Alliance Entertainment Plans to Buy Diamond Comic Distributors

As we entered into 2025, Diamond Comic Distributors went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company supposedly planned to restructure and survive. It quickly became apparent that things were bad, however, and all the various entities that were a part of Diamond were to go to auction. One compay has swooped in to claim much of Diamond, interestingly enough. That operation is Alliance Entertainment.

Alliance Entertainment does a lot with music, movies, video-games, purchased a toy company called, "Handmade by Robots," and does a lot with, "Entertainment," as its name would suggest...except for comics. It seems AEnt is happy to work in the field of comics but the main aspect of Diamond's infastructure/remants that appealed appears to be that Direct Market for toys, games, and so forth. As Heidi MacDonald of Comicsbeat discusses in this article, we don't know much for sure as this is the early days and a court has to approve the sale, but there is some cautious optimism as well as folks not knowing what to make of AEnt. There will be a lot of questions these next few weeks, but at least we now know who will be the company where the answers all come from.

Music Monday: "Nokia," Shows Drake Can Still Make Good Music When He's Not Busy Losing Feuds

Kendrick Lamar and Drake had a big rap feud. Unless you live under a rock that is under another rock you probably heard about it. Kendrick beat Drake, handily, to the point Drake literally sued due to disliking being called pedophilic in some of Kendrick's verses on, "Not Like Us." I have commented on multiple occasions about Drake's problematic behavior toward minor girls so my opinion on that is known. Still, when Drake isn't making questionable choices about who he texts or losing a rap beef so badly he tries suing...he does still make music that bumps suitably well. This is shown by a recent release, "Nokia," done in partnership with PARTYNEXTDOOR.

The song, "Give Me a Hug," has gotten a lot of attention with its wild jumping between beats, melodies, and samples, but for my money, "Nokia," is a much more focused and tighter song. It does switch up its sound and tempo a bit halfway through but is a lot less over-the-top than, "Give Me Hug," and so darn catchy. Give it a listen:

It makes you want to dance around a bit, doesn't it? If Drake focused on making good hits like this he wouldn't even need to acknowledge how badly Kendrick spanked him in their rap battles, he could just live with the fact he lost and go on to make some hot tunes. Instead, everyone keeps dunking on him for being a sore loser even though he's got some heat with this track, among others--just let it go, Drake! If you'd focus on making fun tracks and not a finished feud we'd all be happier that way.

Squishmallows Cereal is Impressively Tasty

Oftentimes when I try a cereal associated with a popular brand it is either the same as a normal cereal with the tiniest of changes or absolute garbage. This isn't always the case (Toy Story 4's cereal was legit yummy) but I always am guarded when I try a corporate tie-in cereal. I saw one for Squishmallows at Target, however, and was intrigued. We love those wild little plushes in our household and the cereal looked like it could be decent. I've tried it, and I was impressed with the taste!

Squishmallow cereal is a bit like Cheerios in shape & Lucky Charms in flavor with a slightly sweeter and vanilla taste to the grain part and, of course, some marshmallows. The marshmallows in this case are themed for various Squishmallows. I tried a handful of the cereal, "Dry," and liked it before making a bowl with some milk (lactose-free to spare my tummy) and enjoying what I ate a great deal. This wasn't the best cereal I'd ever tasted, but it was pretty darn good. Others online agree with me, too. Considering this was made to tie in with a random plush line, I am pleased with the effort that went into crafting Squishmallow cereal. I plan to eat the whole box and seek some more out.

5 out of 5 Stars.

New Printings of, "Transformers," and, "Void Rivals," Will Come With Sound Chips, an Interesting Promotion

I enjoy a good gimmick cover with my comic-books. From holofoil to die-cut, and everything in-between it can seem silly, but a little fun doesn't hurt either (when gimmick covers become the whole selling point and the comic is lame that can be unfortunate, however). One interesting new promotion is that Skybound (an imprint of Image) will have some comics with little sound chips that, "Talk." This fall there will be reprints of, "Void Rivals," #1 and, "Transformers," #1, featuring "...the iconic Transformers Signature Sound of the bots shifting from robot to alt mode – or vice versa," with different sounds for each comic.

