Devil's Due Press Leaves Diamond

Rich Johnston is reporting that Devil's Due is pulling all distribution of their product through Diamond Distributors. (official press release from Josh Blaylock)

Some fans are quick to paint this move and the problems Devil's Due has had as being entirely their fault.

I'd beg to differ.

Johnston indicates that there are claims that Diamond has lost a considerable amount of DDP's product over the last year. That has hurt their ability to try to reverse their shrinking presence in the market and pay off their debts.

But that's not where I'm placing some of the blame at Diamond's feet.

I'm talking Hack/Slash #16 & #17.

Re-Animator-gate.

Where Nick Barrucci was part of a group that sent what appeared to possibly be a baseless cease & desist letter, claiming that they owned the copyright to a logo used for the Re-Animator character. Some attributed Diamond's immediate cow-towing to Dynamite having a much cozier relationship with them than Devil's Due Press, seeing as how Diamond's Director of Purchasing had written the Dynamite Entertainment Army of Darkness Vs. Re-Animator mini-series.

Hack/Slash was the biggest title DDP was putting out at the time. Diamond being so willing to put a huge obstacle in its way due to a frivolous cease and desist letter had to be damaging to DDP's business and, obviously, their relationship with the distributor. They were, also, hit hard by the loss of the GI Joe license to IDW, but this legal problem was not their fault in the slightest and only amplified by Diamond's actions.

You can argue how much or how little Diamond siding with Dynamite's play contributed to DDP falling on tough times, but that it played a part is not open to dispute.