#diamond distribution

[prmmytmbl-blog]

Diamond Filed for bankruptcy?

How bout that!

[imperiuswrecked]

Diamond Distribution is Dying

And why that’s a good thing. 

I’m sure by now most comic fans have heard of Marvel breaking their ties to Diamond Distribution. A  lot of fans are happy about this and other fans probably aren’t aware of just what this means in the comic world. So a short comic history lesson to help everyone, this is generalization by me from my time in comic fandom because I love reading up about comic history, so if anyone else has more specific sources or wants to add on then go ahead.

Back in the 1980′s there was different smaller distributors for comic companies however they all started getting bought up by one distributor, Diamond. 

What is a comic distributor? They are the company that gets comics into the shelves of stores. Think of it like this: 

Creative Team gets paid for their work and complete comic > Comic Company prints comics with their preferred printer company based on orders from Diamond > Diamond gets their order information from Comic Shops who get their pre-order information from customers interest >  Comic Company ships comics to Diamond warehouse > Diamond ships comics to shop > Shop places comics on shelves or in pull list boxes and wait for costumer to come in and pay for comics > Comic Shops pay their Diamond invoice bills > Diamond is paid and also pays Comic Company for comics > if comic is a hit then it goes to second printing > if comic flops then Comic Shop still owes Diamond their money because Diamond does not accept returns on comics and Diamond needs to get paid and to pay Comic Company. This is all done in bulk orders.

This is the direct to market approach that was great for comic companies but not so great for comic stores. This is why pre-ordering comics is so important, because realtors (comic shops) and Diamond would then try to guess what the customers demand was and would buy more of that comic to sell. This is why IP’s like Spider-Man, Batman, Super Man, X-Men, always get more comics made rather than less mainstream characters. The more popular the character the less the risk of comic shops losing money.

Diamond had a near monopoly on this whole operation, which means everyone is stuck using their outdated and old model of sales which hasn’t been updated since the 90s, (the 90s comic crash had many contributing factors that also aided in Diamond becoming a monopoly*). Everyone was stuck only looking at what Diamond reported in sales, which means online comics being bought were never really disclosed (this is still unsure of bc no one ever says what online digital comics sales are). Physical comics took longer to get overseas in international markets. And this meant that when in the early 2000′s, Diamond raised the pre-order minimum price from around $1,000 to over $2,000 then smaller independent comic creators were screwed. This is also why independent or smaller creators/comic companies have to fight like hell to get their comics even MENTIONED in Diamond Distributor’s preview order catalog so stores can pre-order.

In the past Diamond has faced accusations of censorship, and bullying smaller companies. 

Due to the 2020 Pandemic, Diamond stopped distribution last year for three months, DC cut out early and left to another company but Marvel stuck it out until 2021 where they just announced that they were joining with Penguin Random House to distribute comics. This is a huge deal, without their two biggest buyers then Diamond will die, maybe they can struggle along but there are no guarantees. Unlike DC completely cutting and running, Marvel is giving realtors the option to stay and order through Diamond or to order through Penguin. 

What does this mean for comic fans? Penguin will probably be able to get marvel comics into an international marker better than Diamond. Penguin might be able to distribute comics in places other than comic shops which could bring in new fans, they might be able to get comics into places that could go before because in order for Diamond to ship the buyers had to have an account through that one company, which is why most book stores only have a limited comic section, if one at all.

Do you recall all those old pictures of comics being on racks in general stores and pharmacies and stuff? I’m not saying that would come back but there is a possibility that you could see comics in more places like that. The comic model of sales of today has changed a lot since the 90s and Diamond never got that. I’m personally glad comics are not going to be held by only one huge distributor any more.

* If you don’t know what the comic crash of the 90s was then its pretty simple: In that era there was a huge boom of people suddenly buying up comics because of their perceived value, when stuff like Batman’s first comic selling for so much money was a hot topic and more people were suddenly getting rich off their old comic collections, as well as hard core comic collectors looking to increase their collections, spectators jumped in and began buying up like 10 or more issues, and keeping them for a later nest egg sale. 

