Get ready for a lot of stuff coming in 2024! This year’s survey is full of worries about creator compensation and treatment…but there are more exciting projects coming out than maybe ever before! Feast your eyes on previews from multiple publishers below and check out part 1 of the survey here.
Ursula Murray Husted, cartoonist
2024 Projects: I am coloring Botticelli’s Apprentice, my middle grade graphic novel edited by the brilliant Jennifer Ung at Quilltree Books/HarperCollins!
In 1480’s Florence, Notte is secretly teaching herself to paint while taking care of artist Sandro Botticelli’s chickens. It is about persisting, finding your voice, and a dog who makes very bad choices.
What is your guilty pleasure for 2024? I am looking forward to reading Glynnis Fawkes’ ‘1177 B.C. A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed’, a translation in comics of Eric H. Cline’s bestselling 1177 B.C. and ‘Somewhere Beyond the Sea’, the sequel to TJ Klune’s ‘The House in the Cerulean Sea’. I will also probably indulge in a new fountain pen or two and eat many pavlovas.
What do you want to see change the most in the comics industry in 2024? I would love to see more risks taken by publishers in addition to the books with obvious commercial potential. Bring on the poetry, literary puzzles, unusual genres, and beautiful books with audiences that are difficult to define. Let there be more inspiring weirdness for folks of all ages!
Liz Frances, Publisher
2024 Projects: Here at Street Noise, we’re dedicated to publishing powerful, authentic books that push readers to give a damn about the world and the people around them. I strive to make sure our list always keeps you on your toes and is never boring! In 2024 Street Noise is proud to bring you fascinating new graphic novels whose authors have challenged me and changed the way I look at the world — and I know these books will do the same for everyone who reads them. For example:
You Must Take Part in Revolution, by Melissa Chan and Badiucao (on sale 6/4/24) — From acclaimed journalist Melissa Chan and esteemed Chinese dissident artist Badiucao comes a near-future graphic novel dystopia that explores technology, authoritarian government, and the lengths that one will go to in the fight for freedom. The publication of this book commemorates the five-year anniversary of the protests in Hong Kong.
Gaytheist, by Lonnie Mann (on sale 2/6/24) — A heartrending coming-of-age graphic novel memoir about a young man who, growing up in an Orthodox Jewish community, realizes he’s gay and struggles to reconcile his faith with who he is.
Crazy Like a Fox, by Christi Furnas (on sale 4/9/24) — This candid and humorous autobiographically-inspired graphic novel explores mental health and schizophrenia in a surprising and emotionally honest story with a fantastical cast of animal characters.
Biggest story of ’23: I’m not tapped into the stories of the comics industry. But one of the highlights of the year for me was Street Noise tabling at SPX for the first time! What an amazing event! I loved meeting so many incredibly talented people all under one roof for a few days!
What will be the biggest story of 2024? For me, I hope the two biggest stories will be peace in the Middle East, and the defeat of Donald Trump in the election. And as for comics, I’m hoping that at least one of Street Noise’s books is nominated for an Eisner Award!
What is your guilty pleasure for 2024? I’m hoping to travel the world and have adventures.
What do you want to see change the most in the comics industry in 2024? I’d like to see more opportunities to come together and support one another.
J.T. Yost, cartoonist
2024 Projects: I stepped away from running Birdcage Bottom Books earlier this year, so I’ve had more time to draw my own comics lately. I’m currently working on collecting and risograph printing some comics I did for anthologies as well as drawing new ones specifically tailored to risograph.
Biggest story of ’23: I’ve been impressed with the amount of diverse voices in the comics industry over the last few years. Reading is proven to increase empathy by allowing us access to other points of view and experiences outside of our own. I feel like indie comics artists and publishers have been on the forefront of inclusion with the establishment now playing catchup.
If you want something more specific, I’d say the passing of Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Joe Matt were devastating losses to the comics community.
What will be the biggest story of 2024? The age-old battle over which spelling is correct (comics or comix) will be settled. Blood will be spilled, but it will be settled once and for all.
What is your guilty pleasure for 2024? I feel guilty whenever I try a new vegan offering from fast food chains like Burger King or Taco Bell, but I also feel the need to help show them there is a demand for having veg options.
What do you want to see change the most in the comics industry in 2024? Less focus on Marvel and D.C., more focus on all the incredible indie comics out there.
Liana Kangas, Creator/Cartoonist/artist
2024 Projects: Two second creator owned series (not a follow up to TRVE KVLT or Know Your Station but) with Scott Bryan Wilson and Sarah Gailey, as well as some really fun IP work on some major licenses I love!
Biggest story of ’23: Readjusting back to hopefully a new normal!
What will be the biggest story of 2024? Hopefully something that will rejuvenate and save comic shops moving forward.
What is your guilty pleasure for 2024? Seeing friends at conventions again!
