Comics Distributor Diamond Is Filing For Bankruptcy (theverge.com) 37
Diamond Comic Distributors, the world's biggest English language comic book distributor, is filing for bankruptcy and scaling its business back in order to survive. The Verge reports: In a letter sent to comics retailers and publishers today, Diamond president Chuck Parker announced that the company has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and plans to sell off its Alliance Game Distributors arm to Universal in order to "protect the most vital aspects of our business."
Founded in 1982 by Stephen A. Geppi (who still serves as CEO), Diamond became a heavyweight in the comics business by securing a number of exclusive distribution agreements with various publishing houses like DC, Marvel, and Image. For decades, Diamond -- which also publishes its Previews magazine showcasing upcoming titles -- was instrumental in bringing comics to market and played a huge role in determining a book's success because of how Previews influenced retailer orders. "This decision was not made lightly, and I understand that this news may be as difficult to hear as it is for me to share," Parker said. "The Diamond leadership team and I have worked tirelessly to avoid this outcome but the financial challenges we face have left us with no other viable option."
Founded in 1982 by Stephen A. Geppi (who still serves as CEO), Diamond became a heavyweight in the comics business by securing a number of exclusive distribution agreements with various publishing houses like DC, Marvel, and Image. For decades, Diamond -- which also publishes its Previews magazine showcasing upcoming titles -- was instrumental in bringing comics to market and played a huge role in determining a book's success because of how Previews influenced retailer orders. "This decision was not made lightly, and I understand that this news may be as difficult to hear as it is for me to share," Parker said. "The Diamond leadership team and I have worked tirelessly to avoid this outcome but the financial challenges we face have left us with no other viable option."
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Comic book consumers aren't interested in political indoctrination.
Yeah, they hated X-Men, Superman, Captain America, etc.
Re:Know your audience. (Score:4, Funny)
Comic book consumers aren't interested in political indoctrination.
Yeah, they hated X-Men, Superman, Captain America, etc.
The difference between a writer/director using politics to enhance a story vs. a writer/director abusing politics to try and indoctrinate the audience, is the difference between a chef seasoning your prime steak with a touch of salt vs. the chef who hits you over the head with a salt block wondering why you’re not asking for nacho cheese sauce.
Not everyone’s taste is the same. Hollywood is paying the price trying to figure that out.
Re:Know your audience. (Score:4, Insightful)
X-Men was pretty un-subtle. Others didn't even bother with that, e.g. Peacemaker. At the other end of the spectrum, Wonder Woman wore the American flag.
What you mean is politics you agree with. Politics that made you feel good because you thought you were on the right side, and now you don't like having your views challenged.
Re:Know your audience. (Score:4, Interesting)
and now you don't like having your views challenged.
This is considered a direct attack on the persons trusted authority figures who have been telling them to think this way since they can remember. They don’t actually introspect or reason themselves, it’s hard and their attempts have been punished socially. This is what makes being objectively wrong so mentally disabling for them, at this point it’s part sunken cost fallacy, part difficulty in extracting themselves from all social circles, so they just settle and poking facts and reason at it only causes inflammation.
Re:Know your audience. (Score:5, Insightful)
To be honest I don't think it's the content they're souring on, it's the "dead-trees" distribution method. Kids would much rather have DRM-free PDF files or something like that, something they can read on their phone... but then that puts the whole entertainment format directly in the line of fire of much more addictive offerings, like motherfucking Candy Crush Saga or whatever they're punching like a monkey punching a pleasure button for a treat these days.
Re:Know your audience. (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the underlying issue is that comics are very much a generational thing. Kids in the 1960s and 1970s weren't spoiled for choice with home entertainment options. You didn't have game consoles or home computers until mid/late 1970s and the first ones weren't really that great, and you didn't even have VHS at home.
So what did they do? Yep. Read comic books, bought, traded, and collected them. They discussed them and produced their own fanzines. It was a common thing to do. For example, you might be able to find some fan art by a promising lad called George R. R. Martin.
In the 1980s and the 1990s the dynamics were already shifting. Home entertainment in the form of game consoles, home computers, VHS, and, in the 1990s, the Internet was forming an ever increasing competition for the kids' time, interest and wallet. Comics were still an established part of the equation but no longer a given. It didn't help that companies like Marvel were flooding the market with more and more titles of questionable quality in the 1990s. It was a shock but not a total surprise when Marvel eventually filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the late 1990s.
The emergence of superhero movies was hailed as something that could connect a new generation with comic books and save the industry. Books were rebooted and new story continuities were launched to reel in new readers. (A long-standing creed in the industry is, a "#1" issue will always be a huge seller. Which is why they now reboot/relaunch the books every now and then.)
For a while, that seemed to work. But there was already a generational divide forming. The older, now adult readers, were disappointed that the newer books were no longer directly connected to the story continuity of their youth, and the younger readers were not interested in reading or buying the older grandpa stuff.
Today, it is hard to imagine who even wants to buy new 'floppies' (single printed issues) anymore. Kids? Definitely not. Floppies are too expensive and kids don't want paper issues, they want digital versions if anything. The older readers find today's books too different from the ones they loved as kids. They will probably rather wait for the ad-free premium hardcover collected editions anyway. Plus, they are a dying breed - when they go, the whole industry will be in deep trouble.
One distinct difficulty has been how to attract female readers. There are some but the majority of them seem to prefer Manga over testosterone-filled DC/Marvel superhero books. This may explain Marvel especially recently reimagined many of the core heroes as female versions. I doubt that had the desired effect - it may rather have alienated the long-time readership. But at least I've seen a lot of Spider-Gwen cosplayers.
The world is very different from last century. Comic books will inevitably maybe not die out but become marginalized. Something of a curiosity and museum stuff. When the readers born in the 1980s and earlier die, there will not be much market left.
Diamond bankruptcy was not exactly a huge shock or surprise either, it just came maybe a few years earlier than I would have expected.
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>who actually want new things
cool, tell them to cancel the bankruptcy and reveal your Akshually market that has suddenly sprung into existence
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There's more to comics than Marvel and DC, you know. There's an entire world of indie comics, and the problem is Diamond is one of the largest distributors of those comics.
And FYI, DC went with their own distributor in 2020 (AT&T and other fun stuff), so comic shops have to deal with them as well. (It doesn't help said
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Comic book consumers aren't interested in political indoctrination.
Comic book writers aren't the one going bankrupt here, it's the distributor. Comics are selling just fine, people still love the stories, and clearly you've never read any if you think political indoctrination is somehow something new instead of ... literally the theme of many comics from their inception.
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Floppies are dead (Score:2)
Time to try anthologies again?
CEO Not Known for his Business Acumen (Score:4, Interesting)
I looked around online (Score:2, Informative)
Marvel and DC though still wanted to publish comics so they went looking for other distributors and penguin books took up some of the business. That broke the Monopoly diamond has had for a long time and more and more stuff has been moved over to penguin.
Basically a short-sided
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My favorite community-ish services are non-commercial and don't advertise. One is invite-only, one is some things I run for my family, one is just a mailing list that started out as some friends from an old job that took on a life of its own. I think the only w
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I want to try this out.
Elon Musk is such a failure. I mean sure he rode on other people's decisions for a while but thinks he's SO great but couldn't do the simple task of getting a cheaper EV out the door because the design that HE APPROVED and worked on turned out to be a long-term dud. Cylindrical battery cells instead of blades that fit better, are cheaper, and easier to replace? Come on, really?
All this talk about efficiency and smarts just amounts to chest-puffing and hoping not too many people realiz
Comic Bags and Boards (Score:3)
So the original article overstates what Diamond means for the comic industry. Marvel, DC, Image, Boom, and more have moved from Diamond to either Lunar or Penguin Random House for their primary distribution and Diamond a secondary distributor, with DC going as far as not even being possible as a back-up.
I am more worried about bags and boards as Diamond was the best quality/price for bags and boards. Competition does exist for that as well but that is the part that will hurt fandom the most.
Universal (Score:2)
What are you trying to protect your business from if you are selling to Universal?
Are they afraid the not every dime of value will be extracted from the business in the most exploitable way possible?
Good. (Score:2)
Diamond was a nightmare to use (Score:2)