In a move likely to cast a ripple effect through the comics industry, DC Comics announced Friday, April 17 th that it would be resuming shipping of new comics to accumulates on April 28 th, 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 sending comics to supermarkets 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-1 9 Pandemic, which insured Diamond Distributors, the sole shipper of most blue-chips in the comics manufacture such as Marveland DC since the mid-‘ 90 s. After ceasing all carrying to collects in the replies to the pandemic, the last shipment going out on March 25 th, the comics industry has been saddled with an impossible quandary as to how to get their works into the sides of readers.

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DC Comics announced Friday, April 17 th in a letter to retailers the formation of a new dissemination partnership with Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributors, recently minted fellowships set up by New York’s Midtown Comics and Texas’s Discount Comic Book Service( are consistent with Newsarama ), two companies with extended existing mail-order arrangements already in place. While not all previously scheduled bibles are set to be secreted on this docket immediately, the move surely proves a important lifeline to regional comic book collects severely in need of new sell and business. And it also sends a message to Diamond that DC will no longer honor their exclusive rationing contract, divulge such partnerships of virtually 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 get our industries’ entertainment products in the pass 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-place month generated an evident and immediate cataclysmic ripple effect throughout the entire industry, leaving retailers without product or the enterprises and publishers without alternatives due to longstanding contracts attaining 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 shows at least one of their top buyers, DC , no longer witnesses this relationship tenable.

Though only a small, first step, DC’s expedience in break-dance their contract without fear of law redress could signal that the rest of the industry might also be ready to seek brand-new spouses in dissemination. If so, this could herald the end of a two-decade hold by Diamond on the overwhelming majority of the comics manufacture supply-chain.

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Sources: Newsarama, BleedingCool

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