Diamond Comic Distributors

Who Is Owed What

It’s been a week for comic book news. First people woke up to the news that Vulture magazine has outed Neil Gaiman as an alleged sexual assaulter. Now people are waking up the news that Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Chapter 11 doesn’t mean Diamond, which is owned by Stephen Geppi via his SG Resourse, LLP and Stephen A. Geppi Revocable Trust, is going out of business. It basically means they’re trying to work out their debts and assets via a restructure. Already they’re selling off some of the arms of business.

What it does tell us is what Diamond owe. And the amount owed to the largest 30 debtors is quite considerable indeed - $31,745,394.39 is owed to 30 separate business.

Here you can see who is owed what by Diamond.

As can be seen, the largest amount owed is $9,202,181.45 to Penguin Random House. Penguin Random House supply Diamond with comics and graphic novels from Marvel, IDW, and Dark Horse. The highest amount owed to a USA comic book related entity is $1,734,814.39 to Todd McFarlane, via TMP International, followed by $$1,712,447.00 to Disney (presumable for standard Marvel Comics). It’s all downhill from there.

To be honest, this isn’t the end of the comic book industry. Distributors have come and gone - hell, Diamond ran them all out of town, bought them up and created a monopoly over the decades. The comics will still arriving in the stores. After all, Marvel Comics went into Chapter 11, as did Todd McFarlane. They both emerged from it stronger than ever.

This is a blip, albeit an interesting one as it may just show us the inner workings of Diamond. And if it is the downfall of Diamond, Lunar Distribution is there to pick up the pieces.