This kind of thing has been done before--one humorous example is the low-budget horror movie, "Frankenhooker," with a button that plays the audio, "Want a date?" from the flick on the VHS box. In regards to comics, there was the recent, "Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong," which had, "Roar," variants as well. Even if this isn't exactly a brand-new novelty, I like seeing it!

Flashback Friday: Remember That Zany Occasion Where Beast and Dark Beast Teamed Up?

"X-Men: Endangered Species," could have been a mostly forgettable series of backup strips that explained a chunk of plot holes before a big X-Men event, but it managed to be pretty darn cool. It kicked off with a one-shot before being a series of strips in the back of X-titles. The comic followed Beast of the X-Men as he tried to explore any avenue he could to undo how Wanda Maximoff (the Scarlet Witch) had turned most mutants into humans at the end of, "House of M." 

This all led to what was called, "M-Day," and various comics that spun out of the event. "Endangered Species," essentially set up, the "Messiah Complex," event which slowly began reintroducing mutants to the Marvel Universe and a thankless task of answering why the X-Men hadn't undone Wanda's spell. The series followed Beast stopping by various old hangouts of mutants only to find nobody could help him with science, magic, or anything else. Old mutant blood samples had turned human, even most dead mutants had reverted to human, and so forth. Then, right as Beast is about to give up he discovers how someone else has been working trying to figure everything out--him, sorta.

Dark Beast was an evil version of Henry McCoy from the, "Apocalypse," Universe. He ended up in the main Marvel Universe and was in some series off and on but hadn't been heard from for a bit, until, "Endangered Species," which midway through turns into a twisted and dark buddy-comedy with the two beasts trying various avenues to figure out what can be done. Eventually, the evil McCoy's more extreme methods result in them going their separate ways and we reach a conclusion-of-sorts where Beast sees he's out of options (right before, "Messiah Complex," begins and changes the so-called, "Rules," of everything). Still, for the period of time Beast and Dark Beast are together it is a hoot witnessing the little metaphorical devil on Beast's shoulder (who is literally a twisted version of him) suggesting how extreme they could be to save mutants.

After, "Messiah Complex," Beast kept getting increasingly questionable in his actions. During the whole, "Krakoan," era of X-Men we essentially saw Henry become enough of a villain that towards the end of the arc a bunch of messy plot trickery was done to erase how much of a baddie he'd become (clones were involved) As for Dark Beast, he died, came back, and died again, with Mister Sinister preserving his head because that's how that zany character rolls. 

The most recent years have been pretty rough for fans of any version of Beast with him being so dishonorable in any reality, but at least back in 2007 the, "Main," Beast wasn't yet too morally corrupt and it was fun to see him struggle with right-and-wrong alongside a more mischievous form. I also am glad the, "Endangered Species," one-shot and back-up strips were all collected as well so that the other handful of fans of this comic can read it without having to track down various assorted comics.

2 Random Notable Things Are Occurring--Diamond's Auction and March Madness

March 19th was the deadline for bids on Diamond Comic Distributors' various sub-companies. March Madness has started this week as well. Both things are very different but both are also big and notable events for sure. I honestly only care much about one, however (Diamond). Bids protected by NDAs have been submitted. Come Monday the 24th, a lot more will be revealed as Diamond finds itself broken and sold into various parts. Various rumors have spread about Diamond and what the future holds, and nobody can be sure what is going to happen. That's a lot like March Madness, which often finds people making brackets that have one-in-a-120 billion odds of being perfect. Seriously, your odds are a lot better to win the lottery than they are to create a slam-dunk bracket. We've all got theories about Diamond and March Madness but until everything is said and done it is just a lot of (most likely incorrect) guesswork.

I am incredibly curious how things shake out with Diamond and know a ton of people are pumped about March Madness. Even if I don't follow basketball much (pro or collegiate) it still is always great to see how excited people get. Plus, that bulldog mascot from Drake University (Griff II), is a real cutie. As April arrives a lot will be figured out regarding Diamond and on April 7th March Madness will have its National Championship to determine a winner. In other words, by mid-April, we'll know a lot more than we do now about both of these subjects.

We Tried Dutch Bros!

The first Dutch Bros Coffee in our region had its grand opening yesterday! A decent-ish drive away in O'Fallon, Missouri, I was around there today and figured I'd pick some goodies up for Samii and myself to try. I was surprised (but shouldn't have been) by the long line. I imagine other folks in the area are excited to try Dutch Bros too, after all. The line moved along briskly enough and all the employees were quite friendly throughout the ordering process. After I got everything we headed home to sample the drinks and snacks.

