Posted in: Comics, DC Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: dc comics, lunar, marvel

Lunar To Distribute Marvel Comics To Comic Stores Next Year

Published Sat, 12 Jun 2021 07:52:19 -0500

Bleeding Cool ran a couple of articles on the big moves that DCBS, InstockTrades and Lunar Distribution have been making recently, moving to massive new facilities – with massive new tax breaks. Christina Merkler gave a few interviews to local media, some of whom managed to get hold of completely the wrong end of the stick, such as Wane 15 News who believed that Lunar are the sole online distributor of DC Comics in the US. But they are close enough. But towards the end of the piece, Christina Merkler "expressed excitement towards the futures of DCBS and Lunar Distribution LLC, and promised that this is the start of something big." And that they were hiring a lot more people because of what's coming.

"We have about 30 to 40 positions that we'd want to fill for that side of the business because Lunar is growing so much. We know we currently have about 65 employees, but we know that's going to probably double once we add Marvel into the mix, which is the largest publisher in all of the comics industry. So we know that we're looking at at least 100, 230, 150 new employees in the next year or two."

Now, Marvel Comics had just announced an exclusive distribution deal with Penguin Random House, with Diamond Comic Distributors relegated to a poor wholesale distribution deal, where they are totally unable to come close to matching Penguin's terms. But is Lunar in a position to distribute Marvel comics as well? Christine told me when I enquired;

"We do intend to distribute Marvel as a wholesale account once PRH allows the opening of new wholesale accounts for the direct market sometime next year. We also plan to add new publishers to our distribution family in the coming months. The quote should say 100-150 new employees projected in the coming 5 years."

Still a lot, still a massive change, and still a big, big problem for Diamond Comic Distributors. Can we envisage a situation where the DC direct market monopoly sees Lunar take all the comics publishers directly, and Marvel via PRH, and puts Diamond Comic Distributors out of business in the same way that Diamond did with Capital, Friendly Franks and everyone else thirty years ago? Can anyone see another way?

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