Diamond Comic Distributors is indefinitely suspending new comic book orders from being shipped to its warehouse.
Diamond is the comic book direct market’s largest distributor, responsible for shipping books from DC and other major publishers. This means that only books currently in their distribution warehouse will be sent to retailers. What happens after that is unknown at this point in time.
How long before printed comic books are inaccessible? Will digital books still be available if their printed counterparts aren’t? We will have to wait and see.
DC Comics will no doubt issue a press release before too long. Watch this space!
Source: ComicBook.com
In a statement released today, Diamond CEO Steve Geppi explained:
Product distributed by Diamond and slated for an on-sale date of April 1st or later will not be shipped to retailers until further notice. For the time being, however, we have been able to develop procedures with our teams at the distribution center in Olive Branch, MS to safely continue fulfillment of direct ship reorders for the retailers who are able to receive new product and need it to service their customers. It’s unlikely that orders will be filled on the same day they are placed, and these plans are subject to change if any point we no longer feel that we can safeguard our teams while fulfilling orders.
Product distributed by Diamond UK and slated for an on-sale date of March 25th or later will not be shipped to retailers until further notice. Further updates with regard to reorders and other Diamond UK-specific information will be communicated directly to their customers as information becomes available.
With the increasing levels of “lock down” in effect in the UK I was going to struggle to get to the store anyway, but now all nine essential shops have to close until further notice.
My concern is that publishers may still want an income and continue to publish digitally. More readers might then move to digital and never go back. I hope this isn’t the case as I think there is something special about holding a reading an actual comic.
I do think that this virus will affect a lot of comic book retailers unfortunately. This thing is affecting all parts of Superman’s franchise. If there were any movies planned, production would probably be halted. As for the upcoming Superman and Lois show, as far as I know there is no word on if they will delay production. That could change if things don’t get better. Now it looks like Superman comics won’t be moving around for a while. Digital comics could be an option for buyers. I prefer an actual comic though. I don’t know. It does look pretty… Read more »
Here in Fort Worth, all “non-essential” stores are ordered closed. No comics for me until the powers that be consider it safe.