Devin’s Comics NEWS Digest - April 11, 2025

2025 continues apace and I can barely keep up.

Hello, everyone! This is the Comics NEWS Digest, an aggregation of all the top comics and comics-related stories that caught my attention that I thought you might enjoy reading. I post these two weeks after every regular newsletter.

NEWS

There’s no way to sugarcoat most of what’s in this month’s comics news roundup, so let’s get into it. Layoffs continue at publishers, this time hitting Skybound Entertainment. Online comics retailer Things from Another World, better known as TFAW.com, will be closing on April 30. Three physical locations will remain open, two in Oregon and one in California.

Monday, April 7 was Right to Read Day. The United States government’s assault on libraries reached a new low. Buried in an executive order that was ostensibly about “reducing the scope of the federal bureaucracy,” the Institute of Museum and Library Services had its funding “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” You can read the American Library Association’s statement about this here. Fortunately, 21 state attorneys general have sued over this.

Things aren’t much better at the state level, as Ohio Republicans use their latest budget bill to destroy how libraries are funded, especially libraries in rural communities, and restrict access to books with LGBTQ+ themes and characters. The Florida Senate’s Criminal Justice Committee approved a new bill that would remove the very idea of context from whether a graphic novel could be considered obscene, allowing a work to be called obscene based on a single word or image. Thankfully, that bill appears to have been temporarily postponed after making it out of committee.

For some thoughts on, talking points about, and resources to fight book bans, check out this post from Maia Kobabe, the creator of Gender Queer, one of the most banned books in the United States.

President Trump went through with his stupid, stupid tariffs. You can read one comics retailer’s thoughts here. The tariffs also prompted Fieldmouse Press, the publishers of SOLRAD and several excellent graphic novels, to start a gofundme campaign to stay afloat. A 90-day pause on the tariffs was announced shortly thereafter, except for goods from China, which have an imposed tariff of either 104%, 125%, or 145% depending on who you ask. Books and comics printed in China may be exempt, but who knows how long that will last? I’m typing this on Thursday night to prepare it to go out Friday evening and have no idea how out of date it might be by then. Expect updates next month.

Last month, I shared the news about Welsh cartoonist Rebecca (R. E.) Burke, who was detained by United States immigration officials for supposedly violating her visa. She has been released. You can read the horrifying details of her nearly three weeks in ICE detention here. Her experience has led to increased discussion about the risks of attending comic conventions in the United States for creators from outside the country.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund provided a two-part series on Visas and Comic Creators. You can read the first part here and the second part here. Here’s a link to a zine by FrogKing.Art encapsulating On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder. Print it out and share it, I’m sure it’ll come in handy.

It feels almost offensive to go from stories about human rights abuses to entertainment news, and for that I apologize. In a better world, I could have led with Diamond Comics Distributors having “substantially all” of its assets being bought by Alliance Entertainment after a two-day auction. There’s still plenty up in the air about this acquisition, including the status of Free Comic Book Day and other Diamond assets. From what I know of Alliance, I’m not entirely optimistic.

Then again, Diamond decided to accept another bid, a joint offer from Universal Distribution and licensor Ad Populum. Alliance filed a lawsuit and a hearing was held on April 7 and 8, in which their bid was adjudicated as the winning one. The sales hearing will close April 25, when everyone must come to an agreement. If not, another hearing has already been scheduled for May 28. This is still less of a roller coaster than the damn tariffs.

In good news, publishers, production companies, and start ups have come together to create Comic Book UK, a new trade association meant to drive growth in the comics industry.

A gaming YouTuber created his own manga and set sales records in the United States, selling 200,000 copies in its first week on the market.

Way back in 2024, Marvel announced it was working with VeVe, an NFT company, to promote its digital comics. As if that weren’t bad enough, more details emerged and they include an incredibly poor choice of words. The digital comics vanish entirely from the platform after 30 days, a process they’ve decided to describe as “burning.” For a look at a literal comic book burning and what it means for today, read this piece by

Parker Molloy

.

Lastly, the Court Theatre in Chicago is staging an adaptation of the graphic novel Berlin by Jason Lutes and directed by Charles Newell. It's about the rise of the Nazis during the Weimar Republic, so, you know, timely! I'll be attending the performance on Friday, April 25, which will include a post-show discussion with Jason Lutes, the director, and dramaturg David J. Levin. Jason Lutes will also be having a signing and conversation at Seminary Co-Op Bookstore earlier that day at noon. I’m excited to see this show!

