SKTCHD

Double Take: Oliver and David Take on DC and Marvel and the Big Two’s Surprisingly Robust Slate of Crossovers in 2025

David Harper — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Welcome to Double Take, a column dedicated to highlighting different comics and each’s merits through a discussion between two veterans of the comic site space. One is yours truly, the person behind the Eisner Award-losing SKTCHD, David Harper. The other is friend of the site and the Eisner Award-winning comics critic Oliver Sava.

It finally happened.

The Big Two finally crossed over again in 2025.

After a much bandied about surprise announcement at ComicsPRO’s Annual Meeting in February, the two publishers revealed that Batman and Deadpool would be crossing over in a pair of one-shots showrun by each publisher. Marvel’s hit first, and it was Deadpool/Batman from Zeb Wells and Greg Capullo, to say nothing of a legion of backups from an even greater legion of creators. Then, Batman/Deadpool arrived, and it found Grant Morrison and Dan Mora reteaming for a blockbuster read that toured the minds and mentalities of these two disparate characters.

That wasn’t all, though! Unsatisfied with just two crossovers in a single calendar year, the Big Two then announced a couple more digital-first releases in The Flash/Fantastic Four and Thor/Shazam! crafted for each’s all-you-can-eat digital apps, more specifically for the vertical scroll. That’s a lot after 20 years of “No more crossovers,” and there’s more to come in 2026.

But before we flip the calendar and move on to Spider-Man/Superman, 3 we need to look back on the four crossovers we found under our Christmas trees this year. So, that’s what we’ll be doing today, as we discuss the pros and cons of corporate crossovers in 2025.

David Harper: Oliver, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Or some of us have been waiting for, at least. DC and Marvel are friends once again, as they’ve teamed up ~~to make a lot of money~~ to tell some fun comic stories. It wasn’t just the two big print crossovers, but two digital ones as well. Before we get into that, I just have to ask: Was there excitement in your fanboy heart when these were initially announced? Did the Big Two crossing over awaken anything in you, at least in concept?

Oliver Sava: Some excitement but no awakening, especially with Marvel’s one-shot being announced first. While I generally liked Wells’ Amazing Spider-Man run, it was definitely uneven, and Alex Sinclair isn’t my favorite colorist for Capullo and Tim Townsend’s linework — everything has a distracting metallic sheen to it. Not to mention Deadpool’s schtick can get old really fast.

As a huge Klaus fan, I was much more intrigued by DC’s installment. Both of the one-shots had some fun creators on back-ups, and I was very impressed to see the surprise digital releases with accompanying promotion for the rival company’s digital comic platforms. Generally, I think the Big Two working together is a smart commercial move for both of them. Does it inspire the most creative material? Let’s get into it.

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Or is it Superman/Spider-Man?↩
Or is it Superman/Spider-Man?↩
Or is it Superman/Spider-Man?↩

The post Double Take: Oliver and David Take on DC and Marvel and the Big Two’s Surprisingly Robust Slate of Crossovers in 2025 appeared first on SKTCHD.

Creators and Industry Folks Share What Stood Out From the World of Comics in 2025

David Harper — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000

It’s time once again, folks. We’re entering the end of the year celebration window on SKTCHD, as another banner year in comics — maybe my favorite one yet, which is really saying something — is highlighted over multiple weeks here on the site and podcast. But while The SKTCHD AWRDS still need another week to cook, the party is starting today with insight from other folks in comics.

That’s because while I do everything I can to make my world of comics as wide as possible, I’m still just one person. The only way to expand beyond my worldview is to ask others about their perspective on the year that was, so I turned to a variety of folks — writers, artists, cartoonists, letterers, editors, marketing folks, publishers, etc. — to see what stood out to them from the year that was. More specifically, I asked these folks the following very long-winded question.

It’s been a big and interesting year in comics, and for a whole lot of different reasons. To tap into that, I want to know about something you really, really loved from it. What was one favorite thing — it doesn’t have to be your absolute favorite thing, just something that stood out to you — from the year of comics for you? Also, it doesn’t have to just be a comic. It could be one, or it could be a graphic novel, a panel or page, a cover, a creator who stood out, a line of books, a trend, a convention experience, or whatever.

My hope for going that route with this question was that it would help everyone realize they did not need to talk about a specific comic from the year. They could highlight anything from the year that made their year in comics a little bit better. And you know what? It worked. This year’s answers largely escaped the confines of singular works into a broad mix of things, including some that are largely built on vibes and community.

So, let’s get to the answers from these fine folks, with answers in alphabetical order by first name. This article is open to non-subscribers, but if you enjoy this type of thing, consider subscribing to SKTCHD for more like it. This site is entirely funded by its subscribers, with no ads at all, and it’s my full-time job these days, so your support makes a major difference for me.

Cliff Chiang (Catwoman: Lonely City): When I’m on deadline, I’ll often need to play something in the background: music, podcasts, or videos I don’t have to watch intently. It’s the perfect way to catch up on “content,” but it also means that anything highly visual that requires more focus gets pushed. So I’m only now watching the greatest series on earth: Manben.

You can find some recent episodes on the NHK website and some fan translations on Youtube. Started in 2015 and hosted by manga creator Naoki Urasawa (20th Century Boys, Pluto, Asadora!), a variety of different artists are filmed as they draw (often right before a deadline, to add to the stakes) and the footage is later reviewed by them and Urasawa. It’s a fascinating look into their daily process and the insights from both artists veer from technical minutiae (which pen nibs they’re using and why) to artistic philosophy (why they chose manga as a medium). It’s a real deep dive and unlike any coverage I’ve seen of Western comics. Illuminating and inspiring.

David Brothers (Good Devils: Don’t Play Fair with Evil): I started writing about comics twenty years ago this year, back on 4thletter!. My pick for a remarkable thing this year is related to that. I’m grateful that comics criticism and journalism is still trucking along, even with how much less free and open the internet has become for all the obvious reasons.

I used to write about comics, and I still write for Steve Morris at Shelfdust here and there. I’ve got friends and people I admire who do work for indie group projects like SOLRAD Magazine, Tiffany Babb’s The Comics Courier, and The Comics Journal, which I’ll admit isn’t exactly independent but has been willing enough to bite the hand that feeds over the years that I think we can count it in spirit. Operations like your own SKTCHD or Comic Book Couples Counseling, which are operated by just a couple of people on their own, are great too. I appreciate the focused perspective of those as much as I appreciate the chorus of voices on the group sites.

Tom Spurgeon introduced me to the umbrella term “writers about comics” when I had no idea what I was doing, and it remains my favorite phrase to describe that weird blend of journalism, history, and criticism that I’ve enjoyed over the years. I genuinely believe the industry is better with a strong set of journalists to keep track of it and make opaque issues less opaque. People often see critics as enemies of art, but the opposite is the truth. Visiting websites where you can scroll a front page and see a dozen comics you’ve never heard of next to six you have is a delight. Reading well-argued dissenting opinions regarding something you love is enlightening. Comics are my favorite art form, and criticism is how we appraise and celebrate them.

Sharing and thinking deeply about art are half the point to me. Metacritic and similar sites have kinda trained us to see reviews as a measure of whether or not something is worth buying, but I think the real juice is in the reaction to the art, not the worth of the product. How does it make us feel, what does it say about us, does it actually say anything about us? I’ve learned so much from people interrogating or sharing their reaction to work. I genuinely don’t care if I agree with them or not, even if they think my favorite book is tailor-made for ugly babies. I want to see how their experience compares to mine, and how that helps shape my perception of the work.

I think times are tough across the board in comics, and it’s a beautiful thing that writers about comics are still trucking along, sharing what makes them passionate or sharpening their voice on the way to doing their next thing. SOLRAD and Shelfdust have Patreons, and the Courier is funded via Kickstarter. Extra-special shout-out to Babb for doing a $250 grant for comics critics too. I think this kind of self-funded thing is our future, considering how corporate sponsorship of some older sites shook out, and I hope it keeps us afloat while my personal corners of the comics industry figure out their post-Diamond era.

This kind of fan participation is a true highlight of comics, and that love of close reading is so common in the community of people I’ve surrounded myself with that I’m sometimes surprised when I see people who feel otherwise. Comics are beautiful and criticism is good. I hope other people catch this wave, too.

Declan Shalvey (Thundercats, The Terminator): This might sound a bit of a weird answer to your question but this year I’ve noticed more water-cooler talk thanks to the Absolute line and I’m glad to see it. I’m not talking about the sales [though it’s bloody brilliant to hear, it’s great to hear there’s a ton of readers getting behind these wilder interpretations of the characters] …kudos to DC for trying it, and hats off to all the creators who have been spinning gold on these.

More specifically what I mean is I’ve talked to lots of creators about the Absolute line in the last year and everyone has had different opinions about the various books, and I’ve really enjoyed agreeing and disagreeing with them. I didn’t realise how much I missed that, it seemed to have slipped away over the last few years and it’s cool to have it back. I’m reading more because of it. Regarding the line; I like one book more than I thought I would, another less so. Love the art on one, dislike the art on another, or whatever it might be. In talking to creators and fans at shows I’m hearing various opinions because we’ve all read them. I feel like we have more water-cooler comics with the Absolute line …something we’re all curious about and are discussing, instead of retreating into our very particular tastes with other titles. I think it’s a very good thing for comics, and we could do with a hell of a lot more of them at all the publishers.

Another small thing I’ve liked as I’ve directly benefited from it; The trend of licensors giving creators longer leashes on licensed books. I’ve had such freedom on ThunderCats and Terminator, it’s been fantastic to go as wild as we want to tell compelling stories. We’re clearly seeing it across the board, with the Energon stuff, etc, it seems to me a lot of licensors have learned to let comics creators well the best stories. It’s not every licensor of course, but I think it’s enough of a noticeable shift in approach that’s wielding great results, if I do say so myself, but certainly not exclusively so. Worth acknowledging.

Jazzlyn Stone (Director of Communications, Tiny Onion): Something that stood out to me this year is readers and fans being more welcoming to new-to-comics readers. On ComicTok, or at conventions IRL, I’ve noticed a trend towards “I like these comics, I hope you will too! Here’s where to get them!” It’s so refreshing to think we’re finally moving away from the archaying stereotype of angry gatekeepers. I’ve been to a lot of cons and signings this year. Usually -incredibly- at least one person will “confess” that *this* was the first comic they read or *this* is their first comic event, leaving me beaming. What a gift to welcome you to this new world, a medium I love thoroughly and hope you will too.

Comics are the single greatest medium of storytelling. I’m so glad you’re here. Stay awhile!

Jodie Troutman (Star Trek: Red Shirts, Flow): What I truly loved this year was seeing a lot of talent finally being rewarded on the big stage. I’m not just talking about me, even though 2025 was – selfishly – a breakout year. I’m talking about relative newcomers like Zoe Tunnell drumming up gigs writing books for multiple publishers, and about veterans like Benito Cereno returning to write an ongoing series, a mini-series, and an eighty-page-giant after a dry spell that lasted years. It feels like an incredible time for a diverse spectrum of creators to breakout huge across a wide variety of projects and publishers.

John Allison (The Great British Bump-Off: Kill or Be Quilt, NEMS): My favourite comic I read this year was Womb Rider by Emil Friis Ernst (Uncivilised Books) – a one-off, unlike anything else I read this year. I loved everything about it – the art, the colours, the lettering. Demented brilliance. In a similarly loopy (but slightly more coherent) vein, I enjoyed every issue of Rick Remender and Paul Acazeta’s The Seasons. It was nice to read comics that felt like they could only ever be comics.

Julio Anta (Frontera, This Land is Our Land: A Blue Beetle Story): As someone who primarily makes comics for the children’s book market (though that’s changing next year!) I have come to love a good library and/or educator conference. This year, I particularly enjoyed my time at ALA in Philly and NCTE in Denver – the former, the American Library Association conference for librarians, the latter, the National Council of Teachers of English conference for English teachers.

These are yearly conferences filled with author panels that dive into how our books and graphic novels can be used in the library and classroom settings, and an exhibitor hall where all the major book publishers host signings with FREE COPIES of all their books.

In a world of hectic comic conventions filled with people trying to make money off creator signatures, exclusive variants, etc. conferences like ALA and NCTE have been a welcome reprieve! But most importantly, they’ve been a chance to meet so many enthusiastic people excited to share your books with their students. It’s also worth noting that it’s a MUCH MORE chill environment than comic conventions that don’t require you to table all day!

Juni Ba (The Fables of Erlking Wood, Monkey Meat: The New Batch): I think it’d have to be Assorted Crisis Events. I’m fortunate to have gotten early looks at it as it was being made, and it was such an excellent reminder of why I like this medium. It also manages something I truly believe we need more of and I hope to contribute to, which is a focus on every day people. No supers or self absorbed narratives taking the focus away from a curiosity about others, about normal people simply living. And why they deserve and should be the focus of stories to encourage our ability to value others.

There’s been a lot of talk of more bombastic/violent attempts at making comics that are timely, push back and speak to the current moment, but this is, to me, the only one that actually manages it. It’s going to be one of my morning stars.

