Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Diamond has been stifling the comics industry for decades... killing small publishers, fleecing comic shops. So if they had died in the 90's, great. But they've been the only game in town so long, there's no safety net or alternative.
I don’t think that’ll take long to fix though. The major publishers need a way to pot their books on shelves and will figure out a new way. I worry about the little guys on both ends of the supply chain though
Just another shift in distribution. Nothing to panic about yet.
I remember when Diamond took over the distribution game, killing regional distributors like Friendly Franks, Capital City, etc. Same concerns and adjustments needed to be addressed by small shops. Some survived, some didn't.
My boss did the math, our shop currently gets about 7.5% of our weekly shipment of floppy comics from Diamond. And almost none of those are books that we could not live without.
Just some clarification about the current state of Diamond in the industry, they are no longer the sole distributor of comics, post-covid. DC and Image are now exclusive through Lunar, and Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW, and soon Boom are with PRH. Diamond sub-distributes all of them (except DC).
That said, there's still a LOT of indie comics that are only available through Diamond as of today, and we've always got the majority of our toys and action figures from them since we don't sell enough to buy direct from the manufacturers.
The people this is going to impact is 100% going to be the indie/local comic stores.
Places like 🤢Forbidden Planet🤢 won't take too much of a hit, but its more thinking about those independent comic shops that have got comics through Diamond
Oh no what’s wrong with Forbidden Planet? I used to go there 20 years ago and haven’t kept up, but they had a soft spot in my heart for being the place where I got Silent Hill 2
Ranging from a decline in quality, shipment problems that a lot of people have experienced using them for comics (for me, I brought 3 comics that came out on the same day, and instead of bundling them together: they charged me an additional two times for postage to send them separately)
Adding onto this, I'm really worried about both of my comic shops: Niche and Close Encounters (Huntingdon and Peterborough)
Niche has comics but their customers are more book focused, and Close Encounters have been having problem after problem since... October/September last year 😢
I guess the what 15% 2024 sales loss report in comics that was going around last week was accurate even and telling. Losses with Marvel and DC must have been too big for indie to recoup!
I remember as a teen in the 80s when I first started learning about comic distributors and the like. As expected as this is after the past half decade or so, it's still just surreal.
I continue to to feel bad that so many don't get to experience what I did with two delivery days each week and more.
It's more that the direct market as the only place to get things is the problem, but it was largely in response to drastic changes in other distribution areas as well.
No single point of failure, just a cascade of culminating problems and patchwork stablizing actions.
The principal distributor of comics in NA going bankrupt will be devastating to small comic shops, the soul of the industry, hopefully things can straighten out.
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I remember when Diamond took over the distribution game, killing regional distributors like Friendly Franks, Capital City, etc. Same concerns and adjustments needed to be addressed by small shops. Some survived, some didn't.
That's not to say this isn't bad, but if Diamond goes away tomorrow, it's not *nearly* as bad as if it happened 5 years ago.
The people this is going to impact is 100% going to be the indie/local comic stores.
Places like 🤢Forbidden Planet🤢 won't take too much of a hit, but its more thinking about those independent comic shops that have got comics through Diamond
Now (in this example, and previous: I'll use the one in Cambridge) more than half the store is Funko Pops
(And also it's better to support independent than the big chains like FP)
Niche has comics but their customers are more book focused, and Close Encounters have been having problem after problem since... October/September last year 😢
Damn, big loss for comic shops in US!
All the indies are screwed though.
What about your Zenescope and Fantagraphics and Antarctic Press and the like? The publishers that regularly sell under 3000 copies of a book?
I don't know that Zenescope would be any real loss though... ;)
My point was simply that it's not JUST going to be a Marvel/DC world post Diamond.
I continue to to feel bad that so many don't get to experience what I did with two delivery days each week and more.
No single point of failure, just a cascade of culminating problems and patchwork stablizing actions.
Local comic stores that survived the last five years were just finally getting back on their feet after the COVID shutdown.
Their order numbers hit the minimums needed to get their books from major publishers like Marvel, DC, and Image separately.
But for the ones who used Diamond as a catch-all wholesaler, this is a crushing blow.
Hopefully, they can pull out of this, and bolster their services and support.