Last Update: January 17, 2025
Captain America: Brave New World - Official Trailer (Jan 17)
Vault Comics announces a plan to sell comics directly to retailers without a middleman distributor – Comicsbeat
Companies are scrambling to deal with a testy situation after Diamond Distributors files Chapter Eleven bankruptcy.
... It’s a plan that had been in the works for a while – and Vault is correctly distributed by Lunar and Simon & Schuster – but it will be interesting to see if more small publishers come up with their own plans as where and how stores get their comics begins to fracture even more..."
Does the Marvel Cinematic Universe actually benefit the comic books industry? – Comicbook
The unseen version of the 1990 Captain America and the phenomenon of Director's versions and uncut superhero movies – Boundingintocomics
...There are calls for the completion of the Ayer Cut of Suicide Squad and the Schumacher Cut of Batman Forever. There’s also a campaign championing the restoration of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace to its original glory of two hours and 14 minutes.
Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist Darrin Bell arrested on child porn charges – Washington Post
What's going to happen with Diamond? – MSN Screenrant
Diamond has a loan lined up from Chase and a Stalking Horse Bid in place from an affiliate of Universal Distribution for Alliance Game Distributors. A stalking horse bid is an initial bid, made by a potential suitor for a bankrupt company, that serves as the starting bid for any future bankruptcy proceedings. The bid places the starting value of Diamond's assets at $39 million..."
Coming new Swamp Thing movie to be disconnected from the rest of the DCU and to be "Gothic" – Games Radar
The wife of arrested Egyptian cartoonist Ashraf Omar has now also been arrested – Middle East Eye
The coming "summer of Superman" – Superherohype
DC has yet to detail precisely how many new books will be published as part of the event. However, new solo series centered around Superboy, Supergirl, and Krypto have been confirmed. The 2025 Free Comic Book Day edition of DC All-In #1 will also include a ten-page preview of Superman Unlimited...."
AI Art Challenge #17 - Grok vs Chat GPT
"Two superhero women in scuffed and worn black and orange leather suits with combat boots with Marie Antoinette hair carrying complicated weapons with a marble city in flames behind them" – click image to enlarge
Neither AI could quite understand "Marie Antoinette hair" though Grok gave it a go with the final image showing strange spiraled hair in a cartoon like shape.
Article about the book "Tell Me A Story Where The Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund" by Caitlin McGurk – The Comics Journal
Squirrel Girl and Fantastic Four writer Ryan North says "Doctor Doom is the Cadillac of supervillains" – Polygon
Reactions to the news about Diamond's bankruptcy – Bleedingcool
Steve Geppi founded Diamond Comic Distributors in February 1982 with one warehouse, seventeen customers and many competing distributors. Across forty years, it beat all the competition and became the dominant monopoly in the comic book direct market – though not according to the courts. But after it closed down temporarily during the pandemic, publishers were free from their contracts to seek alternative deals, and now Image and DC are with Lunar, Marvel, IDW and Dark Horse are with Penguin Random House, and Boom Studios is joining them..."
I'm at a Barnes and Noble and I count the bookcases for traditional Amerian comic book fare: two large bookcases. And for for manga? There are twelve bookcases plus four displays on tables.
Diamond Distributers files for "chapter 11" bankruptcy – Finance Yahoo
Chapter 11 is used by businesses to restructure their debts and continue operations.
At one time, Diamond owned almost the entire distribution business for the comic book industry and the peripheral stuff that goes with it (books, cards, toys, etc). Thirty years ago they were virtually the only game in operation for anyone trying to do something beyond small press comics or mail order, but by the time the pandemic of 2020 came along, the old-fashioned way of doing things was catching up with Diamond fast, and they suddenly lost their distribution deals for Marvel and DC.
In much older times, the distribution business for any kind of print was a tough field and competing distribution businesses would literally use violence to attack and disrupt competitors in order to expand their own market, this being at a time well before the internet when comics sold million-upon-millions of copies and the magazine trade in general was lucrative and constantly changing as many titles came out on a weekly basis to meet the demand for timely entertainment and news.
As that kind of new stand distribution withered, Diamond came along and pulled all the pieces together for comic book shops who were inheriting the print runs on new DC and Marvel comics as the traditional new stands stopped carrying Batman, Spider-Man, etc. "Direct sales" was a funny little mom-and-pop business in the 70s, but in the 1980s it put on muscle and expanded all around the country, and from the 90s until now it was Diamond that kept it organized, though other smaller distribution outfits came along trying to outperform against Diamond.
But the complaints about Diamond have kept mounting, and now the financial situation is showing teeth.
Filming starts for Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow to be released in 2026 – Superherohype – its being shot in the United Kingdom at the Warner Bros. Studios
New Captain America film coming: will it break the spell of bad superhero box office?
Looks like projections are hoping for at least the same sort of number the 2014 Captain America Winter Soldier got (i.e., $95 million), which, because of inflation from 2014 to 2025 (33.27% says Chat GPT), means current box office with the same numbers in 2014 is considerably lower in actual value.
