Archive Page 2249
September 2025
The success of DC's Absolute line – Publishers Weekly
But if there was a single theme that informed the casting of Absolute’s artistic team, according to Conroy, it was the growing appeal of manga to DC’s audience. "We knew that the Western superhero comics audience and the manga audience were overlapping like never before," says Conroy. "There is a vast pool of readers out there who are experiencing serialized comics through manga and not through Western superheroes. Their first reference point either starts with manga, rather than with our material, or the elements of our material that have already been reflected through manga, like Chainsaw Man or My Hero Academia."
The frustrating element to these kinds of articles is that there is no measurable way of examining data and so see hard numbers saying "success." Instead, only the presenting of impressions and the emotional reaction given in anecdote from both sides of the equation, the creators and the mass of nameless fans who are being presented as reacting in one way or another from the point of view of the article writer.
Superhero comics, Conroy feels, are reaching a moment of "generational turnover." At DC, "we were seeing other companies take steps into that water and succeed, and we thought that a wave was building—and if we timed it right, we would be right on it," he says. A wave of new artists, he explains, can "make everybody rethink what a superhero comic can look like," and Absolute’s bold, maybe even confrontational artistic direction was “an effort to lean into those headwinds."
The article is describing an attitude of moving forward and being coherently organized, which is a good change from some of the past projects that the big companies have tried in order to grow where an incomplete plan flew to pieces once mixed reactions starting coming back from the fanbase. This Publisher's Weekly article isn't entirely a "puff" piece, but is sort've that due to the lack of numbers, but on the plus side it is couched with real information about the ideas and thinking of the people who have their hands on the steering wheel at DC Comics.
"Why 2025 summer box office is a step in the wrong direction" – MSN /Film
It's been a rollercoaster ride at the box office over the last handful of years, but for many in the industry, a saying emerged around 2023: "Survive until 2025," or something to that effect.
.."
As has been said elsewhere, "survive 2025" is the new saying.
Sparkle Pop, Diamond Distributors, and selling off comic book stock without regard to the publisher owners – Bleedingcool
Andrew Garfield's The Amazing Spider-Man films left Netflix... and now they're coming back – MSN Superhero Hype
Auction of Watchmen art by Dave Gibbons nets high numbers – Newcastle World
The artwork, by celebrated British artist Dave Gibbons, came from Issue No. 11, page 22 of the ground breaking series created with writer Alan Moore. It carried a pre-sale estimate of £1,000-£1,800 but quickly surpassed expectations after drawing strong and almost overwhelming amounts of pre-sale interest from bidders across the world...."
Winners of the 2025 American Manga Awards announced at ceremony at New York’s Japan Society – Comics Beat
First episode show date for Marvel Zombies TV Show is September 24, 2025 on Disney+
Superman and F1: The Movie each cross the $600 million global earnings mark – Variety MSN
- Jurassic World Rebirth at $844,140,810 worldwide - released July 2
- Superman at $604,475,181 worldwide - released July 11
- F1 at $603,408,240 worldwide - released Jun 27
- Fantastic Four at $490,051,951 worldwide - released July 25
- Weapons at $199,380,823 worldwide - released August 8
- KPop Demon Hunters at $18,000,000 worldwide - released August 22
Summer Box Office 2025
These numbers mean Superman and Fantastic Four are at #48 and #56 for all time superhero comic book movie earnings on the Top Super Hero Movie List
Review of new Red Sonja film "dull cheese" – Hollywood Reporter
Hampered by the sort of low-budget production values that make it seem more suited for cable television, Red Sonja is receiving a one-night theatrical release before being made available on VOD. Although even that may be too ambitious a rollout."
Small Press Comics interview with Alexander Laird and Andrew Alexander – The Comics Journal
I think that’s also why there's more artists who are self-publishing or publishing like us is because there are less business-minded people who are choosing to publish because it's a bad business decision right now. Like, I think it maybe seemed like it was a better idea, let's say in like, 2014 when, like, "Adventure Time" was booming. Like, oh, maybe I can get a TV show deal out of finding the next hot IP in comics. So there was a business decision on that, and now, like, that's all gone. And so it's just the artist’s love of the game...."
The 2023 Reuben Award winners – National Cartoonists Society
The page shows all the winners of the "Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year" award winners, starting with Milt Caniff in 1946 all the way through 2023. There are other awards given, too: The T-Square, the Caniff, Medal of Honor, and The Gold Key.
