AHOY Comics has announced a move of its bookstore distribution from Diamond Books to major bookstore distributor Simon & Schuster for its graphic novels and collections. The direct market will continue to rely on Diamond for single-issue comics and graphic novels/collections.
In their press release announcing the move AHOY Publisher Hart Seely said,
“We’re pleased as punch to be partnering with Simon & Schuster with a deal that will allow us to expand our distribution in such a significant way.
We can’t wait to foist our stable of oddball titles onto the unsuspecting masses and introduce a whole new audience of folks to Dragonfly and Dragonflyman, Jesus and Sunstar, and the staggeringly drunken Edgar Allan Poe.”
AHOY’s move to Simon & Schuster follows a recent trend of comics publishers migrating or partially moving from Diamond to the large book market distributor Simon & Schuster.
As of March 2021, AWA Studios, Behemoth, BOOM! Studios, Humanoids, Insight, Legendary, Oni Press, Red 5 Comics, Scout Comics, Source Point Press, Vault Comics, VIZ Media, and Z2 Comics are now signed to Simon & Schuster.
Diamond has two companies that manage distribution Diamond Comics Distributors for the comics retail space and Diamond Books which is supposed to handle the physical and online book retail space. There are still a number of publishers still signed-up but their biggest, top-listed fish are Image Comics and Dynamite Entertainment.
Marvel Comics is distributed by Hachette for their collections and graphic novels, while DC is with Penguin Random House Publisher Services.
Image and Dynamite Entertainment so far remain in place at Diamond though there remain questions over how long this will stay the case.
AHOY Comics Fall Cargo
This September collections of Happy Hour; The Wrong Earth’s second volume ‘Night and Day’; and Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Blood (follow up to Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror) will land in comics and book shops.
Second Coming’s second volume, Only Begotten Son, will arrive in November.
- Happy Hour [Written by Peter Milligan, Art by Michael Montenat] – Comic shops August 25 2021 / Bookstores September 7 2021
- The Wrong Earth: Night and Day [Written by Tom Peyer, Art by Jamal Igle / Juan Castro] – Comic shops September 8 / Bookstores September 21
- Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Blood [Written by Paul Cornell, Dean Motter, Art by Russ Braun] – Comic shops September 22 / Bookstores October 5
- Second Coming: Only Begotten Son [Written by Mark Russell, Art by Richard Pace, Leonard Kirk] – Comic shops November 3 / Bookstores November 16