Creators were becoming celebrities overnight thanks to new characters, stories that shifted from the classic ongoing tales to ‘YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED IN THIS ISSUE. THIS IS THE COMIC THAT CHANGES IT ALL.” shake up stories and less restrictions on comics. Things like the Death of Superman was flying off the shelves because people thought it would be worth money, it was not. In addition to this huge boom of sales, people who knew nothing about comics or selling were opening up shops left and right, over ordering and not selling, and very shortly places became bankrupt and closed down. Comic companies were literally raking in the cash and thinking that things were going to stay as they were but then the quality of comics had deteriorated, older fans were turned off by this, the bubble burst, people lost interest, and things went downhill.

Marvel bought Heroes World, to distribute their own comics on the idea that their X-Men Reprints were going to make them mad money but uhhh it did not and their terrible distribution pissed people off so they all went to Diamond and thus the reason for Marvel’s bankruptcy in the late 90s where they sold off movie rights to their biggest characters for literal pennies to stay afloat.

[try-not-to-die-comics]

If/When Marvel Comics become distributed to stores again it'll be interesting to see if Runaways is among the titles.

Not sure how many of the solicited issues are done or still being worked on. But considering how poorly the book sells on a monthly basis at shops, I don't really see why anyone would bother releasing them as issues. I'm sure the release schedule of comics in general will be messed up for a long time, so it might be worth it to have something on the shelves one week.

But I guess we'll have to wait, and see. Saw a lot of ways in which the book could just end with no satisfying ending. Didn't think it'd be in the form of a pandemic.

[thirtytwoelvismovies]

Okay listen up, jerks.

Your local comics shop isn’t getting any new comics tomorrow. For the last twenty years, Wednesday has been New Comic Book Day, but Diamond has decided they’re halting all shipments and upcoming orders.

This puts your local comics shop in a definite type of situation. Most of them won’t pull out of this.

So if you have the means, call/email up your local shop and ask them to pull something for you — a recent story arc, a new trade paperback, and figure out a safe way to pay/acquire it. The Beguiling, for instance, is doing Canada Post shipping.

I’m feeling the pressure on my own industry, and I hate how this is decimating another that employs so many of my friends.

[dccomicsnews]

Diamond Pausing All New Comic Shipments

You heard about Free Comic Book Day being delayed. You heard about movies like The Batman suspending production. But if you thought COVID-19 had hit the comic industry hard before, today was a true game-changer (at least in the short term). Diamond Comic Distributors, which ships product to most U.S. comic stores, has informed retailers that after this week there will be no new shipments until…

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[dorkforty]

What the Market Will Bear: A Big Two Skip Week Leaves the Indies to Rule the Racks

What the Market Will Bear: A Big Two Skip Week Leaves the Indies to Rule the Racks

So this may be a short column. For one thing, I’ve procrastinated and gotten pressed for time. But also… I don’t have many funnybooks to talk about. Neither Marvel nor DC released anything last week, which didn’t impact me all that much since I don’t read a lot from either of them. But not much that I DO read came out, either. It was just two books, in fact, but they were both doozies: the second…

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[nerditherefirst]

NIHW 82: Movie Theaters, Konami Games, and Comics on Tuesdays

This week on the podcast, we talk about the NBA in Disneyworld, the Egyptian Theater, and rumors of Donkey Kong's kidnapping.

This week on the podcast, we talk about the NBA in Disneyworld, Netflix buying the Egyptian Theater, and investigate rumors about Donkey Kong’s kidnapping. All that, plus our four main stories!

3:34 — Headline Roundup 13:04 — Comics On Tuesdays 22:50 — New Konami Games 29:27 — Robot News 35:14 — Movie Distribution 49:08 — Video Game Release Schedule 1:00:48 — Wrap-Up

As always, please remember to…

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[downthetubes]

DC urgently needs a UK distributor: why shouldn’t it be Diamond UK?

DC urgently needs a UK distributor: why shouldn’t it be Diamond UK?

Last Friday, US publisher DC informed comics retailers that it has cut ties with Diamond Comics Distribution. As has been widely reported, including here on ICV2, going forward, all weekly DC product will be distributed through Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributor, two companies it had previously announced partnerships with. Penguin Random House will take over the supply chain for graphic…

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