There’s been a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to Diamond‘s chapter 11 filing and the purchase of its assets by Universal Distribution and Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop. The Ad Hoc Committee of Consignors has submitted a motion that lifts the veil a bit and gives clues as to some of those answers.
The Ad Hoc Committee of Consignors is a group of creditors, aka publishers, impacted by Diamond’s chapter 11 and also Diamond’s motion to try to sell consignment goods to help pay back its debts. The committee includes Ablaze, American Mythology, Avatar Press, Battle Quest, Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, Green Ronin, Hermes Press, Living the Line, Paizo, Udon Entertainment, and Zenescope.
At the heart of this motion is the question as to whether anyone can legally sell goods still held by Diamond and if Ad Populum or Universal Distribution properly continued any of the previous Diamond contracts.
In short, who the hell are currently selling and profiting from the comics and games being “sold by Diamond”?
Sit back, because this is a doozy of a filing and we’re going to try to break it down with bullet points for ease and the really interesting parts are in bold…
- Diamond filed its bankruptcy on January 14, 2025 and on January 21 put in a motion to sell its assets
- On May 1, Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop and Universal Distribution won the bidding prosses for the assets
- On June 10, Diamond filed a notice of the sales closing with each closed in mid-May
- Goods held on consignment by Diamond were excluded from the inventory sold to Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop and Universal Distribution
- Spark Pop was given 20 business days after closing to decide what contracts it would continue and that includes the contracts (consignors) between Diamond and the publishers
- Diamond nor Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop filed motions to have the “Consignors’ Contracts assumed and assigned.” This ended in early June 2025
- Universal Distribution did include assumed contracts in its sale closing which was filed a month after closing. That included Green Ronin Publishing and a distribution agreement with Paizo. But, the purchase agreement and sale order didn’t identify any assigned contracts, so there’s some paperwork issues there.
- On June 25, 2025, Diamond filed a motion to sell the consigned inventory it has.
- After, there were a lot of objections to that consignment sale.
- On April 17, Titan Publishing Group filed an emergency motion to compel Diamond to assume or reject its distribution agreement with Titan
- On May 16, 2025, Diamond filed a motion objecting to Titan’s motion.
Got all that? In short, no one has filed the paperwork properly to assume or reject the contracts that existed between Diamond and the publishers.
There’s more interesting details…
On May 27, an email was sent to publishers stating the Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop and Universal Distribution were responsible for all sales activity after May 16 and Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop’s Diamond was a new entity. The Ad Hoc’s motion states that the email sent misled the publishers that the “Asset Sale to Sparke Pop was actually a sale of ownership, because it indicated that Diamond continued to operate under the ownership of a new buyer.”
What’s interesting is that that email says Ad Populum is responsible for new stock, but never took over any stock and that the legacy consignment stock continued to be sold… by someone.
And that’s what is at the heart of this motion, who is selling the stock that Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop and Universal didn’t purchase. Diamond isn’t providing information concerning that.
The May E-Mail confirms that the Stock continued to be sold by someone after the Sparkle Pop and/or UDL sales closed, but it is unclear who is selling the Stock. The Debtor has confirmed that it has not sold stock after May 15, 2025, but has declined to voluntarily provide any information to the Consignors as to who sold Stock after May 15, 2025, which Stock was sold, or what payments remain due and owing to the Consignors on account of
the sales. The Debtors have declined to voluntarily provide any information to the Consignors as to how any party other than the Diamond Distributor Debtor could sell Stock without a properly assumed and assigned agreement to do so.
The motion has amounts that are owned to each of the publishers. The 12 publishers are owed at least $555,971.84. But, that amount is unknown and likely higher since Diamond isn’t providing up-to-date reporting as to what’s sold or collected, so that amount may be higher.
The motion goes on further to poke holes in Diamond’s plan to sell the consignment stock and that there are outstanding obligations.
It’s asking for the status of these contracts to be determined and done so soon and the consignors what the contracts to be terminated when if Diamond rejects the contracts.
They’re also conducting discovery to find out who sold the stock after the May 15 sale to Ad Populum/Sparkle Pop.
Buckle up, this is going to get very interesting!
Read all of the filings below:
