Comic and graphic novel publisher BOOM! Studios is accelerating its move to Penguin Random House from Diamond Comic Distributors for Direct Market distribution, originally announced for July 1 (see "PRH Taking Over BOOM! Distro") in the wake of "recent industry developments," the company announced today.  The transition will now take place April 1.  Diamond will continue to solicit and distribute BOOM! Studios titles as a PRH sub-distributor in April and beyond.

"This will ensure that we can best support our retail partners and help you weather these market changes," BOOM! Studios VP-Sales Josh Hayes said in a message to retailers.  "We appreciate the many years of support from Diamond, and we greatly appreciate all that they’ve done for us over the years."

Diamond filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week (see "Diamond Files").  The only other significant publisher move since the filing affected Image Comics, currently distributed by Lunar Distribution as primary distributor and Diamond as a Lunar sub-distributor, which will no longer be distributed by Diamond as of titles that hit Final Order Cut-Off last week (see "Diamond Distro of Image to End").

The move of BOOM!’s book channel distribution from Simon & Schuster to PRH was not mentioned, and is presumably still scheduled for summer.