Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: Atom! Freeman, diamond

How Many Comic Store Closures Will The Diamond Bankruptcy Cause?

How Many Comic Store Closures Will The Diamond Bankruptcy Cause? Atom! Freeman talks to Bleeding Cool about the industry's new challenges

Adam Freeman, or Atom! Freeman, began his career in the comics industry as the co-owner of the Brave New World Comics store, where he received the 2008 Eisner Spirit of Retail award. In 2010, he transitioned to publishing as the Director Of Sales & Marketing at Top Cow Entertainment. In 2012, Freeman was one of the five principal architects of Valiant Entertainment's re-emergence. After leaving Valiant, post-acquisition by Chinese investors DMG, He was also part of the launch of Bad Idea Comics alongside many of his former Valiant partners. Now Freeman is the founder of Prana: Direct Market Solutions, a consulting and services firm focused on the comics industry and its needs.  So he has a few things to say about the Diamond Comics Distributors decision to enter Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. And he has provided them in bullet points for Bleeding Cool…

1. This might lead to the biggest round of store closures in decades. Not because of the doomsday scenarios I keep hearing but because many of them have been holding onto their 'Diamond-only' workflow which has already cost them one holiday season. Most of these stores are older, and the owners are nearing retirement age, so it seems reasonable to believe that some key staff members are about to get a good deal on buying their shop or their competitors are going to get a chance to grow.
2. Most larger stores won't feel this at all. The bulk of their volume is already coming in from Lunar, PRH, and direct from other suppliers. Because of this, I see no reason that the increase in sales for single issues we saw in 2024 won't continue to rise.
3. You are about to see a lot of coalition building. Tiny publishers are either going to buy each other out or try to Image-together themselves to weather this storm. Some new innovators are likely to step onto the field.
4. I am rooting for Diamond to come out of this. We need them as an industry, and it will be very difficult to replace them. I want my friends there to continue to serve our industry in the way they've proven they can. But it's time to stop thinking of Diamond as the public utility of comics. New services need to step up to provide metadata. New providers need to step in for all the other services they have always provided. New publications and platforms need to step in to actually sell comics to consumers.
5. The real losers in this are the smallest publishers and those that depend on them. No matter what happens with Diamond, it is going to take awhile before business as usual is an option. So, those publishers who have a day job and a dream are going to find a difficult path to market. If Lunar can physically grow to accommodate them or Diamond works their way out, it will be too long for some of them before that is the case.
6. That means those mom and pop publishers won't be buying sponsorships at ComicsPRO's meetings or showing up to ReedPOP's event days. It means they won't be buying ads on Bleeding Cool or The Beat or Zdarsky Comics News. We need those services to thrive. So the larger publishers will, hopefully, be stepping in to snatch up those deals for retailer and fan attention.
7. It's about to get real expensive and difficult to buy the Lunar crew dinner at conventions, so schedule those early and often.

Whereas, Atom, I am a really, really cheap date…

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