Archive Page 2259
February 2026
Warner Bros and Paramount talks to resume? – MSN Reuters – The prospect of a "superior deal" than the existing purchase offer from Netflix has set off another "what if?" episode in the sale of Warner Bros to... well, somebody.
Debt snapshot (gross debt / borrowings, per recent filings):
Netflix had about $14.5B in senior notes outstanding and also had a $3B revolving credit facility available with nothing drawn (as of Dec 31, 2025).
Paramount Global reported ~$15.0B in total debt (face value) (as of Jun 30, 2025).
Warner Bros. Discovery reported ~$33.8B in total debt (as of Sep 30, 2025).
The "weirdest couples" of comic books – Den O' Geek
Profile: the "wholesome comic strips" of 4amshower – MSN Bored Panda
The Nicolas Cage Spider-Noir – Parade – "70% Bogart and 30% Bugs Bunny" - Gamesradar
TV Show Knight of the Seven Kingdoms pushes sales for the comic book version – News Byte
Midtown Comics Downtown temp closure – Bleedingcool
Frazetta's sci-fi-comic book covers – 13th Dimension
19 Year old mechanical engineering student in Ireland (named Ellie Farrell) builds a "real" Iron Man suit using a 3D printer – NBC News
The suit (in the NBC video) comes across as better than a comic book convention cosplay suit (much better, has actual working gears to move parts on the suit); but this isn't a "real Iron Man" suit (and if it were, it would be considered highly dangerous.)
IDW reports major sales losses: sees Diamond implosion as culprit – Bleedingcool
IDW has written off "bad debt expenses of $702,000" either to Diamond or Penguin Random House as a result of the bankruptcy, and the company's cash levels decreased to $6,544,000 as October, 2025 from $7,432,000 the previous year, which IDW cites "a decrease in overall cash inflow due primarily to the impact of the bankruptcy of Diamond Comic Distributors"...
The impact a year after Diamond Distribution went bankrupt – CBC News
What does Mickey Mantle, Superman, stamps, and a Doubloon have in common? – AOL.com
Born 112 years ago today: Bill Finger – Comicbook
Bob Kane Came Up With “the Bat-Man” But Bill Finger Truly Created Him..."
DC is ramping up reprints on Absolute line of comics – Comicsbeat
US Mint to make gold coins with Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman – MSN CBR
For example, you can buy a "Comic Art 24-Karat Gold Proof Coin – Wonder Woman™" for $4,030.00 - - the info for that coin says "Mintage Limit: 10,000" (if you buy them all that's roughly $40 million) - you can start buying them at this link.
Alex Ross doing a hard cover book for Autumn titled Marvel Dimensions – Hollywood Reporter
It’s meant to be as bonkers a ride for the reader as it could possibly be," says Ross teasingly to The Hollywood Reporter. "You’re getting one kind of entertainment, and then it changes on you midstream and then you’re getting a different art style suddenly, and then you’re wondering, ‘Where’s this going?’ And then the format changes within the book itself, a mid-book format change. All these things hopefully seem to unify and combine and come back together, but it’s meant to be a wild ride that is throwing everything plus the kitchen sink at you...."
The book is being published by a combo-deal from Abrams ComicArts and Marvel
The war between American Comics and Manga, 2026 – Comicbook
There's Really Big Money splashing around in the upper tiers of the collecting market – Bleedingcool
The very top end of the vintage comic book market is showing signs of a realignment the likes of which has not been seen since 2010... recently, we've seen the highest graded Superman #1 CGC 9.0 tip-toe up to the $10 million mark with a $9.12 million sale, and then the highest graded Action Comics #1 CGC 9.0 (one of two copies in this grade) blew past it with a market-stunning $15 million sale. Now, Heritage Auctions has announced a $13 million transaction involving the highest-graded Batman #1 CGC 9.4 for $6 million, and the second-highest-graded Superman #1 CGC 8.5 Edgar Church/Mile High copy for $7 million...."
