Comics Business Turbulence

In early 2020, the comic industry -- and, frankly, the entire world -- got clotheslined by COVID. It was a new virus that nobody yet understood, even how it was transmitted. So a great many businesses shut down or went fully remote or something to that effect. The businesses that stayed open -- notably things like grocery stores and pharmacies -- were largely considered "essential" and so many businesses that did not fall into that loosely-defined category were ordered closed by state and municipal governments. That included not only comic book shops, but pretty much every business associated with comics in any way. Publishers were mostly able to get work-from-home setups for the staff, and much of their work was done remotely by freelancers before then anyway. But printers and distributors has to close their doors for a while. In the United States, though, it wasn't "distributors" (plural) but "distributor" (singular). And, in going back through my notes from that time, Diamond whiffed that really, really, really badly.

Today, five years later, Diamond is having many of its assets auctioned off to pay off the debts that led to their bankruptcy. Now, to be clear, COVID did not cause their bankruptcy but there is a pretty direct path (with a few stops in between) from their handling of COVID to this bankruptcy auction. When others started taking advantage of Diamond's 2020 difficulties, the sudden pseudo-vacuum was filled quickly... and that speed to fill in the gaps led to other indusrty-wide problems as I noted in 2021. Folks were scrambling to get system up and running quickly, and that inevitably leads to stop-gap measures that remain in place far longer than they should.

When Diamond first announced it was filing for bankruptcy in January, everybody knew that meant things would get seriously disrupted. That was kind of a no-brainer since, despite having a few other companies step in to the comics distribution game since 2020, Diamond still was the only distributor for most comic book publishers. (Although it should be noted, not for the most actual comic books since Marvel and DC had both parted ways with Diamond by then.) What I don't think anyone predicted -- what I don't think anyone could have predicted -- is how things would shake out. We've got several relatively small distributors having to up their game considerably. Heck, we just learned that IDW Publishing will be acting as a distributor for Valiant/Alien Books! Frankly, I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one.

And all of this against the backdrop of a broader economy that is seemingly being deliberately wrecked by an administration by throwing markets into chaos with -- among other things -- arbitrary tariffs, which are implemented and rescinded on an almost hourly basis. ("Deliberately, though, Sean?" Yes, deliberatley. Consider this: if you wanted to tank the world's largest economy, would you do anything differently than what's being done now?)

Things are very, very, very much not stable in the comics industry right now. I'm seeing literally almost daily articles now about major staff shakeups at comic companies, unexpected distribution deals, and all sorts of significant business moves that would normally take up the comics news cycle for a week each. Yesterday, I just saw that several UK comic publishers just formally organized a trade association, the first of its kind since 2011!

Where am I going with all this?

There is a fire hose of news getting blasted as us these days. The United States has heel-turned in less than two months from being aligned with democracies around the world to being a suck-up to the two most authoritarian regimes on the planet, making enemies out of virtually everyone else. That this much news is happening within comics, an industry that has historically worked very hard to remain stable, on top of the daily US and world news showcases just how guano crazy things are these days. We're going to see a LOT of changes to the comic industry throughout the remainder of 2025, regardless of what happens anywhere else. Please make sure your tray table is securely stowed, your chair is in the upright position, and your seat belt has been tightened and secured. Things are going to get very bumpy.

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