Liana Kangas (TRVE KVLT, Know Your Station): My favorite experience is the camaraderie and true community support that peeked its head out during some wild, and frankly, pretty rough times this year. Whether tabling next to someone such as Gavin Guidry (one of my fav table neighbors, like having a big brother drawing and chatting beside me), sharing some quiet dinners alongside my personal collaborators or artist friends, or the full enthusiasm and PURE joy for small celebrations (like the unmatched Raleigh crew that stayed up TOO late celebrating the Godzilla Eisner with me), I always had my cup filled during each and every event I was lucky enough to travel to this year.

I will never forget how that made me feel. Everyone deserves to feel that way in comics.

Morgan Perry (Marketing Manager, Square Enix Manga & Books): I think 2025 was a challenging year for a lot of folks, regardless of what island you reside on in this amazing little archipelago we call Comics. Whether it was navigating the economy and tariffs, dissolutions of industry pillars that provided a lot of invisible infrastructure, acquisitions and layoffs, or something more personal, everyone was carrying a heavier emotional and mental load this year, and the reason I bring this up is because what I really loved about this year (at least from the POV of my own island) was seeing the outpouring of support in their time of need and how some of those relationships to one another strengthened and transformed into something noticeably different simply by checking in with each other outside of work-related conversations, verbalizing and highlighting each other’s strengths outwardly, and cheering on their endeavors, not because you have a stake in the results but because you’re just excited to see your friend/colleague/peer achieve something personally or professionally.

Murewa Ayodele (Storm, Akogun: Brutalizer of Gods): My favorite thing in comics this year has been the infectious storytelling ambition we’re getting from a lot of fan-favorite creators in Big Two Comics… and I absolutely love it. I love that comics have crazy shit happening in them more than ever. Just recently, we saw Lex Luther use the Black Lantern ring to resurrect dead elder gods to win a fight in what is essentially an omega fight pit in DC K.O. #2. We saw Hulk thunderclap someone’s brains out in The Infernal Hulk #1. And this has been a trend since the beginning of the year. The year started with Wonder Woman going into battle with what is essentially a skyscraper-sized sword in Absolute Wonder Woman #4. It extends to how creators like Deniz Camp use the medium in unique ways, to us getting the first Marvel/DC crossover in decades. It’s a great time to be a fan of big and bold superhero comics.

Also, trust me. It’s not recency bias. It’s not my fault that a lot of banger comics were released towards the tail end of the year, because a comic book that’s really stood out to me this year has been Escape by Rick Remender and Daniel Acuña. It’s a beautifully illustrated war story that is incredibly personal. The three-panel sequence, where we get the full confirmation that the protagonist joined the army to fight in the war as an escape from his life with his wife, hit like a truck. It’s an extremely moving comic book series that doesn’t spare the thrills of a soldier who finds himself in an enemy territory that he just bombed. An intense manhunt tale paired with the complexities of family, warfare, propaganda, and lost dreams. These are the comics that I love to read. It’s why I love the medium so much. And Escape delivers the goods in spades.

Patrick Horvath (Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring): It was indeed a big and interesting year. It also seems like there is never a shortage of amazing books from incredible creators. A big standout for me this year was Daniel Warren Johnson’s one-two punch with his short in the legacy #400 Wolverine followed by his lead story in Absolute Batman Annual #1. In spite of the short page count of both, he managed to conjure two separate works that I’ll be carrying along with me for a long, long time. They’re heavy-duty and haunting in the best possible way.

Rebecca “Tay” Taylor (Editorial Director of Inklore): KPop Demon Hunters. I was blown away by the first rough trailer for KPDH at Licensing Expo in 2023 and immediately knew it was a must-have for the Inklore audience. To see it finally release, and to such worldwide, groundbreaking success, was incredible, and Inklore is in keyboard-smashing ecstasy at getting to help roll out a publishing line next year. The global embrace of Rumi, Mira, and Zoey is yet another watershed moment for K-culture’s global influence, something we’ve seen explode in publishing on the Inklore list, with titles like Under the Oak Tree, King’s Maker, and the upcoming Eleceed from our partnership with Webtoon. And on a personal note, it has been magical to watch my daughters discover their own Sailor Moon-style world of female friendship, strength, and creativity. Nothing is cuter than a three-year-old dancing around the kitchen singing, “I don’t think you’re ready for the takedown!”

Terry Dodson (AdventureMan, Ultimate Endgame): I would have to say, trendwise, the return of “fun” comics. Between Matt Fraction’s and Jorge Jimenez’ Batman, the Absolute Line, and the Marvel and DC Crossovers – all mainstream titles that anyone can read and are accessible good times. The End of Ultimates that I’m working on is a lot of fun and I would have to say pretty accessible as well.

The Vertigo initiative is also a good thing, creator started/helmed/owned books is good for mainstream.

Lastly, The End of Diamond officially I think spins off into a lot of directions, and we haven’t seen this all wrapped up, but in the (painful) end, it may be best for comic store distribution.

Zachary Clemente (the head of Bulgilhan Press): Prepare yourself for a schlocky cop-out!

The thing I loved the very most this year in comics is the community that comes from an incredible group of curious, hard-working, talented, and generous people. While this community, in its abundance, serves as a fixture, the ways in which we connect and commune with it changes each season. Every time I travel for a festival or get a chance to talk to up-and-coming cartoonists I feel the energy I’ve painstakingly put into the world through publishing and advocacy efforts returning to me tenfold.

To be specific, I’ve found myself flabbergast more times than I can count with what the Boston Comic Arts Foundation has accomplished this year, for which I serve as Board President. From producing unique Picture + Panel artist talks on a monthly basis, to welcoming the National Cartoonist Society to Boston for their annual conference, to helping the Massachusetts State Senate pass S.2328, An Act Regarding Free Expression (which is now onto the House), to witness the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo continue to grow and thrive. With each new successful effort, Boston, Massachusetts, and New England as a whole continues to prove itself as a place where comics are beloved and understood. As someone who has fully dedicated themselves to working “between the panels” by supporting comics as an art form and cartoonists individually, my heart grows – fit to burst – with admiration and pride when seeing just how far the town I’ve called home for over a decade has come.

Thanks for reading this article. If you enjoyed this feature, please consider subscribing to SKTCHD to support the work that I do and to read more of it. I’m a full-time comics journalist, and your support keeps the site and my work going.

The post Creators and Industry Folks Share What Stood Out From the World of Comics in 2025 appeared first on SKTCHD.

The Pull: A Look at the Comics Dropping the Week of December 10th

David Harper — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000

It’s a small week with some high end headliners, so let’s get straight into a funky edition of The Pull, as this look at my buys, recommendations, and curiosities from the week of comics is headlined by the penultimate chapter of a Marvel staple.

Comic of the Week: Ultimate Spider-Man #23

Spoilers for The SKTCHD AWRDS: Ultimate Spider-Man will not be making my list. In fact, it was at no point even in consideration, not even in my initial long list. But it’s still a great comic, which is why I wanted to recognize it here. Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto’s series was a sensation to start, and it’s still popular, but the oxygen from the room was definitely taken up by Absolute to some degree. And yet, with its penultimate chapter here and Ultimate Endgame on the horizon, I’m excited to see where it lands, and to get a feel for how it will ultimately (no pun intended) as a singular narrative when it’s collected at the end. One way or another, it’s going to look incredible, and Hickman’s obviously had a good time with these characters and this world. It’s a fun book with a fun hook, and sometimes, that’s all you want out of superhero comics.

Trade/Graphic Novel of the Week: Absolute Green Lantern Vol. 1

I don’t need to go on anymore about how much of a fan of Absolute Green Lantern I am. There was an entire edition of Double Take where I raved about it — to say nothing of my incessant touting elsewhere — so you probably have had enough of it. But I do think Absolute Green Lantern’s a great comic, with Al Ewing and Jahnoy Lindsay cooking up a slowburn sci-fi/horror spin on the Green Lantern mythos that is incredibly original and engaging if you can deal with information being doled out at a slightly slower pace. I suspect this is the Absolute series that will most benefit from being collected even, so if you haven’t read it yet, you’ll have to report back to me.

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Off Panel #529: Terry Dodson-izing with Terry Dodson

David Harper — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Artist and writer Terry Dodson joins the show to talk Ultimate Endgame, AdventureMan, and where things are headed for him. Dodson discusses his work schedule, cat living, picking projects, taking on Ultimate Endgame, working with Deniz Camp, figuring out projects, designing in the Ultimate Universe, the freedom of the book, event comics versus regular ones, artist exclusive covers, the other side of artist work, AdventureMan’s fit, collaborating with Matt Fraction, the impact of influences, the collections of AdventureMan, getting into writing, its impact on his art, taking on more responsibility, and more.

You can find Dodson on BlueSky and Instagram and his work in AdventureMan and the upcoming Ultimate Endgame at Marvel.

You can download the episode directly here on Libsyn.

Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts or follow it on its LibSyn page. The show is also on Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Don’t forget to rate and review Off Panel wherever you choose to listen, but five stars only!

Want to watch a video version of this interview, albeit mostly unedited? This chat with Terry Dodson is available on the SKTCHD/Off Panel YouTube! Go watch it over there, and if you enjoy it, make sure to subscribe to the channel when you do.

You can find Off Panel on Patreon! Support the show on there and you can get early access to each week’s podcast, your name in the outro, the ability to ask guests questions, access to written content, and more.

SKTCHD and Off Panel are now also on Ko-Fi, and if you want to send a tip my way because you’re enjoying the show, feel free!

Thanks to one of the sponsor of this week’s podcast: 2000 AD! Are you ready to face the future? Look no further than 2000 AD – it’s the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic! Every week 2000 AD brings the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper and more! Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it’ll arrive through your mailbox every week, and your first issue is free. You’ll also receive the HUNDRED PAGE 2000 AD Christmas Special this December at no extra cost! Or, subscribe digitally and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That’s 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe’ now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today!

Thanks to another of the show’s sponsors, Oni Pres s! Embrace your fear…the Spirit of the Shadows draws near! This January, Oni Press proudly presents SPIRIT OF THE SHADOWS #1 – the most visually dazzling and hauntingly heartfelt superhero-horror hit of 2026. A stunning new five-part series drawn from the darkest recesses of the imagination of co-writers Nick Cagnetti and Daniel Ziegler and featuring the first full-length artwork by Nick Cagnetti since his electrifying debut with 2022’s PINK LEMONADE. Once, Erik Leroux was a mortal musician… until his sudden death plunged his soul into the carnival-like torments of the Spirit World beyond our own. Now, reborn as a phantom, Erik will claw his way back from the infernal planes . . and avenge the dark sins that transformed him into the SPIRIT OF THE SHADOWS! In the tradition of Jack Kirby’s THE DEMON, Mike Allred’s MADMAN, and Todd McFarlane’s SPAWN, SPIRIT OF THE SHADOWS is an eye-popping new addition to the canon of creator-owned superheroes – find it comic shops everywhere this January, only from Oni Press!

Lastly, thanks to the show’s final sponsor in IDW Publishing. It’s going to be a very happy holidays for comic fans, because IDW is bringing readers all kinds of presents! There are gifts for fans of superhero and adventure comics, as recent Off Panel guest Gene Luen Yang and Freddie E. Williams II kick off their new run on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Last Ronin gets a box set just in time for the holidays! While it’s a time of joy, IDW’s still bringing the scares, as Event Horizon’s run of sellouts continues with its most shocking chapter yet, and Tim Burton’s gothic horror story is back in Return to Sleepy Hollow! And if you know someone who is obsessed with Kaiju, the Kai-Sea era for Godzilla brings readers the gift of something new as those titles head towards the fall of Godzilla — and the rise of an all-new version you’re not going to want to miss. All that and more is coming this December from IDW, so treat yourself by talking to your comic shop and adding these comics to your pull list today.

