In a move widely anticipated since Random House Publishing Group acquired BOOM! Studios in August (see “Random House Completes BOOM! Acquisition”), PRH has announced that it will assume distribution of BOOM! Studios titles to all channels next summer. The direct market will be handled by the Penguin Random House Direct Market and International sales teams, and the book channel by Penguin Random House Adult sales. BOOM!’s direct market distribution is currently handled by Diamond Comic Distributors, and its book channel distribution by Simon & Schuster.
“Everyone at BOOM! Studios is incredibly grateful for the many years of dedicated support and service we have received from both Diamond Comic Distributors and Simon & Schuster,” BOOM! Studios President, Executive Director of Business Management & Publishing Operations Jen Harned said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “We cannot overstate how critical both partnerships have been in building our business in the direct comic book, book trade, library, international, and mass markets. As we integrate BOOM! Studios’ operations with Penguin Random House, taking full advantage of our new parent’s scale and global reach, we remain appreciative of all they continue to do for the comic and graphic book industry.”
In April, we asked BOOM! Studios then-President of Publishing and Marketing Filip Sablik why it was sticking with Diamond after five other large publishers had moved (see “ICv2 Interview: Filip Sablik”). “Part of what we weighed was the long‑term impact of everybody shifting their business around, and doing what was in their best interest in the near term,” he answered. “We felt like we had a really good relationship, to begin with, with Diamond and that they were really interested in working with us to make sure that they were supporting us in the way that we needed them to. We felt that in the long term, a healthy direct market included a healthy and strong Diamond, so we wanted to support them in return.” That calculation changed under the company’s new ownership.
The move continues the migration of Diamond Comic Distributors’ largest comic publisher clients to other options; BOOM! is the sixth of its top seven suppliers to transition to another primary distributor. Image Comics was the most recent; they moved to Lunar Distribution last fall (see “Image Goes with Lunar”). Diamond has continued to offer the products of all of its former publisher clients as a secondary distributor with the exception of DC, which is exclusive to Lunar in the U.S.
Dynamite Entertainment is now the final remaining publisher client of Diamond’s top seven comic publishers remaining with the company as its primary distributor.
Of the six comic publishers that have moved their distribution, Penguin Random House has picked up four (Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW, and now BOOM!), and Lunar Distribution two (DC and Image).
Source: ICv2
