But not, it would seem, Alliance Entertainment (AENT). If you haven't been following the saga, which has had more twists and turns than a spy novel, it all began in January of this year when Diamond Distributors, one of the world's biggest distributors of actual physical copies of comics, filed for bankruptcy. The reasons were complex, but a lot of the problem was self-inflected hubris dating back to the Covid-19 lockdown period. Diamond essentially screwed its clients, assuming lockdown would tank sales of physical units of comics, and caused massive comic book market chaos. Other distributors, particularly an offshoot of Penguin, stepped up and Diamond never recovered its market share.
In March 2025 there was an auction for Diamond's assets, which was won by Alliance. However, Diamond wanted a lower bidding company to have been successful, and the result went to court, after some messy back and forth. Alliance won that ensuing legal battle, and so Diamond was forced to accept the higher bid from Alliance.
However, Alliance called off their bid in late April, for reasons that are not completely clear at the moment. Bleeding Cool suspects that there might be some discrepancies between what was bid on and what actually remains to take control over, but it's all just speculation at them moment.
What happens next is unclear. Perhaps now Diamond gets what it wanted and the secondary bid goes through? For now, however, Diamond is still operating as ‘normal’. The comics are still making it to stores (hopefully).
Have any of you noticed problems with timely delivery of physical copies of comics? Do any of you actually buy physical copies of comics anymore?
— Gunwallace
__________
Don't forget! The #quackchat has moved to BlueSky! Join us on Sunday evening for our Quackchat at 5:30PM(EST)!
You can also advertise on DrunkDuck for just $2 in whichever ad spot you like! The money goes straight into running the site. Want to know more? Click this link here! Or, if you want to help us keep the lights on you can sponsor us on Patreon. Every bit helps us!
Special thanks to our patrons!!
Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend
Gunwallace at 12:00AM, May 8, 2025
6 likes!
©2011 WOWIO, Inc. All Rights Reserved Mastodon
Gunwallace at 11:22PM, May 8, 2025
@Willed: Thanks for the update. The article was written a few days before posting.
Willed at 7:41PM, May 8, 2025
Your report is not up to date. Alliance is now suing Diamond. They claim Diamond only told them recently that one of the businesses they distribute is not renewing their distribution contract, even though Diamond knew about it in December. They accuse Diamond of fraud. The court has already accepted the runner up offer so that's done. Too lazy to provide a link with more detailed information.
Sketchydrawer at 4:34PM, May 8, 2025
I never really got into Comics but now I get really drawn with how pretty some comic covers are and has made me buy some like that, only a few tho! I recently got Venombus Vol 1 of Venom, its a thick book but i really wanted to read his oldies and also got some Carnage comics, those are recent I think they are called Black, white and blood or something like that. I also got the complete collection of My Bloody Valentine ^_^ I hope to get all of the Friday the 13th comics!
Gunwallace at 4:11PM, May 8, 2025
@UnderTheBlackHat: Thanks for that info. Hopefully new ownership will sort things out, but I'm guessing no one is holding their breath?
Jesse_Koehler at 11:13AM, May 8, 2025
Diamonds are also unbreakable
UnderTheBlackHat at 3:23AM, May 8, 2025
There are disruptions and late arrivals and basically nothing going through Diamond is trusted anymore. The one time monolithic "SOLE SUPPLIER" of all things comic book has unraveled completely and now tends to run late (a lot more than it should), has trouble meeting orders and then there is a higher percentage of damage and return items with a seemingly slower refill process. All in all, the company can't seem to get out of its own way and still seems to think of itself as the only comic book distribution house in North America. The others are getting better and some are even adjusting properly to dealing with comic book shops and not the much slower paced print book sales paradigm. This is just some observations and from speaking with people that work at the stores we visit, your milage may vary.