Dynamite Teams With Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly To Take On Diamond

If you’ve been paying any attention to the increasingly complicated goings-on around the bankruptcy of Diamond Comic Distributors, you know that the fallout has been constant and harrowing. The latest wrinkle is that Diamond is reportedly selling the inventory they have to pay off debts to Chase Bank — not to the publishers whose inventory they are selling. That’s led to situations like Dynamite Entertainment being owed over $1 million, and telling the court they won’t be able to make payroll for their employees if Diamond doesn’t pay.

Now, per an email from Dynamite sent to Comic Book Club, a few publishers are banding together — and they’re looking to add more — to take on this latest move from Diamond.

Along with the subject line, “Diamond Comics Distributors Inventory Motion Without Publishers Consent,” Dynamite CEO and Publisher Nick Barrucci included the following message:

“Notice to all publishers and vendors who distributed products through Diamond. Diamond or its successor entities have publicly moved to sell inventory currently in its warehouses without publishers’ consent. Several publishers are pooling their resources together to challenge these proposed sales procedures for this inventory. If you represent a company with inventory currently warehoused with Diamond or its successor entities and would like to learn more, please reach out to the following publishers who are helping to put together our group of vendors:”

Those publishers include Eric Reynolds at Fantagraphics, Peggy Burns at Drawn & Quarterly, and Barrucci. Also of note, there’s a tight timeline here, as Dynamite is currently having the matter heard in the Maryland Bankruptcy Court on July 16. So anyone who wants in, needs to let them know ASAP.

While Diamond is slowly shutting down parts of the company, and has already sold most of its assets to Universal Entertainment and Ad Populum, it still owes a ton of money to a lot of different companies. Some of the larger companies seem content — at least publicly — to absorb that cost and move on for the moment. But for smaller companies like the three mentioned above, a loss of this level of income and inventory could be apocalyptic.

We’ll have more on this as it develops — and definitely after the court date on the 16th.

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