What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025?
The whole Diamond Distribution mess, hands down. I saw some folks answer the attacks on free speech; those are absolutely a big deal and indeed a much larger story... but it's also much larger than just the comics industry. We have indeed seen cartoonists' speech clamped down on in 2025, and I don't think that should be taken lightly, but they weren't singled out any more than any other journalists. So the entire Diamond Distribution saga -- everything from the original Chapter 7 to driving publishers out of business to newer distributors trying to fill the gaps to lawsuits about back stock and payments to... -- that strikes me as the biggest comics industry story of 2025.
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026?
2025 was insanely turbulent just in general. Not only was distribution radically disrupted, but publishers has to figure out on-again-off-again tariff issues repeatedly as many of their vendors and suppliers had radical shifts in how much they had to charge thanks to that walking shitstain in the White House. On top of which, we're in a Jenga-style economy where a single nervous brick can spell disaster. All of this means a great deal of business uncertainty. To mitigate that, I think publishers are going to lean into known quantities and we will see a large number of licensed and cross-licensed material. We're going to see more Batman/Deadpool type books. I recall seeing an announcement about a Fantastic Four/Planet of the Apes crossover for early in the year already. We're going to see more publishers farm out previously licensed material to other publishers as well -- Titan just announced they're going to put out an omnibus edition of some of Marvel's Conan comics. There's going to be a lot more blurring of lines of who's allowed to print what characters because publishers are looking for more known quantities that have an inherent fanbase built in from another IP holder.
What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026?
I don't harbor guilt about any of the pleasures I indulge in. I don't hide something I like or feel embarrassed about liking it because I'm not the intended and/or typical audience.
That said, I haven't seen/heard about any upcoming comics projects that I'm especially excited about. I still enjoy the comics I regularly read, but I'm not aware of anything out of the ordinary in the works there. I have seen several announcements about some upcoming action figures from Fresh Monkey Fiction that have me pretty interested, though. They have a not-Buckaroo-Banzai they've shown off a prototype for, and there are some digital renders of their Red Riding Hood that could be easily repainted into an Alice in Wonderland. (I'll do the custom myself if they don't make an official one.) Plus they're planning on some generic thug/criminal types characters that will be useful as well. I've been happy with the handful of their figures I already have, so I'm looking forward to seeing what things materialize from them.
Do you have a local comics shop? What do you like (or love) about it?
I haven't done a local comic shop since COVID started. I'm still very concerned about my health and try not to go anywhere I don't have to. Virtually all of my comic purchases these days come from either MyComicShop.com or Bookshop.org. Between the two of them, pretty much everything is available and it's all delivered to my front door, so I don't have to worry about catching COVID again just in order to read some new comics.
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