My comic guy emailed out this message yesterday. IMO Diamond has gone way to far. This is his business we are talking about

We have had our biggest issue with Diamond yet. When we received our shipment this past Tuesday 6/28/11, there was an entire box of product missing. This box contained over half of the items that we were invoiced for. Upon speaking to Diamond about the issue, they don’t care, it’s of no concern to them. Despite the fact that we spend $60,000 yearly with them, their response was that they wanted to close our account. They said that all the damages that we have received, and reported and now with this lost box of product, that it is not justifiable to them to keep the account going. We have spoken to our service rep about the situation, and he is trying to locate the package, or the contents. We were already charged for the product that was in the box and it was reported to our service rep as shorted. We are not sure as to the status of our account at the moment, only that they have expressed the need of Diamond to close it because it is costing them too much money to keep it open. Due to the holiday on Monday, July 4, 2011, all of the offices in Diamond and UPS will be closed. With today being Thursday already, I will not find out something till next week, either about the lost package, or the status of the account. I will keep you all posted. If Diamond closes the account like they want to do, the main thing that is going to affect is our subscriber base, we will no longer be able to provide our subscribers with current books because we will no longer have access to them. We will continue to be open on comic collector live as long as we can, to continue providing our services as long as people continue to use them.

It's a good thing comics are kids stuff and we don't have to worry about monopolies, unreliable distribution, and anti-competitive practices. Right? </sarcasm>

Diamond is one of the major reasons I'd like to see digital comics take off. If it can work for Penny Arcade and other comic strips, there's absolutely NO REASON (other than vanity) that an up and coming creator shouldn't be producing their content for the web / consumption on tablet devices. Sell merchandise on the side and when the time comes print up vanity copies in a nice big trade paperback and sell it to the fan base you've established.

Again, look at Penny Arcade and other wildly popular online comics. It is the business model to follow, it will cost you the creator less money, and over all less financial burden / risk involved on the start up.

Dan, that's just horrible. Fingers crossed for you big time. I can't imagine the feeling of having your sole distributor tell you it's not worth sending you product anymore! Ugh....horrible.

Sadly, I am not surprised. Diamond can do what it wants, since it's the only real game in town. I too am looking forward to digital crushing the print industry, but mostly because that will be a swift kick in the balls for Diamond.

When Diamond was born all those years ago, I predicted (like lots of my colleagues at the time) that one day the tail would wag the dog. Welcome to that day.

That's horrible. I kind of hope digital goes avaliable same day... I know Andy's said that if he could get his subscriptions delivered to the ipad every wednesday, he'd got to that and only buy copies of things he really wanted to keep.

I hope they find their merchandise.... Diamond telling them basically "You're too much trouble. Time for you to go out of business." is pretty shitty.

I know for a fact this happens all the time....spent over a year behind the counter at our local store and not a month went by without something happening of this nature. It still happens.

No love loss for Diamond....they are scum.

Nothing to add, 'cept I agree with G-man.

Shock is my reaction.

This is a terrible story, and this is a great case study as to why monopolies are horrible things. Anywhere you have a monopoly in the chain, be it supplier, labor, whatever, it ends up screwing someone. There's not that many retailers left, it's unbelievable that they'd treat someone like that.

Sounds like I need to call some legbreakers, er, I mean, "associates" to handle this....

All kidding aside, I can see now why people who advocate digital comics are increasing in number - being able to get the work directly from the publisher without handling floppies, and having them DRM-free, I think would be a benefit to both the industry (removes some production costs), dealers (who could possibly earn an affiliate commission), and readers.

Now, if only Kindle would put out software that could work on PCs and laptops - I have it on my Android phone, and reading public domain texts is much easier. Although Kindle's available for Android, I have no funds for an Android tablet. (Although if a fan of Zone 4 and/or TV Party wants to give me one as a gift, well....I won't stop them )

Not to rain on the happy go lucky digital comic parade...but I don't buy into this yet either. And don't know if I ever will. I know a few people "attempting" to go this route including my own brother....and if you're into getting "whatever" is available with no real consistent order...meaning stories that are sometimes months behind what is available on the newstand....fire that Ipad up and have at it.

Personally it appears both methods of delivery are very flawed.

Still....I will do the Dance Of Joy the day the Diamond no longer exist....even if digital comics becomes the "new" monopoly with the attitude of "you get whatever we send you"

Bill, if DC's initiative in September works, I see more and more publishers going day and date in the near future to be quite honest.

