Last Update: January 9, 2026
Absolute Batman rules holiday sales – MSN Bounding into Comics
Brian Hibbs discusses Diamond's bankruptcy and implosion – Graphic Policy - 41 minute audio
Batman's girlfriend learns his secret identity the funny way – Superherohype
The decline and fall of newspaper comic strips – The Comics Journal
The article picks on Beetle Bailey and makes apologia for Peanuts but is really an overview of how newspaper comic strips reached a zenith of American focus and then waned and slid out of view (mostly).
Newspaper comics’ decline began with size reduction during the second World War. Newsprint was rationed and recycling was encouraged. With few exceptions, former full-page Sunday strips went to half or third pages. Some newspapers, like the St. Louis, Missouri Post-Dispatch, reduced their Sunday comic-strips to fourth, fifth and sixth pages; they chopped and stacked panels and crammed as many features as one page could hold. Daily comics, once published in five or six-column widths, halved that luxurious size as their hold on the public waned. In the first half of the 20th century, comics were a selling point of newspapers. All age groups and social classes read and enjoyed them. The acquisition of Blondie or Dick Tracy in your local paper was ballyhooed. Hefty Sunday papers were wrapped in their color comics section; its arrival made a grand thud on doorsteps. Comics made a difference. Adults read them with glee; kids laid wall-eyed on their living-room floors, pages spread open as they took in the color and imagery..."
I’m old enough to remember the impact of Sunday comic strips in newspapers. As a kid, I lived outside of America part of the time, and the newspaper world still held a great deal of sway “out there”—a power that had already begun evaporating back in the States.
There was a clear difference I could observe once I returned to the U.S. In American homes overseas, I often saw Sunday newspaper pages spread across living-room floors and kitchen tables, with kids and adults luxuriously consuming the whole package, inky page by page.
Television at the time was spotty and only partially filled with American and English-language programming. Radio was mostly in foreign languages, with the exception of Armed Forces Radio, which offered a kind of “mini” digest of American broadcasting with limited daily airtime.
The point of this comparison is that those two mammoth institutions of absorption—TV and radio (the internet did not yet exist)—were truncated competitors to newspapers in these foreign places. This made newspapers (and magazines) far more potent and desirable sources of news and entertainment for a willing and ready audience.
One of the very specific features of newspaper comic strips (in this world outside the USA) that appealed across the entire household—unlike, say, comic books—was that they were considered socially approved entertainment. This was something comic books barely enjoyed, keeping them relegated to a kind of twilight zone of acceptability and disapproval depending on the household. Newspapers, however, did not carry that stigma.
Jem And The Holograms comic book series from IDW Publishing getting collection in the DC "Compact" book size – Bleedingcool
The IDW comic book series series was based on the 1985 – 1988 animated TV cartoon and was made up of 26 issues and 5 specials.
A joint collaboration by Hasbro, Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions, the same team responsible for G.I. Joe and Transformers, it has become part of the Hasbro line of properties..."
"Burt Ward's’s 13 Grooviest Moments" as Robin the Boy Wonder in the Batman TV Show – 13th Dimension
‘Ultimate Endgame’ blind bags leads to retailer refunds due to damage – MSN Bounding into Comics
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in south Delhi has large comic and 'zine exhibit that's "hands on" – Moneycontrol
The first section of ‘please touch gently (zines, comics, ephemera)’ is on comic books and graphic novels. Titled ‘We the People, Birds and Beasts, Deities and Demons…, it is curated by Bharath Murthy and tells a story of Indian comics. ‘Chacha Chaudhry’ by Pran to Satyajit Ray’s storyboards for ‘Pather Panchali’ are featured alongside Diamond Comics’ Film Chitrakatha with actual dialogue and still photos from Bollywood movies as well as cartoon strips by masters like Abu Abraham and south films director G. Aravindan. This section alone has works by dozens of practitioners and publications that were the stuff of popular culture in their time — and could easily be seen as the stuff of history and art history today..."
Jim Lee and Bob Layton in Seoul, Korea – Korea Times
Lee reflected on the global reach of comics, noting that while American comics have long enjoyed strong followings in Europe and South America, Asia, and particularly Korea, has only recently seen significant growth. Over the past two to three years, he's seen a big increase in interest, especially among younger readers — many fans in Asia were not yet born when much of his most famous work was first published.... Bob Layton, who was also in attendance. Layton, known for his work on Iron Man, has been a regular at DCC, cultivating the local comic community and using it as an informal training ground. "This is the one place they can buy," said Layton, who was also in attendance, referring to the scarcity of American comic book retail spaces in Korea.
Rea Irvin (1881–1972) and the The Smythes comic strip – The Comics Journal
Rea Irvin was the first art editor at The New Yorker magazine and is responsible for the"look " of the magazine. He created the magazine's monocle-wearing mascot “Eustace Tilley” who appeared on the first New Yorker cover in 1925 and periodically thereafter. Irvin also designed the magazine’s distinctive typeface (called the “Irvin type”). "The Smythes" Sunday comic strip ran from June 15, 1930 to October 25, 1936.
