In franchise happy Hollywood it was a rare battle "of the stars" at the box office this weekend with new wide releases featuring former Iron Man Robert Downey, Jr. and ex-Man in Black Will Smith going head-to-head.

The 2010s finished on an up note, suggesting that things might not be all bad for the direct market.

Sam Mendes’ period war drama 1917 easily took the weekend box office crown with a far-better-than-expected $36.5 million 3-day total as it expanded from 11 theaters to almost 3,500 on the weekend after the film had won two key awards (“Best Motion Picture” & “Best Director”) at the Golden Globes.

I count down the Top 10 2019 Trends in the Comics and Graphic Novel business below.

The time has come to face the future! Here, per my annual tradition, are some stake-in-the-ground forecasts to watch for in the year ahead.

The first sell-through data from comic stores shows a number of key takeaways.

The 19th Annual Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) is on May 2, 2020, and Diamond Comic Distributors just released the Silver Sponsor titles for this event as well as the FCBD 2020 t-shirt design by artist Jeffrey Brown.

There's plenty of food for thought on the lists of the Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels in the book channel, based on NPD BookScan data for November.

Now it's time to dive deeper into the actual sales of the Top 20 Author, Manga, and Superhero Graphic Novels in the book channel.

Rob Salkowitz looks back at the big trends in graphic novels in 2019.