Fanboy Rampage!!!

The best sentence I've read all day:

"After years of aggressively sculpting some areas and delicately shaping others, the direct market now looks pretty much like the giant, clay Lionel Ritchie head the big companies want it to be, and it's perfectly logical that they're able to move whatever effort they strongly back through it with only a minimum of blood and fuss."

The context is here. Thank you for the horrifying mental image, Tom Spurgeon.

All is right with the world, as Mark Millar talks about Superman again:

"No offence to the creators, I speak purely as a fan, but Superman and Batman have mostly sucked ass, as you Americans say, for the best part of fifteen years. Again, speaking as a fan, they're my two favourite characters and I find the entire take, tone and set-up completely unreadable for the most part. Just my 0.02."

Responding to the accusation that complaining about other creators is a crass way to hype yourself:

"Quick aside: I would NEVER single out a creator. Wouldn't do it when I didn't have a pot to piss in and wouldn't do it when I'm lucky enough to be writing three top 20 books. It's uncool. I was speaking here about a general direction over fifteen years. I didn't single anybody out. Superman and Batman have just been unreadable for 15 years. My first answer to that is Red Son and, if I get the opportunity to revamp Superman, I'll put my money where my mouth is. But this was a very general comment in an interview. I just don't enjoy the books going back maybe 150 issues on ALL the titles for both characters."

Responding to the suggestion that perhaps he's just outgrown the characters:

"Nonsense. I loved Superman and Batman in Morrison's JLA and will doubtless love All-Star Superman when they have a crack at the character. This seems very uncontroversial to me because readers clearly agree given that nobody has really bought the books for a decade. I loved Superman for All Seasons, Secret Identity and many of the specials, but the actual in-continuity, regular books have done nothing for me. Kingdom Come is the greatest Superman story of the last generation and I felt ten years old when I read that book. It's a cop-out to say I've outgrown the characters. I want to see them being a success again more than anyone."

Responding to the disconnect between wanting to revamp the characters and stating that he won't work for DC again:

"Uh, because I won't [work for the company again]. I stand by that. The current regime love what's happened over the past 15 years. They defend it to the death, which is why the new stuff had to be shunted into an All-Star Elseworlds. They'll defend this forever because it's their legacy and I personally-- as a reader-- feel it's the wrong direction. I'd rather just wait until they're gone and do it right (as I see it). I'm not going to suck up to people I think have made a mistake. PS Please note that this does not mean they're evil or I hate them or any teenage crap. I just disagree with their take. But it's their ball right now. I'm just a freelancer. They are absolutely in their rights to do what they like. I'll just come along later."

More on the above:

"I think it's very simple. Paul and a couple of others are as adamant that this way is right and they see no need to change it. This isn't a feud of any kind. It's just their opinion. As long as they believe that and want writers to work within those parameters I have no interest in writing those characters. I think this is the reason so many good creators have produced boring books for those characters and why the only ones we all seem to like are the out of continuity specials. I suggest reconstructive surgery as opposed to a band-aid and would like to fix it. If they agree, I'll be happy to help. If they don't, I'll wait. These people are all at least 20 years older than me. I have time on my side."

On why he won't give specifics about what he wants to do to the characters:

"I can't get too specific on my Superman and Batman ideas, unfortunately. Other writers read these boards, but hopefully you'll see what I mean at some point in the future when we get our shot. In the meantime, Ultimates, etc, occupies our every waking throught."

And, just because I always love to pull up this 2003 quote everytime Mark says that all Superman comics in 150 issues of each title have been unreadable:

"DC stopped sending me comp copies about a year ago so I don't have as much access to this stuff as I had before. However, I do try to pick these up because I think the three guys they have on these books are great and probably producing the best material we've seen since John Byrne. I miss Jeph Loeb's Superman because he's pretty much the best American writer in the business at the moment. He and I share very similar sensibilities with these characters and I'm looking forward to World's Finest [later retitled Superman/Batman] enormously."

Steven Grant writes about rape in superhero comics:

"Not that I want to see male rape become the hot new thing in comics, but it's clear that female rape in comics is acceptable while that's next to unthinkable. It's considered perfectly all right to humiliate heroines, taboo to humiliate heroes in the same way, and beyond the purely sexist paranoia reasons for that, there are commercial reasons as well, the main one being: a raped character becomes pathetic... It's generally allowable for heroines because women are considered minor characters in comics, window dressing, even when they're the lead characters... If you can't come up with better storylines or characterizations for female characters, particularly heroines (or the hero's girlfriend) than that, something's wrong. At minimum, something's derivative, lazy and uninteresting. How about a voluntary ban on rape storylines for the foreseeable future? Even better, how about an end to women in comics as mainly victims or props? We've been doing this for around 75 years; you'd think women as genuine characters would be par for the course by now, instead of special events."

(He also mentions Identity Crisis's rape of Sue Dibny in suitably sensible manner: "The real problem is that the murder makes the rape redundant - bad as rape is, it's hard to get more brutal and humiliating than murder - and the function of the rape in the story has nothing, essentially, to do with Sue Dibny at all. It occurs as a motivation for subsequent events, as a red herring to steer the heroes (at least temporarily) away from the true murderer, as an avenue for revelation of the heroes' previous unheroic behavior. It's a very strange story in that the rape is absolutely necessary to it and absolutely superfluous.")

Mark Millar doesn't like the new Krypto cartoon, as he explains in a thread he entitled "Krypto Sucks Kitten C*ck!":

"Okay, I can't believe I was kind of interested in this, but I'm such a buff I had to keep watching when I switched on BBC1 on Saturday morning and saw the first episode of this new cartoon. It's not just bad. It's 80s bad. It's all those bad jokes and utterly forgettable characters with bad puns for names and Krypto is right up there with Scrappy Doo for annoying. I don't know why I thought I'd like this. Maybe it's because I loved the Batman cartoons, etc, I just assumed the same excellence would make it through, but there's no Dini or Timm here. This is just bad, bad, bad TV. PS My six year old daughter thought it was OK, though. About the same level as Lilo and Stitch, or maybe slightly under, she reckoned."

Of course, the series is aimed at kids instead of thirty-something comic writers, so if a six-year old thinks it's okay then it's probably reaching the target audience. Next: Mark Millar thinks that the Teletubbies are "gay". "One of them even has a handbag!" he exclaims.

Lea Hernandez offers up nostalgia, pain, in introducing her new comics manifesto:

"Back in the old days, when the Warren Ellis Delphi Forum was open, there was an outbreak of manifestos. That's exactly the way I mean to say it: it was like a rash. The first one was okay, but all the ones that followed were as much fun as wiping with poison ivy, and as painfully squirm-inducing. There was a lot of 'saving', 'bettering', building a moat around, being gentle to tender little geniuses, and RAHHH COMICS-ing.
But no one ever suggested that what comics needed was a really good ass-whipping. Or maybe what comics needed was for people to stand up and say, 'Hooray! I'm for the other team!' Comics need hurting. Go on, hurt them."

Comics - Bringing Peace To The Middle East since 2005:

"According to a listing on the Federal Business Opportunities website, the Army is looking to develop a comic book that will be distributed to youths in the Middle East, or, as the posting puts it: 'In order to achieve long-term peace and stability in the Middle East, the youth need to be reached. One effective means of influencing youth is through the use of comic books. A series of comic books provides the opportunity for youth to learn lessons, develop role models and improve their education.' The army has already designed the characters and plots, so the work will be a collaborative effort with Uncle Sam. ...In addition to being able to produce the work, the Army is looking for a creator well-versed in Arab languages and cultures, as well as law enforcement and small unit military operations. Again, the posting: 'The comic books will be produced in Arabic so the boxes will have to follow a sequence of right to left and top to bottom. Although knowledge of Arabic is not required, the contractor must have the capability to incorporate Arabic text into the final product and also provide a copy with blank bubbles and void of all printed text and sound effects.'"

Larry Young tells a story, and announces that he doesn't have "bitches" on today's very special episode of his daily update.

Want to see something cool? Go here, and wonder how much we have to bribe both Mr. Jean and Mr. Quesada to have a James Jean Fantastic Four graphic novel in our hands anytime soon. And I don't even really like the Fantastic Four.

(Thanks, Chris.)

So, that list of House of M spin-offs that Tom Brevoort gave the other day? Add another one, as District X gets cancelled and replaced - due to House of M reality-altering antics - by something called Mutopia. Writer David Hine explains, and comes close to giving up the "secret" of what House of M's reality altering is meant to be about:

"This one came together very quickly... A few months back, [editor] Mike Marts mentioned a new major event in the Marvel Universe and said he would like District X to be involved. He gave me the quick two-line version of the House of M concept and the title, 'Mutopia' and left it at that. Half an hour later I e-mailed back the concept. I don't normally get off on these big cross-overs, but this one seemed to press all my buttons. I instantly started getting all these flashes of how the losers of District X would play it if things went their way for once."

Who is the most evil guy in the Marvel Universe? The Brian K. Vaughan board wants to know:

"Bill Jemas"

"The Red Skull is a fucking Nazi. That's pretty evil."

"I gotta go with Doom, because he made everything deeply personal. Folks like Galactus and DP (Dark Phoenix Len ) are amatuers with their whole mass destructo impersonal game. They never see the faces of their lambs at the slaughter. Doom, he fucking makes armor out of his ex lovers skin Buffalo Bill style. He sends children to fucking Hell, and he frightens blind children. Doom don't fuck around, when it comes to heinous deeds, he's your hombre. The X-editors are a close second though. What they do to the fans is unforgivable."

"Dude, the Skull's a freakin' Nazi!"

The Bendis Board asks the questions that matter:

"Wolverine's citizenship [...] Where was he born? I know he lived in Canada for a long time, but now he pretty much lives in the US. If he's a Canadian citizen, I can't imagine how a rabid murderer was able to get a US visa, let alone permanent resident status. So what's his deal? Living in the US illegally or comic book land has relaxed immigration policies? Discuss amongst yourselves."

"He's a super-heroic rabid murderer. That makes all the difference."

"He's a Canadian citizen. He's got SHIELD and Canadian intelligence connections so US passport control can't be much of an issue (now, the metal detectors, on the other hand...)"

"Call INS and homeland security and get that Canadian mutie deported!"

Here's something we haven't seen for awhile - Mike Mignola talks Hellboy, the comic:

"I've sat down to do this book three different times and each time I had a completely different story... The problem was that at the same time we were trying to do the movie, I would start on this miniseries and then I would have to drop it and go to Prague or go to L.A. or wherever I was going, be there for a chunk of time, and when I would come back to this I had changed my mind on what I wanted to do. I think it started out to be a two-issue miniseries. Then the second time I sat down to do it, it was a three-issue miniseries. They all started roughly the same way, but they all ended completely differently. The last time I sat down to do it, I realized people are going to end up waiting years for this comic, so I needed to reveal something about the character to justify the wait."

Apparently, the false starts may be included in the eventual trade paperback of the new series.

Millarworld breaks the news of Wizard breaking the news:

"From Wizard #163, out tomorrow: Geoff Johns and Phil Jimenez are the creators on the 7-issue Infinite Crisis mini series, launching in October. More information, including a 5 page article on Infinite Crisis, is in Wizard."

