Another change in comics distribution this week: Oni/Lion Forge has joined Lunar to distrbute their comics and graphic novels to North American comics shops. The news was circulating over the last week, but Newsarama has a thorough write-up, with quotes from Oni vice president of sales and marketing Alex Segura, among others. Oni will continue to be distributed through Diamond, as well, so it’s really a case of more options.
“Lunar is thrilled to be partnering with Oni Press,” Lunar co-owner Christina Merkler says. “Oni is known in the industry as the independent publisher that retailers can count on to bring them high quality and inclusive products. With titles from Tea Dragon Society to Scott Pilgrim, they are a perfect addition to the Lunar family.”
{…}“The Oni-Lunar partnership felt like a no-brainer to us. When Henry Barajas came aboard the Marketing team just a few months after I joined Oni, we all took a comprehensive look at our direct market side of the business,” says Segura. “He was a big proponent for expanding the options we provide to our comic shop retail partners.”
Oni currently uses Simon & Schuster for bookstore distribution.
Lunar, the comics distribution arm of online retailer DCBS, currently has an exclusive deal to distribute DC Comics, and also distributes Scout, Ahoy, Silver Sprocket, Uncivilized Books, Floating World and Z2 non exclusively.
I’m told that the Distribution Disruption is far from over, however, and more deals and changes are looming.
For those keeping score at home, here’s the current distribution line-up – not complete but just off the top of my head – corrections are welcome, and I’ll add more publishers as I can.
| Publisher | Comics Shops | Bookstores |
| Ahoy | Diamond, Lunar | ? |
| Archie | Diamond | PRH |
| Boom | Diamond | Simon & Schuster |
| Dark Horse | Diamond | PRH |
| DC | Lunar | PRH |
| Dynamite | Diamond | Diamond |
| IDW | PRH | PRH |
| Image | Diamond | Diamond |
| Kodansha | Diamond | PRH |
| Marvel | PRH | Hachette |
| Oni | Diamond, Lunar | Simon & Schuster |
| Scout | Diamond, Lunar | ? |
| Seven Seas | Diamond | PRH |
| Titan | Diamond | PRH |
| Valiant | Diamond | ? |
| Viz | Diamond | Simon & Schuster |
| Z2 | Diamond, Lunar | PRH |
This is a pretty competitive line-up, and although options can lead to headaches, increased competition usually means a healthier industry as well.
