§ Nice Art: Metal Gear Solid designer Hideo Kojima – whose social media presence is delightful – debuted James Jean’s poster for the IMAX release of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. We cannot wait to see the full size version of this!
§ This is it! The triumphant return! Four months of clipping! If you read my previous rant about how hard it is to save web clippings just the way I like, you know I’ve been searching for a way to collate my web surfing in a useful way. My complaints did flush out a lot of suggestions: Notion, Joplin, Obsidian. Notion I gave up on. Joplin is open source and has labyrinthine instructions. I’d previously fooled around with Obsidian to no avail, but after another session with ChatGPT I was able to figure out how to save clippings in Obsidian in a single running document.
Interestingly, ChatGPT’s instructions were quite out of date. I would post a screen shot of what I was seeing and ChatGPT would sheepishly admit that this was a newer version and it would try to update its suggestions.
This brought home why Google has eased up on throttling independent websites with information created by humans. Information changes, and just dumping the web from two years ago into an LLM means mistakes and outdated information. You need the meat slaves to keep toiling away.
Anyway, the Obsidian clipper is OK, but (to name a tiny but germane frustration) it doesn’t output links in html. So I still have to cut n’ paste. There are other formatting things that slowed my roll.
It turns out the Google Keep to Google Docs method produces a format that I like the best. Sigh. Google wins again.
Since I’ve been saving links for months, this is a bit of a mishmash….but you can also see the things that concerned me the most over the summer: the rise of anime, the IP crisis, post-Diamond retailing.
Also, a brief note on enshittification: my RSS feeds are nearly useless for finding actual comics news. A few other services I used now only give Screenrant and CBR links about movies when I put in the words “graphic novel.” The only place I find information of use these days is LinkedIn.
But first, via linkedin, The Comicraft folks were chuffed to see two of their fonts used in the Mandalorian and Baby Grogu trailer header!
What a thrill to see two of our fonts in the logo for the new MANDALORIAN AND BABY GROGU movie!! (The Story So Far and Monster Mash if you’re font-curious).
I hope they were licensed! I share the happiness of colleagues who are now part of the Star Wars universe…while also admitting that this will do nothing to quell complaints that this “movie” looks more like an extra long TV episode.
§ Comic-Con Malaga, the Spanish spin-off of SDCC, is on right now! We have a reporter on the scene, but the only info we could find in English was this video:
§ Our good buddy Brett Schenker has been mad busy all year covering the Diamond bankruptcy, but he ALSO continues to do his demographic analysis of comics readership via Facebook stats. I am proud to say that one of Brett’s pieces for The Beat is one of our all time bangers. The suggestion that “Market Research Says 46.67% of Comic Fans are Female” 11 years ago produced sputtering outrage, contempt and shock. And yet it turned out to be true. And you won’t believe what Brett’s LATEST research shows!
Last month, women jumped to 54.01% of the population. This month saw a slight uptick of that group to 54.1%. Men decreased in population size by about 800,000 while women increased by 550,000 and those not listing gender is now 800,000.
He also spotted a growth in the audience over the summer:
It’s unknown exactly why there was such an increase but it’s a possibility the algorithm picked up individuals interested in Superman and Fantastic Four due to the movies. While there’s some granularity in the search, it’s no longer like it was when we first ran these reports where we could absolutely avoid individual characters. We predicted this when we ran July’s report. We wrote then:
> There’s many guesses as to why there was an increase, the release of *Superman* could have increased habits that Facebook would label individuals as “comic fans” because. With a similar start to *Fantastic Four: First Steps*, it’s possible August will see another increase.
§ With manga/anime frenzy everywhere, there were many stories about Crunchyroll’s relaunch of their manga app. According to Polygon, Crunchyroll’s new manga app could revolutionize the market. This is because it will carry so many different publishers: “including AlphaPolis, COMPASS, Square Enix, VIZ Media, and Yen Press. Additional partners like Shueisha, J-Novel Club, ThirdlineNEXT, highstone, and more will follow in the future.”
