DavidDusk a Day
#comicbooks
#horror
#vampire
#comics
#duskcomic20
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rsbcomics/dusk-omnibus-20th-anniversary
Graphic PolicyMind MGMT: New & Improved #1 Kicks Off a Whole New Mind Fuck #comics #comicbooks @oni-press.bsky.social @mattkindt.bsky.social
comic book addictsMIND MGMT: NEW & IMPROVED #1 Review: Matt Kindt’s Psychic Noir Relaunch https://comicbookaddicts.com/2026/04/mind-mgmt-new-improved-1-review-oni-press/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #MindMGMT #ComicBooks #MattKindt #PsychicNoir #Espionage
The Complete Terry Moore returns to Humble Bundle supporting World Central Kitchen! #comics #comicbooks
ComicLink-RossThe Golden Age and Pulp session closes tonight! #comiclink #comicbooks #goldenagecomics #comicbooktok https://youtube.com/shorts/G-NQxPGdLzw?si=9zIJMpJKypzQYKLC
The Golden Age and Pulp session closes tonight! #comiclink #comicbooks #goldenagecomics
Matt Kindt’s Mind MGMT — New & Improved #1 Redacts Reality on June 24th! Check out the Video Trailer! #comics #comicbooks
Divining ComicsImprinted Image: Comics Link Roundup April 24
Why aren’t there more fan comics?
John Byrne, the artist behind some of the most classic X-Men stories like the Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past, has X-Men fan-fiction. Quite literally, he drew something like 30 issues of comics for his website under the premise “what if I never left the franchise?” Incredibly, Marvel is actually collecting and publishing this material! Beyond the Byrne of it all, however, this does make me wonder: why aren’t there more fan-fiction comics?
In Japan, for example, there is a thriving scene of doujinshi, self-published print works that often use copy-written characters. Many amateur mangaka get their start in this scene, and even professionals participate to avoid the strictures of formal publishing. The market for such works in the US is paltry, comparatively. Artists like Jeremy Hyler have done Batman fan-comics that they sell on their websites, but there aren’t major conventions like there are in Japan. Perhaps it is the difference in copyright culture in America.
I think there is something to the difference in scenes. In the US, the underground comix scene is, painting with a broad brush, positioned against the superhero comics industry. The people who go to zine fests and other self-published conventions in the US usually aren’t the same people who want to draw Spider-Man. Similarly, while you do see some “derivative” work in the webcomics space, it usually isn’t trying to do the same thing as “mainstream” comics. They’ll use superheroes, but for gag pages. Occasionally you’ll see a slice-of-life fan-fiction comic. I’m not as well-versed in this scene, but I could imagine that there is more of a priority placed on original characters and content in the US webcomic space.
Finally, drawing is incredibly time intensive. Compare it to the amount of time it takes to write fan-fiction and you could see why artists might not want to spend their limited free time on works that they don’t feel passionate about. Additionally, drawing arguably takes more time to get good at than writing. Certainly it is more readily apparent when it is “bad.” Ease of entry is one of the drivers for sharing fan-fiction, and even a small difference in difficulty could lead to a massive difference in amount shared online.
What are your thoughts? Am I even correct that there aren’t many fan-fiction comics akin to Japanese doujinshi, or have I not looked in the right spaces? Let me know in the comments!
Last week, I made a comic! It’s a two-page mini-zine, and you can read it for free here. But! If you would like a cool print version mailed you, there are two ways you can do that. Either support me on Patreon to get this and any future physical media I do, or buy it on Ko-fi for as low as $ 1.
I also have a behind the scenes video previewing the physical mini-comic, as well as some behind-the-scenes information on my inspiration.
Welcome to Imprinted Image, my semi-weekly comics newsletter. If this is your first time, welcome! This is the best way to keep up with my comics blog. After links to my most recent writing, I’ll provide a roundup of comics industry links. This can be news, media, criticism, or anything that I personally found interesting.
Please don’t forget about the resources tab on this website. It’s a collection of reading guides, tutorials, and free legal resources like public domain image archives. I want this to be as useful as possible, so if you have any additions please send them my way.
Divining Comics is sponsored by readers like you
I have a Patreon! For as little as $3 a month, you can keep the lights on at this blog and get your name at the bottom of every article. At higher tiers, you can vote in monthly Patreon polls and more! Anything you can offer means the world to me, and I cherish all my supporters.
Support Divining Comics on PatreonComics Challenge YouTube
I designed and am participating in a comics challenge this year, alongside some friends in the My Marvelous Year community. I have picked 52 comics from 52 categories, shown below. I’d love for you to participate and comment along as you are reading! Note that on this list, categories that match with episodes from the Extra Issues podcast.
Comic Challenge Extra Issues Edition 2026DownloadI decided to create a YouTube documenting my reading journey! MAGAZINE MARCH has almost concluded. Recently I published videos on SIN CITY and JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD, the latter of which was done in conversation with Matt Bernico of the Magnificast Podcast. Pre-order his book!
I’ve also been doing little shorts where I poorly read a scene I liked from these comics. I guess shortform video gets juiced in the algorithm because they have been blowing up. You can check out the playlist of them here.
It would mean the world to me if, in addition to watching this video, you subscribed to my channel and gave the video a like. No one knows exactly how the black box of social media algorithms work, but I do know that if you interact with the video in different ways, YouTube might show it to more people who would be interested. The other easy way you can help is by sharing this video with a comic fan in your life!
