80. Imprinted Image: Comics Link Roundup November 14
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IMPRINTED IMAGE
Welcome to Imprinted Image, my semi-weekly comics newsletter. If this is your first time, welcome! This is the best way to keep up with my comics blog. After links to my most recent writing, I’ll provide a roundup of comics industry links. This can be news, media, criticism, or anything that I personally found interesting.
First things first: if you are heading to a comic shop this weekend, I gave my top 4 recommendations for new issues, ongoing series, graphic novels, and preorders you can make in the Marvelous Market. My current ongoing project is an in-depth annotation of THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, a personal favorite written by Kieron Gillen, drawn by Jamie McKelvie, colored by Matt Wilson, and lettered by Clayton Cowles. It’s been a while since I posted a new one as I adjust to my new job schedule, and for that I am sorry. Most recently, I published annotations for issue # 25, wherein Persephone scares the crap out of Woden and we meet the “Great Darkness”.
I also created a resources tab on my website. It's a collection of reading guides, tutorials, and free legal resources like public domain image archives. I want this to be as useful as possible, so if you have any additions please send them my way.
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Comics Link Roundup
News:
DC and Marvel dropped surprise digital comic crossovers. Read Thor / Shazam, The Flash / Fantastic Four, and take up their extended free trial offers for their digital comics subscriptions.
Digital comics platforms are taking shape:
Neon Ichiban, focused on digital collectibles and remarques, left beta and is now fully launched.
Sweet Shop launched their beta, which seems to have a focus on creators, but full disclosure, I have not received an invite yet so I don’t what the vibe it.
New service InkyPen is launching an app on Steam after earlier debuting on the Switch store, interestingly enough.
Webtoon, struggling this past quarter, is sunsetting its Fan Translation service.
Dark Horse has also posted a loss this past quarter. Comic shops may be doing great, buoyed largely by the success of the Absolute line, but many publishers are not experiencing the rising tides.
The Kickstarter strike is over. The new contract has workers winning a four-day workweek, higher salary floors, and anti-AI commitments from management.
On Halloween morning, I reviewed the first omnibus of GRENDEL comics. That evening, a North Carolina comics retailer was arrested for (seemingly carelessly) handing out a free GRENDEL comic that contained nudity to a child.
On the other end of things, the Comic Book Legal Defense Club declares victory in a lawsuit that found a Texas law that would impose a rating system on books, with a special target on graphic novels, distributed by schools. The case will likely be appealed.
Famous French comics festival Angoulême is continuing to face fallout, with boycotts and potential cancelation, over controversies involving the company that runs it, 9e Art+ and its owner Franck Bondoux, over their alleged toxic managament and major mishandling of a rape that happened during the event in 2024.
A CGC graded 9.0 copy of SUPERMAN # 1, currently ranked the third most valuable golden age comic, will be auctioned off later this month.
If you like to crowdfund comics, The Beat has you covered with 5 projects they think you’ll love.
A skim of recent comics news:
The Beat’s biweekly comic news recap: 11/7.
The Comics Journal’s weekly link roundup, focusing on news, reviews, and interviews: 11/7. 11/11. 11/18.
SKTCHD’s Comics Disassembled, with A Number Things selected by David Harper: 11/7.
Writing:
The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum has a digital exhibition, curated by Anne Drozd and Ben Towle, on how cartoon strips would depict motion. Long-time readers know this is very much my thing.
Critic (and comic book writer) David Brothers is always a treat to read. He’s in Shelfdust talking about the recent BATMAN # 1.
Longtime Marvel editor Tom Brevoort has a fascinating breakdown of the mystery of who drew TALES TO ASTONISH # 61.
Very Limited Data Bestseller Lists from the past few weeks:
Weekly Bestseller List from Bleeding Cool / ComicHub: 11/8.
October Bestseller List from ICv2 / Circana Bookscan: Top 20 Adult Graphic Novels. Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels.
October Bestseller List from ICv2 / ComicHub: Top 50 Comics. Top 20 Graphic Novels.
Weekly “Hottest Comics” from Bleeding Cool / Covrprice: 11/7. 11/11.
My favorite video, podcasts, and blogs:
OFF PANEL podcast interviewed Erica Henderson about HARLEY AND IVY: LIFE AND CRIMES and Kieron Gillen on DIE: LOADED. SKTCHD interviewed Renaud Roche on LUCAS WARS, a biography of George Lucas, and posted an article on the difficulties of creator-owned comics in the current market. On YouTube he launched a new series called The Moment, interviewing creators on the moment they knew their biggest projects would work, starting with Kieron Gillen.
The podcast THE HISTORY OF COMICS IN 500 ISSUES posted Episode 28: Tijuana Bibles.
The podcast LET’S TALK COMICS interviewed Ryan Parrott, W. Maxwell Prince and Deniz Camp, and Mark Silvestri.
YouTube COMICTROPES posted a video on Richard Corben‘s adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe.
Dave of Comic Book Herald wrote an INVESTIGATORS reading order, as well as his favorite graphic novels of October. Their affiliated podcast MY MARVELOUS YEAR published 2012 pt. 8, with the debut of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN, and 2012 Variant Cover D, a loser hangout featuring plenty of video game chat.
Oh, and not comics at all, but my college friend Ryan has been posting more YouTube videos lately. He has one on the good habits he has (in Minecraft, but not in real life) and on the lack of good media preservation. Watch his videos and tell him I sent you.