Last Update: April 15, 2026
Today's DC and Marvel releases – Fresh Comics
52 Marvel and 39 DC Comics come out today. Covers at the link.
Comic book exhibits "come alive" at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum – Ever After
In Columbus, Ohio - official web site for the museum
"Box office rebound" at theaters – Variety MSN
Another copy of Action Comics #1, is headed to auction – Comicbook – the auction will happen at Heritage Auctions
The Diamond Distributors ongoing legal morass: it's still a morass – Comicsbeat
How about DC puts out an omnibus of The Amazing World of DC Comics? – 13th Dimension
New Superman game wants to "break the gaming curse" – Polygon
Preview art for Superman-Spider-Man crossover – icv2
Sam Kieth Obit – The Comics Journal
....He was a rabid fan of certain artists," said Scott Dunbier of his longtime friend. "The top five artists that he loved, we talked about a lot: Frank Frazetta, Bernie Wrightson, Vaughn Bodē, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, Robert Crumb, and Arthur Suydam. He loved Arthur Suydam's work, especially his Mudwog comics in Heavy Metal. He loved the portfolio that Arthur did. He loved Crumb. Sam looks almost like a cross between Frazetta and Crumb to me a lot of the time. It's kind of funny how he could make those styles work and integrate them so beautifully..."
"The Case Against Free Comic Book Day" – Bleedingcool
The complaint seems to be that not only has the day stopped bringing in new customers but has morphed into a "customer appreciation day" with free comic books being handed out, meanwhile it is getting more and more complicated as there are now two different competing events, the original "Free Comic Book Day" and "Comics Giveaway Day."
I assumed the publishers sent out the free comic books based on what the stores had ordered, and the publishers were paying for them. I mean, if giving away free comics was such a great thing, wouldn't the publishers be supporting it more? I was ignorant and wrong..."
The return of the "superstar artists" with DC's Absolute Line – Hollywood Reporter
The return of the artist as superstar "is good for the business, it is good for the artform," he [Jim Lee] says. Key to the rising artists phenomenon is the runaway success of DC's Absolute line. Launched towards the end of 2024, the line led by Absolute Batman, Absolute Wonder Woman and Absolute Superman, reinterpreted characters and origins in a truly sweeping way. Unlike other so-called "relaunches" that DC or Marvel have done, this one has reinvigorated publishers and retailers alike, unexpectedly brought in new readers, and created name artists who can turn a simple three hour signing into a caffeinated, we're-still-signing-at-midnight mania, as Dragotta and Johnson did late last year in an Oakland, Calif. comic shop. Or have hundreds upon hundreds line up in a shop in Spain, as Jimenez did in February. And they are now capitalizing on that newfound mainstream recognition..."
Fraud Alert: Bad actors pose as Ingram Content Group using lookalike websites, emails, social media, calls, and texts requesting payment – Ingram Content Group
Hugo Pratt and how his wartime experiences influenced Corto Maltese and other comics – NY Times
Pratt’s own life was as eventful as any of Corto’s stories. His father, Rolando Pratt, was a Fascist by marriage: His father-in-law, a pedicurist named Eugenio Genero, had been among the first Venetians to join Mussolini’s Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, in 1919. Eugenio was proud of his role as an early supporter of Mussolini, and of his Axis connections, which he used to find work for Rolando, who had no family of his own. "The Fascist brotherhood was like a new family to him," Pratt said of Rolando. The cartoonist’s favorite relative was his uncle Ruggero, a sailor, an anarchist, a bit of a creep and an early model for Corto..."
The article is a great overview of Hugo Pratt's life and the events that impacted him (such as being forced into Mussolini's army and the world of anti-fascism Pratt dwelled in from both Europe and in Brazil), plus an introduction of a sort to the new publishing of CORTO MALTESE: Fable of Venice and Other Adventures from Fantagraphics.
Matt Baker's romance comic books – Bleedingcool
Wednesday's new comics covers and reactions – AITP Comics
You cannot say the comic book industry is doing healthy and well when the largest entity, which is still Marvel, is struggling, bad. Their main tentpole characters, X-Men, Spider-Man, The Avengers, all are struggling to get over 80K copies, many of them not even close to that... That's a major problem..."
7th Lake Como (Italy) Comic Art Festival coming April 24-26 – Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal
The Marvel-DC crossovers are being put together into a Collected Edition – icv2
The tangled legal morass around Diamond Distributors remains a tangled morass – icv2
The warehouse holding the inventory that the various publishers all want back (since it was never paid for) is also now getting upset over the unpaid rent to house the stuff. Meanwhile the judge working on the case has a new ruling.
