Let’s get rolling into 2026 with part three of our annual look at the year that was….and the year that will be in the comics industry. There’s always many newsy nuggets buried in the responses….how many can you spot? I already saw a big one!
You can read all the responses here….and thanks to all who participated! (and yes, this runs through Friday so if you really want to squeeze in your response…..maybe the form is still open?)
Andrew Pepoy, artist/writer
2026 Projects: Several things in the works, so TBD.
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? Death of Diamond
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026? Hopefully not the Death of DC, due to WB being sold again.
What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026? TBA (And there will actually be an announcement)
Do you have a local comics shop? What do you like (or love) about it? My local go-to’s in Chicago are Challengers Comics and Alley Cat Comics. A very different vibe to each, but each do a great service to the comics collector and newcomer. A special shout-out to Vault of Midnight in Grand Rapids, MI, which I stopped in by chance when in GR, and was incredibly impressed with the depth and variety of what they carried.
Jonathan Baylis, writer
2026 Projects: Launching the Kickstarter for So Buttons 15 in February. Also working on a cohesive 100-page So Buttons collection that I’d love to pitch to agents/publishers called It Ain’t You, It’s ME: A So Buttons ME-moir Also continuing to work on an Underground-inspired issue of So Buttons.
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? The Death of Diamond
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026? Hopefully the rebirth of comics distribution with indies included.
What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026? Doomsday.
Do you have a local comics shop? What do you like (or love) about it? Desert Island Comics – The best indie comix store in NYC (located in Brooklyn)
Laura Knetzger, Cartoonist
2026 Projects: I’m working on my unannounced graphic novel, making daily diary comics for my patreon, and hopefully making lots of other art.
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? I can’t really think of one. I’m glad no one close to me died.
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026? Publishers will give up on their idiotic fantasies of using AI to make books and recommit lots of resources to supporting the artists they hire. The bubble bursts and we never have to hear about or argue about AI ever again.
What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026? Getting lots of books from the library and only bothering to read them halfway.
Keiler Roberts, Cartoonist
2026 Projects: I’m running an unaccredited art school – Chlorine Gardens University. It’s free and enrollment is automatic. You’ve just been accepted. I’ll be offering online classes in 2026.
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026? Whatever it is, it’ll be ignored when the aliens arrive.
What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026? I’m working on making a coloring book.
Sean Von Gorman (of Comics), Einser Nominated Illustrator co creator of The Pedestrian
2026 Projects: The Lawrence Bother Detective Agency from Z2 Comics
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? The Diamond Distribution Bankruptcy Proceedings AKA The OJ Simpson Trial of Comics
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026? The Diamond Distribution Bankruptcy Proceedings Year 2
Andrew Neal, cartoonist & publisher
2026 Projects: I have written issue two of the third Val Cannon Mystery, No Raccoons in Hell, and will start drawing it shortly.
I thought I would have the third Meeting Comics collection, Tina and Ellie Take the Case, out in 2025, but life happened! However, I’m 95% of the way done with putting the book together and plan to run a kickstarter for that in short order. Here are a few pages from that:
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? I’m sticking with what I predicted last year as the biggest story and saying the end of Diamond Comic Distributors.
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026? I think the biggest comics industry story is not going to be treated as a comics industry story. It’s just going to be everything that keeps happening in “the real world.” If congress doesn’t do something about ACA subsidies, we’re going to lose a lot of cartoonists who can’t afford to have insurance any more. The work of all artists will continue to be devalued by the garbage pumped out by generative AI. There will be some kind of creative fallout at DC due to Netflix buying Warner. Everything’s going to keep getting more expensive and it will be harder for many people to justify buying comics. That will lead to more and more publishers just publishing their biggest creators and properties and taking fewer chances. Not only that, but as right wing ideologies settle in to being even more mainstream, the backlash against “DEI” will continue to have an impact on who is and isn’t published, in a negative way. They’ve arrested a dude and are possibly going to deport him for the “crime” of having zines, and I doubt he’ll be the last one. (Link to his gofundme).
What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026? Honestly? Time with my cats.
Do you have a local comics shop? What do you like (or love) about it? I like Acme Comics in Greensboro a lot. Jermaine Exum is a solid dude who puts his whole heart into the business.
Troy-Jeffrey Allen, Writer-Producer
2026 Projects: We’re over here closing out production on AFROFUTURES, an oversized, 18+ comics magazine packed with articles, black & white comics, and full-color comics! 20+ creators, nine stories, and one DJ! AFROFUTURES invites Black creatives to run wild with their unique, thunderous imaginations! Check out our lookbook!
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? The collapse of Diamond. Easily. An industry-wide disruption that has left individuals and companies scrambling. It actually exposed what the typically tight-lipped distributor meant to the industry. We saw how it kept the weekly and monthly ordering process just streamlined enough for small businesses to effectively navigate. Unfortunately, it also exposed how much influence companies like UPS had on the market overall.
