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As the COVID-19 Global Pandemic impacts everyday life in almost every single country in the world, even the comic book industry is not, excuse the pun, immune. As commerce and industry shuts down due to the government imposed lockdowns, manufacturing and distribution of goods and services has come to a virtual standstill.

Diamond Distributors have ceased operating and have said they are unable to pay upcoming bills. With no new comics being delivered to local comic stores, these too have had to close with no real indication if – or when – they will reopen. Initial thoughts that the publishers would continue to distribute their comics to customers in digital format met with a howl of protests from the retailers.  They reasoned that their customers would then not want to later purchase the physical issues several months later.

The main publishers finally relented and announced several initiatives to try and help retailers survive through this crisis, including suspending comic book production across the board. However, with many local comic stores operating on already razor thin margins, many are still unlikely to survive a prolonged shutdown – or in some cases even a short one.

DC and Marvel

Even the two big publishers themselves, DC and Marvel, may not be immune from the economic effects in the longer term. Their respective parent companies, AT&T and Disney, are seeing their revenues disappear almost overnight. Both parent companies already carried significant debt coming into this crisis and in order to keep paying the bills, they are going to be relying on further borrowing, both from banks and from government backed schemes, in order to weather the inevitable recession that follows this pandemic.

The Future

Indeed, many wonder whether the comic industry will itself be forever transformed once the dust settles. Right now, as with everything related to this pandemic, nobody knows for sure what the next few months hold in store. With people tragically losing their lives on a daily basis, the focus is rightly 100% on saving as many lives as possible. The economic and social after-effects will have to wait. And his applies equally to the comic book industry too.

In troubling times we often turn to hopeful stories, where heroes and heroines overcome adversity and triumph, in order to help us through. Comics do a wonderful job of allowing us, the reader, to leave their troubles behind  – if only temporarily. So, while it may be frustrating for comic book readers to no longer have a brand new adventure to read each week/month for the foreseeable future, there is still a wealth of back issues which, in the case of Wonder Woman, stretches back over 75 years.

So, that’s what I’ll be doing to wile away the time…and relive some of the Amazing Amazon’s most incredible and entertaining adventures.

Take care…stay safe….and see you all on the other side…

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With the competitive environment becoming even more intense in the streaming media world, particularly with the giant presence of Disney + looming large over everything, the main driver behind the purchase of Warner Bros. is to enable AT&T to better compete and have access to content, drawing on the vast library that the studio has at its disposal.

However, publishing comic books is not part of that grand plan – especially as the amount of profit DC Comics generates is tiny compared to the movie and TV revenues. And with sales dropping year on year and comic stores closing at the rate of one a month, something may have to give.

One of the factors driving this rapid decline may be that readers simply don’t like the type of content being produced nowadays by both DC Comics and Marvel – with often cited accusations that the focus nowadays is more on virtue signalling and political agendas, versus telling good stories featuring compelling characters. Even Dan Didio recently stated that DC had failed to deliver what customers want, as evidenced by the fact that their facsimile re-print versions of classic comics, including original ads and all, are selling better than the current output being produced today.

Another reason for the decline in the comic book industry is of course pirating. It only takes a simple Google search to find numerous websites out there enabling readers to freely download every single comic book title on sale within a day after they have been released. It is not surprising therefore that both publishers and retailers are struggling to survive.

Which brings us back to DC Comics and whether or not they have a role in AT&T’s future plans. Forbes speculate that within a few years, AT&T could shut down DC as a publisher completely and use their intellectual properties to sell apparel and merchandise instead, turning it into a lifestyle brand.  We have already potentially seen this strategy start to take fruition, what with the recent cancellation of Mad magazine and DC’s announcement that titles currently being shipped twice a month, will revert to monthly publishing schedules in 2020. If nothing else, it is clear a cost cutting drive is now underway.

It goes without saying that DC Comics ceasing publishing would be a devastating blow to long time comic book fans, who have grown up with these titles and characters. And while the latter will no doubt live on as pop icons on tee-shirts and the like, we may never see them featured in brand new published adventures again. They’ll simply live on in TV and movies and help to sell merchandise. But as we have seen, the on-screen versions of these characters are often very different to their comic-book counterparts – and not always in a good way either.

In truth though, nobody knows for sure what AT&T have in mind – and perhaps they have a grand plan up their sleeve to help DC Comics return to their glory days? Regardless, it’s clear that storm clouds are certainly gathering, and change – for better or for worse – is surely on the way.