The fans react:

"Now there's an Infinite Crisis miniseries, to boot? Much as I've enjoyed the "return to continuity" here, with ID Crisis, Countdown & it's four spinoffs, isn't yet another miniseries pushing it a bit? We're all gonna' get burnt out and numbed by continuous 'Crisis', don't ya' think? It's like endless Ultimate mini-series. Y'stop caring after a while."

"And some people wonder why i steer clear of the mainstream DC universe?"

"This will be interesting. Johns does decent crossovers and the best thing you can do for art is get Jimenez. SOLD!"

"Ill be skipping this, I dont care about these event comics, I understand from a money standpoint, they do great, but I am one of those crazy fans who feels to understand a comic I buy, I shouldnt have to buy one I dont buy. Especially at these inflated prices. Toss in, from the spoilers I have read on both, I.D. Crisis and Countdown sound like they are putting the characters in directions I do not like. Im getting sick of it, and to be honest, I was considering subscribing due to a lack of a comic shop, but now I may not, it just doesnt pay. Heck, even the UMU is supposedly crossing over, and those were books I was considering. These event comics may just drive me away from comics....again."

DC announces that Countdown To Infinite Crisis has sold out:

"Two days before arriving in stores on March 30, the spectacular 80-page COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS Special has sold out at DC Comics. Now, DC rushes this pivotal, can't-miss comic back to press for a second printing with a new, variant cover by Jim Lee & Alex Ross that reveals the shadowy figure in Batman ' s arms as the [character that everyone knows but I'm still blanking out. Newsarama has the 'variant' cover, though.]"

But here's the interesting bit: "Scheduled to arrive in stores on April 13, COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS Second Printing (FEB058329) will have a cover price of $1.99 U.S., and will include the full story written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka and Judd Winick with art by Rags Morales & Michael Bair, Ed Benes, Ivan Reis & Marc Campos, Phil Jimenez & Andy Lanning, and Jesus Saiz & Jimmy Palmiotti."

Yup, the second printing is practically twice the (admittedly very low) price of the first...

Damon Hurd and Matt Fraction talk about writing X-Men stories for the first time. Fraction:

"Man, I phoned it all in, knowing that Sam [Keith, artist of Fraction's story] kicks enough ass for the two of us or, failing that, he could at least carry my punk ass and make me look good. I don’t even think I wrote in complete sentences in the script. It was, like, WOLVERINE CLAWS FIGHT SENTINEL SPLODE SAD LOGAN THINKING THEN KILLING! AARRGH. That line right there is page four of my script. I have gone ahead and cleared off shelf-space for the Eisner (Award)."

Meanwhile, Matt also talks about the experience to Joe Casey in the Basement Tapes this week:

"It feels... good? It feels different, you know? Like, here's a thing I can do. And as I've talked mad shit about stuff like this before, the decision to go after it, the decision to stick with it and see the process through, to take the ride and work through it all was pretty satisfying. And I knew the editor wasn't going to let me just float by, and I knew I wasn't-- it's a different kind of exercise, these kinds of stories. I knew it wasn't going to be a single-draft kind of experience, and I wasn't really looking for one. Like, there's a part of me that's very much thinking 'know who your enemies are,' you know? Put up and shut up time. On the flip-side of that is my inner nine-year old that wants to see stuff exploding and dudes getting kicked, and having the chance to tear shit up Wolverine-stylee was pretty *sweet*. I mean, Devil Dinosaur eats him on page one. IT IS RAD. And, dude, Sam Kieth is drawing it! Fuckin' A!"

Attention all those in Seattle or online - Comic writers will be on the radio in your area:

"Comic scribes Ed Brubaker (SLEEPER, CAPTAIN AMERICA), Joshua Ortega (SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED, STAR WARS), and Paul Chadwick (CONCRETE) will be featured on NPR this Thursday, March 31st at 10am PST. The show will be broadcast on NPR-affiliate KUOW 94.9 in Seattle, and live on the Web at <>. The three writers will be interviewed by noted journalist Steve Scher, host of the popular WEEKDAY program, and longtime comic fan. Brubaker and Chadwick will discuss their impressive, award-winning careers in the comic field, while Ortega will discuss his transition from critically acclaimed author to comics writer."

# posted by Grim @ 8:18 AM

The Bendis Board think about their comic emporiums:

"Do You Find That Your Shop is always trying to improve, make new displays and signage, etc? Stephen and I decided to take a tour of some of our competition that I'd never been to, one shop in particular was dull, smelled of cigarettes, had barely any organization, no indies except one or two Image books, and they had a lot of old toys just sitting their yellowing and collecting dust. I know I look at my shop and am always trying to make it better, even if I can't afford all my plans, I still have them and want to implement them. Do a lot of you find that your stores have kind of given up on being better?"

"My LCS is currently remodeling last time was like eight years ago, as the owner has been trying to fight off a rat infestation. The dead rats were getting so bad that me and the other Thursday regulars helped, the owner move a comic shelf that was very heavy, just to get a the maggoty corpse, idiot chewed through the light cord. But on the plus side, the store smells better and the owner found full runs of Ellis' Ruins and Morrison's Aztek and Skrull Kill Krew and put them in my box."

"Yeah, as a maater of fact, the store I go to, sells dvds and video games as well, and the comics were shoved upstairs, however recently the comisc started selling so well, they moved them downstairs, and now they have a big 2 rows to themself, they also are gettting more indy stuff in now, which is a plus... The bad news is, about 2 weeks ago, a stupid kid (I hate people who are my age, when they act like this) came in and pushed loads of comics off the shelf for no reason, luckily hes now banned, but it's enough to make you want to starngle the kid.)"

"People like this are the reason taintpunching was invented."

Revealed: Mark Millar is Ashton Kutcher. Ed Brubaker talks about a strange interview experience - "Could this 'Terri Australian' be some prankster trying to get someone from DC to talk about racism because of this recent interest in the subject on a popular message board? Someone trying to play a gotcha? I know I certainly didn’t enjoy being accused of racism simply because Bob Kane hadn’t decided to have Batman be a black man in 1939." - and Mark Millar owns up:

"Of COURSE it was me. But he missed out my punchline 'Okay, how about you make him Chinese?' Yes, this is how I waste my time and I have maybe twenty of these things piled up from the last couple of years. The plan is to get them all together and do a charity book somewhere down the line, but only after the individual pros all get an advance look and agree to be used first. You should see the Quitely one; the Make a Wish Foundation get in touch and ask if a terminally-ill kid can come and live with him for two weeks. Quitely, being a saint, actually agrees despite the fact that they just had a new baby in the house. Cancer kid, two carers and a parent all coming from the states to stay in Quitely spare room so this (really obonxious) kid can silently watch Quitely work in his final days... And don't get me started on the Bendis one... Anyway, you'll see all these released at some point before the end of the year, hopefully."

Now it can be told: The Isotope Virtual Lounge v2.0 launches today, with forums for the store, as well as Jock, Ed Brubaker, Bill Crabtree, Alex de Campi, Jay Faerber, Maureen McTigue, Tony Moore, Rick Remender, Mark Ricketts, Josh Richardson (bringing his "In The Trenches" column/posts from Millarworld) and Larry Young. What are you waiting for? Some kind of special offer to get you to visit? Well, Larry's got that covered. A 24-page PDF preview of True Story Swear To God: This One Goes To Eleven to tempt you. So, go, visit and join up. You know you want to.

Over at Micah Wright's forum, Countdown to Infinite Crisises has famed comics internet personalities Frank Davis and Jesse Baker at war with each other. Frank, why don't you start, by telling us why Countdown is good?:

"Dude, the thing that DC needs to do in order to compete is not give a shit about b list characters. Comics like everything else is about the franchise hit."

Jesse, your response?: "Frank, Frank, Frank, are you always so myopic to the point of not being able to see the forest for the trees or do you practice every single morning at being so utterly stupid with your shortsightedness?"

Answer the man, Frank: "The view i bring to you is the unvarnished truth. Remember the universal law of quality. If it's good, it'll sell like crap, when it is crap, it'll sell great. Quantity overrules quality everytime. The average fan want the hits of comics (Spiderman, JLA, Batman etc) like the way most people want Law and Order seven days a week. It's dependable pop reading that they can toss away and have sex afterwords. The obsessive want the c-list nostaligia (Old school Avengers New Warriors, The question, Giffen League) They want more. They are not looking for cheap thrills, they demand emotional satisfaction like you do. Your love of crappy comics defines your life. That's cool, but there are maybe 7000 to 12000 people like that in the world. You are the uber fan, but there will never be more like you. I have my obsessive quirks and c list character love, I only admit that the characters are fictional and I move on when things change for the worse and can go grab a girl and some drinks and think of ways of getting laid tonight. Draw your own conclusions from there."

Jesse, if you can give a strangely-censored rant here?: "Under that logic, next time someone brings up wanting to save Sleepers, Runaways or some other flavor of the week non-big franchise book I can tell them to obsenity delete off since said title aren't worth saving/being published. Let's obsenity delete face it, comics need more diversity ESPECIALLY with the spandex books. Especially when you take into consideration that JLA has been so utterly worthless and unreadable since Waid's 'Queens of Fables' story.

"So why not obsenity delete keep the Giffen JLA around? Obsenity delete, if DC can commit to 12 issues of Joe Kelly's fecid turd droppings of a Justice League Elite mini-series, why not give Giffen his own ongoing JLA book with his cast of favorite characters? Hell, why not obsenity delete flush Plastic Man and John Stewart out an airlock where they die horribly horrible deaths in the main JLA book and replace them with Booster and Blue Beetle? It's not like the book couldn't use them as written by Giffen to liven the obsenity delete up the JLA book, which has become so utterly boring you could sedate paranoid schizophrenics with it? Same with New Warriors or even obsenity delete Runaways. Hell, the obsenity delete fact that Marvel pissed away the chance to relaunch Runaways as their new big teen book so as to give that nod to that little 'I wish I could lick the mud off Joss Whedon's boots' Heinberg's Young Avengers shows you that we shouldn't take your myopic, narrow minded opinions seriously.

"Hell, have you though WHY sales for comics are down? Because Marvel and DC are so narrowing down WHAT books that they put out that they piss off and drive away longtime customers who have been told their money isn't good enough for Paul Levitz/Dan Didio and Joe Quesada. Let alone the new reader who would read a copy of Ultimate Spiderman and say 'I'm not going to waste money on this obsenity delete that has zero happening in it!' or 'I'm not going to buy JLA because it's boring as obsenity delete!'.... The more books out there the more variaty and the more catering to the long-time fan is what comics needs. All of this 'Osenity delete the old reader in the ass and kick them to the curb because we want new readers' garbage has done obsenity delete for the comic industry. The Ellis Manifestos FAILED. And rather than cling to that, the industry needs to go crawling on it's stomach to get back the readers it told to go obsenity delete themselves. If it means bringing Hal Jordan back as GL and firing Bendis from Marvel over the obsenity delete nature his Avengers revamp so as to bring the original Avengers back? So be it."

