So I’m not seeing a lot about this yet, which is probably because the rest of the world is on fire, but I need to make sure y’all realize what a pretty massive deal Diamond Comics Distributors bankruptcy is going to be to the comics world and comic book stores in general for the next little while.
They were a massive monopoly in terms of big name comic distribution, and they did all of the really obnoxious things that monopolies do. They pressured stories to carry comics exclusively through them, they made life a real pain in the ass for independent comics trying to get any kind of foothold in the brick-and-mortar world, they controlled, mishandled, and mismanaged all kinds of things.
On the one hand it’s not a bad thing to see a crappy and controlling distributor like this get broken up a bit. On the other hand this news dropped without any real notice, and like with many chapter 11 declarations it’s not super clear how fast proceedings are going to go and what operations are going to be maintained when and where. You are likely to see the folks who run your friendly local comic stores looking real frazzled and distracted for the next little while. There’s a reasonable chance that you may see some disruption in your pull lists if not your ability to access some comic Studios products at all.
People are going to be scrambling. The uncertainty of it sucks. Independent folks run on tight margins at every level and this is going to disrupt their flow.
This is not going to break the industry or anything like that, big shops like Marvel and DC have diversified too well and are big enough that they can probably start pulling together their own distribution before too long. But if you are a fan of comics from smaller independent publishers, now would be a great time to checking in to see if you can buy from them directly, or if your friendly local comic shop already has a local distribution deal with them. And if you’ve been eyeing something in your local comic shops that isn’t your usual floppies, now might be the time to pull the trigger on those figurines or that game or whatever else they sell.
Supporting independent comic studios and indy comic shops is always a good idea, and we can all use a little joy in our lives these days. Please use this as an excuse to try something new
One of Comics’ Biggest Distributors Has Filed for Bankruptcy
amhrancas 