Diamond Comics files for bankruptcy. Now what?

[@xmarleysoundx]

As a retailer myself, I find it extremely funny that he states "Lunar has terrible workers and can't handle even one more publisher" but yet this week what are the only comics that showed up AT ALL? Yup, you guessed it. DIAM.....no....LUNAR. Smh Lunar is BY FAR the best distributor we have available. Penguin isn't bad by any stretch and typically they do arrive on time. However Lunar is the only company that consistently is not only on time but typically arrives nearly a week early. It is rare to receive damaged books (it happens with every company) but if you do have an issue they are by far the easiest to deal with when it comes to replacements. They're also the only company that bags and boards incentives and "One Per Store Variants" and they typically place them in the box in a location to keep them safest. They double box EVERY package with added bubble wrap/air bubbles for protection. This guy is an idiot and clearly just trying to shit on the competition because he's a toddler who had his sucker taken away. DC leaving to Lunar is probably the best thing to happen to comics as a whole in the last decade. We haven't received more than 2 diamond orders in the last 2 maybe 3 months? Despite having customers expecting books every single week. It's a complete joke and it's going to take an insane amount of effort and intelligence to come in and turn that company around. I hope it can happen but I have very little faith.

[@Bubbaj0e]

Have a buddy who owns a shop and lunar has been the best distributor for them. Both diamond and penguin have mess up orders.

[@thewatchman13]

I recently talked to someone who used to work customer service for them. He said the company would send people the wrong stuff and ignore customer emails (ones that had concerns). He also discussed having people tell him they wouldn’t go with Diamond if they had other choices.

[@journey8533]

They broke comics, and comics broke them. Am i correct in remembering they were a driving force in preventing digital comics from being cheaper than print? Comics being so expensive is the main reason why young people dont read them, as opposed to manga where you can devour an entire series for so cheap. Then when the teen grows up, he buys the printed manga, baubles, posters and any future work by the author. American comics gave up on this, the turning point was during covid😢

[@MwaaaaaahTheFrench...]

It sounds like the reason this Brian Hibbs guy hates Lunar so much is because those people also run DCBS, which is a site where people buy comics at vastly lower prices than they can get at comic shops, and he's seething about the existence of a way to buy comics than people like more than his shop.

[@journey8533]

@@MwaaaaaahTheFrench... They just don't get that selling for less just makes it accessible for broke teens and new people. Anyone who can afford it will still get the pristine collector's edition, but now you also have broke teens who are hooked after reading 20 issues of spider man at once for 8 bucks, instead of spending half of their savings just to get one short issue

[@ShadowWingTronix]

I remember how Diamond killed other distributors, including their biggest rival, Advanced Comics. By getting DC and other publishers to an exclusive deal they put Advanced out of business. Diamond grabbed so many that Advanced could only counter with manga and some of the smaller popular publishers. Sure, TODAY Advanced would have cleaned up on manga but back then they went out of business and Diamond was just short of a monopoly. Going to a smaller store at the time that only got comics to meet the quota for the sports cards they were selling, they were shorted and screwed over many times, and I missed issues as a result. This also happened when that store closed and I resumed my comic collecting with a bigger store, but not be enough for Diamond to care, a problem I never had with Advanced Comics. It's long overdue karma if you ask me.

[@PaballoKobe-xh9ve]

Monopolies almost always eventually self destruct

[@andrewtaylor940]

Lets be honest about what Chapter 11 means. It means Diamond is attempting a reorganization of finances and debts. It does not mean they are gone and liquidating... yet. But it means the "Unsecured Creditors" are fucked. All those independent publishers that Diamond was still the distributor for? They're not getting paid for sales from whenever was the last time Diamond cut them a check. If they are lucky and encounter a nice Judge, they might get any of their unsold product back from Diamond's warehouses, some day. The Local Comic Shops that have paid for next week or next months books? They have no guarantee what, if anything, will arrive? I'm not even sure how a chargeback on their Credit Cards for those orders would work in Chapter 11? And speaking of Credit, it means Diamond has none. Unless they've cut some special bankruptcy financing deal. Vendors for anything will want Cash on the Dock. Which will hamstring their ability to operate. I hope nobody had preorders out on those Diamond Select figs? Hopefully nobody paid up front. This is not the huge bomb that it would have been to the industry 2 years ago. Marvel and DC saw teh writing on the wall and got out from under Steve Geppi. And some of Diamond's side hustles still have value and will survive or be bought by someone to operate. Overstreet. the Comics Grading Services. Uncle Todd may put a bid in on the Toy Stuff? Hopefully most LCS's are now well used to getting product from places other than Diamond. And most smaller Indie publishers are going D2C or crowdfunded. And yes companies can come out of Chapter 11 better and stronger. But lets be honest. Diamond isn't one of those. Diamond was a Federal Court Approved Industry Monopol, a litteral comics cartel. And it failed under the smallest amount of strain day 1. Remember Covid? Diamond has some valuable assets. Those will hopefully survive. The comics distribution? Not so much.