Andrew Pepoy, artist/writer
2024 Projects: My second self-published book, a hardcover collection of all the black & white Simone & Ajax stories from the 1990’s, will be released in the spring by my own Spicy Tomato Studios. Please click Buy Books at www.pepoy.com for more info. Also out next year will be the graphic novel adaptation of George MacDonald’s Phantastes, which I’m drawing the second half of, for Cave Pictures Publishing. As well, I’m drawing a special comic book to be included in the vinyl reissue of The Universe of Geoffrey Brown by Captain Sensible, founding member of The Damned. Plus I’ll be continuing to draw covers for various titles, including new Archie Comics covers. I have several other projects in the works yet to be announced, but hopefully I’ll also be running a Kickstarter for my own creation, spacegirl comic Monica Moon.
Biggest story of ’23: The continuing downtown of the direct sales market, along with the boom in kids’ graphic novels in the mainstream market.
What will be the biggest story of 2024? Probably the same as I listed for 2023
What is your guilty pleasure for 2024? For me, is music, not comics, I’m splurging on in 2024, going to the Cruel World and likely Darker Waves festivals, as I did in 2023.
What do you want to see change the most in the comics industry in 2024? Page rates! How can publishers expect people to produce good work long-term if rates haven’t gone up in 20 years and are not able to be lived on?
Anthony Del Col, Writer
2024 Projects: More non-fiction digital comics with the Pulitzer Prize-winning team at Insider (including the tragic story of the Adriana shipwreck, which occurred while the attention of the world was on the submarine that exploded while visiting the Titanic wreckage) and a relaunch / reboot of my indie series KILL SHAKESPEARE (Gemstone).
Biggest story of ’23: New publishers entering the industry with new business / participation models… but with limited success.
What will be the biggest story of 2024? Increasing fears of A.I. replacing artists.
What is your guilty pleasure for 2024? Reading David Harper and James Tynion’s long, detailed breakdowns of all aspects of the industry.
What do you want to see change the most in the comics industry in 2024? Less focus on business models, more focus on simply telling good stories.
Rebecca Taylor, Editorial Director
2024 Projects: The launch of Inklore, a new global pop comics imprint from Penguin Random House, specializing in manga, manhwa, and webtoons! Fan favorite properties will kick off 2024, including MY LOVE STORY WITH YAMADA-KUN AT LV999, CHERRY BLOSSOMS AFTER WINTER, and UNDER THE OAK TREE.
Biggest story of ’23: The announcement of Ghost Machine.
What is your guilty pleasure for 2024? More BL titles coming out from more publishers!
What do you want to see change the most in the comics industry in 2024? I would love to see better infrastructure for creators so they are better taken care of financially, medically, and artistically.
Alexander Finbow, Publisher, Renegade Press
2024 Projects: SHOUT KILL REVEL by Jarret Hartnell – Quid Pro Crow by Bill Slavin – Cradle’s End (Shame book 6) by Lovern Kindzierski & John Bolton – ROTH (book 1 in the Wheetago War series) by Richard Van Camp & Christopher Shy. This is a big year for us with 3 really big books coming out.
Biggest story of ’23: Seeing the growing realization that the economics in monthly comics really don’t work for creators, publishers, retailers and increasingly readers.
What will be the biggest story of 2024? Perhaps a monthly comics sales crash, and I mean unit sales as opposed to revenue, perhaps consolidation in the indie comics publisher space.
What is your guilty pleasure for 2024? Attending TCAF, to catch up with colleagues and friends.
What do you want to see change the most in the comics industry in 2024? A move to more stories being told in a collected form from the get go. Thinking just as a monthly comic lover, and someone with a pull list. With monthly comics booming increasingly expensive (especially here in Canada thanks to the exchange rate), I’m having to cut my list right back. It’s got to the point where it is hard to justify the monthly budget outlay when compared to food, vacations, toys (cough, cough, I mean collectables), and housing costs.
Shaenon K. Garrity, Writer, editor, cartoonist
2024 Projects: Chris Baldwin and I are coming out with THE NEFARIOUS NIGHTS OF WILLOWWEEP MANOR, the sequel to our graphic novel THE DIRE DAYS OF WILLOWWEEP MANOR.
Biggest story of ’23: Webcomics are back, and they’re bigger than ever, baby! Comics megasites like Webtoons and Tapas have been dominating, but individual online comics like Tracy Butler’s LACKADAISY are also finding huge new audiences.
What will be the biggest story of 2024? I’m looking forward to the final volume of Kazu Kibuishi’s AMULET (fingers crossed).
What is your guilty pleasure for 2024? I will watch literally hundreds of horror movies.
What do you want to see change the most in the comics industry in 2024? Better pay and treatment for creators, especially new creators.
Nate Powell, cartoonist
2024 Projects: I have two new books out early in 2024: my new solo graphic novel FALL THROUGH will be out February 6th from Abrams ComicArts, and my adaptation of James Loewen’s influential LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME will be out April 16th from The New Press.
