Devin’s Comics NEWS Digest - December 12, 2025

2025 is (almost) finally over!

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

In a year marred by bankruptcies, lawsuits, and deaths, the one constant has been that I have been unable to keep up with the pace of the news. Within hours of posting last month’s digest, I learned it was outdated regarding the status of the 2026 Angoulême International Comics Festival. The festival’s operating company, 9e Art+, agreed at an emergency meeting that their owner, Franck Bondoux, would immediately retire.

Among increasing calls to cancel the festival after elected officials threatened to pull public funds, 9e Art+ announced it was suspended before announcing its cancellation. Bondoux blamed everyone else despite being largely responsible for the festival, threatening to sue the public officials in charge of funding it, and fostering or ignoring the hostile and violent atmosphere that caused the controversy in the first place. The Comics Journal provided plenty of context.

The first town hall held to determine next steps was rough. Angoulême was scheduled to take place in a little more than a month and it would be a shame if there wasn’t something to celebrate the art of comics. I’ve never been, but from everything I’ve heard from those who have, it should be the gold standard for comic cons. This is all terribly oversimplified, and I look forward to finding out there’s been a new development immediately after sending this out.

In good comic convention news, the parent company of Indie Comic Creator Con, Collectors Network Holdings, Inc., along with its “operating arm” Collectors Network, LLC has converted to a public benefit corporation that will collectively be called CNPBC. This means it will be legally required to consider its employees, communities, and the public good in its decision making.

Following up on an earlier story, Comics Beat catches up with international comics publisher Humanoids and their bankruptcy filings. They link to multiple investigations (in French) and untangle a lot of the knots that have seemingly led to the downfall of one of Europe’s greatest comics publishers.

In more disheartening news, Colin Kaepernick promoted a GenAI tool to schools in Maryland for children to “create” their own graphic novels. (Link is to a video, because the only print news I could find on this story read like a press release.) I told a friend this is like learning Tarana Burke had become a fracking lobbyist.

In a story that doesn’t directly tie in to comics but does involve two awful recurring themes of this year, librarians are being harassed because people can’t find fake book titles that were generated by artificial intelligence.

CRWN Studios, a comics fulfillment and publishing service company based in Portland, will be branching out into distribution to partially fill the void left by Diamond Comics Distributors’ bankruptcy. Terry Helman, a Diamond employee for more than 25 years, will lead sales strategy and publisher relations.

David Harper at SKTCHD had this look at the uncertainty faced by many creators of non-licensed (in other words, original or creator-owned) comics today. It’s a sobering look at the human cost of enjoying some of the greatest work the medium has ever produced.

Speaking of original or indie work, 404 Media is printing a zine about the technology used by ICE. Not only are they using the format of a zine, one of the great bastions of underground and indie comix artists, but they’re using a risograph machine to counter the technological surveillance state.

One piece of media news that’s been looming over the comics industry for the last few months is the fate of Warner Media, the parent company of DC. I wasn’t sure how to address it in this space, but thankfully Rob Salkowitz has this rundown of the whole messy ordeal for ICv2.

Congratulations to the writers who won Part One of the first Summit Comics Talent Search! Part Two is open to artists and submissions are open until December 24.

For this year’s last bit of NEWS, we have Tim Seeley quitting Twitter after receiving death threats over a Marvel comic he wrote. I normally avoid covering “social media drama” but this felt both insane and a good encapsulation of 2025.

Interviews & Criticism

I’ll start this section with a couple of interviews from The Comics Journal that I had to cut last month because I ran out of time. The first is Zach Rabiroff’s interview with Vika Lomasko, a graphic journalist who grew up in the Soviet Union and has authored such works as The Last Soviet Artist.

The second is Ritesh Babu talking with Ram V about the latter’s decade writing comics, one of my favorite critics in conversation with one of my favorite writers.

Another piece I should have gotten to sooner is SKTCHD’s special feature on New York Comic Con. It makes me feel like anything I’d have to write about that wonderful weekend redundant; it perfectly captures all the fun and energy.

Revisiting a story from the NEWS section if only tangentially, AiPT talked with Tim Seeley about his X-Men work.

Margot Waldman at ComicsXF shared this look at a specific issue of Detective Comics that also serves as a rumination on Batman’s versatility as a character and the impact of the creative team of Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle.

Over at Forbes, Rob Salkowitz looks at Kodansha USA, the growing popularity of manga, and how the publisher expands and adapts its audience and output.

Courtney Lewis, the Crandall Family Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University, curated an exhibit at one of the university’s libraries called “American Indians Go Graphic,” about Indigenous superheroes and Native American representation in comics.

In other representation news, The Comics Journal spoke with Rahil Mohsin about his comic Hallubol, the first-ever comic written in Dakhni, an endangered language primarily spoken in South-Central India.

Are you a fan of Hellboy but not sure how to read the other comics set in the same universe? Are you curious about Hellboy but not sure where to start? The staff at Comics Beat has you covered! Presented by Mark Tweedale, it’s a comprehensive guide on the reading order for all the comics in the Mignolaverse. There’s a lot. Lol

SOLRAD had a couple of reviews from Tom Shapira I wanted to share. The first is this look at The Hanging by Aaron Losty. I’m unfamiliar with this work but hope to pick it up someday! The second is of How Comics Are Made: A Visual History from the Drawing Board to the Printed Page by Glenn Fleishman. Despite the broadness of the title, it’s actually a very specific look at the process of creating newspaper comic strips, a form of comics that don’t always get their due.

Speaking of comic strips, David Harper at SKTCHD had this look at how they’re enjoying a resurgence and the influence they have on the broader comics landscape.

I’d like to end this section with a couple of silly, comics-adjacent articles. The first is this piece from Interview magazine, the title of which says it all: “Why Rachel Anna Simon Can’t Stop Painting Spider-Man Getting Head.” Words can’t express how grateful I am to Alex Segura for bringing this to my attention.

And Nature has a fun but dubious bit of mental health research into “the Batman effect,” in which passengers on a train behaved more altruistically when a guy dressed up as Batman was present. It has more to do with the disruption that a costumed passenger causes and how that calls people’s attention to, say, a pregnant person looking for a seat. I’m guessing they chose a Batman costume instead of a clown or a funny hat because why not?

Awards

Not a lot of awards as the year winds down, but applications are open for the 2026 Comics Criticism Mini Grants. Four small grants of $250 each will be awarded, but the deadline to apply is January 1, 2026.

The 2025 Selkie Awards for independent and small-press Scottish comics announced their winners earlier this month.

The National Press Foundation’s Clifford K. & James T. Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons was given to Matt Wuerker of Politico.

Obituaries

Sadly, the comics community lost an inker back in October when Andrew “Drew” Hennessy passed away at 56. He worked for Marvel, DC, and Crossgen and was memorialized by many of his colleagues.

Cartoonist and illustrator Dalton Webb passed away last month at the age of 53. A gofundme has been set up for his wife and daughter.

J. D. King, another prolific cartoonist and illustrator, died in early November. He was 74 years old.

Journalist and literary critic Rachel Cooke has passed away from ovarian cancer at the age of 56. She helped establish the Comica Graphic Short Story prize for graphic novels back in 2007.

Finally, there was a devastating loss to the cosplay community recently when Ash, also known as Ashley or “Squidkid,” reportedly died by suicide after aggressive online harassment and bullying. They were nineteen years old.

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, there is help available.

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 December 17 to discuss Berlin. Thanks again for everything. See you in 2026!