I love comic books. My very first comic was from ‘Spider-Man Adventures,’ based on the cartoon from Fox Kids. This followed with Batman comic books and Archie Comics run of Sonic The Hedgehog. I have consistently collected comics my whole life, though it slowed down during my days as a starving seminary student. This website has consistently reviewed comic books and graphic novels from several imprints and companies, but I am announcing that I will be reprioritizing my reviews for comics.

If you are wondering why, the answer is pretty obvious.

The mainstream comic book industry is pretty much in shambles. There is just no denying it. Despite denials from the “pros” and their allies in the trade media, everyone can see the signs. Their consistent caving to the social media mobs and the SJW’s whining has caused them to tokenize several popular characters, most recently Tim Drake, but it has cost them a drop in quality and a drop in sales. The evidence is right in front of every nerd and geek.

For one thing, Japanese manga is dominating the sales. For several months in a row, titles like Demon Slayer, Chainsaw Man, Attack on Titan, Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, and even a reprint of Death Note in June 2021 dominated NPD BookScans in the graphic novel category. Fans are craving content that avoids pandering to the small number of journos and bloggers that want to make comics about their personality traits instead of good storytelling.

The second piece of evidence is the fact most of the sales that some tout is the sale of graphic novels. The problem? They are older stories, sometimes well over twenty years, that are bringing in the case. This is made obvious by Marvel Comics’ releasing the ‘True Believers’ reprints of older popular issues and DC Comics’ continual re-releases of popular storylines such as the noir version of Batman: Hush.

The third piece of evidence is how fast the “pros” are jumping ship. We see former Batman writer James Tynion starting a substack series, Boom Studios used crowdfunding to raise money for BZRKR, and Scott Snyder is starting his own imprint. Blacklisted creators like Ethan Van Sciver, Mitch Breitweiser, and others are striking out on their own with crowdfunding while others like Todd McFarlane are scoring big with Image Comics titles like Spawn.

Where there is smoke, there is fire.

Now, this does mean I am ceasing my comic book reviews or scaling them back. That being said, I will reprioritize it. I will instead increase my focus on indie and smaller imprints to share out their content where I find stuff worth reading. I will also shift from speaking so much about new stuff but focus on older story-arcs and plotlines that were better. Now, new stuff will still appear, but I want to show how comic books use to care about good artwork and good stories that feature our favorite characters. Batman, Black Panther, Superman, the Fantastic Four, Wonder Woman, the X-Men, and so many others have such epic story-arcs. I want to share about them and hopefully, my humble POV will reach someone at the mainstream to remind them what they used to be.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. Tell me if there is a comic book, movie, or novel you would like me to review. While you are at it, check out my article: Gina Carano Is Coming Back To Film With New Thriller Based On ‘White Knuckle’. Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more posts like this one.

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