I'm dearly hoping that DC's "same day as print for EVERYTHING" initiative forces the issue, causing the other studios to fall in line.

I'll say that my spending on comics has dramatically increased since going all digital on the iPad. Too much good stuff I'd have never otherwise seen, and it's just a tap tap away. Awesome.

None of this digital stuff helps Dan out much, though--I'm still interested in what happens on the 5th, after the holiday--what's going to happen between him and Diamond? Still fingers crossed that all goes well...

All and all....I'm very close to just no longer collecting comics. As a matter of fact if my LCS wasn't 4 minutes away I would have already quit. There was a time I drove 45 minutes every Thursday evening to get my books....those days are long gone.

I wouldn't drive more than ten minutes to pick up comics now...they just don't entertain me that much any more....even with Scott's shop less than five minutes from my front door....I'm just there every two weeks now....sometimes just once a month.


I have never felt this disconnected from comics before...even through the 90's when most books were considered just terrible. Even in the late 80's when I was still married to my first wife and wasn't "allowed" to spend money on comics I was still taking the time to read whatever I could on the stands and"sneaking" a book home every once and a while if I really liked it.

IF comics ever phase out printed books.....or if anything ever happens to Scott's store....I'm calling it quits.

(Wow-this was my 4,000th post. Don't make as many as I used but I still think that's pretty cool....on to 5,000....)

First, let me just say that I'm at a similar place to you in terms of Marvel/DC/Image comics - I'm a little less than entertained by them. I hope this post does not come across as patronizing or condescending, and if it does, my apologies in advance.

I honestly don't think that the age of digital comics automatically means the end of "floppies". Unlike several of my CR contributors, I think there's always going to be a place for good old fashioned paper comics, much as CDs are still being sold in the age of MP3 and libraries are still around in the age of Border's. In fact, I think that floppies will be even more important, if only because not everyone has the resources to get an iPad.

(And before several of you counter with assertions that I'm being a little too hopeful and unrealistic, let me remind you - I've done a lot of offline work in community development. I also volunteer with a group that deals somewhat with digital access issues in underserved communities. At the risk of being pretentious, I know better. Everyone is not equal when it comes to tech, sad to say).

The good news (I believe) is that this is a great opportunity for creators to develop their own means of delivery - perhaps it's digital delivery with print-on-demand type services for brick and mortar stores. It may be that other companies that are too small and less entrenched than the DC/Marvel/Diamond clustermess will be able to be much more wily and creative in providing books to the direct market. (To reuse the music analogy - the major labels are dying off simply because musicians are not only more savvy about marketing themselves online, but more importantly, boutique/smaller labels can rerelease music that might not sell as much - to spoil part of the next Zone 4 episode, it's less about mass markets and more about niche markets).

I'm also a little disgusted in terms of the behavior in others, as reaction moves to either one of two extremes: the "everything-mainstream-is-cool-let's-embrace-it" over the top cheerleading, and the hipper-than-thou "we-mock-and-are-ashamed-of-nerds" contingent. (If you follow Twitter, I think you can guess who I'm talking about). It's becoming harder for me to simply enjoy comics when everything is driven less by the work and more by events, by hype, or by the cult of personality. Thankfully, there's enough good stuff out there, and at least one comics site with integrity (big hint: It has the words "Comic" and "Related" in the title ) that I feel that I can stay on a little longer, and at the very least, channel my inner Patrick McGoohan, and proclaim that I will not be push, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered by the comics industry or small segments of its fandom.

(Oh, boy, I went off on a rant, didn't I? )

I'll just do a quick update on the situation here:

So he talked to Diamond on Friday. They said that they were still willing to deal with him on a tight leash. SO he basically said no to them and that the ends did not justify the means. It's not worth the added hassle to deal with them if this is what they are willing to do to customers who have been with them for years and years. So now he is talking to Haven to possibly set something up.

It's always worse for those at the beginning of a revolution. The casualties are high and not everyone will survive to see the changes to come. Diamond has shown some hubris on more than one occassion, but they do so because of all the others that are still empatriated to their way of doing things. Perhaps in time that balance will swing and things will have no choice but to change.

