And, lo, we do come to the end of another year of linkblogging, as this decade looks set to grab some honours as one of the most chaotic in recent memory for the industry of comics, with buyouts, bankruptcies, and best-ofs closing out 2025, below.
in retrospect Termite Greg may not have been the best one to take the group holiday photo
This week’s news.
• Picking last week’s biggest story back up, and the vying for ownership of Warner Bros. looked set to settle down somewhat this week, as Paramount’s hostile takeover bid lost one of its financial backers, Jared Kushner’s investment firm Affinity, meaning that Netflix appears to be back to the front of the line for acquisition, barring any flags on the play from the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.
• In other acquisition news, Sony this week announced that it has purchased Canadian media company Wildbrain's stake in Peanuts Holdings LLC, giving the media giant ownership of around 80% of the company, with members of Charles M. Schulz's family owning the remaining 20%, while day-to-day management of the business of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, et al will remain in the hands of Peanuts Worldwide.
• Closing out this week's buyout triptych, NBM Publishing announced this week that it has been acquired by Ablaze Publishing in an asset sale, including branding and catalogs, with NBM co-founder Terry Nantier staying on board as an editorial consultant and packager for Ablaze following the close of the sale.
• Elsewhere, in the continuing saga of Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy proceedings, JPMorgan Chase decided that things needed spicing up to close out the year and declined the continuation of Diamond’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, paving the way to Chapter 7 liquidation — ICv2 and The Beat have summaries of the increasingly convoluted status quo, as Diamond continues to rack up debts and hold onto publisher inventories, and legal notices ping back and forth.
• Comics prizes news, and Tjeerd Royaards was named last weekend as this year’s winner of the European Cartoon Award, for work published in Trouw, while Emad Hajjaj and Zehra Ömeroğlu were named as this year’s Runners-up.
hare hare hawk
— VER @ drawing comics (@verface.bsky.social) 2025-08-21T20:16:19.327Z
This week’s reviews.
TCJ
Helen Chazan reviews the violent delights of Kazuichi Hanawa’s Light of the Moon, translated by Dan Luffey — “Ero guro as an artistic movement responds and reacts to the twin snakes of modernity and fascism, suggesting that beneath the sanitary appearance of society lies putrid private lives ruled by violence and amoral urges. Kazuichi Hanawa's stories suggest another possibility — that violence and cruelty are the face of society, that beauty is hidden away and morality is a myth shared in whispers among naive children.”
AIPT
• Justin Harrison reviews the unfocused fun of Matt Fraction, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, et al’s Adventureman Vol. 2: A Fairy Tale of New York.
• David Canham reviews the heavy exposition of Kenny Porter, Mike Becker, et al’s The New Space Age #1.
• Chris Coplan reviews the surprising approach of Kyle Starks’ Wrestle Heist #1.
• David Brooke reviews the psychedelic weirdness of Nick Cagnetti and Daniel Ziegler’s Spirit of the Shadows #1.
• Joe Jones reviews the spiraling conflict of Kieron Gillen, Caspar Wijngaard, et al’s The Power Fantasy #14.
• Collier Jennings reviews the energetic surprises of Leah Williams, Mirka Andolfo, et al’s DC K.O.: Harley Quinn vs Zatanna #1.
• Marvel Maximus reviews the premature conclusion of W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo, et al’s Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #5.
• Michael Guerrero reviews the intense foreboding of Dan Watters, V. Ken Marion, et al’s Nightwing #133.
• Alex Schlesinger reviews the self-contained adventuring of Gail Simone, Luciano Vecchio, et al’s Uncanny X-Men: Murder Me, Mutina.
The Beat
• Gianni Palumbo reviews the heartfelt hilarity of Kyle Starks’ Wrestle Heist #1.
• Tim Rooney reviews the artistic alchemy of Kenny Porter, Mike Becker, et al’s The New Space Age #1.
• Clyde Hall reviews the mixed payoff of James Robinson, Phil Hester, et al’s The Adventures of Lumen N #4.