However, one thing I know for sure. Wonder Woman will always be a part of my life – no matter what the world has in store for her…

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Search for her on this site to check out more of her amazing artwork and why not follow her on Twitter and on Facebook .

And thanks again Ema! It was lovely to meet you!

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As of today, the final missing letters of the alphabet have been added to the “Other Titles” section of the site, except for the Letters “X” and “Z”. But if anybody knows of a title beginning with these letters that I haven’t included, then feel free to let me know. I’d hate for these letters to feel they’d been left out of their day in the sun!

And while I’ve been busy beavering away at curating the old stuff, I’ve simultaneously done by level best to ensure I’ve been adding all the current, new titles and issues to the site too. Not an easy target when this is just my hobby and I have a regular day job.

So, thanks for you patience and I hope you find the added content useful – whether you’re a casual reader, avid fan or hard core collector.

On an unrelated note, I had the pleasure to join Vince Nolan on his radio show over at the Artists First Network a couple of weeks ago..

We had a blast chatting about all things Wonder Woman related, including reminiscing about our favorite incarnation of Diana, the 70’s TV show version as played by the iconic Lynda Carter. It was great fun and thanks to Vince once again for inviting me!

If you want to check it out you can download the podcast here.

And why not check out some of Vince’s other shows, as he gives listeners a fun, light take on other classic pop culture topics, ranging from TV and movies to music and books…and everything in between.

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As I write this, Marvel’s ‘Avengers: Endgame’ movie is receiving rave reviews and brings ten years of amazing comic book films to a rousing finale.

Meanwhile, us DC Fans can only contemplate what might have been had the DC Extended Universe delivered on all the promise it contained. ‘Justice League’ put the final nail in the coffin to the franchise in its current guise. Thankfully, Wonder Woman and Aquaman have proved that DC/Warners can make enjoyable, critically acclaimed and money making comic book movies.

But we should have been looking forward to the release of ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ this year, and yet for reasons still not totally clear, we have to wait until June 4th next year to see whether Patty Jenkins can deliver a successful follow up to Diana’s Word War One movie debut. Let’s hope so.

There is much talk that DC has decided that trying to follow the Marvel play book of creating an extended universe is a fool’s errand and that they should focus on making director lead, unconnected standalone movies instead, much in the way the James Bond franchise has been run all these years. If so, can we hope to see some different incarnations of Diana brought to the screen? Let’s hope so.

Until then, we can only watch as Marvel continue to enjoy their deserved plaudits, proving that even after a decade, the general public are not yet tired of seeing these comic book characters brought to life on screen. Yet this plays out at a time when the comic book industry that spawned them continues to wither on the vine. As more and more comic stores close, staff laid off at both DC and Marvel offices and much talk about Disney looking to close down the loss making Marvel comics publications – and Warners Bros. re-accessing the role DC plays in their entertainment portfolio – the next few years could prove pivotal for the industry…

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With over 130 plus issues to add and curate, this is a huge update which includes such goodies as the wonderful Super Friends, the very opposite kind of Justice League to Zack Snyder’s version! Plus, it’s surprising just have many times Diana has appeared in Superman’s own titles over the years, yet he doesn’t make guest appearances in her own title that often? That’s just rude.

So, I hope you enjoy exploring the new additions as I now turn my attentions to the remaining letters of the alphabet. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Yes, the Letter T is probably going to be quite a sizeable section to update too, but I mean …just how many titles beginning with X, Y and Z can there be, right?

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The Letter P and R sections of the site have been updated with several issues – though sadly, Letter Q doesn’t get its moment in the sun!

Hope everyone has a great time celebrating New Year’s Eve and here’s to a peaceful and wondrous 2019!

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And as 2018 draws to a close, I’m giving you all an early Christmas present in the form of updates to the Letters M, N and O sections of the site.

All being well, by the time we reach this same time next year, all the miscellaneous sections of the site will finally have been completed, together with of course the continuing ongoing updates of all the recent Wonder Woman issues and other titles that Diana appears in every week.

Thanks for visiting the site and I hope you find the content useful. Please do spread the word about the site if you have friends or family members who have an interest in the Amazing Amazon and her adventures in comics. Let’s spread the wonder!

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year!

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And as always, the latest Wonder Woman related issues continue to be updated on a weekly basis. So there’s always something new to check out here at the ever expanding Amazon Archives.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable Halloween and no doubt the next time we check in together, we’ll be on the final countdown for Christmas!

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