[@mietha37]

Yeah, but it doesn't change their business model, practices, or how few vendors they actually have left. Diamond provides nothing of value and holds nothing of value. It's not a question of if, but when. They WILL shutter.

[@gevdarg]

...it failed under the smallest amount of strain... My argument from day 1.

[@carlgibson285]

I preordered the Diamond Select Deadpool & Wolverine figures that were due this coming summer 😭

[@comicsright4797]

Thank you for clearing the air on these subject i can't stand how people are already doing click baity videos and articles diamond files for bankruptcy western comics industry is died

[@billybarnett2846]

I knew Geppi's heart wasn't into comics anymore back in the mid 90s when he closed his stores. Then a few years ago he closed his museum that had comic store a lot of people went.

[@BeefyBites]

When working at my LCS, I often thought that blind monkeys may have been able to put the diamond orders together better. Needs to change.

[@jacktenny5966]

how many newspapers, magazines have closed in over thirty years? print may not be dead, but things have changed

[@clonegeek3317]

Nice seeing a Pissed Perch video

[@reallyyourkidding]

Diamond has treated Hibbs in a nepotistic manner for years. The fact is only about 10% of Chapter 11 filings result in success; far more often, they end up in Chapter 7 straight bankruptcy, in which the company closes and its assets are sold to pay back secured creditors.

[@86Nims]

Wow. I expected Perch to put this video out in the summer.

[@AL-ws5yi]

I felt that.

[@rocketraccoon1976]

Maybe Hibbs should start inviting some Random House and Lunar execs to the steakhouse? 🤔

[@locusmortis]

Hibbs is a grouchy old man set in his ways. He'd rather shout at clouds than change.

[@adamfrey4920]

Out of every comics retailer in America, why does Brian Hibbs have any level of sway?

[@ComicsPerch]

Because he writes and a scumbag prints it.

[@AL-ws5yi]

@@ComicsPerchIt’s surprising to see you so salty. I’m there for it. Haha. I hope you’re feeling better.

[@breakupgoogle]

@@ComicsPerch based

[@edwardtheeditor]

I hope before your empty threat of shutting the channel down comes to pass, you do a scorched earth video on all the dirt and grim you've seen in the comics industry.

[@matthewmilan6979]

Rumor: With the second pick in the 2025 NFL draft, the Cleveland Browns will select Neil Gaiman to replace Deshaun Watson at quarterback. The Browns see a lot of similarities between Gaiman and Watson.

[@locusmortis]

Gaiman is probably less injury prone.....

[@davidgantenbein9362]

Just to be clear: there are two types of bankruptcies in the US. They are usually called „chapter 7“ for the liquidation of the company (everything gets sold to pay back debt) or „chapter 11“ for a restructuring of debt, which usually means that equity is destroyed and debt becomes new equity in some degrees. We are talking chapter 11 here, which means that the company‘s finances get restructured and probably some level of leadership changes and layoffs, in order to make the company sustainable again.

[@indiecomicsjones]

Giving another meaning to the phrase, "Diamond in the rough".

[@inkermoy]

Marvel declared bankruptcy in the 90's causing them to sell off a bunch of movie rights of their most popular characters to survive. They were able to turn it around with Marvel Studios and the MCU. What does Diamond have to sell off or modernize to survive?

[@CrawlingPanther]

Neil Gaiman was always overrated.

[@YTLawnGnome]

Thank you for being the voice of reason while everyone is saying the comic industry is done.

[@vincent207]

Some will sooner choose death than change their ways.

[@brokenm8950]

We all want the comic book industry to be better, healthy, and all that Jazz. What I would like to ask is: Does Diamond need to be apart of that? Ball's in Geppi's court.

[@moosevelt9148]

I really appreciate this video for clarifying the issue and some of the issues leading up to this filing and what it could mean. Did stores receive privileges from Diamond based on anything like how successfully they sell product or was this just an informal, building personal relationships deal? Also, I liked how this episode was like a preview of the mythic "Perch airs all the dirty laundry" when the channel's over lol

[@adamfrey4920]

One more question. This year, Free Comic Book Day: A) Will not happen. B) Will happen, but it'll be the last one. C) Will happen.

[@ComicsPerch]

C.

[@ComicBookMuscle]

Who cares? Free comic book day is pointless when you don’t drop current material.

[@adamfrey4920]

@@ComicBookMuscle I care, so...that.

[@earlsmith7428]

God bless you Perch.

