On April 17, Diamond Comic Distributors -- currently shut down due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic -- announced its plans to tentatively resume business by mid-to-late-May. Shortly thereafter, DC announced it would bring print books back to participating comic shops beginning April 28. Now, CBR has confirmed DC is doing this not through its exclusive deal with Diamond but with two new distributors.
DC informed retailers that Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributors will be distributing its new print titles, beginning with those going on sale April 28. Notably, Lunar and UCS -- both having seemingly shown up from nowhere -- are sister companies of Discount Comic Book Services and Midtown Comics, respectively, which both specialize in mail-order (though Midtown also has a number of storefronts).
After DC announced its April 28 return, Diamond issued another statement saying, "We value our partnership with DC and will continue to support them as a distributor. Our focus is squarely on getting our industries’ entertainment products in the hands of fans as quickly and as safely as possible. As we shared this morning with our vendors and retailers, we are currently building our restart plans and targeting mid- to late-May to being shipping new weekly product. If we see signs that it is safe to resume shipping earlier, we certainly will. However, with the limited number of retailers open and most customers on stay-at-home orders, our focus is on supporting our industry and the health and safety of our stakeholders."
Diamond announced it was suspending operations in late March, effectively shutting down the entire comic book direct market in the process. Then, it was reported that publishers would utilize the point-of-sale system ComicHub to help distribute new titles digitally through participating brick-and-mortar stores, which readers could then exchange for physical copies once the shutdown ended. However, those plans quickly fell apart when publishers who were at one point willing to participate in the initiative apparently lost interest.