Biggest story of ’23: It may not be the biggest story, but I think the debut of DSTLRY’s line is exactly what needed to happen at this moment, recentering a missing middle-ground of adult-level books in a more Euro format, creator-owned and centered. A great clearing of space for this work.
What will be the biggest story of 2024? It’ll undoubtedly be the outcome and impact of ongoing far-right campaigns of censorship and intimidation throughout the US, exploiting the visual nature of comics and the unfamiliarity with the medium’s breadth to crush access to information, ideas, and voices. The acceleration of fascism at all levels is very real and highly organized, and comics are central targets in one front of their power grab.
What is your guilty pleasure for 2024? I’m a lifelong X-Men devotee, and after 25 years away I fell headlong back into X-Men for the last year of the Krakoan era (and caught up on those missing decades!). I’m greatly looking forward to what unfolds in FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X/ RISE OF THE POWERS OF X, and all that follows.
What do you want to see change the most in the comics industry in 2024? I don’t know what the solution is to this, but I deeply feel both the personal and professional impact of losing Twitter as a public sphere– underscoring that we simply cannot rely on any social media platform to bind our networks or means of interconnected expression outside of the books we make. The future is NOT social media.
Alison Sampson, artist, sometimes writer
2024 Projects: Creator owned sequentials/ a series for a company I’ve worked for before, which I can’t talk about yet, and repeat work on a very popular series I’ve guested on. No art to show off, but I’ll include a page of my Iron Maiden anthology story from this year which will be in shops. This was me writing and drawing and coming RIGHT out of my comfort zone not for the first time, people seemed to like it, and I liked both the writing and the getting out of the comfort zone, so that. I’ve enjoyed doing quite a lot of cover work this year- also relatively new to me- and there’s a a lot more to post, so hopefully more of those too. Think Of A City needs to be picked up again, and there’s another embryonic mass art project that might be a thing- depends if I have any time left..
Biggest story of ’23: A greater acceptance of where the market is now.
What will be the biggest story of 2024? It’ll be something to do with labour, because it feels like globally labour is having a moment, or is going to. Whether it be the development of court cases around AI and the ownership of art, or people taking a position with respect to that technology, or people moving to creator owned work, or to their own ownership (see DSTLRY), as wealth inequality increases, ordinary people are looking at what they bring to the table and how to safeguard their livelihoods. It’s just a guess, and comics has seemed to be very immune from labour issues for so long. So maybe not. But if people reading this don’t take steps to protect themselves from AI scraping/ stealing their content (e.g. dropbox, making more traditional art) in some form, I’d be very surprised. Is this a ‘big’ story? Maybe less ‘big’ and more ‘everyone’.
What is your guilty pleasure for 2024? Time off. We took all of April 2023 off to go Interrailing and frankly, it was fantastic. No big trips planned, but we saw the value in not working every single minute.
What do you want to see change the most in the comics industry in 2024? Less bigotry (and cynical exploitation of that bigotry), by way of older comics men going to get ‘their’ guys.
Charlie Stickney, Writer/Publisher
2024 Projects: I thrilled to have an abundance of White Ash Universe material in the pipeline. February will bring the long-awaited next issue of our White Ash saga. Later in the year we’ll be releasing more Glarien and a White Ash noir tale from the 1950’s. And then rounding out the year, Conor Hughes will return from a short White Ash sabbatical (working on a Top Secret project that’s going to make him the first Hughes people think of in comics… or at least second) to finish off the inaugural arc of The Game. Plus there will be more HISMWTC. And maybe a surprise announcement… once we get the paperwork signed.
Biggest story of ’23: The Good Omens Kickstarter. It might seem an odd choice to some, but to me the fact that Neil Gaiman, one of the icons of the comic industry, thought he would do better on Kickstarter than through a traditional publishing deal, to me spoke volumes about the current state of comics. 2023 was the year a lot of creators started to bet on themselves, and the Good Omens Kickstarter was the gold standard of creator empowerment.
What will be the biggest story of 2024? Contraction. I think the industry during covid expanded past a point of sustainability. 2024 could (unfortunately) bring a market correction with (again, unfortunately) some publishers closing up shop. We’ll also likely lose a few more stores and creators to other industries. While this may seem to be a pessimistic outlook, I’m very optimistic the industry that emerges in 2025 will be built on a sturdier foundation. And will be one be more lucrative for creators, publishers and stores alike as we focus on what the readers of tomorrow (along with today) want to pick up.
What is your guilty pleasure for 2024? Conventions. I may be crazy, but I love getting a chance to meet fans in person. And getting to talk to other creators in person, and see what excites them in comics, always renews my enthusiasm in the medium.
What do you want to see change the most in the comics industry in 2024? More creators, publishers and stores trying something new to push the industry forward. Covid supercharged both crowdfunding for creators and live sale channels for retailers as ways to bring comics to readers. Comics as an industry needs more innovation and we need to find all those next things together to ensure its longevity.
