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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 1m

Gen Z readers suddenly found comic shops over the last two years, says Griepp. Stories were the key driver. Manga sales were up across channels.

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 3m

Comic stores were up nearly 30% last year, as Comic shops approach bookstore sales for the first time. Comics sales grew faster than GNs. But other channels grew. #icv2 #nycc

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 7m

And now the one you've all been waiting for! Milton Griepp's annual White Paper! #icv2 #nycc

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 18m

“The problem of this industry is not that there is not enough content. There is so much great content, but no one knows it exists!” Says Rydberg. Using demographic information can help discovery.

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 21m

Rydberg explains that GlobalComix had a smart move with emphasizing subscriptions, but this left a mistake in not being able to monetize the modt high intent buyers. Their new model was implemented 2 years ago to enable more book sales. NBoth channel build on each other. #icv2 #nycc

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 32m

Henrik Rydberg of @globalcomix.com is presenting some data on digital comics. "We own the night" - comics reading surges late at night! And Romance is the #1 genre. Comics dominate the northern hemisphere, manga the southern.

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 43m

And now Kurt Hassler and Jim Killen the two most knowledgeable people possible to talk about the future of manga. Takeaway: Really the future is more! #nycc #icv2

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 59m

So just finished a panel with Dan Buckley of Marvel, here at #NYCC and two questions were ANSWERED. Will newsstands ever be a thing again? Buckley: NO Will Marvel ever license out its comics? Buckley: NO. Okay folks you heard it here first!!!

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 1h

The Pro Pavillion here at #nycc is awesome, but they need a coffee cart here. Not free coffee, just a palce we can buy real coffee. Also no one can get on the wifi. But otherwise a beautiful peaceful place to meet up with peers and do business.

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 23h

Wacker brings up Midnight as a project that they worked hard on. "I'd rather you sell out of ten books than sit on 30," says Wacker. Next topic: VARIANT COVERS. "I like variants so I'm not here to tek you they are going away but I worry there are too many and there is some confusion."

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 23h

Steve Wacker is up! He talks about his past working as a comic shop clerk, including at a shop where JIm Lee shopped, and the Golden Apple, and how when the disastrous Marvel Mart promotions game out, Bill and the crew spent the night tearing them out of the comics. #nycc #retailerday

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 23h

The Lab Press is still here! Hadn’t heard from them in a while but they are publishing new deluxe graphic novels as well as new compact editions of their previous books. #nycc #retailerday

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Todd is doing his town hall bot now and it’s amazing he praises Dc and new Marvel regime for keeping on allowing retailers to have 40 Year careers. #nycc #retailerday

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

“The question I’ve asked for decades, is who is the sober person in the room?” Asks Todd McFarlane, using the metaphor of people drinking too much for the current comics boom. “You need to be good stewards.” #nycc #retailerday

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

And now the Todd-father! “Is it new money or people just spending the same money,” he asks of the retailers. “When things go too good, you can get drunk.” #nycc #retailerday

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Stephanie PHillips is up to give the Keynote speech, which.....I was not aware of until someone told me she was doing it. Giving a great speech about the enthusiasm (again) that new readers are showing and all of the ways that creators and shops can connect. #nycc #retailerday

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I skipped over the DC presentation because things are now moving fast! Stephanie Williams and Cody Siglar came up to talk about the Vixen and Static relaunches, really just two creators talking about their enthusiasm and the whole DC team's enthusiasm for these great characters. #nycc #retailerday

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Dark Horse is up with EIC Dave Marshall and a commitment to ongoing series, more focus on launches. New: Barbie Baldur's Gate and also compact editions in SAME DC FORMAT Also 10th ann. (!) of Black Hammer. Sorry the light is suddenly creating moire patterns on my new phone camera. #nyc #retailerday

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Even people who are suppsoed to be here can't hear what is being said beyond a few rows. This is annoying because I was in the same area for a giant Crunchyroll panel at AnimeNYC a few years ago and the sound was great all the way to the restroom. Javits, don't do comics dirty! #nycc #retailerday

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

So there was a big break in coverage because for the two hour Lunar presentations people without wristbands were asked to leave. To be fair this was because of the catered lunch which included a majestic cacio e pepe cheese wheel. #nycc #retailerday

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Other projects that were discussed, include The Marvel/Star Wars crossover, Avengers relaunch, Spider-Woman and more. #nycc

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Lots of interesting stuff in this post-Gabriel Marvel presentations including MARVEL BLOCK, a new way to collect trades and KEEP THINGS IN PRINT. Also Marvel Renown, a line of Marvel's greatest stories that will also keep things available. WOWOWOW. #nycc #retailerday

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

"When you say everything matters, nothing matters. With Midnightwe made some decisions that may have seemed chaotic but we asked you to take a flyer and believe in us and you did," say Marvel's John Peretti, delivering Marvel's remarks at #RetailerDay at #nycc! Hello! We're kicking things off!

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The NY Post is a shit rag but it is also necessary.

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Here is an amazing review of Ben Wickey's More Weight by @katebeaton.bsky.social - and how it touches on a lot of the things we are facing as a society right now. If you haven't read DUCKS it is a masterpiece as well and also sadly relevant. Much more in the link www.patreon.com/katebeaton/p...

