Currents
8 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY FEBRUARY 2, 2026
IPG has been aggressive in targeting publishers that were previously with Diamond’s book distribution arm, in an effort to bulk up its once marginal graphic novels business. IPG has signed nine publishers since it began direct- market distribution of graphic novels in September 2025. The company will also distribute graphic novels to library channels, as it does with other formats. “We already had some really great graphic novel and manga publishers, and it was a growing category for us,” said IPG CEO Joe Matthews. Once Diamond started wob- bling, he added, IPG began actively courting its clients and “suggesting they consider using us for distribution.” Matthews also had the sales team call up 350 comics shops around the country to gauge their interest in partnering and started sending them IPG’s bimonthly catalog. SHP Comics had been using Diamond for its fledgling graphic novels business and Lunar for floppies when the former collapsed. SHP signed with IPG for graphic novels distribution last month. Founder Shawn Hainsworth said he’s particularly excited about using IPG to find new readers through libraries. YA fantasy, sci-fi, and action-adventure graphic novels publisher Battle Quest Comics also signed a bookstore distribution deal with IPG last month. Andrew Kafoury, BQC’s publisher and creator of its flagship title No’Madd: The Unconquerable , is hopeful that the deal, BQC’s first for books, will boost sales. “I think the direct market is going to be served very well by IPG, because IPG cares about getting quality stories out to people,” he said. Kafoury noted that some indie publishers, including BQC, were not large enough to be accepted by Lunar. “I feel like IPG is stepping in to make sure that those smaller publishers don’t get lost,” he said. Without a doubt, distribution for small publishers has become more difficult in recent years. As book prices fail to keep up with rising costs, small distributors have been forced to consolidate and drop low-price formats, including mass market paperbacks and floppy comics. The economics of floppy comics in particular makes that format untenable for IPG to carry, Matthews explained. After 53 years in the business, IPG is now the “last full- service independent distributor that covers all channels,” Matthews said. But like other distributors, it’s facing head- winds, and in August it laid off some employees and cut titles from its publishing arm. “We think independent publishing is critical for a great culture,” Matthews said. “Very often it’s the small publisher that discovers an author who, by their third or fourth book, maybe is picked up by a huge house with a huge advance, but they would have never gotten their start without a dis- tributor willing to take risks on an indie startup publisher.” Indies still face many challenges in the post-Diamond world, Hainsworth said. “It’s hard. There’s not one distribu- tor that’s doing all the things that Diamond did, and the industry wasn’t robust enough with other distributors.” He added, “I think there’s a real reshuffling going on now.” —SAM SPRATFORD
COMICS RELIEF
In the wake of Diamond’s bankruptcy, Independent Publishers Group is gunning to become the next go-to distributor for graphic novels IPG EYES GRAPHIC MARKET
IPG has made a concerted effort in the past few months to work with more comics shops as it expands its graphic novel distribution program.
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INCE Diamond Comic Distributors filed for Chapter 11 bank- ruptcy last January, the direct sales market for comics has been in turmoil, with publishers that relied on Diamond left to fend for themselves. A handful of companies have stepped in to pick up the pieces as the distributor, which once held a near monopoly on the direct market, continues to be embroiled in messy, drawn-out legal pro- ceedings, making it something of a punch line among industry insiders. Unsurprisingly, Lunar Distribution, a comics distributor
and longtime competitor of Diamond’s, has been quick to snap up former Diamond clients, signing Mad Cave Studios, Massive Publishing, and Vault Comics, among others, in early 2025.
But another, less expected entrant is looking to fill the Diamond-shaped void: Independent Publishers Group. One of the nation’s oldest distributors of indie presses, IPG didn’t have a significant presence in the comics space, until now. Jeremy Atkins, a comics marketing veteran who works for several of IPG’s client presses, said
IPG CEO Joe Matthews
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