Diamond Comic Distributors Files Voluntary Petition for Relief Under Chapter 11

Not that surprised. Forbidden Planet announced last year coming up to Christmas that their Diamond deliveries were delayed indefinitely

It was pretty apparent that something like that would happen to Diamond after Marvel left them and effectively broke the monopoly, not to mention pretty stagnant nature of sales in comic book industry as a whole. I think I got first sign of something being wrong when they cancelled some previews exclusives figures in the summer of last year.

On 1/14/2025 at 4:46 PM, JayC said:

On 1/14/2025 at 4:46 PM, JayC said:

I am curious if comic shop owners had some inclining this was coming or if today's news caught them totally by surprise.

Yeah, I've read from peeps ( former & current retailers) that stuff like regional distribution hubs have been closed down--as recent as Dec. Like entire regions like the Vancouver BC area just abandoned by Diamond and retailers having to scramble to get certain kinds of merch ( toys, small press and indie titles, for example) from other sources, or just forego it entirely. That kind of "pulling in the carpet" is a bad sign for a company like Diamond. Today is just one of a increasing litany of hassles they've brought to bear. Despite the long hassles and aggravation, not many are celebrating or feeling relief about it because the headaches to keep a store running have just increased.

On 1/14/2025 at 2:46 PM, Reno said:

He told me that Diamond has been beyond awful for 2-3 months now and he never knows when or if he's going to receive his shipments from them.

While the general public is just now hearing about this, likely those within the company at least some of them I am sure have been aware of their situation long before today. Usually what a company does in these cases is to start drastically cutting costs where ever they can. Whether its employees or product quality or what. And of course in turn the customer (IE comic shops) start feeling the effects of that which is likely what your friends store has been dealing with the last 2-3 months. I am curious if comic shop owners had some inclining this was coming or if today's news caught them totally by surprise.

One of my very good friends is a small comic book store owner. For the longest time, Diamond was pretty much a monopoly and he would always complain about them and how bad their service was and how they took advantage of everyone because they were the only game in town. Then later he could start ordering from Penguin and others. However, Diamond is still his only source that he can get a lot of stuff from, especially some smaller publishers. He told me that Diamond has been beyond awful for 2-3 months now and he never knows when or if he's going to receive his shipments from them. He gave me numerous examples of stuff he hasn't been able to get at all despite ordering it months and months ago. His only competitor in our town of about 80,000 has been bleeding business to him though because that other owner was still using Diamond for EVERYTHING and has basically been going to with little to no new product over the past couple of months.

On 1/14/2025 at 1:02 PM, TheArrow said:

Yeah, and the fallout is going to hit the smaller publishers. I did some work on a title published by Scoot Comics--a division of Scout Comics--a couple of years ago ( it didn't go well , and with PBR or Lunar, they won't handle small press stuff like that.Where are all those small books going to get published to land in comic stores??Kickstarter doesn't get anywhere near enough noses over indie books as it is. Gut-wrenching for a lot of talented people trying to ply their craft out there.

Everything I have always heard is Diamond was terrible to deal with. So IDK. Again no expert on the comic side but seems like there are so many ways to get products out directly to consumer, if its something people want they can find a way to get it out.

That being said this might hurt small comic shops more than anything.

Yeah, and the fallout is going to hit the smaller publishers. I did some work on a title published by Scoot Comics--a division of Scout Comics--a couple of years ago ( it didn't go well , and with PBR or Lunar, they won't handle small press stuff like that.Where are all those small books going to get published to land in comic stores??Kickstarter doesn't get anywhere near enough noses over indie books as it is. Gut-wrenching for a lot of talented people trying to ply their craft out there.

On 1/14/2025 at 12:34 PM, TheArrow said:

I would not trust the spin being put on this from Diamond. I suspect that Universal is going to have a really difficult time filling Diamond's shoes......and Diamond has been failing for years now. This ain't gonna be pretty.

Im not an expert on the comic side of the business but seems to me the writing was on the wall for Diamond when they lost their monopoly on the comic Distribution business a few years ago when the large comic companies started using other Distributors besides just Diamond.

I would not trust the spin being put on this from Diamond. I suspect that Universal is going to have a really difficult time filling Diamond's shoes......and Diamond has been failing for years now. This ain't gonna be pretty.