Interviews & Criticism

SOLRAD is a publication I cite often in this space, and they’re now accepting submissions! Time for me to dust the cobwebs off an old piece or two.

Robert Iveniuk had this interesting look at ableism and anime for Anime Herald. It’s a broad spectrum, as the representation of disability in any medium can be, with plenty of flaws and overcorrections that reflect larger cultural attitudes.

Over at Unwinnable, Edward Kane has a look at one of the best comics of last year, Bear Pirate Viking Queen by Sean Lewis and Jonathan Marks Barraveccia, and its watercolor artwork and “theme-based” storytelling.

Andy Oliver of Broken Frontier spoke with critic Tiffany Babb about her new comics criticism journal, the Comics Courier.

Kyle Baker is an incredibly prolific, innovative, and talented artist, and Jason Bergman spoke to him for The Comics Journal about his career.

For the tenth anniversary of Jennie Wood’s acclaimed YA novel A Boy Like Me, which is getting released as a special edition from Invader Comics, Comics Beat spoke with them and Invader EIC Mike Perkins.

Scott Cederlund looked at Jaime Hernandez’s latest, Life Drawings.

The Conversation has this look at three graphic novels about the history of slavery.

On the academic side of things, the journal Equality, Diversity and Inclusion published the results of a study titled, Is “being white” a component of the superhero prototype? Perhaps, but research participants won’t tell you that. Only the abstract is available at that link, but it’s a fascinating look at unconscious bias and the importance of representation.

The Dark Phoenix Saga may be a classic X-Men story, but it was hilariously unpopular among members of the Comics Book Club when we read it in September 2021. This article from The Journal of the Japan Association for Interpreting and Translation Studies might have helped, in which researchers compared and analyzed the speech patterns of female characters across three different Japanese translations.

Awards

The 36th GLAAD Media Awards were given out, and they included DC’s Suicide Squad: Dream Team for Outstanding Comic Book and the anthology Becoming Who We Are: Real Stories About Growing Up Trans from publisher A Wave Blue World for Outstanding Original Graphic Novel/Anthology.

The Society of Illustrators has inducted the latest class into its Hall of Fame, including artist Marie Severin, who revolutionized comics coloring.

The Missouri Association of School Librarians released their first Denny O’Neil Graphic Novel List, which is broken down further into lists for grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. It’s full of great recommendations for young readers!

Cartoonist Paul Noth has won the 2025 Thurber Prize in Cartoon Art.

The Cartoon Museum announced the winners of its 29th Young Cartoonist Awards, including categories for Under 30, Under 18, and the Woodcock Prize for Most Surreal Cartoon.

The nominees for the 2025 Glyph Comics Awards, which celebrate the best in comics for BIPOC creators and readers, were announced.

The Center for Cartoon Studies announced the shortlist nominees for the 2025 Cartoonist Studio Prize for both long-form and short-form comics.

The 2025 Ringo Awards are now open for nominations! Be sure to head over and nominate your favorites. I’ll be filling in the names of a few people on this platform and letterer Buddy Beaudoin!

The Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics is open for submissions with a May 1 deadline.

Obituaries

Comics and book editor Margaret Clark passed away on March 16. Largely known for her work on Star Trek novels, she also worked at DC and Marvel.

Frank Marcucci III, a retailer and “comics specialist” at Ohio’s Dark Star Books, died at the age of 59. He had worked at the store since 1986.

Cartoonist Hy Eisman passed away on his 98th birthday last month. He was known for his work on comic strips like Little Lulu and Popeye and won the National Cartoonists Society’s Award for Best Humor Comic Book Cartoonist in 1975 for Gold Key’s Nancy comics.

Artist John Peck, better known as “Mad Peck,” of Providence, Rhode Island, died after a sudden illness at the age of 83.

Outsider artist Lajuana Lampkins of Chicago died at the age of 67. Her life and work reflected many systemic injustices. She didn’t work in comics, but if you think outsider art can’t have an impact on comics, I’d like to invite you to CAKE.

Finally, painter and illustrator Robert “Bob” McGinnis passed away at the age of 99 last month. Primarily known for movie posters and book and magazine covers, he did work for pop culture icons with connections to comics.

That’s all for this month. Did I miss anything? Comment below if I have. Feel free to subscribe if you haven’t already. The Comics Book Club will be meeting again on April 16 to discuss Tender. Thanks again for everything.