• Diego Higuera reviews the interesting acceleration of Jeff Lemire, Nick Robles, et al’s Absolute Flash #10.
• Jordan Jennings reviews the mixed successes of Jed MacKay, Netho Diaz, et al’s X-Men: Book of Revelation #3.
• Zack Quaintance reviews the grand mythology of Linnea Sterte’s A Garden of Spheres - Book One.
• Kathryn Hemmann reviews the emotional weight of Cathy Malkasian’s Shadows of the Sea.
Buzz
David Nobakht reviews the mesmerising scope of Simon Stålenhag’s Sunset at Zero Point.
Four Color Apocalypse
Ryan Carey reviews the seasonal fare of Brandon Lehmann’s Stocking Stuffer Spectacular.
House to Astonish
Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ X-Men Age of Revelation Infinity Comic #6, Unbreakable X-Men #3, Sinister’s Six #3, Iron & Frost #3, Longshots #3, and Spider-Man & Wolverine #8.
Kirkus Reviews
Have starred capsule reviews of:
• The momentous testimony of Ernesto Saade’s Red Stones: A Graphic Account of the Salvadoran Civil War.
• The spectacular thrills of Àlàbá Ònájìn’s Korobá: The Case of the Missing Kolo.
• The resonant explorations of Faith Erin Hicks’ Inbetweens.
The New Yorker
Tammy Kim reviews the smart questions of Lee Lai’s Cannon.
School Library Journal
• Cat Miserendino has a starred capsule review of the timely urgency of Jarrett Dapier and AJ Dungo’s Wake Now in the Fire.
• Jamie Winchell has a starred capsule review of the engrossing relationship of Adeline Kon’s Just Between Us.
• Sarah Maciejewski has a starred capsule review of the compassionate adventuring of Vero Cazot and Lucy Mazel’s Olive.
• Rachel Jussel has a starred capsule review of the gentle effectiveness of Dian Day and Amanda White’s Shy Cat and the Stuff-the-Bus Challenge.
• Francisca Goldsmith has a starred capsule review of the engaging ethics of Shaenon K. Garrity and Emily Holden’s Steam.
Solrad
Hagai Palevsky reviews the formal transitions of Yvan Alagbé’s Misery of Love, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith.
Perchta humors a Straggele with a waltz
(@breebird33.bsky.social)
This week’s Best of the Year lists.
• As sure as a year must end, so too the Best of Lists to close out said year, which, for 2025, include round-ups from sites focused on comics and other media in the form of AIPT’s multi-part round-up, The AV Club’s choices for the best comics of 2025, The Beat’s best comics for younger and older readers as well as a new manga/manhwa round-up, best comics and graphic novels as chosen by Book Riot, picks from Henry Chamberlain at Comics Grinder, and selections for graphic novels and manga from Publisher’s Weekly.
• Shifting focus away from digital outlets to the digital output of ye olde media, as CBC share a selection of the year’s best Canadian comics, The Guardian rounds up the best graphic novels of 2025, The Herald provides a Scottish perspective on the year’s best comics, NPR shares a suzable list as part of their yearly books round-up, and The New York Times and The Washington Post provide their choices for pick of the pops.
• Finally, rounding out the year with picks from librarians o’er the land, we have the American Library Association’s Best Graphic Novels for Children and Adults Reading Lists, choices for top graphic novels and manga from School Library Journal, and the New York Public Library’s top ten comics of 2025.
This week’s interviews.
TCJ
Jason Bergman interviews Jeff Nicholson about Ultra Klutz, Colonia, and returning to comics after a two-year hiatus from the form — “It's just been the pattern my whole career. Something can stir up some excitement, but then there's always just the next new thing. Only so much room on the shelves with the retailer. And I’ve always thought, if something doesn’t take off — you know, like Jeff Smith's Bone was a sleeper at first. But if something doesn't take off by, say, the eighth issue, it’s just not going to.”
