Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: bankrupt, diamond

David Campiti Is Very Angry Indeed About The Diamond Comics Bankruptcy

David Campiti is very angry indeed about the Diamond Comic Distributors' Chapter 11 bankruptcy situation... and has been through this before.

David Campiti was deeply involved with a number of comics publishers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Eternity Comics, Pied Piper Comics, and Innovation Publishing. So he has been through the previous big distribution wars, bankrupt publishers and the fallout that seems to be echoed today. He is best known today for Glass House Graphics, a very successful international animation studio and agency of illustrators, writers, painters, and digital designers that specialises in finding work for South American and Filipino creators in the USA, Canada, and Europe. Recently there was a spotlight on him for fake USAID allegations.

Early in 1986, Campiti and writer-editor Brian Marshall co-founded the comics packager TriCorp Entertainment. With private financing from Sunrise Distribution's Scott Rosenberg, Marshall and Tony Eng formed Eternity Comics and Campiti packaged material for Eternity to publish, including Lawrence & Lim's Ex-Mutants. Later, Rosenberg provided capital for Campiti to form two new small publishers, Amazing and Wonder Color, while Campiti co-founded Pied Piper Comics separately as Editor-in-Chief. It all came out; there were allegations of favouritism from Rosenberg, especially when distributors started going bankrupt, and allegations that Rosenberg-invested publishers were ahead of the queue when it came to money compared to others. Eventually, everyone closed or went bust, and Campiti moved on. So he has seen it all a number of times. And now we seem to be going through it all again. And Campiti has his own personal take on the situation rather than a de facto legal opinion.

David Campiti writes on social media, "In my opinion, a lot of Diamond Comic Distributors' recent books should be considered STOLEN MERCHANDISE. Whatever the laws say about bankruptcy, if they KNEW they were going to file for bankruptcy and did not warn publishers that payments for any books sent could be tied up in bankruptcy court, that's premeditated theft of product to my mind. And if they announced bankruptcy while books were en route to them and they did not RETURN those books to the publishers because they wouldn't be paid for, that's deception and theft. Multi-million-dollar corporations get away with stealing from the little guys because wealthy people influence and write the laws that protect their fellow wealthy people. That doesn't make it honorable or right. Publishers are owed so many thousands of dollars, it could cripple or shut them down."

He also added, "Not only did Diamond NOT pay us the many thousands they owe, but they've also tried to scam us for additional books. We have confirmation of delivery of all the boxes, but they insisted some are missing and wanted replacements."

Paul Ewert, CEO of the Minnesota Comic Book Association and former Assistant Editor at comic book publisher Entropy Enterprises, recalled the eighties equivalents, "Anyone remembers Glenwood Distributors? In the mid-1980s, they were third largest comic distributor, behind Capital City and Diamond. When they went bankrupt in 1988, it essentially shut down the black & white comics boom that had been going since 1978."

TC Ford, Owner and CEO at Action Hero Coffee added "it was a one two punch between them and Sunrise Distribution, who was funding a number of small publishers, then scooping up their assets when their books didn't sell."

David Campiti, who, of course, was one of those publishers, added, "The books they funded sold like crazy, then they screwed the talents and the printers and stole some of the properties." As we said, he has seen this all before.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!