Ad Populum Archives

An executive at Ad Populum, the company that purchased Diamond Comic Distributors, has confirmed to Bleeding Cool that Ad Populum has been restricted from dealing directly with any consignment vendors and has had to go through the bankruptcy estate for everything, including any correspondence And that Ad Populum sincerely hopes that this changes very soon. Just[...]

At the end of May, Dynamite Entertainment filed paperwork with the US Bankruptcy Courts regarding the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Diamond Comic Distributors, now bought by Ad Populum Dynamite is claiming that payments that should have been made for comic books and merchandise delivered, should be counted as "administrative expenses", with hundreds of pages of[...]

Oh and then there were the fist bumps of new owner Joel Weinshanker of Ad Populum Bleeding Cool published the exit interviews in full, but there's also an additional note Bleeding Cool is adding to Joe Lunday's entry, regarding the mention of fellow Diamond employee Steve Warble. Lee Butman DATE – May 30, 2025 POSITION – Merchandise Team Manager DATE HIRED[...]

Some of this may be aimed at Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop, the new owners of Diamond, over the lack of payments to comic book publishers for new products delivered to Diamond after the purchase But more notably, and more urgently, there will be paperwork filed regarding Diamond Comic Distributors Inc., the debtor entity in the Chapter[...]

– the debtor entity in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Diamond that is responsible for the bankruptcy debt, and not the new owner of Diamond, Ad Populum, is asking the court's permission to liquidate stock in its possession That is stock that is not owned by Diamond, but owned by many comic book publishers and[...]

This was widely announced, including by Diamond themselves. Then we learned that a joint bid by Universal Distribution and Ad Populum came second and was named the back-up bid, with a bid of $69,130,000 With Universal getting Alliance Gaming and Diamond UK, and Ad Populum getting Diamond Comics, Diamond Select Toys and everything else. Basic Fun was third with[...]

With Alliance Entertainment (AED) suing Diamond/Ad Populum over allegations of fraud, and Diamond/Ad Populum suing AENT for allegations of breaking confidentiality and poaching staff, we have borne witness to some of the inner machinations of both parties And have been able to create a timeline, including the allegations each side made AE is Alliance Entertainment,[...]

In a series of statements introduced into the Alliance Entertainment/AENT and Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop lawsuits over the Diamond Comic Distributors Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, much has come down to AENT hiring a number of people from Diamond Comic Distribution Especially Mike Schimmel, former Vice President of Sales at Diamond, who has been there for twenty-one years,[...]

Bleeding Cool is continuing to cover the latest in AENT's response to the lawsuit made against them by Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop Which was over the many, many, many issues regarding the Diamond Comic Distributors (DCD) Chapter 11 Bankruptcy proceedings We looked at claims of AENT poaching Diamond staff and breaking NDAs, and of Ad Populum's[...]

Bleeding Cool has already reported on Alliance Entertainment (AENT)'s legally filed response to Diamond Comic Distributors's new owner, Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop It concerns their lawsuit that claims AENT broke NDA agreements with Diamond as part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy auction, as well as subsequently breaking agreements by poaching Diamond staff But there's more[...]

Alliance Entertainment (AENT) won that auction, with Universal Distribution and Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop coming second as joint bidders The courts (eventually) declared AENT the winner, but they suddenly pulled out, citing that they had been misled.  So the back-up bidders won the auction, with Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop taking Diamond Comic Distributors while Universal got other[...]

He told Bleeding Cool the following; Zenescope for August 2025 "I read your recent article, "Diamond Owner Ad Populum Still Ghosting Comic Book Publishers," and I wanted to follow up directly with our situation at Zenescope We are one of the publishers currently being ignored by Ad Populum, and I sent them the email below earlier this[...]

Last week, Bleeding Cool reported we had heard from a number of comic publishers, many of whom are seriously out of pocket over the Diamond Comic Distributors Chapter 11 bankruptcy, that they are also waiting on the now-overdue first payments from Ad Populum Under the name Sparkle Pop, the IP owner and merch distributor Ad Populum bought Diamond Comic[...]