DC has already (possibly) felt the winds of change and is making an effort to change the way they produce content. We are the customers. We do have a voice. We vote with our wallets. There are other ways to get content around Diamond's stranglehold, but that will mean also bypassing the comic shops, and those places will fall as well. Casualties. Change, if it is to be, will not come until enough people feel the pinch. We, as customers, have been pinched for quite some time.

wow Dan that reaaally sucks. very sorry to hear that :/


i think the overall sad part in the "diamond sucks" conversation is the fact that SOOOO damn many retailers AND comic buyers won't buy books if they aren't distributed by Diamond. AND even that isn't a guarantee as there are hundreds of titles a year that get canceled out by Diamond because pre-orders were so so low. Diamond isn't really in it for the "love' of comics or supporting up and comers or even someone that has a lifelong dream to get their book into a comic shop regardless if it makes a dime - and I think that's just very apparent and should be well understood by the entire comics community. It just is what it is.

As an indie publisher for like 5 years or so - I'm still frustrated to this day though with the amount of retailers (a lot, but definitely not all) that stubbornly refuse to carry our books unless Diamond carries them. Even if it means we give them a bigger discount, free shipping, and a guaranteed mint-on-arrival condition of the book. If it doesn't have the Diamond stamp of approval on it, they just won't touch it. It's also frustrating to then hear those same retailers bitch about Diamond. There's also a ton of retailers that have blown us off from owing us money on books sold - without so much as returning the books we've sent or giving us payment. Diamond's callous reactions to your comic shop might end up resulting in the fact that so many shops are playing the system, playing publishers, and playing Diamond. It's wrong to clump a good customer in with the bad ones though - and with that, Diamond deserves a ton of crap for it.

I truly hope your shop manages to work something out with this situation because unfortunately it's one of the only games in town - especially when it comes to the Big 2(or 3 or 4 or 5 or whatever the hell it is nowadays).

@Gordon D Or the traditional LP. The CD was supposed to take over from the Cassette, and the Cassette was supposed to take over from the LP. Yet people still buy LP's. A different experience to CD's and others, yet people still buy them. There is something to be said, also, about having a collection of LP's on your shelf, versus a collection of CD's. For some reason, it is more aesthetically pleasing. I mean, I know it comes down to the collectors who buy these LP's, versus the average consumer who wants a disposable form of music, but there will always be those who buy the better for them option.
Look at the kindle. Does anyone think that this will bring about the end of printed books? Sincerely doubt it. I imagine there will be benefits to having the Kindle, for school/ college and so on, where a bag full of books weighs a ton, versus one kindle/iPad.

@ Peter. I think it is a very good thing that we are able to say 'How many comic book companies are there now?' versus saying 'the three comic book companies who publish monthly.' Shows a healthy industry, versus an unhealthy one. So I am happy. Try to be optimistic about the industry. One has to be, since it is an industry I am very fond of.
The sad thing is that they all go through Diamond, or at least the majority do.

The saddest thing, I see, nowadays, is that alot of people don't read anymore. They believe the TV gives them all the information they need, and that is just wrong. They are missing a wealth of information by not reading. I know someone who is 26 yrs old, nearly 27, and he will not read any book without pictures. Nothing.
And while I read comic books, I also read books, and the news. Gotta, because otherwise I would go crazy.
Or should that be crazier.

healthy industry? wow. haven't heard that one in a while. i get what you're trying to say but let's be honest - it's an extremely anemic industry. comic books as far as the Big 2 go - and believe it they still are the Big 2 because they own the vast vast majority of market share - are just a means to an end. It's almost like a tradition at this point that panders to a small niche crowd and even then it hardly panders as much as it runs through the ringer time and time again. Month after month the comic book industry grows slightly weaker in terms of making true comic readers. The properties, characters, merchandise, and more are definitely strong and that's where the money is. Comics are a loss leader to those 2 companies. Characters are properties now - not creations that have respected histories. To think otherwise is just naive at this point. I'm not being cynical here, I'm just stating the way the industry has been run for quite some time now (at least the past decade or slightly more).

It's not to say that a successful company - even an extremely successful one - cannot be sincere. But these companies have gone down the wrong path far too many times, so it's no wonder that Diamond can do the same thing. In the end, Diamond is way more of a business/corporation than either Marvel or DC.

So as far as a healthy industry goes... I just can't buy into that notion. That'd be like saying someone on life support is healthy.

Haven is definitely a great way to go. If he's interested at all in stocking any Alterna titles, we can offer a 60% discount AND free shipping.

It's a statement of perspective. While I don't really agree with him, he's saying that it's a healthy industry from the perspective that a lot of comic book companies have popped up through the years, meaning that variety is good, instead of the perspective that the industry is healthy because of total sales of the whole industry, which it is not.

Has everybody forgotten that since the crash-and-burn of this "healthy" industry in 1992-93, DC has held a buyout option on Diamond?

