Your 2025 Predictions, Part One: Take-Offs and Put-Ons.

§ January 12th, 2026 § Filed under predictions § 3 Comments

We made it! Somehow we all survived to January of 2026, which means of course it’s time to go back and look at your predictions for the 2025 comics industry! Who got a hit? Who missed? What will Mike overlook in his rushed research? Let’s find out! (And don’t forget to leave your predictions for what’s left of 2026!)

Kicking things off is Chris Gumprich, who foresaw

“1. Diamond will go out of business, causing a few smaller publishers to collapse, but nowhere near the disaster it would have been 30 years ago.”

To the stunning shock of everyone, there is still a Diamond Comics, taking orders and shipping things out, though admittedly it’s been a while since I’ve received a package from them. (However, there are supposedly two or three boxes of various things I’ve ordered over the last couple of months that are on their way.)

Most of the comics business has departed Diamond for other climes, mostly Lunar/Universal and Penguin Random House, plus a handful of other smaller distributors, so unless you’re doing major trade in, like, anime statues, Diamond disappearing entirely and/or being replaced by whatever it is their new owners have planned, we’re likely not to notice. If you just sell comics (with maybe only the barest smattering of merchandise), like I know I do, I imagine you’ll be fine.

“2. DC will announce a joint DC/Marvel blockbuster movie. Kevin Feige will reply “That’s the first I’ve heard of this.'”

Recently on Bluesky, I posited the question “how long before we see an official Star Trek/Star Wars crossover?” Leaving aside the responses from folks who needed to tell me they think it would suck (which wasn’t the question), and the people who took the opportunity to yell at me about how it would be impossible (“Star Trek could never travel in time to the Star Wars ‘long ago’ era!”), the general agreement was that it would take Disney buying Paramount. Or everything entering the public domain.

My thought was that it would take either or both properties bottoming out entirely, every possible penny squeezed from the I.P., before desperation set in and the respective owners would be receptive to such a thing. In short, things would probably have to be pretty bad before Lucasfilm/Disney (and it would have to be them, since Trek happily crosses over with whatever) would deign to do this.

Now I don’t bring this up for you guys to start discussing this in my comments. In fact, I’m telling you not to. Don’t do it. I bring it up because something like this would have to happen before DC and Marvel’s respective movie universes bump into each other in a big ol’ feature film. Comics, sure, that’s not a problem, usually, just creators and publishers hashing it out and getting it published and deciding who gets to publish their Superman/Spider-Man comic first and get the majority of the sales, and who publishes second and has theirs ignored.

But once we get into movies, then we start talking about real money being spent and hopefully made, with big business decisions and lots of lawyers and so on, and it turns into a huge hassle. And right now, despite appearances in some cases, both the Marvel and DC Studios have too much currently invested in their movie projects to be at the point where they’d throw in the towel and finally say “okay, fine, let’s make that Iron Man Vs. Batman flick.” Yes, maybe some of the movies they’re doing right now aren’t getting the traction they want, but we’re probably several flops/a decade or more away before getting to that point of desperation.

So, in short, no, 2025 did not see an official Marvel/DC movie crossover. Maybe an Easter egg or other background thing, sure, but no headlining project.

“3. I don’t know if this counts as a prediction because it’s of something that WON’T happen. Gary Spencer Millidge will not release the final storyline of STRANGEHAVEN in 2025. But he’ll get close.”

I…don’t think he has yet, Hard to tell from what I can see of his Patreon, but I presume he’s working on it!

• • •

Thom H. heaves out the following

“1. James Gunn’s Superman movie will be a huge hit, out-performing any of Marvel’s recent movies at the box office.”

It wasn’t a billion dollar blockbuster, like Deadpool/Wolverine, but the new Superman film did very well in this nearly-post-superhero film market, taking in more at the box office than any of Marvel’s entries last year. Now, in terms of actual profit, man, I don’t know, I’m not an accountant, but I think Superman, at least, showed a little profit, which is already better than some of the more recent DC films.

“2. Absolute Martian Manhunter won’t sell well, but it will be a critical darling.”

It actually did very well, going into multiple printings. I mean, it’s not selling like Absolute Batman, but nothing in the DC/Marvel superhero realm is selling like Absolute Batman.

“3. Tom King finally gets to write a Legion of Super-Heroes story?”

