ComicsPro 2023 Part 2: The Publishers

Thoughts on the comic book publishers who attended the ComicsPro 2023 conference.

This is part 2 in my ComicsPro 2023 series. Read Part 1: The Retailers.

While the most beneficial part of attending ComicsPro is arguably the retailer camaraderie, getting face time with publishers is a huge bonus. During the conference, group presentations were held by Marvel, DC, IDW, Boom, Kodansha and many other “big players” as well as newer initiatives like Saturday AM and AWA. This format allowed them to show off their upcoming slate of titles, address broad retailer concerns and rally the masses to our shared cause: Spreading the gospel of comic books (and selling a few along the way).

Oni Press promoting the work of Brenna Thummler at ComicsPro 2023

By and large, most of these presentations were regurgitating the same information we get in a barrage of weekly emails. Vault approached their slideshow with humor and enthusiasm (great job Daniel), Bad Idea showed a cheeky video (to less success) and Marvel wowed with upcoming variant covers (something that retailers largely despise - but hey, we’re complicated).

The roundtables allowed for a whole different level of connection, as did the after hours events.