The Comics Beat
The Beat is in the Hot Seat!
As we head into the week of San Diego Comic Con, for this substack we are interviewing four passionate comics journalists from The Beat: Deanna Destito, Zack Quaintance, Ricardo Serrano Denis, and Christian Angeles, who reveal how they fell in love with comics, why they chose journalism, and what it really takes to write about the industry they love.
The Beat has been nominated for an Eisner for the Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism! We wish all the nominees the best of luck…
Let’s talk about your secret origin. What was the first comic you read? Set the scene for us. What year was it? How old were you?
Deanna Destito: My introduction to comics was the X-Men. I was around 12 (early 1990s), and I got really into the animated series. There was a comic shop within walking distance of my house. I was a big reader, so my mother decided to stop at the comic shop and pick up random X-Men titles to add to my reading pile.
Zack Quaintance: Get ready, because we’re going back to the ‘90s, and however ‘90s-heavy you think this is going to be, it’s going to be even more ‘90s-heavy than that. So, it was sometime in 1993, I was maybe 6 years old, and my family was eating at a sit-down Pizza Hut, the sort that no longer exists. Along with the pizza, they were serving tie-in comics to the brand-new X-Men: The Animated Series TV show. And that’s where I got and read my very first comic book.
Ricardo Serrano Denis: The first comic I remember reading was Death of Superman, and I mean following each issue as it came out. Thing is, I only read the images, not the text boxes per se. I was five years old, and the pharmacy my aunt worked at had comics. She started me on them, and I was hooked, especially because the Superman v. Doomsday fight was such a visual treat. You could follow it without the text and still get a sense of what’s happening in it, which is a testament to the work the creative team put in.
Christian Angeles: I'd read only a few comics as a teenager, even though I watched all the TV shows and movies based on them, but it wasn't until 2010 when I read The Sandman for the first time that I read an entire run of something. I remembered that I was en route towards a path in Clinical Psychology, studying under the great intersubjective theorist George Atwood, when I graduated with my degree with high honors. But it was just a few months after graduation that summer when I tore my Achilles tendon completely in a football accident and found myself in recovery for 9 months. It was then that I read the story of Morpheus for the first time. I was utterly hooked, taken aback that someone else had taken a lot of the philosophical ideas I was studying in college and applied them in fiction, with a much bigger reach than any of the therapists I'd been working with. That's when I realized the importance of comics. That's when I grew to value the lessons that stories teach us on how to handle life's greatest problems.
What was the comic, writer, or artist that hooked you on comics? Why did you become a Superfan?
Deanna: Since X-Men in the 1990s was my entrance into the industry, the artist who really got me hooked was Joe Madureira. His run to this day is one of my favorites. I love the fluidity of his style. Rogue is my fave X character, and there is a cover he did with her in her purple space suit. LOVE it.
Zack: For me it was Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson’s Astro City stuff in the ‘90s. It hit at just the right time, when I was still very much into superheroes but also open to exploring past Marvel and DC. Astro City ended up being a wonderful stepping stone for me to go from the X-Men and Batman to all the great serialized late ‘90s / early ‘00s original comics, books like Hellboy, Powers, and everything being put out by Vertigo. I’ve never shaken the feeling I had then, which is that an infinite number of stories are possible in this medium.
Christian: The Sandman. See the previous question!
When did you start covering comics? What was your motivation?
Deanna: I began my career in comics journalism with a college internship at Wizard: The Guide to Comics. It was around 2001. Because I was so into comics and needed internship credits to graduate, it seemed like the right match.
Zack: I started covering comics in 2018. After a tumultuous time in newspapers, I had landed at a far more stable trade journal, and with that day job stability, I made a decision that I wanted to make comics myself. I’d been a lifelong reader, but felt like I lacked familiarity with the industry side of things. I also thought that if I was going to ask folks to read my comics someday, I better pay some dues and find a way to contribute to the wider comics community — so I put my finely-honed professional journalism chops to work covering comics.