At any rate, this attitude of Diamond's is not new and there is a lot of blame to spread around for it, but I tend to place most of it on the down-sloping shoulders of retailers.

The one area I do have issue with retailers is definitely with regard to allowing this mess to happen in the first place. If more brick and mortar stores were willing to not only support Indy comics in general but use alternative means of distribution, like Haven, then Diamond would have to be a lot easier to deal with to keep it's market share. Most owners or managers I've talked to say they don't want the hassle of messing with anyone else, and so they don't bother.

Yeah, healthy industry is what comes out of my mouth at 2 am without coffee. And yeah, would not say healthy either. It's never really grown beyond a certain level of followers.

I suppose what I was trying to say is that there is an equal opportunity out there for all of these companies, and I find that to be a good thing. I was actually saddened to see Tokyopop go down the toilet, and sadder still to see the sign being sold on Craiglist. The reason being that I thought it could allow another venue to get people to read comics. Similar to how kids are buying Shonen Jump. But it seemed more like a similar situation to Harry Potter. Yeah, kids are reading Harry Potter, but not much else. Tokyopop burned bright, overtook regular comic books, and then quickly burned out as sales fell. And yes, I know Shonen is not published by Tokyopop, I was just trying to use a comparison publisher who published manga.

Jim Valentino once described the 90's comics implosion very aptly, 'We thought we were rock stars with a massive following, but we were more like Jazz musicians'. Sadly true.
But what I find worrying is that the arrogance that is so inherent in Marvel, a left over from Joe Q and Bill Jemas horrible era, and which they can get away with in comic books, has now bled to their other divisions. See the whole Kevin Feige vs Edward Norton falling out. That was the worst publicity any company could want, and Marvel should have reprimanded him, or even sent a fruit basket to Norton. They did neither.
Feige may learn that comic books are NOTHING like movies. May learn that the hard way, too.

Well it's official. Diamond has caused my comic guy to no longer carry new books. PLEASE READ:

We are not happy to announce that our account with Diamond has been officially closed as of today, August 9, 2011; and we will no longer be able to service you as a subscriber. We apologize for not notifying you sooner, but we were not able to find out anything for sure until today. We had been hoping that we could work something out with Diamond, but they are unwilling to bend and to accommodate their customers. We have told them of our frustration and our un-satisfaction in their service, and their response was “other comic shops have the same problem with damages,” and we should “work around it,” because the other shops do. We will not do that, we are paying for brand new condition product and that is what we expect to receive. We do not expect our subscribers to have to put up with not receiving their books on time and in brand new collectible condition.

This last time that I spoke with them was because of a $1600 billing discrepancy that they refused to remove from my invoice. I have spoken with my credit rep and my service rep and have been told by both that they cannot remove these charges. Charges that were from books that I had received damaged before and had previously returned to Diamond at their request. With this new position that they have taken, I would no longer receive credit for product that I received damaged and that I would have to re-order again, in effect, be double billed for product that I receive damaged. I have also requested that a different shipper be used, even if on a trial basis; I was told that it could not be done. I’ve asked that my orders be shipped in more boxes with smaller amounts of books in each box; it could not be done.

We have spoken to representatives from Marvel about this situation, because we feel that it is in the best interest of everyone if we can get something going to be able to get distributorship for Marvel from someone other than Diamond. A new or existing company that would provide better customer service to it’s account holders.

They do that because they know they have this small industry by the nads. If there were an alternative, they'd hurry up and make sure to take care of everyone with a large degree of flexibility.

Well that is just the worst kind of business acumen I have ever heard.

No wonder comic shops are going under when Diamond are doing this to them.

I'm sorry to hear Diamond is being completely unreasonable in this situation. It's unfortunate to see that they are taking advantage of the fact that as the sole distributors they can do whatever they want and shops have no choice.

I'd love to see another option for owners. To make matters worse if the customers want the books they'll end up taking their business elsewhere so Diamond will still get the money from another shop. *sigh* It just sucks.

Sadly, I think behavior like this is going to lead to people relying more on digital distribution - after all, why head to a comic shop when you can have easy access?

Personally, I think some enterprising people need to start their own distribution network with a very DIY punk rock attitude.

Yes, I've been listening to a lot of Clash, why do you ask?

Yep, that's the sad reality of the monopoly. And sadly, that's one of the problems with the print industry on a whole. Right now, Diamond has everyone reliant on them left with no one else to turn to. And yeah, it would take a lot of little guys to pool their resources to create something to compete with the corporate giant and provide a reliable competitor to distribute through for the big two and the independent creators as well. Sadly, Diamond would take down print and all of the comic shops with them if they were to fold.

