Over the weekend, Ka-Blam Digital Printing responded to Diamond's increased order minimums with ComicsMonkey, a print-on-demand distribution service that promises "no benchmarks, no thresholds, no minimums, no fees."

This service probably would be slightly bigger news if publishers weren't required to print through Ka-Blam in order to be distributed by ComicsMonkey.

There's also the issue of terms for retailers: a 35-percent discount, no returns, and the retailer pays for shipping.

Creator Von Allan hones in on those sticking points in the comments section of the ComicsMonkey blog:

While I hope I’m wrong, I find that the retailer terms are pretty untenable. 35% off cover, non-returnable, with shipping charges on top of that? That’s a lot of risk to put on the retailer with not much to help them out.

So, while I understand the pricing realities of POD, this seems like Ka-Blam titles would be special order only in most stores, assuming that those stores even set-up accounts in the first place. That also means sales will most likely be pretty minimal.

Elsewhere on the site, the announcement is met with more excitement from commenters, most of whom appear to be small and self-publishers.