I ordered a cold brew coffee and a strawberry-flavored soda. I found both quite tasty, with the cold brew going down smoothly and the soda's syrups were just right too (not overly sweet or anything). Samii got a tea with some flavors and found it decent, but we think they might have used green tea as the base instead of black tea--as we requested. She was still pleased overall though. As for the snacks, the granola bar was a big and chunky piece of deliciousness,s and the muffin tops/muffies were solid if not as good compared to the granola bar (it was legit yummers). We either liked or loved everything today from Dutch Bros and I can see why it has a lot of hardcore fans. That said, I still think Scooters is my absolute favorite coffee joint, currently. Still, anytime I happen to be in O'Fallon I will eagerly stop by Dutch Bros for something scrumptious.

4.5 out of 5 Stars overall.

Christopher Priest and Joe Quesada Are Teaming Up for, "Marvel Knights: The World to Come," This June

Two fantastic creators are returning to Marvel for an intriguing mini-series. I am pleased. The gentlemen in question are Christopher Priest and Joe Quesada. The comic is, "Marvel Knights: The World to Come," and it will be a six-issue series set in a possible future of Marvel and Wakanda in particular. I like the sounds of all of this.

Christopher Priest has been writing comics for longer than I've been alive--and pretty much anything he does is excellent. Priest has the ability to take a character I don't care about and make me excited or take characters I love and get me even more pumped. It would take forever to list all he's written, so I'll just shout out his recent work on, "Deathstroke," and his current, 'Vampirella," comics as being worth checking out. Joe Quesada is a skilled artist who also co-founded the Marvel Knights imprint and eventually rose to the position of editor-in-chief at Marvel before moving on to some other projects and positions--his time at Marvel was extremely productive and is fondly remembered though (occasional misfire aside like, "One More Day," which he heavily pushed for). Both men have a history with Marvel (Priest's run on, "Black Panther," was beloved) and I am a fan of their work so seeing they'll be teaming up is quite cool.

I enjoy alternate universe stories in the Marvel Universe because the story can do things that can't happen in the, "Regular," World. I love Priest's work and I am a big fan of Quesada's art. This makes, "Marvel Knights: The World to Come," sound like something I'm going to adore. I mean, it could be bad, but the odds are my excitement is warranted. We'll see in June!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day 2025!

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Clarkson and Gibson are clearly in the spirit with some fun matching shirts (featuring a green Spider-Man). My Grandma Burton always eagerly celebrated Saint Patrick's Day as she had a ton of Irish heritage. I often think of her on this holiday and hope everyone else has a good (and responsible) time today too!

Marvel (and DC) Continue to Treat Creators Quite Poorly and They Are Speaking Out

When it comes to comic books if you own your property that's really important. Your comic might not be that popular, but you still own it. It could become a huge hit that gets adapted into a movie or game, and you own that and get money for it. If you work for Marvel or DC you get the thrill of writing well-known properties, but the pay will suck and if something you created is used for an epic storyline, the best you can hope for is a small check (maybe) and a little, "Thank you," spot in the credits of the multimillion/billion dollar film from the big conglomerate that otherwise could give a damn you contributed the key foundation to that flick. Creators normally are hesitant to outright bash Marvel or DC, but more are coming forward realizing they can burn that bridge if they have zero intent to ever use it again.

Marvel is especially getting slammed lately, although DC is still catching some smoke, so to speak. Multiple creators have talked about the crappy pay, questionable business practices, or simply pointed out they don't see the point in putting in a bunch of work to have little to show for it (Rob Guillory revealed what he legally could about the chance to revamp a character for little in the way of money/thanks and how he passed). You might not get rich working with an independent publisher who lets you keep the rights to everything you do (like Image). That said, if whatever you make takes off you won't still be broke as you would with Marvel or DC. Creator rights in comics is always been a topic that comes up, and gets addressed a little, but then a lot of problematic stuff stays the same. It is a damn shame because anyone who created characters or stories that are making tons upon tons of money shouldn't be struggling to pay medical bills. This reminds me, please contribute to the GoFundMe for Peter David if you can. The man has written some amazing stuff and he is currently in crisis.