The direct market just posted its best year in decades. And the CEO of ICv2 just admitted the entire boom is male-only.

Milton Griepp stood up at ComicsPRO 2026 and said what everyone's been thinking: Absolute Batman's surge is "male-skewing," and publishers desperately need "a blow-out periodical hit that appeals to female readers on the same scale as Saga." Translation? The industry just rebuilt itself on the same demographic foundation that collapsed in the 1990s. A boom built on one gender isn't a recovery—it's a leveraged bet with no hedging strategy.

This video breaks down the structural problem, the economic data, and the playbook to fix it before the next collapse.

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 - The Male-Only Boom

0:16 - What Retailers See Every Wednesday

1:38 - The Symptom (8M Units, Zero Female Pull)

3:04 - The Diagnosis (The Saga Gap Explained)

5:24 - The Evidence (ICv2 Data + Sources)

8:56 - The Prescription (The Four-Point Playbook)

10:53 - Final Thoughts

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