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The week in comics, in five minutes. Art Spiegelman sparked backlash by using AI for a 9/11 book sticker, Diamond's bankruptcy settlement cleared warehouse consignments for Dark Horse and others, and a Clay Mann foil cover for Absolute Batman #25 jumped to $60 in a single day. Your six-story catch-up is below.
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This was a week that tested some of comics' most durable assumptions. Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer winner behind Maus, used AI-generated imagery for a sticker on the 25th-anniversary edition of In the Shadow of No Towers and said he did it because he was lazy — prompting instant condemnation from peers who have spent careers drawing by hand. Meanwhile, the machinery of comics distribution ground forward in Baltimore bankruptcy court, where more than a dozen publishers including Dark Horse, Oni, Vault and DSTLRY finalized the terms under which they can retrieve hundreds of thousands of units still sitting in Diamond's old Olive Branch warehouse. And on the secondary market, an open-order foil variant of Absolute Batman #25 — a book with a 775,000-copy print run — sold out at Lunar within hours and traded hands for $60 on eBay by Thursday evening, proving that scarcity is less about print run than it is about which covers collectors decide they want.
What connected these stories was the collision between creator intent and collector response. Spiegelman's sticker was meant as ironic commentary, but the community saw a betrayal of craft. The Diamond settlement was a logistical chess match over rent and storage fees, but its real stakes were the consigned inventory that publishers need back to meet reader demand. And the Absolute Batman #25 foil was designed as an homage to Weekly Shōnen Jump, but the market read it as instant scarcity and bid accordingly. In each case, the story of the week was less about what creators or publishers planned and more about how the community — artists, retailers, collectors — reacted when those plans landed.
Why Do Sellers Keep Grading the SAME Comics!? — Mint-Hunter Comics (@minthuntercomics)
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One big story from each day this week, Monday through Saturday.
MON · 2026-10-26
01. Art Spiegelman used AI to generate a cover sticker for the 25th-anniversary edition of In the Shadow of No Towers and disclosed the decision in a September interview, prompting widespread criticism from fellow cartoonists.
Spiegelman, 78, created the sticker to ironically depict the burning Twin Towers as candles on a birthday cake for the new edition of his 9/11 book, which Pantheon released earlier this year. He told Publishers Weekly he wanted the image to look like an old engraving and decided to use AI because he was lazy. His wife and collaborator, Françoise Mouly, helped with the prompts — Spiegelman said she is good at Claude whispering. The sticker marks Spiegelman's first use of AI-generated artwork, and he disclosed the process during a talk at the Brooklyn Public Library in September. In the Shadow of No Towers was originally serialized from 2002 to 2004 as Spiegelman's personal response to 9/11, which he experienced from his home in New York City.
The response from the cartooning community was immediate and harsh. Evan Dorkin posted a cartoon of Spiegelman vomiting into a bin labeled Pulitzer prompts, titling the piece Slop Bucket Kids in reference to Spiegelman's creation Garbage Pail Kids, and calling it a bad art response to bad art. Chris Burnham shared a parody of the book's cover titled In the Shadow of Poo Towers, with outlines of stools replacing the Twin Towers, and wrote in the alt text that he had wanted to call it In the Shadow of No Talent but liked Maus and Garbage Pail Kids. Mouly has previously been quoted saying AI can't give you the emotion of a book. Spiegelman and Mouly are not the only aging artists to use AI — Alison Bechdel admitted this year she had used it to generate reference for a New York Times cartoon and commented that she was likely just going right down a chute to hell. Publishers Weekly reports that Pantheon has not made the sticker widely visible online, suggesting the company is aware of how unpopular AI-generated imagery is among readers and collectors.
The controversy places Spiegelman, whose work on Maus set a benchmark for graphic narrative and whose career has been defined by painstaking craft, at the center of a debate over the role of generative AI in comics. The sticker was meant as a small ironic gesture on a reissue, but its creation method has overshadowed the anniversary edition itself. Collectors and creators have taken the disclosure as a signal that even the most respected figures in the field are willing to cut corners with technology that many see as a threat to the livelihood and integrity of hand-drawn art. The fact that Spiegelman openly described his choice as laziness has only intensified the backlash, making it harder to frame the decision as a considered experiment. The sticker remains difficult to find online, and the controversy is likely to follow the book as it circulates.
