Image Comics Spawn titles have increased their cover price, but not because of tariffs. Ultimate Spider-Man once again topped the graphic novel sales charts. A planned Kickstarter for Stan Lee: The Final Chapter has been canceled.
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Episode Transcript:
Spawn titles increase cover price.
Ultimate Spider-Man tops graphic novel sales.
Stan Lee documentary Kickstarter canceled.
This is Comic Book Club News for April 10, 2025.
Spawn Titles Increase Cover Price, But Not Because Of Tariffs:
Image Comics’s Spawn titles will increase their cover price from $2.99 to $3.99 starting in June — but not because of the current Trade War caused by the United States.
Per Bleeding Cool, which has been connecting tariffs to everything, initially the site posited that the increase could be because of the Trade War. But, according to Image Comics: not so, as they’ve been discussing the price increase for a while, and any timing is purely coincidental.
Furthermore, the Image rep noted to the site, “Ultimately we hope not to have to increase the prices of our books in reaction to the new tariffs and have been exploring every option internally to avoid that scenario and keep our comics and graphic novels reasonably priced for the average consumer.”
While Todd McFarlane’s comics are not seeing a related increase, and as reported yesterday on the podcast graphic novels printed in China are not subject to the tariffs, his action figures are. After the Trump Tax hit, McFarlane Toys noted it would be increasing the price of select figures judiciously. However, with the tariff level ballooning to 104% as of this recording, we’ll see what happens next.
More on this as it develops.
Ultimate Spider-Man Tops March Graphic Novel Sales:
Ultimate Spider-Man once again swung its way to the top of the March 2025 graphic novel sales charts. Only this time, it was the second volume of the series that took the number one slot.
Per ICv2, volume 2 of the series was tops, with the first volume coming in at number three after six months of dominating the list. Daredevil: Born Again stayed strong at number seven, likely because of the new Disney+ series. Meanwhile, DC had an unusually light month, with only four Compact Comics making the Top 20.
The real winner of March? Arguably Image Comics, which took nine of the top slots. More specifically, Skybound, which provided seven of those titles. And more specifically Invincible, with three Compendiums, and two Digest editions all ranking in the top slots.
As for other publishers, Dark Horse’s Helen of Wyndhorn hit number 18, while IDW’s TMNT: The Last Ronin stayed on the charts for the umpteenth month in a row.
Kickstarter For Stan Lee: The Final Chapter Has Been Canceled:
A planned Kickstarter for Stan Lee: The Final Chapter, a documentary about the comic book legend, has been canceled — though perhaps not for the reason you might think.
Per The Beat, the film by Jon Bolerjack has been plagued with controversy since it was announced, mostly given the rewards including things like multiple screenings, and tours of sites from the movie — i.e. places where Lee was reportedly abused. The film also included footage Bolerjack shot of Lee being carted around to conventions against his will in the later days of his life, leading to a general feeling of concern about the project, to put it lightly.
Despite international attention, the Kickstarter had only raised $84,000 of a planned $300,000, and Bolerjack shut it down. But not because of the controversy. Instead, Bolerjack took it offline because he, “will be moving forward with the film’s production through generous outside support. We will be going back into production in the coming weeks and our plan is to wrap things up as soon as possible.”
So rather than deal with a controversial Kickstarter, pure speculation here but it seems like the press may have drummed up an outside investor. Is it to cash in on Lee’s legacy one more time? Or bring to light injustice, a la the superheroes Lee helped create? We’ll know more as this project continues to move forward to reality.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And umpteenth is a real number, look it up.
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