Super Hero Worship is a regular opinion column by IGN’s Senior Staff Writer Jesse Schedeen. Check out the previous Super Hero Worship entry, Somehow, 2024 Became the Year of Gambit.
The comic book industry is still reeling from last week’s big news – Diamond Comic Distributors has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The news didn’t necessarily come as a shock to those who have been following Diamond’s meteoric rise and fall over the years, but it’s nonetheless an ominous development for an industry that already faces major headwinds coming into 2025.
At best, this bankruptcy represents a new challenge in an already bumpy time for comics. At worst, Diamond’s fall could potentially upend the market and threaten publishers and comic shops alike.
The Rise and Fall of Diamond
So what exactly is going on with Diamond right now? The gist is that Diamond was, until relatively recently, the only major distributor of monthly comics in the US. The company had a de facto monopoly on the market, to the point that the Justice Department opened an investigation back in 1997 (one it ultimately closed without pursuing further action). To their credit, Diamond helped the industry survive and eventually thrive again after the dark days of the mid-’90s comic book crash, but they’ve also been steadily criticized over the years for substandard customer service and a failure to innovate.
Diamond’s distribution monopoly was finally broken in 2020 when DC jumped ship and partnered with new distributor Lunar. That basically opened the floodgates for other publishers to end their exclusivity with Diamond and pursue other avenues of distribution. Marvel partnered with Penguin Random House in 2021, where they were later joined by IDW Publishing and Dark Horse Comics. Image Comics followed DC to Lunar. Penguin Random House bought BOOM! Studios outright in 2024, meaning Boom’s exclusivity with Diamond will end this summer.
While many of these publishers still sub-distribute through Diamond (meaning comic shops can order through Diamond if they prefer), the number of publishers exclusive to Diamond has steadily dwindled over the past several years. Their biggest exclusives remaining include Dynamite Entertainment, DSTLRY, Valiant Entertainment, and Archie Comics.
Unsurprisingly, Diamond – a company already battered by the COVID-19 pandemic – has struggled to deal with the loss of so much revenue. Late last year, they closed their Plattsburgh, New York, warehouse, thereby consolidating their entire operation to a single warehouse. In recent weeks, many comic shop owners have voiced complaints about late deliveries, suggesting Diamond is struggling to keep up with demand and fulfill orders. And now we come to this.
Diamond Declares Bankruptcy: What Now?
It’s important to note that Diamond isn’t necessarily going out of business. Not yet, anyway. Chapter 11 protection is designed to do just that – protect the business as it seeks to right the ship, secure capital, and attempt to pay off creditors. Diamond certainly has quite a few creditors to whom it owes a considerable amount of money. Chief among these is Penguin Random House itself, which is owed $9.2 million.
In a letter addressed to comic book publishers and store owners, Diamond president Chuck Parker wrote, “Chapter 11 will provide us with the opportunity to restructure and address our financial obligations. This process will likely include the sale of key assets of Diamond Comic Distributors.”
Already, Diamond is selling off subsidiaries to raise funds. The company struck a deal with Canadian distributor Universal Distribution to sell Diamond UK and Alliance Games Distribution, and it’s expected that other Diamond subsidiaries like Diamond Select Toys could follow.
The hope is that Diamond can continue to function as before and fulfill orders as it begins charting a more stable and sustainable future for itself. Though, again, the company was already showing clear signs of strain before the bankruptcy announcement. Is there any reason to believe the chronic late deliveries won’t continue in the near future at least? Will more comic shops drop Diamond out of fears over the company’s reliability and long-term health? And what happens if Diamond isn’t able to recover and move forward from bankruptcy?
Why the Comics Industry Faces a Challenging 2025
Retailer Brian Hibbs voiced the concerns many fans, retailers, and publishers are feeling right now when he took to Facebook in the wake of the Diamond news. Though Hibbs is perhaps unfair in placing the blame for the situation on DC’s shoulders, he nonetheless speaks to the worst-case scenario possibilities here.
“There are a LOT of people who were actively rooting for Diamond comics to fail,” Hibbs wrote. “Well, your wishes appear to be coming true, as Diamond files for Chapter 11, and this is going to be TRULY dire news for the Direct Market, at least in the short and medium term. Say ‘Goodbye’ to most smaller publishers, and ‘so long’ for the right opportunities for a majority of smaller and unproven creators.”
Again, Diamond isn’t necessarily fading away into the ether just yet, but should the company ultimately fold, the consequences could be pretty dire for the industry. Neither Penguin Random House nor Lunar have shown much interest in catering to smaller publishers, meaning the Archies and Dynamites of the industry could be left with no means of distribution. Where do they go from there? Do they try to find alternate avenues or pivot to a digital-only business model? Is the digital market enough to sustain these publishers on its own? And what about the many creators and editors who depend on those publishers for their livelihood or their first big break?
Diamond may no longer be the monopolistic force it once was, but it’s still an important one. It’s especially crucial to many comic shops as a source for buying collectibles and action figures. Those items tend to have much higher profit margins than comic books, which is why so many comic shops in recent years have pivoted to wall-to-wall Funko Pop! displays. Those toys pay the bills, and Diamond was the best outlet for acquiring them. Diamond Select Toys itself is one of the last companies targeting the more affordable end of the collectibles market, so it would be a real shame if they didn’t survive this situation.
If Diamond goes under, a lot of publishers and comic shops are going to be dragged down in the wake. That would in turn have ripple effects that even the larger publishers would feel. Again, PRH is Diamond’s single biggest creditor. According to ICv2’s Rob Salkowitz, the $9.2 million debt represents several years’ worth of profit for PRH. Now the biggest force in comics distribution in the US, how much would a total write-off of that debt affect PRH? How does that in turn affect big guns like Marvel and Boom? At the very least, a massive write-off would make PRH much more risk-averse and even less likely to take on the publishers left out in the cold by Diamond.
All of this fear and uncertainty comes at a time when the industry already has plenty of both to spare. While 2024 had several very successful launches, from DC’s Absolute Universe to IDW’s star-studded TMNT relaunch, overall graphic novel sales were down 11.4% last year (despite the book market in general holding fairly steady).
That’s to say nothing of fears over the potential impact of the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs. American comics are largely printed in Canada, and a 25% tariff would force major price hikes across the board. $4.99 is rapidly becoming the new standard cover price for monthly comics. Will increasingly cash-strapped readers put up with a $6 or $7 cover price for a 20-page comic? At what point do people become priced out of the hobby entirely?
Ultimately, those predicting the complete collapse of the American comic book industry are being hyperbolic. Comic books have survived any number of existential threats over the years and come out the other side swinging. It’s not as if an entire medium will suddenly vanish because one distributor has fallen on hard times. The advent of digital publishing and various crowdfunding platforms means up-and-coming creators have more options than ever to get their work out there.
Still, Diamond’s plight is worrying. For however much the company might be to blame for its current plight, they’re still an important and valuable force in the industry, and one not easily replaced. Long-term, comics will survive with or without Diamond. Short-term, losing Diamond would be a setback the industry can ill afford. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
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