Frank! Strike back!: "Fuck the long time fan. The long time fan is why comics are the way they are. The long time fan contributes shit and whines when progress is made in order to make money, which is the key to everything. Money. You live is some world where you want fan dollar to dictate everything. But to be honest, the fact that only you and your ilk are the only ones left indicates that comics is dead. Thank you for killing comics for everyone except the movie studios. The big two are finally getting it right by telling the whining bitch long time fan to go fuck their mothers and leave. To be honest, that is not a bad thing. Fuck me and fuck you too. P.S. Young Avengers is a damn hoot with funny ass dialogue. Runaways is great too. Also get this notion out of your that there is a need for superhero diversity. The moment you get over that, the sooner you can have sex and the world will be a happier place."

(Others respond to Frank's post:

"Books like Identity Crisis, Avengers Disassembled, etc. are tailored to the long-time fan. They're engineered to create controversy. These sorts of events are based on shaking up/changing/ass-raping characters that long-time fans know and love. The long-timers buy the books, because they buy the books no matter what, and nerds like me go along for the ride because we want to see what the rest of you are yelling about."

"Well, fanboys like Jesse and desperate groupie starfuckers like you who bang on about fanboys to the exclusion of all else in hope you'll be invited to the cool kids' party, because if there really was a magical mainstream acceptance day and 'the real world' finally noticed 'us', then there wouldn't be much value in feeling superior to the nerds anymore, you'd actually have to contribute. Jesse may be an idiot and an asshole, but at least he still gives a shit, and not just hangs around so he can snark and beat nerds down. Can you honestly say the same?"

"Is this parody? Because if so, top notch job.")

Back to Jesse: "At least I'm not a pouser latching onto the 'let's mock the mainstream so I look like less of a nerd while saying jack shit in terms of HOW to improve the mainstream' fad that has ruined comics and made mainstream acceptance even more of a pipedream like you..."

Frank: "Superhero comics need to go and die already. The mainstream is not salvation for the art form, but they can pump in more money with product deals and that's okay by me. The real world cannot be the salvation of comics. Comics needs to save themselves and refuse to do so, so why play the hate game? I have never understood the need to be accepted or something to be hot, but I know what can make money. I am all about sex and money. Comics are a form in which I entertain myself and I refuse to take certain things in it with any seriousness, particually comic book characters. They are fictional characters like yourself. You dance like a monkey for us as you rant about shit level superheroes liek they are your sister whose honor you need to defend,and it entertains me. I in turn throw feces because you deserve the abuse, and I sometimes like making the V laugh."

Hopefully, making the V laugh was the main motivator behind the line "I am all about sex and money."

Jesse: "Do you even read the shit you type? Fanboys want good stories. And we are the biggest ones who fucking SAY we want fucking GOOD stories and don't take no god damn bullshit from people like Ellis, Millar, Bendis, and the little shits running DC and Marvel based SOLELY on personal vendettas, ass-scratching of their friends, and 'I am so great' masturbationfest. You don't give a flying fuck about comics, at best you are a trendy who MAYBE reads one or two books because it was the 'KEWL' thing to do and consider everything else shit under your shoe. It's people like you who need to be driven out because you have no fucking joy about the comic genre. It's all bitching and cursing and acting all smug and superior to you. You're last two post alone prove you don't give a fuck about fucking good stories, just that smug sense of self-satisfaction you have bashing people who fucking have fucking JOY about the comics genre."

Frank, to you, the last word (well, for now): "I love comics, but I have the love of diminished expectations. If I'm not disappointed, I'm mildly satisfied if not made completely happy by my shiny 60 dollar a week habit. Also fanboys do not want good stories, they want to go hang with their buddies without any sense of drama. Readers demand entertainment by the virtue of mayhem, carnage and weeping men everywhere. your tears of character pain bring me pleasure. Also joy is overrated, so are children."

At which point, it becomes self-parody for all involved. I also have to say, if I had a love of diminished expectations, I'd probably try and spend less that $60 a week on it, but then, I'm cheap.

Tom Brevoort talks House of M spin-offs:

"They all spin fairly directly out of the core books to one degree or another... Iron Man is in House of M, as are the characters in Fantastic Four House of M and Spidey. They’re stand-alone enough that you could pick up Iron Man: House of M #1-#3, and get it, although if you want to know more about the larger world that Iron Man is in, I’d advise you to pick up House of M as well. They all help to form a larger tapestry and a richer picture. Conversely, you don’t need to pick up the miniseries or the tie-in issues to enjoy House of M itself. Brian [Bendis] is writing a linear story across the course of those eight issues. There are opportunities over the source of that story to delve into these characters and the world around them in greater depth, and we get to see some of that in these side projects."

In addition to the three House of M mini-series spin-offs (Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Iron Man), the story also crosses over into Excalibur, Captain America, Wolverine, Black Panther, Uncanny X-Men, New X-Men, Cable & Deadpool, New Thunderbolts, Hulk, Exiles and The Pulse. Also at Newsarama, writer Greg Pak talks about his Iron Man House of M mini-series:

"On an emotional level, it's about a conflict between a son and his father, about that moment when a person realizes he needs to make his own decisions about what's right or wrong, regardless of what his family or community or world say. In short, it's about the moment Tony Stark becomes a hero. On an action level, we've got robo gladiators, giant robot showdowns, and mayhem in the streets of Chicago. Yow!"

How much does New Avengers artist David Finch like Spider-Woman? Let's ask him:

"I just wish the script allowed for more of those [full-length Spider-Woman] shots! Something like:

"Panel 1

"Huge panel, two pages tall. Spiderwoman bends to pick up her pencil.

"Panel 2

"Everyone stands around and drools like idiots

"Panel 3

"Spiderman slaps the pencil out of her hand.

"---

"Next Page

"Panel 1

"Huge panel, two pages tall. Spiderwoman bends to pick up her pencil......

"Anyway, something like that. I pitch this stuff to Bendis all the time, and he never returns the email. It's gold!!! Bah."

Newsarama has an eight page preview of new "Tank Girl meets Doctor Strange" series Strange Girl, from Image. Go and see the gorgeousness of Eric Nguyen's art.

Tom Spurgeon reviews DP7 #11, from Marvel's New Universe line:

"It looks fine, with competent, three-tier storytelling from Paul Ryan and great-looking superhero inks from the breaks-your-heart-to-hear-it Al Williamson. But the story is so talky it's like reading a comic that intentionally hashes out every point because it's aimed at a specialty audience of dimwits or non-English speakers. 'I think I heard something move upstairs,' thinks our hero, moving upstairs. He manages to muse, 'They're never going to let up on me! Somehow as soon as I knew where I was, they did, too. All the hand-to-hand combat skills The Woodsman taught me are worthless while I'm a sitting duck' while leaping from a movie truck, where most of us would be thinking, 'Ow! GRRR! Unnh!'"

The review hits a chord with readers:

"I think Mark Gruenwald's death in 1996 sealed the fate of the New Universe, as he was the only remaining member on staff that championed it. In the past year or so, I've been hunting the quarter bins for old new universe books, specifically PSI Force, The Star Brand, and Spitfire and the Troubleshooters. The Star Brand is particularly fascinating since it's generally regarded as Shooter's autobiography, and afterwards John Byrne takes over and turns the Shooter avatar into an accidental mass murderer and complete psychopath, proclaiming to anyone who will listen that 'the old man gave me the power, and I must remake the universe the way I see fit!'"

(Funnily enough, I was rereading Legends, the DC mini-series that John Byrne drew just after he left Marvel in 1987, and Jim Shooter appears as a bad guy in it, wearing Star Brand's outfit. He shoots himself in the foot, in an act of unsubtle injoke commentary.)

"I don't regard the New Universe with as much derision as it seems most others do. Pick out the gems and don't sweat the dregs - they'll be mostly forgotten in the future anyway. I've read later interviews with Shooter where he stated that he was given a development budget for a big project for Marvel's 25th anniversary and then had it slashed and slashed again. In the end, he said that he had to make due with writers were already salaried at Marvel such as other editors, assistant editors, or sales managers. He said there was no money for big name artists, and that almost all the artists were newer untried talent. In hindsight that seems to have a surprising amount of truth to it. The writers were folks like Gerry Conway, Shooter himself, Mark Gruenwald, Archie Goodwin, Steve Englehart, Tom DeFalco, Terry Kavanagh, and Roy Thomas. There's clearly a big editorial trend there and the ones that weren't were hardly top-tier writers in the late 80s. There were artists like John Romita Jr., Mark Bagley, Ron Lim, Mark Texeira, Todd McFarlane - not to mention writers like Peter David and Fabian Nicieza - who only became bigger names much later in their careers."

"I admit to having a soft spot for the New U because most of the books were just downright bizarre in terms of tone. They deserved to die a quick death, because they were misfits... But oddly enough I think that the exception to this is the Star Brand series. If you ever get the chance to go back and re-read it I think you'll be surprised at just how many of the odd ideas Jim Shooter threw out in that first year of the book ended up becoming incredibly popular about a decade or so later. Historically, I don't think anyone's ever looked at that... which is not to say that it's influenctial, because that would imply that someone read it in the first place. But I do think that of all the New U books, the Star Brand was the only one that actually did have an interesting and engaging premise. I keep expecting that one these days here we'll get an 'Ultimate' Star Brand and then people will be amazed at how neat a concept it actually was."

Sadly, that concept was Green Lantern's (dying alien comes to earth, gives most powerful weapon in the universe to unsuspecting human)...

Tom DeFalco gets Cracked:

"Tom DeFalco, one of the pre-eminent names in comics publishing today, has joined the company as the new Editor-in-Chief of CRACKED Magazine. For over twenty years, DeFalco distinguished himself as a top writer and editor at Marvel Comics. For almost eight of those years, he was Marvel's Editor-in-Chief and was one of the longest-serving individuals to ever hold that post. DeFalco was a key member of the management team that took Marvel public and under his leadership, Marvel's net profits from publishing rose by over 500%. DeFalco is also the author of over a dozen graphic novels, several hundred comic book stories, several dozen cyber-comics, three novels and six children's books- including the best-selling Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide and Hulk: The Incredible Guide. DeFalco has personally created and developed over three dozen characters that have all been licensed for television, toys, t-shirts, posters, trading cards and other merchandise. He also worked with toymaker Hasbro on the G.I. Joe toy line and animated show and was also part of the team that introduced the Transformers to the American public."

And you thought he was just the writer of Spider-Girl.

Any morning that starts off with a nice email from Mike Netzer has to be a good morning, I think. Anyway, he's started his own blog, lauding Rich Johnston, asking Paul Levitz to return to comics, and offering his view of the comics blogosphere:

"In recent times, the blog has come to the forefront of this mix, almost overshadowing the traditional website format which preceeded it... The age of the blogposters is on the rise and in this spirit I'll attempt to widen the scope of my own rantings in presenting the next stage of the Michael Netzer Online revolution: Rise Of The Comics. The Headquarters and Blogpost presented here are perhaps a fitting format under which to launch the activity around the formation of The Comic Book Creator's Guild. The blog now comes to the forefront, the more traditional website format is pushed back to the recesses of the server directories - all however, always linked to and accessible from the daily blogpost. There's a considerable amount of new material to see here and I'll make use of this debut to give a little taste of it in the few posts below. Thanks for coming by, enjoy the show - and if you're compelled to do so, your comments will more than likely contribute heartily to the party atmosphere we hope to nourish here."

Go, see and comment.

