Diamond Plans to Begin Shipping Comics to Stores Next Month

Diamond plans to begin shipping comics to stores next month as they continue with their plan to re-establish distribution by the end of May. Ryan Higgins, a comic book retailer, and owner of Comics Conspiracy in Sunnyvale, CA tweeted about the new ordering page coming online for the distributor. This would allow retail accounts to order DC titles due to be shipped by Diamond on the 20th of May. More information from Higgins describes the titles available with a Final Order Cut-off, or FOC, of Monday, are the same ones that DC had announced would be available through Lunar and UCS distribution. Those titles will also be available on digital platforms starting April 28.

Before that ordering page went live, Diamond's parent company Geppi Family Enterprises began informing retailers through an "urgent notice" that they would need to submit new DC order quantities soon. The publisher's request states that Monday at noon is the deadline and reiterates their intent to get this thing going by the end of May at the latest.

"DC Comics will be releasing these products through other sources prior to our distribution, but we will have inventory to fill your orders in our first shipment," the letter read.

It's official: new DC Comics titles are on FOC for Diamond Comics, orders due this Monday for books shipping on 5/20 (same list as the books we're getting from Lunar over the next few weeks). We're expecting all other publishers on FOC next week for 5/20.

— Ryan Higgins (@RyanHigginsRyan) April 25, 2020

This all comes after Diamond announced that it would stop accepting new products to distribute earlier this month. In addition, the distributor would be temporarily be withholding payments to publishers as cash flow started to manifest.

"Besides the industry's most immediate needs, we have been and will continue looking toward the future, when we see stores reopening, bringing staff back on board, and getting customers in the door," Diamond's Steve Geppi said in a previous statement. "We are looking at issues like debt accrued due to this crisis, what reduced ordering means for your discount tiers, and the availability of credit to help stores through and after this difficult time. We don't have all those answers today, but we understand the many issues you are facing and look forward to addressing them as partners who all have an interest in the long-term health of the industry we love so much."

The DC Comics from April start shipping next week with the new distributors or May 20th from Diamond (all at once, it seems). Other companies we don't know, but I dont see Diamond ONLY shipping DC titles.

— Ryan Higgins (@RyanHigginsRyan) April 26, 2020

Cover image by Douglas Graham/Roll Call/Getty Images