I’m friendly with a lot of comic shops, but if there was a Mount Rushmore for retailers for me, Patrick Brower – the co-owner of Chicago’s Challengers Comics + Conversation – would definitely be there. He’s one of the great evangelists the medium of comics really has, with the excellent shop he co-owns with W. … Continued

To close the loop on this week’s monster feature on crowdfunding, I wanted to share one more interview in full because it’s with the creator who is arguably most synonymous with comics on Kickstarter: C. Spike Trotman. The founder and owner of Iron Circus Comics was one of the most essential people I spoke to … Continued

Yesterday’s massive feature on crowdfunding featured a whole lot of very smart, very insightful voices on the world of comics and crowdfunding, but there’s likely no one more tuned in on that side of the world than Kickstarter’s own Margot Atwell. Atwell is the Head of Publishing at Kickstarter, and because of that, the person … Continued

Comics being Kickstarted isn’t necessarily always interesting, as that occurrence happens a lot. It’s fairly run of the mill these days, and they still need to be relevant to your interests to draw your attention. The currently being Kickstarted graphic novella Blacking Out manages to do that in a number of ways. It’s drawn by … Continued

Jim Rugg is undeniably one of the most consistently interesting and surprising comic creators around. Whether you’re talking about his work on titles like Street Angel or my personal favorite Afrodisiac, Rugg has a rare gift to tell comic stories unlike any others you’ve ever come across. And he’s back at it once again with … Continued

Yesterday, I covered DC’s divorce from Diamond Comic Distributors at great length, answering ten key questions about the move in the process. Within that piece, I shared quotes from retailers I spoke to, and because they gave me so much, I wanted to make sure I shared not just highlights, but everything they thought about … Continued

So, comics are back. Kind of. This past week marked the first Wednesday back to semi-normal operations, as every publisher but Marvel released new comics through Diamond on May 20th. While there are all kinds of oddities and caveats to go with that return date – DC has been publishing via DCBS and Midtown for … Continued

Everyone is in a tough place because of the coronavirus pandemic, regardless of position or industry. But the direct market in comics is in a particularly difficult position, if only because every facet of the chain is impacted. Supply. Distribution. Sales. You name it. When stores can’t even be open and the main distributor is … Continued

Oni Press has had an interesting past year, and when I was putting together my feature on the state of the direct market from the perspective of the publishers in the middle, I knew I wanted to chat with someone on their team about what was going on with them. So that I did, as … Continued

While I chatted with five different publishers for my feature on the state of the direct market through the eyes of the houses in the middle, there were two I spoke with that made up the bulk of the feature: BOOM! Studios’ President of Publishing and Marketing Filip Sablik and Oni Press’ Publisher James Lucas … Continued