Not that I’ve seen, unless I missed something. The “Dark Legion” popped up in Superman this year, after their debut in the DC All-In special a while back, but those are by other hands. And a new Legion series is coming soon written by Joshua Williamson.

• • •

Mela writes

“1. Marvel/Disney will announce an X-Men movie, and it will somehow take cues from both Krakoa & the expected series’ status quo, satisfying no one.”

We’re not quite there yet…after this next Avengers movie, which features at least some of our X-pals, and probably the one after, we’ll hear what’s going on with the new X-movies.

“2. There will be another go at the Legion, and it will appeal to nostalgia for the 90s post-Zero Hour team this time instead of the 70s/80s era.”

Just a little early, again! I noted above that a new ongoing starts this year, but we did see an alternate Legion team in 2025.

“3. Not sure if it counts for a comics prediction, per se, but AEW will do a promotional theme night for the Gunn Superman movie.”

Well, I’ll be darned, they did.

• • •

Daniel T tees of the next batch

“1. Most of the predictions will be wrong.”

Well, sure, just the nature of the forecasting business. Still a better hit rate than most “psychics.”

“2. Superman: The New Movie will not do as well as The Batman.”

The Batman‘s box office take was about $150 million more than Superman, but then Batman’s always been an easier sell.

“3. Comics will continue to be published, but DC is most in danger of losing its periodical line if Zaslav gets around to noticing it.”

I think Zaslav had other stuff going on last year to worry about…though now maybe DC has to worry about what Netflix plans to do with them.

• • •

Jerry Smith rigs these

“Either DC or Marvel will just say, ‘chuck it,’ and stop the madness. They will stop publishing comics and license out all of their characters and titles to another entity. IDW? Dark Horse? Who knows. Everything will start over with new #1s, which will sell like wheatcakes at first, then be under current norms by issue 6. Stories will be even worse than Marvel’s present output, as modern comics writers are not Stan Lee.

“I might be a year or two off on this prediction.”

I feel like this is one of those events that could happen someday…like, I don’t see it happening soon, but if it were announced at the San Diego Comic Con this year I’d be all “yeah, sure, took ’em long enough.” I think the comics themselves are doing…okay enough to not worry about big changes like this. Especially DC, as it seems to have hit paydirt with the Absolute line, but again, we’ll see what happens once Netflix takes over.

• • •

Chris V wages his vendetta with

“1.)The ‘From the Ashes’ X-title relaunch will end up a failure as pushing out eighty new series within four months will prove untenable (there may be a slight exaggeration at the number of new books). The majority of titles will be cancelled within one year. The line will settle down to a sane four or five ongoing titles, as that is the appropriate amount that a line of comic titles can bear in the current market.”

Aside from some “Age of Apocalypse” re-do this past year, the X-Men line has been fairly stable, with a handful of new short-run titles that came out to…well, mixed reaction. If it were just the main titles, things would be fine, but the endless one-shots and side series and whathaveyou are a problem, generally solved by ordering low since X-fans seem to be largely avoiding those anyway.

“2.)The DC Absolute line will hit its nadir as it attempts the Absolute Ultra the Multi-Alien series. DC begins to rethink its priorities in the fallout.”

I almost discussed this in my response to Jerry above, but even though right now the Absolute line is doing exceptionally well, adding yet more titles will likely dilute the imprint. I’d love an Absolute Ultra comic, but literally everyone else would see it as a cynical marketing move. As long as DC keeps the line at a reasonable number of titles, it should continue to do well.

Or DC could just make the entire line Absolute. I’ve seen it noted here and there that the next regular DC Universe publishing initiative, “Next Level,” will be inspired in part by the Absolute titles, so there’s that.

• • •

DK is here to say

“1) SUPERMAN will outperform FANTASTIC FOUR handily, its a much easier sell to mainstream audiences. Nobody needs oodles of exposition to understand “Superman fights Lex Luthor and kisses Lois Lane” versus “okay we start off in a 60’s inspired parallel Marvel Universe where actually Shalla-Bal is the Silver Surfer and let’s lead with Galactus which invokes the Council of Reeds…'”

As noted previously in this post, Superman did outperform Fantastic Four, but not by a lot (“he says, talking about $100 million or so”). It’s hard to say why, exactly, beyond the points you make. Both have been preceded by plenty of films of varying quality in the last couple of decades, so that they were able to attract the audiences they did is an achievement in and of itself. I think ultimately Superman just looked like a more interesting experience compared to the FF flick. And only one had a cute flying dog!

