At The Counter #15: The Rise Of Small Press, The Fall Of Marvel

Welcome back to At The Counter, Comicon.com’s biweekly comics retail column, in which editor Tony Thornley sits down with Greg Gage, a 22 year veteran comics retailer, and after our short health-related hiatus, officially part-man, part-machine!

This week, Greg and Tony talk about small press making in-roads in the industry, just as Ignition Press hits their one year anniversary, and dig deep into the massive Marvel news of the past two weeks.

Tony Thornley: Greg, welcome back! How does it feel to join the ranks of the world’s cyborgs?

Greg Gage: 0110000111001 knee 01110000110

Tony: Welcome to Earth Greg-bot! My disability-fueled medical device is at least Bluetooth enabled…

Let’s start by talking about the fun thing. Since the pandemic, we’ve seen a few publishers reduce their output or fold entirely. The great thing, though, is that there’s been some new and existing publishers rise into prominence in the last year or so.

You mentioned Ignition to me, and I’ve been watching it happen with Mad Cave. So first of all, what titles are you seeing get traction with these publishers?

Greg: Well, some notable ones are Murder Podcast and Bad Thoughts from Ignition, Is Ted Okay? from Mad Cave (and by Utah’s own Dave Chisolm), and this week’s Sicko from Ignition and Tini Howard.

Tony: What does it take for a small publisher to get attention on the retailer level? I know Bad Idea tried it with gimmicks and that definitely failed on a few levels.

Greg: The Bad Idea problem, at least in my eyes, was partially due to the ordering requirements. I didn’t like the idea of anyone dictating what my orders were going to be. There were too many rules and regulations for carrying their books, too. They’ve fixed every one of those problems, and I’m really enjoying a lot of their titles now. I think staying away from the gimmicks is really key to getting retailers to order. I don’t want to jump through hoops. This industry is complicated enough these days. 

Tony: Do you think having marquee names attached to titles has helped? Or is that pretty neutral?

Greg: It doesn’t hurt. A big name will always sell a new book. What I’ve noticed, though, is some slightly smaller but still known names being attached, and those books doing really well. Robert Venditti is a name that, while not a “Wizard top writer” or whatever, is still a well known creator. His Ordained from Bad Idea is incredibly good. If he were a newer talent, I’d say he’s finally found his voice, but, as it is, I find myself thinking, “Where has this story been?” I’d say it’s one of the best stories of his I’ve ever read.

Tony: We’ve talked a lot about gimmicks lately, but what has the difference been between these gimmicks like limited releases and blind bags versus quietly building up strong creators and interesting stories?

Greg: The blind bags are out of control. Honestly, if they’d just solicited those covers, I’d have ordered most of them. Definitely all of the Vampirellas and The Boys. There are completists that want them all. With The Boys, there were, I believe, over 100 covers. I would’ve ordered one of each just for myself. I certainly didn’t order 100 blind bags.

Tony: Besides the two publishers I mentioned, who are you seeing that could be stepping into the spotlight?

Greg: Oni is making some traction. They’ve got some great IPs, and recently picked up Archie Comics. The only worry is hanging too much on the licenses, but if they continue to do independent creator owned books, they should be okay. Once those licenses start getting lost, the stable of books decreases rapidly, and they don’t have much to put out (see IDW).

Tony: With the good stuff out of the way, I think we need to talk about the recently announced Marvel changes. So, there’s the move and the editorial switch-up, and one of the cited reasons is that Marvel lost leadership of the market share for the first time in 26 years. Reportedly, only one Marvel title was in the top fifty best selling titles of 2025.

Has that been what you’ve observed?

Greg: I’ve just seen Marvel dying on the vine for the last 4 or 5 years. It’s sad to me, because I was mainly a Marvel guy from way back, but it’s all just too jumbled and complicated these days. Which Spider-Man am I reading? How many symbiotes are there now? What of the 20 or so titles for the X-Men actually tie in? And if they all tie in, there’s no way in hell I have the time for that.

Tony: What do you think the editorial switch-up will do to change that?

Greg: I hope we get a more streamlined Marvel U. Start basing the movies on the comics instead of the other way around. Keep the number of titles under control. Stop doing dozens of different versions of the same character. I’ve said it a million times, but Spider-Man is cool because he’s unique. When there is literally an entire universe of Spider-Man, it’s not very special anymore. I really hope they pay attention to those things. 

Tony: What lesson do you hope Steve Wacker learns from C.B. Cebulski’s tenure?

Greg: Don’t be Cebulski. Everything I said in the previous answer has happened under him. That just can’t continue. 

Tony: Editorial changes happen every few years, so that’s somewhat normal. The bigger part of this news is the coast-to-coast move. I would say it’s unprecedented, but DC literally did the same thing a decade ago. What was your experience like with that 2015 DC move?

Greg: I hope it’s smoother, although I doubt it will be. It seemed like when they moved, they kind of lost their focus and decided that a merge with the movie studios was the way to go. By that, I mean that when there was the Suicide Squad movie, those exact characters showed up in the new Suicide Squad comic. It didn’t go well. DC never, until recently, recaptured that #1 spot in the industry. They weren’t taking chances. They were just pumping out comic versions of the movies, and readers didn’t respond very well. 

Tony: What does Marvel need to do to prevent those issues from happening again?

Greg: Well, in a way, Marvel already has a leg up on that. They’re already making those mistakes. And by being closer to the movie studio instead of in New York, I’m afraid it’ll get even worse. With Disney in charge of Marvel, I can’t see things changing much. The big problem now seems to be, not Marvel making decisions, but Disney making decisions. I think they just need to slow down, examine what they have, and figure out exactly why they bought Marvel in the first place.

Tony: I think for me, I would say a phased approach would be necessary. Do you think DC’s two month work stoppage/stop gap event helped or hurt?

Greg: It didn’t really help. That gap event just didn’t stir up a whole lot of interest. It was plainly stated that it was a pause and not important to the future of the DC universe. Back then there was much less remote working. Now most of the artists don’t even live anywhere near the United States. They’re not showing up to work in NY anyway, so I don’t believe there’s any reason to take a break while Marvel moves. Pretty much everyone’s working from home. And these days shipping schedules are already so messed up, if we have another wrench in the gears, they’ll lose even more readership and sales.

Tony: Do you think this move is going to be a net positive, negative, or is there no way to tell at this point?

Greg: I don’t know. I’m looking at it with hope, but I’m not sure why. I guess that with the world so messed up right now, any positive is a good one, so let’s keep ’em crossed!

Black Cat Comics is on the web at https://blackcat-comics.com/ and via all the usual social media channels. If you live in or are visiting the Salt Lake City area, you can visit the store at 2261 Highland Dr, Salt Lake City, UT 84106, or call Greg and his team at (801) 461-4228.