Those of you in San Francisco who aren't celebrating their wife's return to the country with a romantic dinner for two can instead spend tomorrow evening in the company of Ed Brubaker at the Isotope, in an event they like to call Instant Brubaker.

Edit: It's actually tonight. Which is even less notice, but hmm...

This just in - Some comics fans are intolerant assholes. Specifically, Dare500 and Kyle Rayner, of the Broken Frontier message boards:

Dare500: "I read in the letters page [of Young Avengers #2] that there is a question on Hulking and Asgardian being gay. While I have no problem with that lifestyle, unless made to equal heterosexual life, I do not like issues like that in comics. This is an adventure book not a forum for gays. They have other avenues. We will see if and how this plays out as well."

Kyle Rayner: "I have to say I agree with Dare on the whole 'sexuality thing.' I mean, I'm no prude, nor am I some anit-gay bigot, but there is a time and place for discussion of such things and I don't think a super-hero comic, that is meant as an 'all-ages fare' is the proper venue for it. If you want a more 'graphic and socially conscience' type fo story, Marvel have the MAX line where they can tell those types of stories, which are clearly labeled for people who are (supposedly) mature enough to understand such things. Young Avengers is NOT a MAX line title. It is being shown as an 'all-ages fare.' That being the case, I don't think 'exploring the characters sexuality' is right. If Heinberg wants to write that stuff, take it to the MAX line."

Dare500: "What bothers me about the topic, as I said, is the characters' 'orientation' shouldnt be brought into the telling of the story. James is accurate when he states that the forum Marvel PG rating is not the place to have this discussion. I would go one step beyond and say homosexuality should not be in comics period. Why? Simple, comics equals escapism. Escapism does not encompass this reality. More importantly, it is my view, that there is a 'lesson' coming. The writer could be set to preach to us 'uneducated' folks on how we dont understand gays,etc.etc. I dont want to hear it."

Of course, then the fun starts, as other start to debate the issue:

"It's sad that you (Kyle Rayner and DARE500) think that comic books are no place for discussion of homosexuality. It's sad that you also think that making a character (or 2) gay is the same as 'discussing' the issue of homosexuality. And if you add those two together it's still not as sad as how you seem to think only heterosexuals read comics. Do you guys honestly think that there aren't gay teenagers and adults out there who read superhero comic books and would really like to see themselves reflected in a character or two? Gay people have as much right as you do to read characters that mean something to them, characters that they can relate to.

"It is a fact that people relate to characters because they see themselves in them. People don't relate to Spiderman because he wears red and blue tights, they relate to him because he's representative of every guy or gal (mostly guy, tho) who wasn't popular, or respected, or even liked. And people like Spidey because secretly, he's better and more powerful than all the Jocks combined, just like all us 'nerds' and former-nerds wished we were. Readers can suspend disbelief about the tights, super strength, adamantium claws, green skin, flying armor and other trappings of superhero comics because they can relate to the real aspects of the comics. Without the real, you wouldn't accept the fantasy. So then tell me why gay people can't have elements of what's real for them in the comic books they read? Why can't they enjoy reading about 2 (at this point) hypothetically gay characters in Young Avengers?"

Kyle Rayner: "Well, I'm sorry you think I'm 'sad' for finding it objectionable to having mature themes in an 'all-ages' comic. You seemed to have failed to notice that I didn't say that there should never be any gay characters or disucssion of 'character's sexuality'. I cited the Marvel MAX line as a place for such thing to be discussed and presented. That would easily allow your 'gay teenage and adult readers' to have these type of topics discussed, without putting into fare which is aimed (at least) partly at young kids. And I never said that comics were no place to discuss homosexulaity. I said and 'all-ages' comic, aimed (partly, if not primarily) at kids is no place to discuss it. There are plenty of other places it can be discussed, such as the Marvel MAX line... And let me add this... if having a character's sexual preference is what a gay person needs to make a character 'relatable', then 'all-ages' comics might simply not be for them. There's nothing wrong with that. There's no shame in it. Not everyone can like everything. But to put such material into an inappropriate venue, so as to placate to a certain sect of society (or readeship) is wrong. Not just because of the inappropriate nature of how that material is being marketed (to kids, believe that), but because it's also (I would think) insulting to the very sect they are trying to reach."

Yes, he did say "sect". Ed Cunard takes the role of Kurt Busiek for this thread:

"I'm not going to call anyone a bigot, or anything like that--it's counterproductive to discourse. But I do find it... troubling... that, even in the 21st century, it's considered inappropriate to display homosexual relationships in an all-ages setting. It hearkens back to the recent PBS scandal, in my eyes, and much of the campaigning of the PTC. Did the letters page specifically say the relationship would be consummated? Is Hulkling going to take Asgardian for a ride in the sack right there on the page? That, I could understand some dissonance from folks, because I can't imagine that seeing Peter Parker taking Mary Jane to a special, quivvering paradise would be any more acceptible in an all-ages setting. However, if the romantic relationship and the feelings coming from that can't be shown in an all-ages comic simply because of the gender of the participants, then that's kind of wrong. Homosexual couples are no less loving or connected than their heterosexual counterparts. Pining for someone else, and unrequited love can happen to gays, straights and bisexuals, and makes for good storytelling in the hands of the right writer--and, I'd say, makes for better storytelling than twenty pages of 'let's you and me fight.'"

Over at the V, Matt Craig offers suggestions why DC Countdown to Infinite Crisis has people who don't normally give that much of a shit up in arms:

"Is part of it Sacrificial Lamb Fatigue, do you think? You know, like Sue Dibny, Spoiler, Jack Drake (whooo-oooo?[/Lard]), Gwen Stacy's Hymen, and now this other twat have all been mash up on the altar of Wider Significance, and there's a sense that:

"a. We've seen it all before. b. The memory of Sue Dibny's hand burning/Norman Osborn's vinegar face taints all subsequent appearances (see: Starman, JLAC, etc.) c. The characters deserve better. d. The *readers* deserve better.

"I'm not sure d. holds up under scrutiny - or a., for that matter. Or c.. And b.'s on shaky damn ground. What was the question?

"Oh yeah. Fatigue from seeing all these characters (some well-loved: every character is somebody's favourite) sacrificed to The Great Plot God. Which, in a way, is what they were there for, in the first place. The salacious disposability of the characters might cause people some concern, as well. The lack of any deeper motive other than to Fock Shit Op (again, not such a bad thing). There may be a desire to move back towards character-based drama, as opposed to anal violation. All sorts of things."

DC trumpet their wins in the annual Comic Buyers Guide Fan Awards:

"The May issue of Comics Buyer's Guide features the annual CBG Fan Awards, with DC Comics being named 'Favorite Publisher' for the eighth consecutive year. Many other DC talents and projects were honored as well, with DC winning in nearly every category. DC congratulates all the winners, and thank the Comics Buyer's Guide readers who participated in the voting."

DC titles won Favorite Comics Story (Identity Crisis), Favorite Comic Book (JSA), Favorite Graphic Novel or Album (The Originals) and Favorite Character (Batman). DC-exclusive talent won Favorite Writer (Geoff Johns), Favorite Penciller (Jim Lee), and non-exclusive-but-DC-affiliated talent won Favorite Inker (Scott Williams), Favorite Colorist (Laura Martin), Favorite Cover Artist (Alex Ross) and Favorite Letterer (Richard Starkings and Comicraft).

Message Board Car Crash watching reaches an all new high as the Byrne Board discusses politics, with the fun starting when poster Mike Mackey states the following:

"I have created the worlds first conservative comic. My question is am I ending my career as a writer before it begins, with such a divisive subject?"

There follows a synopsis of said comic:

"America’s future has become an Orwellian nightmare of ultra-liberalism. Beginning with the Gore Presidency, the government has become increasingly dominated by liberal extremists. In 2004, Muslim terrorists stopped viewing the weakened American government as a threat; instead they set their sites on their true enemies, vocal American conservatives. Terrorist assassins have thinned the ranks of the vocal Right. The few conservatives that survived attempts on their lives have been forced underground by the oppressive 'Coulter Laws' of 2007. In order to further their cause, they have joined forces and formed a powerful covert conservative organization called 'The Freedom of Information League', aka F.O.I.L. The New York City faction of F.O.I.L. is lead by Sean Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North, each uniquely endowed with special abilities devised by a biomechanical engineer affectionately named 'Oscar'. F.O.I.L. is soon to be joined by a young man named Reagan McGee. Reagan was born on September 11th, 2001. Reagan has grown to manhood in an ultra-liberal educational system: being told, not asked, what to think. With personal determination, which alienates him from his contemporaries, he has chosen the path less traveled…the path to the Right. Two decades of negotiation with the U.N., and America’s administration of 2021 (President Chelsea Clinton and Vice President Michael Moore), has culminated in a truce with fundamentalist Islamic terrorists, or so America is told. The honorable ambassador from Afghanistan has come to NYC to address the U.N., his name is Usama Bin Laden. Although, Ambassador Bin Laden has announced that he will publicly apologize for the 'misunderstanding' of the events of 9/11. In actuality, he intends on detonating a tactical nuke that is contained in his private diplomatic briefcase. It is a race against the clock to save NYC from a nuclear holocaust and the world from liberal domination. Only with F.O.I.L.’s help, can 'Liberality For All' once again become 'Liberty For All!'"

Suddenly American Power seems quite old-fashioned, doesn't it? The reaction is not entirely favorable:

"That sounds quite atrocious. I hope it's a joke of some kind."

"Study your enemy a little better."

"It was done before - the comics of the forties/fifties were full of it - jap bashing/commie bashing/viet cong/ you name it...world's moved on, squire..."

"I want to write Super Liberal. Able to smell BS from a mile away. Able to leap over right wing conservatives with a single bound. Wanting to help the poor and uneducated, while being accused of being too much in favor of big government. While his opponents abuse thier power in the government to over ride the court system in favor of their political gain. It's Super Liberal! His only weakness is women interns. Super Liberal coming to a comic shop near you!"

"If the basic premise, as presented, is that America is being overrun by a liberal agenda such that 'Usama Bin Laden' would be 'the honorable ambassador from Afghanistan' then I'd have to say a) that's terribly insulting to assume that if Gore won instead of Bush, we'd not only be placating a terrorist who killed thousands, but allow him to be ambassador, and b) I don't know what America you're currently living in, with a two-term Republican president and both the Senate and the House run by a Republican majority...so why all the anger, bile and contempt for those who hold views that differ from your own?"

"All else aside, I'm pretty sure you're proabaly about 65 years late with the 'World's First Conservative Comic.' ...and maybe you might want to read Cerebus 150-300."

And from there, the thread moves onto Liberal Extremism becoming a way of life in education, whether the Playgirl editor was fired because she was a Republican, and whether Ann Coulter is "a sexy Archie Bunker"...

Tom Spurgeon comes up trumps again, offering interviews with Dylan Horrocks, Mark Heath and Matt Fraction, as well as an essay by Bob Levin taken from a book Spurgeon edited about cartoonists and cartooning. Go read.

The Bendis Board reacts to Jeph Loeb and Greg Rucka's criticism of Superman clones (From a WWLA report: "When opened up to the entire panel, all of the participants agreed with Loeb's feelings, pointing out that Superman is too iconic to really be duplicated. For example, Loeb wondered out loud why JMS is doing 'Supreme Power,' why not either do new characters or do the JLA proper? Greg Rucka wondered why is JMS taking a piss on the JLA with 'Supreme Power,' as if the real toys weren't available to him and wasn't happy about it."):

"What is with Loeb and his relentless bias against Marvel/Superman fanboyism..."

