Von Allan's art, comics and graphic novels: Leigh Tyberg

As those of you who follow the Direct Market know, Diamond Comic Distributors has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. Long time watchers of the comic book industry will understand just how surprising of a development this is. For those that don’t, I’ll try and explain.

Once upon a time, Diamond was the distributor for comics in North America and the United Kingdom. That was after the distribution market consolidated around Diamond in the 1980s; prior to that, there was a great deal of regional distribution with comics. Distributors such as Sea Gate, Pacific Comics (both as a publisher and a distributor), Capital City, and — here in Canada — Styx, Andromeda, and Multi-Book among others. Even when Diamond had a quasi-monopoly (and they were actually investigated back in 2000!), other distributors still tried to come and go. My personal favourite was Cold Cut, who I ordered from pretty regularly back in my bookstore days. Another was FM International. Both Cold Cut and FM International were pretty quirky, distributing indy and small press titles that Diamond either didn’t distribute or tended to disappear in their cavernous catalogues. And both are long gone now.

Due to Diamond’s Chapter 11 situation, a number of writers have written extensively on what Diamond was and what the changes in Direct Market distribution since June 2020 have wrought with the company. I don’t want to retread that ground. Instead, I wanted to discuss my own experiences with Diamond, partially because I think it shows some of the problems that Diamond had with small accounts and partially because some of these issues go back prior to 2020.

As a publisher, I have an account with Diamond and have had one since 2010. My Purchasing Brand Manager at that time was Jay Spence. Jay was awesome and quite supportive; with his help I was able to get my two-book graphic novel series, STARGAZER, into Diamond’s catalogue Previews. (Book 1 in the November 2010 issue with item code NOV101057 and Book 2 in the August 2011 issue with item code AUG111259).

STARGAZER VOLUME 1 spotlight from Diamond Previews

While these two books were admittedly pretty rough, though not quite as rough as first graphic novel “the road to god knows…” was, Jay’s encouragement and Diamond’s support led to decent sales for my little black and white graphic novel series. And STARGAZER is still in print and continues to sell to this day, something I’m always a little surprised about.

It would have been ideal to follow-up STARGAZER with something else lickety-split, but I knew that I needed to become stronger. And life sometimes takes us in odd and surprising directions, and some of that happened to. At any rate, time passed and when I was finally ready to approach Diamond again, this time in 2018 with my ongoing series full colour series WOLF’S HEAD, I ran into problems.

The first is that Jay had left Diamond to join Dynamite. All well and good. What was less good was that I was having trouble reaching folks at Diamond. Any folks. Emails went unanswered. I actually wound up tracking Jay down at Dynamite and he managed to connect me with the right person. That person was Leigh Tyberg and this is where things get interesting.

I’ve saved my email correspondence with Leigh, because the emails are a great example about how Diamond and their Purchasing Brand Managers worked. Or, in this case, failed to work, something you’ll see in a moment. To be very clear, the Purchasing Brand Manager acts as a Gate Keeper; they’re the ones who — presumably with discussion with other folks in the Purchasing Department — decide whether or not to carry a title. As I noted above, Jay Spence was incredibly supportive of both myself and STARGAZER, something I’m grateful for to this day. Leigh? Well, you’ll see.

When it came to presenting WOLF’S HEAD to Diamond for distribution, I had high hopes. I had grown a lot as both an artist and a writer and I thought the plan I presented to Diamond was fairly strong; WOLF’S HEAD would be published in 60 page graphic novel volumes, each volume having an ISBN and a spine. The inspiration for this approach, by the by, was actually a title from Dark Horse Comics, a retelling of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON by Art Adams. At 52 pages, it was “meatier” then a normal saddle-stitched comic but still affordable. And I liked the format of that book quite a bit.

My decision was also influenced by how Diamond worked. Very quickly, comics and graphic novels distributed by Diamond have to meet a minimum sales threshold. This threshold, called the Purchase Order Benchmark, was originally set at $1,500.00 US but was raised to $2,500.00 US in 2009. Note that was not at retail price but at wholesale. As George Gene Gustines at the New York Times pointed out at the time, “a $2.95 comic book would have to receive a minimum order of 2,100 copies” (2,100 × $2.95 = $6,195.00; since Diamond takes a 60% cut of the retail price, 40% of $6,195.00 is $2,478.00, very close to the Purchase Order Benchmark). This sent shock waves through the industry (hell, so much so that the New York Times commented on it!). Part of the reason this was so monumental was that it marked a significant change from how the benchmark used to work. As Diamond noted back in 2007, “Diamond’s benchmark for comic books solicited through Previews is $2,500 retail.” The new benchmark was actually $6,250 (!) retail, because $6,250 × 40% = (you guessed it) $2,500! That’s a 150% increase, the main reason that small press publishers of saddle-stitched comics at the time were freaking out.