[@InfamyOrDeath-__-]

@@ComicBookMuscleThe only comic I ever got for free comic book day that I still have is “Futures End 0”, it was rare that I ever got anything I was interested in. But that “Futures End” number 0 got me to buy that series and I loved it, and I bought every issue plus all the 3D cover tie-in one shots, that series alone fills a short box. And then the “Batman Beyond” series spun out of it, as soon as “Futures End” ended it went straight into that, and I have all those issues too, so because of that one free comic I bought nearly 150 others. So sometimes the free comic day works hahaha.

[@ExplodingPrinny]

I wonder which indie company will be first to announce a move to Lunar/Penguin. I say Dark Horse.

[@svp2010]

Dang Perch..you went Scorched Earth on this one...

[@kidicarus2215]

Thanks for the clarification. I don't like Diamond. They've been too comfortably complacent. I don't see this changing, unless they change the people in charge.

[@ascorvinus]

I’m too young to have been collecting comics during the 70s implosion, but I was there all throughout the crash in the late 90s. The business got smaller, but I’m not so sure it fundamentally changed. I don’t think those running the show know how to change. It’s not even entirely their fault; as much as I agree that a digital comics market is necessary, I don’t want my print comics to go away. Hopefully I’m just in a pessimistic mood, but this time it really feels like a death spiral.

[@zirconiumdiamond1416]

Print doesn't have to go away. Manga went all in on digital, and still sells tons of print. Though, I have always wondered about the floppy format specifically. You have one of the least resilient products (it is literally paper) that you have to keep in pristine condition (to keep the collectors happy) that you sell for $5. Which, yes, is way too much money for 22 pages of story, but when you consider how much careful handling it needs, is sort of a miracle. Surely, if we were rethinking the industry, we would choose a different format.

[@ascorvinus]

@ I was specifically referring to floppies, so you can see how I, too, am stuck in the past. There are better ways of doing things, yet I like some aspects of the way things are currently done.

[@rammisalami]

We really didn’t ask for much but they decided to continue to treat the ones that brought them to the dance like a boil on their ass.

[@CharlesB147]

*insert Jeremy Clarkson meme* Oh noooo. Anyway ...

[@JH-pe3ro]

Even before the pandemic changes, the market was finding other places to put sequential words and pictures. Diamond captured the particular niche of specialty retail, and then did nothing with it, nothing to grow it or make it competitive relative to newer options. And you can't do that if the business is going to survive in the long term. In the big picture, it's not really about the specific deals they made, but whether that all added up to something, which it didn't. The assets, staff, and existing relationships do retain value that makes it worthwhile for an outsider to scoop up Diamond and try reinvesting in it, but from here the clock starts ticking because a lot of people will flee based on the news, and that value will start to plummet. If a deal happens, it will hopefully come through quickly.

[@jjm152]

We all knew this was coming when Diamond shut down over COVID bullshit and DC went to Lunar. There's simply not enough merchandise volume for Diamond to eek out a living on their margin when you take away a huge chunk like that.

[@PaballoKobe-xh9ve]

Maybe a tech company will try to "Revolutionise the way we think about comic book distribution" and have 20 billion valuation. And some ai robot will distribute the comics until it breaks and some venture capitalist loses all his money

[@GenX_Catholic]

Hibbs sounds like the boomer meme. As long as he’s okay, the world could burn once he’s dead and gone for all he cares. Sad to have another example of this generational attitude.

[@rocketraccoon1976]

Arby's files for bankruptcy next? 🤔

[@ComicsPerch]

I hope so. And yeah, I think he did.

[@donmynack]

Can I still get comics or not?

[@OmegaSlice108]

1:03 remember this guy said the r word in that vid at the very end. That's why I subbed

[@poru208]

Any reason why they didn't do this coming out of Covid?

[@zirconiumdiamond1416]

From what I remember, comics had a brief resurgence right after COVID, as basically everyone was spending money like crazy. It was probably enough to keep them going until now. Keep in mind that bankruptcy is a last resort, especially for private businesses with owners actively involved. There are a lot of unknowns in bankruptcy, but one of the near certainties is that Geppi will lose all ownership of Diamond. I can't imagine how bad that must feel after the business had been built up over decades.

[@AlucardNoir]

Europe comics 2 years ago, now Diamond... sigh.

[@MatthewSigh]

So, in summary, bankruptcy good.

[@MasticinaAkicta]

This sadly was coming. With how little IP of value remained there! It was inevitable. Not that Marvel or DC are doing much better, but their coffers are bigger. So they might have a few more years.

[@clonegeek3317]

Is it wrong that I want to film elevator pitches for comic ideas I have and send it to you?

[@psal8715]

I have no idea what gaiman is accused of, but he has been being kind of an ass over the last few years.. still like his books.

[@InfamyOrDeath-__-]

Some of the things I’ve heard are sick as hell, forcing one to eat their own 💩

[@illithidlore]

When will Gaiman and Ellis start their own publishing company?

