Changing channels: At Artblog (no permalinks), Peter chimes in on Brian Hibbs' column comparing the book market and the direct market:

"... the direct market has *never* been a sales channel that serviced kids or teens, who traditionally bought their comics from the primarily defunct newstand. the dm was basically a place for comics enthusiasts -- fanboy geeks and art comix elitists alike -- to get their weekly comics fix. it was purely a niche play. but when the newstand market essentially walked away from comics, publishers panicked and put all their marbles into the dm. this resulted in the dubious "maturization" of super-hero comics that we see today; a repositioning of books that were once created for kids and teens to an aging fanboy base of thirty-forty somethings. the problem that the dm faces is that without the existence of the newstand market to create new fanboys, there won't be any more aging fanboys to service in the future. perhaps that's an issue hibbs will address in a future column. i'll try to egg him on the next time i'm in his store."