Commentary

The Federal Trade Commission has just sent a press release touting its first successful action against a failed Kickstarter campaign. The FTC's mission is to protect consumers from false or misleading advertising, and as part...

As I’m writing this, it’s Sunday and things are slow. At my former place of employment, Sundays were one of our busier days - people tend to have the day off, and wander into...

In Kieron Gillen's talk on Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen, Gillen emphasizes themes of time and cyclicality present in Moore's graphic novel.  Temporal symbolism recurs in everything from the Doomsday clock interstitials between...

So I launched a comic store on Free Comic Book Day. It was quite the trick, trying to get things ready for the day with things exploding all around. We had ordered a point...

Yesterday The Mary Sue published an article suggesting that for-profit comic-cons could be violating federal labor law by not paying minimum wage to workers improperly classified as volunteers. However, a recent case involving Major League Baseball shows how ReedPop and other commercial comic-con ventures could beat the tag.

Turns out, starting your own comic store can be incredibly frustrating. Until it's not.

Last month, via the BOOM! Studios PR mailing list, I received a letter, containing a copy of a guest editorial by Ross Richie, CEO and founder. You can read it here.  Go ahead... I'll wait. Here's his reason...

Last week, musician and producer Diplo stole artwork by illustrator Rebecca Mock then harassed her when she called him out. In this op-ed, The Beat discusses digital artistic ownership, online harassment, and one of the reasons why people think it's okay to act the way they act.

Have you tried to set up a business before, faceless mass of readers? Laying down groundwork for a business is like trying to punch the face of an ouroboros or wrestle a gordian knot.

Event comics are supposed to be the big sellers and pull in the widest possible audience, correct? (Key word being "supposed.") I’m looking at the December sales estimates and scratching my head over Convergence and...

A word of gentle advice to all those working at comic shops: it might be a pretty great gig, and you might enjoy what you’re selling, but always ask yourself if you fit.

Brought to you by Publishers Weekly, it's More To Come, the weekly podcast of comics news, interviews and discussion with Calvin Reid, Kate Fitzsimons and The Beat’s own Heidi MacDonald! In this week's podcast...