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All-Ages Week: The Direct Market vs. The Book Market

By David Harper | Jan 6, 2015 | Longform

Of all of the bizarre issues that face the comic industry, one of the oddest by far is the wild disparity of how all-ages comics perform in the book market (meaning bookstores, Amazon, and bigger stores like Target) when compared to how they perform in the direct market (meaning comic retail stores). At bookstores, all-ages […]

All-Ages Week: Do Marvel and DC Do Enough to Draw in New Readers?

By David Harper | Jan 5, 2015 | Longform

Whether it’s fair or unfair, reasonable or unreasonable, there’s one thing that remains consistently true for both industry outsiders and insiders: Marvel Comics and DC Comics are perceived as the center of the comic book universe. Many would fight against this idea, but whether in the minds of mainstream journalists, your average Joe or Jill […]

All-Ages Week: The State of the Union for All-Ages Comics

By David Harper | Jan 5, 2015 | Longform

As All-Ages Week begins, one of the most important things we can do to start is address where the comic book industry right now is in terms of serving young readers with appropriate material. Throughout much of the industry, or at least in the parts of that it that likes talking about such things, the […]

Multiversity 101: The Best and Worst of 2014 in Comics

By David Harper | Dec 29, 2014 | Longform

Every year since Multiversity has started, I’ve put together my singular perspective on what the best and worst in comics was, and this year things won’t be any different…except I’m going to take it to the next level. More categories, more analysis, more everything! All for you! It’s befitting that 2013 gets this, as this […]

From the Fantastic to the Marvelous: On Legacies, the F4 and Kamala Khan

By Matthew Meylikhov | Nov 11, 2014 | Longform

A couple weeks ago, Marvel released their 75th Anniversary Celebration book. A collection of interviews and shorts and goofy one-off images, it went by with little to no fanfare, perhaps because giving the book a cursory glance will leave the average reader with enough information to “get it.” However, upon picking it up and giving […]

Moving Forward: Why the Future of Comics Isn’t Found in the Past

By David Harper | Nov 10, 2014 | Longform

Good news everyone: October’s sales resulted in the biggest orders of the Diamond Comic Distributors era, a record that was only three months old. Coming on the heels of a first quarter that had many – not myself, but many – wondering whether or not the industry was going to finally regress from its three-year […]

No Resting On Our Laurels: Why We Need Dave Gibbons And Comics Laureates Everywhere

By Greg Matiasevich | Oct 29, 2014 | Longform

The laurel wreath. When worn as a crown, as was customary back in ancient Greece, the wreath was a symbol of accomplishment. Individuals honored in this manner were called laureates, and that word has stayed in use in that context up to our present day. When someone has achieved wide-ranging acclaim for work and contributions […]

Cosplay at NYCC: Did the New Harassment Policy Work?

By Brian Salvatore | Oct 21, 2014 | Longform

There are a lot of problems with comic conventions. Talk to fans who attend them, and you’ll get a rundown: overcrowding, lack of focus on actual comics, overpriced soft drinks, long lines, and that wonderful smell of body odor that is ever present from about 90 minutes in. However, of all of the issues both […]

The Secret Origin and Lasting Impact of the Marvel Universe Cards

By David Harper | Oct 21, 2014 | Longform

Do you remember how you first got into comics? It’s a question I think about fairly often, if only because I don’t remember exactly how I did. The specifics of it are lost to the ages, just like they are for many people, as there are so many different ways to get into them depending […]

Breaking Down DC Films and its Beguiling, Befuddling Roll Out Strategy

By David Harper | Oct 16, 2014 | Longform

Yesterday, Warner Bros. dropped a bombshell on the comic and movies industries in completely unexpected fashion. It was revealed by WB’s CEO Kevin Tsujihara that at least 10 DC films would be released between now and 2020, with the potential for additional stand-alone films starring Batman and Superman to come during that span as well. […]

Futures End and the Dark Side of DC’s Monster September Sales

By David Harper | Oct 6, 2014 | Longform

For the second year in a row, DC found gold in special edition lenticular covers, leading the comic industry’s publisher sales charts by a healthy margin thanks to its “Futures End” month after spending much of the year falling further and further back behind Marvel in second place. These lenticular covers – 3D covers with […]

