private industry comics founded 1982 headquarters hunt valley maryland usa key people stephen a. geppi ceo chuck parker exec vp & coo larry swanson vp finance & cfo roger fletcher vp sales and marketing john wurzer vp operations chris powell vp retailer services mike schimmel sales director dan manser marketing director products comic book distribution revenue 500 million number of employees 540 website http www.diamondcomics.com diamond comic distributors inc. often called diamond comics dcd or casually diamond is the last remaining comic book distributor serving retailers in north america and worldwide since the end of the comic book distributor wars in the 1990s . they transport comic books from both big and small comic book publishers or suppliers to retailers . diamond dominates the direct market in the united states and has a distribution monopoly structured by exclusive arrangements with most major u.s. comic book publishers including dark horse comics dc comics idw publishing 1 image comics marvel comics and more . diamond is also the parent company of alliance game distributors diamond book distributors diamond uk diamond select toys gemstone publishing e. gerber products diamond international galleries hake s americana & collectibles morphy s auctions the geppi s entertainment museum and baltimore magazine diamond is the publisher of previews a monthly catalog magazine showcasing upcoming comic books graphic novels toys and other pop culture merchandise available at comic book specialty shops . the publication is available to both comic shop retailers and consumers . contents 1 history 1.1 beginnings 1.2 expansion 1.2.1 bud plant inc. 1.3 further expansion 1.4 heroes world and capital city distribution 1.4.1 antitrust litigation 1.5 international and book trade 2 criticism 3 publishing 3.1 baltimore 3.2 gemstone publishing 3.2.1 ec comics reprints 3.2.2 disney comics 3.2.3 overstreet comic book price guide 3.2.4 future 4 affiliated and subsidiary companies 4.1 diamond select toys & collectibles 4.2 diamond international galleries 4.3 geppi s entertainment museum 5 see also 6 notes 7 references 8 external links history edit in 1982 baltimore based comics retailer steve geppi founded diamond comic distributors . diamond became the successor to direct market pioneer phil seuling s distribution dream when it took over new media irjax s warehouses in 1982 . diamond further bought out early distributor bud plant inc. in 1988 and main rival capital city distribution in 1996 to assume a near monopoly on comics distribution including exclusivity deals with the major comic book publishers . beginnings edit by 1981 82 geppi had four comics retail locations and was already doing a little informal distributing ... for smaller retailers . 2 geppi found himself one of the biggest accounts for new media irjax 2 and when the distributor relocated to florida he asked geppi to service more accounts for a bigger discount . 2 one of the last loyal customers when new media began having fiscal difficulties geppi made a deal t he owner was going into retail so geppi agreed to provide new media irjax with free books for a period of time in return for his account list buying parts of the company and founding diamond comic distribution . 2 geppi had been a sub distributor for hal shuster s irjax in the late 1970s . 3 in what mile high comics chuck rozanski describes as an incredibly risky and gutsy move geppi took over new media irjax s office and warehouse space and recalled rozanski had to sort out the good customers from the bad overnight negotiating with creditors to continue shuster s distribution business as diamond comic distribution . 4 almost overnight noted rozanski h e went from being a retailer in baltimore to having warehouses all over the place . 4 geppi named his new company diamond after the imprint marvel comics used on non returnable comics and although the publisher discontinued the symbol months later the name remained . 2 diamond grew an average of 40 percent a year as comics retail took off . 2 in 1983 diamond hired an accounting firm and in 1985 hired no nonsense cpa chuck parker as diamond s first controller . 2 in 1994 diamond employee mark herr noted that this move was geppi s best decision as parker cares nothing about the comics . to him it s dollars and cents . 2 parker describes his role as smooth ing the emotion out of some decisions . steve geppi is a visionary and a risk taker ... and i tend to be more conservative . 2 expansion edit after starting his business through buying new media irjax s warehouses and offices in 1982 geppi s distribution company has bought out many other distribution companies since . many fans with little experience started rival distribution companies only to find they were in over their heads allowing geppi to buy out the smart ones or pick ... up the pieces after the stupid ones went out of business according to herr . 2 diamond was aided in his efforts by the publishers themselves . in the early 1980s marvel and dc comics provided trade terms favorable for larger distributors and those with efficient freight systems effectively play ing into the hands of the major distributors such as capital and diamond and hastening the demise of smaller distributors . 3 bud plant inc. edit most notably in 1988 geppi bought up early mail order distributor bud plant inc. 5 who had himself bought out charles abar distribution in 1982 . 6 plant had since 1970 been selling underground comics a field which geppi and fellow distributor buddy saunders had tended to steer clear of . 6 after making 19m in sales in 1987 diamond bought west coast distributor plant s business 7 in 1988 and went national 2 thereby assuming control of 40 percent of the direct sales market . 6 diamond and capital city distribution had control of at least 70 % between them . further expansion edit in 1990 diamond acquired the seattle based sub distributor destiny distribution . 