“2) Neil Gaiman’s personal scandals will escalate and bump him permanently off finishing MIRACLEMAN, he will pass the torch on SANDMAN to another writer to keep the royalties coming in.”

It was reported pretty early on that the final chapter, The Dark Age, is off the publishing schedule. Anyway, you can see what I’ve written on the subject in this category here.

As for Sandman, I’m going to guess it’ll be a while before we see that group of characters again. They turned up in the recent History of the DC Universe series to a fairly widespread cringey reaction, so they may need to…go away for a while. Eventually they’ll be dragged out again and reworked by somebody (I keep half-joking about “Tom King’s Sandman). And I’m sure you meant the “handed off” bit figuratively, but any new creator taking over the franchise would be ill-served by getting Gaiman’s “blessing.”

“3) There will be a much much bigger Comics Grading/Slabbing scandal that actually puts one of the grading companies in legal or financial jeopardy and causes large scale doubt in the hobby over what you are actually getting in the slab.”

I have to admit, since I do my best to avoid that whole side of the marketplace, I am unaware of any specific controversies there (aside from some book being sent in twice and getting two differing grades). Googling “[name of the primary grading company] scandal” turns up several results, mostly from 2024. And searching “[the other grading company] scandal” brings up stuff just from last month, mostly regarding cards. It appears there are lots of shenanigans afoot, at any rate.

• • •

Okay, that’s a pretty good start to this series of posts, I believe. Come back Wednesday, and we’ll see how more predictions have turned out!

And if none of those fit the bill, give the Spire Archies a try.

§ January 9th, 2026 § Filed under archie § 11 Comments

Okee-doke, gang, one last call for your 2026 Comic Book Industry Predictions! Just go to that post, read the instructions, and let fly your forecasts! I’m planning to start looking at the 2025 predictions next week, so get ready to read all that…or to skip ahead a month, whichever you choose.

But today I’m going to try to respond to a comment left on Wednesday’s post by Andrew, who inquires

“I’ve often thought about trying to get into ‘The Archie Multiverse’ but where to start? My preference would be to start with a good overview, greatest hits, collection.”

That indeed is a tricky issue, as there is so much Archie to be had. You could easily scoop up a few dozen of the digests and get a wide variety of stories. But if you want something a little more curated, there are some options:


This is a thick book that is described thusly by Penguin Random House:

“This full-color, year by year anniversary collection features over 400 pages of some of the best Archie stories by the greatest Archie creators as selected by noted Archie historians and is the one essential volume for any Archie fan and fans of the comics medium.”

This appears to still be in print, unlike the “Archie Americana” series:


…which was divided up by decade and included notable stories from each period. These I have read, at least the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s volumes, and they’re excellent. Full color, good content. You just may have to search for them.

Then there are the books Archie put out focusing on specific artists:


…which are nice, and have the advantage over the other books if you prefer a consistency in art style.

My personal favorite era of Archie Comics is the ’50s and ’60s…by this point the “house style” had been settled upon, while still allowing some measure of variety in art. Speaking of which, the drawings are given a little more room to breathe, versus the more cramped pages of later decades. Gags are funny, expressions are top notch, it’s really what I think of when I think of Classic Archie.

The ’70s era is fine, too, though it is slowly beginning to evolve into the design and style of the ’80s, which, as I said, feel like they’re just trying to force too much onto each page. But many of the virtues of the earlier decades are present here, too, so there is still fun to be had.

There are other Archie collections ‘n such out there, including a series of hardcovers reproducing the initial Archie-related stories in chronological order, if I recall correctly. There’s no shortage of Archie volumes out there. And again, if worse comes to worse, you can always jump into the giant pool of Archie Digests and pull out what seems interesting to you.

I wonder if Archie will ever reprint that one issue where it’s revealed it was Betty in an overcoat kissing Veronica?

§ January 6th, 2026 § Filed under archie, this week's comics § 13 Comments

So the hottest comic of the week is, obviously, the Jughead #327 facsimile from Archie Comics:


And, as Archie has been doing lately, the facsimile comes with a swell variant cover that has me tempted to take home a second copy:


I mean, look at that beauty.

Now, one of the apparent criteria for Archie facsimile selection process is “notoriety,” like the cover I discuss here which had been the subject of many immature giggles and the occasional artistically-altered photocopy. And of course as the internet spread its diseased tentacles across the world, so did that implied-naughty image follow and make an impact on folks that hadn’t seen it before.

