Your 2023 Predictions, Part Seven: Queer Lodgings.
Okay, first off a couple of recent comments you guys (Joe and Sean specifically) got caught in the hopper recently and didn’t get posted. Sorry about that, not sure why that happened, but I’ve approved the comments and they’re up now. If that happens again, to you or anyone else, where you write a response and it seems to disappear when you post it, I’ll catch ’em and make sure they get put up. I apologize for any inconvenience.
Anyhoo, let’s get on to the last batch of your 2023 predictions (previous parts:
(1 2 3 4 5 6). And put in your 2024 predictions if you haven’t yet.
Michael Grabowski grasps at the following
“1. Gabrielle Bell’s 2023 book will be about finally getting her own dog.”
You’d think it’d be easy to find a list of an author’s work in release order, but boy I had trouble finding one for her. Her personal site seems to have gone down late last year, according to archive.org. I did find a book from a few years ago about Gabrielle getting a dog for her mom, but I didn’t see any books about getting her own dog. If I missed something, let me know!
“2. A new round of Stray Bullets begins in the 1990s with an adult Ginny finding herself getting into Harry’s organization.”
David Lapham did return with a new crime series from Boom! called Underheist, but unrelated to Stray Bullets.
“3. Gaiman & Buckingham continue to complete new chapters of Miracleman on a regular routine schedule throughout 2023.”
Well…yes! Some time between new issues, but we got five across 2023! After 30 years of nuthin’, that’s fine with me!
Wayne Allen Sallee wrenches this in
“Mike will continue to be the nicest guy in the 805 area code, and we all can share our lives through his posts and our respective comments.”
Well, I did have to yell at a couple people in the shop this year (so if you’re playing the Mike’s Comic Shop Drinking Game, down the glass) but I’ve tried to be kind and mellow all year. EXCEPT WHEN I’M NOT
“Just an observation here: for the most part, we survived a plague!”
Everyone around me seems to be getting the COVID, but I’ve dodge it successfully so far, either via being careful or just simply having the luck of the devil.
John Maurer cuts these down
“1. This new DC event Dawn of DC or whatever does nothing to improve sales and the labeling will quietly and quickly fade away.”
It’s still hanging in there! And there has been a small bump in sales for, like, the Superman books, so that’s something!
“2. 2023 Will end without any new Legion of Super-Heroes content.”
As I was reminded in a previous post, and by you, John, asking for these issues…they popped up in Green Arrow of all places!
“3. As a result of #2, I spend more on LSH back issues and finally finish my Reboot Legion collection and maybe even finish acquiring the handful of Superboy v1 LSH appearances that I’m missing.”
I don’t know…did you? I think I sold you a couple.
Rob S. gets away with
“1) My obligatory Legion of Super-Heroes prediction: I think we’re going to get some this year — possibly officially designated a limited series — and it will modify the Bendis/Sook run, but with other creators. It’ll use some of Sook’s costume designs, and include a lot of the visual/ethnic heritage changes for characters, but will feel more like a conventional comic, and will pull back from trying to feature the whole team in each issue. Some of the new characters (such as Monster Boy) won’t be seen.”
Like I said previously, it looks like Green Arrow was are only real Legion content this past year in comics. I’ve been told it follows on the Bendis/Sook Legion relaunch, but the character appearance seem to be mostly focused on the “classic” name characters (like Mon-El and Saturn Girl) and not the new fellas. I think you’re onto something, however, where a potential new Legion series would do well to stick with the Bendis version of the team, if maybe…scaled down a little? I feel like it tried to do too much too fast…but honestly, with the Legion, I have no idea what approach would work to give the team traction any more.
“2) DC will tweak its DC Universe Infinite Ultra plan as a result of sales drops to its midlist titles. Meanwhile, Marvel will work to match them, getting closer to the 1-month availability window with their own Marvel Unlimited.”
Haven’t noticed many changes on either side, far as I can tell. I do wish DC would add more 1970s/early 1980s Superman books to their service, however.
“3) DC publishes a new comic with Firestorm as a regular character, maybe as part of a team.”