Is Marvel cautiously optimistic for Captain America: Brave New World box office? – Gamerant
Projecting Captain America: Brave New World to open "north of $100 Million" – Comicbookmovie
‘Captain America: Brave New World’ looking for a $86M-$95M opening weekend – Deadline
Tracking $81M-$107M box office for Captain America: Brave New World opening weekend – Geek Tyrant
Albert Pyun’s wife Cynthia is trying to get her husband’s original cut of Captain America to be released. Similar to the Schumacher Cut of Batman Forever, number of fans have seen it. If this film is trying to get released as a tribute, Joel Schumacher’s cut deserves the same too pic.twitter.com/iWQDZvRjhX
— RTSchumacherCut 💚 (@CutSchumacher) January 14, 2025
Director Andy Muschietti of The Flash talks about why the movie failed to bring in profitable box office – MSN Variety
How Marvel's MCU could end
Story at Gamerant
Profile of artist Rick Parker and his recent graphic novel-autobiography about the Vietnam War "Drafted" – Press Herald
...Parker has spent a lot of time drawing comic books written by other people, telling their stories with his art. But with the release last fall of his graphic novel memoir "Drafted," he finally got to tell his own.
Parker, 78, began his comics career at Marvel in 1977 and is probably best known for drawing the "Beavis and Butt-Head" comics in the 1990s. In "Drafted," he details his three years in the Army during the Vietnam War in the late 1960s....Parker’s 250-page graphic novel has been lauded by critics and landed him on some best books lists for 2024.
Forbes Magazine included Rick Parker's book in their Best of 2024 Graphic Novel list.
The February 9 Puppy Bowl will have a new Superman preview trailer – Superherohype
Absolute Batman #4 at top of week's bestselling comics – Bleedingcool
Over 1.2 million copies sold of Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder – Bleedingcool
AI Challenge #15
AI art challenge #15 - Three hero women with golden swords wearing worn brown leather while overhead are burning zeppelins. Chat GPT decided burning zeppelins wasn't enough and added flames to one of the figure's heads, and "worn looking brown leather" meant something entirely different to Grok. Also Grok set buses on fire and there's no zeppelins. A previous challenge included a burning bus so it must have decided "zeppelins" really meant "buses." Also notice there's the beginning of a motorcycle inside the cape of the figure on the right and who exactly is holding the sword on the right? Chat GPT decided the flaming swords wouldn't last long as "fiery" so the only one that made it into the picture looks like a burnt twig from the flames.
Crunchyroll has a new reading app coming – Gamesradar
"Comics Industry Person of the Year" – Comicsbeat
2024 was a bad year for Superhero Movies – MSN Collider
"Nearly Every Superhero Film in 2024 Failed Critically and Financially"
Some have said that directors on these films aren't allowed to really direct the films, they are instead "cast" as a director then given a lot of instruction from the higher-up executives (or from a "ghost director" who is the real director, but hidden). And then the edit cut is mauled by committee. This would explain some of the problems in films like Madame Webb, for example, but it doesn't explain the horrible bloat of something like Ant Man 3.
Comic artist Andrew Robinson loses home in Los Angeles fires – Bleedingcool
Andrew Robinson is a comic book cover artist for the likes of Batman, Detective Comics, Hawkman, Black Science, Spider-Gwen, Conan, Star Man, Superman Rebirth, Iron Man, Star Wars, Black Panther and JSA, as well as an artist for The Fifth Beatle, Batman Black and White, Gen 13, Dusty Star, Harley Quinn and Scumbag....."
Editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez and his new spot at the Washington Post – Washington Post
The rebellion in the user comments from the Post readership is ferociously against Ramirez who is decidedly not from the left in politics.
AI Challenge number 14 - superhero women on bicycles - click to enlarge
Netflix bringing two manga shows onto TV – Gamesradar
Re: Sakamoto Days and Baban Baban Ban Vampire
One of the ongoing aspects of manga's success and world-spanning fame: if comic books falter, manga eats up the difference.
An analysis of the sales charts and sales rankings for the comic book industry and for manga – Comic Book Revolution – "It is time to check out the November 2024 comic book sales rankings. Things are getting murkier in terms of actual unit numbers."
Example:
Detective Comics #1091 plummeted from the number 20 spot to the number 52 spot. Ouch. It looks like replacing Ram V with Tom Taylor only led to a single-issue sales bump. Evidently, many readers were not impressed with what Taylor brought to the table. Maybe this title will be able to rebound in the next few months..."
Wikipedia Public Domain list 2025 – Wikipedia
2024's Five best comics series according to Matt Morrison – Superherohype
The "Infinity Saga Concert Experience" is going to the Philippines – GMA Network
I’m a grown ass man and I was locked in on this video 😂 pic.twitter.com/W7pS7CEzFJ
— vids that go hard (@vidsthatgohard) January 7, 2025
Comic book business "is alive" – Star Beacon – "Tony Capo, the owner of Geneva’s Robot Zero Comics, tries to bring young people into comic books at a time of less paper media."
Get into the Public Domain archives that are online at Graphic Chatter
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