Echo Live
Cara O’Doherty chats with Gary Moloney about When the Blood Has Dried, and the importance of Cork City Library’s comics education programming to budding creators.
Fanbase Press
Barbra Dillon talks to Daniel Ziegler and Nick Cagnetti about Spirit of the Shadows and the origins of the book, and to Fred Kennedy about The Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacres and the anger behind every joke.
New Haven Independent
Allan Appel interviews Sidney Harris and Barbara Hawes about mActivity’s new exhibit ‘Holiday Show: Sidney Harris Cartoons’ and a life of cartooning.
Smash Pages
JK Parkin speaks with Rafael Scavalone about Devil’s Luck: A Hailstone Story, secret comics origins, tying back into other Hailstone tales, and balancing real-life events with the fantastical.
Fools’ play
— Deb JJ Lee (@jdebbiel.bsky.social) 2025-11-21T15:58:08.765Z
This week’s features and longreads.
• Here at TCJ, Tammi Morton-Kelly speaks with co-editors R. Kikuo Johnson and Dash Shaw about New York Review Comics’ new collection of Rea Irvin’s The Smythes comic strips — “What's striking is how quietly radical Irvin was. In the 1930s, when the comics page was full of pratfalls and pie fights, The Smythes offered a subtler comedy drawn from embarrassment, aspiration, and the deep absurdity of manners. Margie and John's humor lies not in slapstick but in the small humiliations of everyday life: the wrong word at a cocktail party, the awkward silence that follows a too-bold remark.”
• Also for TCJ, RJ Casey ushers in the last Arrivals and Departures of 2025, sharing thoughts on publications by members of the former Freak Comics Collective, including Mara Ramirez’s Flea, Cristian Castelo’s End of a Holiday, and Miles MacDiarmid’s Key Change — “Now we just need everyone — cartoonist and character alike — to take a breather, realize that they’re uniquely talented, and consider that, in some circumstances, less is more.”
• For the BBC, John Newton reports on the booming younger readers market for comics in the UK, speaking with Forbidden Planet’s Chris Ball, Comic Book UK’s Mark Fuller, and Comics Youth CIC’s Anna Macdonald.
• Freaky Trigger’s Discourse 2000 continues, as the latest edition of Tom Ewing’s Odyssey through the history of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic considers the flawed boldness of MACH 1’s finale, and the clumsy strangeness of MACH Zero.
• For Shelfdust, David Brothers writes on the surprising change of tone to be found in Shuzo Oshimi’s Me and Bob Dylan (And My Father), and the importance of taking on perspectives of art outside of one’s own.
• Four Color Apocalypse’s Ryan Carey shines the spotlight on Maggie Umber, sharing thoughts on new works from Umber published this year, including Strange Star, So Many Ways, Pit Bull Eyes, and Bunworld #2.
• Festive tidings from the Mindless Ones, as a seasonally appropriate focus in their latest newsletter also contains alternative comics histories, actual comics histories, and further analysis of Grant Morrison and Chris Weston’s The Filth.
• Paul O’Brien’s census of the villains of Daredevil continues, over at House to Astonish, as Denny O’Neil and Assistant Editors’ Month brings to the page one Micah Synn and some classic superhero comics strangeness with Tarzan allusions.
• From the world of open-access academia, Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society presents a special issue, Inked Latinidades: Latinx/e Voices and Narrativas en Viñetas, edited by Nhora Lucía Serrano, which brings together essays by Latinx/e scholars that examine the new paths charted by Latinx/e comics.
• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, for The Daily Cartoonist, as midterms, alleged war crimes, the true meanings of seasons, and private healthcare realities all loomed large.
— Mr. Joshua (@pantspants.bsky.social) 2025-11-28T20:13:48.749Z
No more links for 2025, that’s yer lot, so now to wait with bated breath to see what fresh chaos 2026 will bring.
15 Dec 2025
— actual heathcliff comics (@realheathcliffs.bsky.social) 2025-12-15T19:00:52.134Z
The post To Blave – This Week’s Links appeared first on The Comics Journal.
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
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