More on Neil Gaiman, the State of Diamond and Comics Journalism, Remembering David Lynch, and More— The Comic Bookmarks for January 19th, 2025

Of all the news this week (and there’s a lot of it here,) the news of David Lynch’s death was the most difficult one. I was at lunch with a friend on Thursday when we got this news via text from another friend and we both just sat there, stunned by it. I think I commented that encountering Lynch changed the way that I view the world.
I’ve just been sitting here since Thursday, a bit stunned by this news on top of everything else that’s been happening this year (and 2025 is not even 3 weeks old yet.) David Lynch died of emphysema, which is very similar to the COPD that my father suffered during his last years. When Lynch told the world that he could barely even go outside anymore for fear of catching something fatal, you just knew it wasn’t good.
Thank you, David, for making life strange. You were one of the good guys.

Headlines

Lila Shapiro’s lengthy and in-depth piece about the women who are accusing Neil Gaiman of abuse is a difficult one to get through but and important one to read. It follows up on the podcast reporting that The Tortoise conducted earlier this year that first gave voice to these allegations. The Vulture‘s copy of it is behind a paywall (if you’ve used your free Vulture/NY Mag) views for the month. There is a copy of the story archived at archive.today.

The Vulture’s article was released on Monday. A day later Gaiman publicly responded to these accusations. I believe this is the first time he has had any kind of public word about this and, like most men in this situation, he attempts to say “It’s not me. It’s them.” There’s much to pick apart in his statement, from just the idea that he’s “always tried to be a private person” to this one…
I was obviously careless with people's hearts and feelings, and that's something that I really, deeply regret. It was selfish of me. I was caught up in my own story and I ignored other people's.
Careless with their hearts and feelings? But not their bodies? Or their health? Or their wellbeing?
At no point does he think that their experience was any different than his? At my day job, we have annual training around how not to abuse other people and we stress that abuse isn’t about intent (which seems to be all Gaiman can focus on here) but the experience of the people being abused. Gaiman was obviously using his status and power in these relationships and it doesn’t matter that he thought nothing about what he was doing to these women.
Comic book fans hated Alan Moore for only delivering them blunt truths and a rigorous ethical code, instead of toying with cutesy public personas and playing ball with greedy publishers. But it turns out he's one of the only members of his cohort who's a decent human being. Huh.
— Chase Magnett 🇵🇸 (@chasemagnett.bsky.social) January 13, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Moving on…

Not necessarily comics but Facebook and Instagram are still important tools in comics marketing so it’s worthwhile to understand what is happening behind the scenes at Meta.
Comic Sites on Comic Sites

Related to the above but Sean Kleefeld writes on Wednesday about what he sees as a lack of coverage about Neil Gaiman on comic sites. I do believe that since then I’ve seen The Beat and Popverse publish pieces regarding The Vulture’s article. And The Beat’s piece is dated on Tuesday, a day before Kleefeld’s post.
And maybe this isn’t quite the place for it but there probably is need for the continuing discussion of “where is comics journalism?” I do believe it’s still there but it’s morphed and changed over the years, from print to websites to bulletin boards to social media and then too… We may be entering a post-social media phase so is there the need to re-examine the need and methods of comic journalism?

I feel like this is the week of writing about one thing and going “and then there’s this…”
This week, multiple Eisner-winning Women Write About Comics has announced that they are going on hiatus to “pause, reflect, and plan for radical change.” WWAC is an important site when it comes to comics journalism, providing voices and viewpoints that maybe otherwise wouldn’t have been heard. I look forward to seeing how they come back in a way that works for them.

And then there’s this…
Not so much the news about WWAC but the news a bit further down in this article that once again, The Eisner appear to have eliminated the award for Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism from their nomination process. Now they did this last year as well at this stage and ended up having the category on their final ballot. The list up on the Eisner site is called the “tentative categories” so I guess we’ll have to wait and see what their final category list is.
And maybe someday they’ll actually think about including comic podcasts and video shows somewhere in there.
Business

I think this news may have been a bit of a surprise but I can’t say that it’s been a shock. Things would be different if this was about 6 years ago when Diamond was the only distributor in town but that business has diversified since 2020.