TUE · 2026-10-27
02. A Baltimore bankruptcy court approved a settlement between Diamond Comic Distributors' trustee, purchaser Sparkle Pop, and 13 publishers including Dark Horse, Oni, Vault, DSTLRY and Titan, resolving disputes over consigned inventory still held in the old Diamond warehouse.
The settlement, filed in September and approved this week, covers the Palik Consignment Group — named after counsel Craig M. Palik of McNamee Hosea, who represents all 13 publishers. The group includes Aspen, Black Mask, DSTLRY, Heavy Metal, Magnetic, Massive, Oni, Panini UK, Alien, Graphic Mundi, Titan, Vault and Dark Horse Comics. The agreement is structured differently from an earlier settlement reached in August with a separate Ad Hoc Committee of Consignors that included Ablaze, Dynamite, Boom, Fantagraphics, Zenescope and others. That earlier deal did not include Sparkle Pop and drew an immediate objection over rent, storage and processing fees. The new Palik settlement brings Sparkle Pop into the fold and states that it will fully, completely and finally resolve all disputes by and among the parties, known or unknown, asserted or unasserted.
The settlement lays out the current consignment amounts for each publisher, measured in units held and total cover price. Oni has the largest consignment at 287,011 units with a total cover price of $5,466,625. Magnetic holds 92,878 units totaling $1,912,225. Dark Horse has 108,674 units totaling $2,879,015. Vault has 104,500 units totaling $643,267. Alien holds 40,098 units totaling $676,042. Titan has 45,732 units totaling $581,222. Aspen has 43,594 units totaling $459,221. Massive holds 58,078 units totaling $324,658. Graphic Mundi has 14,267 units totaling $334,697. Black Mask holds 40,073 units totaling $255,636. DSTLRY has 16,027 units totaling $162,305. Heavy Metal holds 15,577 units totaling $87,839. Panini UK has 6,483 units totaling $132,796. Each publisher must choose a Pik&Pak option to retrieve its inventory or request that Sparkle Pop destroy specific stock at no extra charge, with a certificate of destruction required under the order.
Publishers have two primary options. Option 1 allows Sparkle Pop to keep 4 percent of the wholesale value of remaining stock — wholesale defined as 50 percent of the manufacturer's suggested retail price — and then pick, pack and palletize the other 96 percent at no extra charge. Sparkle Pop chooses which titles make up its 4 percent and can sell them. This option has been chosen by Aspen, Black Mask, DSTLRY, Heavy Metal, Massive, Panini UK, Alien Books, Titan, Vault and Dark Horse. Titan received a side deal carving out about 31 pallets already staged for pickup from the extra fees. Option 2 requires the publisher to pay Sparkle Pop 2 percent of the wholesale value in cash and receive all remaining inventory picked, packed and palletized. Magnetic, Oni and Graphic Mundi have chosen this option. Following receipt of the required payment, Sparkle Pop must make the identified consigned inventory available for pickup or shipment within 10 business days, with written notice provided when the inventory is available at the warehouse loading dock. If the publisher does not remove its consigned inventory within 30 days after the date of written notice, unless there is an executed written agreement in place before the 30-day deadline, the consigned inventory is deemed abandoned and Sparkle Pop has the sole right to dispose of it as it sees fit. The settlement clears the way for publishers to reclaim hundreds of thousands of units that have been tied up in bankruptcy proceedings, addressing a critical distribution bottleneck that has affected inventory availability for months.
WED · 2026-10-28
03. A collector shared indie and creator-owned comics purchased from a local bookstore, including a signed work by Eisner-award winner Gene Ha.
The post described a haul of indie and creator-owned comics acquired from a local bookstore, with the collector highlighting the discovery of a signed work by Gene Ha, who has won multiple Eisner awards for his work on titles including Top 10 and Mae. The post emphasized the value of supporting local retailers and the thrill of finding creator signatures in the wild.
