It’s a quiet week for news, which gives me more space to highlight things I really enjoy. So, let’s get straight to it, as we start things off with something I don’t just like, I love it!

NYCC, Getting a Zine

New York Comic Con announced a new thing they’ll be doing for the 2025 edition of the convention. It’s the NYCC Zine, a magazine/zine zine that will feature 40 plus pages of “original art & comics” and a cover by Ryan Ottley, with its print run being limited to just 500 copies. It will only be sold at the show store, and it will make a nice memento for the convention, especially if you can get it signed by participating artists who will be in Artist Alley, as NYCC itself suggest.

It actually reminds me of a less charitable, less fancy version of Emerald City Comic Con’s old yearbook Monsters & Dames, which was also filled with great art that gave you the opportunity to collect signatures on each piece for a one-of-a-kind keepsake. The only bummer to this zine is its limited print run, because it will be incredibly easy to miss out on it. I might do so intentionally so someone else can get one, but it’s a great idea, and one that I hope to see become a consistent offering for NYCC.

IDW, Going Classic

Ring the bell, folks. The format boom continues to be on.

This week, IDW is entering the picture, as its IDW Classics line launches next year with a quartet of books that includes a Godzilla collection, the first volume of Locke & Key, a Rocketeer collection, and, of all things, Ryan Ferrier and Valentin Ramon’s honestly quite entertaining D4VE. It appears that Godzilla will be the first out the gate in February with Locke & Key following the next month. That’s a promising lineup. I hope IDW didn’t make any decisions that might limit its potential.

WHOOPS.

Despite the bar clearly being set by DC’s Compact Comics line — which is 5.5″x8.5″ in size and $9.99 in price — IDW went the Marvel route with a bigger size at 6″x9″ and a bigger price at $13.99. I get it, of course. There are downsides to going cheaper and smaller. But it’s abundantly clear that the formula that works best is the Compact Comics approach, and coming in at a bigger size and a higher price feels like it limits the potential of this effort before it even launches. I could be wrong. But it’s never felt like the Marvel Premiere Collections have connected in the same way the Compact Comics have, and arguably the biggest differences are price and size.

One thing this effort has going for it is that it has a good name. IDW Classics rolls off the tongue nicely. It says what it is. That’s a good thing. The design is nice too. But I do wonder how much its ceiling is lowered from the start because of the decisions I’m questioning. I guess we’ll find out!