Even a quick glance at the list reveals the app could be the go-to choice for manga readers in the Western world. While Shueisha has its own digital manga app, Manga Plus, other publishers are much harder to access legally. Delicious in Dungeon for example, is only available in digital volumes published by Yen Press. Square Enix also has its app, Manga UP!, but access to new chapters is limited by daily free currency. Everything else requires in-app purchases or a subscription, which can pile up quickly over different platforms, making reading manga expensive and not exactly user-friendly.
Crunchyroll Manga promises fans can get rid of multiple subscriptions and purchases by having the most popular series all in one place.
§ Fast Company had the actual exclusive, with Crunchyroll execs explaining the marketing purpose of the platform (free archived link). Lots of info here.
“There’s data saying that 40% of manga readers discover manga through anime,” Suehira says. “We want to create a new habit of discovery through manga, and being able to watch the anime as well.
Crunchyroll has been clever about how it entices anime fans who might discover the genre through other streaming services. Notably, it will license shows like *Jujutsu Kaisen* to Netflix, but exclusively stream the latest season on its platform.
Crunchyroll Manga offers an opportunity for it to replicate that approach in reverse. The service will include manga volumes for series that exclusively stream elsewhere, including *Delicious in Dungeon* and *The Summer Hikaru Died*—two anime adaptations that Netflix exclusively distributes. Fans of those series will have to sign up for Crunchyroll if they want to read the manga.
…
The main appeal, though, is the amount of manga fans will be able to access. Suehira says that by partnering with Link-u, which has developed digital manga infrastructure in Japan, “we were able to work more closely with different publishers.”
§ While The Beat was excited to announce Eric Powell’s new Thor graphic novel, AIPT had word of the other Abrams launch this week: a novelization of Kingdom Come by Alex Ross collaborator Steve Darnall, with illos by Ross. Nice Art!
The book features a new cover, an afterword, and a mix of full-color and black-and-white artwork by Ross, giving readers both visual and literary dimensions to explore. It represents a new chapter in how this groundbreaking series continues to resonate with audiences more than three decades later.
§ Oh Yeah my NYCC preview for Publishers Weekly was out this week:
Showrunner Kristina Rogers, VP of the ReedPop comics portfolio, says the con is giving pros more space to mingle following continued requests. NYCC parent company ReedPop conducts a number of surveys after each year’s show, and whenever professionals answer questions about what they want, “it’s always amenities and more space,” she says. “I think it’ll be a nice little vibe—a good break from the show floor.”
§ There’s a massive manga exhibit on now at San Francisco’s De Young Museum. Our own Deb Aoki was heavily involved in making it happen and it sounds spectacular:
The exhibit presents over 700 original artworks from major Japanese publishers—a curatorial feat, as manga publishers are protective of the artists they represent and rarely exhibit their work next to that of their peers. The centerpiece is hundreds of *genga*—original manga drawings, the oldest one at the exhibition dating to 1965.
Anchoring the show are works by three influential contemporary manga creators, Rumiko Takahashi, Jirō Taniguchi, and Eiichiro Oda. Their classic series—*Ranma ½*, *The Walking Man*, and *One Piece*, respectively—demonstrate the form’s extraordinary range. The show also highlights pioneers like *Astro Boy* creator Osamu Tezuka and Hirohiko Araki, whose long-running series *JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure* has over 120 million copies in circulation, as well as examples of the genre’s infinite niche subcategories: animal-fandom manga and entire epics about food and wine.
Worth a trip!
§ ICv2 dug into IDW’s latest SEC filings, and sales were down, showing the effects of the Diamond Disaster in plain numbers:
IDW Media Holding reported a significant sales decline, which it attributed to the impact of the Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy and titles that didn’t perform as expected, but had increased profits in its fiscal Q3 ended July 31, 2025.
The sales decline was around 8% to $6.7 million in the 2025 quarter, compared to $7.3 million in the same quarter in 2024. Comic sales were down $1.1 million due to underperformance of licensed comic titles relative to expectations and the impact of the Diamond bankruptcy, the company said, offset by a $561,000 jump in book market sales due to a few perennial titles, an increase of $188,000 in direct-to-consumer sales, and other changes.