No solo (as it were) series of his/their own, but Firestorm’ popped up with small appearancees here and there (like in Batman/Superman: World’s Finest and Tales from Dark Crisis and Black Adam, with a ten page story just for his own self in Lazarus Planet: Legends Reborn! So there’s always hope for more in the future!
Chris G gives this up
“The latest Superman relaunch/rethink quickly sees its sales revert to about where they were beforehand; by the end of the year there are clear signs that yet another relaunch is on the horizon. Somewhere, Dan Jurgens starts sharpening his Super-pencils.”
While Dan Jurgens is never far from Super-books, I think sales are okay and I don’t think we’re approaching relaunch territory just yet. Like I noted above, the Superman titles are doing fine, and the Bat-books have seen an increase in numbers for me, even over the already good sales I was getting from them. Not to say a relaunch won’t happen eventually (this is DC, after all!) but I think we’re safe for now.
Scott Rowland rows the boat ashore with
“1. The price of a standard comic will jump up another dollar.”
The $3.99 price point ain’t extinct yet, but more and more books are coming out at $4.99 a pop, if not more.
“2. DC will once again try to push a higher-priced thicker book size to compensate, while Marvel will cut story pages to try to keep costs down.”
I haven’t seen any story page cutting, but it sure does look like they’re trying out higher and higher price points on thicker comics. I just about plotzed when I saw G.O.D.S. #1 at ten bucks. I really do think we’ll be seeing more experimenting with formats as publishers try to find a happy medium with cost vs. page count for their regular titles (“here’s a 48 page book for $5.99,” that sort of thing.
“3. The old Night-Man show will be a minor hit on an ad-based streaming service, leading to Marvel tentatively reviving some of the Ultraverse characters in an event. The revised versions will have little in common with the original heroes other than the names.”
Was kinda pulling for this one, though I think Ultraverse is forever in the Marvel oubliette as, if I understand correctly, using those characters would mean “paying royalties to creators” and surely Marvel wouldn’t want that. That aside, I would love to see more of the short-run “comics are hot now, let’s do TV shows!” programming of the early 1990s on Tubi or Pluto TV. That would be fun if occasionally cringeworthy.
OKAY THAT’S IT WE’RE DONE, IT’S SAFE TO RETURN TO YOUR HOMES
Friday’s post will be the corrections/addendums post for this batch of predictions, so maybe I’m not totally done, but we’re in the home stretch at least. As always, thanks for reading and participating!
SUPERMAN itself may be doing fine, but clearly something wasn’t working out with the anthology-format ACTION, given how it barely lasted for a year before switching to the new “Super-Stars” formula.
Any thoughts on the Micky Mouse Marvel variants…?
I think Donald Duck as Havok for the Neal Adams X-Men no. 58 cover is hilarious!
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/disney-continue-confusing-customers-with-mickey-mouse-marvel-variants/
As @JD said, Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s post-Warworld Action Comics run ended in December, in a seemingly rushed way, in the Action Comics 2023 Annual. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that his Empire of Shadows Invasion story was intended to run longer but he was told to wrap it up for a new direction/clean slate in January.
“fun if occasionally cringeworthy”
Night-Man TV show rights owners, there’s your drop quote!
Okay, you HAVE to tell us why you yelled at people in your shop.
I would honestly try out more series if individual issue prices weren’t so high. I picked up the first issue of James Tynion IV’s new series The Deviant without looking at the price first — $6. Nice House on the Lake was only $4 an issue, and it was better.
Fall of the House of X looks gorgeous, but it’s $6/issue, and it’s not even the final chapter in the whole never-ending Krakoa saga. I can’t justify that kind of expense just to follow the story into another mini that might not be as good.
I don’t mind paying $5/issue for an issue of good quality and a story I know is going to be told with a solid beginning, middle, and end. But that’s about as high as I’m willing to go.
I haven’t been following current comics so when you mentioned Lazarus Planet: Legends Reborn! I’m picturing all the characters in the style of artist Mel Lazarus, with tiny bodies and large badly drawn heads.
” G.O.D.S. #1 at ten bucks”
YIKES.
“Lazarus Planet: Legends Reborn! I’m picturing all the characters in the style of artist Mel Lazarus, with tiny bodies and large badly drawn heads.”
BWA-HA-HA!