Diamond Comic Distributors had been having a bad go of things lately from losing publishers to competitors and warehouse delays, but I didn't realize it was this dreary. Yes, Diamond just declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This is not Chapter 13, which is where you're totally out of business and shut down. This is the kind intended to help an organization reorganize and recover, but it is still clearly bad.
People are worried. The folk Diamond owes money to are concerned, smaller publishers who distribute their comics exclusively via Diamond as opposed to PRH or Lunar are upset and this is going to be incredibly messy before it gets better. Everyone always liked to grumble about Diamond--with good reason--but if they suddenly exit the distribution market (and it isn't just comics as they handle a lot of toys and such too) it leaves a major crater that drastically impacts many publishers, comic stores, and so forth. This is bad, and anyone cheering for the possible downfall of Diamond (as some are doing) is immensely short-sighted. Regardless of Diamond's many faults, it is an important player in the comic business. Hopefully, assets can be sold/acquired in a manner that will help keep everything humming along with little to no disruption. At least, not much more than there already has been at Diamond.
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