8 9 destiny had been started by phil pankow in the early 1980s and was initially supplied by bud plant . also in 1990 diamond acquired oregon based second genesis distribution 8 whose operations folded in 1991 . 10 in 1991 diamond moved into the uk market acquiring pacific distribution ltd. 8 in 1992 diamond acquired the british distributor titan distributors an arm of titan entertainment group . 11 in 1994 diamond acquired staten island based distributor comics unlimited . 8 by this point diamond had 27 warehouses in the u.s. canada and the u.k. employ ing between 750 and 900 people ; operated its own trucking line ; and controlled 45 % of the market making 222 million in sales . 2 heroes world and capital city distribution edit in 1995 marvel comics challenged diamond and main rival capital city by buying the third distributor heroes world distribution and distributing its titles in house . 12 diamond reacted by outbidding capital city for exclusive deals with marvel s main rivals dc comics as well as dark horse image and archie comics . 13 capital city s response saw it sign exclusive deals with kitchen sink press and viz comics but a year later faced the choice between bankruptcy and selling out . diamond bought capital city in the summer of 1996 assuming near control of the comics distribution system . 12 14 the purchase price was not disclosed but the acquisition brought an estimated 50 million in sales revenue to diamond . 14 in early 1997 when marvel s heroes world endeavor failed diamond also forged an exclusive deal with the house of ideas 15 giving the company its own section of comics catalog previews not least because the dc dark horse image deal gave contractual prominence to those companies making geppi ... the sole king of comics industry distribution in the summer of 1996 . 4 antitrust litigation edit in 1997 diamond s position in the comics industry as the sole source of most new comics products to comics specialty shops ultimately saw the company become the subject of an investigation by the u.s. justice department for possible antitrust violations . 3 the justice department launched an antitrust investigation into the comics industry and the alleged monopoly of diamond comics . the investigation was closed in november 2000 with no further action deemed necessary 16 17 on the basis that although diamond enjoyed a monopoly in the north american comic book direct market distribution they did not enjoy a monopoly on book distribution books including non comic books . international and book trade edit in addition to having cornered the american comics distribution market diamond includes a number of subsidiary and affiliated companies . uk and european comics distribution is served by diamond uk based in runcorn england . 18 alliance game distributors inc. distributes role playing games collectible card games miniature games board games and other merchandise for gamers . 18 as well as publishing game trade magazine . 18 in 2002 diamond consolidated its book trade into diamond book distributors marketing graphic novels and trade paperbacks to bookstores including barnes & noble ingram baker & taylor amazon.com and borders . 18 criticism edit in 1983 diamond was criticized for taking exception to certain adult themed titles and scenes effectively causing the cancellation of a series called void indigo for its excessive violence . citation needed in 1987 geppi responded to a graphic childbirth scene in miracleman 9 written by alan moore . geppi wrote to retailers that diamond values its retailers too much to take chances on such a dangerous situation ... we are not censors . we no more want someone deciding for us than you do . we can not however stand by and watch the marketplace become a dumping ground for every sort of graphic fantasy that someone wants to live out . we have an industry to protect ; we have leases to abide by ; we have a community image to maintain . 4 this call for retailers to refuse to stock miracleman 19 led to accusations of censorship 20 charges the company was forced to address when it criticized or refused to carry other titles including books by kitchen sink press 21 and dave sim in 1988 21 22 23 24 jon lewis in 1994 25 and mike diana in 1996 . 26 diamond lost customers with this approach however and eventually backed down . 2 geppi recalls compromising and accepting that as a distributor i owed the retailers the product they wanted . 2 in fact in an attempt to prove diamond did not practice censorship the company joined dc comics in 1993 to raise money for the industry the first amendment advocacy group comic book legal defense fund . 27 because of its industry dominance diamond also faced charges it bullied publishers 28 and discriminated against small publishers . these charges first surfaced in 1988 when diamond rejected matt feazell s comic ant boy 29 30 and in 1989 when it similarly decided not to carry allen freeman s slam bang anthology . 31 after the industry consolidation of 1996 diamond faced similar charges in 1996 26 1999 32 and 2000 when smaller publishers like fantagraphics and drawn and quarterly lodged complaints . 33 34 35 36 publishing edit diamond s monthly comics retail catalog previews has been produced by diamond for over twenty five years for store owners and comic shop customers to order their products . it is additionally available for sale to customers to facilitate pre orders from pull and hold or subscription customers who frequent comic shops on a regular basis . comics publishers vie for space within the publication s pages with dark horse dc comics image comics and idw publishing taking precedence as premier publishers . marvel comics has its own mini catalog of marvel previews available separately for contractual reasons . geppi is also owner of gemstone publishing inc. through