[@ComicsPerch]

I think one isn’t like the other

[@illithidlore]

@ComicsPerch that's fair, I'm just aiming at low hanging fruit.

[@clonegeek3317]

I'm surpised I have never asked you this Perch, but have you ever met Rumiko Takahashi?

[@ComicsPerch]

I have.

[@clonegeek3317]

@@ComicsPerch Cool, when did you met her?

[@InfamyOrDeath-__-]

@@ComicsPerchHa, I knew you would have.

[@clonegeek3317]

Was anybody really surpised by this?

[@ComicsPerch]

No?

[@InfamyOrDeath-__-]

Me, I thought they’d pull through haha, they went this long so I thought they’d somehow manage it haha.

[@matthewmilan6979]

Is Gaiman the most ironic name in comics?

[@SuperDuperHappyTime]

Perch posting late night? I’d have to go back to High School to get more fresh

[@StoryboardsbyStuffPOP]

New video about Diamond recorded right after you just published a 2-month old video about Diamond, lol.

[@philipburnette7315]

Preach!!

[@samhighvoltage]

This video makes me feel as though I have a greater understanding of ch 11 than ole Mr. Hibbs... I went to community college

[@spencesanders7879]

What now? Isn't that a bit irrelevant? The top four comics (Marvel, DC, Image and Boom!) publishers of American comics are pretty much done anyway. The combined monthly sales of DC's entire line entire line today is less than the sales of a single title in the 70s/80s/90s. If all four of the listed comic companies (Marvel, DC etc.) ceased publishing today I doubt 99% of todays fandom would even notice.

[@Josh_Greathouse]

It's a mix of things. One, if you work retail... IT IS NORMAL TO ORDER FROM MULTIPLE COMPANIES. Like, I am sorry you now have to experience the real world, but one hub never happens any where else. I know, working is hard... blah. Two, I forget the other company, but their business model was you release a book, you can put your old ones back up for solicitation. This was perfect for a lot of indie creators. DIAMOND KILLED THAT. You are tired of reboot of numer 1?! That was in help of Diamond since the pushed new books. Diamond the champion of the small guy is funny. I do not want them to go under, I want them to lose the fax machine.

[@stanleysmith7551]

I saw the title of the video and I was like: "are American comics still a thing?" (Apparently not...) To be honest, I tuned out like 4 years ago. I remember the Red Skull being portrayed as Jordan Peterson, I remember a gay disabled Spider-Man and a gay disabled Flash (kinda beats the point of super agility and super speed if you ask me), I remember Superboy and Robin going gay...aaand I think there was a comic where some Balkans dictator captured Superman proper and like r@ped him in the ass repeatedly...🤔. I think I remember that correctly, but feel free to correct me. After that I just tuned out (same way I did with CNN after Larry King left). I was like: "OK, enough of this sh!t. This ain't worth my time and money." Just for reference: I collected comic books (mostly Marvel and DC, although Dark Horse had some great titles in the late 90's)since 1992.

[@The.Elk.of.Antioch]

Ahem, “Now what”

[@svp2010]

Mile High?

[@PaballoKobe-xh9ve]

Money and success atracts a certain type of woman

[@VNetFad]

Brian Hibbs grudge video lol

[@demon2441]

It's another situation where the it will have far reaching consequences but people are upset because of everything that led up to this point. Not a retailer, so I've never dealt with them, but there are countless stories of Diamond's poor service and scummy practices online. They became the defacto monopoly in the comics space and they abused their position because people couldn't go anywhere else. (Exclusive deals, lawfaire) All that bad blood leads to little tears when all is said and done.

[@rscarf1]

Not what?

[@ChohatsuSensei]

“Not what”, but why? :P

[@InfamyOrDeath-__-]

Ellis did nothing wrong, but Gaiman, yea I think he did something wrong hahaha

[@ComicsPerch]

Nah, Ellis did something wrong.

[@LoveKhanGiga]

Not what

[@EugeneLorey]

The woke will be dumping their Sandman comics, good time to get some deals.

[@PaballoKobe-xh9ve]

The aithority costs the same amount so probably not

[@AL-ws5yi]

There is no middle ground, mwahahaha! Joking. It should always be innocent till proven guilty. On the other hand, I’ve never liked Neil Gaiman. So mainly I hope justice is served. And I was waiting for the Diamond bankruptcy since the signs have been there.

[@InfamyOrDeath-__-]

Wow Perch is salty with Hibbs, that was hilarious, I know he’s said things about him before but not as salty as today.

[@JimmyBircher]

lol

[@adamfrey4920]

Me hitting the refresh button on KZbin until Perch posts this video. 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

[@adamfrey4920]

I'm having a day, so a Perch distraction right now like Neil Gaiman needs a good PR agent.

[@AL-ws5yi]

@@adamfrey4920Hope it gets better