Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics | Tagged: diamond, Wilmer Cutler Pickering

What Does Diamond Comic Distributors Owe Marvel?

Marvel Comics is now very interested in Diamond Comic Distributors' bankruptcy... is it more than just the money owed to Disney?

Wilmer Cutler Pickering of the legal firm of Hale and Dorr, of 7 World Trade Center in New York, has filed powers as counsel to Disney Consumer Products, Inc. and Marvel Brands as part of Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy, a story Bleeding Cool has been covering in depth. Notably, Marvel only subdistributed to Diamond Comic Distributors and Diamond UK, leaving Penguin Random House with the nine million dollar bill. Disney Consumer Products, however, is owned $1,712,447. They obviously have enough of an interest to be legally represented in proceedings and to request all the legal filings and details of the state of Diamond Comic Distributors. Even though Marvel Brands is not in the top thirty creditors owed money by Diamond. Might it be that, due to contracts, Marvel is actually on the hook for some of those Penguin millions? Or could we even be getting a new Heroes World?

It's all speculation of course. In 2021, Marvel Comics announced that they would no longer be distributing comic books to comic stores in North America via Diamond Comic Distributors and that instead they would be exclusively distributed by Penguin Random House Publisher Services (PRHPS), a division of Penguin Random House. They were also joined by Dark Horse, IDW and Boom Studios. This was triggered by DC Comics leaving Diamond for Lunar, as well as Image Comics joining them.

Famously, back when there were several big distributors sharing the likes of Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse and Valiant, Marvel decided to buy distributor Heroes World and exclusively distribute through them. The distribution was pretty bad, but without Marvel, the other distributors found it hard to make a profit, and eventually, they were all – including Heroes World – swallowed by Diamond Comic Distributors after DC Comics made an exclusive deal with Diamond, followed by Image Comics and the rest. Is this the first sign of something similar being staged? Surely not, but stranger things have happened.

Also, Diamond Comic Distributors has managed to get an extension on filing their schedules of assets and liabilities by another twenty days past the current schedule, up to the 17th of February. I look forward to some post-Valentine's Daylight romantic reading about just what Diamond Comic Distributors actually has. And maybe how much it would cost Marvel Comics if they wanted to have it. Well, they might be able to get almost two million off the price…

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