More Weight is the kind of book I always hope will fall into my hands, but rarely materializes. I have not been so enthralled by a comic for a long time. Ben Wickey’s cartooning is a masterwork, the style shifts and reconstructs as we go on, his characters are lit from within with true emotion. He deftly brings you face to face with 1692. This is a work that satisfies, as the telling of a story, as an understanding of that story in our culture, and as the reckoning of a descendant who lives with that history in his very bones. The Salem Witch Trials are not just a historical event, they are an anguished insight into a foundational American soul that we constantly look back to without being able to change either the outcome or who we are. But it is Wickey’s desire to tell the story both as meticulously as it happened then, and as confounding as it lives among us now, that sets More Weight apart. In a story so often misremembered, but here, no fact is taken for granted, no stone is left unturned. It is an archaeological excavation of a book, in the greatest sense, because we naturally want answers to the unfathomable, but sometimes all we can do is carefully scrape away time bit by bit, and get as close as we can.

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

We might be a tiny website but we are 100% human generated and will remain so.

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Well, it's a cold rainy Monday but I feel pretty good. Had a wonderful weekend at Baltimore Comic Con spending time with dear, dear friends @trishm.bsky.social and @johannadc.bsky.social, got to talk to some of the most creative people who ever lived, got Joe Staton to draw Guy Gardner for me,

A drawing of man with a very ugly bowl-shaped haircut, signed by Joe Staton and Steve Englehart

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

To answer my own question, Marvel's greatest graphic novel is undoubtedly this, but it will never be reprinted.

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Invalid. Does not include Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place.

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I've updated my Popverse story with a statement from ReedPop - the site will remain, just without news content.

Popverse is not shutting down. While Popverse will no longer serve as an editorial news platform, we remain committed to our original mission to provide our passionate fans with a hub for content, community, and fandom in all its forms. We will continue serving fans through streaming access to panels and members-only content. Popverse Superfans will still get exclusive access to presale tickets, photo ops and autographs, as well as merchandise discounts. We will continue to develop the platform to find new ways to delight and inspire our fan communities.

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

It looks like @alexrossart.bsky.social doesn’t post here so I’m going to have to be the hero and post this on bsky.

Painting of a gorilla playing the drums.

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Atom Freeman is talking to @ignitionpress.bsky.socials @filipsablik.bsky.social on the Prana podcast, Sablik reports that 12 Foot Skeleton is their highest ordered first issue yet - it just launched. UNDERESTMATE THE POWER OF A 12 FT SKELETON AT YOUR OWN PERIL! www.youtube.com/live/4Kp-vqF...

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

When someone starts spraying drizzling shits around a shared competition field, you stop the competition. Seems pretty clear to me.

Organizers have acknowledged gaps in the rulebook and admitted officials lacked clear guidance on how to handle the situation.

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Of all Rushville’s mysteries this typography is the most profound. #lanterns

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Carol Tyler gives a great moving speech I can’t even summarize. Just watch the video when it is available. “Follow Me, lead me, let’s make comics!” #spx #Ignatzawards

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Rachel Bivens presents Outstanding Cartoonist to Ephemerata by Carol Tyler Who is here!! She brought a plant from the lobby. She explains the cover was inspired by a Grant Wood painting. The book is about grief and it took her 10 years. Just as she finished it her husband died. #spx #Ignatzawards

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Outstanding Comic goes to Zoo #5 by Anand Shenoy. His publisher accepts. #spx #Ignatzawards

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Missed that photo here’s Sanika. “Making comics has helped her get better at regulating emotions have empathy and it’s her favorite form of storytelling. She is getting a bit teary and emotional - she won two years in a row!

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Francesca Lyn is as awards admin and the token extrovert on the staff reminding people not to drop th bricks! First award is Outstanding story presented by Rob Clough. The winner is Jesse Lonnergan for DROME. Jonathan Bayliss accepts. #spx #Ignatzawards

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Also a drawing of Lisa Hanawalt’s personal demons before saying that the power of friendship as seen at SPX helps everyone get past their personal demons. And fuck AI. Wild applause. #spx #Ignatzawards

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Pizza Island came to SPX. More of that mustard yellow from 2011!! #spx #Ignatzawards

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

And now the keynote delivered by Lisa Hanawalt! She shows off Porky the Litter Pig a local tourist attraction. #spx #Ignatzawards

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Warren Bernard also mentions the SPX collection at the Library of Congress which is now numbered at 18,000 items. They have recently acquired a collection of 4400 mini comics which includes early work by Raina Telgemeier and Gene Yang.

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Showrunner Warren Bernard is out to kick things off! He points out that she show is run by 120 volunteers. He gives shouts to the whole team that puts on the show. Honestly, they do a great job! #spx #Ignatzawards

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

It is coming! The 2026 Ignatz Awards are moments away and I’ll be live tweeting all the pageantry and drama! #spx #ignatzawards

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

“Everything about Tundra was catastrophic. Including the ending where they said Kitchen Sink bought Kitchen Sink.” Groth’s interview with Kevin Eastman covered every catastrophic move with tundra - like buying a recording studio. See the Comics Will Kill you podcast for more on this history! #spx

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Heidi MacDonald @ NYCC @comixace.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Writer Michael Fleischer sued Groth and Ellison for $2 million over an interview that ran in the Journal with Ellison. They fought it for 7 years. “This lawsuit divided the comics Industry for years,” said Shriner. Some people were rooting for Fleischer. #spx

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