When Chuck Rozanski Met With The Division Of Justice About Diamond

Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Present Information | Tagged: chuck rozanski, diamond

When Chuck Rozanski of Mile Excessive Comics met with the Division Of Justice about Diamond Comedian Distributors having a monopoly

Whereas we proceed to dive into the paperwork across the Chapter 11 chapter of Diamond Comedian Distributors, Mile Excessive Comics boss Chuck Rozanski remembers the time when Diamond was investigated of being a monopoly by the US authorities. And revealing his beforehand unknown participation in that investigation. He writes on social media;

“Regardless of my long-standing friendship with Steve Geppi, I seen his ascension to monopoly energy as a possible risk to my very own enterprise, so I organized to satisfy with the investigators at the US Division of Justice who had already opened a file on Diamond’s potential monopolistic actions. I met of their Washington, DC headquarters with the top of the Federal Anti-Belief Division (and her associates), and we had a frank two-hour dialogue of the ramifications of Geppi’s new monopoly upon each comedian guide retailers, and (extra broadly) upon comedian guide readers. On the finish of these discussions, I used to be requested to instantly report any egregious hurt that Geppi’s new monopoly was inflicting. This by no means grew to become needed, as I drove instantly after my assembly with DOJ to Timonium, Maryland to satisfy with Steve Geppi. I needed to let him know personally that I had been tasked by DOJ to maintain a cautious eye on Diamond’s future actions. He assured me that no hurt would ever happen, and for essentially the most half, he was appropriate. Or, on the very least, Diamond’s monopoly finally created an important many constructive outcomes for comics publishers and retailers, which for a very long time helped to offset the negatives.”

On the time, Diamond Comedian Distributors completely distributed Marvel, DC, Picture, Darkish Horse, IDW, Acclaim and extra. In 1997, this noticed Diamond turn out to be the topic of an investigation by the U.S. Justice Division for doable antitrust violation, and the Justice Division launched an antitrust investigation into the comics trade and the alleged monopoly of Diamond Comics. The investigation was closed in 2000, with no additional motion deemed needed as, though Diamond loved a monopoly within the North American comedian guide direct market distribution, they didn’t take pleasure in a monopoly on guide distribution. Chuck continues;

“Additional contact by me with these anti-trust investigators by no means grew to become needed, as Steve truly did a remarkably good job of preserving his ambitions in examine after his ascension to whole management of distribution within the comedian guide world. Fact be instructed, he actually did reign as fairly a benevolent despot, with Diamond changing into the “lender of final resort” that supplied darn close to limitless credit score to comics retailers (and in addition some smaller publishers) that they deemed of important significance. I used to be a direct beneficiary of this monetary assist on a number of events, with Steve intervening personally together with his credit score division to maintain Mile Excessive Comics in enterprise throughout a few of our very darkest hours. With out the slightest shred of doubt, Mile Excessive Comics wouldn’t exist right this moment with out Steve Geppi having helped us within the distant previous.”

Who watched the watchmen? Seems Chuck Rozanski did. However he did see sure issues coming.

“That having been stated, the economics of the brand new comedian guide enterprise grew to become harder starting about twenty years in the past, with rising cowl costs enormously growing the chance (and detrimental penalties) of unsold copies. We additionally started to undergo underneath a plethora of recent prices and charges from Diamond, together with the imposition of very excessive freight prices, and a gut-wrenching 18% annual rate of interest (compounded weekly) on all backdebt. These staggeringly excessive prices imposed by Diamond had been (regrettably) among the many elements that darn close to bankrupted us. I responded to those new dangers and really debilitating working prices by progressively (over a span of greater than a decade) lowering our gross sales of recent comics by a staggering 90%. This backing away slowly from my dependence upon my 5 million {dollars} a 12 months in new comics revenues (and thus, my entanglements with Diamond Distributing) saved my firm, as we had been finally capable of completely repay all of our backdebt with Diamond, whereas changing a lot of our voluntarily-relinquished new comics gross sales quantity with secondary market/collectibles revenues that proved to be vastly much less dangerous. I used to be nonetheless buying some comics and comedian guide provides by Diamond as not too long ago as final week, however solely at a tiny fraction of our quantity of twenty years in the past.”

He concluded by saying,

“Diamond Comedian Distributors was not at all an ideal (or overtly benevolent) company, however the reality is that underneath Steve Geppi’s steerage, a second Golden Age of comics publishing was nurtured and inspired to thrive. Whether or not you cheer the information of Diamond’s demise, or shed a tear, please do perceive that I personally very a lot doubt that our fantastic world of comedian books will ever once more be so blessed as we had been throughout the a long time when Steve Geppi managed a lot of our collective destinies. That’s the reason I honor him right this moment, and thank him for all that he completed for us. All of us who love comics and sequentially story-telling been really blessed to have had Steve Geppi play such an important function in our lives.”

There’s much more present points to dig into, however having a perspective on what got here earlier than is a really helpful factor.

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