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026? With distribution decentralized, I think an indie uprising is imminent. Not an “indie” owned by a larger comic company or media organization, but a title or creator that no one is paying attention to now. Someone or something that will catch fire on the convention circuit or on a crowd-funding platform. Or maybe from another corner that will be completely unexpected.
What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026? Selfishly, I’m looking forward to what happens with Eli Schwab and his Cosmic Lion Productions. My book is coming out from them, but beyond that I think you’re seeing a band of indie creators rallying together to make some truly impressive work. I’ve always gotten the impression that once comics started being made digitally, the bullpen camaraderie of comics has begun to fade (I’m certain the pandemic didn’t help with that). Yet, CLP has an interesting collection of next gen creators mingling with seasoned creators. Despite the geographic and cultural differences, we are in a constant ongoing conversation with each other. We’re all learning from each other and producing comics that are both fresh and gnarly.
Bob Fingerman, Comic Creator/Writer/Illustrator
2026 Projects: Two new projects. First is a collection of comics I did from age 9 through 17. Second will be an all-new solo comics anthology.
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? Diamond imploding
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026? How everyone will survive, get their work distributed, stay relevant in these trying times.
Tim Fish, writer/artist
2026 Projects: Deep into my PhD in Creative Writing, with my core creative project a sci-fi graphic novel–the first time a graphic novel has been through such a practice-based program at any school in Ireland (I’m told).
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? The boycott and cancellation of the Angouleme Festival. For creators, publishers, and local officials to bring about change is pretty remarkable.
Do you have a local comics shop? What do you like (or love) about it? Hub Comics, Somerville MA and Little Deer, Dublin Ireland. Great graphic novel selections and knowledgeable + helpful staff.
Wayne Rée, Writer
2026 Projects: I’m part of two anthologies that will be released internationally in 2026. HOW ARE YOU FEELING? is a collection of previously published single-issue comics about topics that aren’t discussed nearly enough. Together with Nurjannah Suhaimi, I co-created a story called WORLDS APART: A CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH. While catching up with her friend over coffee, a young woman named Charissa reveals that she was recently diagnosed with depression. What follows is Charissa dispelling some common misconceptions about mental health—by using popular genres like fantasy, sci-fi, and superheroes as visual metaphors. I’m also part of DELAY: A COMICS ANTHOLOGY, which features a short story I co-created with Nadia Daeng-Rée and Abigail Goh Tian-I called “Time For That Later”. Meera’s life is going well—until her father suffers a stroke. As she transitions into her new role as a caregiver, she notices that time starts to bend and reshape itself. Three hours with her fiancé feels like three minutes, while an hour with her dad feels like a day. We follow Meera on her journey, as she adjusts to her new life—its struggles, its tragedies, and even its beauty. This story was inspired by my co-creators’ actual lived experiences as caregivers.
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? The ramifications of Diamond’s bankruptcy were certainly felt all the way here in Singapore. WORK-LIFE BALANCE: MALEVOLENT MANAGERS AND FOLKLORIC FREELANCERS—a prose/comics hybrid by myself and Benjamin Chee—was released internationally in 2024. We don’t know how the bankruptcy has affected our sales over the last year, but it’s definitely made it even more difficult to publicise the book in an already crowded market. It’ll be available internationally (again!) in 2026, through a new distributor.
What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026? I’m always game for a fun crossover, so I’m really looking forward to Mark Waid and Jorge Jiménez’s SUPERMAN/SPIDER-MAN.
Do you have a local comics shop? What do you like (or love) about it? A few here in Singapore are worth shouting out! G&B Comics and Comics Grail Vault are great shops for your regular fix of new releases, but Kalibak’s Kave is the place to go for back issues.
Stuart Moore, Writer/Ops
2026 Projects: I have a story in the TOXIC AVENGER TEAM-UP tpb in January. Working on a few Marvel-related book projects that I cannot announce yet. And a new project with amazing artist June Brigman!
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? The continuing burdens this administration places on ordinary Americans, giving them less and less income to spend on things they love (like comics).
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026? I hope the answer isn’t “catastrophic economic collapse,” but it’s on my bingo card.
What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026? I think I’ve got a vinyl record player under the tree, so that should provide some silly fun.
Josh Neufeld, Cartoonist / Comics Journalist
2026 Projects: I’m working on a new piece for The Journalist’s Resource (out of the Shorenstein Center at Harvard U.). Every year they are given a grant to sponsor a piece of comics journalism based on academic research, and for five years now, I’ve been fortunate to be tapped for the job. So far, I’ve done stories on pandemics and the pervasive myth of “Black immunity,” COVID vaccination in under-served communities, teaching empathy in med schools, and a partnership between Black churches and a Chicago med center as they combat high blood pressure. This year we’re working on a piece about so-called “health information blocking” and the growing use of patient portals to provide test results and other information with patients. The piece will track the rise of the “open notes” movement and talk to people on both sides of the debate. This is the kind of story that people have strong opinions about! As usual, I’ll also be putting out other short comics journalism pieces during the year, but it’s impossible to predict them until real-world events call out to be translated into comics form! Finally, I’m working on a long-form project about typography, where I’m adapting the work of two experts on the topic into a nonfiction graphic novel. For comics fans, it’s more than just about lettering and title treatments. For what it’s worth, we’re hoping it will become the “Understanding Comics” of typography. But of course it will be some years before it sees print.
