Good morning, and happy Monday! This weekend I’ll be heading down to Portland for Rose City Comic Con. I’m really looking forward to a chance to celebrate comics, because folks, this past week has been pretty terrible! Heres are the highlights:
This week carried some unsettling news about the effect of the U.S. trade war with China — tarriffs will now be affecting books printed in China. Folks… this is BAD. Needless to say it is going to disproportionately affect smaller distributors, and even large ones that can swallow the cost will pass that on to consumers. It’s definitely not a thing the comics market needs right now.
Another thing the market doesn’t need? Printers vanishing and abandoning stock!
If you have done work with @KrakenPrint AND have inventory at their warehouse, contact the warehouse IMMEDIATELY!
The warehouse has put a lien on all #krakenprint inventory due to nonpayment. Contact info in link:https://t.co/n6tSOVyOW2#comics #indiecomics
— trevoramueller (@trevoramueller) August 30, 2019
The warehouse in question is doing creators a solid by giving them a chance to recover stock, but it’s still a very disturbing thing to see a printer just up and vanish.
In Brazil, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro sent police to round up copies of Avengers: The Children’s Crusade due to on panel depictions of Wiccan and Hulkling’s queer relationship. The move quickly became a cultural flashpoint as an injunction was issued to stop the round-up. Brazil’s Court of Justice later overturned that injunction, allowing the move to proceed, but by then attendees had bought every copy of the book in stock at the festival, with some even buying large quantities of copies to instead pass out for free. Additionally, the largest newspaper in Brazil ran an image of the offending material (Teddy and Billy kissing) on its front page. While this seems like cause for celebration, and a victory of sorts, it’s important to note that the mayor still has the law on his side in this scenario–it wasn’t just about rounding up this book, it was about establishing a precedent that makes it easier to round up future “offensive” material. This was a legal test, and after a brief challenge, it’s gone in his favor, which is bad news going forward.
I told you, this week was terrible! Here’s some quick hits:
Crunchyroll will be acquiring a majority stake in VIZ Media Europe.
A few veteran comics critics have announced the formation of Fieldmouse Press, a new publishing house.
