Another week, another slate of news, so let’s look at the biggest items and the ones I have the most affinity for in another edition of Comics Disassembled.

1. Bergara and Spurrier, Doing Their Thing

One of the things that’s interesting about Matías Bergara and Simon Spurrier’s collaborations is that even though I don’t love all of them, I am wildly impressed by each of them. That might sound strange. It isn’t really. The work that they put in is astonishing. Step by Bloody Step, their Image Comics series, is an incredible effort, one with no dialogue that says everything it needs to through Bergara’s art. Coda’s sort of the opposite, but it wows throughout. Have I had either on my end of the year lists? No. But when I read one of their collaborations, I know it will be a singular work that only could come from them. That’s impressive.

So, needless to say, I am interested in their upcoming DSTLRY release, A Mischief of Magpies. I love a lot about it already. Bergara’s cover. That title and its playful mix of the name of a group of magpies and probably literal mischief. The fact that Fabio Moon and Bilquis Evely are providing covers as well. The staggering interiors. The idea of Bergara working in DSTLRY’s oversized format, especially as he colors himself with assists by Kike J. Díaz. I was in before I even looked at what it’s about. What’s it about? It’s about Bergara being a god. I could explain what it’s actually about, but in reading its solicit, that feels beyond the point, which is sort of the point of their collaborations. That said, the write-up at Polygon does say it’s “inspired by classic ‘portal fantasy,’ set on a floating city in an endless ocean,” which I quite like both because I had no idea “portal fantasy” was a thing and I find floating cities to be quite appealing.

The point is, I will be reading A Mischief of Magpies expecting something quite unlike anything I’ve read before, including this duo’s previous projects. It arrives in April. Prepare to bask in its glorious insanity.

2. More Changes Related to Diamond’s Bankruptcy

The wheels keep on turning with Diamond Comic Distributor’s bankruptcy, as more news continued to drop after my big feature on it hit this week. Over at The Beat, Heidi MacDonald highlighted some more movement on the publisher front, as Black Panel Press launched a GoFundMe to help offset some of the money Diamond owes it, Coffin Comics elected to focus on direct to consumer (which is already a massive part of what it does) and wholesale, and a retailer pulled the curtain back on a quiet impact of all this — possibly unfulfilled returnability for certain comics. It’s an interesting piece with insight into a lot of the movement, and I’m not just saying because SKTCHD earned a link in there.

Even more arrived this week, as Rich Johnston continues to highlight the topic as much as possible at Bleeding Cool. Johnston revealed that it wasn’t just Mad Cave Studios that left Diamond to focus on Lunar but Vault Comics as well, showcased an unconventional pitch to Lunar and Penguin Random House from the head of Cosmic Lion Productions, and dug into recent financials from IDW that suggest there’s “substantial doubt about the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern.” While IDW’s been in a state of substantial doubt for a long time now, that news is the most interesting. It’s reflective of something that might be facing the publishers who are distributed by PRH, which is the distro possibly looking to recoup the money it’s owed by Diamond through future orders of material. That is, as they say in business speak, not great.

But there’s a lot happening, and a lot more that will be happening. Nothing’s final, or finalized, or maybe even finalizing. It just continues to move onwards, so expect more news to be coming on this front over the upcoming weeks and months.