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? Tessa Hulls? Any time a graphic novel wins a freakin’ Pulitzer Prize — and the Eisner Award for Best Graphic Novel — in the same year is big story. Congrats to her and her hugely impressive graphic memoir, “Feeding Ghosts”!
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026? I’m no oracle, and the industry is so diverse — and in such constant upheaval — that I have no handle on what the future holds. (I’m also a bit of a Pollyanna, so I’m not one for dark and dire predictions.) When I look at the role of comics in mainstream culture (as distinct from “mainstream superheroes,” lol) now compared to where it was when I was coming up in the 1980s, I continually thank my lucky stars. And I continue to look hopefully to the horizon.
What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026? I’d have to say “The Mandalorian and Grogu”! Thanks in large to the “Star Wars Minute” podcast guys (Alex Robinson and Pete the Retailer), my obsession with Star Wars has really peaked in the last decade, and I’ve immersed myself — in varying degrees — in the new live-action content Disney’s been putting out. (“Andor” to me is like a new book of the bible. PERFECT TELEVISION.) I loved “The Mandalorian”‘s first two seasons, wasn’t so enamored of season 3, but am always happy to see what Favreau and Filoni are cooking up next for this generation’s Boba Fett and Baby Yoda.
Do you have a local comics shop? What do you like (or love) about it? My “local” shop is Forbidden Planet on Broadway in NYC. I’ve been going there since I was a teenager, and despite all the changes they and the comics industry have gone though, they remain dedicated to comics in all its forms. Sure, they’ve moved the toys and other “comics-related” merch up front — for the tourists — but they still stock all the comics, from mainstream to alt- to self-published, and there’s a lot to be said for that!
Doug Latino, Writer & Editor
2026 Projects: Come Fall 2026, the release of an as-of-yet-announced anthology that I co-edited with Dean Haspiel should be breaking new ground, from Cosmic Lion Productions. (hardcover, 210 pages) It will contain 99% new stories and art, all created specifically for the book.
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? Incredibly, like he hasn’t been lionized enough already, it’s simply undeniable that it’s R. Crumb. For/from Crumb in 2025 we saw a big, award winning biography from Dan Nadel, the first new comic in over 20 years, his art in the Whitney Museum’s Sixties Surreal exhibit, the solo Paranoia show at David Zwiner L.A., and he continues to see a robust market for his original art.
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026? Hopefully an increasing outcry against artificial intelligence generally and the demise of those who had attempted to commercialize A.I. comics stories and art.
What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026? I can’t lie. We have really high hopes for the sprawling anthology I am co-editing with Dean Haspiel from Cosmic Lion Productions that will have a truly block-buster list of accomplished and well known creators, writers, and artist contributors.
Do you have a local comics shop? What do you like (or love) about it? St. Marks Comics at Industry City, Sunset Park, Brooklyn. I love that it’s huge and has a good sized graphic novel selection including non-fiction & autobio graphic novels.
Adan Jimenez, Writer, editor, and translator
2026 Projects: Xocolatl: Language in an Alien Spacetime by Adan Jimenez and Josephine Tan, published by Difference Engine; Free to Play: A Video Game Anthology, eds. Adan Jimenez, Daryl Lim Wei Jie, Joses Ho, and Natalie Wang, published by Difference Engine.
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? The Baker & Taylor shutdown
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026? The eventual sale of Warner Bros.
What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026? Spending more money on video games I probably won’t play for years and years
Dan Goldman, Writer/Artist/Publisher
2026 Projects: In 2026 I’m continuing to serialize the second season of my tropical horror comic RED LIGHT PROPERTIES in biweekly episode drops as part of Kinjin Storylab, where I also publish new short stories, serialized novellas and a podcast. In addition, I’m aiming to launch our second hardcover graphic novel MONSEY BLUES, written by me and illustrated by Hernan Gonzalez.
What was the biggest comics industry story in 2025? The total collapse of the distributor monopoly, leaving many independent publishers in the lurch. While this year was difficult to navigate, it’s pushed me to go fully B2B sales and DIY fulfillment, which has been its own adventure. It’s always in chaos that new systems are born. I don’t think we’ve arrived there yet as an industry, but the first steps are surely being taken by handfuls of people prepping to share the next path forward.
What will be the biggest comics industry story in 2026? There will be a magic solution to all our problems: the final death of capitalism, after which point ART will be for growth, imagination, pleasure, and communion once again. And the flowers will grow high above the polluted winds, wild animals will venture out from their dens to live amongst us, wars will end because they were only really about money anyways, and everyone will toss their phones into the sea and spend the rest of the night singing and holding hands and kissing with tongue by roaring campfires around the world.
What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2026? I want to give and receive many more massages than I did in 2025.
