Legal | After months of stalemate, resolution came this week in the case of Diamond’s trustee Morgan W. Fisher and a group of publishers concerning consigned goods being held by Diamond and Sparkle Pop. The settlement will allow BOOM!, Dynamite, Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly and other publishers to recover their inventory from the Sparkle Pop-controlled warehouse, in exchange for waiving roughly $600,000 in claims. It also resolves a side dispute over money Sparkle Pop collected from unauthorized inventory sales during the fight.
The legal battle followed in the wake of Universal Distribution and Ad Populum’s purchase of several Diamond assets, including the comics distribution business, after Diamond declared bankruptcy. Graphic Policy has more.
Creators | Comic creator Dan Boultwood, who worked on Chu, It Came!, Baker Street Irregulars and more, was sentenced in London after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual activity with a child. Boultwood was sentenced to to three years’ imprisonment, which will be suspended for two years, as well as to rehabilitation activity, community service and sex-offender notification requirements in the United Kingdom. The offenses occurred in 2010 when Boultwood was 29 and the victim was 15; the case reached court after the victim reported it to police in 2023 and Boultwood was arrested in 2025.
Conventions | The Small Press Expo has been rolling out their list of special guests over the last few weeks, which include Carol Tyler, Julia Wertz, Derf, Kim Deitch, Peter Bagge, Jared Cullum, Lisa Hanawalt and more. You can find the complete line-up here. They’ve also announced that SPX will be the first stop for a Taiwan Comics Showcase that’ll bring several creators from that country to the show, including Crystal Kung, Monday Recover, Ding Pao-Yen and more. The convention takes place Sept. 12-13.
Conventions | Comic-Con International has shared a statement on the recent Eisner “leak,” which happened a few days before the Eisner Awards ceremony, saying an “internal error” led to the results going live on their website earlier than intended. It was up for about 45 minutes, they said, and at least one Reddit user posted the list of winners before it was pulled down. Many news sites reported on the leak, but only a few actually published the list of winners.
The statement goes on to thank news outlets that did not publish the list in advance. Here’s the complete list of winners.
Organizations | San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum shut its doors on Sunday after it opted not to renew its lease t its Fisherman’s Wharf location. The statement says the museum has had financial struggles due to “the pandemic and the slow recovery that followed.” The museum has been in operation for more than 40 years.
“For now, we will be packing up, taking time to regroup and determining what the next chapter of the Cartoon Art Museum should be,” the statement reads.
The closure lands a few weeks after former curator Andrew Farago was arrested and charged with allegedly recording party guests, including minors present at the gathering, in his home bathroom.
Publishers | DC has announced they plan to extend Deadman from a six-issue miniseries to a 12-issue maxiseries. The third issue of the series, by the Ice Cream Man team of W. Maxwell Prince, Martín Morazzo, Chris O’Halloran and Good Ol’ Neon, arrived in stores this week.
Publishers | I missed this one the week of Comic-Con, but the Beat reports that Marvel and Kadokawa will partner on original manga content, with five titles featuring Marvel characters in the works. This partnership falls under C.B. Cebulski’s new duties as head of Asia Originals for Marvel.
Publishers | It looks like Marvel is also getting into the “Compact Comics” game with an announcement of new collections of some of their Ultimate comics line. DC’s Compact Comics line, which cost $9.99 each, has proven to be very successful, while fans have complained about the Marvel Premier line‘s higher price point. These Ultimate collections will include the first 12 issues of Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Black Panther and the other Ultimate titles, at $9.99 each.