Well folks, 2024 is pretty much at its end with 2025 about to begin and I’m finally doing this idea I’ve long had in mind but never got around to until now for one reason or another. Its almost like that whole State of the Union thing but more fun/cool/awesome sauce instead. The Indies have had some wins and some losses during ol’ 2024 and we can all be thankful for the wins column. We saw Comics!Twitter have something of a mass exodus to other platforms like Mastodon, Blue Sky, and any other new Social Media places with Blue Sky looking like the clear victor after some Musk guy decided to buy up Twitter and stupidly re-name it. And if I’m not mistaken, Zoop started to become a more preferred fundraising platform for Independent Creators over Kickstarter during the year but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong there!
DSTLRY hit the scene and Mad Cave Studios hit its 10th year while Don’t Hide PR is soon to hit 5 years! I personally became a little more familiar with Band of Bards and as well as A Wave Blue World, which has been in the game for roughly 2 decades now.
Awesome stuff for certain! Speaking of BoB (Band of Bards), those guys and the crew at Dauntless Stories joined forces to become a cooperative force in order to bring more quality content to our eyeballs!
Mad Cave also expanded to include not just titles for known IPs but also an imprint for Manga titles. Something I’m sure Manga lovers are loving the heck out of! The Mad Crew also did their first ever Kickstarter for a Battlecats Omnibus and was a rousing success complete with Vinyl! Brian Hawkins also launched his own Publisher known as BlaX Trauma Productions so if you haven’t yet, check that bit of coolness out! And though they were founded in 2020, it feels like Magma Comix definitely had more of a presence this year and I intend at some point to check out their content in addition to Dauntless and BXTP’s as well. So many Indies, so little time to read ‘em all! But at least you’ll have spent your money on something worthwhile instead of a regurgitated telling done by the Big 2. Oh! One other thing about the BoB crew!
Their very own CJ Hudson managed a win with successfully funding the anthology known as Amongst The Stars! A definite darn win for darned sure! But while there’s been plenty of wins, there’s unfortunately a loss or two out there in the world. And the main one that comes to mind for me right now is Jarred Lujan choosing to step away from comics due to a few unfortunate experiences he’s had with a couple of publishers that we won’t name here.
But if ya know, ya know. Ya know? Now another reason he’s stepping back is on account of wanting to focus on his family and family is always important. And for me personally, losing his touch in the Comics Community is up there with when we lost Kelly Bender and Scott Eos Weldon for
From A Wave Blue World
various reasons in this thing we call Life that thankfully doesn’t involve Death. The fact the original Yeti himself of Comic Book Yeti stepped away is another loss we suffered this year but those he’s been working with have stepped up in his place and we all wish the Triple OG Yeti all the best. And did Bob Salley step back as well? As it kind of feels like he did and that’s another loss right there for the Indie Scene. Or its possible I’m just not paying enough attention as that’s happened plenty of times. And while these aren’t Indie related, the fact Trump is going to be President again and Marvel got rid of the Krakoa Era is some crap.
But Vince McMahon no longer being on his throne somewhat makes up for those two things. Again, I know that last part isn’t in the Independents but it bears a mention. And while there’s likely a lot of other unfortunate things that happened, I wouldn’t have much clue of those sadly enough due to not always keeping up on things. Plus, why focus on the negative as that’s just depressing!
But the fact Luke Cooper continues on that grind of his is damned inspiring in my view! I’m sure there’s also a crap load of other good things that happened too during this year in the Independents but again, its a fail on my part for not keeping up to date. Maybe in the coming year I’ll do a lot better in that area but only time will see on that one. Though if I do recall correctly, ol’ Xing Xin, creator of Ximphonic Versus, has had himself a Hell of a good year when it comes to his decades in the making title. Keeping at it after countless rejections and finally seeing fruit bear out of it is another inspiring thing in my view.
But for the coming year, who knows what we’ll see happen next in the world of the Indies. And that my friends, is a beautiful thing as I do know we’ll be bound to see some awesome content be let out into the world for our eyes to roam all over.
Along with numerous Indie projects getting successfully funded on platforms like Kickstarter and Zoop. So with that said, let’s bring on 2025, folks!
See ya in the new year!
Written by: Rob Wrecks
