Posted in: Comics | Tagged: coronavirus comics, diamond, distributor wars, previews

Diamond Skips Previews For May, Doubles Up In June

Published Sat, 02 May 2020 08:00:15 -0500

Due to publishing, shipping, distribution, production and general life-related delays created by the current global situation, as well as the firings and furloughs at Diamond Comic Distributors, Previews will be skipping publication of the new Previews catalogue. What would have been the 380th volume, the May edition for comic books shipping in July, will no longer exist. Instead, Diamond will skip a month and publish a May/June edition of Previews, numbered #380/#381, for comics shipping in July and August. Lots of publishers have restricted the titles that they are publishing so you won't wuite get double the amount of items in double the month – but it will be up on the usual, probably. Steve Geppi talked about the size and delivery of Previews of a catalogue may well now be changing in a pandemic world, but that a considerable amount of the way that Previews is, is contractual with the various publishers. What happens with DC Comics now that it is no longer an exclusive publisher is also interesting. Will it remain a Premier Publisher at the front of the catalogue, or will it be buried between Cryptozoic and Devil's Due? Diamond did remove the Gem and Spotlight categories from DC Comics, which may be a precursor to the way Diamond will treat DC now.

The new Previews will include all items originally intended for May solicitation, plus new items solicited in June. All items in the catalogue will carry item codes with a JUN20 prefix. The new Previews #380/#381 will be published on May 27th and is on Final Order Cut-Off for this weekend. Just maybe they won't have a cover that is quite as on the nose as the last volume.