Link Roundup
News:
Disney Layoffs
Disney fired a massive number of their workers. This includes a number of people at Marvel comics, like former Head of Sales David Gabriel and 3 comics editors.
Awards
Several comics won the LA Times Book Prize, including LIFE DRAWING by Jaime Hernandez and ANGELICA by Trung Le Nguyen.
Jeopardy
Comics writer Tini Howard was on Jeopardy!
Comics, Adapted (Into New Comics)
SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN is coming to Webtoon. A number of Western, print-original comics are getting adapted into infinite-scroll digital comics. This is an interesting trend worth keeping an eye on.
Social Media Sucks
Syundei, the creator of a popular manga, GO FOR IT NAKAMURA!, was bullied off of Twitter.
Writing:
SKTCHD interviewed Rafael Albequerque on his design work for ABSOLUTE GREEN ARROW and Ram V. on the new series he is writing, DECIDIUM.
Shelfdust published a David Brothers piece looking at GINGER, a pay-what-you-want comic by Victor Santos available on Panel Syndicate, Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, and Muntsa Vicente’s website to publish digital-first comics. They also published a piece on the history of Batman’s wealth, noting the times when it started to become a problem for the narrative.
Anime Herald published an article examining an interesting question: why aren’t there more anime and manga about marijuana?
Comic Book Herald updated his Best Superhero Comics of All Time list with his favorite superhero comics of 2026.
Humble Bundle has a few packs of digital comics you can buy for cheap: Complete Terry Moore. Kana-Manga Mini Bundle.
Similar site Digifile has a huge collection of pre-Absolute Image comics from Absolute creators.
Other News Roundups:
SKTCHD’s Comics Disassembled: 4/17.
Comics Beat’s biweekly Digest: 4/14. 4/17. 4/21.
The Comics Journal’s weekly links to New, Reviews, and Interviews: 4/17. 4/24.
Very Limited Data Bestseller Lists from the past few weeks:
Weekly Top 400 Bestseller List from Prana / Comic Shop Assistant: 4/17.
Weekly Bestseller List from Bleeding Cool / ComicHub: 4/11. 4/19.
Weekly “Hottest Comics” from Bleeding Cool / Covrprice: 4/14. 4/21.
Most Anticipated Comics from Bleeding Cool / League of Comic Geeks: 4/13. 4/19.
Top March Comics from ICv2 / Circana Bookscan: Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels. Adults Graphic Novels.
BEN TEN # 1 sold 82,000 copies to comic shops. An enterprising data nerd could take that data, combine it will the charts that map sales as a percentage of the top seller, and calculate actual market size.
Image puts out their Top 10 selling comics for March.
Popverse gets in to just how many units are being sold of each issue of ABSOLUTE BATMAN. Spoiler alert – it’s more than each issue of the New 52 BATMAN was selling.
DC expands its market share over Marvel in 2026 Q1.
My favorite video and podcasts:
Podcasts:
OFF PANEL had on Julia Wertz to discuss BURY ME ALREADY and Pornsak Pichetshote about ABSOLUTE GREEN ARROW.
LET’S TALK COMICS had on Charlie Adlard to talk OF THE EARTH.
MY MARVELOUS YEAR posted 2014 pt. 3 covering DEADPOOL, DR. STRANGE, and THE ILLUMINATI, and 2014 pt. 4, talking DAREDEVIL and the debut of MS. MARVEL. Their sister podcast EXTRA ISSUES posted to the public feed Osamu Tezuka pt 4: AYOKO and BUDDHA and to the early access Patreon feed a smattering of Don Rosa SCROOGE issues.
YouTube:
MATTTT (that’s Matt with 4 Ts) has a new channel, MATTTTTTTT (Matt with 8 Ts) where he posts more casual videos, like a critique of the “Blind Bag” trend, a look at John Byrne’s ELSEWHEN X-Men fan comics, and his 14 favorite Graphic Novels of 2025.
COMICTROPES had a video on Spider-Man’s marriage.
COMICBOOK COUPLE’S COUNSELING continued season 2 of their miniseries “The Stacks,” where they have industry people select comics to talk about from the shelves of Third Eye Comics, like the Criterion Closet, with Tony Fleecs (writer of STRAY DOGS and FERAL), and Curt Pires (writer of LOST FANTASY and FIREBORN)
SKTCHD published a video conversation with Chip Zdarsky.
What the hell, I’ll plug my YouTube again. Watch me talk about SIN CITY and JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD.
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If you would like to add your name to the list of friends, best friends, or best friends forever, support this work for less than the cost of one cup of coffee a month at patreon.com/diviningcomics. You can also leave a one-time tip/buy my zines at ko-fi.com/spikestonehand. Follow me on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky and share my posts there.
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Dimi Fisher
Tate Brombal and Soo Lee adapt Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for the Christopher Chaos Universe in The Perfectly Monstrous Life of Adam Frankenstein #comics #comicbooks
Tate Brombal and Soo Lee adapt Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for the Christopher Chaos Universe in The Perfectly Monstrous Life of Adam Frankenstein - Graphic Policy
The Perfectly Monstrous Life of Adam Frankenstein reveals the origins of Adam’s horrific creation under the knives of Victor Frankenstein.
Cynicism is Obedience