2025 has been off to a rocky start for the comic book industry with Diamond Comic Distributors‘ announcement they were declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy. While many companies come out stronger after such legal move, many fear this is a sign Diamond will go under impacting not just comic shops and those they owe, but especially smaller comic publishers who may not find other comic distributors as welcoming. Still, that hasn’t stopped Massive Publishing from announcing they are ending their exclusive partnership with Diamond Comic Distributors.

Massive begins their statement focused on the debts Diamond owes, amounting to somewhere between $50 million and $100 million according to court filings. Some of that debt is owed to Massive for books shipping in the fourth quarter of 2024. While those comics have since been sold to retailers, Massive hasn’t seen its portion of the revenue. It’s money they’re out in printing and shipping to Diamond. The money owned may not be paid for some time and a fraction of what’s owed.

Massive has announced, with advice from their counsel, that there is risk in continuing to provide Diamond with product while they operate under Chapter 11. With that, the publisher has ended their exclusive distribution deal with Diamond.

What does this mean? Massive will:

1. Solicit its monthly comics through Diamond on a non-exclusive basis, once they’ve established that payments have begun for product already shipped
2. That will cause a delay for numerous releases
3. New trade paperbacks won’t be offered through Diamond for the foreseeable future but will be available through other channels like Simon & Schuster
4. Re-order trade paperback products for existing titles are still available through Diamond

Questions are raised by this decision as for how it impacts creators who may rely on sales for some of their income.

Expect more decisions like this in the near future. You can read Massive’s full statement below: