Diamond Comics Distributors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today. They also announced that they were selling off pieces of their large company - Alliance Games and Diamond UK were two mentioned today with others likely to happen soon.
What does this mean for the comic book business? Hard to tell for sure. Diamond has been losing pieces of the distribution business for the last five years and right now they're a comparatively minor player in the game. However, when it comes to small press comics Diamond is one of the few viable nationwide distribution options.
Remember that a Chapter 11 filing indicates an intent for the business to continue after a reorganization.
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I just heard about this, myself. Since your pal Bob has never really underrstood how comic books are distributed, he has no idea how seismic/catastrophic this news potentially is.
For me personally, many of the books I most enjoy I learn about (and order) only through Previews. Even if my LCS were to order the books/collections I like for the shelf, I also enjoy a hefty pre-order discount. My concern is that I'm going to miss things I would like simply because I'm not aware of them.
Currently, about 99% of the comics I read are DC, Marvel and manga. I don't read a lot of small US publishers.
Manga distribution is a complicated thing. It looks like No. 7 publisher Viz Media is exclusive to Simon & Schuster and No. 9 Kodansha is PRH. Seven Seas is also PRH. If the other publishers follow suit, then your purchases seem not to be affected directly. But I didn't look them all up.
Speaking of which, I've been meaning to ask if you have any insight on U.S. publishers of manga. Do certain publishers tend to publish certain genres? Or is it split up by Japanese publisher? I guess I'm just curious why Dark Horse and Titan publish certain manga and not others. If I only liked Isekai, would I find a bunch of them at the same U.S. publisher? Or maybe it's sorted by publisher, and if I was a Shueisha zombie, would I find all their titles at a single U.S. publisher? Or is it just a free-for-all, where the U.S. publishers comptete to snatch up whatever titles are currently popular?
Dunno, Skipper. I've there's a pattern, I've never noticed it, but I've never really looked into it, either. Sorry not more helpful.
My pal Bob is pretty smart, and understands better than he lets on.
As to Diamond, we can't say we weren't warned. As Jeff notes, they have been losing parts for years. The top 6 publishers have all moved to other distributors (although some aren't exclusive and are still available through Diamond). DC Comics (2020) and Image Comics (2023) moved to Lunar Distribution. Marvel (2021), IDW (2022) and Dark Horse (2023) moved to Penguin Random House, and Boom will move there in July 2025. Diamond still has exclusive deals with pretty much everybody else – exclusive deals was how they managed to monopolize the industry for years – including No. 8 publisher Dynamite (Vampirella, Red Sonja, Space Ghost, Jonny Quest, B-list Disney properties) and No. 10 Titan Comics (Conan, Doctor Who).
In early December, just before the holidays and with no notice, Diamond closed one of its two major distribution hubs (Plattsburgh, New York). That left just the one in Olive Branch, Mississippi (essentially a suburb of Memphis), which even they admitted was going to cause problems until a new normal could be achieved. They were essentially going to re-build their network on the fly.
That didn't sound good at the time, and now we see just how bad it was.
As to what will happen now, I can only speculate. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see more publishers jump to PRH and Lunar. My LCS enjoyed its proximity to the Mississippi distribution warehouse in that he could drive down there (20 minutes or so) and get his books instead of waiting on (sometimes damaging) shipping, but has complained recently that they wouldn’t let him do it any more. And I use Diamond for the weekly Comics Guide and Comics List, so both may be less accurate if Diamond stops making the list or just goes out of business.
My pal Bob is pretty smart, and understands better than he lets on.
It's not so much a question of "smartness" so much as that comics distribution is not something that it ever occurred to me to look into. My main concern with comics has always been whether I enjoyed reading them or not. I suspect that "finding out too much about how comics are made" could have a similar effect to "finding out how the sausages that I buy at the Stop & Shop are made".
I don't read a lot of small US publishers.
I'm thinking not only of periodical comic books, but publishers such as Fantagraphics (Prince Valiant), Hermes Press (The Phantom), and those who publish collections collections of things I often post to the "Favorite Things of the Year" thread.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see more publishers jump to PRH and Lunar.
That will likely be the case. I'm pretty sure my LCS orders at least some of the things I pre-order through those outlets although I am filling out the order sheet from Diamond's Previews catalog. Marvel, DC, Image and IDW already have their own separate catalogs in addition to Previews, so I'm not too concerned about being able to order their products; it's the smaller press publications I am worried about. I'm sure it will be an even bigger headache for the retailers.
Diamond is also an online retailer, like Westfield, so they do list books the distribution side doesn't distribute. So Previews is probably still comprehensive. But of course publishers who are not affiliated with Diamond any longer won't rely on their catalogue and will have one of their own.
You're right to worry about small publishers, Jeff. Fantagraphics does rely on Diamond for LCS distribution, but isn't exclusive, while Hermes Press is exclusive to Diamond for LCS. You mentioned those two so I looked them up, but I imagine it's similar for publishers like Drawn & Quarterly, Oni Press, Valiant, Aftershock, Mad Cave, etc., which I did not look up. But those publishers don't appear on the Lunar and PRH websites, so they're either associated with book distributors like Simon & Schuster and Hatchette, or they're distriuted by Diamond.
Meanwhile, if Dynamite jumps to Lunar or PRH, then Diamond won't have a single publisher with 1% or more of the market.
You mentioned those two so I looked them up...
Thanks! What about PS Artbooks?
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