With notoriety comes premium prices, of course, which brought about reprints of some of Archie’s higher priced back issues, like that first appearance of Cheryl Blossom, first issue of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, that one comic where Betty and Veronica sell their souls to the devil, and so on. Not all comics that live in infamy — like, Sabrina is just the first issue of that popular character — but a little prurient interest tends to goose things along.

So, for Jughead #327, the Jughead going punk story was one that was discussed online periodically, including by me way back in 2006. Thus, I am taking full credit for providing sufficient internet notoriety for Archie to pick this for the reprint program. I won’t hear any different.

But if Archie’s listening…please, let’s get facsimiles of Jughead’s Folly and, if you’re feeling adventurous, Jughead’s Fantasy. Look, “Fantasy,” sounds downright salacious, am I right? Huh? C’mon Archie.

Mind the apostrophe.

§ January 5th, 2026 § Filed under publishing, question time § 7 Comments

I’ve decided that I’ll just do one more post replying to Isaac’s question, as I’m sure I’ve hit the big ones here. Specifically, as you may remember, he asked about the different “universes” publishers were cranking ouit in the ’90s, which titles I wish had been successes (i.e. still published ’til today) and what memories I had of these companies at the time.

I’ve already tacked Valiant and Ultraverse, and I know there are plenty more, but I’ve got to move on to other stuff. But you never know, I may come back to this topic when you least expect it.

But to wrap things up, for now, let’s talk about Dark Horse’s superhero universe initiative, Comics’ Greatest World:


Launched in 1993 as a series of one-shots, each centered around a different character or team. Y’know, like the one above, which is where the character Ghost first appeared. The one-shots themselves were released in themed sets, after a fashion, with characters attached to four different locations across the U.S., represented by a symbol on the cover. Like, some of the books would be tied to Steel Harbor, others to Arcadia, and so on. That “scales of justice” with the anti-sign over it on the Ghost cover? That represents Arcadia.

Anyway, I don’t know how much attention fans paid to that region-specific distinction. As I recall, customers either just bought all of the CGW books, didn’t buy any at all, or just bought one or two, like Ghost because Adam Hughes did the art. I seem to recall these one-shots selling…okay, not great. It was just too much all at once with too many new characters that didn’t grab a lot of interest.

Didn’t stop Dark Horse from continuing to push it along, with attempts at ongoing series and mini-series spinning out of this initial launch. Ghost was relatively popular at our shop from the get-go, particularly with the Adam Hughes boost when he was on the book, and I feel like this is the one I wished had continued on ’til today. I mean, she sorta has, having had a mini within the last ten years, so they’re still trying with her. But it ran for quite a few issues in the mid to late ’80s, making this probably the most successful comic of the bunch.

Another title I wish was still around was Barb Wire:


…which…yes, I know, the Pamela Anderson movie, yuck, but it’s probably because of that movie folks even remember Barb Wire today. I know they tried another Barb Wire series a few years back, but it’d be nice to have it back on the stands. Folks seem to have a soft spot for it.

X is another title that had a following at our shop:


…both the initial series, and this revival series that ended about a decade ago. This Punisher-esque vigilante character still had a little bit of a following around here.

So there. you go, those are the three properties from Comics’ Greatest World I wished had been successful enough to continue non-stop from the get-go, no relaunches required. (To be fair, they did come close.) Or, maybe, a series of mini-series, one or two a year, Hellboy-style. That would have been nice. Just this little circle of books in a shared universe that might have been the focal point for future spin-offs and crossovers with other CGW characters.

This isn’t a fair assessment, I realize, since I’ve not read the majority of the comics under the Comics’ Greatest World banner. I mean, I don’t know, The Machine could’ve been good, but I suppose there is no way for us to ever know. And some of the above comics I singled out had been revived within the last decade, but departed fairly quickly.

This brings us back to the post were this all started, where I relate how I saw the Comics’ Greatest World on the cover of Diamond Previews and wondered how anyone could afford all these. Which really is the most prominent memory I have of this influx of new publishers and imprints at the time. So many companies just desperate for attention in a marketplace that had recently explosvely shrunk and wasn’t getting much larger.

Okay, that’s enough on the topic for now, and I’ll try to get back to it later in the month if interest warrants. And I’m sure I’ll see something in the comments sections that I’ll want to address. But ’til then, thanks for reading all this, and I should be back Wednesday with more typing on a different topic.

