Ah, comics journalism. Somehow, it soldiers on against all odds. But there are a lot of odds. Some updates and news this Monday afternoon, and we’ll start from worst to best because of it bleeds it leads.
§ Chris Arrant at Popverse notes that with its last remaining employee, George Marston, being let go, the venerable comics news site Newsarama is effectively no more.
Marston posted on Instagram on April 17th:
After 17 years, I am no longer writing for Newsarama or its associated sites. I was let go in a round of layoffs earlier this week.
I am devastated. My career is my passion. I love what I do, and I loved my job. But I take pride in the fact that 17 years of unbroken work for a single outlet is a rare accomplishment, especially in the comic industry.
That’s as long as Chris Claremont wrote the X-Men, something I’ll be reminding myself of regularly, as well as the fact that I’m still a year younger than Jack Kirby was when he created the Fantastic Four.
Though I don’t know what’s next, I know I’ll get there. And I know that I’ll never shut up about comics.
Arrant, who worked at Newsarama himself in various capacities from 2003 to 2022, noted that the site had been folded into GamesRadar back in 2018, and then was gradually absorbed into the larger site, but over the last year the brand dwindled away:
In the past 12 months however, the Newsarama branding on the GamesRadar.com website was largely eliminated, with the comics coverage remaining left as a secondary vertical and writing efforts minimized to focus primarily on games, film, & TV related to comics.
At its peak, Newsarama had a full-time staff of three with various additional writers, videographers, and others working in a freelance capacity. That was cut down to two by 2022, and, following his abrupt departure, co-founder Mike Doran was replaced by a general ‘comics editor’ that was shifted soon after to focus (in title and in work) on streaming TV & film, leaving Marston as the sole remaining Newsarama staffer until now.
He also noted that Marston and other staffers had been unionized, and union employees are being laid off and replaced by non-union staffers in England, where parent company Future PLC is based.
Newsarama has a long legacy – launched in 1998 by Michael Doran and Matt Brady, it was one of the foundations of online comics journalism. The Pulse part of Comicon.com was launched in 2002 as a competitor to Newsarama and hired me as a writer/editor. I can tell you….the competition for scoops was fierce.There were battles that even carried over to in person, before we all found our level. Brady and Doran really invented the daily comics news site, along with Jonah Weiland of CBR, and despite our feuds, I respected the work they all did.
Marston carried the flag for as long as they could, but in the end…no one at Future PLC cared.
§ In less bad and trending to good news, David Harper of SKTCHD announced on his weekly newsletter that he would be taking a few weeks off. This followed some health issues, and a sense of impending burnout.
…the sheer amount of work I’ve been doing, and the fact that I haven’t really taken more than a couple days off since last July has resulted in me being a very tired boy that’s edging closer and closer to the dreaded burnout zone we all fear.
So, I’m going to do something about that.
…
The last thing I have for you, though, is my thanks. I appreciate the support, as I always do, but the fact that everyone’s always so understanding when I have to take the occasional break means a lot. Now that this is my full focus, I need to make sure to treat it like a job, and sometimes, you have to take time off from your job. This is me doing that, so save for a couple podcasts and an article, expect me to be fully back in action in a two weeks.
That Harper is a one man army core who turns out long, in-depth features, a podcast and other regular weekly features week after week is something of a miracle to me. But as I also know from my early years of running the Beat solo…you can only do it for so long before you have to take a break.
Harper’s hiatus will only be two weeks so honestly, you aren’t really going to notice it, but get some rest, David. We all need you in good form.
§ Finally the GOOD NEWS! Steve Morris’s ShelfDust has announced it will be picking up the content of Chloe Maveal’s Gutter Review. Morris wrote this news in his unique way so I will quote the announcement in full:
WEST YORKSHIRE, UK. April 2026 – The world’s most eligible comics website Shelfdust has announced a new partnership which will fill the site with filth, smut, porn and uber-violence in 2026!
Rabbit and wanton comics critic Steve Morris has announced today that Shelfdust, the comics website, will be bringing all the hottest and dirtiest comics criticism back to the internet in 2026, as The Gutter Review’s archive will be republished by Shelfdust across the course of the year!
Created, edited and curated by that no-good terrible darned influence Chloe Maveal, one of the greatest writers about comics today, The Gutter Review is one of the best comics websites to ever find life online. It featured articles and essays which covered comics of all stars and stripes – from Jack Staff and June Brigman to Richard Corben, Bernie Wrightson and Strontium Dog. With one foot in the gutter, and all minds wholly in the trash, The Gutter Review brought incredible and idiosyncratic coverage of comics to the masses.
With the internet being no place for such gleefully depravity and insight, The Gutter Review unfortunately had to be taken offline a few years ago, but this new partnership means all the previous features and articles will return to the world, one week at a time. You want to read about Sonic The Comic and Steve Gerber’s Foolkiller? We’ve got you covered. Needing to know more about Nexus or rampaging for some Rumiko Takahashi ‘ritin’? You know where to go.
Want an impassionate defence of Larry Welz’ Cherry Poptart? JUMP INTO THE GUTTER REVIEW!
Starting May 4th with an exploration at Cam Kennedy’s time pencilling Star Wars, The Gutter Review is coming back online, and ready to scar souls in the best possible way. Comics criticism cannot be killed!
IT CANNOT, STEVE! IT JUST CAN’T!!!!! Maveal launched The Gutter Review back in the pandemic-ish days, and it was an excellent platform for thoughtful, longform critical writing about comics. Unfortunately, the site was eventually taken down when it lost its funding, and that Morris has been able to make a deal to get it back online is a wonderful. Because, you see, the Internet is NOT FOREVER. We need to preserve the good stuff.
§ This is not news, but it is a good time to remind everyone that The Beat does NOT have corporate funding, backers or anything, really. I pay for everything on the site out of my own pocket, and my pocket is funded entirely by the generosity of our Patreons and advertisers. I’ve been doing this for 22 years, and it hasn’t killed me yet. That’s because I have an extraordinary staff who do this all better than I can.
If you would like to support our efforts – and PLEASE CONSIDER THIS! – you can subscribe to our Patreon here. Please note, we don’t so “Patreon only” posts, although I’ve been told 1 million times I should, because I believe information should be free, even though it isn’t. However, I will be revisiting this policy in the future so now would be a good time to subscribe!
You can also support us via advertising! Hit me up at info at comicsbeat.com with ADVERTISING in the subject line and I’ll shoot you a media kit. Yes I am not only the editor in chief, I am the Advertising Director, because in the world of comics journalism, we don’t wear a lot of hats, we just make all the hats into ONE BIG GIANT HAT.
At any rate, good luck George, David, Chloe and Steve. And check out our BLOGROLL in the sidebar which includes other worthy sites you can support if you don’t like this one. If you don’t have six hours a day to listen to al the comics commentary on YouTube, you can spend a few minutes here to get all the nerd news you need.
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