Ad Populum, under their subsidiary company Sparkle Pop, the new owners of Diamond Comic Distributors, have launched a lawsuit against Alliance Entertainment or AENT The suit alleges that AENT stole trade secrets from Diamond and poached employees during Diamond's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case This comes after AENT made a winning, if challenged and court-confirmed, bid[...]

Bleeding Cool has heard from a number of comic publishers, many of whom are seriously out of pocket over the Diamond Comic Distributors Chapter 11 bankruptcy, that they are also waiting on the now-overdue first payments from Ad Populum Under the name Sparkle Pop, the IP owner and merch distributor Ad Populum bought Diamond Comic[...]

This means that Diamond Comic Distributors can keep going under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, even though it was just bought by Ad Populum in a bankruptcy auction And maybe some of the publishers who haven't been paid recent bills might actually get paid Here's hoping.  According to a statement Diamond issued on this matter, the[...]

Diamond Comic Distributors has issued the following letter to comic book publishers and other vendors owed money as part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, and purchase by Ad Populum, addressing current vendor concerns about recently-due payments that hadn't arrived as expected The letter reads as follows; "As we navigate the transition in ownership, we wanted[...]

It reads as follows. Dear Diamond Customer: As you know, Diamond Comic Distributors is now part of the Ad Populum family This marks a new beginning with a future of greatly enhanced product offerings, as well as a time of transition Naturally, it also brings with it questions.Many decisions are still taking shape, and we're actively working[...]

In a statement, Diamond Comic Distributors/Ad Populum confirmed to Bleeding Cool today that "Diamond Comic Distributors today confirmed that Penguin Random House will end its distribution arrangement with Diamond, effective June 25, 2025." And a Diamond spokesperson issued the following statement: "It's disappointing that after years of collaboration, Penguin Random House has abruptly cut off[...]

Diamond's ComicSuite is a customised software option that integrates with Retail Hero's Retailer Management Hero to create a point-of-sale system specifically geared toward comic book speciality retailers. I recently reported on Bleeding Cool that Diamond Comic Distributors was laying off Comicsuite, Pullbox, and their website tech support department after it was agreed that they would be[...]

On BlueSky, in the wake of a large number of layoffs across Diamond in the wake of its purchase by Ad Populum, Allyn Gibson says, "I continue to be employed, and we are deep into the production of July's issue of PREVIEWS." That's the one that would be out in a month's time And adding[...]

With Diamond being bought by Ad Populum as part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, and a number of layoffs being reported, Mark Herr posted to social media about what he'd heard."So, yesterday, new owners took ownership of the company I spent many years helping build it into the giant it became.  And yesterday, the[...]

It was only three weeks ago that Emily Botica, Vice President, Publisher Relations & Marketing at Diamond Comics, was declaring that everything was "business as usual" with new "partners", Ad Populum and Universal Distributors, buying Diamond as part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings playing out since the beginning of the year Two weeks ago, Lance[...]

The layoffs seem to have happened concurrently with the announcement that Ad Populum had bought Diamond and associated companies, aside from Diamond UK and Alliance Gaming, as part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Now, I am not Rich Johnson, I am Rich Johnston But I sometimes get messages for Rich Johnson, as he does for me[...]

Last week, Bleeding Cool reported court filings in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding of Diamond Comic Distributors that detailed the purchase by the now-winning bidders, Universal Distribution and Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop That Universal will pay almost $50 million plus or minus a few other factors, and would own Diamond's Alliance Game Distributors, with a separate[...]

Universal Distribution, along with Ad Populum, may also be back in the game. Earlier this year, Diamond Comic Distributors, a stalwart distributor of comics to the direct market, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a tumultuous half-decade On the 24th of March, the bankruptcy auction process initially selected Alliance Entertainment as the successful bidder of the Diamond-associated[...]

This hearing, set for the 27th of March before Judge Rice in Baltimore, will determine the final approval of the sale. In addition to Alliance Entertainment's designation as the successful bidder, a combined bid from Universal Distribution and Ad Populum was selected as the back-up bid, providing a fallback option should the primary transaction falter[...]