“BRLSFFSP!”

§ January 2nd, 2026 § Filed under gaming, mad magazine § 5 Comments

Hi pals! Happy New Year, and here’s a reminder that I’m still looking for your predictions for the 2026 comics industry, so get ’em in while you can! I’m going to start looking at the 2025 predictions from last year in a week or two, so consider yourself forewarned.

In a brief follow-up to pal Kurt‘s mention of the MAD Magazine Game in the comments to Monday’s post…yes, I had that game!


According to the Wikipedia article Kurt linked, the game was originally released in 1979, and eventually rereleased as the MAD Magazine What Me Worry? Game. But I definitely had the first version, pictured above. And I keep saying “had” when I’m pretty sure it’s still in a bod with the rest of my boardgames (including this classic) in my parents’ garage.

The object of the game was, unlike certain other games of note, to be the first player to lose all of your money. Lots of MAD art illustrates the board and cards, and the money features, of course, the face of Alfred E. Neuman. I mean, let’s go for another link to BoardGameGeek so you can check this out yourself. One gag I liked from the game was a specific denomination of bill that was ridiculously high and unused in the game, and thanks to the BoardGameGeek link, I can tell you that bill is $1,329,063.

It was a fun and silly game, and I don’t think I’ve played it since childhood. One of these days I need to search out that box of games in that garage and recover the darn things. At the very least I’d like to play Sinking of the Titanic again.

And for the sake of completeness I should note that there was also a MAD card game (which I also have, and I think it’s here in my house, actually), and a Spy Vs. Spy game, which I did not know about.

As far as I know there was never a Magic: The Gathering style collectible card game for MAD, or even just a MAD expansion for Magic itself, which I feel is really missing a bet. Or how ’bout a game just built around Don Martin’s sound effects? Does a “FRUGGA DUGGA DUGGA DUGGA” beat out a “STROINGGOINNK?” Only one way to find out, and that’s a COMPREHENSIVE RULE SET. KRUGAZUNCH!

Yes, I know they’re still doing new Beavis and Butthead.

§ December 31st, 2025 § Filed under mad magazine § 11 Comments

So I’ve been a MAD Magazine fan for a long time…since my uncle gave me a bag of his old, mostly coverless copies, dating from the early ’70s, and when I started getting them new off the stands with the January ’76 issue.

I was All In (® DC Comics) on MAD for quite a while, buying the mag, the specials, the paperbacks (actually mail-ordering directly from MAD itself books I couldn’t find locally). Eventually I stopped in the early ’80s, first dropping the specials once they started reprinting material I already read, then sorta falling out of the habit of getting the main series. I still had fond feelings for it, and I’d poke through an issue on occasion after that…but my MAD collection went to the wayside.

I would still dip in and out over the years, especially appreciating that series of specials where they reprint, complete and in order, all of the original comic book sized MADs (as opposed to the comic book inserts in the specials from the ’70s).

I mean, if I really wanted to get back into the MAD game, I do buy and sell old (and new!) copies at my shop, but I try hard to not get high off my own supply and leave ’em for the customers. But, of late, my grocery store occasional racks on their increasingly shrinking magazine displays themed MAD reprint volumes (not available through my comic distributors) filled with classic material. And just this week, I picked up the newest one, MAD: The Best of the Worst.


And flipping through it, I saw some familiar strips I no longer had in my possession, like “Star Blecch” and the infamous “43-Man Squamish.” But I also saw the All in the Family parody, “Gall in the Family Fare,” which really surprised me, given on how it leans pretty hard on the use of various slurs for particular groups. In particular, it used a specific term aimed at gay folks:


…that, if you may recall, I discussed the usage of the shortened version of this term in a previous MAD reprint book, and the editing thereof.

In the case of the Star Wars parody there, the term was (possibly) used as a comment on the perception of C3P0’s effeminacy. And given that one of the writers of that parody is, in fact, gay himself, there may have been a little joshing of his own community as well. Not so much punching down as punching sideways. Regardless, as I noted in that past post, just dropping said term as a punchline is not something that would likely be seen as acceptable now, necessitating the change.

But in this latest reprint of “Gall in the Family Fare,” that term, and many others, are just laid out there. In context, it’s understandable, as MAD is commenting on the show’s, and by extension television in general, use of shock value for attention. Personally, I don’t think that’s what All in the Family did, but MAD‘s not here for reasoned debate, it’s here to make jokes and satirize culture. And, like the show itself, the parody makes it clear that Archie Bunker’s (or rather, Starchie Bunkerhill’s) behavior is reprehensible. Especially once you get to the punchline.