How “Superman: Doomed” Redefined the Most Important Hero of the New 52 – Before the Shocking Final Page [Opinion]

By Brian Salvatore | Oct 2, 2014 | Longform

As a note, unavoidably, spoilers are discussed for the entire arc. There are a lot of things long time DC fans have begrudged since the start of the New 52, and most likely you’ve heard them all before. For me, personally, there have been very few issues as egregious as the degradation of the superhero community […]

Renumbering, Relaunches, and the End of the Ongoing [Opinion]

By Brian Salvatore | Sep 16, 2014 | Longform

A few months ago, we had Dennis Hopeless on The Hour Cosmic, and we were discussing, among other things, his “Avengers Undercover” series wrapping up. He had a lot of fascinating things to say about the art of ending a series, but when we got into the discussion of the pros and cons of announcing […]

Recapturing the Magic: What Superhero Comics Today Could Learn from Darwyn Cooke’s “DC: The New Frontier”

By David Harper | Sep 16, 2014 | Longform

Any Darwyn Cooke comic work is something worth celebrating, as the guy is one of the absolute titans of comics today, and last week, DC revealed that we’d be getting more in the form of 23 variant covers that highlight his take on an array of their titles. From what we’ve seen, they’re utterly spectacular, […]

Upside Down from Here: A Proposal for Marvel On How to Do “AXIS” and All Future Events [Opinion]

By Matthew Meylikhov | Sep 1, 2014 | Longform

Back in the day when it came to event comics, the possibilities were infinite and the excitement was palpable. Oh, there were cynics as there are for anything, sure, but their voice was not the dominant one; instead we would be excited at the prospect that our favorite heroes would band together to fight against […]

DC’s Done Something Smart Recently: Mark Doyle and the Rise of the Bat-Line

By David Harper | Aug 13, 2014 | Longform

Amidst the endlessly swirling controversy and fan outrage tied to DC Comics, the pending move to Burbank has brought a fair amount of upheaval to the Distinguished Competition’s editorial staff, specifically to the Bat-Line. Mike Marts, the group editor, and Katie Kubert left the line for jobs at Marvel, leaving a bit of a vacuum […]

Filling in the Blanks: An Inside Look at the World of Comic Book Colorists

By David Harper | Jul 29, 2014 | Longform

I used to co-host a video show here at Multiversity called “4 Color News & Brews”, and on it, we’d break down our favorite issues at the end of every month. We always had a blast with that, but when you’re doing the same thing on a regular basis, you start to notice trends. One […]

Batgirl, Gotham Academy and Two Big Steps in the Right Direction for DC Comics [Opinion]

By David Harper | Jul 11, 2014 | Longform

Since its 2011 relaunch, you could make a pretty good case that DC Comics has been the number one punching bag for comics. Sure, there were often other contenders for the throne, but because of PR mistakes, poorly handled situations and the comics internet’s long memory, DC reigned supreme in that department for the last […]

Creator-Owned and the Thin Line Between “To Be Continued” and “The End”

By David Harper | Jun 17, 2014 | Longform

The comic industry is a very peculiar and unpredictable one, especially when you look at the world of creator-owned comics. As Brandon Montclare, writer and co-creator of “Rocket Girl” at Image Comics, recently shared in a comment at The Beat, sometimes the difference between success and failure for those titles can be the smallest of […]

The Unstoppable Rise of the Comic Con Business

By David Harper | Jun 11, 2014 | Longform

With New York Comic Con Special Edition this weekend and San Diego Comic Con International on the horizon, the con season is in full swing, and Multiversity is all over it. Today, we’re looking at the burgeoning world of comic conventions in a series of three pieces, one from a fan perspective, one from a […]

The Former King of Comics: A Personal Retrospective of Vertigo

By David Harper | Jun 10, 2014 | Longform

Today’s readers may not think about it in such a way, but Vertigo really is – in my opinion – one of the most important comic imprints ever. In 1993, Vertigo was created by Karen Berger as an imprint of DC Comics, after Berger had worked from within DC’s editorial to do everything she could […]

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