Until 2020 Diamond Comic Distributors had a decades-long near-monopoly as supplier of comics & merchandise to the North American direct market. This changed following the arrival of COVID-19 when many of the biggest publishers signed deals with new distributors. Yesterday Diamond announced that it had filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.

Over the years Diamond has been criticised by creators, retailers, consumers, and publishers for the power it wielded over the market. However, the exodus of major publishers, led by DC, also sparked concerns from retailers, including San Francisco’s Brian Hibbs, about the affect weakened Diamond would have on North America’s approximately 2000+ comic retailers.

Supplemental Links
How Do I Comic Shop? Everything anyone would need to know about buying comics by Matt Brady, 2022
ICv2’s Comics Direct Market 50th Anniversary, a stonking collection of articles and interviews, 2023
Comic Stores and Diamond Distributors Clash as Industry Reopens, https://bsky.app/profile/graemem.bsky.social">Graeme McMillan, 2020
Should Comics Keep It Direct? by Brigid Alverson, 2024
3-hour Comic Industry Insiders interview with Brian Hibbs, YouTube/Podbean, recorded just before Diamond’s announcement

Supplemental FPPs
The Rise and Fall of the Comic Industry’s Direct Market and Other Stories
15-year-old FPP by some handsome guy presenting a history of the direct market by The Comics Journal. Most if not all of the links are dead, but the comments are great. Archive.org scrapes of the primary links:
Part 1 Fine Young Cannibals:How Phil Seuling and a Generation of Teenage Entrepreneurs Created the Direct Market and Changed the Face of Comics
Part 2 Black and White and Dead All Over
Part 3 Suicide Club: How greed and stupidity disemboweled the American comic-book industry in the 1990s

[Before Carol] People Were Making Change Out of Tackle Boxes Remembrances of Carol Kalish, whose 1980s tenure as Marvel Comics' Direct Sales Manager made an indelible impact on the industry

H/T: Metafilter