Apparently Diamond, the monopoly over comic book distribution in North America for the past several decades has filed bankruptcy. Its leadership tend to share the daddy complexes of MAGA so one can imagine that the owners simply replaced their petty cash with for-profit bibles manufactured in China or whatever, but the reality is that they are simply horrible people who are bad at business to extents that most of the comic shop owners who’ve been ripped off on every order every Wednesday for years and years are probably getting drunk in their stores tonight in celebration, even as their own livelihoods face impending gloom.
In recent years some proper book publishers have shown interest in graphic novels and trade collections again, and a handful of smaller distros have popped up, managing to steal away some of Diamond’s buyers with non-competes. I knew so many small pressers who were just not allowed in the Diamond catalogue, and if they could not sort how to self-publish then they had to return to McDonalds. Self-publishers will be the only ones to survive, being as they are not quite as codependent as their brethren. Only those plying their craft anonymously or strictly for free prove otherwise.
But one of those newer distribution outfits, headquartered in Canada, is already expressing interest in purchasing Diamond’s debt. Now Diamond has a sister company that I guess makes tabletop RPGs, as well as Diamond UK which is managed separately so has been somewhat profitable but has the same owners so would get included in whatever sell. This is noteworthy as more and more publishers have already found it necessary to get their printing in Canada, or overseas, because the Americans are insane about paper costs. Which I suspect was a concerted effort to get letter-writers, diaries and journals and newspapers and assorted small press periodicals all forced online. Webcomics exist because kids cannot afford to print.
However, even as Canada looks to be welcoming a more rightwing government, its relation to the upcoming USA presidential administration is already subject to threats of tariffs, which Trump’s people still don’t seem to understand would be paid by US citizens and not foreign businesses or governments. I doubt any comic shop in the states would or could handle quintupled distribution costs. I imagine the larger publishers, Marvel and DC, really don’t require new content with nearly a century of archives to milk, but they will still obviously pursue tie-ins for crossover media and their parent companies can pay the way. The mid-range publishers who were still with Diamond are toast, as most of its competitors are simply too small to handle lifelines for so many, many of whom already turned down offers to leave Diamond over politics or shear stupidity. Store-owners themselves though, while surviving divorces they won’t survive the bulk of their stock being undeliverable. Long story short then, in keeping with reading comprehensions of the trade, comic books in the USA look to be at death’s door, and I hope all those in or satelliting the industry can find safe landings in whichever fast food joint will take them back.
When you think and feel that you deserve more than you do, you introduce the nightmares you really do deserve. The world doesn’t need more escapism from problem-solving. Maybe stop expecting the world to sacrifice to make your dreams come true, roll up your sleeves and grab a shovel. Honestly I’m not laughing at anyone’s misfortune, not ever, but I appreciate the collapse of any ego, and creative industry sorts, all seekers of fame and fortune, can not be more useless if their lives depended on it. We are hearing the death-rattle of an entire medium in real time, and every last one of you contributed to that.