Diamond Comics is having a very bad few weeks

Trouble is brewing in comics land…and specifically at Diamond Comic Distributors. 

According to numerous reports, Diamond has been having trouble getting comics to stores in a timely fashion, missing the Wednesday on sale date for the last three weeks, and leading to many, many complaints from retailers…and customers. The the holiday shopping season upon us, this couldn’t come at a worse time. 

The troubles stem from the recent closure of Diamond’s Plattsburg warehouse back in October. While this may have been a planned cost cutting measure, it now seems that the move was made a lot faster than anticipated. In a letter to comics retailers, Diamond’s Chief Sales & Service Officer Chris Powell wrote:

While we had made the decision to consolidate our distribution centers, the intent was to do so over a longer period of time in a slower part of the year. Unexpectedly, the owner of the Plattsburgh facility chose not to extend our lease on a month-to-month basis, having identified another tenant without even advertising the space. This drastically reduced the time needed to plan and execute these changes. This accelerated timeline for our move, compounded by holiday schedules and necessary invoicing/reporting adjustments, created a perfect storm that has affected you in unacceptable ways. We are dedicated to getting things back on track, and our Operations teams have worked every day other than Thanksgiving to help get us there.

These unacceptable ways have been reported by numerous comics shops on Facebook and elsewhere, with comics shipping days late. As one retailer tweeted:

So first the Lunar and Penguin shipments for 12/11 releases arrive BEFORE Diamond’s 12/04 releases and now Diamond’s 12/11 releases are not supposed to be here until 12/17 or later? This is getting completely out of hand!

Powell updated shops with another email: 

Disruptions from the consolidation of accounts to Diamond’s Olive Branch Distribution Center continue, despite the Distribution Center teams working through the past two weekends and additional shifts. For additional details on the transition, please see the separate email that was sent earlier today, December 10.  Please Note: For product with an on-sale date of December 11, some shipments have been delayed to Thursday or Friday this week. Product with an on-sale date of December 18 is likely to be delayed next week. Our Operations team has been able to move closer to a schedule that allows us to deliver shipments by Wednesday, while our longer-term goal is to deliver earlier. Some retailers have seen issues with invoices not being posted on the Retailer Services Website. Our developers identified an issue that they believe has been resolved so current invoices should hopefully be available on Wednesday, December 11.  Due to necessary changes to how we process shipments, Operations is unable to provide Retailer Services with information on shipments any earlier than when they appear on the Retailer Services Website’s Shipment Tracking page. The most up to date information for retailers is on that page, so please check there each morning for tracking information. We appreciate your support and patience during this complex change, and are working diligently to resolve these issues and return to a reliable schedule such as we have maintained in the past.

It should be noted that stores are getting their titles from DC, Image, Dark Horse, IDW, Mad Cave and other smaller publishers, and those who use PRH for Marvel should be getting them on time. However Boom, Dynamite, and books that are wholesaled through Diamond – including many retailer who use Diamond for Marvel Comics –  are being delayed into the next week. As Comic Headquarters wrote on FB:

We have this week’s DC and Image titles, along with last week’s Diamond shipment on the shelves and ready to go. This week’s Diamond shipment is out for delivery, and will be checked in as soon as it arrives. We want to keep everyone in the loop as we get information. If anyone wants to wait until this week’s Diamond comics show up, I will post a story as soon as it’s in. Please check back for updates!

The Great Escape in Louisville has a pretty spectacular post with the most dedicated white board jotting I have ever seen:

But all joking about markers aside, this is extremely troubling for Diamond. To add to the troubles, a long expected move was announced this week: Boom Studios will be moving to Penguin Random House for both comics and book distribution starting on July 1. (Books had previously been going through Simon & Schuster.) This was pretty much expected after PRH purchased Boom back in July.  

“Everyone at BOOM! Studios is incredibly grateful for the many years of dedicated support and service we have received from both Diamond Comic Distributors and Simon & Schuster,” BOOM! Studios President, Executive Director of Business Management & Publishing Operations Jen Harned said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “We cannot overstate how critical both partnerships have been in building our business in the direct comic book, book trade, library, international, and mass markets. As we integrate BOOM! Studios’ operations with Penguin Random House, taking full advantage of our new parent’s scale and global reach, we remain appreciative of all they continue to do for the comic and graphic book industry.”

