Josh Geppi Talks Diamond Comics and the Back The Comeback Campaign

If you’re new to comics, you might not know that a vital part of the entire comic industry is Diamond Comics Distributor. They’re the ones that ship your comic books to your favorite local store.

Diamond Comics Distributor is owned by its father company Geppi Family Enterprises. It’s a family company. Diamond Comics Distributor’s CEO is Steve Geppi, and his son, Josh Geppi is the President of Diamond International Galleries and Sapphire Galleries, which are all under the same parent company.

I was able to talk to Josh about Diamond, the pandemic, and everything else.

Josh might look young, but don’t let that fool you; he has been in the business for over 22 years. He took us back in time and told us about how his father started the entire company. “He started a comic store in the basement of a TV repair shop,” says Josh, “he ended up 1982 February first becoming Diamond Comic Distributors.”

The path from a small distributor to a huge one wasn’t fast, but it grew into something big. “Slowly growing and becoming the only comic distributor later,” laughs Josh.

Diamond had stopped shipping back in March due to COVID-19, but now the company is back with their #BackTheComeback campaign. However, this isn’t a campaign just for Diamond. “I think there was a misconception at the beginning of it,” says Josh, “people thought it was all about Diamond’s comeback, no, it’s ours as an industry or industries.”

But the campaign isn’t only for the comic industry. “It’s comics and game stores,” exclaimed Josh, “we want to be inclusionary with everybody.”

Josh believes the message of the campaign is what is of utmost importance. “Support your local comic and game stores,” Josh passionately states, “we want you to know they’re back and they need you.”

Although he doesn’t want people to forget about safety guidelines, so he’s telling everyone to “shop local, shop safe.”

In addition to #BackTheComeback, Josh hopes that the world is a better place once we move past the pandemic. “Be good to one another,” says Josh, “nobody deserves anything but respect.”

He hopes that we don’t only support our local stores but one another (from a safe distance). “There are seven and a half billion people in this world,” says Josh, “if everybody did one good deed… imagine what the world would look like.”

If you want to brighten your day and learn more about how to support your local stores, check out the video below!