As we continue to look at the Year of Diamond Debacle, it’s clear that readers really didn’t care, and most comics retailers did fine, but what about publishers? When a distributor goes belly up, usually it’s publishers who go out of business. Do we have any definitive data on just how many publishers went under because of Diamond? How many reorganized?
Oddly enough, as far as I can find, the only publisher who specifically went out of business stating it was because of Diamond was Blood Moon. A smallish horror-ish/fantasy-ish publisher, they transferred their inventory to Sunbury Press, took down their shingle and went home.
As some have pointed out, Humanoids filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy at least partially because of Diamond, but then they came right back as Humanoids Studios, so that definitely qualifies as a reorg.
I put out a call on many forms of social media asking about publishers who went under because of Diamond and got back…..crickets. I didn’t expect a flood of replies but I didn’t expect nearly NOTHING. Because Diamond going under is an extinction level event, or should be. But we simply don’t see a roadway littered with the bodies of expired publishers. Yet.
However, I didn’t really expect a flood of responses to my enquiries for two reasons. One is that people never really like to announce they are shutting down. They just quietly slip away. I was told by one person that Scout Comics was even more dunzo than ever because of Diamond, and they haven’t really been heard from for a while. Dead or not? Hard to tell.
The second reason….well, keep reading.
Oddly enough, my post got more information about Blood Moon than anything else, with a few people in the comments calling them out for business woes.
Mark Fenton: Two of my books were published by Blood Moon. We were never paid and I had [to] fight with them to send us comp books as they were trying to sell the stock they had on the Sunbury Press website.
Austin Allen Hamblin: I will say Blood Moon was having issues before this. Several creators have told me they never received comps or payment. I think the Diamond collapse was a good way to change the narrative “We were crushing it…until Diamond screwed us..”
Maybe it was just Blood Moon’s time…
I did hear from a few people privately, and I’m relaying their responses with their permission. One is Carl Choi of 247 Comics, a publisher we’ve covered here over the years. Choi says the company is reorganizing and will have an announcement on details of their future distribution soon. But the reasons for their reorg are a bit more complex than just Diamond’s difficulties. 247 was going to sign a distribution deal with Diamond back in 2024, but the final paperwork never came through – perhaps because someone was actually trying to spare the publisher from becoming embroiled more deeply when Diamond was already on the rocks.
247 had already invested in a big promotional push for ‘25, including a presentation at ComicsPRO (IIRC, they also had tasty mocktails for people, an innovative marketing plan for comics.) They were planning a sizable push for the rest of 2025, but with this big outlay and no real distribution, they had to tap the brakes. Choi told me, “We tried to be innovative and offer a subscription program direct to stores but it was too inconvenient for them to add into their workflow.” They continued to have talks with all the players: PHR, Lunar, S&S, Massive Indies and Prana, but the players were all totally backlogged or not a good fit. “We were basically too small for the bigger distributors but felt like our catalog was too big for the new start up distributors,” Choi writes. However, they WILL have a distribution announcement soon, and are aiming for a Fall relaunch.
He wanted to shout out the seven stores that did take a chance on ordering their books, but…I fear if I name them they will get inundated, so maybe for another piece.
Moving on….
I heard from John Hageman of 10Ton Press, which specializes in rock band biography comics – seemingly a sturdy subgenre of comics. Hageman said his company published Caliguerra #3 after Blood Moon went under because they had a previous relationship with the writer, Ruben Najarra, who helped them boost their sales throughout 2024. But at the same time:
This coincided with Diamond’s suggestion in 2024 that we put out more books. Historically we were putting out books quarterly, at the end of ’24 we put out 3 books with really good sales numbers. Then we got stiffed to the tune of just under 10 grand [by the Diamond bankruptcy] which is about the amount we owed our printer.
Hageman has been able to work with the printer to continue to publish, but “our allocation of resources is vastly different from a year ago.” Since then they have teamed up with Philbo, “the one new player that would take us in.” Hageman hopes that this is the start of a new network of small publishers and retailers to help grow independent comics.
Finally I reached out to a few publishers, including Dren Productions, whose co-publisher Mike Dolce accompanied me on my abortive (thank God) quest to attend the Diamond Bankruptcy Sale. Mike actually wrote an informative newsletter about the year in Dren, entitled “The Most Difficult Year of My Career” and I urge you to read the whole thing, but the relevant portion:
While I waded through social media to read post after post of glee from creators who were excited that a “gatekeeper” like Diamond fell, the opposite was true for Dren Productions. Diamond was our only real lifeline into retail shops. Not to mention we were doing WELL. Progressively, our orders increased month after month. And in fact, during the month they filed for bankruptcy, we had one of our biggest orders to date…which of course meant we were never going to see that money. Chalk that one up as the first big loss of the year.
When we found out they had sold to another company in April there was reason for excitement, but that quickly dissipated when Ad Populum took over and effectively began running the operation into the ground from Day One. Suddenly, the stark realization hit: we need to pivot and fast. (Oh, and any invoices submitted the month Diamond sold was now lost to the ether as well. Chalk that up as big loss number two.)
Now, for those who’ve said to us, “Why not just go with Lunar?” believe me, it’s what we wanted to do from day one. But to all those indie creators rejoicing that Diamond was done, the reality of Diamond was this: they were keeping indie comics not named Image, IDW or Dark Horse alive and in stores. They were floating any independent publishers who hoped to be the next Ninja Turtles or Bone on the backs of their monopoly. And it’s not a position Lunar has any interest in taking over. They are in the business of making money, not supporting indie creators trying to break into the market. Hell, even though our numbers were fairly impressive, we haven’t been able to sniff Lunar.
The answer for Dren, as with so many other small publishers, is Philbo, and direct sales to retailers:
….in the weeks following Diamond’s demise we were inundated with requests from retailers for our books. And that’s what’s made this year one of the most rewarding professionally. When I first started out making SIRE twenty years ago, the dream was that my stories would make a connection to readers and stores would be there to supply them with books. Well, it’s happened…just not the way I ever expected it to.
Dren has also signed a deal with Source Point Press, who will act the official publisher of many Dren Graphic novels starting with the PLANIVERSE, as well as ANTI-CHRIST (being renamed ANTI-CHRISTINE) created by James Mascia and The MAINSTREAM, created by Michael Dolce, Talent Caldwell, Tony Moy and Darren Sanchez. Dren is also moving forward with several Kickstarters in 2026.
I’m sure that the 247 Comics story and the 10 Ton Press story and the Dren story encompass a lot of what the hundreds of small publishers who were distributed through Diamond have been going through: laying low, partnering up, and trying to sort things out. Luckily they have many channels to reach their audience, including crowdfunding, direct sales to consumers, self distribution and more.
But getting back to the second reason for the silence, it’s something I wrote in my longer Diamond piece: “It turns out [Diamond was] also floating an entire sub-culture of micro-publishing.” Most small press comics people publish comics for the love of it, or the thrill of it, or as a side hustle. Diamond created a business model where they could be in the same catalog as the big boys, and keep fighting to find an audience for niche publications. It was a pretty sweet system, and I don’t think many observers clocked that this was the one business that Diamond was in that nobody else could take over easily – or at all. The margins are just too razor thin for an already marginal middle man business model.
For some small indie publishers, they haven’t gone out of business because they weren’t really in business to begin with. I don’t mean that to disparage the many small publishers who are passionate about what they do, just that their original output was slim and sporadic and losing a distributor meant redirecting a tiny skiff and not a giant cruise ship. Their hearts will go on.
I’ll continue to monitor the small press situation – and if you have your own story to tell, feel free to reach out – heidi at comicsbeat dot com.