Also, big thanks to my patrons, including – but not limited to – 5Myllyon, Mark Florio, EpicBroccoli, Patrick Bramble, Kevin Bankston, Rick Yankosky, Angelo Macale, Chestin Pullard, Bobby Tomio, RK, Croc_Meow, Eric Palicki, MKFreigeist, Matthew Murphy, Brodie Duncan, Scott Chua, Paul Lai, Gene Queens, Chad Lawrence, James Ferguson, Tiffany Babb, Nerdy Mewzings Podcast, Ian A., Katie Pryde, Hassan Thalji, Pinoywonder, Toni DeBoer, Nick Friar, James Shields, Michael DiGiovanni, Pete Ficken, Patrick McGlynn, Jose Perez, Ross Binder, Chris Tanforan, Joey Riccio, Ruben Jackson, Alfa, Keith Friedlander, Adriel Moreland, Garrett Lawton, Mike Novello, Jaime Espinoza, Ruben Cantu, Detective 27, JJ Mack, Comic Shop Assistant, Rob Guillory, Justin Pearson, Gianni Palumbo, Oliver Sava, P. Sanger, Wilson Garrett, Ben O’Grady, Mark Tweedale, Ben Allen, Zack Quaintance, Kazu Kibuishi, Claire Scott, Tyler Crook, Patrick Horvath, Louis Krupp, Omega Slice, John Walsh, Brandon Paul, Aaron Bussey, AC, Simon Birch, Austin, Sion, Megan Marsden, T.S. Luther, Comic Book Couples Counseling Podcast, Gus, Saunter, Brian, Chris Robinson, David Byrne, Benjamin Wilkins, Chris Hacker, John NeSmith, Jon Auerbach, Dustin Weaver, Ninja Assassin Love Story Webcomic, Brandon Hayman, Aaden Hamann, Faith Erin Hicks, Ben Wroe, Cameron Brown, Jonathan Breen, Charlie Stickney, Tom Drennen, Jeremy Thomas Burke, Jared Schwab, Scott Dunn, Chip Mosher, Seth Pomeroy, James McEwan, Andrew Leamon, Christina Merkler, Scott Place, Travis Gibb, Darcy Van Poelgeest, Tom Evans, Reid Beaman, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Max Wood, Jeremy Lambert, Bryan, Nir Levie, Jason Hussa, Kieron Gillen, Jonathan Kent-Uritam, Henry Johnston, Dennis Hoffmann, Django Bohren, James Tynion IV, Chris Lankford, Jason Wood, Tom Peachey, Ben Damstedt, Ram V, Nick Walker, Patrick Coyle, Isaac Orin, Klaas Van de Ven, Submet Industries, Jack Mulqueen, Karl Kerschl, Robert Masella, Elsa Charretier, Luc Nakashoji, Dr. Luke, Scott Haselwood, CanadianByProxy, Bradley Roeder, Carl Choi, Brandon De Pillis, Patrick Brower, Declan Shalvey, Dan Gearino, Atom Freeman, Ben Wild, Brian Klein-Q, Liana Kangas, Nick Bennett, Susana Polo, Reed Hinckley-Barnes, Mario Tiambeng, Robert Wilson IV, Andrew Kurita, Stefan Hull, Phillip Maira, Chris Bachalo, Torunn Grønbekk, FuzBubbles, Christopher Ta, Transmitterdown, Walt’s Comics & Books, Akil Wilson, Alex Dimitropolous, Terry Dodson, Wesley Gift, Shawn Kirkham, Julio Anta, Brett A. Schmidt, Jason Goodmanson, Vita Ayala, Akylle, Phillip Sevy, Al Ewing, David Kelley, Jason Nassi, Adam Bogert, Matthew Taylor, Nick Pitarra, Jacob Sareli, Ford Gilmore, David Baroldy, Nick Hall, Bjorn Basen, John Hendrick, Ian Maxfield, Cliff Chiang, Colin McMahon, Adam Highfill, Fiona Staples, Mark Abnett, Michael Shirley, Tom Barnett, Jim Demonakos, Norbert, Nick Lowe, James Kaplan, and Mission: Comics and Art in San Francisco. You’re all the best.

Have a question for Off Panel? You can reach David by email or Bluesky.

Header photo is from Dodson’s cover to Ultimate Endgame #1. Off Panel’s opening theme music is Vulfpeck’s “Outro,” used with permission from the band (and thanks from me for them doing so!), with the rest of the music being an original track by custom music agency Upright T-Rex Music, written and performed specifically for the podcast. A huge thanks to Ross and Cody from Upright T-Rex Music for putting the track together!

The post Off Panel #529: Terry Dodson-izing with Terry Dodson appeared first on SKTCHD.

Comics Disassembled: Eleven Things I Liked or Didn’t Like from the Past Week in Comics, Led by Brubaker and Phillips

David Harper — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000

The comic news winter doldrums continue onwards, but the show must go on in Comics Disassembled, as I write about ten things I liked or didn’t like from the past week in comics, led by a perpetual headliner getting the headline spot once again.

Merry Brubaker and Phillips-Mas!

I’m late to this one, but you know when word of a new comic from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips hits, it’s going to be celebrated here. That’s despite the fact that we kind of always know one is coming, right? They’re an unstoppable engine of production, a constant in comics that deliver consistently if not predictably in form. Take their two comics from 2025 and their next one in the upcoming Five Gears in Reverse: A Criminal Book as examples of that. The first was The Knives, which was a sprawling graphic novel. The next was this week’s Giant-Size Criminal #1, an extra-sized one-shot filled with a big story and fun bonuses. Then there’s Five Gears in Reverse, which is the same length as the pair’s Reckless books, or about the length of a single trade paperback (although this is going to be a hardcover). They’re touring approaches these days, but I kind of look at Five Gears in Reverse’s size as their sweet spot.

That’s a lot of preamble without actually saying what this book is about. It’s another look into the life of the presently deceased but previously not Ricky Lawless, the resident wild man of the larger Criminal-verse, which is really saying something. It seems as if making the Criminal show — which Ricky is a key part of in the way he wasn’t necessarily in the original telling of the title’s first arc, Coward — has awakened something in the team, as this makes two straight comics that focus on this rarely explored character from the past. And Five Gears in Reverse sounds like a fun result, with the solicit describing it as “one of the wildest, most action-packed books” this team has done, one that predictably finds Ricky in a situation that goes “from bad to worse.” Ruh roh.

I hate to say it, but for at least this reader, what it’s about is almost immaterial in terms of my interest in this book. It’s Brubaker, (Sean) Phillips, and (Jacob) Phillips.

That’s all I need to know.

Angoulême, Taking a Break

In news that was only a matter of time until it happened, it’s now official: there won’t be an Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2026. I wrote about the hubbub around this before previously, but the gist of the controversy surrounding it is that everyone in the worldwide comic industry was out on Franck Bondoux and his company 9e Art+, which is a problem because they ran the event. It seems everyone wanted the company and Bondoux in particular out because of reports of toxicity, misogyny, and all kinds of other terrible things that had become a cultural constant of how 9e Art+ ran the show. Frankly, that seems like a reasonable ask to me, but what do I know?

But in the end, it apparently all came down to Bondoux and 9e Art+ calling the whole thing off while blaming everyone else and demanding they still run the show going forward due to their contract, because that’s how they do things I guess. It feels like an appropriate conclusion to the “will it happen or not?” saga surrounding the event of late.

It’s a mess, and too big of a mess to really properly highlight in this column. If you want the full story on Angoulême’s demise in 2026, I’d turn your attention to Dean Simons’ excellent reporting at The Beat. No one on the U.S. side of the comics press covered it as prolifically and well as he did. It’s a real situation, but Simons has been on top of it the whole time. Hopefully this ends in a proper result, one where the people whose hearts and minds are dedicated to this event are satisfied in the end. Because what Bondoux is proposing is not it, that’s for sure.

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Dream Guests, Comic Thoughts, and Adaptation Wants: The Holiday Vortex Mailbag Q&A is Here

David Harper — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Given that it was a combination platter of November and December, two of the busiest and craziest months of the year, I should have expected that SKTCHD subscribers and Off Panel patrons would show out in this holiday vortex Mailbag Q&A. If I did, I would have been correct in that expectation, because dang, you all gave me a lot to chew on.

So, let’s get to it as I answer all your questions, ranging from check-ins on me to check-ins on the NBA.

How are you doing right now, David? – Stephen Adkison

Great! It’s Monday, December 1^st as I type this, and I’m listening to holiday music and drinking coffee. What’s not to like?

All’s well in my world. The question, as per usual, is can I keep the good times rolling?

We shall see!

Seeing Grant Morrison on Off Panel was not only exciting but made me wonder… do you have an Off Panel guest on your wish list that you haven’t talked to yet? Is it the other half of the Last War in Albion, Alan Moore? Is it Tyrese Haliburton talking hoops and hobbies? – Russel Harder

This is a question I’ve received before, and it’s a good one. But I’ll expand on it a bit. Here’s the list I’ve previously shared: Jim Lee; Raina Telgemeier; David Mazzucchelli; Kate Beaton; Mariko Tamaki; Jillian Tamaki; Stuart Immonen; Jenette Kahn; Chris Bachalo; Robin Lopez (an NBA player that’s into comics). That list is still there, besides Mariko Tamaki, who did come on the podcast and was an absolute delight! Jim Lee is still clearly the top pick, and TBD If that’ll ever happen. I’ll keep trying, though!

Surprising fact for you: I do not actually want to have Alan Moore on the podcast! I personally believe we should just leave that guy alone and stop torturing him with questions about Watchmen. Just let him do his thing in peace. I’d love to talk to him about his life and career, but I also don’t want to reopen wounds for him, so it’s a pass. Tyrese would be fun, obviously, but he wouldn’t be my top hoops pick.

So, who else would I want to talk to that I haven’t chatted with? Alison Bechdel would be a good one. I’ve had all of them on before, but I’d love to talk with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, and Geoff Johns in one episode about the story behind 52 in specific. Andy and Adam Kubert. Joe Madureira. Basically anyone who was an artist of the X-Men in the 1990s. Naoki Urasawa and Keigo Shinzo. Zoe Thorogood is definitely up there, but I know she hates interviews (see: It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth). Adrian Tomine. Timothy Zahn.

And for my last pick, I’ll go with a curveball. That would be James Gunn, but exclusively to talk about random comics, not movie things. He’d be way behind the rest, though.

When you spend time considering what makes a particular comic work or not, what are some things that you look at? Ways that you might approach the task? – Casey Watson

This is not useful, especially because this is for figuring out the right ways to talk about comics in a book club that Casey is a part of. But the thing I think of isn’t something I think of at all. I’m extremely not analytical about the comics I love. It’s pure feeling. I’m not sure I even think as I read. I’m immersing myself in it and responding in the way I’d respond to real life things. I’m a very emotional reader, which is probably why I love comics that are 12% sad. Do I know why a comic does or doesn’t work? Kind of. But I feel it when one side is true.

While that isn’t useful, I can reverse engineer those things to give you a real answer. When you’re talking about the overall feeling of “Does this work?” a lot of it comes down to how cohesive and consistent it is. Does it feel like a singular narrative? Do all the dots connect in the way the creators involved wanted them to? Does it add up to a resonant story? Does it achieve its goals? Those are big.

Then it gets smaller, and into the bits and pieces that add up to that feeling. Does the writing and art complement and elevate each other? This includes the colors and lettering, too. Those are elements of the art. Is it paced well, or paced well for what it’s trying to do? Do the characters feel alive and distinct, whether through the visuals or writing?

Specific to the art, how is the character acting? Is there clarity in the visuals, particularly in the layouts and storytelling? What is the artist doing to try when bringing this book to life, and is that achieved? How are colors used, and how effectively are they deployed? Does the lettering read clearly, and does it feel like the right fit for the story?

There are tons of things you can consider, but I think a good place to start is asking yourself two questions: How does this make me feel, and how does it accomplish that? While many people try to look at things objectively, subjectivity is pretty much all we have to work with. Embrace that, and diagnose how a comic makes you feel those things to unlock the conversation. That’s my take! Everyone has a different approach, though.

What’s a comic that you would want to see adapted in as a movie and one as a television series? – Pinoywonder

I had a pair of picks immediately hit me, so I am just going to lean into those here.

The movie pick is Nick Abadzis’ Laika, but it specifically would need to be adapted by LAIKA Studios, because a) it’s too fitting to not have them do it and b) their soulful brand of stop motion animation is perfect for this heartbreaking and wonderfully told graphic novel. I would not trust many companies to do right by that book. LAIKA Studios is one of them.

The TV show pick is obvious. It’s Zander Cannon’s Kaijumax, and it would need to be animated as well. I’m not sure who would be the right fit for that, but Kaijumax is episodic and season-based already. It’s a perfect fit for the medium, and it’s an incredible story that blends humor, heart, emotion, intensity, and all kinds of other things that would work well for TV audiences. Plus, Zander gets some money, so double success. If I had to go live action, though, I’d flip the script from prison to cops and pick Alan Moore, Gene Ha, and — who else! — Zander Cannon’s Top 10. I apparently think that anything by Zander Cannon should be adapted!

Got my copy of the Stilt Zine and love it. Do you have any other zine projects in mind? Does making zines scratch a particular creative itch for you? – Scott Haselwood

I almost made a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup zine for the Zine Fair I tabled at. I think I will do that at some point. I discussed making one about wrestler/actor “Rowdy” Roddy Piper with my tablemate in artist Tadd Galusha. I actually really love making zines, and even though I’ve been told mine are barely zines because they’re a) long and b) fancy, I still like the idea. The problem is I don’t have design skills, just concepting and writing ones.

And yeah, making zines definitely scratches a different itch for me. SKTCHD Zine and STILT-ZINE are on the short list of my favorite projects I’ve done. While everything I do is “anything goes,” the zines really feel like me unleashing whatever I feel like in the best of ways. I love doing them, and I hope to do many more in the future, even if none of my friends even understand what a zine is.

What is your favorite superhero crossover? – William Eucker

If we’re talking event comics, it’s probably Annihilation or Secret Wars (2015). William mentioned that some of these events are impenetrable and make reading tie-ins essential, but I think both of these can be read in isolation and do just fine. They give you what you need. Age of Apocalypse would be up there too, and Infinite Crisis does the same — especially if you get an omnibus that has the lead-in stories (which are really part of the larger story in a way tie-ins aren’t). Those would probably be my Mount Rushmore of crossovers, with apologies to the X-Men story Messiah CompleX and Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Note: I do not count House of X and Powers of X as a crossover or event comic. It’s something else, and something I don’t believe has a name.

