Diamond Comic Distributors was never been especially beloved by comic stores, but for a good deal of time, it was the only way to get monthly comics distributed to your store. That all changed during the COVID-era with the addition of Lunar and Penguin Randon House as an option for comics. As I and others have covered, Diamond kept operating as if they were an unstoppable monopoly and didn't change much in the way of business practices. Hence, Diamond is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and things are looking grim despite it being vaguely possible they could reorganize and emerge okay (not likely). With Diamond owing a ton of people, it is now trying to get any cash it can from entities that supposedly owe Diamond a check. Hence, comic store owners are now being told to pay previous invoices...invoices they don't have a record of needing to take care of. Yeah, Diamond is shaking down their own customer--comic stores--and that's a bad look.
I understand Diamond Comic Distributors is in a bad place, but if the company wants to exit bankruptcy and return to some semblance of functioning as it if is, "Business as usual," maybe going after the people you depend on for your bread and butter is a bad idea, you know? I imagine things are bad for Diamond, and this is yet another sign it is only going to get worse. At the rate we are going, I sincerely am starting to doubt anything resembling Diamond as we know it will exist in 2026, or even halfway through this year. Right now it is all day by day, so time will tell.
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