Drawn Into Life - sequential and comic book art exhibit through September 14, 2025 – Bear and Bird Gallery
Review of the exhibit "Drawn Into Life" – Times Union [Paywall]
Superman crosses $600 million mark: top superhero film of 2025 – Hollywood Reporter
The "Narrative Art" Museum George Lucas is building in California "looks like a space ship" – UK Independent
McDonald’s Japan cancels One Piece manga promotion – Free Malaysia
McDonald’s Japan has cancelled a promotion based on the classic “One Piece” manga series, after a similar Pokemon-themed campaign sparked a frenzy and uproar about uneaten food being discarded..."
There's going to be an Archie's Hollywood movie? – Hollywood Reporter
‘Spider-Verse’ producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to make it.
Self-published, small-press festival in London – Down the Tubes
The inaugural festival takes place on Saturday 30th August 2025, kicking off right from 11.00am, hosting over 40 of the country’s most talented cartoonists: local artists and comic makers from across the country from up and comers who have barely published their first zine, to grizzled vets who remember the days of Fast Fiction and you’ll regularly find at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival and Thought Bubble..."
The web site for the event at Gosh London
Disney has "boy trouble"– Variety
That headline is a terrible play on words, but it does sum up what has been said for years: Disney took Marvel Comics "a boy brand" and tried to turn it into... well, depending on who is making the accusation, a "girl brand" or something else entirely. Either way...
Leadership at Walt Disney Studios has been pressing Hollywood creatives in recent months, multiple sources tell Variety, for movies that will bring young men back to the brand in a meaningful way. "Young men" is defined here by sources as ages 13-28, aka Gen Z."
The cure for what ails them is seeking "original concepts to lure the demo back to the movies" though of course, as noted in the article, every movie-making apparatus of Hollywood wants to "lure" an audience, so this isn't new. What is new is the couched confession of the mission, that they've screwed up when it comes to a certain percentage of the ticket-buying demographic.
"Running out of time and money" the ongoing Diamond Distributors court saga – Comicsbeat
After several disasters, Secret Headquarters comic shop in Evansville, KY "closing their doors for good" – WEHT Kentucky
Nancy Burton, née Nancy Kalish, aka Panzica, aka Hurricane Nancy has died – The Comics Journal
One of the early American underground cartoonists, Nancy was known by many names and lived what sometimes seemed like many lives..."
Marvel movie making splitting for UK – WXIA Georgia
Georgia has one of the most generous film tax credits in the country. According to the WSJ, a person familiar with the matter said Marvel left due to rising costs. It's part of an industry trend of productions moving overseas..."
Bankruptcy hearing coming for Diamond – Bleedingcool
"I blame the Dark Knight series from Frank Miller for 'almost ruining comic books" – Comicbook
This is the kind of article that begs for a rebuttal.
The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen were unbelievably popular, and for good reason. Comic books were still shaking off the guidelines of the Comics Code Authority, which heavily censored the types of stories that could be told. These two stories threw those guidelines out to tell much darker stories with much more adult themes, and they were beloved for it..."
This is only partially true. For years before the Dark Knight appeared there were plenty of titles that bucked the Comics Code, and a whole world of publishing of comics that had nothing to do with the code. From Heavy Metal magazine to the many publishing houses that popped up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a lot of stuff coming out that any dedicated comic book buyer with access to a comic shop was seeing (and buying) and these titles didn't have that little white stamp up in the corner.
The specific difference regarding these two titles that exceeds anything about the Comics Code is that Frank Miller and Alan Moore had built up a fan audience ready for anything new from them and they were riding the zeitgeist of the era (and even influencing it) and both Miller and Moore struck while the moment was right. I remember the crowds waiting at my comic book shop on the day that Dark Knight Returns volume three came out: the popularity of the book's first two volumes and the anticipation for the last two volumes had built fast and somehow had roped in a lot of lapsed comic fans who jumped back into the hobby on the enthusiasm of Miller's "updating" of the character. In a mass we browsed around the shop waiting for the boxes to be opened and Volume Three to be handed out, but also the second printings of Volume One and Volume Two that a large number of us had missed out on. From the strength of word-of-mouth and many quite positive reviews in the general media, we enthusiastically waited for our turn. The closest I've seen to this phenomenon since were the crowds of Harry Potter fans awaiting Rowling's latest tome on their release date.
I think an argument can be made that The Dark Knight Returns updating was to return the character closer to its roots in pulp, and then to lard in a whole synthesis of 70s and early 80s crime movies (plus Miller's love for the noir genre in general). On top of that was that Miller "explained" Batman to the audience in the language of his generation and time. Bats and other superheroes at DC had long been produced by the World War II and Korean War generation of artists and writers, and though part of the comic book audience of the 1980s overlapped into that, a big chunk of it did not, and the Comics Code had precious little to effect regarding that social difference.
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Original page September 12, 2025