The discussion underscores the ongoing appeal of indie and creator-owned material among collectors, particularly when those books carry signatures or direct connections to the artists. Local bookstores continue to serve as discovery points for smaller-press titles that might not appear in traditional comic shops, and collectors are increasingly willing to share those finds with the broader community online.
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THU · 2026-10-29
04. The open-order Clay Mann foil cover variant of Absolute Batman #25 jumped from its $8.99 cover price to $60 in sales on eBay within 24 hours, and Lunar Distribution sold out of copies despite a 775,000-unit print run for the issue.
Absolute Batman #25 by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta was published on Tuesday with a total print run exceeding 775,000 copies, but the Clay Mann foil cover variant — styled after Japanese anthology magazines like Weekly Shōnen Jump — drew intense collector demand immediately upon release. The cover features DC Comics Presents at the top in Japanese, with giant side text shouting Popular characters assemble. Catwoman gets prominent billing next to Batman with text about the strongest pairing finally appearing together. Inset panels tease Enemy or ally… or are they lovers, and credits are done in classic manga fashion, listing The Mannboyz and Dragotta over the exciting original by Scott Snyder, complete with a goat badge next to Dragotta's name calling him the GOAT. The open-order foil variant was priced at $8.99, but copies sold on eBay for $60 within a day of release. Signed copies by Clay Mann have sold for $100. Lunar Distribution reported being completely out of stock and has been apologizing to retailers who requested additional copies.
The Clay Mann foil cover is not the first time The Mannboyz have applied manga aesthetics to Absolute Batman. Their earlier variant for issue #18 recreated the look of Chainsaw Man Volume 1, giving Batman chainsaw hands. That variant sold out quickly, and the Absolute Batman #25 magazine treatment has drawn similar collector interest without breaking any of DC Comics' new cover guidelines. The speed of the price jump — from an $8.99 comic to repeat $60 sales in just one day for an open-order cover with such a high print run — represents a new pattern in the market. Open-order variants are typically available in quantities sufficient to meet retailer demand, yet the combination of the manga-style design, the Mann signature and immediate scarcity at the distributor level created a supply shock that drove secondary-market prices up sevenfold within 24 hours.
The market behavior around this variant reflects a broader shift in collector priorities, where design and cultural crossover appeal can create instant scarcity even when the underlying print run is massive. The manga aesthetic taps into a collector base that spans both Western superhero fans and readers of Japanese comics, and the fake-magazine format resonates as a knowing homage rather than a simple gimmick. The fact that Lunar sold out so quickly suggests that retailer orders, while large in absolute terms, underestimated demand for this specific cover. For DC, the success of the variant validates the manga-inspired design direction that The Mannboyz have been exploring across multiple Absolute Batman issues. For collectors, the rapid price escalation serves as a reminder that scarcity is as much about distribution and timing as it is about total copies printed.
FRI · 2026-10-30
05. A collector described finding a Peter Parker Spider-Man #1 Romita variant at an unusually low price on a secondhand marketplace and shared their recent haul.
The post, titled with a quote from Mary Jane Watson — Face it, tiger… you just hit the jackpot — described the collector's discovery of a Peter Parker Spider-Man #1 Romita variant at a price well below typical market rates on a secondhand platform. The collector shared the find as part of a broader haul covering the past month, emphasizing the excitement of uncovering undervalued keys in non-specialist venues.
The Peter Parker Spider-Man #1 Romita variant has been a sought-after modern book, and finds like this highlight the continued opportunity for collectors to source books outside traditional comic shops and auction houses. The post resonated with other collectors who have had similar experiences finding underpriced books through online marketplaces, where sellers may not be familiar with current market values. The discussion reinforced the value of persistence and broad searching when building a collection, particularly for books that have appreciated significantly since their release.
SAT · 2026-10-31
06. Silver Streak Comics #6, the first appearance of the Golden Age Daredevil, is coming to auction, with the debut story showing significant influence from Batman stories in Detective Comics #38, #33 and #27.
