Spiral Comics Blog

WELCOME Hello, comic fans! As I write this month’s newsletter, the comic industry is experiencing the largest upset I can ever remember since I started collecting as a young boy in 1986. Diamond has effectively ceased distribution of weekly, new comics, generating a storm of speculation about the future of print comics. Predictions abound that some percent of local comic shops and some small publishers will not survive this turmoil. Some radicals are even calling it the actual end of print comics. Spiral Comics is fortunate to operate online only and only deal with Diamond on a cash–not credit–basis. I don’t think the big publishers will fold, and print comics will continue at some time in familiar form, simply because […]

WELCOME Hello, comic fans! May you live in interesting times, is how the apocryphal saying goes. If you’re like me, you’ve been hoarding comics your whole life, so you always have a pile of comics that need to be read if you get trapped in your home. In fact, I used to read comics during the down times when I was on nuclear alert in Montana and had a dozen or so on hand the morning of 9/11. I remember turbulent and uncertain times back then, but life eventually returned to normal. Here’s wishing for a speedy return to less interesting times. As always, let us know if we can search our stacks for something…we try to cater to regular, […]

WELCOME Hello, comic fans! The tide of comic-related television and film productions continues most recently with the release of OCTOBER FACTION and LOCKE & KEY. There’ll be so many more this year, I’m afraid–for me–the personal time commitment to properly watch them all won’t leave enough time left over to raise my children. (Who am I kidding, there’s probably plenty of YouTube videos they can watch to raise themselves.) The catalog this month is heavy on BLACK WIDOW and WONDER WOMAN offerings, as those two movies are only a couple months out. Both look to be spectacular, to be sure. But, my first love has always been the comic books themselves. (Don’t tell my wife.) As always, let us know […]

WELCOME Hello, comic fans! More great-looking new series from all the major and some minor publishers this month, including a brand new publisher in the publishing landscape–ARTISTS, WRITERS & ARTISANS (AWA). AWA is helmed by former Marvel EIC, Axel Alonso with a creative council that includes J. Michael Straczynski, Garth Ennis and Frank Cho. Four titles in AWA’s Upshot imprint are up for your consideration this month, but there are many more on the horizon. Oh, FYI, Straczynski’s title kicks off a brand new Shared Universe within AWA. On another note, IDW has a 4-issue mini-series with TRANSFORMERS VS. TERMINATOR. I don’t think there’s been as exciting a cross-property crossover as this since AvP…and look how awesome that was! As […]

WELCOME Hello, comic fans! We finally made the improvements to the Brand New Series page algorithm that I’ve been itching to make. It’s pretty great, if I do say so myself! But, I’ll let you be the judge. In other comic news, Superman outed his secret identity this month. Can’t say I saw that coming, but I’m not as surprised as you might imagine. Didn’t Spider-Man do that already back in the original Secret Wars? And wasn’t it subsequently undone? Or was that his marriage? Hey, weren’t Superman and Lois Lane married back before the New 52 too? Are they still married now? It’s hard to keep track…but it’s a pleasure to experience the ongoing storylines of these iconic superheroes! […]

WELCOME Hello, comic fans! IMPORTANT ORDERING INFO: Marvel and Image have a bunch of comics that will be released on New Year’s Day. These items are not in the monthly November catalog, but can be found on our “LIMITED TIME” page. The specific Marvel items all have an order cutoff of November 24th. The Image item order cutoff is December 1st. Be sure to check them out when you’re putting your regular monthly order together on our site! In fact, one of the more exciting offerings–STAR WARS [2020] #1–is in there. Marvel is relaunching the ongoing Star Wars title…this time in the period between ESB and ROTJ…so, we’re talking about the hunt for carbonite Solo, for one thing. There’s tons […]

WELCOME Hello, comic fans! If it only takes two instances to make a trend, then there’s a new trend in comic publishing. Scout has been doing these “Binge!” titles, where they publish the first issue of a mini-series…then they release next the whole series as a trade paperback with no further individual issues. A World Blue Wave now has a similar publishing concept where they publish the first issue of a mini in print, then release the subsequent chapters digitally only before they publish the trade paperback. They’re calling this the Premiere #1 Program. We’ll see if this trend lasts. Otherwise, I’m super excited for new Star Wars comics, as the long-running ongoing flagship series has ended, and something will […]

WELCOME Hello, comic fans! The latest DC Previews explains their new age-based branding system, and they go all in with it on the offerings this month. It wasn’t as clear last month, especially since the Black Label had a short, earlier start as an actual imprint, not just as an age-based branding now. I think this stuff matters, and it should make sense…and publishers should stick with whatever they come up with. Fans are not particularly picky about these kinds of categorizations, beyond a general dislike of rapid-fire change-after-change. Dissolving Vertigo is a big move, and it will not fade from comic book history or memory any time soon. I dare say, it’s so entrenched, it’ll probably be back. On […]

WELCOME Hello, comic fans! I know I say this every month, but there really is a ton of new series being offered in this month’s Previews catalog. No kidding, it’s more than usual. DC alone has NINE new series starting–and that doesn’t count the TEN ongoing 100-Page Giant series starting…or the SIX one-shots! Marvel’s X-title relaunch starts this month with THREE new ongoing series. Add our DAWN OF X tag to your My Interests list, to track the new stuff. There’s STAR WARS stuff timed to lead the movie later this year. I’d be here all day if I tried to list all the new stuff. Go ahead, see all of the brand new series for this month here… but […]

WELCOME Hello, comic fans! So, there’s a real beginning trend in comic book these days with “surprise” series beginnings and endings. Image maybe started the whole thing with their DIE!DIE!DIE! series, which just showed up without being offered for pre-order, but their pièce de résistance in this “surprise” trend has be the abrupt ending to THE WALKING DEAD with issue #193. Gotta hand it to them for actually offering issues above #193 for pre-order that were never going to be published. What a great run on a truly monumental comic book series. Boom! Studios also pulled a series out of their hat with the surprise ANGEL series set in the New Buffyverse. These surprise events sure do make headlines and […]