Oh no! Santa Claus has tragically died! Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to select a superhero who will trade in their cape so they can fill Santa’s boots—comics and related media appearances featuring this character will henceforth show them in the Santa Claus role, and new media set canonically before this event will always include at least some Christmassy foreshadowing.

(If you’d rather pick a team for the job, you will need to select one hero to fill the Santa role that the rest of the team would agree with. The others would be honorary elves with modified costumes featuring elfish flare. Their tastes would shift to consist solely of Christmas songs, food, and beverages.)

This is not a one-time gig; it’s permanent. Choose wisely. – Mark Tweedale

So, we’re looking to replace an almost alien-like being who is preternaturally good, moves with incredible speed, and is constantly watching out for people who are being good and people who are being bad? And someone who wears a lot of red, with a base hidden somewhere in a frozen region?

Uhh…that’s pretty much just Superman, right?

So, he’s my pick. Sorry, DC! Superman is Santa Claus now! James Gunn would love that, though. He’s done a Christmas special in the past and when given the chance to Santa up Superman, I bet he’d have a good time with it. So would we!

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There’s No Wrong Place to Start Reading Comics

David Harper — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000

On the surface, starting any comic series with its 101^st issue might seem like a wild choice, especially through the prism of how we read comics today. There are any number of #1s to choose from. Why not begin with one of those?

Sophie Campbell’s cover to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #101

The answer to that question was pretty simple in my case. I was reading Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a podcast with cartoonist Sophie Campbell, because I believe in being fully prepared for interviews. A big part of Campbell’s career has been her work with the Turtles, a franchise I had barely read since its heyday in the early 1990s. That meant I had some work to do. While Campbell had drawn the characters before, her time as a writer/artist began with that 101^st issue. That felt like the right place to start, so I began there.

And hoooooo boy, was it different than anything I’d ever seen from TMNT.

I was met by Turtles that were less cowabunga and more clinically depressed, a location in New York City that now included a neighborhood called Mutant Town because many of its denizens were recently turned into anthropomorphic animals, and a situation I didn’t know anything about. It was the continuation of a larger story, one that had been building from varying threads created in recent years. Because of that, my instinct was that this would be a difficult read. Conventional wisdom suggests readers just can’t jump into a series midway through. It would be, and should be, impossible.

But it wasn’t.

Sure, I didn’t know certain characters, I wasn’t entirely sure what had happened previously, and these Turtles were going through things I’d never seen them go through before. But that wasn’t a turn off at all. Instead, it made a sign in my brain light up, one that had been left in disrepair in recent years thanks to its lack of use.

That sign said “I have to know more” in big, bold, neon letters.

So, I kept reading, both forwards and backwards, because I had to know more.

There’s a reason that sign was found covered in mothballs in a lost part of my brain. It’s incredibly rare that I start any comic with anything besides a first issue these days. It’s just not how things are done in 2025. After all, there’s no better place to start than a debut, and one is always sure to be around the corner in this era of miniseries and relaunches.

But that was not always the case.

Brandon Peterson and Terry Austin’s cover to Uncanny X-Men #294, with its polybag in view

While it wasn’t the first comic I read, the first I bought for myself was Uncanny X-Men #294, the opening chapter of the X-Men crossover X-Cutioner’s Song. I was familiar with the Marvel’s Merry Mutants thanks to varying trading card sets and their arcade game, amongst other things. 11 Given that I already liked comics, 12 the idea of reading ones that starred the X-Men appealed to me.

The clincher, though, was that this comic came polybagged with a trading card in it. What the issue was about was almost immaterial to me. At that point in my life, writer Scott Lobdell and artist Brandon Peterson meant far less to me than that card. So, I used part of my allowance to buy it at the local grocery store, eagerly opened it up, marveled at the card, and then figured, “What the heck, I guess I’ll read the comic too.”

If you’ve read X-Cutioner’s Song, you know that this comic went well beyond my meager understanding of the X-Men. I recognized much of the cast, but their circumstances were different than I expected. Cable’s a bad guy, maybe? Professor X is dead, possibly? Cyclops and Jean Grey are having relationship problems, it seems? Needless to say, I had a lot of questions about what happened within its pages. But there was one thing I knew with 100% certainty after reading it.

I had to know more.

Thanks to the careful research I did by reading the backs of all my Marvel cards 13 and further issues of X-Cutioner’s Song, I started piecing things together. Just like that, my world expanded in exciting ways. I wasn’t just reading one comic so I could get a trading card; I was reading four titles in Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, X-Force, and X-Factor. X-Cutioner’s Song is an admittedly crazy crossover, but I luxuriated in its unhinged tour of the Summers family tree and the larger roster of mutant-related characters. It, in part, made me the fan I am today.

That exemplified the power of curiosity, and the power of jumping in feet first and seeing where comics takes you. This didn’t just happen to me when I was a kid, either. While it’s not as common as it once was, much of my comics journey as an adult began midway through titles and stories.

There are plenty of examples to choose from in that regard. The single issue that got me back into that format was Infinite Crisis #4. The first Mignolaverse comic I read was B.P.R.D.’s seventh arc in Garden of Souls. I’d need more hands to count the number of Image titles from 2006 to 2012 where my reads began with anything but issue #1. This was common when I was a kid, and it was common for me as an adult.

Until it wasn’t.

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This was before the animated series debuted, though.↩
Reading all the Transformers comics any single child could handle was my earliest occupation.↩
aka 1990s comic kid Wikipedia.↩
This was before the animated series debuted, though.↩
Reading all the Transformers comics any single child could handle was my earliest occupation.↩
aka 1990s comic kid Wikipedia.↩
Ranging from the 1980s to the 2010s.↩
It probably even precedes that.↩
If you have more #1s, you’ll get more opportunities at the sales bump that comes with those.↩
A fact the team actually joked about on the second #1s cover.↩
This was before the animated series debuted, though.↩
Reading all the Transformers comics any single child could handle was my earliest occupation.↩
aka 1990s comic kid Wikipedia.↩

The post There’s No Wrong Place to Start Reading Comics appeared first on SKTCHD.

The Pull: A Look at the Comics Dropping the Week of December 3rd

David Harper — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000

December begins with an absolutely wild week in comic shops. But while much of the focus is on the new, this edition of The Pull — in which I share my buys, recommendations, and curiosities from the week of comics — is headlined by an old favorite.

Comic of the Week: Giant-Size Criminal #1

This one-shot comes with a novella length story focused on Ricky Lawless, a behind-the-scenes article about the Criminal show from Ed Brubaker, an illustrated guide to the world of Criminal from Sean Phillips, and a tabletop RPG module set in this universe that was created by Kieron Gillen. I know typically the reason these books take the top spot is simply “Brubaker and Phillips,” but man, this issue is out of control even for that dynamic duo. This might end up being one of the top releases from their collaborations if it lives up to its potential, and that’s really saying something.

Trade/Graphic Novel of the Week: Slices of Life: A Comic Montage TP

I backed this Kickstarter and read it already, so let me just tell you this: It’s going to be on my end of the year lists in some capacity. How exactly it will make it is uncertain, but my god, what a remarkable talent Qu is. This was my introduction to the cartoonist’s work, and while it’s an unconventional comic — it’s more a series of strips exploring singular slices of life — it’s also a great one. Plus, Bulgilhan Press does what they do and turned it into a remarkable package with an unconventional (but exceptional) binding choice. You should really pick this up. It’s wonderful.

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Off Panel #528: It’s a Lot! with Christina Merkler

David Harper — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 14:00:00 +0000

Christina Merkler, the co-owner of Lunar Distribution, Discount Comic Book Service (or DCBS), and InStockTrades, joins the show to talk about a strange year for comic book distribution and a good year for the retail side. Merkler discusses Thanksgiving and related takes, the year for her, Diamond Comic Distributors’ bankruptcy, compressing timelines, figuring things out, big changes this year, balancing sides of her businesses, the year for DCBS and InStockTrades, what’s driving success, how collections are doing, the non-licensed comics space, connecting readers with books, blind bags, how she’s feeling going into 2026, and more.

You can find Merkler and her work at Lunar Distribution, DCBS, and InStockTrades.

You can download the episode directly here on Libsyn.

Want to watch a video version of this interview, albeit mostly unedited? This chat with Christina Merkler is available on the SKTCHD/Off Panel YouTube. Go watch it over there, and if you enjoy it, make sure to subscribe to the channel when you do.

SKTCHD and Off Panel are now also on Ko-Fi, and if you want to send a tip my way because you’re enjoying the show, feel free!

Also, big thanks to my patrons, including – but not limited to – EpicBroccoli, Patrick Bramble, Kevin Bankston, Rick Yankosky, Angelo Macale, Chestin Pullard, Bobby Tomio, RK, Croc_Meow, Eric Palicki, MKFreigeist, Matthew Murphy, Brodie Duncan, Scott Chua, Paul Lai, Gene Queens, Chad Lawrence, James Ferguson, Tiffany Babb, Nerdy Mewzings Podcast, Ian A., Katie Pryde, Hassan Thalji, Pinoywonder, Toni DeBoer, Nick Friar, James Shields, Michael DiGiovanni, Pete Ficken, Patrick McGlynn, Jose Perez, Ross Binder, Chris Tanforan, Joey Riccio, Ruben Jackson, Alfa, Keith Friedlander, Adriel Moreland, Garrett Lawton, Mike Novello, Jaime Espinoza, Ruben Cantu, Detective 27, JJ Mack, Comic Shop Assistant, Rob Guillory, Justin Pearson, Gianni Palumbo, Oliver Sava, P. Sanger, Wilson Garrett, Ben O’Grady, Mark Tweedale, Ben Allen, Zack Quaintance, Kazu Kibuishi, Claire Scott, Tyler Crook, Patrick Horvath, Louis Krupp, Omega Slice, John Walsh, Brandon Paul, Aaron Bussey, AC, Simon Birch, Austin, Sion, Megan Marsden, T.S. Luther, Comic Book Couples Counseling Podcast, Gus, Saunter, Brian, Chris Robinson, David Byrne, Benjamin Wilkins, Chris Hacker, John NeSmith, Jon Auerbach, Dustin Weaver, Ninja Assassin Love Story Webcomic, Brandon Hayman, Aaden Hamann, Faith Erin Hicks, Ben Wroe, Cameron Brown, Jonathan Breen, Charlie Stickney, Tom Drennen, Jeremy Thomas Burke, Jared Schwab, Scott Dunn, Chip Mosher, Seth Pomeroy, James McEwan, Andrew Leamon, Christina Merkler, Scott Place, Travis Gibb, Darcy Van Poelgeest, Tom Evans, Reid Beaman, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Max Wood, Jeremy Lambert, Bryan, Nir Levie, Jason Hussa, Kieron Gillen, Jonathan Kent-Uritam, Henry Johnston, Dennis Hoffmann, Django Bohren, James Tynion IV, Chris Lankford, Jason Wood, Tom Peachey, Ben Damstedt, Ram V, Nick Walker, Patrick Coyle, Isaac Orin, Klaas Van de Ven, Submet Industries, Jack Mulqueen, Karl Kerschl, Robert Masella, Elsa Charretier, Luc Nakashoji, Dr. Luke, Scott Haselwood, CanadianByProxy, Bradley Roeder, Carl Choi, Brandon De Pillis, Patrick Brower, Declan Shalvey, Dan Gearino, Atom Freeman, Ben Wild, Brian Klein-Q, Liana Kangas, Nick Bennett, Susana Polo, Reed Hinckley-Barnes, Mario Tiambeng, Robert Wilson IV, Andrew Kurita, Stefan Hull, Phillip Maira, Chris Bachalo, Torunn Grønbekk, FuzBubbles, Christopher Ta, Transmitterdown, Walt’s Comics & Books, Akil Wilson, Alex Dimitropolous, Terry Dodson, Wesley Gift, Shawn Kirkham, Julio Anta, Brett A. Schmidt, Jason Goodmanson, Vita Ayala, Akylle, Phillip Sevy, Al Ewing, David Kelley, Jason Nassi, Adam Bogert, Matthew Taylor, Nick Pitarra, Jacob Sareli, Ford Gilmore, David Baroldy, Nick Hall, Bjorn Basen, John Hendrick, Ian Maxfield, Cliff Chiang, Colin McMahon, Adam Highfill, Fiona Staples, Mark Abnett, Michael Shirley, Tom Barnett, Jim Demonakos, Norbert, Nick Lowe, James Kaplan, and Mission: Comics and Art in San Francisco. You’re all the best.

Have a question for Off Panel? You can reach David by email or Bluesky.

Header photo is from Absolute Batman #10, art by Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin. Off Panel’s opening theme music is Vulfpeck’s “Outro,” used with permission from the band (and thanks from me for them doing so!), with the rest of the music being an original track by custom music agency Upright T-Rex Music, written and performed specifically for the podcast. A huge thanks to Ross and Cody from Upright T-Rex Music for putting the track together!

