Posted in: Comics | Tagged: midnight

Diamond Changes Rules For Comic Store Midnight Releases

Published Thu, 08 Aug 2019 15:37:31 -0500

Last updated Thu, 08 Aug 2019 15:38:43 -0500

On Tuesday night, for the launch of Absolute Carnage #1, a number of comic book retailers opened at midnight to sell copies. But what else said retailers were allowed to sell at that time has been considered problematic.

In previous events, sometimes the publisher says that any and all of their Wednesday street date comics can be up for grabs on Tuesday midnight, sometimes rival publishers have issued similar announcements, sometimes they forget, it often leaves participating retailers confused about which comics they can and cannot sell at midnight in such an event.

This week, Diamond Comic Distributors which monitors and enforces street dates, made it simpler.

Retailers planning Premier Publisher sponsored midnight release parties have been told that Diamond, in concert with its publishers, will now allow all product carrying an in-store date of that week's event to go on sale at midnight. Telling them that this change should alleviate retailer confusion on what products may be put out for sale and from having to seek approval from individual publishers for their product during each midnight release.

The change went into effect starting with Absolute Carnage's #1 midnight release. Diamond VP-Retailer Services Chris Powell stated that "We've worked with our publishing partners to clarify the policy on midnight releases in a way we think is best for retailers, saving them the trouble of asking individual publishers about whether their product can put on sale for an upcoming midnight release event. Now, unless a publisher specifically asks for their product not to go on sale, retailers can put all product with that week's release date out for sale at their midnight release events."