the moment is the upcoming object that The Devil’s Cut will become.

Releasing to comic stores on Wednesday, August 30th, The Devil’s Cut is a flight of 11 different of tastes. The creators involved in these different stories are a who’s who from nearly every corner of the industry, offering their own flavours to the tasting.

Open-to-order variant cover by Francesco Francavilla

The book itself will be an object. As you might have been able to tell from the cut of the wrap-around images shared in this article, the books are not your standard comic book style, but more of the magazine style that DC’s been producing as part of their Black Label line.

I’m personally a huge fan of this kind of format. Not only does it move away from a format that was intended to be fairly disposable, but it allows for a broader use of canvas, often resulting in a more immersive experience. That said, that’s me speaking from a purely from an artistic standpoint. These days, when I’m putting a comic in my hand, I want it to feel substantial, and I want it to dazzle me visually.

We live in an era of exhaustive access to most of our favourite things. I believe there to be an importance to the things that I have access to, and the things that I have. I love comics. I adore the medium. I’m a millennial who lives in a modest house, and to have a thing is precious, because the space that I have is precious. From experience, I know I’m not the only one. As time marches on, and late stage capitalism keeps building cost and devaluing time for maximum profit, we’re going to see people connecting less with having a disposable physical object, and more with the things that feel substantial.

I have yet to hold a copy of The Devil’s Cut in my hand, but clocking in at 88 magazine sized pages for $9.99 (far more cost effective than the usual package), I am personally already drawn to the object.

But.

We’re still operating in an industry that seems compelled to look backwards - searching and clawing for a past that will never return.¹ Since the announcement of DSTLRY and their intended format of thicker magazine sized objects, many retailers have been cranky. The format doesn’t line up with the traditional delivery methods, which is why many retailers have dismissed the Black Label line out of hand.² Many tend to cling to the traditional 32 page stapled format like it will save their lives, instead of recognizing all the holes sinking the boat. That said, it still effects how a large chunk of retailers set orders. Despite containing a murderer’s row of proven creators, many won’t make the effort to sell the book. For a company looking for some traction, this will be something to overcome.

That said, I think they’re making all the right moves to court favour with retailers willing to put in the effort. The creators³, editorial and publishing partners are well known quantities in many different areas of the business. The book has also been made fully returnable, and is being offered at an enhanced discount to retailers. The promotional team has been working overtime to spread the word on comic sites and social media. The creators themselves have been talking it up - and those creators have quite a reach, none quite overlapping entirely in audience, but all united in building their stories, and (effectively) their company.

They also started letting sites and retailers have a look at book through a fully loaded preview PDF. This, in and of itself, is the most important thing a company can do to get their books ordered: getting the content in the hands of not just the people placing the orders, but those who whisper into the ears of their customers, telling them about good books on the horizon.

Newly announced open to order cover by Jamie McKelvie

Armed with the knowledge of what The Devil’s Cut contains, and with a stream of orders coming in over the past few months, crescendoing during this past week, I’m confident that I’m going to be able to get this title into many happy people’s hands. I can roll through the book and earmark it for a bunch of different clients based off of story style and creator. Eight of the stories are tastes of what’s to come, and that’s extra bait for the hook.

I’ve also found that everyone seems to have a different favourite. Our main full time employee read it and keyed deeper into a couple of different bits than I did. While I found something to like in each story, I was particularly struck by Jamie McKelvie’s short story “What Happens Next”, which had a lot to say about the compulsion to always grow in a limited amount of pages.

All in all, I think this company has put together a great opening salvo, and has done their level best to meet retailers halfway with incentives and information. In the current market, that is huge. Will it translate to sales? Time will tell, as the company has noted that this item will not be reprinted - so it is all riding on the good faith they’ve put out into the world, and the diligence of readers and retailers alike.

The results will say a lot about the future of the medium.

I wish the good folks at DSTLRY well.

What do you fine folks think? Sound off below (especially if you want to talk about DSTLRY’s interesting digital approach, which I didn’t cover here).

I’ll be back here on Wednesday to talk about the fate of some former disrupters.

Talk with you soon.

-B.

1. The irony of saying this as someone who is powering his words with musical nostalgia is not lost on me, BUT MY POINT STANDS.

2. This is a dumb thing.

3. Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Tula Lotay, Mirka Andolfo, Jock, Becky Cloonan, Brian Azzarello, Marc Bernardin, Elsa Charretier, Lee Garbett, Joelle Jones, Stephanie Phillips, Ram V, Jamie McKelvie, Junko Mizuno, Francesco Francavilla, Ariela Kristantina, Eduardo Risso, Christian Ward, and more.