Diamond UK has signed agreements with Image Comics and UDON Entertainment for distribution to the UK and EU book and comic markets, the companies announced. The Image agreement is a three-year deal beginning on August 1. An employee group acquired Diamond UK from Diamond Comic Distributors last summer (see “Diamond UK to Employee Group”).
Under the new agreement, Diamond UK will buy directly from Image; previously it had sourced Image titles from Lunar Distribution. The relationship with Lunar began in early 2025 after the Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy, when Image stopped supplying Diamond UK via Diamond Comic Distributors. Image had been exclusive with Lunar for the U.S. direct market since 2023 (see “Image Goes Exclusive with Lunar”), but had continued to supply Diamond’s UK branch.
“Here at Diamond UK we were all very aware of the extremely difficult situation that Image (and almost all U.S. publishers) were faced with regarding the UK market when Diamond U.S. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and we were determined to continue working together to maintain supply to our UK and International markets without any publisher facing further losses or complications and with as little disruption as possible to our UK accounts,” Diamond UK General Manager Mike Holman said of the interim arrangement through Lunar.
Holman noted the operational improvements the new Image relationship will provide. “This new direct deal with Image Comics will give us back the extra time needed to return our working week back to as close as it was before January 2025, which will undoubtedly improve all aspects of our business,” he said.
This step continues the diversification of Image’s distributor roster; it announced that it was adding Universal Distribution to Lunar for the North American direct market last month (see “Universal Joins Lunar as Image Distributor“).
Diamond UK has also added UDON Entertainment, including Manga Classics, as a direct supplier.
Source: ICv2