§ Somehow we missed that Mark Parisi won this year’s Reuben Award. Gideon Kendall won for Comic Books, and Jay Fosgitt for Graphic Novels.
AND NOW…back to the archives of links from over the summer:
§ Uh oh: Disney’s Boy Trouble: Studio Seeks Original IP to Win Back Gen-Z Men Amid Marvel, Lucasfilm Struggles. Even back when Disney brought Lucasfilms, I noted that Leia was now a Disney Princess. Marvel solved Disney’s historic inability to woo the lads, but it isn’t working any more and they are looking for answers.
While two insiders say the mandate to recruit young males goes as high as the C-suite, the task primarily has fallen on David Greenbaum, the former Searchlight Pictures co-head brought on in 2024 to run Disney’s live-action film business. That label has been sorely lacking in guy-leaning fare, like the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, for nearly 10 years. (Studio insiders say the property is in active development, though not in its last reported iteration involving Margot Robbie). To say nothing of the lackluster attempt to reboot and hand off “Indiana Jones” in 2023, which earned $383 million worldwide on a $300 million budget before marketing costs. A Disney source says that movies for Gen Z men are part of an overall strategy across all labels, but no more urgent than any other quadrant.
The answer: getting the rights to Fortnite and gasp! Looking at NEW ip!
One top film executive at a Disney rival says every studio should be looking for originals, as sequels and reboots continue to exhaust the culture — even if they’re packing in moviegoers in the short term.
§ Disney and the Decline of America’s Middle Class is another must read, a gloomy examination of how everyone is marketing to the top 1% now.
For most of the park’s history, Disney was priced to welcome people across the income spectrum, embracing the motto “Everyone is a V.I.P.” In doing so, it created a shared American culture by providing the same experience to every guest. The family that pulled up in a new Cadillac stood in the same lines, ate the same food and rode the same rides as the family that arrived in a used Chevy. Back then, America’s large and thriving middle class was the focus of most companies’ efforts and firmly in the driver’s seat.
That middle class has so eroded in size and in purchasing power — and the wealth of our top earners has so exploded — that America’s most important market today is its affluent. As more companies tailor their offerings to the top, the experiences we once shared are increasingly differentiated by how much we have.
Data is part of what’s driving this shift. The rise of the internet, the algorithm, the smartphone and now artificial intelligence are giving corporations the tools to target the fast-growing masses of high-net-worth Americans with increasing ease. As a management consultant, I’ve worked with dozens of companies making this very transition. Many of our biggest private institutions are now focused on selling the privileged a markedly better experience, leaving everyone else to either give up — or fight to keep up.
§ This little nugget from an ICv2 profile of Dublin retailer Big Bang Comics is another mind boggler:
One major change for the shop of late has been how it orders comics. Its previous goal was to sell out by the Saturday of the same week. Now, Big Bang has changed how it orders, which is part of a new objective for the shop.
“We order for walk-ins, not sell-outs,” Hendrick told me.
And it’s working.
“Comic sales are the best we’ve ever had,” he said.
The hope is to become the place where customers can always find what they’re looking for, and to do that, Hendrick is betting bigger on titles he views as probable successes.
“I don’t do it with everything, but there’s stuff I’m okay with ordering extras of, like Artgerm covers or Absolute or Ultimate titles,” Hendrick said. “If I’m selling 47 copies of Assorted Crisis Events, it’s no big deal to have four or five extras just in case. And we do see growth with those.”
The idea of comics shops not ordering to sell out is shockingly revolutionary.
§ Crowdfunder Zoop has had massive success with a campaign for I Roved Out in Search of Truth and Love: Tomes 1-3 by Alexis Flower – which is now at more than half a million dollars. Head Jordan Plotsky writes:
This campaign truly shows what is possible when you properly serve your customers, collect customer data, have good communication, and deliver good product that fans want. This campaign is a blueprint for how it’s done.
Granted, Alexis has a 10 year history, this isn’t the type of thing anyone can just accomplish first time out. But, for all the publishers, and larger creators out there that need an extra level of support, feeling stagnant, haven’t dipped into crowdfunding yet, or needed a little extra motivation to come to Zoop, there has never been a better time. Let’s ROCK!
