In what has proven to be an all-time weird and stressful year despite it only having four months to its name, one of 2025’s greatest anxiety drivers has been America’s on-again, off-again relationship with imposing tariffs on its trade partners. Whether you’re talking about the trade war it incited, the often-cataclysmic impact it has had on the varying markets of the world, or the simple question of “Will this product cost this much the next time I buy it?” the impacts have been felt on both a micro scale and a macro one. Few seem to know where they stand one day to the next, what’s actually included within these tariffs, and what they might mean for people across all walks of life. That’s a real problem.

That’s true for the world as a whole, but it’s also true in specific parts of it like the comic industry. The looming shadow of tariffs has cast a pall over the entire space, as people within it frantically plan for any situation while also trying to diagnose what might be affected by each new announcement as they happen.

As is often the case, that angst might be even more keenly felt in the direct market — the space made up of a couple thousand comic shops around the U.S. and beyond — where the margins were thinner to begin with and parts of the customer base already viewed prices as punitive. While readers tolerate $4.99 as a regular option, the idea of single-issue prices elevating beyond that is enough to send a shiver down the spine of even the fiercest of Wednesday Warriors.

The stress was radiating throughout that space until the most unexpected of things arrived: good news. Publishers Weekly noted that books printed in China — where a significant percentage of graphic novels and indie comics are produced — should be tariff-free thanks to a decades old exception called the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, or IEEPA. Meanwhile, a more recent trade exception — the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA — similarly protects books printed in Canada and paper products that originate there, which should mostly insulate direct market publishers, as that’s where many single-issue comics and the materials for them come from. Which is great!

You would think that revelation would mean people in comics are feeling a lot better about these tariffs now. Comics and graphic novels are in the clear! All’s well! That might be partially true, but I’m not sure it is entirely. And that’s because of one main word.

Uncertainty.

If you talk to anyone in comics 9 about these tariffs, odds are that idea would come up pretty quickly. Uncertainty, or at least the concept it represents, is a regular touchstone in conversations right now, and that’s true across every level of the direct market — whether you’re talking publishers, retailers, creators, 10 or even readers — and for a bevy of reasons.