“What a week,” he says about anything and everything happening in the world at once. But this isn’t about that. This is about comics, and folks, what a week it was in comics, as everyone turns on the afterburners with San Diego Comic Con approaching. So, let’s look at ten things I liked or didn’t like from the week that was, led by a rather delightful return.

Those Crazy Gotham Academy Kids, Being Back

Sensing that I was having a bad week, the kindly folks at DC Comics gave me a wonderful present. What was that gift, you may be asking?

GOTHAM ACADEMY IS BACK!

Woooo!

As a big fan of what Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher, Karl Kerschl, and friends originally cooked up in this series about mystery kids like Olive Silverlock and Maps Mizoguchi, I’ve long awaited its return in some form. Now, it’s back in the six issue miniseries Gotham Academy: First Year, and the main creative team has returned, as Cloonan, Fletcher, and Kerschl are co-writing. Sadly, Kerschl is not also drawing it — the work he and colorist Michele Assarasakron did together on the first volume was a huge part of the original’s appeal — but with Marco Ferrari drawing it and Eva de la Cruz coloring it, it’s still going to have rock-solid visuals.

But the point is, once again, that the gang is all back together, whether you’re talking about the cast of this book or the trio of co-creators behind the original series. Even if I loved the art the most — and as Fletcher would and has pointed out, that’s my blatant Karl Kerschl biases showing — Gotham Academy was always built around vibes, with it being one of the finest hang out comics of all time. It’ll just be fun to chill with these characters again as they get up to no good, and perhaps especially in a prequel series like this. And chill I will when this series launches in October with an extra-sized first issue. I cannot wait.

Oh, and to keep these good times going, DC, we need a Compact Comics release for the original volume! Trust me! It would work!

Universal Distribution, Discussing the Past, Present, and Future

In what was easily the most interesting industry interview of the past couple weeks, Universal Distribution’s CEO Angelo Exarhakos recently sat down with Milton Griepp over at ICv2 for a two-part chat about his view on varying happenings related to his company and the comics distribution space. For those that don’t know, Universal Distribution is a Canadian distributor of all sorts of things — like toys, collectible card games, sports cards, and, yes, comic books — that is on its way to breaking into the American market. It’s also famous for being half of the winning joint bid in the Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy auction, with Universal walking away with Alliance Game Distributors (the games side of Diamond) in the process. That’s what this was largely about, as Griepp quizzed Exarhakos about that whole deal and how he views things going forward.

I advise giving both halves of the interview a read, but it’s an intriguing chat and an encouraging one at that. Here’s a quick rundown of my favorite highlights from it, though:

• Exarhakos going maximum “I don’t know her” about Ad Populum’s Joel Weinshanker, as he quickly (and likely correctly) distanced himself and Universal from the company that acquired Diamond Comic Distributors itself and so quickly destroyed all goodwill associated with the company. According to the Universal head, it was simply a relationship of necessity, and not one that existed before the Diamond auction
• Possibly related comment, Exarhakos emphasized that “I would never be involved in any deal where vendors would be unpaid,” something that probably made a whole lot of people in the comics and games industries breathe a massive sigh of relief
• He specifically says, “We intend to try and grow the comic book business. We hope to bring in new readers to the comic book marketplace,” which…you absolutely love to see
• That wasn’t an empty platitude either. Exarhakos talked about the idea of selling comics, or more specifically trade paperbacks and graphic novels, to games stores, and how a mint could be made if these shops had Spider-Man comics in stock when the upcoming Magic: The Gathering – Spider‑Man set is released. I suspect he is correct in that regard!
• He was asked about adding Marvel as a Penguin Random House sub-distributor, and it sounds like the plan is to scale responsibly and smartly. So…maybe!
• Another great bit: “The key for us is not to sell to the people who are already purchasing comic books, whether it’s from Lunar or PRH or anybody else. I think if we’re simply doing that, we’re not bringing something to the table.”
• Universal is not necessarily going to “focus” on trades and graphic novels over single issues, but he did describe it at as a “starting point.” Collections kind of sounded like a focus, though!
• Worth noting: He did immediately go “no comment” when asked whether Universal is buying Diamond UK, which feels like a comment unto itself

Okay, that’s it for quotes. I don’t want to take away from what was a great chat that Milton put together. But Exarhakos made a whole lot of compelling points, enough that I couldn’t help but feel like he’s exactly what the comics industry needs more of: forward thinkers who aren’t afraid to go outside the box in their approach. I am truly excited to see what Universal cooks up for the American side of the direct market (and beyond), and to see how it fits in a new landscape for distribution with Lunar and PRH. And yes, I’ve reached out to see if I can get my own chat with Exarhakos. TBD!