Ricardo: I started back in 2018, when a friend pointed me to a post Heidi MacDonald published on socials about looking for writers to cover NYCC. I have a Master’s degree in comics studies from the University of Dundee in Scotland, so I really wanted to continue building on the writing I produced there. Plus, pop culture is where people fight for their worldviews the most. Economic policy pales in comparison to debates on whether Superman is a Black Lives Matter supporter or if he’s in the All Lives Matter camp.
When did you feel you had "made it" in comics journalism?
Deanna: I began writing for The Beat during NYCC 2018. I think even though I had been working as a writer and editor since my Wizard days in 2001, it wasn’t until the Beat that I felt like I was really connecting with people in comics. Getting promoted to Managing Editor and then receiving the–ahem–Eisner nom are two more moments where I feel like I have an official place in comics.
Ricardo: Writing for The Beat really made me feel like I had made it to an important part of the comics ecosystem. I know it was (and still is) an important platform and that we’d have eyes on our writing pieces. As a Social Studies teacher as well, moving from Puerto Rico to New York to teach in the city’s public school system goes hand in hand in terms of feeling like I made it. It has informed my writing and my interest in writing things that also inform people about things they might not know about.
Christian: I've never told you guys this, but it was you! It was Superfan Promotions. Back when I was managing editor at The Workprint, I'd already had pull quotes of mine taken from reviews done in both movies and video games, having spent 5 plus years covering most of entertainment. I can't remember the exact comic we reviewed, but I noticed Hannah Bahedry had shared a pull quote from The Workprint about us on Ahoy Comics' socials. That's sort of when I knew. That's when I said, "I guess we've broken into the comics world now."
Is there a career highlight you’re especially proud of?
Deanna: See above for ME promotion and Eisner nom. I also write my own books, and being recognized at shows now for my contributions on both the news side and the creative side definitely makes me feel proud of my work.
Zack: I’m very proud of The Beat’s review section. When I shut down my old website and focused my comics press efforts at The Beat, reviews there were sporadic at best. Today, we have 8 weekly review posts minimum, spread across books from throughout the industry, and written by a varied and diverse group of contributors. Although I never influence what our reviews say, I do assign, edit, and coordinate all of those posts. I think we do a good job of letting the industry know what a group of passionate, informed readers thinks of their work.
Ricardo: While in Dundee, I got the opportunity to put together and organize a comics art exhibit focused on Dave Gibbons’s early work in DC Thomson, a Scottish media publisher that was home to Dennis the Menace (different from the American version), Oor Wullie, The Beano, and The Dandy. We went into the DCT archives, found original Gibbons pages, and even framed them for the exhibit. It taught me a lot about what goes into building an artist showcase and how theme can guide the selection process.
Christian: I'm pretty sure I'd written 50 or so articles during the 2 week window of San Diego Comic Con last year. I think the biggest accomplishment of my time at The Beat was leading the MoCCA Fest coverage for 2025, as we were the event's media sponsors. I conducted and wrote something like 7 interviews in two weeks, on top of all the regular responsibilities, getting coverage with various PR groups, and attending. This was after also getting to do big interviews with Scott Snyder, Kelly Thompson, David Pepose, and Dave Cook. Mind you, I pride myself on interviews as I read everyone's recent work, along with catching up on their past interviews, and even do some career research per person to come up with good questions. I'm definitely at my best stride career-wise at this point right now.
How many hours a week do you spend writing or talking about comics?
Deanna: A lot...
Zack: Quite a few! I think at least as much as a part-time job, so perhaps around 20 or so. I read 20 new release comics every week for my Tuesday column, Top Comics to Buy, and I spend about an hour a day outside my day job doing writing or editing for The Beat. I think all told, it probably comes out somewhere between 12 and 20 hours.
Do you read comics websites? Do you listen to comics podcasts? Which ones are doing the work?
Christian: Besides us, I've been reading AIPT for the past several years. Also, I read ICV2, which has the only data charts in terms of sales. I'm also a fan of FanbasePress for the work they do with the community and Comic BookYeti for how they give a voice to indie creators via Byron O'Neal's and Jimmy Gaspero's Cryptid podcast. I also have to shout out to Kat Calamia of ComicUno, who has become such a name in the industry with the quality and quantity of work put out, along with Phil Falco and Lifeline Comics. Finally, I know we've barely interacted so far, but Sami DeMonster, I think, you're the future of this industry.
