Is DC Future State the Future of Monthly Superhero Comics?

Ravings

Earlier this year, I laid out how Marvel Comics could streamline its monthly superhero line to just 12 books. This “What If?” scenario involved not just thinning Marvel’s superhero line, but completely rethinking how the company could and should deliver comics to readers. Most of us who want mainstream superhero comics to attract new readers know that the monthly, 20-page, $3.99 periodical has just not been getting the job done. If the Big Two superhero publishers want to increase their books’ audiences, I posited, something big needed to change.

Part of my plan was to condense several of Marvel’s “families” of titles into one, core monthly anthology. Rather than paying $12 a month to follow Iron Man, War Machine, and Rescue, Iron Man fans would be able to pick up one $5-7 book featuring all three of those characters. That way, the Marvel Universe would not contract substantially, fans would get more story for their money, and each character’s stories could eventually be split off into separate (monthly) digital series and trade paperbacks – so those who really want to read about just War Machine could do that if they liked.

I’d planned to follow up on my Marvel article by creating a “reduced” DC Universe before the end of the year … but then DC Comics beat me to it:

Continue reading →

vertical scroll webcomics strengths featured

The Unique Strengths of Vertical Scroll Webcomics

Ravings

Webcomics are one of my big comics blindspots. For a host of reasons (most notably, that I already spend ~8 hrs at a computer each day), I’ve never kept up with webcomics regularly. I think I’ve read exactly one webcomic front to back … no wait, I clicked that link, and there are years’ worth of pages I haven’t seen. See? I am terrible at following webcomics.

Because this blog professes to be about ALL comics, I’ve recently considered starting a new, webcomics-focused feature. I figure this new feature might help me fill in the gaps of my webcomics knowledge and also encourage me to re-engage with comics I started reading but dropped over the years.

As I began my “research,” I clicked over to what I’ve been told is one of the current hottest webcomics platforms: Webtoon. After poking around a bit, I settled on reading Tower of God … and I was met with a very different kind of comic.

Continue reading →

BONUS: Get the #SPOOKY Issue of Extra Crunchy Fun for Free

Ravings

It’s my birthday later this month, so I’m giving all Matt Reads Comics readers a gift! (Yes, it is my birthday, and I am giving YOU a gift.)

My wife and I love Halloween, so we worked extra hard on the latest, #SPOOKY issue of our zine, Extra Crunchy Fun. It is full of stories, games, recipes, and pin-ups that will get you in the mood for this time of spooks and specters, and you can download it for free by clicking here or clicking the cover image below:

we only find them when theyre dead featured image

Will BOOM! Studios Be to the 2020s What Image Comics Was to the 2010s?

Ravings

In the early 2010s, Image Comics launched a plethora of kick-ass, hype-generating monthly comics series, written by a murderers’ row of writers pulled from Marvel and DC. Those series, including but not limited to East of West, Lazarus, Sex Criminals, The Wicked + The Divine, and Bitch Planet, quickly became the books I was most excited to buy each month (or every six months, for those I bought in trades).

At the time of this writing, most of those early 2010s Image hits have either ended, gone on hiatus, or shifted to irregular release schedules. And while I love plenty of Image’s current output, as a whole, those series are not generating the same amount of hype or sales (maybe arguable, but I looked – compare Image’s market share from 2014 and 2019) as Image’s early 2010s line-up.

So where did that heat Image Comics had at the start of last decade go? Well, in the 2020s, there’s another indie publisher that’s pumping out hit after hit written by some of Marvel and DC’s current top writers – and that’s BOOM! Studios.

Continue reading →

We Are Not Brimpers, But …

Ravings

… my wife and I both enjoy Sex Criminals. Which is why, for our fifth wedding anniversary, I got us matching Running Is Bullshit tank tops.

When we lived in South Korea, it seemed like every couple there was matchy-matchy. That is, they wore coordinated or straight-up matching outfits whenever they went out together. Matchy-matchy is not and never has been Kat and my’s style. The closest we’ve come to purposely wearing matching outfits has been at weddings (coordinated dresses and ties) and mud runs (where there is often a theme).

Continue reading →