"DC is quickly becoming obnoxious. Whereas Joey Q. mocks and jokes about DC sales, these guys are making things awful personal. I just hope there aren't any drive bys."

"He sure does have a bug up his ass about Marvel, huh? Or maybe it's that JMS is writing circles around him?"

"Fuck Rucka and Loeb."

"I didn't know either of the two were capable of spewing tripe of that level. I did know, however, that neither of the two and especially the 'superstar' writer whose work is ungodly putrid haven't written anything near as fantastically constructed as SUPREME POWER in their works combined. Mind you, the quality of SUPREME POWER rests solely on its production as it has no decades-old and popular characters to fall back on. It's now readily apparent that Joe Straczynski outclasses them beyond just writing ability."

"This argument can best be summed up like so... Supreme Power is one of the best comics published, not just by Marvel, but in general. And I wouldn't eat Superman/Batman if I were starving to death."

"Fuck loeb and his formelry Marvel groupies. Now they like hate the company that has been so good to them in the past. MARVEL is superior to DC and always will be, especially with guys like a certain bald writer who pronounces 'comics' like 'camics'. G2 love em though."

Nothing like incisive comics commentary first thing in the morning.

Lee Bermejo talks Lex Luthor:

"The first step in making Luthor someone the audience can fell for – soften him slightly. The change in my style is certainly one way I'm trying to make Lex an easier character to want to look at but I really don't want to change the essence of the character because that is not what we are doing... For me, Lex's eyes are the first and most important thing. When you look into this guys eyes, you have to know right away that he is smarter than you, more confident than you, and probably just as capable of blowing up a building as curing cancer. Part of the way I'm trying to do this is almost always double-lighting him. He has those two light sides, but the center, the core, is darker."

This just in (well, it went up yesterday) from Alex De Campi:

"To promote Issue 1 of our IDW miniseries SMOKE (shipping in May), Igor Kordey and I are offering 300 limited-edition signed sketch bookplates to retailers. The first 30 retailers to contact us will get 10 bookplates each. The bookplates will have a new SMOKE sketch by Igor and be signed by both of us. I'll be mailing them out personally at the end of April before the book ships. We’re going to have fun with this. Igor and I may mix one or two different original sketches in, as little surprises; I’ll be writing little notes and doodling on the bookplates... You can’t sign 300 things without cutting loose a bit. Or at least, I can't."

Details on how to get your retailer involved and links to sample art at the link above.

James Sime on Marvel Comics moving into 7-11s:

"[T]he only real concern a retailer like myself might have is exclusive product. And part of Marvel's plan includes offering exclusive items, such as the soft-cover Marvel Masterworks that are exclusive to Barnes & Nobles. I'm not particularly pleased with any comic publisher offering exclusive product to retailers outside of the direct market and keeping specialty comic retailers like me out of the loop... but what the hell, there's more to the comic industry than just one or two companies. Because believe it or not, just like there are more retail outlets out there in the world for Marvel Comics than direct market shops like mine, there are a hell of a lot more comics out there to feature, to stock, and to sell. For every watered-down exclusive 'X-Men' comic that a 7-11 might get, there's a hundred 'Shaolin Cowboy,' 'Amazing Joy Buzzards' and 'Ex Machina' books out there just waiting for an audience. I'm happy to put my resources and shelf space into the things that differentiate the direct market from the generic chain shops where these other comics are being offered. So when those Barnes & Noble and 7-11 customers come in my front door looking for more comics than are available at those other outlets I'll have almost an entire store full of exclusives that those non-specialty shops either don't care about or have never heard about. And you had better believe that I won't complain about putting a copy of 'Ex Machina' in a new customer's hands."

In related news, Marvel confirms that the flipbooks in their June solicits are headed for the 7-11s.

Neil Kleid talks about pitching, with help from Brian Wood and Alex De Campi, in this week's Big Pond:

Kleid: "Two years ago, I went on the worst date of my life. The girl was unresponsive, and for a talkative guy like me, it was like pulling wisdom teeth in a five-star restaurant. I asked what she liked to do and she responded with, 'I read.' When I parried with 'What do you read?' she dodged with 'Books.' Why the hell would I go on a second date? Who wants to do that kind of work and pay for it?

"Ladies and gentlemen, that girl is you.

"Don’t make an editor work for a second date. There are dozens of writers looking for the same kind of commitment you are, many dying to volunteer the fact that they enjoy reading Chabon and King and if given a chance, could write books just like them."

Wood: "Of course, you can write the world's greatest proposal, but if its not what the editor needs right then, it won't matter. The best you can hope for in that scenario is better luck with your next one. I sent this one editor six pitches over the course of several months, and while he liked them all, they weren't good fits for any number of perfectly valid reason (not the right genre, too much like an already existing book they do, etc). I finally sent him one he liked, and his rejected pitches went to other publishers."

De Campi: "Most importantly, your first pitch to an editor is nothing but an opening salvo in a long-term conversation. Often it will take you three or more rejected pitches before you understand what the editor is really looking for. Listen to what the editor says, and learn from it. You must not get all bent out of shape if your masterpiece dream story gets dinged first-off. Chances are, it will. You’re a writer. Go out to the pub, bitch to your friends about how nobody recognizes your genius, then go the fuck home and write something else."

Jason Martin attended Allan Heinberg's "writing school" at Wizard, and tells you what he learned:

"As Allan got underway he expressed how he wished things were a bit more informal, and that he were 'sitting down'. He also added that calling the panels 'Wizard School' made it seem like he should be at 'Hogwarts', a bit of a crowd pleaser which would turn out to be the first of many. Heinberg, a former child actor, Yale educated, accomplished playwright, and Hollywood writer/producer turned comics creator, was very personable and quite capable of holding a room with his many stories and insights. The panel was a kick, and I wouldn’t hesitate to listen to him speak again."

Revealed at the panel: "He went on quite a bit about how just the name [Young Avengers] smacked of such an obvious money grab, or swipe at DC’s Teen Titans, and how he’d have to overcome that... He knew that the cover, with teen versions of Marvel icons, very deliberately, would make you think, 'I have to pick this up and see how terrible this is?!'" Shit. I'm so obvious.

The Bendis Board is concerned by a lack of Ultimates in Marvel's June solicits:

"I really, really wish they could combine George Perez & Bryan Hitch in terms of insane detail...and Mark Bagley in terms of sheer German effeciency. I mean...GOD DAMN, he's fast."

"You know, I would be a lot more tolerant of this had it not been for a couple of comments made by Millar himself. At WizardWorld Chicago last year, he was asked when Ultimates 2 would come out. He didn't speculate, but said that they were letting Hitch get a head start and that he was just finishing up issue 4. Two months later in a new interview, he was asked how far ahead Hitch was, and he said Hitch was just finishing issue 4 and starting issue five. I'm sorry, but this is so much bullshit I can barely wade through it. If you are going to schedule an obstensibly monthly book, the get the lead time you need to get it out monthly. Or even just freaking make it bi-monthly. Just stop it with the freaking lateness."

"Great results or no, it's outta line now. I don't care if you're DaVinci-- if you're drawing comics, you have a schedule. Period. This 'but the wait gives him more time to make it even more wonderful' argument is crap. It's past that now."

ICv2 has February's sales chart from Diamond. New Avengers, Astonishing X-Men and Superman/Batman make the top 3.

Greg Rucka talks Countdown on Infinite Crisis and The Omac Project:

"This all started in January of 2004... Somewhere, Dan has pictures of us in this big room with these giant pieces of paper on the wall, with all of this mapped out, and the names of the miniseries are at the top. The one piece that was missing, as we said earlier, was Countdown. We knew everything else, but we were missing that one piece to tie it all together. We had the structure, but were missing the keystone. There were certain things where we wanted a specific effect, and went for that, but in many, many others, we found the logical extrapolations of what was already going on – if this happens, then this would follow, then this, and this and this. That’s the other thing – we’re not playing the market share game. We’re giving readers the best damn stories we can give them, and we’re giving them stories that will stand apart, but viewed together, will build to Infinite Crisis. Dan is very inspiring when he talks about wanting to get people excited about Wednesday. I remember that feeling, and I can say without any hesitation of a doubt that’s what we’re all trying to do with all these stories – we want to give people a reason, a desire, an excitement to get into the stores on Wednesday and get their comics, and see what’s happening, and how the story is moving along. If we can do that – get people excited to come into shops and get the latest issue because they want to read a damn good story, not because they’re scared the issue will sell out and the retailer can’t get more. I think we’ll be doing the job we set out to do."

The trade dress for the four spin-off miniseries is revealed, as well, for those who care about such things.

Spoiler warning for those who care: The comments thread here discusses the end of Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Enter at your own risk.

Fuck "100 Things I Like About Comics". Tom Spurgeon gives 1000 Things to Like about Comics.

The fans, they complain about Warren Ellis and Adi Granov's Iron Man, as Newsarama previews the third issue:

"6 pages, 32 panels, 1 shot of the Iron Man armor. Definitely worth the wait."

"Hmm. Tony never even puts on the armor. No thank you."

"Ellis has gotten so bad at padding he has devolved the IronMan Armor. The Armor use to be able to fit in a suit case. Now, Tony has to put on some spandex outfit, which Warren will take 3 pages to explain. And now needs a crew to put ont the armor. Awful, get the man off the title, and let someone who WANTS to write IronMan write it. Not some hack doing it for the paycheck."

"Having the Warren Ellis Iron Man on the shelves now only highlights for me how exceptional Orson Scott Card's Ultimate Iron Man is. Orson Scott Card never showed the Iron Man armor either; but it was not missed due to the excellent characterization, story flow and defined finish and end. In one issue, we were treated to the short lived romance of Tony Stark's parents, and the human sacrifices and mistakes they made in bringing Tony into the world. Warren Ellis has in turn taken 3 issues to essentially show Tony in a board room and some guy vomitting black ooze (all of which was recapped *again* in the first few pages of issue 3 shown here). This comparison highlights why professional comic book writers tend to shape the medium into the cable television of printed media. We need more of the Orson Scott Card treatment showing these properties in a light the world can respect and truly enjoy; a light that validates the $2.99 price tag as more than a simple down payment on a six part story."

So, to sum up: The armor is the most important thing about Iron Man, it should be able to fit into a suitcase, and you must show it unless you fancy writing a story about Tony Stark's parents fucking. Now we know.

This also in from the land of unexpected movies:

"Writer Hadley Davis told SCI FI Wire that she is drafting the script for a movie adaptation of Zatanna, the venerable DC Comics sorceress, with an update for a teen audience. 'It's sort of an obscure DC Comic book,' Davis said in an interview. 'Well, I say that, and then people who know comic books know the comic. It has existed for years and years, but she is a female magician. It's for Warner Brothers and [producer] Denise DiNovi, and we've made her sort of a teen magician.'"

