The head of Alliance Entertainment has discussed the recent purchase of Diamond. Image Comics has objected to the Diamond acquisition. DC to release two Batman omnibuses.
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Episode Transcript:
Alliance chief discusses Diamond purchase.
Image Comics objects to Diamond acquisition.
DC to release two Batman omnibuses.
This is the 400th episode of Comic Book Club News, for March 28, 2025.
Alliance Chief Discusses Diamond Purchase:
Alliance Entertainment is in the process of finalizing its purchase of Diamond Comics Distributors and their assets. And hot on the heels of the sale, Alliance’s chairman Bruce Ogilvie went on the Beyond Wednesdays podcast to discuss what this means for the comic book industry.
Or rather, as reported by The Beat, how it doesn’t. After discussing many details of the sale, Ogilvie was asked, “The comics thing wasn’t a big part of this at all, it seems.” To which he replied, “No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t 100% of it.”
In fact, while it’s early days here and Ogilvie confessed there’s a lot to sort through — and legally they are not allowed to talk to the Diamond team yet — he did note, “We don’t like to sell $5 CDs and DVDs. We can’t make any money on it. We want to sell $20 products. That’s the challenge because the labor cost and the freight cost just sucks all the profit out of it. We have a 95 cents rule – if we can’t make 95 cents moving through our warehouse, we have to make a minimum because that’s what it costs to move things through.”
What that means for comic books that generally cost — checks notes — $5? Well, we’ll have to see. But the thrust of the sale was for Alliance to get greater distribution for toys and collectibles, not comic books. And raising alarm bells was a comment about Free Comic Book Day, whose future seems unsure, at best. Said Ogilvie, “I guess all the publishers provide the free comic books? There’s no Free Record Day… Diamond was not a very profitable business. That’s why it went into bankruptcy. If I don’t make it profitable, I’m going to have a very grumpy bank and employees.”
That’s not exactly how Free Comic Book Day works at all, but its future as well as comics through Alliance at all is very much TBD. More on this as it develops.
Image Comics Objects To Diamond Acquisition:
Oh hey, more has developed. Image Comics has filed a formal objection to the Diamond sale, noting that they have not agreed to have their sub-distribution deal assigned to a new buyer.
While there’s a lot of legalese involved, that’s the long and the short of it, that Image made a deal with Diamond, and did not agree to a deal with Alliance, and would like to opt out. They also would like to be paid the money owed them by Diamond.
Though this may on the surface come off as Image trying to stop the deal, I’m no big city lawyer, but this seems like exactly the sort of thing that would need to be filed: Image settling up accounts with Diamond, before moving into another distribution deal with Alliance. Also of note, Image already distributes through Lunar, so it’s not like they need the Diamond distribution so much as they need their money back.
It’s likely many more publishers may follow suit — literally — in the next few days. Whether this will hold up the Alliance acquisition in April or not is TBD. More on this, too, as it develops.
DC To Release Two Batman Omnibuses:
In non-Diamond news, DC will release two massive Batman omnibuses this summer: Tom King’s run on Batman, and Mariko Tamaki’s run on Detective Comics.
Per ICv2, Batman by Tom King Omnibus Vol. 1 will run 1,008 pages, and include everything from Batman: Rebirth #1, to 32 issues of Batman, the Batman/Elmer Fudd Special, and various other tie-in issues. Meanwhile, Batman Detective Comics by Mariko Tamaki Omnibus will run 1,000 pages, and include 28 issues of Detective Comics, Future State: Dark Detective, Batman – One Bad Day: Two-Face, and others.
Both books will retail for $150 and hit stores on August 19.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And as promised, I’m revealing a shocking secret here on the 400th episode: I’m taking next week off. See you mid-April!
Got tips or stories you’d like us to cover? Email us at comicbookclublive@gmail.com.
For more comic book news, reviews, and interviews, check out comicbookclublive.com.
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