The post Off Panel #528: It’s a Lot! with Christina Merkler appeared first on SKTCHD.

Ten Things I’ve Been Thankful for from the Year in Comics

David Harper — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000

We’re changing things up this week. Because it’s a holiday here in America, and because Thanksgiving is followed by Black Friday — which might actually be the busier day, somehow — my Ten Things column is running on Wednesday this week and it’s becoming something else. It’s now a tradition for me to turn that regular column into a holiday spectacular where I instead highlight ten things I’ve been thankful for from the year in comics, so we’ll be doing that today before taking a siesta during the rest of the holiday week.

The Sheer Power of Stupid (Complimentary)

Incredibly, this isn’t the first time I’ve brought this kind of thing up as a point for this very column. That’s for a good reason: I feel like comics — particularly superhero ones — are far too fearful of seeming stupid at times, and I’m extremely thankful for the ones that embrace that energy.

That might sound weird. “Is stupid…good?” you may be asking. I’d argue yes, but only if it’s the specific flavor of that idea I’m speaking to. I don’t mean comics should be illogical or confusing or poorly crafted. They should still be good, of course. I mean they shouldn’t worry about doing insane things out of concern that it might make the comic seem stupid. They should just go for it, no holds barred.

The best example of this is Absolute Batman, a comic by Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, and friends that leans into the stupid life as well as any comic I can remember. And I mean that as a compliment. Honestly, I think that team’s willingness to approach the line of tomfoolery and nonsense but never completely lose itself there is that book’s secret superpower, and I am being completely serious when I say that.

Just think about that book if you doubt me. Batman’s almost seven feet tall and 400+ pounds. Bane makes him look like a baby. Batman kicks kids off boats and drives comically large industrial equipment around Gotham. His shoulders have spikes and his cape has hooks. His chest is also an axe. Everything about this book goes to 11, and that means so much of this book could be dumb as heck. But the team’s willingness to risk that while swerving towards cool at the last second is where its spice comes from.

Maybe more than any comic, Absolute Batman taps into the same energies that people love about manga without losing its fundamental identity as a Batman comic. That’s a tough line to walk, just like it is for manga, which often deftly straddles the stupid/smart split. I’m thankful for the books that can do that, because they are often the most entertaining reads.

Metronomes, Always on Beat

The comic industry, like every other entertainment medium, tends to focus on the new hotness. Absolute DC? Other micro lines like the Energon Universe or Ultimate Marvel? DC’s Compact Comics? All major draws from the past couple years. They’re evidence of the fact that if you do new (or at least new-ish), you’re going to get the bulk of the attention. We crave the new, because that’s how we’re built. But you know what?

It was a great year for comic book metronomes.

That phrase, along with its twin in “metronome comics,” is one I use to talk about comics we kind of sleep on simply because they’ve been around for a while. They’re no longer new, so they’re not as hot or as talked about as they once were. It doesn’t even matter if they’re still good. Quality is almost immaterial in the conversation at times. They’re unfortunately old favorites in a space dominated by the new, and that’s the way it is.

Now, “old favorites” aren’t what they once were. We’re in an era defined by relaunches and miniseries. 100+ issue runs effectively do not exist. Even titles over 20 issues are few and far between. But some carry on as metronomes, and I thank them for their service and eternal quality. Whether it’s creator-owned comics like Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ collaborations and Wes Craig’s Kaya or shockingly long-running superhero runs like Kelly Thompson and friends on Birds of Prey and Ryan North and pals on Fantastic Four, comics and collaborations that have had sustained runs typically only become better with the passage of time, not worse. Maybe that’s why they lasted to begin with, but that longevity allows for depth other titles simply can’t get to.

Just look at Brubaker and Phillips. I think The Knives might be the best thing they’ve ever done together, even if it’s easy to handwave it away and say, “It’s another Brubaker and Phillips book!” Yeah, that’s true. But it’s awesome, and you only get a work as complex and clever as The Knives after building trust with each other and readers across any number of other collaborations.

As runs and titles get shorter, how I value the ones that go 20, 30, 40 issues or more only grows. I’m thankful for my precious metronome comics, but I’d love to see even more comics go on long enough to earn that title in the future. Fingers crossed.

Comics, Rewarding Adventures

A lot of times, it can feel like comic readers put themselves in boxes. “I’m a Marvel reader,” they say, or “I stick to indies,” they tell themselves. While those boxes aren’t always small, they often still exist. That reduces our engagement with the medium to a limited mix of stories and creators and formats. And that’s fine! It’s a big world, and you don’t have to explore it all.

But a consistent joy for me in recent years — and perhaps most especially 2025 — is how rewarding it’s become to expand the box I reside in. The past three years have been highlight reels for that expansion, as 2023 was The Year of Autobio, 2024 was The Year of Manga, and 2025 is The Year of Comic Strips. It’s not that I’d never read any of those types before, but each of those years found me wholeheartedly embracing them in a way I hadn’t before (or at least not recently in the case of comic strips).

While it’s perfectly fine to stick to what you’re comfortable with, if only because comics as a medium is just one of many boxes we can put ourselves in from an entertainment standpoint, it’s also a medium that benefits those who are willing to explore new horizons. And sure, you might learn that some comics aren’t for you. But that’s part of the process, because you never know which comic that exists at the edges of your box might be your new favorite.

The medium of comics is massive. Comics can be anything and come in practically any form. That’s one of my favorite things about the medium, even if my box is still small compared to others. And I’m thankful for that part of comics. It’s malleability and versatility is a defining characteristic, and one of the most rewarding parts for the reader who is willing to go on an adventure.

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The Pull: A Look at the Comics Dropping the Week of November 26th

David Harper — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000

It’s a big week for big books, but hey, focusing on those are not that fun. So, let’s talk about some unique comics driven by great creators in this week’s edition of The Pull, even if one of them does star Batman.

Comic of the Week: Batman/Green Arrow/The Question: Arcadia #1

I talked about this on my recent Superhero State of the Union episode of Off Panel with Oliver Sava, but I love DC’s books like this. That’s because you only get a story starring this collection of characters if it’s an idea from its creator. I don’t know this for sure, but this new Black Label series feels like it’s a passion project that could only come from Gabriel Hardman, and that — at least to me — is exactly why that side of DC exists. Black Label should be for big swings from creators who have a story they want to starring the publisher’s characters that is free of continuity restraints. Arcadia feels like that for Hardman. I’m here for that. This is how you create evergreen reads, something that’s long been a staple of DC. I hope this proves to be another one when it’s all said and done.

Trade/Graphic Novel of the Week: The Great British Bump Off: Kill or Be Quilt TP

There are a few creators I have a firm “Always Read” rule about, and one of those is John Allison. I’m not just saying that. I have “John Allison All” line on my pull list. There’s no one who speaks the language of comics that I’m most passionate about better than Allison. Pair him with Max Sarin, an artist who is one of the finest cartoonists of our day, and you have an elite start. Plus, the first volume of The Great British Bump Off was a lot of fun, and who doesn’t want more fun comics in their life? I know I do!

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Off Panel #527: Chasing That Feeling with Gene Luen Yang

David Harper — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 16:39:03 +0000

Writer and cartoonist Gene Luen Yang joins the podcast to talk about his comics life and his upcoming run on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yang discusses his daily life, his upcoming graphic novel, Overrated, embracing change, advocating for comics, its impact on his own work, having different inputs, his project that impacted him the most, collaborations and collaborators, Superman Smashes the Klan, figuring out which for-hire projects to take, how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came together, impact of Eastman & Laird, the TMNT phenomenon, building his run, keeping those characters fresh, what keeps him excited for comics, tips for creators, and more.

You can find Yang on Bluesky and Instagram and his work in the upcoming 13th issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which arrives on December 10th.

You can download the episode directly here on Libsyn.

Want to watch a video version of this interview, albeit mostly unedited? This chat with Gene Luen Yang is available on the SKTCHD/Off Panel YouTube. Go watch it over there, and if you enjoy it, make sure to subscribe to the channel when you do.

SKTCHD and Off Panel are now also on Ko-Fi, and if you want to send a tip my way because you’re enjoying the show, feel free!

Lastly, thanks to the show’s final sponsor in IDW Publishing. IDW is absolutely cooking in November, as they’re bringing readers exciting comics everywhere, including on three of its most biggest lines. Want spooky tales in award-winning titles like Patrick Horvath’s Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees or continuations of horror classics like Event Horizon or Twilight Zone? IDW Dark is for you. Want to see those Heroes in the Half Shell and their friends doing their thing? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line has four big releases this month, including a crossover with an even bigger green guy in Godzilla. Speaking of Godzilla, want to see the wildest take on that character and his world yet? The Kai-Say Era is for you then, as Godzilla, Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone, and Starship Godzilla are bringing the heat. Most importantly, if you’re looking for great comics, IDW has you covered. So, stop on by your local comic shop and pick up their next big comics.

Also, big thanks to my patrons, including – but not limited to – Patrick Bramble, Kevin Bankston, Rick Yankosky, Angelo Macale, Chestin Pullard, Bobby Tomio, RK, Croc_Meow, Eric Palicki, MKFreigeist, Matthew Murphy, Brodie Duncan, Scott Chua, Paul Lai, Gene Queens, Chad Lawrence, James Ferguson, Tiffany Babb, Nerdy Mewzings Podcast, Ian A., Katie Pryde, Hassan Thalji, Pinoywonder, Toni DeBoer, Nick Friar, James Shields, Michael DiGiovanni, Pete Ficken, Patrick McGlynn, Jose Perez, Ross Binder, Chris Tanforan, Joey Riccio, Ruben Jackson, Alfa, Keith Friedlander, Adriel Moreland, Garrett Lawton, Mike Novello, Jaime Espinoza, Ruben Cantu, Detective 27, JJ Mack, Comic Shop Assistant, Rob Guillory, Justin Pearson, Gianni Palumbo, Oliver Sava, P. Sanger, Wilson Garrett, Ben O’Grady, Mark Tweedale, Ben Allen, Zack Quaintance, Kazu Kibuishi, Claire Scott, Tyler Crook, Patrick Horvath, Louis Krupp, Omega Slice, John Walsh, Brandon Paul, Aaron Bussey, AC, Simon Birch, Austin, Sion, Megan Marsden, T.S. Luther, Comic Book Couples Counseling Podcast, Gus, Saunter, Brian, Chris Robinson, David Byrne, Benjamin Wilkins, Chris Hacker, John NeSmith, Jon Auerbach, Dustin Weaver, Ninja Assassin Love Story Webcomic, Brandon Hayman, Aaden Hamann, Faith Erin Hicks, Ben Wroe, Cameron Brown, Jonathan Breen, Charlie Stickney, Tom Drennen, Jeremy Thomas Burke, Jared Schwab, Scott Dunn, Chip Mosher, Seth Pomeroy, James McEwan, Andrew Leamon, Christina Merkler, Scott Place, Travis Gibb, Darcy Van Poelgeest, Tom Evans, Reid Beaman, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Max Wood, Jeremy Lambert, Bryan, Nir Levie, Jason Hussa, Kieron Gillen, Jonathan Kent-Uritam, Henry Johnston, Dennis Hoffmann, Django Bohren, James Tynion IV, Chris Lankford, Jason Wood, Tom Peachey, Ben Damstedt, Ram V, Nick Walker, Patrick Coyle, Isaac Orin, Klaas Van de Ven, Submet Industries, Jack Mulqueen, Karl Kerschl, Robert Masella, Elsa Charretier, Luc Nakashoji, Dr. Luke, Scott Haselwood, CanadianByProxy, Bradley Roeder, Carl Choi, Brandon De Pillis, Patrick Brower, Declan Shalvey, Dan Gearino, Atom Freeman, Ben Wild, Brian Klein-Q, Liana Kangas, Nick Bennett, Susana Polo, Reed Hinckley-Barnes, Mario Tiambeng, Robert Wilson IV, Andrew Kurita, Stefan Hull, Phillip Maira, Chris Bachalo, Torunn Grønbekk, FuzBubbles, Christopher Ta, Transmitterdown, Walt’s Comics & Books, Akil Wilson, Alex Dimitropolous, Terry Dodson, Wesley Gift, Shawn Kirkham, Julio Anta, Brett A. Schmidt, Jason Goodmanson, Vita Ayala, Akylle, Phillip Sevy, Al Ewing, David Kelley, Jason Nassi, Adam Bogert, Matthew Taylor, Nick Pitarra, Jacob Sareli, Ford Gilmore, David Baroldy, Nick Hall, Bjorn Basen, John Hendrick, Ian Maxfield, Cliff Chiang, Colin McMahon, Adam Highfill, Fiona Staples, Mark Abnett, Michael Shirley, Tom Barnett, Jim Demonakos, Norbert, Nick Lowe, James Kaplan, and Mission: Comics and Art in San Francisco. You’re all the best.

Have a question for Off Panel? You can reach David by email or Bluesky.