Granted, this is a spicy comic with lots of naughty stuff, which traditionally does well on crowdfunding platforms that allow it, but it’s still a notable success.
§ I enjoyed this convo between indie comics publishers emuh ruh of Glacier Bay Books and Zachary Clemente of Bulgilhan Press
§ You’ve been reading for a long time; here is more nice art: Micheal DeForge’s posters for the Fox Theatre and Bytowne Cinema‘s runs of the Hong Kong Cinema Classics 4K restorations.
§ Like I said, I get most of my business news from LInkedIn, and maybe it’s the algo, maybe it’s the obsession, but there have been so many analyses of the anime business from the experts. Here’s a column by Rob Pereyda on Anime’s great decoupling paradox.
The global anime market is experiencing unprecedented growth, roaring past $30B in 2024, yet Japanese producers are increasingly confronting a fundamental paradox in how they monetize their intellectual property (IP) in Western markets. Instead of relying on traditional sourcing and distribution channels, more organizations are starting to strategically invest to maximize revenue outcomes, both directly and indirectly. Their typical revenue inputs are deceptively simple: streaming royalties and consumer products. Yet, the execution of these strategies has led to what I call Anime’s Great Decoupling Paradox in the West.
§ Michael Song’s Substack Webtoonish is an absolutely no punches pulled look at the vertical scrolling comics industry. It’s must reading for the whole K-ComicsBeat team. Just as an example, he looked at 4 Questions About the New Disney-WEBTOON Platform
It’s 2025. Japanese manga and western comics publishing somehow missed the digital publishing boat and Korean webtoons have control of the steering wheel (for now). If Disney is serious about reaching younger audiences, this is the best way to go.
Disney digital publishing, whenever it launches, will start with a built-in audience of diehard Disney fans. But in order to retain the attention of young audiences, they’ll need talented dev teams to build a user experience that keeps them around.
So if Naver provides the developer experience and the operational know-how…
§ Anime Expo drew some 410,000 fans, which blows away every other North American convention, but I believe that is a turnstile number. I’ve never been to AX, but it is quite an experience. Kris Simon, Executive Editor of Mad Cave’s Nakama Press, had quite an account at her Substack:
As someone whose job it is to browse through AA and look for new artists to put on my books, I bravely entered the behemoth that AX has become, and walked into the hall that once gave me energy instead of completely sapping it. Just moving through the aisles is like being herded, and you can barely stop by someone’s table without causing an annoying blockage. And here was my most significant observation: I could not tell who was an actual artist and who was a vendor selling prints. This is a huge problem. And not for the reason you may think. I’m not crapping on the vendors, even though they clearly should not be somewhere called ‘Artist’s Alley.’ I’m not crapping on the artists’ either. I am compelled to write this in an attempt to help their dreams come true. And from what I saw today, the current thinking as to “table approach” is doing more harm than good to young artists with tons of potential.
Since I clipped that, this post in question has gone subscription only, so consider this a teaser.
§ Well this has been quite the journey. My head is spinning and you probably gave up a while ago. But I’ll close with one of my favorite K’N’B features: bad web headlines. Today’s example: This Overlooked Tombstone Star Headlined the Most Underrated Comic Book Movie of the 90s. Yes, they are talking about Billy Zane as The Phantom. Billy Zane was also in Tombstone. And Titanic.
While Cameron’s epic is still largely the movie viewers associate with Zane, he did take on a variety of roles throughout his career. Where many might point to Sniper as the most underrated of these, it was actually his ’96 superhero movie that always deserved far more love. Superhero cinema has always fought an uphill battle to win the respect of critics, but The Phantom remains one of the most unfairly derided films of its genre.
“Working actor takes on different roles” might have been a more accurate headline. But this is the slop we’re given in 2025.
§ Are you glad I overcame our Digital Overlords and wrote a new Kibbles’n’Bits column? Should I continue with my quest to clip links? If you made it all to the end….you get a cookie! See you at NYCC!
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