Allow me to go all Oliver Stone with this conspiracy. It was through some string pulling shenanigans that Marvel and DC essentially created the direct market, so in effect they forced comic shops into the yoke, and for a while that worked until the advent and rise of digital media.

Now Marvel and DC are superpower coglomerates who probably have a nice little safety net for Diamond should the bottom fall out, but could care less about the shops, other than the fact they want enough removal from them when that bottom does fall... since they pushed them there to begin with.

Basically, the big players dance around each other and give each other deniability, while the small shops decay and blow away in the digital breeze and Marvel and DC no longer have to make those stupid floppy books anymore.

Those stupid floppy books that aren't even remotely turning a profit as well. I know it's kinda crazy, but if you look at it from Diamond's POV, they're tightening the belt because they see the writing on the wall. Why bleed money when they don't have to, and quite honestly can't afford to? Diamond is simply an organism like any other, trying to protect itself. Digital is killing them with a thousand tiny cuts, and I for one will dance on their corpse when they go, because ultimately they've done this to themselves.

And unfortunately there will be a thousand comic shops that will be closed and the general populace will no longer know what a comic book is. Remember not everyone is going to spring for a Nook or Ipad.

Well, it's true we'll lose some of them, but I don't think it'll be as bad as all that, at least for the shops that are smart. There's still a HUGE market for graphic novels and trades, and that's where the producers actually make their profits anyway. The digital download will take the place of the floppy, but I don't think we're ready to ditch print completely yet, so there's still a market there. What we will see is a more balanced distribution model where distributors have to actually serve their customers and listen to complaints. We'll also see companies return to putting more special content into trades to entice buyers to pick up books they've essentially already read.

But make no mistake, comics won't die. In fact if anything, they'll get even bigger. Digital downloads do one very awesome thing no one is talking about, and that's open the door even wider for webcomics. This whole thing will also tighten up the entire chain, getting rid of stores that aren't good businesses, and benefiting the ones who pay attention and who make good decisions. It's nothing more than the market leveling itself out after the monopoly dies. In the end I think the people who will really win are the fans.

What kind of cheapo outfit doesn't insure large orders?

The bully! The monopoly that says, "We're the only supplier and you're gonna take what we give you and you're gonna LIKE IT!"

Does it come fedex or Ups? And what's up with packaging that damages product? Plus shortages.... This needs to go back to newstand distraoution. It shortened the visibility of product and killed most new readership. I AM NO FAN OF MONOPOLIES. They'll say haven is their direct competition. What about their restricting trade by not carrying indy printed books and cancelling books from their roster for not selling enough... Life ain't fair-- where I live fair comes around in August.

Some thoughts;

1. The digital distribution model has proven to work, and has so for over a decade now. Comics like Penny Arcade, PVP, Sheldon, Templar Arizona, and Axe Cop are prime examples of how digital comics can work, and completely bypass the Diamond monopoly. Frankly, the digital method seems to be vastly superior to the Diamond method for independent comics.

2. Comic shops aren't going to go under once floppies die off if they adapt to the industry change. I already see my LCS putting more stock into table top/card/video games, and Manga trades. Pokemon, Magic, and D&D are going to keep LCS' going for a long time.

3. I will dance alongside Carey when Diamond finally drops dead.

Has anyone heard why all of the ATOMIC COMICS stores just went under?

Coming to this topic about two months late, so apologies for that. But I had some thoughts on this I wanted to chip in.

Before I forget, let me just say I've read all the comments directed against Diamond and I couldn't agree more. They're scum and I will join the rest of you in dancing a happy jig once they're finally put out of their misery.


As far as digital comics go, digital doesn't mean the end of print. And you don't need a tablet or smartphone to read digital comics, just like you don't need them to read digital books. There are plenty of programs to read ebooks on the computer as well as ones that can convert them to PDF.

What digital DOES mean is more opportunities for competition among distribution and the potential for greater variety. And without all the costs associated with physical distribution, it also could mean potentially cheaper comics. It's not that way yet, but I imagine it will get to that point in the near future.

And it means a greater chance for comics to expand beyond a shrinking market. I know many people who'd be more willing to take a chance on comics if they could download them for the price of an MP3.


Of course it's not a magic fix and the current digital distribution needs work. But it's a start. Nothing is perfect right out the gates, but that doesn't mean it will never work.