Header photo is from Freddie Williams II’s cover to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #13. Off Panel’s opening theme music is Vulfpeck’s “Outro,” used with permission from the band (and thanks from me for them doing so!), with the rest of the music being an original track by custom music agency Upright T-Rex Music, written and performed specifically for the podcast. A huge thanks to Ross and Cody from Upright T-Rex Music for putting the track together!

The post Off Panel #527: Chasing That Feeling with Gene Luen Yang appeared first on SKTCHD.

Comics Disassembled: Eleven Things I Liked or Didn’t Like from the Past Week in Comics, Led by A Shop in Need

David Harper — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000

This is an all over the place edition of Comics Disassembled, but it has a major headliner to kick things off. So, let’s get to looking at eleven things I liked or didn’t like from the week of comics, led by a comic shop in need. That’s right. We’re going for extra credit this week!

Books with Pictures, Needing Help

Readers of SKTCHD and listeners of Off Panel are probably familiar with the Portland, Oregon based comic shop Books with Pictures, even if you’ve never visited the store itself. The shop’s owner, Katie Pryde, has visited the podcast several times, appeared in a bevy of articles, and even once was interviewed in my email newsletter The Crossover, which existed between SKTCHD 1.0 and 2.0. There’s a reason she shows up a lot. Pryde is a tremendous retailer, and Books with Pictures is an incredible store. Even in a city as blessed with quality comic shops as Portland, BwP is beloved because of its inclusive intent and reality, its remarkably curated library of comics and graphic novels, and how effective it is at guiding customers to the right book — whether that’s through its excellent staff or stellar merchandising. I know first hand. I always walk out of the store with more things than I planned on leaving with.

In short: Books with Pictures rocks.

Unfortunately, the shop is (was? more on that in a second) in trouble. As Pryde said on Facebook, “The shop is in real financial trouble. I’ve been bailing, stretching my limits, trying new things, but the hole is deep and I need help.” That’s why she launched a GoFundMe to help fill that hole, one that was looking for $42,500 from supporters, which is, as Pryde said on the page, “the magical amount that would get the shop current on all of our accounts, get us out of our frantic hole-digging mode, and allow us to look forward rather than scramble backward.” This was a question of survival, making that GoFundMe a necessity.

I had to lead with who Pryde is and what Books with Pictures means to people because even with its goal being a lofty amount, I knew its GoFundMe meeting its goal was a formality. It was absolutely a “when” type situation, not an “if.” That’s because the direct market needs more shops like BwP, not fewer, and everyone knows it. Pryde and its staff deliberately open themselves up to people while welcoming readers of all varieties. They also make it easier for people to find the comic for them, which is a powerful thing. It’s not that other shops don’t do that. But BwP is undeniably one that’s in the highest percentiles for how much it leans into those ideas.

That might be why the shop’s GoFundMe campaign has already hit its goal. Hundreds of donors — customers, creators, publishers, industry types — have supported Books with Pictures and Pryde. I hope this campaign puts the shop in a position to get its feet under itself and to keep its doors open for all the people who love it. Best of luck to Pryde on this journey, and hey, if you can afford to help this shop in need, this is a great way to do it. Even if it’s already hit its goal, I’m sure it could use the extra support.

Dynamite, Going Universal

Are the Distributor Wars back? Probably not, or at least I hope not. But with Canada’s Universal Distribution previously entering the American market by signing DC to a non-exclusive agreement, the introduction of a new player seemed likely to lead to some shuffling in the space. That was confirmed by the reveal that Dynamite Entertainment is also going non-exclusive with Universal, as it — like DC before it — will be seeing multiple distributors between Universal and its previous partner in Lunar Distribution.

It seems likely that if we see much more movement, it will come in this exact form. It’s hard to imagine Penguin Random House signing non-exclusive distribution agreements. It also makes sense because publishers are seemingly trying to give retailers (especially those with animosity towards Lunar because of its sister companies in Discount Comic Book Service — or DCBS — and InStockTrades) options.

Here’s my take: Options are not a bad thing. That’s true if you’re a publisher or a retailer. Is it the best if you’re a distributor? Maybe not. But opening things up so shops can find the distributor that best fits them and so you can be able to move and shift and allocate the way that matches your shop feels more like the post-Diamond dream than the weird walled garden situation everyone has been in since the demise of the former distribution supergiant. You know what’s worse than one monopoly? It turns out there’s actually an answer to that. It’s two smaller monopolies. Micronopolies? I’ll workshop that.

So, this is a good and interesting thing. The big question, as has been the case in the past five or so years in the distribution space, is what’s next? It’s hard to tell, but I suspect there will be a what’s next coming at some point in this space.

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Comic Strips are So Back

David Harper — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000

I wouldn’t be writing this if comic strips didn’t exist.

That might seem obvious. After all, this is an article about comic strips. 12 Of course that’s true. But it’s a lot more than that. SKTCHD itself wouldn’t exist without comic strips.

They were how I learned the language of comics. They were even crucial to the development of my love of reading, with strips like Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County, Gary Larson’s The Far Side, and especially Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes acting as foundational texts for me. And those hours spent poring over a newspaper’s funny pages paved the way for my eventual expansion into a much wider world of comic books.

A Calvin & Hobbes strip by Bill Watterson

I’m not the only one that’s true for, either.

While they might not be discussed as an influence as often as other sides of sequential art, they have long been key to the larger comic landscape. In the process, they’ve impacted the creators of the comics, graphic novels, and, yes, comic strips of today.

And yet, comic strips started to feel like a relic of yesteryear as newspapers dipped in popularity or even disappeared entirely. They exist, of course. Classics like Nancy and Pickles are still around, and the form’s language is built into webcomics, with the work of cartoonists like John Allison, Kate Beaton, and Ngozi Ukazu either being great examples of the structure or informed by its rhythms.

But for some, strips had almost become a forgotten part of the comic world, one that can be treated as the less serious, more disposable cousin of graphic novels or comic books. Which is a shame, because even though newspapers aren’t what they once were, the strip is still essential to the world of comics.

And it’s having a moment once again.

While it’s been building for years as social media has taken over culture, 2025 has been — at least for me — the year of the comic strip. Whether it’s personal favorites like Harris Fishman’s Beetle Moses, Joshua Barkman’s False Knees, Alex Hood’s Haus of Decline, and Alex Krokus’ Loud & Smart or starry names like Sarah Andersen’s Sarah’s Scribbles or Nathan W. Pyle’s Strange Planet, it’s been a remarkable year for the form. And that list only scratches the surface of what strips have to offer.

But what makes the format so appealing to today’s creators and readers? Why is it such a draw for 2025’s cartoonists? 13 And what’s it really like to create when you’re at the mercy of social media platforms? Those are good questions, and ones we’ll be trying to answer today as we explore the world of comic strips.

The appeal of the comic strip for cartoonists is, or at least should be, obvious. Even as newspapers slipped from a staple of human existence to a rarity, the form itself is eternal. There’s little difference between what strip readers from yesteryear connected with and what resonates with readers today, even if where we find them has changed.

And one of the biggest draws will always be this: It’s a great way to get jokes off.

“I’ve always felt it’s just enough space to tell a proper joke,” Sarah Andersen of Sarah’s Scribbles said.

Much of the form’s allure orients on its hand in glove fit with joke structures. If you have three to five panels to work with, you have the perfect amount of room for setup and then a punchline. That efficiency is a major draw.

A They Can Talk strip by Jimmy Craig

“I love that a comic takes a joke or a story and distills it down to only the necessary parts,” said Jimmy Craig of They Can Talk. “It’s such an efficient and effective means to share an idea.”

Strips aren’t just efficient in how they delivers jokes. Cartoonists also love how quick and easy they are to create relative to other comic formats. Take Boum as an example. While she might be mostly known for her Eisner Award-winning graphic novel The Jellyfish, the cartoonist also crafted a strip called Boumeries until 2020. 14 Those were a perfect palate cleanser for her longer form work.

“I like that it’s quick to do and easy to share on the Internet,” Boum said. “I can draw a whole finished strip in an hour or less and it’s ready to go. In comparison, working on a 300-page graphic novel is a long secret process without the instant validation strips can provide.”

That comparative ease is critical. While not everyone can get a book deal, anyone can open an Instagram account and share a strip they’ve drawn. That accessibility was a draw to Harris Fishman, the cartoonist behind Beetle Moses. 15

“It’s so accessible to start if you have a pen, paper, and time,” Fishman said. “I love that there is a low bar of entry to the medium, which in turn allows so many unusual voices to shine.”

Unusual voices are certainly welcome in strips, and that’s at least in part because the form can be about anything and can be told in a practically infinite number of ways. The “versatility” of the form is stands out to False Knees’ cartoonist Joshua Barkman.

“Comic strips can broach any subject in any genre, in infinite styles of writing and art,” Barkman said. “The audience for comics is maturing, too. And with that, the cartoonist is given a freedom to be more experimental with their expression.”

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Which is the classic variety of sequential art that typically finds one to four panels — unless it’s Sunday — being used to tell a story and/or make a joke.↩
Which, I do want to note, is a word that will be used to refer to people who make comic strips here rather than writer/artists who make their own comic books. This is specific to strip creators in this article from here on out.↩
Which she still regularly reposts on her varying social media channels.↩
Who also goes by Beetle Moses when it comes to his work.↩
That’s impossible to confirm, of course, but it feels true enough I wanted to include his hypothesis.↩
And those structures often mean you have a maximum of four images to work with.↩
Syndicates still exist, and syndication deals still happen. They just do not seem to be as prominent or profitable as they once were.↩
Instagram, Twitter/X, Bluesky, and TikTok.↩
This number includes websites and Patreons and things like that.↩
He shared that discoverability and follower growth used to be just a post away before, and that’s no longer true.↩
And still do, with Calvin & Hobbes residing on my Mount Rushmore of comics.↩
Which is the classic variety of sequential art that typically finds one to four panels — unless it’s Sunday — being used to tell a story and/or make a joke.↩
Which, I do want to note, is a word that will be used to refer to people who make comic strips here rather than writer/artists who make their own comic books. This is specific to strip creators in this article from here on out.↩
Which she still regularly reposts on her varying social media channels.↩
Who also goes by Beetle Moses when it comes to his work.↩

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Double Take: On the Unexpected Turns and Glorious Art of Kazumi Yamashita’s Land Vol. 1

David Harper — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Kazumi Yamashita’s cover to Land Vol. 1

Here’s a secret about this column. It’s a very mild one. Oliver and I alternate who picks each month’s subject for this series, and sometimes, those picks are very impulse driven. Take this edition’s focus, which is the first volume of Kazumi Yamashita’s manga series Land over at Yen Press. It was my pick, and when we first were discussing what should be next, it just so happened to be the same day I bought this book simply because I loved the cover.

And that’s why this is the comic we’re discussing this month.

So, what’s it about? I’d share the solicit, but honestly, I consider it a spoiler, so here’s the briefest of explanations adapted from Yen Press’ site. In a village where all residents die upon reaching fifty lives a girl named An, whose twin sister (also named An) was sacrificed to the ‘other world’ that lay beyond. That’s the basics, but it’s an incredibly sprawling story that involves a society that does everything it can to please four gods that watch them as they live, the cost of customs, and some wild and unexpected turns that spring from that fateful choice to sacrifice a young girl with an “evil countenance.”

There’s a lot of room to explore because the first volume is 658 pages, and that’s a lot considering this comic almost never takes a breath. But is that a good thing? Did my whim-based decision to talk about a recent purchase curse us like the wrong look did for An’s older sister?

There’s only one way to find out.

One last note, though. We do get into spoilers for the twist from the latter half of the book. I will note when that’s coming. If you would prefer to avoid any of Land’s mystery being revealed in advance, that’s when you’ll want to bow out.

David Harper: Oliver, this is our first foray into manga. I’m admittedly a newer convert, but a significant one, as my favorites from that space are all-timers for me. Before we get into Land, I wanted to ask: What kind of manga reader are you? Is it a substantial part of your comic-reading diet, or is it more secondary?

Oliver Sava: It’s definitely secondary, largely because of time constraints. I already have a lot of difficulty keeping up with the books I want to read from U.S. publishers, so the international stuff gets pushed to the back burner. There are a couple exceptions, specifically Witch Hat Atelier and Yotsuba&!, but the sporadic release schedule of those books makes it easy to stay current. (Side note: the next volume of Yotsuba&! is finally coming out in January after a four-year wait.)

Thanks to you, I’ve become a pretty big Keigo Shinzō fan this year, burning through Tokyo Alien Bros and Hirayasumi. I have to shout out my local library for keeping their manga extremely well stocked, it was how I got my hands on Land as well. This first volume is a beast, and while you’re right that it has a lot of momentum, it’s also extremely decompressed, with most of the action happening over the course of a few days. There are a couple of flashback chapters that give us necessary backstory, but it’s really about what happens immediately after the two separated Ans cross paths later in childhood.

The first half of the book is all about immersing the reader in this culture of paranoia and dread, but it didn’t really hook me on a plot or character level. I was mostly admiring Yamashita’s cartooning, and then I hit the huge reveal at the midway point that completely changed everything I thought I knew about the story and gave me the hook I needed. What was your experience with those earlier chapters and learning about the book’s mythology? Did you find it more compelling?

