The Coronavirus Shutdown May Have Changed Comics For The Best
In a move likely to cast a ripple effect through the comics industry, DC Comics announced Friday, April 17th that it would be resuming shipping of new comics to stores on April 28th, ostensibly signaling its intention to break their exclusive distribution contract with Diamond Comic Distributors. The announcement arrived simultaneously to Diamond’s own public statement that they intended to resume shipping comics to stores in “mid-to-late May”.
This newest disruption of the status quo is simply the latest change to the comic industry in reaction to the COVID-19 Pandemic, which saw Diamond Distributors, the sole shipper of most heavyweights in the comics industry such as Marvel and DC since the mid-‘90s. After ceasing all shipping to stores in the response to the pandemic, the last shipment going out on March 25th, the comics industry has been saddled with an impossible quandary as to how to get their books into the hands of readers.
DC Comics announced Friday, April 17th in a letter to retailers the formation of a new distribution partnership with Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributors, newly minted companies set up by New York’s Midtown Comics and Texas’s Discount Comic Book Service (according to Newsarama), two companies with extensive existing mail-order systems already in place. While not all previously scheduled books are set to be released on this docket immediately, the move surely proves a valuable lifeline to local comic book stores badly in need of new merchandise and business. And it also sends a message to Diamond that DC will no longer honor their exclusive distribution contract, breaking a partnership of almost 25-years.
Whether or not this is a trend that will be picked up by the rest of the industry remains to be seen, as neither DC nor Diamond has chosen to address the ramifications of this new development. “We value our partnership with DC and will continue to support them as a distributor, Diamond said in a statement to BleedingCool. “Our focus is squarely on getting our industries' entertainment products in the hands of fans as quickly and as safely as possible.”
While officially cleared of antitrust violations in 2000 by the United States Department of Justice, the event of Diamond’s shutdown last month caused an undeniable and immediate catastrophic ripple effect throughout the entire industry, leaving retailers without merchandise or business and publishers without alternatives due to longstanding contracts making Diamond their sole distributor. Through the lens of pandemic, it appeared, the true nature of Diamond’s power over the direct-market proved to be indistinguishable from that of a true monopoly, and it appears at least one of their top clients, DC, no longer finds this relationship tenable.
Though only a small, first step, DC’s expedience in breaking their contract without fear of legal redress could signal that the rest of the industry might also be ready to seek new partners in distribution. If so, this could herald the end of a two-decade hold by Diamond on the vast majority of the comics industry supply-chain.
Sources: Newsarama, BleedingCool