This just in from the land of "Whaaaaaa?":

"Variety is reporting that Sony Pictures is in negotiations with Marvel Entertainment in an effort to turn the 1970s Marvel comic book character, Killraven, into a major science fiction movie franchise. Unlike many of the films made utilizing some of the minor characters from the Marvel universe (Man-Thing for example, which is heading straight to DVD after a debut on TV), Sony is reportedly planning to turn Killraven into a major 'tentpole' release. The studio is negotiating with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan (The Kentucky Cycle) to adapt Killraven for the silver screen."

Newsarama starts my day off well by announcing that James Jean is coming to San Francisco:

"Opening Friday, April 8th from 7-10pm at the Super 7 store will be Eisner Award Winning Cover Artist James Jean's Process Recess -- an art show consisting of his original drawings, paintings and prints. In the current wasteland of contemporary art, filled with the tired repetition of iconic characters, styles and motifs, James Jean is one of the few inspirational artists out there. Just one look at any of his works will immediately win you over. And he's definitely already wowed the comics industry, receiving the Eisner Award (the comics industry's equivalent to an Oscar) for his groundbreaking cover artwork on both 'Fables' and 'Batgirl;' breaking all the rules in terms of perspective, composition and color palettes. You've probably even already seen his work without knowing, the great illustration used on the Donnas' recent 'Gold Medal' album or San Francisco's own Stratford 4's forthcoming major label debut cover art, and spot illustrations in a variety of high profile publications. We're also proud to help spread the word on his new book, published by AdHouse Books, 'Process Recess,' which collects much of his work, including his amazing sketchbooks. The artist will be on hand to meet and greet, as well as for signings."

Tokyopop moves closer to the register:

"Tokyopop is using Clip-Strips to expand its offerings of Cine-Manga in Wal-Mart stores. Clip-Strips allow Tokyopop's Cine-Manga to be displayed next to the corresponding DVDs or to hang near toy isles or next to the cash registers to attract impulse buys... Tokyopop has also had success with the giant Target chain, Wal-Mart's largest competitor. This spring Target stores will begin stocking an 8-book offering of Tokyopop manga -- the largest and most extensive Tokyopop program yet in Target stores."

DC release previews of the covers of the final printings of the Identity Crisis mini-series... this time, the covers are recolored red, like blood. Because lots of people die in the series, get it? They're so clever.

Also, the series gets retitled and becomes COUNTDOWN TO COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS: IDENTITY CRISIS.

Over at Chuck Dixon's message board, politics in comics are being discussed. Chuck offers his theories:

"There's a lot of beautiful books out there. But I won't buy them if I have to read a political message along with the story. ANY political message even one (God forbid!) that agreed with me. Unless you're writing an intrinsically political comic, keep your views to yourself. Don't use comic icon costumed heroes to espouse your views. And my main problem with the politicization of mainstream comics isn't that I disagree with the politics (though that's a problem for me personally) it's that the views are part of an accepted, lockstep, unquestioned zeitgeist that's, frankly, tiresome. If a political issue appears on an episode of Law and Order then its sure to appear in a comic six months down the line. One cause du jour after another presented as though they were startling and shocking and...daring. Want daring? Try putting out a comic that's in support of America's War on Terror. I recently parted company with a comics publisher who wanted these same left wing views dumbly repeated in the comic I was writing for them. The comic I was writing was a military fantasy and there was no place and no audience for a liberal military shoot-em-up. No matter where you place yourself on the politcal spectrum you have to agree that there's no readership for a book like that... Today's crop of comics is far more to the left than much of mainstream entertainment. The PTB in comics liken themselves to the movie industry. But the film business, despite its Sean Penns and Michael Moores, produces a lot of entertainment that skews right of center. Any action movie. Any western. Horror movies are remarkably reflective of conservative views and aimed squarely at their largest and most loyal audience; the red states in flyover country... Comics today fly in the face of that by repeatedly turning off its core audience and failing to recognize a diversity in its potential readership. Have your left-skewed imprint like Max or Vertigo. But where's the comics for the rest of us?"

Peter David responds:

"As for politics in comics, Chuck, it's easy to make sweeping statements. But let's say I decided to revisit the Hulk as boss of the Pantheon. A commander in chief of a military organization that goes wherever it wants and does what it wants, up to and including overthrowing foreign dictators despite the wishes of most of the world. If I do that same story now that I did ten years ago, is it a politicized commentary on Bush? Anyone reading 'Fallen Angel #8' in which the heroine tortures a captive for info would see it as a commentary on Iraq torture scandals...unless they bothered to check the pub date to see that it came out two months before. What if I want to do a story about a man trying to let his wife die? Should I shy away from stories that are metaphors for steroid use, since there's congressional investigations? Abortion rights? Capital punishment? Teenage sex? Premarital sex? Marriage? Divorce? Terrorists? Should I studiously make sure that no comic have the slightest real world ties since just about everything winds up becoming politicized these days? That sounds rather unappealing. But that could just be me."

Chuck Dixon again:

"To use current events as an inspiration or backdrop for a comics story is fine for me. I've done it often enough myself. What I object to is using these events as a platform for political diatribe in a mainstream superhero comic. Want to present your views in the comics medium? Fine. There's plenty of small publishers or you can publish it yourself. But don't have Captain Sparkle mouthing your standpoint on late term abortions or gun control just because you've been handed a piece of a franchise and a waiting audience.
It's poor form and commercial suicide since you're dumbing down your demographic to people who agree with you. Comics desperately need to return to a mainstream comic reader base and writing comic stories that further marginalize them doesn't help. Every potential reader doesn't subscribe to the same e-mail chains as the writers and editors at DC and Marvel."

From there, the fans get involved and it gets messy...

Andy Khouri knows who's who on the cover of (deep breath) DC COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS: NO, NOT ONE OF THE SPIN-OFF MINI-SERIES BUT THE DOLLAR BOOK THAT ISN'T A FOLLOW ON FROM IDENTITY CRISIS BUT WILL APPARENTLY LEAD INTO SOMETHING CALLED INFINITE CRISIS AND WHAT KIND OF TITLE IS INFINITE CRISIS ANYWAY, WELL AT LEAST IT'S BETTER THAN CRISIS 2, apparently:

"The Batman, holding a seemingly unidentifiable man while Earth's greatest heroes look on in shock and awe. Who is this man the Batman carries in his arms? Is he a family member or loved one; Alfred the butler, perhaps? Is he yet another fan-favourite supporting character like Sue 'Elongated Man's Wife' Dibney, murdered as part of a terrible conspiracy that will once again shake the very core of the DC Universe? The Blue Beetle, perhaps? No. No, this man the Batman holds so preciously is none of those things ALTHOUGH he is a hero. A fallen, forgotten hero. I wish it to be known in all quarters of that I hereby declare the identity of the so-called 'Countdown dude' to be none other than BARRY ALLEN.

"OBSERVE! Observe the reddish hue of the man's clothing. Observe the wide Silver Age Flash-style eye holes in the mask, with its torn bits dangling in the air. Observe the wing-like forms on the man's head. Observe the man's LEFT ARM -- STRIPPED of its sleeve, conveniently removing the Flash's signature lighting bolt design scheme. And remember that Barry Allen is more than anything else the true symbol of the Crisis on Infinite Earths; that most massive event COUNTDOWN mercilessly promises to excavate. The Blue Beetle??? My ass, NERDS."

I still think it's Blue Beetle, who'll then spend the Omac miniseries getting revamped to be Omac Beetle.

Todd McFarlane - Interesting take on reality:

"With the lawsuit, Gaiman walked away from Miracleman. I have the trademark for Miracleman. No one wants to say it out loud, but that's what happened with the lawsuit. Everyone was like 'Hah hah, he killed Todd,' but unfortunately -- or fortunately, depending on where you are standing -- he had to pick some copyrights to some Spawn characters or pick Miracleman. He didn't pick Miracleman... For whatever reason he walked away from Miracleman, so now Miracleman will be in the Image 10th Anniversary book."

(Via Newsarama.)

As Bill and Rob have pointed out in the comments, Neil Gaiman responded:

"If Todd actually owned a share of Miracleman (something that became more and more unlikely as we finally saw the actual documentation he had on it, which consisted only of: a contract that said that Eclipse's rights to the character automatically reverted if someone other than Dean Mullaney owned Eclipse, and an expired Trademark notice for a Trademark shared with me, Mark Buckingham and Eclipse) then, yes, he kept that share at the end of the trial. Meanwhile, Mark Buckingham and my share of Miracleman isn't in any doubt at all. I didn't walk away from what Todd had; Todd simply couldn't demonstrate that he owned anything that I was walking away from... I used to get hate mail from Image Fans accusing me of delaying the Image 10th anniversary book (which was due out in 2002) because, following the trial, I now co-owned the Cogliostro character, and people from Image were at one point, apparently, telling people that I was stopping the comic coming out, which came as rather a surprise to me, because it was the first I'd heard of it (and was also nonsense). Cynically, I can't help wondering if Todd claiming he's now putting Miracleman into the just-a-little-bit-late comic is just a way to put off actually publishing the comic for a few more years."

Tom Spurgeon comes up trumps again: Previews of new work from Dylan Horrocks? A John Romita (Snr.) interview? A Scott Mills interview? An interview with the marketing director of Pantheon's graphic novel line? Yes, please!

John Byrne holds court on rebooting continuity:

"Whether a 'reboot' works or is accepted seems to depend entirely upon the capriciousness of those who read them. As I have noted on more than one occasion, I was quite surprised when YEAR ONE generated not so much as a blip of complaint from the 'loyal Batman fans', as Frank changed about 90% of the backstory on the characters, far more than what I did in MoS. Eventually I realized that many of those fans, like Frank himself, did not actually realize the changes were changes. (Recall how Barbara Gordon came to be 'adopted' because Frank had not 'done the math' and when someone else did, it was too late.)"

Fans of DC's space-opera characters may geek out about Rann-Thanagar War (Oh, alright - Countdown to Infinite Crisis: Rann-Thanagar War), if Dave Gibbons has anything to do with it:

"The Legion make a fleeting appearance...We don't see all of the Omega Men, but Tigorr plays quite a large part in it. Hawkman and Hawkgirl as I said. Hawkwoman is also in there. We also have Adam Blake, otherwise known as Captain Comet. He plays an important part. He becomes somewhat of an ally of Kyle Rayner and teams up with him to attack this problem from another vantage point. Starman is in there, Prince Gavyn of Throneworld. He's not center stage, but he makes a significant appearance... We have the Khunds, and we have the Dominators, the Psions, the Coluans and the Durlans. There is a sense of everybody getting involved... I did want to make it science fiction rather than super heroics. I think the mix of characters we've got in it allows us to do that and certainly, I've been a fan of great space opera. I use to read all the Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke and Ian M. Banks books."

Matt Fraction on Image Comics, from this week's Basement Tapes (with Joe Casey, as always):

"In an ideal world or, at least, in a smarter one than this, Image should provide a mainstream alternative to the Big Two, where creators are treated well and where other pop pulp genres can grow, thrive, and take advantage of Image's brand and relative strength in the market so as to stand a fighting chance in that market. The miracle of Image's inception is that for what was arguably the first time in the industry's history, the creatives were the 900 lb. bears in the room. Those guys defined the industry itself around what they wanted, and so profound was that initial blast of popularity that we're still processing bits and pieces of them out of the mainstream. Overnight, these guys, and this company, went toe-to-toe with behemoths forty years old. And won. From there it's a long way down.

