Marvel and Penguin Random House have entered into a multi-year deal with Penguin Random House to distribute comic books and graphic novels to comic book shops.
I bet Steve Geppi of Diamond Comic Distributors wishes he hadn’t decided to abuse his monopoly on comic distribution last year by not distributing comics. Not only did he fail to distribute comics, but he also refused to pay the publishers the money he owed them. Instead, he created a payment plan and forced publishers to accept it.
As the industry’s only distributor, what were publishers going to do, go to the competitor? Steve Geppi had no competitors.
DC Comics responded by helping create two new distributors and then going exclusive with them.
I’m not surprised Marvel chose to go this route. I’m surprised they didn’t set up a new distributor like DC Comics did.
For Geppi’s sake, I hope he saved some of the money he made from the “Back the Comeback” grift. It looks like Diamond Comic Distributors’ days are numbered.