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So this is the new year, and I don’t feel any different.
Sorry, I was listening to Death Cab for Cutie and got carried away. Anyway, it’s a new year, and like any new year, it’s an arbitrary and mathematically imperfect assignment of delineations in time, meaning much of what you’ll see in the days ahead is actually carryover from the previous solar cycle. And that’s just as applicable to comics as it is to anything else.
With that in mind, here are eight issues facing the comics industry in 2022.
Supply chain, off the chain: For the past few months, we’ve seen how staffing, paper, shipping and ground-transport issues have pushed ahead release dates for various comics. With everyone and their mother getting COVID-19 for Christmas (instead of the PlayStation 5 they really wanted, which is still stuck in the Port of Los Angeles), expect this to continue, if not worsen. Economists had already forecast supply chain issues wouldn’t begin to ease until the back half of the new year, and that was before omicron had become the dominant strain of the virus, sending cases to record highs in the U.S. and across the world. In the face of all this, please, be patient with your local comic shop. They’re doing their best, same as you are.
Kickstarter and Blockchain: So much comics press is generated with the phrase “Check out my new Kickstarter.” Meanwhile, every time an artist or publisher gets into NFTs, a little piece of us dies. So what happens when comics’ most popular crowdfunding platform announces it is pivoting to the technology that makes NFTs and other cryptostuffs possible? … We’re not really sure yet. Kickstarter announced last month that it was creating a decentralized crowdfunding platform in partnership with a “carbon negative blockchain” company called Celo. The release was filled with totally transparent phrases such as “We are entering a significant moment for alternative governance models, and we think there’s an important opportunity to advance these efforts using the blockchain.” Nothing, near as we can tell, has come of this yet. We haven’t seen a mass exodus of creators from the platform, nor may this mean that paying $20 for the print-copy tier of Farley McStoogle’s Swamp Cadets 4 (Please, God, let this be a made-up comic) will result in a small portion of rain forest being burned down. Still, cryptotechnology has a long way to go to prove to us it’s not evil. If anything, Kickstarter’s move may encourage a decentralization of the crowdfunding market, as more creators seek out alternative platforms like Zoop or Dauntless Stories’ Greenlight program. Speaking of decentralization …
Diamond loses more exclusivity: Some of the biggest moves to de-monopolize Diamond Comic Distributors have already been made, but now that choice is the rule of the land, we can expect to see more publishers take a wandering eye toward comics distribution. IDW will begin an exclusive distribution deal with Penguin Random House, Marvel’s distributor, in June, and Oni Press is set to begin distributing through Lunar, which also distributes DC’s comics. Many smaller publishers, like AHOY, Z2 and Scout, have already switched to working with multiple distributors. Expect more to come.
The death of George Perez: The best thing you can do for a person is let them know how much you care about them, how grateful you are for their work, while they’re still alive. Betty White died last week at 99, but if you watch her 2010 appearance on Saturday Night Live, we spent more than a decade thanking her for being a friend before her time came. In November, we learned artist George Perez had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. He has months to live. When he dies, the comics community will lose a giant, up there with Denny O’Neil, Steve Ditko or Stan Lee in recent years. If you grew up reading Perez’s New Teen Titans or Wonder Woman or Avengers, if his work affected you in any way, now’s the time to say your piece. Here’s ours.
Image and the union: We haven’t heard the last of Comic Book Workers United, the union of Image Comics staffers that went public last fall. Nor should we. For now, though, the publisher formed as a revolt against the practices of Marvel and DC appears to see fit not to recognize the union, allowing instead for the matter to play out with the National Labor Relations Board. And while the wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly, they can’t take forever. Also, it’s worth remembering Image’s current employee issues this month as its next big comic hits stands …
(Note: Since this editorial was written, the members of CBWU voted 7-2 in favor of organizing, which should allow them to be able to start negotiating with Image.)
Saga #55: While individual comics were not the issues I was talking about at the top of this column, this particular issue likely will set the tone for the rest of the year, both in terms of buzz and in terms of what it says about Image as a publisher. Yes, many of us are big hype for the return of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ intergenerational space opera, back from a three-and-a-half-year hiatus, but it’s telling that Image, now a 30-year-old company, has fallen into the same trap as Marvel and DC and has to rely in part on familiarity as a driver of sales. Look through the past few months of available data from Diamond, and you’ll see that Image’s hottest seller has been Spawn, one of the original titles on which Image made its bones, and spinoffs thereof. Saga too harkens to Image’s second golden age, when it was buzzed about for then-fresh books like The Walking Dead, The Wicked + the Divine and Sex Criminals. Where are the fresh voices here to bring Image into the next era of being the spot for indie creator talent? Or should that talent be looking elsewhere in light of the whole not-recognizing-the-union debacle? Has Image gone well past the point of beating The Man to where it is now The Man to be beaten? Can Image’s once-youthful idealism be found at another publisher? Certainly not this next one …
Is Bad Idea really over?: Remember Bad Idea? It was the publisher founded by Valiant ex-pats who decided their books should only be sold in comic shops but then limited those shops to a select few and made those shops jump through all kinds of hoops and covered their books in all kinds of gimmicks like gold pins, rocks and, most recently, an invisible, CGC-graded floppy. At some point last year, the publisher claimed it would be winding down at the end of 2021, after less than a year of active publishing. “BAD IDEA is 100% over, as we know it, after the six FINAL FIVE books have all been released,” the publisher wrote in a Dec. 27 email. It’s the “as we know it” that bothers us. Long before ENIAC #1 was published to launch the line, Bad Idea had established itself as a publisher that loves nothing more than to troll, prank and confound reader and retailer alike. “As we know it” is the leeway that allows this YouTube Prank Channel That Walks Like Five Men Who Should Know Better to evolve into another, more ridiculous form, publishing Matt Kindt comics barely anyone will ever read. The novelty of Bad Idea wore off quickly. Hopefully it won’t be replaced by An Even Worse Idea. Like …
(Note: Since this editorial was written, Bad Idea has sent out an email asking retailers to sign up for the 2.0 version of its Destination Store program, “should BAD IDEA ever choose to make its much demanded, highly anticipated and unquestionably triumphant return.” Christ.)
Whatever Marvel’s doing with Miracleman: Honestly, unless this is Jonathan Hickman’s next big thing post-X-Men, why are we even bothering, except to perpetuate the industry’s kink when it comes to pissing on Alan Moore?
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
