There’s a whole lot of serious stuff to discuss this episode, as Ian is joined by Kris and Jamal at start, then Raph and Donovan shortly thereafter. Topics include updates on Diamond’s bankruptcy and some decisions that have been made since, including Massive Publishing and Mad Cave joining up with Lunar Valiant halting their relaunch entirely until a new distribution solution emerges, Boom heading to Penguin Random House, and Two Morrows looking for alternatives. We also discuss what could have potentially been done to avoid this fate, if there’s a way out for Diamond, and what might come next for distribution.

Then, we go into the allegations against Neil Gaiman, DC’s response, Sandman ending after Season Two, and how we as fans can discuss things like this seriously while divorcing ourselves from the author’s works. Much less seriously, we talk Batman: Caped Crusader, our reactions to James Gunn’s Superman trailer and Marvel’s Fantastic Four: First Steps, Creature Commandos, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, some recent reads and more.

Time stamps:

Diamond woes: 00:02:49

Neil Gaiman (trigger warning): 00:49:38

Rob Liefeld’s Marvel Divorce: 01:20:36

Batman: Caped Crusader: 01:25:52

Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps trailers: 01:42:40

Creature Commandos: 02:06:15

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: 02:18:11

Recent reads: 02:24:03

And here’s the YouTube video version:

You can support future releases of Comic Timing and get in on the occasional early releases of the show at http://www.patreon.com/ComicTiming. You can also follow Comic Timing on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/comictiming.bsky.social, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ComicTiming/, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/comictimingpodcast. And please, if you can, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts; it helps attract new listeners! Finally, you can join in on the conversation at our Comic Timing Fans group on Facebook, which is a great place to hang out and talk comics.

Follow Ian on Bluesky, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/i_am_scifi. Brent posts regularly to YouTube on his channel, BK’s Bullets; Raph is on Twitch at RaphDoesStuff, Instagram, and Bluesky. Kris is lampbane on Bluesky, here’s the article Kris wrote about the comic book industry in 2020, and you can check out her various other works at http://linktr.ee/krisnaudus. Donovan is on Bluesky, writes for DC’s blog and The Batman Universe, and check out his podcast, Questions: We Don’t Have Answers. And finally, Jamal is https://bsky.app/profile/jamaligle.bsky.social, https://www.instagram.com/jamaliglecomics/ and of course https://jamaligle.com/; his latest collection, The Wrong Earth: Dead Ringers is out next week!

Thanks for listening, we’ll catch you next time, and as always, there’s always time for comics!