A round up of quickfire news items, some comic related, that have caught our eye in recent days…
Confusing Comic Titles: On his blog, author and actor Justin Alexander looks at why US comic publishers, despite their dominance in the direct sales market, struggle to gain better sales in bookshops, and considers the obstacles for new readers, pointing to confusion by booksellers over series titles as one issue.
“If you make an effort to read Marvel and DC books – and it’s definitely an effort”, the ENnie Award-winning author and game designer notes, “you’ll repeatedly find yourself forced to look up reading lists, desperately hoping you can avoid spoilers, just to figure out what seemingly random assortment of books and/or issues you need to follow just to read the thing you already want to read.”
He offers solutions to this problem, primarily, he suggests, that Marvel and DC will have to stop creating content primarily for monthly titles, or, as Justin describes them, pamphlets. “This doesn’t mean they should stop publishing the pamphlets,” he says, “but it does mean understanding that their primary goal is producing the books that, instead of being sold for a single month, can be potentially sold for years or decades to come.” Read the full article here, recently highlighted by industry guru Paul Gravett
Take a Break from Take a Break Fiction Feast?: The Press Gazette and other outlets report Bauer Media’s monthly Take a Break-branded fiction magazine has told writers it is pausing commissions as it introduces the use of AI tools to help produce more content in house.
Take a Break Fiction Feast, which retails at £3.50, contains short stories aimed at women, previously written by external writers and members of an in-house editorial team, as well as puzzles.
Press Gazette reports that, according to AI-checking service Pangram, short stories appearing in the title credited to the in-house team are now 100% AI generated, the publisher making the change to ensure the title’s “long term sustainability.”
Author Patsy Collins has posted her exchange about the development with the publisher on her blog, initially noting impending changes back in June. Patsy regularly contains information on writing fiction for magazines, so it’s a blog well worth bookmarking.
Business Rate Changes Needed? The Booksellers Association (BA) has called on the government to cut business rates for bookshops. The plea comes as Prime Minister Andy Burnham revealed last week that there would be a 20% business rates relief for pubs, clubs and live music venues.
The catalogue for the latest Vectis Comics & Publications Auction is online, taking place Thursday 13th August 2026 from 9.30pm UK time, online at vectis.co.uk. The auction includes British Marvel UK titles, Star Wars comics, bronze, silver, gold and modern age American comics, plus graphic novels, hardbound comics, annuals, hard, and paperback books. There’s a large selection of Marvel and DC comics too, with consecutive runs from Wonder Woman, Batman, Avengers, Superman and Justice League of America. Further items include first appearances from the Riddler, Ra’s al Ghul and others. The auction also includes issues from Dark Horse, Independent Comics, fanzines and similar. Check out the catalogue here
New Exhibition: “Window Hoppin’” is a new exhibition in the “Design Lives Here” Window in the Wellgate Shopping Centre in Dundee from Comics Youth SCIO a charity for children and young people aged 8-25, based in Dundee. The exhibition, created in partnership with Design Dundee, features character designs brought to life from 15 of our young people, co-curated and led by members of the charity’s 18-25 cohort “Off the Press”.
Frogs, Flies, Knights, and Critters – these character designs demonstrate the breadth of creativity coming from Dundee’s next generation of designers and artists!
“We’re immensely proud of all the work our young people put into this project,” they say, “we hope you check it out in person!” More information here
Doctor Who Comic Connections: In the hugely popular Doctor Who episode, “Turn Left” the street Donna’s house was filmed in is home to 2000AD and Doctor Who comic artist David Roach lives, who makes no secret of this fun fact, and is proud and public about it. However, fellow comic artist Mike Collins revealed recently, another Who comic luminary, the street that they turn out of, as the one by him is too narrow for a lorry, is the one behind where he used to live on the other side of Cardiff!
Talking of Doctor Who, over on his most excellent Boys Adventure Comics blog, Richard Sheaf has published a final selection of Barrie Mitchell’s Doctor Who comic art (for Marvel UK) from his exhibition earlier this year in Ryde.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Auctions, Books, British Comics, Comics, Doctor Who, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events, Exhibitions, Magazines, Other Worlds, Star Wars, Television
I love Marvel and DC, but spend 10 minutes in the graphic novel/trade paperback section of a comic shop and listen to the levels of confusion about what the numbering means, and you can see neither company is aware of how the marketing isn’t landing. I felt pained before now to step in and say “THIS volume 2 of the Flash you’re holding is not the follow up to THAT Volume 1, they’re different series.”
As for pamphlets, the book market has upended the business model in the last 25 years. However, one thing those monthly pamphlets still do best is let you open up the double page spreads so you can see who’s in the centre of the attacking team, or realise Batman’s kicking leg isn’t actually stunted at the hip. Monthlies should be the low-priced gateway to comics, but maybe that ship’s sailed. With reprint collections hot on the heels of each story arc, it’s a real golden age for comics readers who grew up trawling back issue bins.
As for “Take A.I. Break” (as we might now call it), can we assume the publisher will be paying royalties to people like me whom AI tools learned from? Or is that inconvenient fact being ignored?