The Business of Comics For March 2nd, 2026
What Does The Paramount Purchase of WB Mean for DC Comics (Comics Beat): The big news in the world of entertainment goes far beyond comics. In the latest development for control of Warner Bros., Netflix has dropped out, and Paramount seems poised to capture the legacy studio, including DC Comics. Comics Beat has some commentary on the long-term political, social, and economic impact of this merger, but I think it will be a while before these seismic events reach the comic book industry. Freelance creators who work for DC might feel the most direct effects, while the creator-owned and independent segments of the business will have to contend with whatever disruption this might have on the direct market. From a big picture perspective, it pays to remember that DC and Warner Bros have been bought and sold several times over the last 30 years. Comics have continued to move on, and so will we…
The Comics Industry Proves Its Resilience in 2025 (Publisher’s Weekly) Last weekend was the Comics Pro convention for publishers and comic shop owners in California, and the news coming out of that show was surprisingly positive, considering the chaos of last year’s Diamond bankruptcy. Direct market revenue for 2025 is estimated to be about 2.2 billion dollars, which represents a 30% increase over 2024. Part of this growth is credited to DC’s Absolute line and the younger generation discovering comic shops in the manner we talked about in the last show. Lunar and Penguin Random House are continuing work to replace Diamond, at least for the large and mid-size publishers. The location for next year’s show hasn’t been announced yet, but creators and publishers who want to get their books into comic book shops (if your comic belongs in comic shops, obviously) might want to add this show to their convention plans.
Kickstarter Introduces a New Partner Program (Kickstarter): In crowdfunding news, Kickstarter has announced a new partner program to help creators find support for their campaigns. Crowdfunding has been a major distribution channel for comics for years, and a considerable cottage industry has developed to support creators with everything from design to marketing to fulfillment. In the past, creators often found specialists through referrals or word of mouth. This new program might create a more formal structure, but keep in mind that no matter where you find partners for your crowdfunding campaign, all of them are going to want to be paid for their work, whether or not your campaign is successful. Before you start working with a new partner, understand the rights, revenue, responsibilities, and recovery for both sides, and get it written down in a signed contract. You also probably want to have a lawyer who specializes in comics write that contract for you, but you already knew that, didn’t you?
Aftershock Announces Astronaut Down at Netflix (Comics Beat) In questionable comic book news, Comics Beat has announced that independent publisher AfterShock has a new project in production at Netflix called Astronaut Down. News of a new Aftershock project at Netflix isn’t remarkable, they’ve had projects in development before, until you realize that AfterShock filed for bankruptcy in 2022, hasn’t had a major comics release in over three years, and may still owe a considerable amount of money to creators and vendors from outstanding debts. This story proves that a creator-owned publisher can try to exploit the rights to your IP long after they stop publishing comics, so it pays to negotiate a way to get your IP back if everything goes sideways.
Questionable Comic Book Marketing (Book Riot) Our next story comes from Book Riot, and it seems to be a classic example of debatable marketing. It appears that some vampire-related stories are being printed with garlic-infused ink, or with variant covers printed with the blood of the writer. The premise of this story is that because it is difficult to stand out from the crowd, creators need to find unique and inventive ways to grab readers' attention. Marketing comics is difficult, but spending extra money to bleed on your comics is confusing a gimmick with a hook. A gimmick is a trick or device to attract short-term business. Common gimmicks in comics include the death of a character who will obviously come back to life in less than a year, or homage covers riding on the popularity of a famous character or image. Conversely, a hook is an aspect of your story designed to attract and hold the attention of your ideal reader. That could be the character design, your perspective on aspects of your genre, or any component of your story that connects with readers. If potential readers are looking for some of your blood, that’s fine. But most of them will probably be more interested in the quality of your story.
The Argument Against Starting Small (Comics Beat): Our last story is a critique of the conventional wisdom provided at comic con panels. The publisher of an independent company called Summit Comics points out that many panels about breaking into comics offer two common pieces of advice. First, start small, and second, avoid superhero comics. He goes on to relay the story about how the first issue of his company’s long-term superhero connected universe crushed its funding goal on Kickstarter and concludes by encouraging creators to reject conventional wisdom and tell the superhero stories they want to tell.
This story is particularly relevant to me because I’m one of the people on con panels who say start small and avoid superheroes. I’m going to be on a panel at Emerald City next week, and I plan to say the exact same thing. I’m glad Summit Comics is off to a good start. I am also aware that superhero IP like Spawn, Invincible, Terminal, Black, and Watchmen defy the conventional wisdom. I have clients whose main goal is creating a long-term connected superhero universe. But none of that changes the advice.
The reason people like me tell creators to start small is because if you are just starting out in any creative project or business, it is easy to be overwhelmed and discouraged if you get out over your skis. You try to be complicated before you master the fundamentals. You try to make a big splash before you’ve established your unique voice. In the same way you wouldn’t fight Mike Tyson in your first boxing match or try to sell more stuff than Amazon in the first year of your online business, it doesn’t make sense to plan your 100th issue before you write issue 2.
The reason people like me suggest avoiding superheroes isn’t because we don’t like superheroes. It’s because comics are more than superheroes. In the last show we talked about how Seduction of the Innocent erased many popular comic book genres to the point where Americans only associated comics with superheroes. Today, that sentiment is slowly changing. There are more potential readers of comics in dozens of genres outside of superheroes. There is less market saturation in other genres. There is less brand recognition in other genres. If you want your comic to standout without bleeding onto the page, it is simply statistically easier to do that in genres outside comics.
Using a single successful crowdfunding campaign to refute the idea of starting small outside of superheroes is an anecdotal fallacy. Pointing to successful examples only reinforce the rule. McFarlane, Kirkman, and Moore all had success with independent superhero comics after they broke into comics, not before. If you want to break into comics with a ongoing superhero comic, that’s fine. Just understand what you’re getting into and what you’re up against.
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Until next time, get off the internet and go make some comics.
Gamal
