Diamond Comic Distributors have canceled their annual retailer summit for 2024. Netflix’s Fate: The Winx Saga will return as an original graphic novel. Hercules is getting an ongoing series from Dynamite. All on Comic Book Club News for January 29, 2024.
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Episode Transcript:
Diamond has canceled this year’s retailer summit.
The Winx Saga returns as OGN.
Hercules comic coming from Dynamite.
This is Comic Book Club News for January 29, 2024.
Diamond Comic Distributors Cancels 2024 Retailer Summit:
A bit of an inside baseball story to kick off the week: Diamond Comic Distributors has canceled their 2024 retailer summit, which usually brings together comic book stores from around the country to discuss upcoming initiatives as well as issues surrounding the comic book industry. Instead, according to ICv2, the company will focus on upcoming trade events like ComicsPRO and San Diego Comic-Con.
This isn’t the first time Diamond has canceled the summit, though for a very different reason. In 2020, the annual gathering was canceled because of COVID, before coming back virtually in 2021, and then live again in 2022. However, for the most part the event has occurred annually since the 1980s.
So, what does this mean? The short answer is that it points pretty clearly to Diamond’s reduced standing in the industry. While it is still a vital part of getting comic books into comic book shops, more and more publishers are splitting their efforts between distributors like Lunar and Penguin Random House. While giving up the annual retailer summit is not a sign of defeat for Diamond, it does perhaps signal a sea change for the comic book industry as a whole.
With Marvel President Dan Buckley giving the keynote speech in late February at ComicsPro to various retailers, as well as Diamond, Lunar, and more, it will be interesting to see if he speaks to this change at all. Or if it’s one of those comic book public secrets that never gets talked about.
Fate: The Winx Saga Returns As An Original Graphic Novel:
Fans of Netflix’s canceled Fate: The Winx Saga, lament the loss no longer. After abruptly ending with Season 2, the story will continue in a new original graphic novel from Netflix and Maverick, a graphic novel imprint of Mad Cave Studios.
As reported by Major Spoilers, the new graphic novel is written by upcoming Comic Book Club live show guest Olivia Quartero-Briggs with art by Christianne Gillenardo-Goudreau. The official continuation of the series is titled Dark Destiny, and picks up after the death of one of the main fairy characters, at the show slash comic book’s central school for fairies.
Says Maverick, “In this new school year, Aisha, Kat, Terra and the rest of our heroes must face a mysterious new enemy that threatens to destroy everything they love.”
While this is probably small comfort for fans of the series, it does continue the long, convoluted life of the property that went from cult kids cartoon to live-action series, and now to graphic novels. The first volume in what is potentially a series of its own hits stores on July 2, 2024.
Disney’s Hercules Comic Coming From Dynamite:
And our final story today, as previously reported on the Comic Book Club website, Disney’s Hercules is getting a new ongoing series from Dynamite.
Set after the events of the classic animated movie, the new series will be written by Elliott Kalan, who is no stranger to the world, having just written Disney Villains: Hades for the publisher. He’ll be joined by artist George Kambadais for the ongoing series, which helps flesh out the more heroic side of Dynamite’s Disney offerings, including this week’s new Lilo & Stitch comic book.
Here’s the official synopsis:
“The Greek gods don’t really get why Hercules chose a mortal life over the opportunity to join them on Mt. Olympus, but since he proved his mettle as a hero many times over, they’re happy to enlist his help with missions that require interventions in the earthly realm. So when Aphrodite grants an artist’s wish that his sculpture be brought to life, Herc gets the call to clean things up when the newly conscious artwork proves to be more bone-crushingly lively than expected!
“But after discovering that the rogue statue is just misunderstood, and a little rambunctious (much like himself as a youth), Hercules returns to explain the situation to Aphrodite — only to find her temple empty and abandoned. Is the goddess of love just pouting, or is something more sinister afoot? If you know anything about classic mythology, you know it’s going to be the latter!”
The new series will hit stores on April 10, 2024.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And I’m taking this podcast from zero, to hero.
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