Sal Buscema
Meeting Sal Buscema, 1969 – The Comics Journal
Gary Groth visited with Sal Buscema multiple times and recounts his association in a lengthy article at TCJ which reprints material from the very old Fantastic Fanzine 'zine.
Sal lived in Springfield, Virginia, as I did, a suburb of Washington DC, in an unpretentious middle-class starter house (as I did). One bedroom was devoted to his studio. This was the first interview I conducted in person (I had previously sent questions to artists through the mail, to which, believe it or not, the likes of John Romita and Steve Ditko actually responded with answers!). I deduced that I did this interview over the summer of 1969, which would’ve made me 14 years old... acutely aware that I could easily make a pest of myself, I would wait a respectable amount of time (4 or 5 nail-biting months?) after one visit, call him and ask if I could visit again. Invariably, he welcomed me over, spending a couple hours suffering my worshipful prattling... A year later I put on a comics convention (with substantial help from my father) at the Crystal City Marriott (5 minutes outside Washington DC), and asked Sal to give the keynote address (all conventions then featured keynote addresses by comics luminaries)..."
In the article, Buscema talks about the old Comics Code Authority ("I think it should stay. It’s a good thing. It could probably be revised a little bit") the craft of drawing comics ("I think the most important thing in comics as in any art field, is to draw well and the only way a person can learn how to draw well is by studying and by drawing, drawing… and drawing and after that drawing some more; as much as you possibly can because drawing is a very difficult thing to do; it doesn’t take weeks or months… it takes years to become a good draftsman, a good artist. It’s a lifetime proposition. ") and more specific topics about things pertaining to stories and characters at Marvel Comics, circa 1969.
The million dollar Superman "Timmy Heague carried the Holy Grail in a brown backpack" – Ventura County Star
The Ventura County comic book store owner sat in economy on a flight to Sarasota, Florida. In the backpack, sheathed in a hard-cased shell insulated by bubble wrap, was an original Action Comics No. 1. Heague is contracted to sell the 1938 comic book that features the first appearance of Superman and also marks the introduction of superheroes. There are maybe 125 copies in the world. One in near-mint condition, once owned by and stolen from actor Nicolas Cage, sold at auction for $15 million in January...."
"Newspaper deathwatch" – Daily Cartoonist
Oni Press and Random House make deal – Comicsbeat
Legal fees and bank fees "wipe out" funds raised from Diamond's bankruptcy sales – Bleedingcool
The legal case continues through the courts..."
More stuff on racks
Keeping the Angoulême International comics festival alive – le Monde
The residents of Angoulême, in southwestern France, have their own way of referring to the event that livens up their city every last weekend of January. They do not call it a "festival," and certainly not the "FIBD" (the French acronym for the International Comic Book Festival), but more simply la bédé, the French slang term for a comic book..."
The Deadpool-Batman crossover "The World's Last Superhero Comics"– The Comics Journal
Last September’s Deadpool/Batman (Marvel Comics) and November’s Batman/Deadpool (DC Comics) are not only the publishers’ latest crossovers but their final superhero comics. The vanishing point of print superheroics..."
It's instructive to remember that The Comics Journal has been predicting the demise of superhero comics for a very, very long time.
Death of the Superheroes, 1979
The Comics Journal for many decades has had a fairly low threshold of pain when it comes to superheroes. This 1979 cover by Fujitake (for the interior fantasy-article by Steve Skeates) kind of sums up the frustration of the magazine with the most lucrative genre within the American comics medium.
Steve Skeates started in comics in 1965 as an assistant to Stan Lee at Marvel Comics. From there he quickly went into freelance writing and worked for nearly every major comic book publisher, such as: Marvel, DC Comics, Tower Comics, Charlton Comics, Gold Key, Archie, and Warren Publishing. He died on March 30, 2023 at the age of 80.
Get into the Public Domain archives that are online at Graphic Chatter
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Original page February 18, 2026