"The potential of the ideological and creative importance of Image aside, they've got a privileged piece of real estate in PREVIEWS and, even if they're a shadow of their former selves, they've got the only real chance to change the rules of the mainstream that I think we're likely to see. Ultimately, pardon the pun, Marvel and DC are too entrenched in their own cultures to go too terribly far into trailblazing and besides, it's not necessarily their strengths, or what anyone really wants, anyway. Image, though, can be anything it wants to be. It always could.

"In theory, its identity means otherwise closed avenues of the medium are open; it means those avenues are open to anyone that can produce work that Image editorial deems worthy. But theory and practice are two separate things, but not for lack of tryin'."

Over at Ninth Art, Bob Schreck talks about his career in indy comics in the first part of an interview with Alex Dueben:

"Nobody's perfect right out of the gate. Matt Wagner to this day still gets that old COMICO PRIMER with Grendel in it and his whole body just collapses. He's says, 'I thought I signed the last one of these, I couldn't even draw when I did this'. To this day I look at it and I just think of how cool that was when we first saw it. We knew there was some whole cloth in that and we were all right. Well, all twelve of us, you know, 'cause it didn't sell very well. So yes, it's the best part of the job to be able to extend a hand out and watch somebody grow. If you're not helping somebody learn their skills and find their dream, then why are you getting up in the morning? I might as well work in a tire factory. There's no excitement to it if you're not aggravating people and/or giving people a chance."

Heidi on Wizard World Long Beach:

"If last year’s Wizard World Long Beach was surprisingly good, this year’s was surprisingly bad, at least as far as sales and general excitement were concerned. By Sunday, the word 'terrible' was being thrown around. Although Saturday attendance was strong, the people roaming the floor weren’t in the mood to spend money, and that seems to have put some of the exhibitors in a bad mood."

Following on from the release of the full title to DC Countdown yesterday, Newsarama has the house ads for the four spin-off mini-series, all of which now have the prefix "Countdown to Infinite Crisis" attached: The Omac Project, Day of Vengence, Villains United!, and Rann-Thanagar War. According to Bob Wayne at DC, "I bet people will even find the ads exciting."

"Countdown to Infinite Crisis", then.

Hmm.

Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter is on a semi-hiatus this week, with Tom's usual reporting-that-puts-everyone-else-to-shame being temporarily replaced by essays and interviews that put everyone else to shame, instead. Today, a 1999 interview with Jeff Smith goes up (as do other articles) for 48 hours only, meaning there's only a limited time that you can read about Jeff wanting to hit Dave Sim:

"He's going on and on and on, and Vijaya and I are like going, 'Can we go to the bathroom now?' It was just so... he just wouldn't shut up. And finally I said, 'Dave, if you don't shut up right now, I'm going to take you outside and I'm going to deck you.'"

The Bendis Board salutes its former administrator, as Brian Michael Bendis makes an announcement:

"i spoke to [the Image boards' admin] allen today. i told him we'll just stay here on our own server. he has a lot to do all day and our board on top of all the others was too much. he was always gracuious about it, but when it crashed i could see what a headache it truly was for him. he's such a good guy, i felt i was taking advantage. he is slowly working on restoring the image boards. but we will be staying here. i will be visiting the image boards when they rebirth and hope you do as well."

"Very cool news to see you staying on your own! Two of the three biggest creator boards are now owned by the creators themselves (unless I'm now wrong as per usual) I can't believe it is taking them so long to get their boards up though. Look what has happened here in such a short amount of time. I'm looking forward to the return of Image's board though as I visited many of those rooms."

"Well, Allen is really busy with a lot of production stuff at Image, too, so it's not like he can dedicate all of his time to the problem... it's going to be back eventually, though..."

"Plus...from what I understand...he is not only trying to put the board back up, but also restone most of what was 'lost' including messages, PMs, etc. Almost make it as if the Russians didn't hack it. Allen truly is trying to work a miracle and if he does this, then turning water into wine will possibly be his next accomplishment."

"Absofuckinlutely! Allen's a genius... and yeah, when Image made the move to San Fran, Allen took on A LOT more job duties. He's a machine."

The Brian K. Vaughan board wonders what happened in the eighties. And nineties.:

"I started reading that article BKV posted and it got me thinking, what are the best or most popular characters created in the past 2 decades? An important stipulation, they must still be around and relevant, hence no Spawn or X-Man."

"Usagi Yojimbo-Come on, a rabbit ronin, what more do I need to say. Hellboy- A very interesting character concept for the time. Sandman- He is a pure bad ass."

"i think hellboy is pretty significant, as well as the bone characters. whether or not they're the 'best' is open to debate, but they've both spawned cottage industries and have had an impact in a very tight market."

"Use best as a loose term. I dont mean they have to be the greatest thing ever, but just important, relevant, and well recieved, as well as still popular today. Also, how about all of Sin City? Just look at the fervor around the movie over 10 years later."

Apparently, there may be something in that movie = comic sales thing, after all:

"Frank Miller's Sin City Vol.1 soared from #77 to #9 in the latest BookScan list of graphic novels sold in bookstores, as anticipation for the debut of the Sin City movie on April 1st continues to build. Many comic book-based movies have failed to make much of an impact on book sales in either the bookstore or the direct market, but Sin City is one property that has real potential."

James Sime surveys the comics internetospheriweb:

"At most comic blogs the vibe is private dinner party, it's a personal affair. Often times just you an a couple friends just sitting around talking comics. There can be no denying the appeal of a one-on-one connection that comic blogs offer... Messageboards, on the other hand, are the parties and clubs of the virtual comic industry. They might not be as intimate as the blogs, but you never know who you are going to meet or what's going to happen, but each of the industry's great comic message boards has a style that's all their own."

Watchmen gets reprinted, hardcovered, made larger:

"The new edition of the classic Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons story is currently being adapted to the larger, 'Absolute' format and recolored by original colorist John Higgins. The edition is being produced with the blessing of Alan Moore. The edition will run 464 pages (and will also double as a blunt object if need be), and will be a complete reprinting not of the original series as published by DC, but of the Graphitti edition, a collection published by Graphitti in the late ‘80s that included 48 pages of extra material."

The comments after the story at Newsarama are wonderful:

"I'll try and buy this, but my curse will fuck it up. Trust me."

"I think I just came."

"GREATEST NEWS EVER"

Hannibal Tabu's report of the DC Universe panel at Wizard World LA will make you like Jeph Loeb more than usual:

"'In June,' [Bob] Wayne read from his notes, 'the writer of 'Young Avengers' and the writer of 'Teen Titans' team up to kick Mark Waid's butt.' He was referring to 'JLA' with Allan Heinberg and Geoff Johns, with covers by Rags Morales. With the cover image, it appears that Batman is finally going to deal with the issues brought up in 'Identity Crisis,' with Chris Batista and Mark Farmer on art. 'So you could say this is a sequel to 'Identity Crisis?'' Loeb shouted. Johns implied that it was its own story, to which Loeb returned with, 'But you could say it's like the son of 'Identity Crisis?'' Johns simply looked exasperated and things moved on."

Also, as much as I like Mark Waid's work, building a door out of Lego?

Tom Beland/Kurt Busiek fans: You heard it here first, surprisingly.

The Bendis Board comments on the return of the Ellis board:

"I don't get this guy. He sends out missives that aren't allowed to be duplicated. He calls us all sorts of horrible names for what a couple of misguided people did. And now he's hosting a message board for only 12 hours? Love his work, but he seems like kind of a crank to me."

"Eh, thats kind of his charm. But, yeah, I didn't like being called a Rape-o either."

"Whats his beef anyway?"

"Not worth going into. Suffice it to say he doesn't actually have a problem with us, he made a comment about how the board would be perceived in the future that a lot of people hate."

Brian Hibbs on problems within the direct market:

"Why we don’t have directed and practical things like starting inventory packages, or management-oriented training like “how to do cycle sheets” and that kind of thing? Why have no publishers taken a lead on trying to get a standardized Point of Sale system set up for comic shops nationally? Why aren’t there rack programs any more? Why aren’t there co-op programs that working retailers will, as a body, actually use? Subsidizing basic start-up costs, and encouraging better business practices, these things couldn’t help but encourage more stores to start, and grow... I absolutely believe that resources put in to the Direct Market will always pay off at a greater rate than any other market segment – it is cheaper and more efficient to sell comics through the DM mechanism because that is what it designed to do."

Riff-raff! Street rat! Marc Sumerak’s not buying that! If only they'd look closer at Ororo: Before The Storm, he tells Newsarama:

"Although she’s clearly been dealt a bad hand in life, Ororo remains bright-eyed and optimistic — a quality that inspires those around her to succeed and excel. And despite the fact that she has been surrounded by so much death and despair in her life, Ororo still manages to embrace life in any form and to nurture those around her. Exceptionally loyal and warm-hearted, Ororo lives each day to the fullest and tries to make the best of her time as thief. And even though she disagrees with many of the tenets of life on the street, she does what it takes to help herself and her fellow urchins survive! And while the back alleys of Cairo are definitely our starting point for the series, there's so much more of Egypt to explore. It won’t be long before their acts of thievery lead them into an epic Egyptian adventure that would make Indiana Jones and Lara Croft proud!"

Greg Thompson talks about the great Hero Camp:

"I had been wanting to create a super hero book, but wanted to do something a little different. As a child, I always wondered where one went to train to be a super hero, since that was the career choice I had in mind...and still do. [laughs] Well, one thing lead to another, and the idea of a summer camp for super heroes came to mind. I guess you can blame scout camp, church camp and the time I spent as a counselor at a YMCA summer camp for that."

The Image version of the book launches in May, and is well worth picking up.

The Warren Ellis board is back, for a limited time only. And not at Delphi, either. There's about 10 hours left of it, if my maths is right...

The Bendis Board asks, "What is the future of comics?":

"As we've seen the quality of comics go up over recent years, it seems like sales continue to decline. Is this because what we feel is quality isn't entertaining the masses, or is what many considered the renaissance of what's to come not what we thought it was anymore? More now then ever, independent comics seem to be coming to the forefront. There are more of them. They continue to make their voices heard, but sometimes it's not loud enough. How do independent comics become a major staple in the comic industry so that people are buying their books? How are people's minds (and retailers) going to be changed and brought into this world of independent comics? Is it going to happen? If so, how?"

"I think the future of comics has to be a lot like the past where most 'mainstream' comic sales take place outside of comic book stores. The best way to get retailers to focus more on indy books is to get Marvel and DC out of the way so that retailers have to focus more on indy comics sold exclusively through the direct market. I don't have any solid numbers or anything to support this but I strongly feel that the indy books that blew up and became phenominoms back in the 80's did so because Marvel and DC did a lot of business on the newstands and didn't depend on the direct market exclusively to sell their books. Retailers couldn't be slaves to the big boys so they were more open to books like TMNT, Cerebus and everything else."

"I think indie creators need to skip the direct comics market entirely and put all their efforts into getting their OGN's into book stores. Comic book stores have proven consistantly that they can't help you. Some are great, but most just want to sell X-men and Batman. They don't care about you, so why should you care about them?"

"Comic Stores do nothing to help the industry. The future of comics is in the internet, neewspapers, book stores (though I'm not quite sure about that..) and in magazines."

