Comics Disassembled is back in action, but with a Thursday edition this time because my big SKTCHD feature is dropping on Friday this week. Typically I’d try to catch up with news that I missed while I was gone, but frankly, three weeks is just too much for one normal sized column, so this time, it’s just me sharing the things I liked or didn’t like from the past week in comics led by….oh my god, is that Kate Beaton’s music?!?!?!

New Kate Beaton? New Kate Beaton!

A thing you need to know about me is Kate Beaton is one of my favorite creators in comic history.

I am fully, fully ride or die with Beaton. Her her long-running webcomic, Hark! A Vagrant, is a Mount Rushmore level comic for me, and I loved Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, her endlessly praised graphic novel from 2022. Everything she does is magic. That’s why each announcement involving her work is something I’m going to pay attention to — and that’s true even when it’s something aimed at younger readers, which regrettably no longer matches my description.

This was almost certainly announced before, but this week brought a cover reveal for her upcoming graphic novel Meatball: King of the Forest, something that caught my eye in a way any previous announcement might not have. It’s made for younger readers, but let’s be honest, Kate Beaton writing and drawing a comic about a cat is an absolute lock to capture my attention. Meatball: King of the Forest is about an indoor cat named Meatball who escapes into the outdoors and learns about life and the meaning of home in the process. It’s both a charming concept and a nightmare scenario for me as a cat owner, but look at that cover. Look at that cat’s face. Look at the raccoon poking its head around that tree. It’s magic.

Again, I do not match the age band for this book, but I do not care. New Kate Beaton is worth celebrating, and we have new Kate Beaton coming. More specifically, Meatball: King of the Forest is arriving in April 2027. It’s going to make for an ideal gift for the younger reader in your life. Or yourself. Either works.

Marvel, On the Move

A banner day arrived this week, and it was a much anticipated — and fretted over — moment in the history of Marvel comics. Tuesday, September 15th was the go or no go day for Marvel employees when it comes to making the move over to Burbank, California with the company. It’s the type of thing that could have proven to be a seismic shift for both Marvel and the comic industry, because if the publisher had enough people who weren’t interested in switching coasts, it could be catastrophic to the present and future of the company.

I don’t have any official word about how it played out, but it doesn’t seem like anything disastrous has actually played out, even if there were definitely people that won’t be joining them. TBD on who that is, of course, as I don’t want to speculate based on the hubbub I’ve been hearing. Regardless, it’s still a significant moment, and one that I think Heidi MacDonald covered nicely, as she offered a pretty comprehensive look at the past, present, and future of this whole subject at The Beat. I especially like what she shared from Marvel’s VP of Licensed Publishing, Sven Larsen, whose Facebook posts on the matter have been enlightening.

This line that the exec told his team particularly stood out. He said, “You can’t think us this as moving with Marvel Comics. You have to think of it as joining a new company that happens to be called Marvel Comics.” That’s a fascinating distinction, and likely a correct one. It’s a whole new era for the publisher, one where everything is changing even if in many ways nothing is. What does the future hold for this new company, one that’s the same as the old one but also not? Who can say. So much of it depends on who elected to make the move, and then what Marvel heads Brad Winderbaum and David Abdo and new editor in chief Steve Wacker build in its wake. We’ll see what happens, but I can assure you this is something everyone in the direct market will be paying attention to.

One last note on this, though. Regardless of the decisions that were made, my heart goes out to everyone at Marvel. This was a huge ask and a huge decision, one that affects not just the publisher’s employees but their families and friends as well. It was a tough thing to do, assuredly. I just hope everyone landed on what proved to be the right move for them, and that they’re happy with that decision in the end.