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The Pull: A Look at the Comics Dropping the Week of November 19th

David Harper — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Hoo boy, it is a Grant Morrison heavy week here. So, let’s get straight into it, as I highlight my buys, recommendations, and curiosities from the week of comics in The Pull, led by a double dose of Morrison.

Comic of the Week: DC/Marvel: Batman/Deadpool #1

As you likely know, Grant Morrison joined Off Panel this week and talked about this book. They suggested that it’s less of the metaphysical car crash it was described as in solicits and more of a blockbuster romp featuring one seriously odd couple. Some might have been disappointed by that. I was not. I love blockbuster Morrison! I’m here for it! Let’s see what you have in store for us, Grant and Dan Mora! And I can’t wait to read those backups!

Trade/Graphic Novel of the Week: We3: DC Compact Comics Edition

Speaking of Morrison and that episode of Off Panel, I talked about We3 on there without realizing the DC Compact Comics edition of that series they did with artist Frank Quitely was arriving this week. Now that I know it is, I have to make a declaration: This is my favorite thing Morrison has ever done. I love this comic so, so, so much. It’s an all-timer, and one of the most special showcases of what comics are capable of from the history of the medium. If you’ve never read it before, treat yourself and pick up this new edition, because it’s comic booking at its finest.

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Off Panel #526: The Sound of Comics with Grant Morrison

David Harper — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Writer Grant Morrison joins the podcast to talk about this week’s DC/Marvel: Batman/Deadpool and their views on life and comics. Morrison discusses the rekindled flame of writing comics, how they approach writing, the importance of new experiences, making yourself a laboratory, pushing the medium thinking visually, learning from collaborators, doing what feels right, why Batman/Deadpool was the move, how it came together, preferred flavors of themself, Dan Mora’s greatness, the freedom of that project, the power of constraints, their approach to continuity, the joy of Batman/Deadpool, having a late career renaissance, deciding what’s next, changing as the comic landscape does, the future of comics, and more.

You can find Morrison on their newsletter, Xanaduum, and their work in this week’s DC/Marvel: Batman/Deadpool #1.

You can download the episode directly here on Libsyn.

Want to watch a video version of this interview, albeit mostly unedited? This chat with Grant Morrison is available on the SKTCHD/Off Panel YouTube. Go watch it over there, and if you enjoy it, make sure to subscribe to the channel when you do.

SKTCHD and Off Panel are now also on Ko-Fi, and if you want to send a tip my way because you’re enjoying the show, feel free!

Have a question for Off Panel? You can reach David by email or Bluesky.

Header photo is from Dan Mora’s cover to DC/Marvel: Batman/Deadpool #1. Off Panel’s opening theme music is Vulfpeck’s “Outro,” used with permission from the band (and thanks from me for them doing so!), with the rest of the music being an original track by custom music agency Upright T-Rex Music, written and performed specifically for the podcast. A huge thanks to Ross and Cody from Upright T-Rex Music for putting the track together!

The post Off Panel #526: The Sound of Comics with Grant Morrison appeared first on SKTCHD.

Comics Disassembled: Eight Things I Liked or Didn’t Like from the Past Week in Comics, Led by the Crossovers Continuing Until Morale Improves

David Harper — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000

It’s a light week, so it’s a light column. That’s why today’s edition of Comics Disassembled is a look at eight things I liked or didn’t like from the past week of comics rather than the customary ten, with that slate led by the news that DC and Marvel’s recent crossovers doubled in one day.

DC and Marvel, Making It a Habit

Ruh roh.

It seems DC and Marvel have collectively realized something. This whole crossover thing? The one where their characters meet in comics? The one kicked off by Deadpool/Batman before Batman/Deadpool follows this month, with another crossover in Spider-Man/Superman hitting next year? It’s a pretty good way to make money! So, a big question naturally seems to have followed.

Why shouldn’t they just do more of those?

The answer to that question seems to have come back, and it was, “That’s a great idea!” The reason I know this is because both publishers announced and released new crossover comics on their respective digital platforms this week, with The Flash/Fantastic Four (from writer Jeremy Adams and artist Adrián Gutiérrez) hitting DC Universe Infinite and Thor/Shazam! (from writer Al Ewing and artist Jethro Morales) arriving on Marvel Unlimited. Each is part of a subscriber push for those platforms, as they’re free to read thanks to a 30-day free trial code each is offering potential subscribers.

That alone is interesting, but adding another layer to it is that they’re respectively part of the DC GO! and Marvel Infinity Comics efforts, meaning they’re both vertical scroll comics. It’s another way to court readers with exciting crossovers, and it’s at least in theory a whole different cohort of people. It’s a smart move, and it’s apparently not the end of this run of vertical scroll meet-ups between the publisher’s characters. 2026 will bring new crossovers to those platforms, just like 2026 will also bring the aforementioned Superman/Spider-Man.

I imagine everyone involved sees the value in these crossovers, which is why they’re leaning in right now. The big question is the same one you get for literally everything that works in comics, though: At what point will it become overused and not special anymore? Blind bags are going through that right now, and could the Big Two do the same thing with these crossovers? Maybe, but this rate isn’t too bad so far. It just needs to feel like a big deal, and this drop already felt pretty muted compared to the previous ones. We’ll see how it plays out, but it’s a trend to watch for sure.

Bendis Back??? Bendis Back!!!

In the world’s fastest turnaround from “worst kept secret” to “fully known fact,” it seems that writer Brian Michael Bendis is returning to Marvel for the upcoming Avengers #800 and beyond. It all starts with a story from Bendis and artist Mark Bagley in January’s Avengers #34/#800 that’s about the Big Three of the Avengers in Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man doing Avengers things.

But that’s not all! Bendis said in the press release that “This is the first of some truly special Marvel projects that I will be part of in the near future,” which is part of a big year for the writer after several years away from Marvel and superheroes as a whole. I suspect he won’t be the only one returning. I’ve heard of a number of creators who are reorienting on for-hire work like this as a reaction to the current environment from non-licensed work. That’s not to say that is why Bendis made that move. But it’s well-timed with the anniversary hitting and Marvel being in a weird spot. My guess is it will be a boon for everyone involved, as Bendis represents a peak for the publisher in the minds of a lot of readers. That type of faith could generate some goodwill for all involved.

We shall see how it plays out. I’ll be interested to see the other projects Bendis is involved with going forward. I suspect they’ll be less focused on bigger picture books and more on standalone projects where he can cook in the way that Bendis does, but TBD on that front.

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The Moment with Kieron Gillen

David Harper — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 16:32:16 +0000

Welcome to The Moment, a new video interview series on SKTCHD with a simple premise: Creators join me to talk about The Moment they knew four of their biggest projects were going to work, whether that’s creatively, commercially, or some mix of both. It’s an easy idea, but the hope was it would act as a jump off into something far more complex and interesting.

The hopes were fulfilled in the first episode, as writer Kieron Gillen joins to share the moment he knew four comics from his career — each of which I picked — were going to work. Those comics were:

Journey into Mystery, with Stephanie Hans, Doug Braithwaite, Pasqual Ferry, and more
The Wicked + The Divine, with Jamie McKelvie, Matt Wilson, and Clayton Cowles
Darth Vader, with Salvador Larroca, Edgar Delgado, and Joe Caramagna
Die, with Stephanie Hans and Clayton Cowles

Gillen takes viewers inside that moment, exploring when he realized these comics were going to work as well as they did, before I ask one follow-up question for each. It’s a very good time, with great insight from Gillen as he talks about these amazing comics.

You can watch it here or on YouTube. Oh, and while you’re at it, make sure to subscribe to the SKTCHD YouTube channel, which will be getting Shorts posted from this episode throughout the week and more in the future. Also, the goal for this is to be a monthly series, and with my guest for the next episode already booked, we’re in good shape for that. So, stay tuned for more of The Moment!

Want to start reading Gillen’s comics that we talk about here? Make sure to check your local comic shop first, but if you can’t find them, here are some places where you can get started on these excellent comics.

Now, I know some folks don’t want to watch video. That I totally understand. I’m not a big YouTube watcher myself. and for you fine folks, I have a solution. Thanks to several requests, I’ve now decided to add a transcription of each of these chats for The Moment at the bottom of where I post the video. That way, folks have a chance to read it instead if they’d prefer. So, here’s that chat with Kieron Gillen, but now in written form, although it has been edited slightly for length and clarity. Enjoy!

Welcome to The Moment, an interview series on SKTCHD that finds creators joining me to talk about The Moment they knew some of their biggest projects were really going to work, whether that’s creatively, commercially, or some mix of both. I’m here with Kieron Gillen, my first victim. Are you ready for this, Kieron?

Kieron Gillen: Not really. I live in a world of amusements. I’m really not ready for anything. (laughs)

Let’s get into the first book. It’s Journey into Mystery, one of your earlier Marvel projects, and it brought you together with your eventual Die collaborator, Stephanie Hans, for the first time, amongst other artists like Doug Braithwaite and Pasqual Ferry. It was really fun looking back through the artists that worked on the book. I forgot about some of them.

Kieron, what was The Moment that helped you realize that that book was going to work?

Gillen: Well, this is an interesting question for all of them. With Journey into Mystery, I’m going to choose one that’s quite late.

I came to Journey into Mystery wanting to do something that was good. And that sounds like a weird way of putting it. But I was doing Uncanny X-Men, which was a book to prove that I wasn’t a complete weirdo. And Journey into Mystery was, no this one’s for me. I’m going to try to make people buy a book that’s about this complete weird stuff. We’re trying to tie into all these crossovers and make it work.

I had this big sort of plan of how it would lay out. And I explained it to my editor, Lauren Sankovitch, who took over what was going on in book. I said that basically there’s this character called Leah, we’re going to do something terrible to her in issue 18, and if we do it right, there won’t be a dry eye in the house. You can hear my cackle there.

We hit issue 18. It was a book that was always popular on the internet. It really had a very intense fandom. It hit issue 18, and my god, weeping tears, gnashing teeth, just lots of screaming, instant fan art of trying to redo the wrong.

I sort of just wandered into the next room to tell my wife. “The internet’s really crying. They’re very upset.” “And do you feel good?” And it was like…no, I feel terrible. I didn’t enjoy it at all. But it worked. That was the first big beat where I was like, oh yeah, now the entire end game’s fine, because that’s the first bit which proves the plan is working.

And that’s where it counts.

You’re a writer who has become famous for hitting readers in the feels, as they say. I would argue that Journey into Mystery was the first time that happened in a major way in your Marvel work. Would you say that’s the case? Would you say that’s the first time you were like, I can hit these types of readers with big emotional beats and it’s going to resonate?

Gillen: Yeah. The interesting thing about Journey into Mystery was I was forced into writing a character who was more emotionally open. The idea of Kid Loki was Matt Fraction’s idea. I presumed we’d get rid of it in like six issues or something. But no, we’re going to stick with it. I wasn’t sure. Then I started writing it, and it was, my God, Fraction, this is a brilliant. Because what it forced me to do was write a character who was as smart and manipulative and clever and like all the good stuff my characters regularly are but also a 13-year-old. So, everything was heightened. Everything was closest to the surface. It gave me permission to show feeling as opposed to being very British and not.

That changed everything in terms of like, oh no, I can now see this, and it’ll allow me to approach the work in different ways and being more visible rather than my tendency to have characters whose masks crack, which I still do quite a lot. And then it’s quite moving when you’ve got someone who’s like very icy then cracks, but I also can not do that.

So yeah, absolutely. It taught me more than any single book I’ve ever done in my career, I think.

Up next is The Wicked + The Divine. It’s your Image Comics series with artists Jamie McKelvie, colorist Matt Wilson, and letterer Clayton Cowles. What was the moment that helped you realize this one was going to work?

Gillen: Okay, this is completely the other end of the process. We’d come off like, which is our kind of breakthrough weird indie work that people got tattoos about. We did Young Avengers, this kind of “hit book,” and kind of a “hip, cool book” during Marvel Now. But it had a vibe. It had big cosplay. That’s the other reason you knew Journey into Mystery worked.

Me and Jamie just wanted to launch an actual book. Because in terms of an indie book that would sell enough to allow us to do the Vertigo length 50 issue series, and we desperately wanted to do that. That’s kind of why we came into comics. And our generation of writers and artists just didn’t get to do it, exception Jason Aaron. So, it’s our one shot.

We were in the Southbank Centre in London. I was with Jamie, and we sort of separated and we’re heading somewhere else. And I looked at my phone and got the message from Image that our orders are just coming in at 55,000. And I could’ve been like, (makes a shocked, overwhelmed sound). And I’ve got to run all the way back down to tell Jamie.

We immediately thrown a party that night. We went to a party in the pub nearby and it was just our friends down. It’s also a great launch. We’re very happy with it. But the basic mathematics meant if we don’t mess this up, we could do that. The math of the 55k and doing it with the level of regularity and quality we thought we could do. We could do (the full-length plan). Suddenly you could see this could work as opposed to if you launch it 20k, it’s not going to work. It’d be very difficult to hit 50 (issues). We had everything to play for.

