The Weekly 5 Featuring Comics
Welcome to The Weekly 5! This week is all about comics. Let’s dive in!
1. “There Really Doesn’t Seem to Be Anything We Can’t Overcome”: Shops on a Big, Bonkers Year in Comics Retail
It has been a successful year for most. But because of these troubles, the ceiling was lower than it could have been, and, more importantly, it’s been far more work. Retailers are exhausted. Before, shipments were largely predictable and consolidated to a few days of the week. Now they arrive every day. More than that, the continual changes to how distributors and publishers do their business means endless juggling for shops. It’s like Pryde said: “Every time a publisher or a distributor adds a new step, that step might be reasonable, but they are just adding more work to an already really overworked retailer base.”
David Harper does amazing features on comics, especially comic book shops, that I feel like you don’t get anywhere else. SKTCHD is a subscription site, but this article is free to all, so I highly recommend reading the full thing.
2. Blue Book: Betty and Barney Hill Chapter One
Blue Book is the first comic that James Tynion IV started releasing over on his Substack. The first chapter is available for free, but I just signed up as a paid subscriber and can’t wait to dive into the rest of the chapters.
3. Image Comics celebrates 30th anniversary with anthology miniseries this April
Comics Beat reported on the upcoming Image anniversary. This is from the Image Comics press release:
This first issue will showcase a combination of ongoing serials and standalone short stories, including the first chapters of two 12-part stories, “The Blizzard” by Geoff Johns and Andrea Mutti, as well as the opening installments of a trio of three-parters: “Gospel for a New Century” by Wyatt Kennedy and Luana Vecchio, “Hopeless” by Mirka Andolfo, and “Shift” by Kyle Higgins and Daniele Di Nicuolo. Readers will also be treated to an exclusive first look at Declan Shalvey’s upcoming Old Dog series, an original ongoing comic strip by Skottie Young, and more.
Sounds like some fun stuff is on the way!
4. Chukwudi Iwuji on ‘Peacemaker’ and His “Extremely Powerful” and “Complex” ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Character
Naturally, Iwuji can’t say who he’s playing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is due out in May 2023, but he’s able to shed just a little bit of light on his significant character.
“Powerful. Extremely powerful. Complex,” Iwuji says when asked to describe his Guardians character. “James and I were talking about it, but he’s certainly one of, if not the most complex characters we’ve seen in the freaking Marvel universe. So he’s deeply complex and deeply powerful, and I hope intriguing. I hope I bring that to it.”
I’ve been greatly enjoying Peacemaker, but I’m also excited to see what’s coming with Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Be warned about spoilers though, so read the rest of the interview after you’ve already watched episode 4 of Peacemaker.
5. Monster s Inc. Comic
This video was a wild trip down a weird road for comics. I had no idea that a Monsters Inc. comic even existed, but now I do want to read it just to get the full effect of how bizarre it is.
Content of the Week
The first video I put out this week was all about Peacemaker not being an original DC Comics character.
Over on Welcome to Geekdom, my friend Shane Conard joined me to discuss the 2015 comic book series Web Warriors.
On Chat Sematary, Panda Hatton joined me to quickly cover Richard Chizmar’s solo effort, Gwendy’s Magic Feather. I simply could not do the first book and the third without covering the second despite Stephen King not co-writing it.
I have yet to get my second video of the week out due to some technical difficulties, but it’ll be out tomorrow and I’ll include it in next week’s newsletter.
That’s it for the week, I hope you all had a good one!