So. San Diego is over, and from the point of view of this column, at least, it wasn't very exciting at all. And not just because I didn't go; based on my own con experience, I still wouldn't have much more idea of what went on at the con than anyone who did attend. I would just have returned with a big hangover and a smile on my face. Interesting for me, sure, but not exactly thrilling for the rest of you.

There were some interesting announcements, though, and ironically one of the most interesting bits of news concerned, erm, announcements. Seems the larger companies have finally caught up with the rest of the industry and realised just how powerful this InterSpaceWeb thingy really is.

Time was that the big cons were the best time to announce a special event if you were a publisher; all the reporters were gathered in one place, you had an appreciable number of fans who would listen in awe then applaud loudly, and in the post-convention editorial story-sifting the chances were that the press would cut SMALL PRESS ANNOUNCES NEW NAVEL-GAZING MINI-SERIES to make sure DC BUYS MOON stayed in the con reports.

That's not the way it happens these days. And while Ninth Art doesn't report news, it's people like us that have helped bring about this change.

See, these days so many people are reading the web - especially the more devoted section of the audience (which, if we're honest, is the section you're preaching to when you make a Big Announcement) - that even if you try to bury your story in the back end of a Thursday evening, it won't be ignored. Someone, somewhere, will run it; someone, somewhere will read it; and if it's big enough news, it will get passed around.

'Big Companies can now make big announcements whenever they want.' Really, the Web has reduced your average PR person's workload a hell of a lot (and not just in comics, but that's our focus). All you have to do is make your news compelling, make sure a few extra-devoted people will see it, and sit back. Instant word of mouth.

(Okay, okay - I'm exaggerating a little. But the point is...)

The point is that announcing something at San Diego - or WizardWorld, or any big con - can actually be counter-productive these days. There's so much to report at these cons that even the biggest announcements will get buried among the sheer weight of stories, because on the Web no-one's paying for paper or ink. Every piece of news, no matter how small, can be reported without crowding out others (though it might earn the ire of your sub-editor).

It's been said many times, but think about it and you'll realise how true it is; the Web is a great leveller, creating a roughly even playing field for everyone.

So the aforementioned Big Companies have decided to make their announcements as and when they want, leaving only the biggest and best for San Diego. Which could make for some interesting jostling among the creators concerned in said announcements.

There was one other piece of news which interested me. (Yes, only one. Like I said, a pretty dull con in terms of news that might actually affect the industry, and therefore interest me.)

Barnes & Noble is going to open a chain of comic stores.

Now, that's not exactly what they said. But if it all comes to pass, that's what will happen. The actual news had phrases like 'feasibility studies', 'burgeoning market' and 'specialty outlet' in there, but that's press releases for you.

'Without quality control, a burgeoning market becomes a chaotic mess.' On the one hand, this is incredible, joyous news. Barnes & Noble - Barnes & Noble, for heaven's sake - is so impressed with the growth of its graphic novel sales that it's conducting research (and there's a word not often associated with comics) into opening its own chain of stores, which will sell nothing but.

(Remember, kids: in the book trade, anything with a spine is a graphic novel.)

But on the other hand, it doesn't surprise me that much. Like many other comic publishers, Scott Brown of Cyberosia recently attended the American Book Expo. One of the reasons Scott attended was to accept the Independent Publisher's Award for Best Horror Novel, given to the illustrated pulp novel FRIGHTENING CURVES by myself and Aman Chaudhary, which Cyberosia published (yeah, yeah - I promise that's the last time I mention it in this column. Trust me, it's relevant).

This was sufficient reason to bring Cyberosia to the attention of a fair few booksellers and other publishers. And something Scott told me afterwards was, to say the least, amusing: when these other companies discovered that Cyberosia published graphic novels, their reactions were a roughly even split between, "Good on you, growing market", to, "I'm sorry, I've just seen someone more interesting."

Not so surprising, you may say, but here's the rub; it was the larger companies, your Borderses and your Barnes & Nobles, your Random Houses and your Harper Collinses, who were doing most of the congratulating.

So when I hear that B&N is seriously thinking of opening comic stores, I'm not too taken aback. It does, however, give some pause for thought.

'Returnability means a safe market. Survival of the blandest.' About eighteen months ago, when Marvel announced that it was going to publish 58 million trade paperbacks every month, Warren Ellis and I sat in a pub and quietly bemoaned this turn of events which everyone else was loudly celebrating. I covered some of the reasons why this could become a Very Bad Thing in a previous edition of this column, but I'll reiterate here: what happens when everyone realises graphic novels are the growth area in comics?

What happens is, more people publish them. Which means competition becomes more fierce. Increasingly aggressive policies are adopted. Markets get flooded by desperate publishers. Without adequate quality control on the part of both publishers and retailers, a 'burgeoning market' quickly turns into a chaotic mess, and everyone but the people who actually love the medium - that would be you and me, then - gives up and walks away, putting the whole thing down to experience.

But even that doom-laden prediction generally assumed such a boom (and possible bust) would occur in the existing comics stores we know and love.

That's not the case any more. Because if B&N open this chain of stores, five'll get you ten that every publisher and their aunt will chase after those accounts with a desperate fervour. And regardless, B&N will be the ones dictating the terms here: and you know what that means.

Returnability. Staple of the book industry, bane of comics publishers. The inherent riskiness of any industry where returnability is a prominent distribution factor inevitably creates one thing, and one thing only: a safe market, where what retailers want this week is whatever they sold last week.

And if it's what retailers want to buy, it's what publishers will want to produce. Survival of the blandest, baby.

Mark my words; if B&N opens these stores, we'll see a radical market shift within a year. In which direction, I'd hesitate to guess; it could become the comics equivalent of B&N bookstores, where 80 per cent of shelf space is given to 'safe' books (read: superheroes). Or it could turn out be an untapped, genuinely mainstream market, where the most popular books are crime fiction, or social dramas. Of course, all that actually means is that those will be the books occupying 80 per cent of the shelves. There's no getting away from that part of the equation.

Or, it could be something totally different and unforeseen. And maybe they'll just fail spectacularly and close shop, in which case everyone will have lost a lot of money.

San Diego is over. Welcome back.

Antony Johnston is the author of JULIUS, SPOOKED and THE LONG HAUL. His new ongoing series WASTELAND begins in July 2006.

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