So yeah, that was the magical moment for WicDiv.

It’s one thing to launch at 55k and it’s another thing to build a community like you did. Have you ever experienced or do think you’ll ever experience again anything like the community that formed around that book?

Gillen: I do pretty well with communities in a broad sense. But WicDiv If was a phenomenon. I can see it on the graphs of the sales and how it happened. I could have chosen multiple times on WicDiv. Maybe I knew it was going to work when we saw the first person getting a tattoo of WicDiv before it came out. Maybe we knew we it would work at any of the weird parties we threw.

I always remember Mike Conrad at one of the last WicDiv parties in Seattle. It was a beautiful venue; it was like a church. We had to stop people having sex backstage at various points. (David laughs) It was a genuinely exciting point and he said, “(Grant) Morrison in the 90s was writing about these scenes, and you have created a place where I’ve seen this happening.” And us being influenced by The Invisibles made that feel like the whole thing comes circle.

That was not a moment when I knew it was going to work. That’s the moment when I knew it had worked. I don’t think it will probably ever happen, but The Power Fantasy has a fanzine. It has two fanzines out by issue 11. But that’s kind of born of WicDiv readers, as in people who have embedded in that.

But yeah, I doubt we’ll ever have anything else like that. Our life is over. (laughs)

I’m sorry, I’ve killed you in the moment. (laughs)

Our third book is a curveball. It’s Darth Vader, one that I really love. I rep very hard for this book. It’s where you told the story of what our guy Vader was up to between Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back, and you did that with Salvador Larroca drawing every issue. Actually, I do want to note, every single creator on that book was on every single issue, which is bizarre and weird for a 25-issue book from the last 15 years.

What was the moment where you realized this one was going to work?

Gillen: This is a trickier one in that, was I ever sure it was going to work? But I’ll tell you that what I think comes down to. I always think about the first trip we did to Lucasfilm. It was me, Jason Aaron, Axel (Alonso), Jordan White, and John Cassaday. I’d never met John before, and we went there and were in the pub the previous night before we met with Lucasfilm. We just chewed it over.

We were talking about how we wanted to do Star Wars on comics. Not just do a Star Wars style comic, do Star Wars on paper, not use the conventions of the comic book, use a lot of like how we frame stuff, how we chose to present things. Like, imagine if we’re having the screen. And especially when John was talking about it with such obvious passion. I could say that. That’d be a cool moment. I don’t think it was that for me.

It could have been going around Lucasfilm the next day and us being entirely enchanted by finding Princess Leia’s bikini and working out what it was. We thought it was a knee guard because it’s that small. (David laughs) Or the moment I was standing in front of a statue of Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and thought, “Hmm. Rogue archaeologist. That could work, couldn’t it?” (laughs)

But I think it was later. It was issue three of Darth Vader when Vader met Aphra. Aphra was on the cover, that issue went big, it reprinted a lot. And this is the moment when we introduced a character who was not a Star Wars character. That felt like heresy, the idea of writing a character and making them stand next to Darth Vader and hang out just felt wrong. I just didn’t believe it.

And people bought it.

The second when people bought Aphra and the droids in the context of Vader and eventually Leia and Luke and everyone else, that was it. The moment that, I can tell this story because my parts are now working as part of the Star Wars universe. They were accepted. And they are still accepted now, which is nice.

One of the things that’s interesting about your run, is while you exist between two immovable points in Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back, you somehow found a way to introduce a lot of different things and characters that have resonated for long time, to the point where, Black Krrsantan, the Wookiee, ended up showing up in the Book of Boba Fett. That’s an interesting thing.

I think that licensed books like that aren’t materially different from for hire superhero work in the sense you’re always playing in somebody else’s universe. But did you go in thinking in the back of your head that, whatever I do could impact the rest of this universe? Or is that something you don’t even think of going in?

Gillen: It’s funny. It’s almost the other way round in that since it was starting from a clear canon again. When they offered me the job, I had really thought about whether I wanted to this job. Because only one person gets to do this story. Only one person gets to do the link between Vader there and here. You get to dig into the emotional reality of it, because there’s significant things that happen for Vader. In some ways, I had an easier job than Jason did, in that Vader learns the last 20 years of his life had been a lie. That’s not small. And he also recovers his status after the Death Star by implication.

These are real meaty stuff you can do to hang a series off. I was worried I was the right person for the job and somewhat arrogantly I thought about it and realized, of the people currently working for Marvel, you probably are the best choice. You’re the person who writes villains. There were lots of other reasons, and you can do it. So, I was much more worried about doing justice to the opportunity the job had. That was my main worry.

I did almost a historical job. The idea I knew the end point and the start point, what is the logical thing to connect these two in the most dramatic way possible? It was like playing the blues and yet I know how Star Wars goes. I’m going to do something simpatico with that. It was worryingly natural. That’s the actual thing that most scared for a story that could have been, and basically since Empire was the first movie I ever saw in the cinema, I’m writing my own entry into geek culture in a Morrisonian way. This is a loop in time.

It turned out to be the most natural thing in the world, like Luke using the force to shoot the Death Star. It just happened.

Look at that. Metaphors. (laughs)

Lastly, we have Die, your Image Comics series with artist Stephanie Hans and Clayton Cowles What was the moment where you realized this series was going to work?

Gillen: I think part of me goes; I knew it instantly. I had the idea and was like, this will sing. And it came when I was joking with Ray Fawkes and Jamie McKelvie in a San Diego clothes shop eating ice creams talking about the (Dungeons & Dragons) kids. Whatever happened to them? They would have to be 40 by now. That nagged at me, and then it clicked why the idea was nagging at me that evening. The idea that maybe I lost myself in a fantasy world at the age of 16 and never came out. How did that hurt me? How did it hurt everyone around me?

There’s so much stuff there. And of course, I burst into tears because I always do. And instantly the idea of, you do an adult story about the juxtaposition between child fantasies, adult realities, what is lost, what is found, all that stuff. It’s such a very clear, pure plot drive that it will work. That’s one answer.

The other one is a bit more…that was the Die in theory. Die in practice, it became much weirder instantly. I wanted to write a clear character drama. It became this big sprawling history of RPGs and an RPG system off the side and everything else. So, what clicked there, I was developing both at once. There was a period I didn’t know which was the lead project as in, was I doing an RPG and then doing a game of it or vice versa? And they eventually became an ouroboros and sort of ate each other and became one thing.

One of the moments they did that was I was I had invented The Fallen, who were one of the iconic villains in Die. I had a few ideas where they came from. And in the game, I butted into a problem that this system is deliberately deadly. People die very quickly, but character death in RPGs is rubbish. You don’t want to get people wiped out. And I sort of realized, wait a sec, how about they get up as essentially zombies and if they eat another player, they become alive.

Die is about that very hard question of what you will do to get what you want. And then suddenly by solving the problem of player removal, player elimination from the game and creating a much more dramatic end game, I’ve also created an interesting situation in the comic because all The Fallen they meet are dead people. So, I had fallen in the comic as planned early on before I realized the true name of it. And of course they’re called fallen anyway. There are bits of Die you feel. They’re called fallen. I already put it there. That’s the bit where I knew it was working. As these two things where it’s speaking to a larger whole and integrating really beautifully.

Die was a berserk Katamari of nerd stuff coming together and just rolling on. I’m still shocked it worked.

Alternative one. When Stephanie’s first issues cover came in. It was an instant classic. That was where I was like, “Oh, we’ll be fine. Stephanie’s got me.”

There are a lot of times where the first cover is the one where I’m like, I have to pick up this book. Which is the job of the cover, right? It’s a marketing piece, at least in part.

Die isn’t just a comic but a role-playing game, something that’s only expanding with the upcoming Die: Loaded at Image. Did putting that series and its accompanying parts together expand your vision of what you could do with comic projects at all?

Gillen: It was more vice versa, I think. The reason why the RPG exists…my friend, Leigh Alexander, who we did the WicDiv issue where I basically role played online with a bunch of journalists, and they wrote up the story. It was a very big, complicated project. And Leigh said, your work is most interesting when you use stuff that only you do. In other words, it’s reliant on my skill set, which I picked up from being a journalist, from playing online games back in the 90s, all these kinds of things, which maybe not many people have.

That’s where the RPG came from.

The idea that most people don’t do this, so do it. Die feels like the answer to the call to action rather than vice versa. But it certainly taught me that it could be that, as in my instincts were right, that this is a thing that one could do. And yeah, there’s so much about like comics being a very pure subculture where we can get away with things. I think that’s what’s most exciting about it, as in why not do that?

That’s what makes me excited. And if you go all the way back to the beginning my career, where I deliberately chose Phonogram over another book as my first comic, because Phonogram was, if I only get to do one comic ever, it’s that. And I think doing stuff only you would have any interest in doing is a really good magnetic north as a creator. Which sounds very hippie-like, but it’s also useful. Because if I died after doing Rue Britannia, I’d be happy, because many people go their entire career without doing a work as personal as Rue Britannia was.

Everything past that was gravy.

The post The Moment with Kieron Gillen appeared first on SKTCHD.

“It’s Wildly Unpredictable”: Creators on Navigating an Uncertain Time for Non-Licensed Comics

David Harper — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000

It’s a great time for the direct market. 21

Comic shops are thriving, new readers are getting onboard, and veteran fans are excited as well. More than that, the comics themselves are good, which generates even greater enthusiasm. It’s absolutely a high time, and that brings good vibes with it.

But high times are not always balanced. It’s true that comic shops are having a good year. 22 But creators themselves? It might be a bit more of a struggle, especially for those operating in the non-licensed space. 23 While there’s been a surge in high profile, high performing micro lines and a practically infinite number of solid selling crossovers starring known characters, 24 creators have been saying — both publicly and privately — that it might not be as easy for those looking to turn their own ideas into single-issue comics.

A typical refrain has been that it’s a good time to be working on Absolute book at DC, but selling original stories — whether that’s to publishers, retailers, or readers — is a far greater challenge. This isn’t something that’s just been popping up in recent weeks either, as if it’s a late-breaking story that is finally rearing its ugly head.

It’s been consistent throughout the year on Off Panel, 25 in private correspondence, and beyond. It’s also been building for years. Veterans of the site may remember a similar piece about a similarly down time for non-licensed comics from a little over two years ago. It’s been a difficult environment for creator-owned and original titles for a while now, particularly since the pandemic boom subsided. That’s the reason this subject hasn’t been explored until now, especially with many of the issues facing creators staying largely the same.

What changed, though, is the state of the market. When that piece was published, comic shops were struggling. It made sense that creators would too as part of that overall ecosystem, just like we would expect a resurgence when comic shops saw an uptick. But the market’s turnaround hasn’t seemingly reached non-licensed comics yet.

That doesn’t mean everyone is struggling, of course. No one’s worried about the most notable names, and perhaps rightfully so. But it’s enough to warrant asking some questions, and to try and get a better sense as to how creators are navigating an exceptional year for comic shops that might not be as prolific for them.

Rob Guillory has been working in the non-licensed space for several decades. He was the artist of a monster hit in Chew, the cartoonist of a long-running series in Farmhand, and someone who has been published at a bevy of houses. So, it makes sense that if anyone would offer a nice synopsis of the current environment, it would be him.

“It’s wildly unpredictable at the moment and has been for a while,” Guillory said. “I think creators are scrambling to find their footing, myself included.”

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The side of comics made up of comic shops.↩
For the most part.↩
Meaning the folks who are telling original stories, whether that’s creator-owned or not.↩
Especially Godzilla, who is everywhere.↩
My weekly comics interview podcast you’ll find on SKTCHD.↩
The side of comics made up of comic shops.↩
For the most part.↩
Meaning the folks who are telling original stories, whether that’s creator-owned or not.↩
Especially Godzilla, who is everywhere.↩
My weekly comics interview podcast you’ll find on SKTCHD.↩
That doesn’t discount their takes. It’s just a fact.↩
Its final issue arrives today, actually.↩
Filled with homages to famous movie posters, but with dogs instead!↩
To the point that some interviews for this piece referenced earlier discussions I had with other creators for this same piece.↩
I’ve never heard of a shop that operates that way and neither had any of the retailers I talked to, but we’re still talking about a small sample.↩
i.e. It’s a lot easier to sell your book if you’re James Tynion IV, Robert Kirkman, Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips, or Patrick Horvath.↩
There’s another level of, if the customer was interested and didn’t get it immediately, do they remember to buy it as a trade paperback?↩
He calls that a “full-time job” unto itself.↩
Retailers know that feeling all too well.↩
The Land Shark, Marvel’s most lovable little guy.↩
The side of comics made up of comic shops.↩
For the most part.↩
Meaning the folks who are telling original stories, whether that’s creator-owned or not.↩
Especially Godzilla, who is everywhere.↩
My weekly comics interview podcast you’ll find on SKTCHD.↩

The post “It’s Wildly Unpredictable”: Creators on Navigating an Uncertain Time for Non-Licensed Comics appeared first on SKTCHD.