Comics Lockdown: The latest on comics and COVID

Featuring news from Valiant, Archie Comics, MICE and more.

As the news that Diamond Comics Distributors is putting shipments on hold as of April 1 reverberated throughout the comics industry, reactions came from many quarters. Here’s a roundup of as many as I could find, with more (I’m sure) tomorrow:

Let’s start with some perspective: At Comichron, John Jackson Miller looks at the history of the comics retail market and offers some hope for the future.

At ICv2, editor, comics market analyst, and former distributor Milton Griepp gives his perspective.

Continue reading “Comics Lockdown: The latest on comics and COVID”

Smash Pages Q&A: Simon Roy, Daniel M. Bensen + Artyom Trakhanov

The creators of ‘Protector’ discuss the miniseries, how they collaborate and more.

Simon Roy first came to a lot of people’s attention with Prophet, or perhaps people know him for his projects like Habitat or Jan’s Atomic Heart and Other Stories. His new project, which has been coming out from Image Comics this year, is the miniseries Protector.

A collaboration with novelist Daniel M. Bensen (Junction) and artist Artyom Trakhanov (The 7 Deadly Sins), the book is a science fantasy adventure set in 3241 AD in the remote regions of North America (or what’s left of it) as Iron Age humans are dealing with demons and aliens and slavers and warring tribes. Issue #3 is out this week from Image, and I had a chance to speak with the team about the project.

Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Simon Roy, Daniel M. Bensen + Artyom Trakhanov”

Can’t Wait for Wednesday: This too shall pass

See what’s hitting stores this week from DC, Marvel, BOOM! and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, our look at this week’s new comics releases. And as we found out yesterday, this may be the last week of new comics we see for a while. That’s a hard sentence to type, but here we are.

Our hearts and best wishes go out to everyone in the comics industry — from retailers to creators to those working in publishing — who are going to be affected by this. We suggest contacting your retailer if you can, even if you’re in a “shelter in place” area, to see if they’re offering curbside pickup or mail order options right now. This is a good week to make sure you buy everything in your pull box, if you’re able to.

You can see the complete list of this week’s releases over at The Comic List, and I encourage you to share what you’re planning to get in the comments below. My thanks to Tom Bondurant and Carla Hoffman for sharing their picks this week.

Continue reading “Can’t Wait for Wednesday: This too shall pass”