Diamond Comic Distributors is targeting “mid- to late May” as a time frame to resume distributing new releases, the company said in an announcement Friday.  The company did include a caveat. “Of course, as we have all seen, target dates sometimes need to be adjusted in this ever-changing new normal,” the company said in its announcement.

The start-up will begin with the weekly Final Order Cutoff process, by which retailers can adjust orders on the first weeks of resumed shipping.  Releases will be slowed. “Product that was originally scheduled for release on April 1 and 8 will be distributed over a longer period, allowing publishers to work with printers to deliver new product without further interruption,” the company said.

This news comes as DC has announced that it will begin releasing product April 28 (see “DC to Resume Releasing New Comics April 28”) through two new distributors. Diamond also released a statement on the news. “We value our partnership with DC and will continue to support them as a distributor,” the statement said. “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.”