Thus, editing the jokes in this parody (like I did in that scan I made above) would undermine the eventual point. But I can certainly see someone pulling this off the shelf, flipping to this parody, and just seeing The Words and being shocked, context be damned. By and large we associate casual racism and bigotry like this with Bad People, regardless of purpose, and just throwing them out there in jokes may be too much for some nowadays. If anyone notices at all.

Which leads me to the next question here, which was brought up to me when I broached this subject on Bluesky: who is this for?

Well, the simple answer is “me,” I want a periodic dose of selected pieces from MAD offered to me in a semi-sturdy format from which I may enjoy some nostalgic pleasure. For its occasional faults, MAD was a gathering of several fine cartoonists at the peak of their game. The writing did a good job teaching kids the important lessons that advertisers lie to you, movies and TV shows think you’re dumb, and the world as a whole is filled with stupid things humans just gotta deal with. I like being reminded that there once was someone out there looking out for us.

So, it’s there for nostalgic adults, sure. But are kids buying this? It would be easy to say “no,” but remember when I said my shop carried old MADs? I sell a lot of them to kids. Kids I’m not sure were old enough to buy and read the magazines when last the all-new issues were still coming out. I’m not sure what they’d get out of an All in the Family parody, unless they’re heavy watchers of the reruns. I’m not even sure if they’d appreciate the Beavis and Butthead joke in here, or if that’s too archaic a reference. (But there is an article about “Unconscious Racists” to balance the “Gall in the Family Fare” story.)

But there are still kids out there who want MAD. Who buy the 1970s issues and wonder about the Watergate and hippie jokes, much like I did when I got my copies when I was about six years old. And you know, I read all those and aside from owning a comic shop and writing a comic book blog, I turned out okay. So those kids new to reading MAD will be too.. Maybe one of them will be responsible for someday returning MAD to its eventual glory.

Well, if you read all that, here’s a video adapted from the “Gall in the Family Fare” flexidisc MAD produced. …Um, don’t listen to this in public. (NOTE: they call Edith “Meathead” in the comic, but change it in the recording.)

Final ’90s Countdown: Part Seventeen.

§ December 29th, 2025 § Filed under final '90s countdown § 8 Comments

I apologize, it’s been a while since I’ve done an entry in the Final ’90s Countdown series, in which you voted for your favorite comics that began in the 1990s! I’m still in the titles that received one vote apiece…and again, that’s not a comment on the quality of the book, but rather on the breadth of excellent material that decade was producing.

Skeleton Key (Slave Labor Graphics, 1995-1998)

Andi Watson’s fantasy adventure series about a high schooler named Tamsin, who gains possession of the titular skeleton key, a magical item that can open any door and turn it into a path to other realities. Along the way she encounters Kitsune, a fox spirit, who becomes her partner in Skeleton Key-ness and adventures through all these other worlds with her.

Like Scott McCloud’s Zot!, which became slightly more grounded as it entered the back section of its run, Skeleton Key‘s focus on fantasy adventure diminished to some extent in favor of more emphasis on Tamsin’s adventures as a young woman. You can really see the difference if you were to compare the cover to the first issue I posted above with, say, the cover to issue #20. It really does look like a whole new book, and if you were to look at the full cover gallery you can really see how quickly the book and art style evolved.

I wasn’t much of a reader of Skeleton Key as it was coming out, though I’d flip through the new issues when unboxing them for the shelves and admire the art. Especially on those later issues, where the design work is just immensely appealing.

There were additional comics outside that initial 30 issue run, such as a couple of one-shots and a four issue mini in 1999. Some short color stories ran in the 2000s-era Dark Horse Presents that were collected into the 2012 Skeleton Key Color Special.

There are five trade paperbacks that reprint the first 30 issues series and the second 4 issue series, plus a short from the ’90s era black and white Dark Horse Presents. The volumes all appear to be out of print, but may be available on the secondary market.

Anyway, nice series with some appealing art and really deserves to still be in print. Maybe some enterprising publisher can put together a Skeleton Key Omnibus at some point.

Superman, no!

§ December 24th, 2025 § Filed under Christmas § 9 Comments


Here’s hoping your holiday is full or joy and happiness, and free of strife and, well, radiation. Thanks for reading, pals, and I’ll see you on Friday.

