Antarctic Press and G.T. Labs have separately named Diamond their exclusive distributor to the bookstore market.  As was the case in a similar agreement reached with El Capitan Books (see 'El Capitan Chooses Diamond For Bookstores'), Antarctic and G.T. Labs will continue to sell to other distributors such as FM International and Coldcut in the direct market, while relying on Diamond as the exclusive agent in the returnable world of mainstream bookstores.

G.T. Labs is one of the most interesting small comic publishers in the U.S.  Publisher Jim Ottavani, who also writes much of the G.T. Labs material, is dedicated to using comics to explain science.  Graphic novels from G.T. Labs such as Dignifying Science, Fallout, Talking Orangutans in Borneo, and Two-Fisted Science are unlike releases from any other U.S. comic publisher.  While fans of the comics medium can appreciate how Ottavani uses it to push science and the scientific method, it is also obvious that the books from G.T. Labs have a potentially bigger market in libraries and regular bookstores that already have 'Science' sections.

Antarctic is one of the larger publishers Diamond's added to its bookstore roster in the months since LPC filed bankruptcy, both in number of titles and sales.  Antarctic's strengths are its American anime-style titles and How To books. 

Diamond's recent hiring of Ballantine Associate Editor Kuo-Yu Liang (see 'Kuo-Yu Liang Joins Diamond To Head Book Program') demonstrates that the distributor is taking its push into the mainstream book market very seriously.  Antarctic and G.T. Labs become the latest in a stream of small and medium size publishers to join Diamond's stable, but some bigger publishers may also be making a similar move as the once dominant LPC Group is subsumed into CDS, and publishers are no long bound by agreements with LPC (see 'LPC Deal Getting Close?').  Stay tuned for further developments.