Silver Streak Comics #6, published by Lev Gleason in 1940, introduced the Golden Age Daredevil in a story by Jack Binder with art by Don Rico. The issue is widely considered one of the most important Golden Age superhero keys outside of the Marvel and DC ecosystems, and the debut story borrows multiple elements from Batman. Daredevil's origin involves his parents being murdered by thugs, after which he vows to avenge their deaths by going to war against all criminals, similar to Batman's origin as depicted in Detective Comics #33 in 1939. While this framework is not uncommon in fiction — The Phantom Detective from 1933 has a similar origin — additional plot details point to a more immediate Batman influence. Elements of the debut Daredevil story have clearly been inspired by the story introducing Robin in Detective Comics #38, which hit newsstands about five months before Silver Streak Comics #6.
In Detective Comics #38, after Robin is introduced, Batman and Robin take on a gang led by a man named Zucco. In Silver Streak Comics #6, the gang Daredevil fights is headed by a man named Ricco, a name likely inspired by the artist Don Rico and prompted by its similarity to Zucco. Both Ricco and Zucco own nightclubs that feature illicit gambling and serve as lairs, and these gambling dens are the setting of key action scenes in each story as the heroes burst into the club while mayhem ensues. Both heroes leave behind a note as the dust settles on the nightclub battles — Batman's note comes in a box with a bat inside, while Daredevil's note is delivered by boomerang. Both notes begin with Get out of town and are designed to force each gang into a trap. As the final battle is about to commence, there is a panel of Daredevil on a rooftop, arms folded as he calmly observes the criminals below before diving into battle, which appears to be inspired by the famous Batman rooftop panel from Detective Comics #27.
There are 54 copies of Silver Streak Comics #6 on the CGC Census, a surprisingly small number for a Golden Age key that has been considered important and in demand for decades. The issue is also notable for its Jack Cole cover featuring The Claw, a villain who had been the title's cover feature for the first two issues. Silver Streak Comics is a rarity among Golden Age titles in that it was launched with a villain as the cover feature, and publisher Lev Gleason was intent on focusing on wartime enemies, with The Claw meeting Adolf Hitler in issue #2 and offering to team up to conquer the world. The title's namesake, Silver Streak — a dead-then-resurrected superhero flying speedster named after the futuristic race car in which he was killed — did not show up until issue #3. The auction of this issue offers collectors a chance to acquire a key Golden Age first appearance with direct narrative ties to the development of the superhero genre in the early 1940s.
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Bleeding Cool →Court approves settlement between Diamond Estate, the Palik Group and Sparkle Pop
A court has approved a settlement between The Palik Group, Sparkle Pop, and the Diamond estate, resolving a legal dispute.
The Comics Beat →The most-discussed collector threads this week.
The Absolute Batman #25 Clay Mann Cover Jumps From $8 To $60 In A Day
r/comicbooks · Read the thread →
Ziggurat Interactive, owners of the 'BloodRayne' multimedia franchise, have announced that the formerly "video game first" IP will now be…
r/comicbooks · Read the thread →
"Face it, tiger... you just hit the jackpot" Holy moly and this month and past months haul.
r/comicbookcollecting · Read the thread →
Why Do Sellers Keep Grading the SAME Comics!?
Mint-Hunter Comics · @minthuntercomics · 54.9K subscribers
Discussion about why sellers repeatedly grade same comic books for resale.
Watch on YouTube →ABSOLUTE SWAMP THING by Alan Moore Vol. 1
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Collector reviews Absolute Swamp Thing by Alan Moore Vol. 1 from DC Comics Black Label.
Watch on YouTube →Collectors Claim PRICE GOUGING On Absolute Batman 25 Clay Mann Variant..
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Discussion of secondary market price increases and price gouging claims on Absolute Batman variant.
Watch on YouTube →Find more comic creators on CollectiblesFamous (92) →
TheComicBookReport
@thecomicbookreport · 18K YouTube subscribers
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