Posted in : Comics| Tagged : baseball field , rob liefeld
How Much Does Diamond Owe ? Comic Book Folk React To Diamond Comic Distributors Bankruptcy … but this is most likely to be Part One
Article Summary
Steve Geppifounded Diamond Comic Distributors in February 1982 with one warehouse , seventeen customers and many competing distributors . Across forty years , it beat all the rivalry and became the dominant monopoly in the mirthful ledger verbatim marketplace – though not according to the court . But after it closed down temporarily during the pandemic , publisher were free from their declaration to attempt substitute deals , and now Image and DC are with Lunar , Marvel , IDW and Dark Horse are with Penguin Random House , and Boom Studios is join them . sooner today , Bleeding Cool broke the news that Diamond Comic Distributors had declared bankruptcy , as well as detailson Diamond UK and Alliance Games Distribution being sell to Canadian company Universal Distribution . And all hell broke loose . in camera , comic book publishers – and Lunar and Penguin Random House , who subdistributed to Diamond – are trying to mould out exactly how much baseball field owes them . From conversations I have had , we will be talking high-pitched eight anatomy at this full point . That includes the mountains of stock certificate for publishers that Diamond celebrate on hand – and now all part of the bankruptcy proceedings lead forward .
Alan Gillof comic storage chainUltimate Comicstells us , " There is no one currently who can replace the services and intangibles that Diamond Comic distributer provides . The monthly prevue catalogue brings all of the toy dog , statue and bauble products that are manufactured each calendar month as well as a multitude of comic Koran publisher into one catalog , who else is going to abuse up to do that ? A existence without Diamond Comic Distributors is emphatically going to hurt not only small to medium sizing comic record retailers by specify the access they presently have to Funko , Monogram and other novelty best sellers but the smaller mirthful newspaper publisher will have no one to realistically distribute their Holy Scripture . "
Brian Hibbsof San Francisco store Comix Experience remind us " There are a LOT of people who were actively root for Diamond comics to betray . Well , your wishes appear to be coming dependable , as Diamond file for Chapter 11 , and this is give-up the ghost to be TRULY dire news for the Direct Market , at least in the poor and medium term . Say " Goodbye " to most diminished publishers , and " so long " for the right chance for a majority of small and unproved creators . Never EVER forget that the blame for this falls directly upon DC Comics , and we should never forget this , or ever recoup that rap . My best wishes for Steve Geppi , as well as all of the staff at Diamond — and my most fervant prayers for creators and my fellow retailers that we ’re all go to be capable to pilot this disruption to the market . PEOPLE : Penguin Random House DOES NOT WANT any accounts smaller than they already have , and Lunar ( besides being the primary retail competition for all of us ) is really REALLY bad at their line of work and , in my personal estimate , could not maybe HANDLE contribute more vendors . 2025 is going to be a nightmare . "
And in a move that confused some ( Gail , Jim),the comic book store Titan Comics – but not the British comic book publisher Titan Comics , who once upon a time used to * be * Diamond UK , post " What does this mean for the comic ledger business ? Hard to separate for sure . Diamond has been losing piece of the statistical distribution business for the last five years and right on now they ’re a comparatively pocket-size player in the game HOWEVER when it hail to small-scale press comics Diamond is one of the few viable countrywide distribution options . We here at Titan Comics are commit to fill up our client orders and request . We do n’t know how our Diamond orders will be affected by this filing however we want to assure each and every one of our customers that we will do everything we can to acquire the comics you ’re look for . Please bear with us as we navigate these exciting and turbulent events . recollect that a Chapter 11 filing indicates an purpose for the business to go along after a reorganization . We will all see where this leads us . Have a great day and thanks for being customer ! We really do appreciate each and every one of you . "
AndComiChronhave reminded us of the history of the distributor . " Diamond had THE primary role in creating Free Comic Book Day in 2002 , free-base on a suggestion by retailer @flycojoein my own Comics and Games Retailer magazine . It preserve to be the organizing forcefulness for the day ; it says it ’s research eventuality for the result in the future . Diamond had cater a pot of information about comics sales and its monopoly position made it possible for @Comichron to intimately report how many comics Diamond sent to market . No one else reports ; Diamond halt monthly reports in April 2022 , ending a long epoch of transparency . But even in this latter period , Diamond was sorting and shipping more DIFFERENT comic strip than ever before , due to the huge number of variants — if only as a middleman for companies like Marvel and Image . Diamond still bleed hebdomadal reorder reports , which @Comichron still shares . "
Here are a few other public reactions from across the comic leger industry .
Si Spurrier : Well golly .
Jimmy Palmiotti : Holy sh - t !
David Macho : OOOF …
Justin Jordan : I do want to note that Chapter 11 failure is the form that allows the stage business to keep operating . Diamond may well go under , but this is a step to try out and stop that , not throw away in the towel .
Veronica Cristina : Crazy to see a Diamond capitulation . They had the monopoly for só long
Rob Liefeld : This is a challenge the industry does n’t need right now but the industry will master . #
Christian Hoffer : Larger comic publishers have mostly move off from Diamond , but this is a major snow to this manufacture :
Eric July : Diamond filed for failure . The " pandemic " will be blamed and people will write it off to general misdirection . But the truth is there ’s a tough conversation about traditional distribution model that most do n’t require to have . I stated this a million times .
Adam Barnhardt : Should Diamond not make it through , that all but shoot down little imperativeness in the direct market . ego - publish or perish . #
Deniz Camp : Marvel already left Diamond for Penguin / Random House . Diamond is a reseller or Marvel through Penguin . So shop will have to consecrate instantly from Penguin ( which I think most already did )
Ben Templesmith : Don’t forget , it was an idiot judge who once ruled these guys * were not * a monopoly … turned out they were . & like most thing when you lack contention , you get shit . You get terrible . You get unaccented . The matter that caused this was the bare act of others competing . The end of an era . Who know where we all go from here .
Sailor Poland : " To everyone try out to guilt trip me for celebrate Diamond going belly-up – Diamond have intercourse over a LOT of modest pressers , not pay them on time and making them go under because they were n’t big enough to bother with . They tried strongarming The Bigs like Marvel into changing their production . They ripped off my amusing shop with every order . Diamond deserved to fail . You had your chance to build up up an surrogate . You did n’t , you sided with the demon . F - ck Diamond , and f - ck you for trying to make me cry for them . "
enough more to come …
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