What's ahead for comic book movies in 2026
Supergirl — June 26, 2026
Spider-Man: Brand New Day — July 31, 2026
Clayface — September 11, 2026
Avengers: Doomsday — December 18, 2026
Related: Comic Book TV shows
Wonder Man – Disney TV show January 27, 2026
Daredevil Born Again Season 2 – Disney TV Show March 4, 2026
The Punisher TV Special - Disney program, no set date yet
X-Men '97 Season 2 - animated TV show on Disney for Summer 2026
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 2 TV show - slated for Autumn 2026
VisonQuest TV cartoon - announced for 2026
Lanterns live action show for HBO - Summer 2026
Batman Caped Crusader cartoon show Season 2 - on Amazon Prime slated for 2026
The cartooning career of Walt Handelsman – Daily Cartoonist
The last days of Diamond – Comicsbeat
Dennis The Menace's 75th Anniversary – Bleedingcool
DC Comics is going to bring back Jonah Hex in 2026 – Bleedingcool
1986: 40 years later – 13th Dimension
Good survey of the year 1986 when a lot of things changed and became the fundamentals of what's been happening in comic books ever since.
"Top Comics of 2026" – Hollywood Reporter
Discussed: The Avengers in the Veracity Trap, My Life in 24 Frames Per Second, Lucas Wars, Out of Alcatraz, Bug Wars, and others.
"Banner year for DC Comics" – Hollywood Reporter
According to figures shared with The Hollywood Reporter, the Absolute Universe line of monthly comics has sold over 8.2 million units in total, not accounting for December sales. Absolute Batman, the flagship title, makes up around 35 percent, close to 3 million, of that total. The first issue of Absolute Batman continues to sell well and is now in its 10th printing, while the latest issue, Absolute Batman No. 15, has orders of over 300,000..."
DC sales way up: but Marvel still ahead? – Bleedingcool
Cinema of 2025: a dud – Variety – Dissapointing boxoffice "even for Avatar" – Los Angeles Times
Stan Lee would have been 103 years old today – MSN Spoiler
Marvels' solo titles for characters in 2026 – MSN Bam Smack Pow
Crime comics and Charlie Biro and Bob Wood – Toronto Sun
During the 1940s and ’50s, true crime comics were ubiquitous on the newsstands of Canada and the U.S. Typically based on real-life crimes, the lurid four-colour ten-cent dreadfuls always concluded with the killer frying in the electric chair or ventilated by police bullets...Lev Gleason’s Crime Does Not Pay... At its peak, the comic sold about six million copies a month... Early issues sold around 200,000, with that figure climbing to 800,000 by the end of the Second World War."
The comics of 2026 – IGN
Steve Ditko "The John Galt of Comic Books" – MSN Reason
DC's January 7th comics are going on sale already, breaking "street date" – Bleedingcool
"Mark Millar may no longer be under contract with Netflix" – Bleedingcool
How Godzilla conquers – Bounding into Comics
Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki says that rather than changing their entire identities in order to appeal to overseas markets, the key to success for any given piece of Japanese media is for its creators to do the complete opposite and instead focus their attentions squarely on their domestic audiences..."
Review: Harley Quinn and Zatanna go mano a mano in Harley Quinn vs. Zatanna #1
A list of Christmas-themed superhero comic books – CBR
Ablaze Publishing has acquired NBM Publishing in an asset sale – NBM Publishing
"Top comics for Christmas Eve buying" – Comicsbeat
Four Superhero Christmas Movies – Comicbook
"Once, the comic book Eisner Awards and Harvey Awards were one, known as the Kirby Awards, until they fell all out. Now they are back..". – Bleedingcool
The fight over who gets to own Warner Bros is turning into a proxy war about bigger issues – Daily Overview
At stake is not only control of iconic brands like HBO, Max, and DC, but also the balance of power between traditional Hollywood studios and tech-driven platforms. The way President Trump's son-in-law entered and then exited the Paramount camp has reshaped the contest, leaving Netflix's path clearer on paper but still shadowed by antitrust and political risk..."
DC Comics covers for March 2026 books – Scans Daily
"From Barbie to Labubu, adults find comfort in collectible figurines" – Le Monde
The craze for Funko Pop! and other Blind Box collectibles has continued to grow, driven by a generation of 'kidults,' adults who embrace their inner child, turning their homes into miniature pop culture museums. Caught between a search for identity, a significant budget and environmental contradictions, this new hobby has become a mainstream phenomenon..."