Diamond came back with their own brief note to retailers: 

Following the recent announcement from BOOM! Studios, we want to confirm that you will still be able to order BOOM! Studios titles through Diamond Comic Distributors.

This includes their comic books, graphic novels, and related products. We will offer BOOM! products as a wholesaler, just as we do with many of the other lines we carry.

We remain committed to supporting your business by ensuring you can maintain your existing ordering processes and access to the titles your customers rely on. 

Beginning with product on-sale July 2, you will order BOOM! Studios titles under the same terms as Marvel Comics titles.

If you have additional questions regarding this information, please contact Diamond’s Retailer Services Department. Thank you.

Everyone was expecting this move, including everyone at Diamond, but that leaves only Dynamite as a Top Ten comics publisher going exclusively with Diamond, along with DSTLRY and a bunch of smaller publishers. 

What exactly is happening? I’ve reached out to many and the picture is still emerging, but Popverse’s Chris Arrant vague booked on LinkedIn:

Major things are going on in the background of print comics distribution right now. There’s some downsizing, consolidation, streamlining, and a precarious financial maneuver by an industry giant. Most of this is behind-the-scenes, but I feel there’s some damage control and posturing going on right now.

This is beginning to feel like the lead-up to the seismic changes comics distribution went through in 2020 – and with the players now involved with this, could be much bigger.

I don’t have the complete picture on all this, but I did wake up yesterday to a bunch of anxious DMs asking if Diamond was going bankrupt. I haven’t heard that but it seems a reaosnable question to ask. 

One thing I did learn is that Diamond has been cutting costs across the board – there were a number of quiet layoffs a month or so ago, and some open positions have not been filled. A variant speculation I heard was that Diamond could be prepping for a sale by paring things down. 

One small publisher’s rep I spoke with noted that the lack of communication from Diamond has been “scary.” Many books and incentive covers are missing, as well, so it’s not just store customers who are being affected by this.  

I’ve covered Diamond as much as any journalist out there for the last 20 years, and I’ve heard all about the good, the bad and the damaged corners. Even a few years ago, Diamond was viewed as a somewhat benevolent monopoly that people complained about endlessly, but they were an absolutely integral part of the comics ecosystem. People just wanted them to fix the most obvious things. Brian Hibbs has covered many aspects of retailers’ love/hate relationship with Diamond over the years in his Tilting at Windmills column, as well. One of the things he mentioned several times is that for many years Diamond was the “Banker” for retailers. Shops that were having cash flow issues could expect generous credit terms from Diamond while they tried to get the books balanced.

All that changed on March 23, 2020, when Diamond announced that they would stop shipping new comics as a result of the pandemic lockdown. This was either the thing that saved comics (many stores had to be shut down during lockdowns anyway) or the beginning of a new and turbulent era…or more likely, both. As Diamond lost publisher after publisher, a new picture emerged: far from a big bad monopoly, they were a company that truly understood the comics business and were dedicated to it. 

I surveyed retailers a year after The Big Shutdown to see what that had meant, and you can see some of the evolution of thinking  there. DC had already gone to Lunar (and briefly, Midtown), but soon the dominoes would begin to fall, with Marvel moving to PRH, and eventually Image, Dark Horse and IDW all parting ways. And now, Boom. 

While the idea of selling Diamond is radical, I’ve also often noted that distribution isn’t a business you get into to take it easy. It’s a business that lives in the margins, and comics shops all have their own quirky demands – as PRH quickly learned. As comics publishers have drifted away, Diamond has adjusted by beefing up its Alliance games distribution business, as well as shipping more toys and other items. They’ve been trying to shift gears but the current situation sounds like it’s spun out of control. 

Where this all ends up, I don’t know, but I’ll keep digging. But I definitely agree with Arrant: big changes are coming. And don’t worry readers, Brian Hibbs tells me he has his own explainer column coming very soon.