Yes, I do remember which writer it was, too.

§ December 22nd, 2025 § Filed under publishing, question time § 13 Comments

First order of business: get me your 2026 comic industry predictions! Read the rules, then submit! SUBMIT, I tell you.

Next, back to Isaac P.’s question about ’90s comic publishers. Specifically:

“Is there one of these [oublishers/imprints] that you, as a reader, wish had been a success? Alternatively, are there any particular memories of this era that stick out to you from the sales side of things?”

Well, one I would have liked to see stick around is the Ultraverse line from Malibu, later purchased by Marvel Comics:


Yup, that’s Sludge there, Steve Gerber’s attempt at doing a new variation on the Swamp Thing/Man-Thing formula. Haven’t read it in a while, but I remember enjoying it, because, hey, Gerber writing a man-monster comic, of course I’d like it. (The initial artist of the book, Aaron Lopresti, would occasionally plot an issue and there are a couple he outright wrote himself.)

Anyway, I would have liked to have seen more of that book. And most of the Ultraverse in general. (Prime, a Shazam!-esque comic about a young man who can turn into a grotesquely-overmuscled adult hero, was one I enjoyed, until it turned out one of its original writers was a sex offender, tainting that particular property for all time.) But other books had their followings, like Mantra (an immortal male warrior reincarnated into the body of a woman), Rune (an evil demonic entity that got up to plenty of trouble, early issues written and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith), Firearm (a non-superpowered private detective)…all quite popular at the time. And I know I’m leaving out your favorite, sorry.

Now, of the ’90s imprints that came and went, it would seem like Ultraverse would be the one that had at least one foot in the door for a full revival. The publisher was purchased by Marvel Comics, and for a time, there were several crossovers between the Marvel Universe and the Ultraverse. But, eventually, the Ultraverse characters just stopped appearing, even though Marvel still owns them.

There’s no official reason given, and there’s a whole section on the Wikipedia page about the current status of those properties. Revivals were planned and discarded, and it’s been suggested that the line’s former publisher maintains business interests in the Ultraverse titles, which I guess put the kibosh on any relaunches.

It’s a shame those titles can’t be revived or reprinted, at least at this time, as there was a lot of good work in there. I already mentioned Windsor-Smith, but there was a whole of of George Pérez in there, too. Ah, well, it’s just (maybe) a bunch of legal red tape, maybe it’ll get unknotted someday and we can see these books again.

One particular memory I have from the ’90s was when one of the Ultraverse writers happened to come to our store to do a little shopping. Now, back then, we did a lot of business in recent back issues, and we had several boxes of Ultraverse backstock marked and shelves in the back room, just visible through one of the doorways into that back area. The writer happened to spot those boxes and mentioned to his friend (but within my earshot, which I don’t think he realized) “oh, they’re never going to sell those.”

Well, ha HA mister, we did sell all of those! Eventually. In the 2000s. In a bulk sale for about a dime apiece. BUT WE SOLD THEM.

Anyway, Ultraverse…I think it would have been okay if it kept going. Maybe not even as its own standalone thing, but just fully integrated into the Marvel Universe like they were trying to do. I mean, 30+ years of Firearm comics? C’mon, that would’ve been pretty cool. And Rune, maybe not as his own standalone title, but as one of the many wildly-powered adversaries who menaces our heroes on a regular basis. He could have been the Big Bad in a series of Marvel movies by now. Brings a tear to one’s eye.

Next ’90s company/imprint to discuss: oh, what the heck, let’s talk about Comics’ Greatest World, even though I’ve read, like, almost none of it. But I’ll give it a shot in a few days.

Merry Low Content Mode-mas!

§ December 19th, 2025 § Filed under lunchtime update § 3 Comments

So anyway, I was out Christmas shopping Thursday night, and boy are my arms tired. …No, really, they are, I was carting a lot of stuff around.

But the upshot is, I got home late and lack the time to fully write about the things I wanted to write about today. Sigh, the holidays, what can I tell you. But I currently plan to continue my response to Isaac’s question about ’90s publishers and what I’d have kept around, with Ultraverse planned for Monday.

I do also want to remind you folks to get in your 2026 comic industry predictions! I’ll be getting to the 2025 predictions in January, so get in those new predictions so I have something to post about in January 2027!

Okay, pals, I’ll be back on Monday. Thank you for your patience.

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