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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Yesterday TwoMorrows Publishing started a GoFundMe page.
Diamond owes them $95,000.00 which they will never see.
TwoMorrows will likely go out of business due to this.
Dynamite was in trouble a few months ago, but I haven't heard anything about that since. They didn't print many titles for a while, but now they're with Lunar and seem back to speed. I imagine they're suffering the same financial losses as everyone else, but maybe the crisis has passed.
PS Artbooks, as I posted here, is openly worried about the tariffs hurting their American sales. Unspoken is that, without a healthy American market, they might go out of business.
Fantagraphics posted a number a while back about how much Diamond owed them (that they'll never see), and it was eye-popping for a small publisher. It makes me worry about other small publishers like Clover Press and Hermes Press (Mandrake, Phantom).
And it's still not over! The new owners seem to be sucking as much money out of Diamond as they can, before ... what? It won't be viable as a distributor, wtih every publisher furious with them and owed money. They don't have toys and games, which was separate, I think. Will they just close the doors, or is there some element of Diamond still viable if they no longer distribute comic books, toys or games? I'm guessing the former, but I really don't know.
There's some more news on the Diamond bankruptcy.
Various sites report that the Chapter 11 bankruptcy is being changed to Chapter 7 bankruptcy. I'm no legal scholar, but one of the main takeaways is that Diamond won't be in charge of the inventory that it's been trying to sell without paying the publishers anything. The court will appoint some sort of executor. Here's the ICv2 story:
Bank Pulls the Plug on Diamond
Another tidbit is that NBM Publishing has basically gone out of business, with Ablaze picking up its assets. Apparently Ablaze will continue to publish NBM books with NBM trade dress. Terry Nantier -- the "N" in NBM -- will go to work for Ablaze, packaging books like he did at NBM. Here's the ICv2 story:
ABLAZE ACQUIRES NBM
I hope this means that the small publishers will get their inventory back. Talk about piracy!
Heidi MacDonald article:
Diamond Bankrutpcy Update: Publishers argue they should get their inventory back due to Chapter 7
Diamond Bankrutpcy Update: Publishers argue they should get their i...
Interjecting my non-expert opinion:
Those of us who have visited antique stores have a little understanding of how consignments work. The seller has a number of items to sell, but doesn’t want to be present and personally make the sales. The antique store takes the items “on consignment.” For some consideration, they provide the space for the items and keep track of what sells. The store is being compensated in some way: they are hired to do a job. Short of a legal ruling, the consigned goodies ARE NOT THEIRS TO KEEP OR SELL.
It is possible that some of the inventory was sold instead of being securely stored. This could have been done with what Law & Order called “criminal intent.” It could also have been done in ignorance by lower level employees. In any case, either the merchandise must be returned to the “consignor” or the monetary value returned. They would also have to agree on the costs of storage.
I don’t see how this could be ambiguous to anyone.
Another Heidi MacDonald piece:
The Week in Diamond: DENIED!!!
The Week in Diamond: It didn’t have to be this way
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