Inside the Disney Marketing machine – MarTech
The downside to the Disney genius for taking over an existing brand and then exploiting it is that over time they "Disneyfy" the product. Witness Pixar, which was bought in 2006 and was meant to revitalize the Disney animation studio, but the leap forward in creative tech for Disney was matched by Pixar being drawn into the Disney style, the most obvious being the all-Disney-Pixar production of Brave (2012). This film contains a lot of "Disney humor" which would have fit into any number of Disney hand-drawn animated films of the previous decades, but would have not fit into a pre-Disney-era Pixar film.
Disney’s real marketing genius is piggybacking on emotional real estate others already built, then amplifying and monetizing it. Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars were all created by someone else. Disney bought them, plugged them into its machine and licensed them aggressively. LEGO, Funko, Loungefly, Crocs, Build-A-Bear and Daniels Jewelers all market Disney — and pay for the privilege.."
Call for entries in cartooning for 2025 – National Cartoonists Society
Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy money ordered released to publishers – Bleedingcool
This year, for the first time since 2015, I’m not doing a "best graphic novels of the year" list. There are too many great works out there to read... – Forbes
Reviews for these titles from Rob Salkowitz:
The Weight by Melissa Mendes. UltraWild by Steve Mushin, Talking to My Father’s Ghost by Alex Krokus, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Anais Flogny, Parable of the Talents, adapted from the novel by Octavia Butler by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, More Weight: A Salem Story by Ben Wickey, Insectopolis by Peter Kuper, In the End We All Die by Tobias Aeschenbacher, Dr. Werthless by Harold Schechter and Eric Powell, and Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance, by Ben Passmore.
The best Catwoman covers? – MSN Screenrant
Good Grief: SONY buys majority share over PEANUTS – MSN Los Angeles Times
Hollywood apocalypse: – MSN Deadline
On paper, the proposals by Paramount Global and Netflix may appear to be routine corporate transactions... Any acquisition of WBD by one of these companies would cause measurable harm to competition, consumers, workers, regional economies, America's trade balance, and U.S. cultural influence abroad... Warner Bros Discovery is one of the last full-scale major studios, producing everything from theatrical films and TV, including kids' animation, global franchises, sports, nonfiction, and exports content at an industrial scale. Remove WBD from the market, and the ecosystem contracts immediately...."
Richard Donner on why he made 'Superman' (1978) & the movie's connection to François Truffaut's 'Jules & Jim' (1962):
— DepressedBergman (@DannyDrinksWine) December 17, 2025
"I certainly didn’t know it when we were making 'Superman' (1978) [that it would have a profound impact on millions of people around the world]. I was just… pic.twitter.com/40Pw93W8IG
Profile of DC/Marvel comics artist David Nakayama – KHNL Honolulu
You've got comic books, could they be worth millions of dollars? – KXAN Austin
Generally speaking, if you have millions of comics they might be worth millions of dollars.
Free Comic Book Day vs Comics Giveaway Day
The new Comics Giveaway Day has been trademarked by Penguin Random House and is now competing with the traditional Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) with both events being held simultaneously next on May 2, 2026. Canadian distributor Universal Distribution acquired the rights/brand to the long running FCBD which was originally created by comics retailer Joe Field in 2001. The first FCBD was in 2002, and the rights were eventually controlled by Diamond Comic Distributors. The bankruptcy of Diamond led to Universal Distribution gaining rights ownership, and because of the classic corporate "inability to come to an agreement" Penguin Random House has created its own controlled competing holiday.
The 22 Comics for the Comics Giveaway Day - titles from Boom, IDW, Dark Horse & Marvel – Bleedingcool
Diamond's Chapter 7 bankruptcy
Story at Publishers Weekly
Apparently, Diamond lost the backing of banks keeping them afloat while working through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which is a method to restructure a company and get it back into action paying off creditors and eventually emerging from court protection again as a normally functioning company.
Chapter 7 means the current Diamond leadership must sell off the remaining assets of the company in a complete process of liquidation. Meanwhile, there are court actions by publishers trying to get back the (generally unpaid for) consignment stock Diamond holds in their warehouses.
What those assets actually are and who owns them will be determined by the bankruptcy court...
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Dan dos Santos new Marvel comics artbook – Superherohype
What could happen from Diamond's Chapter 7 bankruptcy? – Comicsbeat
I’m told that under a Chapter 7 the goal will be to liquidate all assets as quickly as possible. While publishers were trying to get their inventory back via the mediation process this was taking a long time and the asking price was higher than expected. Under Chapter 7 they might be able to buy it back at a much lower price..."
The March 2026 "Hidden Gem" variant covers – 13th Dimension
The March 2026 Marvel books – Bleedingcool
Well, here it is: Diamond files to convert their bankruptcy to Chapter 7 – Comicsbeat
Get into the Public Domain archives that are online at Graphic Chatter
Classic Film, reviews and more Cinemagraphe
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Virginia USA based Elder Care for bill payment, case management, prescriptions, tax records or support for caregivers - AllStar Care Solutions