The news broke this week of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing made by Diamond Comics—the only distribution company that survived the 1990s’ Distributors Wars (that they and Marvel Comics helped instigate) that resulted in the elimination of every one of their competitors, all of whom had showed far more respect toward indie publishers than Diamond.
Back in the 1993, when I launched StarWarp Concepts with the release of Lorelei #0—a 24-page, black-and-white comic written by me and drawn by David C. Matthews—Diamond was one of a dozen or so distribution companies that included Friendly Frank’s, Styx International (for Canadian shops), Comics Hawaii, Heroes World, Comics Unlimited, and the gold standard for indies (and Diamond’s #1 competitor), Capital City Distribution.
Having that many outlets available was a perfect match for both distributors and comic creators—distros needed product to offer their retailer clients, indie publishers needed a means to get their product to consumers, and following the boom-and-bust of the 1980s’ Black-and-White Explosion (inspired by the Ninja Turtles’ success), the comics market had remained just experimental enough that a small, unknown house could still have some measure of success. Lorelei #0—a comic that had little promotion beyond a press release reproduced in the industry magazine Comic Buyer’s Guide—sold 2,500 copies, which wasn’t bad for an indie (the cover art by then-popular Vampirella artist Louis Small, Jr. no doubt had a lot to do with that). Three months later, Lorelei #1, sporting another Small cover, jumped to 5,000 copies sold before settling to a steady 2,500 copies for the balance of the series’ short run. Not too shabby.
Thing is, most of those orders didn’t come from Diamond but from Capital City, which had published comics of their own (Nexus, Badger, and Whisper, all of which later moved to publisher First Comics), and therefore understood the struggles of small publishers and supported their efforts. Diamond, unfortunately, then and now has always seemed to have the attitude that indies were something they had to put up with—even after they became the last distributor standing. Even in recent years, after their major clients Marvel, DC, and Image abandoned them.
So now Diamond finds itself in the same position they helped Capital City spiral into post–Distributor Wars, with the big houses now exclusively locked up with other competitors—Penguin-Random House controls Marvel, IDW, Dark Horse, and Boom!; Lunar Distribution has DC and Image—and Diamond having only second-tier houses (Dynamite, Titan, Zenescope) and smaller indies to offer. That type of situation is what led to CC’s demise, and I’m sure a hearty cheer went up at the Diamond offices when they acquired the company and shuttered their biggest competitor.
But I guess what goes around, comes around. Diamond is now #2, and among their problems is that they owe their main competitor Penguin-Random House $9.2 million for supplying them with all the titles PRH now handles. Diamond has reached its Capital City Moment.
It’s karmic, in a way.
I haven’t had much to do with Diamond in years. The graphic novels Lorelei: Sects and the City and Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings, were sold through them back in 2012 and 2013, respectively, but attempts to relist them (what they call Offered Again titles) over the years were denied. When I published my nonfiction history, From the Stars…a Vampiress: An Unauthorized Guide to Vampirella’s Classic Horror Adventures, in 2020, they refused to carry it. The reason given was that Dynamite Comics, Vampirella’s current license owner and publisher, had recently been moved to the front section of Previews, to partly take the place of the absent major houses, and they didn’t want to irritate their new favorite by offering an unauthorized book about one of their characters. If From the Stars got listed, I was told, Dynamite would probably send me a cease-and-desist letter posthaste, and until that matter was settled, they weren’t going to put themselves in the middle. Thus ended my involvement with Diamond.
So, bottom line: whether Diamond finds a way to restructure, or is sold to another company, or closes its doors before 2025 ends, it won’t have any effect on StarWarp Concepts. But its closure would certainly deal a fatal blow to the indie comics market, since there’s no other outlet—Penguin-Random House isn’t interested in the small fish, and Lunar Distribution doesn’t seem to have the ability (or intent) to expand its publisher-client base to the level that Diamond had. Indie comics would definitely suffer.
Not that a lot of indie publishers these days do much to make their titles available. From what I’ve seen, a good number of small-press publishers who run Kickstarter campaigns don’t have company websites, just Facebook pages, and if you want back issues you’ll have to make them add-ons during the next campaign. They don’t make their titles available to the general public. Which means, sure, you’ll develop your audience, but only in a bubble. And if you’re looking to expand into the direct market, Diamond more than likely won’t be there as a means to offer your comics to retailers.
There are alternate measures, though. Vault Comics, for example, just announced today they’ll be offering direct-to-retailer sales, with free shipping for the first six months to retailers who sign up with them. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, there’s the UK-based Markosia, who hasn’t had comics distribution for awhile, but rather sell their print comics and graphic novels through Amazon and Barnes & Noble as print-on-demand titles. (We do the same thing—that’s why Sects and the City and Troubleshooters have never been out of print in the past dozen years.)
“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst,” the old saying goes. Want to prepare yourself for the possible dissolution of Diamond Comics, indie publishers? Maybe start by setting up a website…
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