"We’re almost half the size of Image Comics nowadays."

BOOM! explores distro beyond Diamond, is this the beginning of the end for the Direct Market as we know it?

Digital comics will kill the DM before another 'real world' distributor does so. I don't think the margins are there for someone to try to go toe to toe with Diamond. Outlandish, though more possible, is DC/Warners buying Diamond and saying that they'll only distribute DC comics and everyone else can go hang. That would be a disaster, and I don't really think it's going to happen, but it's a fun boogeyman to pull out and wave in people's faces.

Another variation on that: DC saying "sure, we'll distribute other publishers' stuff... up to a dozen titles a month!" Which would put Marvel in precisely the same spot they were in in the mid-'60s. Come to think of it, that wasn't such a bad thing at the time.

I read that interview as Diamond, we're ready for that discount more than anything, but I still see this as a sign that the seeming status quo of comic book business is a little more up for grabs right now that it has been in the last 12/15 yrs.