Interview with Jordi Lafebre – The Comics Journal
Looking at the sample artworks used in the interview, there is a fantastic use of backgrounds, simply head-and-shoulders above typical comic books.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is a "megahit" but reviews are poor – NY Times
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" bore the hallmarks of Hollywood’s "too big to fail" machinery. Hoping for another $1 billion hit, Universal began marketing the sequel in November, lining up a dizzying array of tie-ins (Lucky Charms cereal, McDonald’s Happy Meals, Old Spice deodorant) and building colossal castle-window advertisements in the United States, France, Spain and Chile..."
The Numbers says the movie has already gathered in some $372 million worldwide.
Mini Review: Jew Gangster by Joe Kubert, 2005, 142 Pages
This little hardcover graphic novel is a compact story of the development of a Jewish boy from the streets of New York City into an adult gangster, moving the youngster-then-man through moral choices that sometimes coincide with background family pressures. Through these episodes the tale evolves the reasoning for being "gangster" from one of conscience (or lack thereof), issues about social status, and the pressures to obtain income (and also plenty of outright cupidity). There's also some lessor strains having to do with the pressures of a religious morality that's seemingly always present but not strong enough to make a difference.
Kubert fleshes out a world that doesn't much deepen over the space of the 143 black and white pages (almost always with 4 panels to a page). His storytelling style here, though clear when it comes to the plot, tends to isolate the cast of characters into their own slipstream of events while the shadow of the millions surrounding them doesn't interfere or distract, but it also doesn't much inform our understanding, either. The historical time-frame (pre-WW2 depression-era NYC) is moving along in the background, but only in such narrow snatches (both in words and pictures) that it doesn't intrude on the story but doesn't help place that story completely into a time and place with an atmosphere, nor does it really explain the supposed novelty of a "Jew gangster." This doesn't seem anything like what Kubert apparently intended for the book to show. When Kubert pauses to let us know about something outside of the gangstery parts of the story, even if its something as simple as how some of the characters set up a restaurant in a shop space and worked endless hours to gain enough money to survive, the story blossoms out of its "gangster" straitjacket for a few panels, but then we're pushed back into the sorry saga of a nice Jewish boy who just isn't that nice.
While this is a plus for the relative brevity of the tale about the ups and downs of the criminal trade, it also keeps a lot of what's happening inside Jew Gangster superficial and even sort of mysterious when it comes to our main character, Ruby. Is being a crook corrosive to the soul? Doesn't' seem so, the character remains a kind of "boy" throughout. He's supposed to be haunted by his father's admonitions to be morally upright, and Kubert does give the character a few chances to explain why he is rejecting this call, and more instances of the father (who dies midway) to be injected back into the plot, but none of it adds up to anything. Along this same line of "no explano" are the presence of other "Jew gangsters" who get no moral examination at all, a weird kind of sterility considering the scope of the story and the number of pages devoted to it.
Kubert does have good moments in Jew Gangster, though, such as when the Jewish criminals have to get even with the Italian criminals because to not do so is to invite more trouble, in this case, the murder of one of Ruby's childhood friends. This reminds me slightly of Jack Kirby's famous "Street Code" short story which told of how street gangs dealt with each other in NYC, motivated by a lethal system of conduct that at least seemed mandatory. Kubert stretches out his own sort of explanation and examination of this to well over a hundred pages but doesn't quite get a grip on it.
New Dave Sim pages for Diamond bankruptcy benefit comic – Bleedingcool
"The Dark Knight Returns" gets homage treatment in the Batman: The Animated Series – AOL.com
The tribute arrives in "Legends of the Dark Knight," the 19th episode of "The New Batman Adventures," a continuation of "Batman: The Animated Series"" In one of the segments, Carrie Kelley (Anndi McAfee) imagines herself as an older Batman's (Michael Ironside) Robin fighting against the Mutants gang of Gotham City. This is a direct homage to the original story from "The Dark Knight Returns."