WOLF’S HEAD, as a trade paperback with a higher price point, would have to sell less copies per volume then a normal saddle-stitched comic to reach Diamond’s Purchase Order Benchmark. And having an ISBN for each volume would allow me to access online retailers like Amazon as well as “brick and mortar” bookstores. More venues matter. As it turns out, the online retailers have been a huge part of why I’ve managed to continue publishing WOLF’S HEAD to this day.

It’s important to remember that Direct Market retailers (aka “comic book shops”) have to buy their titles non-returnably. So they are always rolling the dice on small press titles, especially small press titles from unknown — or even lesser known — creators. That makes them understandably gun-shy, especially when they own their mistakes — literally. Unlike bookstores, they can’t return their titles for credit (and while there have been some changes in this regard more recently, this was the case I faced with both STARGAZER and WOLF’S HEAD). So comic shops are, broadly speaking, pretty reticent to buy small press titles, though obviously there are many individual exceptions to this. While it may seem that a lower price point helps here, it actually doesn’t. If a supportive retailer is going to purchase a title, they are probably only going to purchase it in low quantities regardless of what the price point is. They might waffle; maybe they’d buy four or five copies of a $2.99 US title and only two copies of a $9.99 US title, but it’s likely to be around that (obviously this is anecdotal, but I’m partially basing it on my own purchasing habits when I was buyer at the bookstore I managed).

At any rate, this is the situation I faced when I initially reached out to Leigh and Diamond. You can see my initial email to Jay below. Since his reply was from his Dynamite email address, prudence dictates that I probably shouldn’t replicate it here (that or redact it heavily!). The key point is that he did manage to connect me to the correct person, as you will see in a moment. Oh, and as always I should add that Von Allan is my pen name; Eric is my real name. So when you see those references, you’ll know who is being spoken of.

My initial email to Jay Spence at Diamond Comic Distributors regarding my ongoing graphic novel series Wolf's Head

What follows is my correspondence with Leigh Tyberg, my Purchasing Brand Manager. I’ll let that speak for itself. The only thing I’ll add is please note the dates of the various emails.

My initial email to Leigh Tyberg at Diamond Comic Distributors regarding my ongoing graphic novel series Wolf's Head

Leigh Tyberg at Diamond Comic Distributors initial response to me my ongoing graphic novel series Wolf's Head

Leigh Tyberg at Diamond Comic Distributors second response to me my ongoing graphic novel series Wolf's Head

Leigh Tyberg at Diamond Comic Distributors third response to me my ongoing graphic novel series Wolf's Head

My first attempt to receive a reply from Leigh Tyberg at Diamond Comic Distributors about my ongoing graphic novel series Wolf's Head

My final attempt to receive a reply from Leigh Tyberg at Diamond Comic Distributors about my ongoing graphic novel series Wolf's Head

And that’s where it ended. Leigh (and Diamond) ghosted me. The key thing that’s amazing about this is that Leigh and Diamond never formally rejected WOLF’S HEAD. Obviously they never accepted it, either. Ghosting can be destructive behaviour when one experiences it personally. But when a business does it? When a business that has a stranglehold on the Direct Market — which Diamond had at the time — does it? Well, at least with a rejection you know where you stand. I’ve been rejected boatloads of times. It ain’t fun, but you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep going. But the waiting, wondering if you’ll hear back? Wondering if the ghosting is just something else? That’s awful.

To this day I don’t know what happened. I debated pestering Leigh and Diamond again, but eventually COVID started and the distribution side of the industry exploded. And like many folks with COVID, I experienced a personal loss that put the brakes on a lot of things.

That said, I also don’t hold any animosity towards Leigh or even Diamond, though I’d be lying if I said that the experience wasn’t frustrating. Ghosting isn’t fun, but life goes on. I’m disappointed that Diamond — apparently — had no interest in distributing WOLF’S HEAD, but I’m also pleased that I’m in no way affected by their recent Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing. Despite it all, Leigh is still listed at Diamond as a Purchasing Brand Manager.

The funny thing about the whole experience was that, in the intervening years, I kept working on WOLF’S HEAD and I kept growing. That led to receiving two separate $4,000.00 grants from the City of Ottawa for my work on the series, being shortlisted for a Peter Honeywell award for my work on it, and finding an audience despite the lack of access by Diamond. Despite it all, WOLF’S HEAD still continues and I’m having a helluva good time doing it.

Who knows, perhaps Diamond will rise like a phoenix and be reborn into something new. Or perhaps after consolidating so much of the distribution side of the Direct Market, they won’t rebound at all. If so, perhaps their fall will be a cautionary tale of what can happen when a company with so much going for it forgets that, at the end of the day, it’s human beings that make a difference. And it’s human beings, both inside Diamond and out, that matter.