In late September DC Comics announced a deal with Amazon that will allow uses of Amazon"s upcoming Kindle Fire tablet to purchase and download digital versions of 100 of DC Comics" graphic novel collections. Many of these graphic novels will be available for the first time in digital form via this new agreement with Amazon. That list include Watchmen, perhaps the single most acclaimed comic book of the past 25 years, from writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons. The print edition of the graphic novel still sells well in book stores.
Now the Bleeding Cool web site is reporting that Barnes and Noble, the single biggest national brick-and-mortar bookseller, is not happy with this exclusive deal DC Comics has made with Amazon. Barnes and Noble has apparently been barred from offering these same digital graphic novels for its own Nook Color tablet. So in retaliation, Barnes and Noble has apparently decided to pull all the print editions of the 100 DC Comics graphic novels that will be offered digitally on the Kindle Fire from the bookseller"s store shelves.
This means that people who go into Barnes and Noble"s book stores won"t be able to purchase classic graphic novels like Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, V For Vendetta, all the Sandman collections and more. They also won"t be able to special order these books unless that special order is sent directly to the person"s home. All of these graphic novels, including Watchmen, are still available to purchase from Barnes and Noble"s web site.