“Diamond to Launch Kids Comic Shop Locator at kidscomics.com”
(BALTIMORE, MD) — (March 10, 2010) —Diamond announced today plans to launch a new website and comic shop locator aimed at directing kids and parents to kid-friendly comic shops across the United States and Canada.
The new site at kidscomics.com will debut in March and feature a variety of news, info, and fun activities on comics and graphic novels geared directly to kids aged 4 to 11—and older fans who are kids at heart!
“The long-term success of the comic book industry lies with getting kids excited about the medium of comics and making it a contemporary choice alongside video games, online activities, movies, and books, said Dan Manser, Diamond’s Director of Marketing. “Our hope is that kidscomics.com can help promote the comics medium to kids and help them and their parents find a comic shop that caters to their needs.”
Kidscomics.com builds upon Diamond’s successful comicshoplocator.com website and phone service, which since 1996 has directed over three million-plus customers searching for comics and other merchandise to direct market comic book shops. The new kid-friendly site will be a web portal to get the most up-to-date news and information on kid’s comics and graphic novels, with current plans calling for the comic shop locator, a new release schedule highlighting the latest kid-friendly comic books, a backlist of kid-friendly graphic novels, sneak peeks at upcoming titles, character and creator interviews, and more.
Already, DC Entertainment has signed on to support and promote the new kidscomics.com shop locator through its DCbeyond.com website, which is available through the Warner Bros. web portal at KidsWB.com. DC will be adding comic book content to the DCBeyond.com website, which is loaded with games, videos and other interactive features.
The shop locator for kidscomics.com will initially launch with over 800 qualified kid-friendly retailers taken from current shops who participate in Diamonds’ comicshoplocator.com service. Each retailer must show a minimum ordering support for kid-friendly comic books and graphic novels.
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ABOUT DIAMOND COMIC DISTRIBUTORS—the world’s largest distributor of English-language comic books and pop-culture related merchandise—Diamond is based in Baltimore, MD, and services more than 3,500 specialty retailers worldwide. For more information, visit Diamond on the web at http://www.diamondcomics.com.
THE JOE SHUSTER AWARDS 
On a side note, I ran this service for my home postal code and got three results: The Beguiling, Hairy Tarantula and the Silver Snail. Which is actually pretty awful for the GTA which has dozens of shops.
Do you consider those stores the locator found for me to be kid-friendly stores? Hmmm….
Interesting that the qualifications are stores that participate in the existing comicshoplocator.com service and order an unstated minimum number of kids comics ordered – is that per month? per year?