The Four Color Media Monitor

Comic Book Club announces Udon Entertainment, notable for their comics adaptations based on Street Fighter, is one of the latest companies to stop working with the now bankrupt Diamond Distribution:

UDON Entertainment is the latest company to cut ties with Diamond Comic Distributors. The company announced late last night (May 29) that both UDON and Manga Classics Inc. will no longer ship product through the bankrupt company.

“With the current state of uncertainty and lack of communication from the new owners to both retailers as well as many publishers, we have to do what is best to serve our customers,” said UDON Chief of Operations Erik Ko via a press release provided to Comic Book Club. “We realize this is a deep inconvenience for many retailers, but we’re trying to do our best to serve our partners and fans, while minimizing risk and moving forward in an uncertain time.”

Good for them. But it'll be even more promising if I hear news of publishers who want to make the switch to paperback/hardcover only. For now, after so many years where Diamond surely did more harm than good in distribution and marketing, that's why all realists in publishing should stop relying on Diamond services to deliver their comics and other products around. There's serious need for competition, and this is the perfect time to find the best multiple distributors going forward, and there definitely are some who're far more reliable than Diamond ever turned out to be.

Labels: indie publishers, licensed products, manga and anime, sales