‘Twas the week before New York Comic Con, when all through the house, David Harper was crying, because Chip Zdarsky threw my dreams in the outhouse. *sigh* Let’s get to looking at ten things I liked or didn’t like from the week of comics, led by the ultimate sadness.

THANKS CHIP.

The Death of the Supermag

As you may know, I am a bit of a fan of Zdarsky Comic News, Chip Zdarsky’s Eisner Award-nominated free comics magazine that featured interviews and wonderful design and irreverent antics all about comic books. I’ve talked about it roughly 1.2 billion times since it launched in July 2024. I have not hidden how much I enjoy it. So you’ll have to imagine my sadness when I saw that it would be ending with December’s 18th issue of the publication, which I only discovered thanks to my touring of League of Comic Geeks for a newsletter I do for my local comic shop. There were tears. So many tears. If there was any solace to the news, it was that I, and only I, had discovered it. Because of that, I for once would be able to share news before anyone else had it. A true SKTCHD exclusive, if you will.

And then…Chip just posted about it, breaking my heart once again.

Okay, only part of that is true. Mostly the crying. But I’ve known this was coming for quite some time, and I also understand why he needs to end it. The guy’s busy, and it’s a free publication that’s taking precious time away from his paying work and his non-working life. Who among us didn’t wish we could reclaim time in our life? This is allowing him to do that. That’s a great thing. From what I’ve heard, he’s going to have a pretty busy 2026, and that doesn’t leave a lot of time for this kind of tomfoolery, even if it’s beloved, award-nominated, and enjoyable tomfoolery. That still takes time! And Captain America waits for no man!

Hopefully someone picks up the mantle from Chip’s glorious efforts. If there’s a lesson to be learned from the success of ZCN, it’s that people want something tangible to engage with in comic shops, and they want it to be a good time. There’s a hole to be filled, and we shall see if it is.

DC and Marvel, Crossing Over (Again)!

Speaking of things that have been known in the SKTCHD offices for a minute, DC and Marvel are doing another crossover in 2026! And it’s main event time, as they’ve saved the big guns for an anniversary year. Next year’s crossover between the two will feature Spider-Man and Superman — structured as Spider-Man/Superman for Marvel and Superman/Spider-Man for DC — and each is coming soon, with the DC version hitting in March and the Marvel arriving in April. This is well-timed, as next year is the 50th anniversary of the crossover comic Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man, which means we’ll also get a pair of Treasury Edition reprints of that story and the one that originally appeared in Marvel Treasury Edition #28. Those are hitting in January.

All of that is a big deal. Those comics have been out of print for forever, and the prospect of a new Spider-Man and Superman crossover is going to generate some serious heat. That’s especially true if they nail the creative teams, which have not been announced yet. I’ve heard a little about who might be tackling these tales, and I’ll just say this: There might be some surprises waiting for us on at least one of them. Who knows if that will prove to be true, but it sounds intriguing. At the very least, though, this will be a lot of fun, and the type of thing that will resonate in comic shops.

I had wondered if the order of release would change after Marvel led things off this time, because the heat will likely always be greater for the first crossover release to hit the stands. That is in fact happening. DC is kicking things off this time. That makes sense, and I imagine they’ll probably rotate release schedules for as long as they do these crossovers.