SKTCHD

For as long as the direct market — or the side of the comic industry centered on comic shops — has existed, attracting new readers has been a challenge. While there would be the occasional uptick, like during DC’s The New 52 relaunch in 2011 or the speculator-driven pandemic boom, those are usually rare and brief. Newcomers tend to recede as quickly as they arrive. We know that isn’t always the case, though, because a funny thing happened over the past two years.

Welcome to Double Take, a column dedicated to highlighting different comics and each’s merits through a discussion between two veterans of the comic site space. One is yours truly, the person behind the Eisner Award-winning SKTCHD, David Harper, and the other is friend of the site and the Eisner Award-winning comics critic Oliver Sava. It’s a big day for Marvel. It brings the arrival of Midnight, the publisher’s new, horror-centric, “don’t call it an attempt at Absolutizing their characters” line.

It’s a monster week in the comic world, and I’m not just saying that because the literally monster laden Midnight books are hitting. There’s a lot to cover, though, so let’s get straight to my buys, recommendations, and curiosities from the week of comics in another edition of The Pull.

Cartoonist Beetle Moses joins the show to talk about his webcomic, Beetle Moses, and its first print collection, Beetle Moses: A Comics Menagerie.

Cape & Cowl Con wasn’t the only place where I recorded a live podcast recently, as I guested at the excellent Lexington Comic Con in Kentucky and had the chance to host not just one panel but two, both of which were recorded. They were also a very good time, and we’re going to be sharing both of those over the next two weeks. Up first was another fantasy draft, but this time, we went more in a traditional direction.

Art rep Felix Lu joins the show to talk about the story behind his company, Felix Comic Art, and the original comic art market.

What a week. That is not a compliment. Let’s get into a frankly rough stretch in another edition of Comics Disassembled, as I write about the things I liked or didn’t like from the week of comics, led by a couple major losses. Tapas, Closing Up In wild, and wildly unexpected news, the second biggest name in vertical scroll comics — Tapas — is shutting down.

Welcome to The Monthly Readcap, a new, hopefully monthly column here on SKTCHD where I’m going to do something very atypical for me: review comic books. One of my most frequently asked questions is why reviews aren’t something I do. The main reason is that so many other sites do it already, and they do it well. So, why try to compete, especially considering the fact that my whole goal is to zig while others zag. Reviews just don’t make a ton of sense for me. Plus, they’re not my favorite thing to do.

It’s the Chip Chat we’ve been building to all year. And that’s because it’s the moment writer Chip Zdarsky has been building to all year. That’s right. This edition of Chip Chat, the monthly interview series between me and Chip Zdarsky, is all about what happened in Avengers: Armageddon #4, the surprising arrival of (redacted), the shocking death of (redacted), the journey to that moment coming to life, what it means for his Avengers run, and a whole lot more.

It’s the Chip Chat we’ve been building to all year. And that’s because it’s the moment writer Chip Zdarsky has been building to all year. That’s right. This edition of Chip Chat, the monthly interview series between me and Chip Zdarsky, is all about what happened in Avengers: Armageddon #4, the surprising arrival of (redacted), the shocking death of (redacted), the journey to that moment coming to life, what it means for his Avengers run, and a whole lot more.