Would you recommend that more people get into comics journalism as a profession? If so, what would you say the first step would be? If not, why?
Zack: Not as a profession, no. There’s no money. You can count the people making a living via comics journalism on your hands (maybe one hand). But I would recommend more people do it as a hobby. I would especially recommend more creators dabble in the journalism and review side of comics. When I used to work in a restaurant, we always said that anyone who eats in a restaurant should spend at least a little bit of time working in a restaurant, so they know what the people there go through. I think the same is true of comics journalism. If you’re going to ask for interviews and reviews, you should do comics press for a while yourself, especially if you’re a publicist or indie creator.
Ricardo: I would recommend comics journalism as a profession, but with an aim to focus on columns, investigative reporting, and analysis. Evergreen articles are important, period. They’re the type of articles that can get people to expand on their reading list, try new things, or go back and reread something to root out certain ideas they hadn’t considered before. Also, writers should strive to explore things that haven’t gotten the attention they’ve deserved, to be unafraid to give something unconventional a try to see if readers respond. And there is so much that never gets written about.
If you could tell the general public one thing that you have been dying to get off your chest, what would it be?
Christian: Expect everything to be different in five years. Not just in comics, but in the ways and forms we consume media. It wouldn't surprise me if we stopped calling it "content". I genuinely think in 5 years they'll be using something akin to the words symbiosis or synchronicity in the way we give hype to it, as we consistently blur the lines between person and product. Honestly, the way we think of these things is changing, and money is moving towards short-form TikToks and short videos as the boom of the next generation. Yet the part no one's talking about is that I expect a lot of it to be AI-generated or assisted. Not because we want it... But because they're trying to normalize it: to be automatedly shouting to the stars at a time that everyone's desperate for attention.
Ricardo: Everyone in the industry, from comics to prose to movies to video games, should be more aware of what’s being written about them, and they should do their part in sharing that content to make our efforts have a wider reach. Like clockwork, whenever a creator shares a review or an article they liked on their socials, clicks and views go up. It truly is an ecosystem. Balance, support, sharing, it all contributes to its overall health.
Also, when review blurbs appear on books, they rarely feature the names of the writers responsible for them. That extra bit of recognition goes a long way.
What would you be doing if not this?
Christian: Writing. I think I'll always be writing in some shape or form, but not necessarily always journalism. I'm going to create art as well, as I think it might make a better difference.
What’s something more people should know about being a comics journalist?
Deanna: Comics journalism is both fun and precarious. It’s fun because you often get an early peek at upcoming projects. You get to interview amazing people, and you meet so many creative writers and artists. Precarious because the industry itself can be fickle, but as a journalist, you have to report even the sensitive stuff. Remaining unbiased is tough, and you have to have a thick skin because someone will always have a problem with what you do. Don’t read the comments!
Zack: You may not make money doing it, but if you do it right, you will make plenty of great friends. And really that’s an invaluable thing as you get older. Also, people will send you amazing and fancy books — and you can never have enough of those.
Ricardo: There’s a lot of fun to be had as a comics journalist. You get review copies of books, access to amazing creators for interviews, exclusive announcements that net you a sneak peek at the future of the industry, and you get to have an opinion on all of it. Be responsible with it. We are all allowed to give our criticisms and live by them, but there’s a difference between well-argued criticism and just hate for clicks. If you don’t like something, really back it up. Otherwise, you fade into the noise.
Thank you all for joining us for this interview series that we’re having so much fun with! We’ll return next week with a new can’t-miss Substack.
A reminder that the Superfan Podcast hasn’t launched yet, but will soon in the coming weeks! You can find us on the socials at Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook, and X! Soon, you’ll be able to see podcast clips on our YouTube channel as well. Follow it now so you don’t miss out. Please be sure to like, share, and subscribe!
Special thanks to our Season One sponsor, the amazing Fanbase Press! Fanbase Press is a GLAAD Media Award-winning and Eisner and Harvey Awards-nominated comic book publisher that celebrates super fandoms and creates new ones! #StoriesMatter.