Brigid Alverson breaks down what this means at Good Comics for Kids, an offshoot of the School Library Journal.
In the long run, the most significant factor may be that Diamond is the distributor that handles most small, independent publishers, such as Ablaze, Fairsquare, and Storm King. Before they were graphic novels, Jeff Smith’s Bone, Jimmy Gownley’s Amelia Rules, and more recently, Lumberjanes got their start as comic-shop comics distributed by Diamond. If Diamond’s reorganization results in dropping its smaller customers, those creators and publishers will lose their connection to the market. This in turn may have a ripple effect, with fewer opportunities for emerging creators to hone their work and build an audience in the world of periodical comics.
Hat tip to Heidi MacDonald for pointing out this video on Bluesky.
On Wednesday night, Prana Direct Market Solutions hosted a livestream with a handful of retailers to discuss what this means and they were fairly chill about the whole thing. There’s no “the sky is falling,” doomsday scenario tearing of cloths about this news. But then again, the retailers who were part of the discussion all seem to have already de-emphasized the Diamond portion of their business in favor of PRH and Lunar. It would have been interesting to have heard from a retailer who still primarily uses Diamond for their books. But even then, some anecdotal evidence suggests that those retailers are sticking with Diamond and think they’ll pull through.
So, nothing to see here?
But is there something to see over there instead?

We’re hours away from Trump 2.0 and possibly the tariffs he promised during the campaign. For TCJ, Gina Gagliano talks to a number of small press publishers to discuss how those tariffs could impact comics. And this does feel like, if Trump isn’t just blowing smoke, it could be a huge blow to the comics (and the whole economy on a larger scale.) The article goes into the choices that the publishers have to make and it’s obviously not just as easy as “publish in the States” as their are obvious infrastructure concerns there as well.
Avi Ehrlich, the publisher of Silver Sprocket,said, “The decision to print overseas isn't just about cost (though they are cheaper), but really about quality and options. We haven't been able to find domestic printers able to offer the quality and options available from printers overseas, such as the high quality interesting paper stocks, binding options, and unique foils that make our books stand out. We used to print primarily in Canada and finally moved most of our printing overseas after a series of very frustrating quality issues and delays due to North American printers simply not having all of the resources available under one roof to efficiently and correctly make books with the quality we want to be producing.”
The coming weeks will tell us a lot about how committed this administration is to the promises/threats they made over the past two years and just how much they really care about the people they are supposed to be governing for. If they do half of what they said, their concerns will be more for their own pockets than for your or my wellbeing.

Below is a fascinating statement to bury in the 2nd half of the article, especially this week and looking ahead to this year:
The unfortunate thing is 2024 reinforced that comics really aren’t the problem. It’s everything else, with what that entails being varied and unpredictable. Wallace said it’s “usually the unknowns that come up and cause problems,” while King said it seems like “each shop might have completely different struggles,” many of which have more to do with non-comics difficulties like staffing and rent increases. Even the most concerning ones on the horizon are things like the threat of tariffs rather than the quality of the material.
The Funny Pages
Human Altitude xkcd.com/3039
— Randall Munroe (@xkcd.com) January 18, 2025 at 12:12 AM
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This is the comic. The only comic.
— Michel Fiffe (@michelfiffe.bsky.social) January 15, 2025 at 5:02 PM
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Who am I to argue with Michel Fiffe?
Interviews

I would love to read a collection of John Wagner’s horoscope writing.
Then there are horoscopes. One of my first tasks in Fiction Department is to write the daily horoscopes for the Dundee Courier. “A chance encounter with a crazed axeman may have unexpected consequences for future plans. Lucky colour red.”
Looking forward to this one to dive into a new world with Mignola and to see how his unique storytelling continues to evolve.
Reviews & Features

There’s one page in this issue that is a strong contender for my favorite page of the year (and yes, we’re only a few weeks into the year.) So far, there’s a lot to really like about this new New Gods series and a lot for it to still reveal about itself.

Mood of the Day
— John Porcellino (@johnporcellino.bsky.social) January 17, 2025 at 12:11 PM
And…
— Diego Nicolás Argüello (@diegoarguello.bsky.social) January 16, 2025 at 12:28 PM
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