Hey there folks. It has been a while. I’ll talk about that some other time, because today, we are tidying up the house.

For those of you just joining us: hi. My name is Brandon Schatz. I’m a Joe Shuster Award winning comics retailer (Best in Canada for 2019), and an Eisner Nominated comics journalist for the very publication you’re reading right now. Sometimes, people ask me what I think about what’s happening in the comic industry, which is the catalyst for what we’re talking about today.

Over at his wonderful site SKTCHD, David Harper ran his regular mid-year check up with a handful of comic retailers, and I was lucky enough to be included in the mix. The article includes a wide array of shop owners (including one that also owns what might be the industry’s largest distributor of comics) that all talk about how things seem to be looking pretty good for retailers at the moment.

Also, I ended up saying something that got the attention of Mad Cave Studios’ CEO/CCO Mark London.

From Twitter. A very similar post was made on Bluesky as well, but this one featured the most context.

You can see him quoting me from the article at the end there, but it is missing a bit of context.

From the article:

It’s not all good news on the original and creator-owned front. That side of comics earned almost as many negative mentions as it did positive ones. For all the hits there are, many titles from many publishers just aren’t connecting at all. And the ones that struggle typically don’t have the clear sense of purpose Schatz sees from the shining lights in that space.

“Despite all the turmoil lately, there are still companies that pump out creator-owned books that are just trying to run on their concept alone,” Schatz said. “Aftershock cratered, but Mad Cave picked up that slack for perfectly cromulent books that do nothing. I don’t say that to be mean. There is clear talent behind the line. But the line is filled with concepts, and not with purpose.

“This is where most books fail.”

And plenty are. [Eisner Award Winning retailer Patrick] Brower emphasized that these titles are “doing less” in Challengers these days, with new launches starting at a lower point than before and rarely rising above the level established at #1. And that’s even true of “established names,” with only Exquisite Corpses and Battle Beast being exceptions to that rule. [Eisner Award Winning retailer Eitan] Manhoff echoed that by saying, “There really aren’t a ton of big hit creator-owned books at the moment,” with most “struggling to stand out.”

The article itself covers a wide range of topics (including Diamond’s bankruptcy) as the differing experiences of different retailers are pooled together to showcase trends. My quote was used among others to identify the trouble most independent and creator owned books are having in the market today - I just happened to be the one using a very specific example.

Was it fair to single out Mad Cave to talk about the struggles most books have in this market? Probably not, when this is a problem much larger than one company. For that, I would apologize. One thing I can say for sure is that I wasn’t taking a shot at creator owned comics. Creator-owned books struggling was the prompt for that section, but the issue is industry wide.

These days, books need more than a good concept if they want to survive on comic shelves. Not only are there too many comics vying for eyes in the same space (many with similar concepts), but everyone’s attention span is already stretched thin with the variety of content available to them elsewhere.

Being good isn’t enough - and the industry needs to reckon with this fact. Creators, publishers, retailers and distributors - everyone up and down the chain.

I have some ideas on how we can all do this… but more on that in a bit.

The Back Matter

At the time of publication, David Harper has made the article my pull quote came from available for everyone to read.

Normally, his content is available to subscribers to his amazing website SKTCHD for which he was a fellow Eisner nominee last year! His work should be supported, now more than ever.

David posted about some hardships he was experiencing lately and is running a deal on subscriptions to the site. If you haven’t jumped on, now is the perfect time to do so. You can use the promo code “TheSKTCHDdeal” at check out to get 50% off a sub - which could work out to as little as $1.50 a month - and you’ll get access to some of the best writing on comics around.

Subscribe to SKTCHD

Speaking of The Eisner Awards, Heidi MacDonald and the awesome team at The Beat won this year’s award for Best Comics Related Periodical/Journalism!

This has been a long time coming, and should have happened many times already, but if this was to be the first, it was a damn good year for Heidi and The Beat to win. We’ve all watched the once mighty comics journalism landscape shrink and distort over the years. Heidi has been steadfast in her coverage of the industry, fighting against the slow rot of the internet in general and has provided an amazing space for folks to love comics, and learn.

The work that has been done at The Beat this year has been especially good, with an amazing group of fresh voices coming in and providing great perspectives on corners of the industry that have been hungry for coverage.

A couple of recent examples:

This, in addition to the regular work being done getting word out about new projects and great reads. They’re all doing amazing work, and I’m proud they give me a corner to play with every now and then.

That's it for this update - we'll talk soon.

Stay fresh, cheese bags.

-B.