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Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: Atom! Freeman, Comics The Magazine, Gabe Yocum, Prana
Comics! The Magazine Gets Over 100,000 Orders For Its First Issue
Comics! The Magazine gets over one hundred thousand orders for its first issue from Prana Direct Market Solutions
Article Summary
- Comics! The Magazine secures over 100,000 orders for its debut issue, smashing expectations in the market.
- Gabe Yocum shaves his beard after a 12-year run, celebrating the huge milestone for the magazine's launch.
- The team behind Comics! The Magazine includes industry veterans from Valiant, Skybound, and AWA Comics.
- First issue features exclusive Absolute Batman content, creator interviews, and the return of Chew.
Last week, Gabe Yocum, Director of Sales of the upcoming Prana publication Comics! The Magazine accepted a bet from publisher Adam/Atom! Freeman of Prama Direct Market Solutions, that if Comics! The Magazine got 100,000 orders, then he would shave off his beard. Well, it looks like they got the orders according to the live Prana Direct video on YouTube.
And Gabe shaved his beard, with over twelve years' worth of beard growth that hit the floor. Brian Garside of Manage Comics called him beautiful. "I have not shaved since October of 2013. No one in comics has ever seen my face. My wife has never seen my face before. Oh, so cold. It's so cold."
Gabe Yocum added, "The way that the direct market has supported us in this is overwhelming…. beard or no beard. Before today, the best day of my professional life was being able to co-promote a professional wrestling pay-per-view with C2E2 in 2020, right before the pandemic hit. This takes that cake by a very large margin."
Gabe continued, "March 2026, you bet your ass Comics! The Magazine is going to be in the top 10 in terms of sales in all of comics. And that's not a small thing, guys. I'm getting goosebumps talking about it. Editor-In-Chief Joseph Keatinge added, "The first issue is 48 pages and it's all comics. The closest we get [outside of that] is Ronda Rousey from the UFC or from MMA. She loves comics. It's a page of her talking about how much she loves comics. That's it. The Absolute Batman piece is not just hey, where'd you get your ideas for Absolute Batman, but they get into it. We get into the lettering and the colour. Like, there's a bit with Frank Martin, the colourist, that is so freaking cool. It gives me goosebumps." Everyone's getting goosebumps today…
Comics! The Magazine is the latest attempt to do a new Wizard Magazine, being published by former retailer Atom! Freeman of Prama Direct Market Solutions, formerly of Valiant Entertainment, ComicHub and Bad Idea Comics, with former retailer Joseph Keatinge of Moonray, PopGun Rekcah and writer for Marvel, DC and Skybound, as its Editor-In-Chief. And I have to say, this is not a bad-looking start. Launching in March 2026 with an Absolute Batman cover feature and a conversation with writer Scott Snyder, artist Nick Dragotta, colourist Frank Martin, and letterer Clayton Cowles, it has a cover by Dragotta and C!TM Art Director and Spider-Gwen colourist and designer, Rico Renzi. And a final former retailer, Gabe Yocum, as director of sales, previously at Midtown Comics, AWA, The EXP, and any projects Bill Jemas was involved with at the time. The first issue will also include big names and indie books, Pullbox Power Rankings backed by sales data, a creator roundtable facilitated by Stray Dog's Tony Fleecs, the return of the comic book Chew by John Layman and Rob Guillory within its pages, and a price guide as well.
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