Archive Page 2254
December 2025
Netflix is buying up Warners and HBO – MSN NBC News
Warner Bros. Discovery announced Friday it has agreed to sell its streaming and studios assets to Netflix in a deal valued at $82.7 billion, setting the stage for one of the most sweeping and consequential mergers in modern Hollywood history. If approved by federal regulators, the transaction promises to create a new entertainment and media behemoth, uniting the world’s largest streaming destination with a storied 102-year-old film studio..."
Netflix co-head honcho Ted Sarandos says they're committed to keeping up Warner Bros. cinematic releases – Deadline
The entertainment community and movie theaters in particular have been immensely jittery at this corporate combination given the streamer’s short windows if any as they cater to their streaming audience. Exhibition’s biggest trade group, Cinema United, came out with a blunt statement this morning opposing the merger, saying. "The proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. by Netflix poses an unprecedented threat to the global exhibition business."
Edgar Wright jaded about Ant-Man, looking forward to a possible Barbarella remake – Bounding into Comics
UK Cartoon Museum: The Future Was Then – how comics viewed the coming age – Londonist
Features an exhibit with works from 2000 A.D., Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Dan Dare, etc.
Angoulême International Comics Festival’s 2026 show not happening – Comicsbeat
Begun in 1974 and long considered Europe’s answer to San Diego Comic-Con with more emphasis on literary values and art.
Seoul Comics Week returns for its second year – Korea Times
"Grant Morrison explains their big joke (at the Dark Knight's expense) from Batman/Deadpool #1" – CBR
Ten things to be thankful for in Comics for 2025 – sktchd
The best example of this is Absolute Batman, a comic by Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, and friends that leans into the stupid life as well as any comic I can remember. And I mean that as a compliment.... Batman’s almost seven feet tall and 400+ pounds. Bane makes him look like a baby. Batman kicks kids off boats and drives comically large industrial equipment around Gotham. His shoulders have spikes and his cape has hooks. His chest is also an axe. Everything about this book goes to 11..."
Anime is booming around the world: How Japanese animation became a cultural force – Newsday
The animation style has transitioned from niche to mainstream, with Hollywood box office hits "Chainsaw Man" and "Demon Slayer..."
The ongoing debate "did Superman make money or did it lose money in 2025?" – Boundingintocomics
I was talking to a friend about this recently. If Supers 2025 had made another $100 million box office, there'd be no doubt it was a "hit" despite being no blockbuster. If the tally had been a $100 million less, then the certainty it had bombed would be solid. Instead it is Phantom Zone Schrödinger's Superman where it's both a success and a failure at the same time.
Amazon would be delighted to sell you one for $1750.00 (Dec 1, 2025 price).
J.D. King has died – The Comics Journal
...a prolific cartoonist whose stylized, jazz-infused illustrations appeared in many magazines in the 1990s, died at his home in Remsen, New York..."
Rekcah Comics Feb 2026 titles – Bleedingcool
Batman II starts shooting in January – Movie Web
Comic book page rates "The crazy thing is that no matter how much time elapses, the rates stay the same and lose more and more value" – Comicsbeat
The article goes into some of the brutal money-making realities of the business, and a lot of it is terrible, in terms of actually earning enough to live. In the 1980s I remember page rate analysis stories which showed that a consistently assigned month-to-month artist at Marvel or DC could make a comfortable middle class level salary (as I remember it, somewhere in the $40,000s, a great deal more money then than now. Roughly the equivalent in 2025 of earning $100K+ in terms of purchasing power). That has apparently changed dramatically in the opposite direction.
David Harper quoted in the article:
You can’t just be a cartoonist anymore. You must be an entrepreneur..."
The quote is pulled from an article at SKTCHD about the state of comic strips:
[Comic] strips had almost become a forgotten part of the comic world, one that can be treated as the less serious, more disposable cousin of graphic novels or comic books. Which is a shame, because even though newspapers aren’t what they once were, the strip is still essential to the world of comics. And it’s having a moment once again...
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At one time, comic strips were easily the superior to comic books in every monetary way. They earned much more money for their makers than did a typical comic book artist/writer did with a monthly comic book, and plenty of comic book artists had one primary goal in terms of long-term advancement: to eventually graduate to doing a newspaper strip.
As far as "societal creditability," just about anything was above being in comic books (reference: the 2003 talk Will Eisner gave at the Library of Congress. He talks about the opprobrium on comic book makers in past times).
An example of the status that came to newspaper comic strip makers, radically different than the "gutter" world of comic books, is shown in that they were depicted as rather glamorous beings in films like How To Murder Your Wife (1965). That story centers on a creator of a popular long-running adventure strip who is shown as living in a multi-story townhouse in New York City (he is using the entire building), with a butler, wearing a bowler hat and treated and seen as being somewhere on the level of a successful stock broker. In days of yore, Newspaper strip creator personalities like Al Capp, Milton Caniff and Charles Schulz were often profiled in the press and one item that was typically highlighted was the extremely high-earning money that came from comic strips and what was attached to it (syndication, licensing, movie adaptations, etc.)
Superman Number 1 CGC 9 auctions for 9 Million bucks – Newsweek MSN
This story is turning into a boomerang. It is going from one news media outlet to another, many using that very old headline word sequence "Purchased for only ten cents, this comic book is now worth..."
More of the stories, some with video news reports:
"A forgotten Superman comic found in an attic just sold for a record $9.12 million" – Straight Arrow News
"First Edition ‘Superman’ Found in an Attic Is Now the Most Expensive Comic Sold at Auction – In near-mint condition, the comic fetched a heroic $9 million..." – Artnet
"1st ever 'Superman' copy found in San Francisco attic auctioned for $9 million, breaks record" – ABC News San Francisco
"‘Superman No. 1’ Attic Discovery Turns Into Multimillion-Dollar Treasure After Record-Setting Sale" – MSN Mens Journal
"Brothers discover 1939 Superman No. 1 in mother’s attic. Now, it's the costliest comic ever at 9 million" – Money Control
Comic mania unleashed! Vintage Comic Book auction clears $29 million and Superman #1 goes for $9 million! – Hoodline
The problem of worthless collectibles – Alot MSN
Remember the '90s comic book boom? Publishers churned out "special editions" with flashy foil covers and holograms, promising they'd be worth a fortune. The problem? Everyone bought them and carefully tucked them away. When everyone saves something, it never becomes rare. Today, the market is flooded, and most comics from the '80s onward are worth just a few bucks, sometimes less than their original cover price..."
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Batman The Long Halloween - 376 Pages - Amazon
French Ministry of Culture rethinking the funds they pulled from the Angoulême International Comic Arts Festival – Bleedingcool
A lot of controversy/scandal had led to a great deal of money being withdrawn which supports the annual event, but apparently this is being rethought.
Another Diamond Distributors court decision – Bleedingcool
Jim Aparo book is here: Jim Aparo: Brave & Bold Artist from TwoMorrows – Twomorrows
I've been hearing about a Jim Aparo book from TwoMorrows since 2005 when "The Art of Jim Aparo" was first announced (but subsequently never came out).
"No publisher actually has to ask permission to just give comic books away" – Bleedingcool
Universal Distribution in Canada has bought the rights to Free Comic Book Day from Diamond Comic Distributors Inc, the debtors in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case..."
The article describes that Universal is doing the annual Free Comic Book Day in May, as usual, but with a smaller slate or publishers participating, but, for example, Titan Comics is doing its own separate "free comic book day" giveaway with Conan and other titles.
Paul Pope THB collection coming – Macmillan
Get into the Public Domain archives that are online at Graphic Chatter
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Original page December 4, 2025