Diamond will hold its 2022 retailer summit on October 26 and 27 in conjunction with Baltimore Comic Con. Chris Powell, Chief Sales & Service Officer of Diamond’s parent company Geppi Family Enterprises, made the announcement at the Diamond panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego. The October summit will be the first in-person event since 2019; the 2021 summit was virtual (see “Diamond Announces Retailer Summit”).

Powell also announced that Free Comic Book Day, which is the first Saturday in May, will be held on May 6, 2023.

There will be no in-store Halloween Comic Fest this year, Powell said, although there will be some online programming, and that event is likely to change in the near future. “We've talked to some retailers and we're doing a lot of discussions internally,” Powell said. “We're looking at changing that fall event into something that's a better fit for us and the industry as a whole.”

Submissions will open soon for the Dave Hawksworth Award, which is a $5,000 grant to a local comic shop owner to make improvements for their business; the winner will be announced at the Diamond Summit in October.