"Superhero comics & movies aren't dead despite what trolls say, and DC architect Scott Snyder says Darkseid is a personification of anti-superhero trolls"
Story at Pop Verse
"Re-writing the superhero genre" with the HBO series superhero show Lanterns – Soap Central
The 2022 The Batman Silver Age Omnibus Volume 1 is getting a Volume 2 in 2026 – 13th Dimension
80th Anniversary of the National Cartoonist Society – National Cartoonist Society
Review of Manga’s First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989 by Andrea Horbinski – History Today
Spider-Man/Superman crossover will have Spider-Gwen and Supergirl – Polygon
"Reinterpretation" of War of the Worlds coming from Titan – Comicsbeat
The superhero comic book coins – WFTV
Batman: Knightfall animated film to come out first at France's Annecy Animation Festival – MSN Superhero Hype
"Comics scholar wins Eisenhart Award" – Rochester Institute of Technology
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What's next at DC Comics? Panel at Emerald City Comic Con – Comicsbeat
The Comics Journal Magazine at 50 years of age – The Comics Journal
Comic Book Store closings – Bleedingcool
Marvel Comics movie prop sale – Maryam Hampton
Yoshiharu Tsuge has died – The Comics Journal
1937–2026 – a highly influential manga artist known for pioneering personal comic story telling using introspection and surreal elements.
Stars and Stripes newspaper ends Sunday special color comic strip section – Daily Cartoonist
Is James Bond... a joke? – UK Mail
The online digital comic wars
Story at Comics Beat
Interview with Apostolos Doxiadis – Lifo [Greek language]
Question: Your big successes were "Uncle Peter" and "Logicomix?"
Doxiadis: Commercially, if you mean, and internationally, etc., these were two works with the theme not so much of mathematics but of mathematicians as obsessive characters. This too began by chance. My good friend, the cartoonist Alekos Papadatos, asked me for an idea for a graphic novel that was "unusual," as he put it. I told him: the story of the attempt to base mathematics on strict logic. Since he is also crazy, he was enthusiastic...."
Three foot life size inflatable Spider-Man @ Walmart
Profile of cartoonist Rick Friday – Creston News
Spider-Woman Omnibus coming – 13th Dimension
Spider-Man gets killed again – MSN CBR
Penguin Random House completes addition of Boom! Studios into Random House after purchase in 2024 – Publishers Weekly
"Comic sales explosion" at Image – Bleedingcool
Roy Thomas to be at Lexington South Carolina Comic and Toy Convention – Lexington Herald Leader
At the London Book Fair "...could comics serve as a savior of print for an audience seeking eyeball-grabbing visuals, as well as words?" – Publishers Weekly
Roundup of comics news: DC K.O. trades, BOOM! Studios layoffs, Frank Miller and TMNT – Comicbook Club Live
How "live selling" boosts sales – Business Insider
Brian K. Vaughan and Dune – Newsweek MSN
Brian Doherty has died: wrote books on pop culture and underground comics and the Burning Man festival. – NY Times
Mr. Doherty produced an eclectic body of work that had as a common thread his fascination with how bands of outsiders on the cultural and intellectual fringes infiltrate the mainstream. He was especially interested in movements with no central authority. Besides libertarianism, he wrote books about 1960s underground comics and the Burning Man hippie-art-tech festival in the Nevada desert..."
Chuck Dixon profile – MSN Just the News
"Todd McFarlane changed comic book history with these comic book covers" – Comicbook
Lego releases Tintin Destination Moon rocket ship model – Gamespot
And Amazon is already selling it
Is there an end to the Absolute Comics story lines? Apparently nope – Inde News
Remembering the "legend of Sam Kieth" – Bleedingcool
Death of The Maxx creator Sam Kieth – MSN Variety
Born on January 11, 1963, Kieth began his career in comics at the age of 17, publishing his first work with Comico. He worked on numerous projects, including "Wolverine" in Marvel Comics Presents and "The Hulk." In 1993, he created a series exploring themes of identity and reality for Image Comics titled "The Maxx," which was later adapted into an animated series for MTV's "Liquid Television" and became globally recognized. Kieth's work on the series also led to a line of action figures produced by Todd McFarlane.
Sam Kieth,my old friend since 16 and comic art genius has passed away.
— Kelley Jones (@kelleyjonesart) March 22, 2026
He was instrumental in bringing me to DC and changing the course of my career. He also introduced me to my wife ( a cute little blond he described her as)and changed the course of my life
God rest his soul.
Frank Miller draws Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's #300 cover – Gizmodo
"Incredible transformation" of She-Hulk - building a Jennifer Walters from scratch – MSN Daily Motion Video
Titan Comics' June slate "lots of Conan" – Bleedingcool
Marvel's May 2026 slate of books – Bleedingcool
Gene Luen Yang and why "the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles matter again"
Story at Esquire Magazine
Tatjana Wood Obituary – The Comics Journal
More about Tatjana Wood
The new Spider-Man trailer
No wonder he's depressed!
Digital comics platform GlobalComix gets new investment money while posting 20% month-to-month audience increases – Forbes
Just when things seemed to be quieting down in the multibillion dollar digital comics space, GlobalComix today announced a series of big moves fueled by an infusion of $13 million in new capital..."
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