Marvel's latest price increase hits the comic market where it hurts - Newsarama:

"That's it, I've hit my limit. Comics have just hit the 'too pricy' mark. I give up. I'm leaving the new comics world to just hunt back issues. I'll still hang around Newsarama until you guys chase me away with pitchforks and torches. It's the case of the straw that broke the camel's back, or perhaps the needle in the hurricane."

"I think its safe to say that I have unofficially dropped comics. I simply cannot afford them any more. I kept cutting and cutting and cutting my list, but I havnt purchased any in almost three months. I think its time I went to my LCS and offically cancle my pull, if they havent done so already."

"Quitting cold turkey over this particular price increase seems a bit drastic. But to each they're own. In this case the price increase is affecting 9 titles... so assuming you buy all nine titles that’s an increase of $2.25 a month.... so drop one title and your spending the same amount. Personally of the titles affected I'm losing an extra $1.50. The last time Marvel increased price it was on 13 lower selling books and the increase was by 74 cents... total affect $9.62. Personally this only affected me by 74 cents. The past increase was on lower selling titles... this time it on some of their most stable titles... which suggests to me, as I said in another thread on this, the price increase has to do with the weak US dollar more than than anything else."

Wow, but Blogger is acting strangely today.

The Byrne Board fails to get a rise from their hero:

"Considering that [upcoming Marvel series House of M] is being built on the foundation of JB’s West Coast Avengers storyline, what does JB think of the bricks that are being laid upon his works? Benidis has openly attributed the Avengers DisAssembled story line to the unfinished WCA storyline. I happen to like Bendis's work on Powers and Alias and enjoy his DD stories, however his Avengers stories are not to my liking. I think JB has been doing more than reading M***** comics for a few years so why hasn’t he been involved in these endeavors?"

"with Brevoorts involvement, and his talking about how Wanda's power reshapes reality, i wouldn't put it past him to use this to try and remove every mark JB ever made at marvel - but then i'm cynical like that . . "

"I'm so glad that M***** chased me away from their books. I don't think I could stomach this story."

"Some Bendis fan described this as a 'peace offering' to JB. Which is stupid, because A) the two were never at war and B) JB's idea was never to turn Scarlett Witch insane as Bendis has. It was supposed to be Kang controlling her to recreate the world."

Byrne responds: "'Some Bendis fan described this as a 'peace offering' to JB.' [...] Sounds like a typically inane attempt to create a 'Bad Byrne' story. 'Bendis offered an olive branch to Byrne and Byrne ignored him!' yawn Next!"

Better late than never due to Blogger problems, let's start with some eating crow for a change. Why not use the opportunity of the first part of Allan Heinberg's Comic Foundry interview to eat my words and tell the world that Young Avengers turns out to be a fun book, with enough snappy dialogue and mighty Marvel melodrama to make me remember why I dug Marvel books as a kid? No reason at all. So, just to set the record straight: All that stuff about me taking the piss out've the book before (apart from the names, which the book itself takes the piss out've)? Me being an asshole. The book? Actually pretty good.

Anyway, back to Mr. Heinberg:

"As a fan I know I’d be suspicious of a book called Young Avengers, so I spent a great deal of time trying to come up with an idea that was new and surprising, but respectful of Avengers history at the same time. Eventually I came up with a pitch that Brian, Joe and I got excited about, and the guys at Marvel have been unbelievably supportive ever since. It’s been a dream gig because I got to invent the book’s core group of characters, and then fully integrate them into the Marvel Universe."

Joss Whedon surprises no-one:

"Thursday’s Hollywood trades made official what has been rumored for months, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel creator and Astonishing X-Men writer Joss Whedon will write and direct a big-screen, live-action Wonder Woman feature film for Warner Bros. with Joel Silver and Leonard Goldberg producing. 'Wonder Woman is the most iconic female heroine of our time, but in a way, no one has met her yet,' Whedon said in a statement quoted by The Hollywood Reporter. 'What I love most about icons is finding out what's behind them, exploring the price of their power. When Joel and I began discussing the character, I realized there is a woman behind the legend who is very fascinating, very uncompromising and in her own way almost vulnerable. She's someone who doesn't belong in this world, and since everyone I know feels that way about themselves, the character clicked for me.'"

CBR has early versions of the Marvel solicits for June. As usual, the Marvel solicit writer is having a fun time:

* From the House of M #1 solicit: "You know how sometimes you hear the phrase: AND NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME AGAIN? Well, this time believe it, buster!! NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME AGAIN!" Also of note: "please note: Each issue of house of m will have a special variant cover."

* The first House of M spin-off launches as Mark Waid and SuperFrankenstein himself, Tom Peyer, team up to write Spider-Man: House of M: "Meet Spider-Man--hero to the people, champion of the weak and oppressed... and World Wrestling Alliance Championship Titleholder? Peter Parker has it all --respect, fame, and the adoration of all. But he also has a deep, destructive secret that he keeps from the world and from his family--one that could well unravel the reality he knows!" That's right, kids. Marvel continues to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Age of Apocalypse by redoing it again, but this time including non-X characters.

* Sean McKeever and Mike Norton go from The Waiting Place to Gravity: "Meet freshman Greg Willis, NYC newbie from the rural Midwest hoping to realize his dream of becoming a big-city super hero. But will the realities of city life, college and saving the day prove to be too much for him? Let Sean McKeever and Mike Norton, the creative team responsible for the acclaimed Indie drama, The Waiting Place, introduce to you the next great Marvel hero!"

* Spider-Girl gets a spin-off series, "Last Hero Standing". Yes, Spider-Girl: "A WEEKLY FIVE-PART EVENT THAT UNITES TWO GENERATIONS! The great heroes of the marvel universe are vanishing without a trace! What has happened to Spider-Man, the thing, the scarlet witch, Captain America, and the rest of the MU's heavy hitters? Spider-Girl, the fantastic five and a-next must join forces with today's superstars to uncover the answer – and the trail leads to a major Avengers villain! Does the presence of the Watcher signify the end of this age of heroes?"

* The bad news: The New Warriors return in a new series. The good news: It's by Zeb Wells, who wrote some good Spider-Man stories.

* This is just odd: "Kicking yourself for missing an early issue of a popular book? Wanting to get your friends hooked on your favorite titles? Have no fear, Marvel Flip books are here! Perfect for bringing in new readers, these newsstand titles are now being offered to the Direct Market!"

Has anyone ever heard of newsstand-based Marvel Flipbooks? Are these going to be the 7-11 books?

* Last month, the Astonishing X-Men solicit gave the game away by referring to Whedon and Cassaday's "first year" on the title. So why does this month's solicit say "This is it. The stunning conclusion to Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s year-long run on ASTONISHING X-MEN"? It's not like they're leaving permanently, if at all. Anyway, it continues, "As 'Dangerous' draws to a finale readers will have to see to believe, the lives of the X-Men will NEVER be the same," which is hyperbole at its dullest. Of COURSE the lives of the X-Men will be the same. That's what X-Men comics are there for.

* Kitty Pryde gets another mini-series, written by X-office favorite Akira Yoshida. The better news: Paul Smith's drawing it.

* You know what the world has been waiting for? A Storm origin mini-series. Luckily, in June, the world will get one with "Ororo: Before the Storm": "The back alleys of Cairo's thieves quarter are no place for a child to grow up -- unless that child is destined to be one of the greatest Marvel heroines of all time! Long before she became the X-Man known as Storm, a young orphan named Ororo Munroe stalked the streets of Cairo picking pockets and scraping to survive. Get ready for some awesome Egyptian action and adventure as Ororo leads her fellow street urchins on the adventure of a lifetime! This is a history lesson you won't want to miss!"

* More solicit-writer having fun: "'MOJO RISING' Parts 1 & 2 (of 2). The Uncanny X-Men just can’t get a break. As the team tries to relax and deal with the return of their once-dead teammate Psylocke, guess who crashes their party? We’ll give you a hint; he’s really fat, and his name’s in the title!"

Newsarama reports on Marvel apparently quietly doing away with the lower-end of their price range:

"Today Diamond Comics Distributors has released a text version of their April 2005 Previews (Vol. XV #6) Order Form for titles shipping to the Direct Market in June, and as some eagle-eyed readers have already noticed that June apparently marks a raise in price for Marvel Comics’ lowest priced books from $2.25 to $2.50... Additionally, the Marvel Adventures books (including Marvel Adventures Spider-Man) that had previously retailed for $2.25 also had their price raised to $2.50 effective titles shipping in May 2005."

The Comics Journal message board has a thread called "Bring On The Hate: Manga". The "hate" is indeed brought, but not in the manner that you may expect:

"I'de be curious to see a brand new complaint about manga. Something other than 'the eyes are big and everyone's style looks the same.'"

"How about that it's sexually a little pathological, pedophilic and creepy?"

"I always wondered what's up with manga's fascination with tentacle sex. And schoolgirls."

"Unlike American comics, which feature a legion of bodybuilders in speedos and ammo belts, clenching their teeth and beating the shit out of each other. No weird sexual messages there, no sir! I'm sure there's plenty of shitty manga, but I've seen some amazing stuff, too. Judging all of it by a few pages of schoolgirl tentacle rape is like writing off all American comics because you flipped through an issue of Wolverine once."

"In all seriousness, the tentacle porn springs from the period when the obscenity laws in Japan restricted manga artists from showing penises. It's an ingenious substitution. Also because the Japanese are nuts. I can't believe it's 2005 and we're still on the 'manga sucks because it's all tentacle porn' track. When are you people going to upgrade to 'manga sucks because it's all high-school soap opera and icky girls read it,' already?"

Scott Tipton remembers...:

"Once upon a time, one of the major comic-book publishers decided that their trademark super-hero team series was a little stale, and needed freshening up. Rather than merely bringing in a new creative team, it was decided to deconstruct the team entirely, taking away most of what had made the concept popular for decades, and replacing it with the popular trends of that particular era. However, in order to make the new concept work, there had to be some excuse for the old team to be broken up. Accordingly, a colossal threat was cooked up, one which the team would ordinarily handle quite easily, but in this case would find itself unable to deal with, particularly with its most powerful members conveniently written out of the picture. In the face of their impotence against this closely averted catastrophe (blowing up their headquarters in the process), the team members would continue to act wildly out of character and abandon the team entirely, leaving only a few members to continue on, setting up shop in an all-new HQ and recruiting new teammates that, to be honest, don’t really fit with the series’ established concept.

"You fans of Bendis’ NEW AVENGERS series can relax and stop writing your angry e-mails, because what I’ve described above also applies to the final days of the Silver Age JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA series, in which writer Gerry Conway rather unceremoniously put an end to the classic JLA and ushered in his 'New Justice League,' more commonly referred to as 'Justice League Detroit.' Funny how history repeats itself, isn’t it? Of course, if history fully repeats itself, that means we won’t get the real Avengers back until 2016. Let’s hope things move a little faster this time around, eh?"

I loved Justice League Detroit back in the day. But then, I was 10 years old.

Troy Brownfield considers why Manga creators don't get the treatment they deserve in the western market:

"Granted, manga talent of some renown have worked for the big companies before. Kia Asamiya did projects for both Marvel and DC, and we could go on to list others. Akira ran at Epic in the late ‘80s before it was completed, giving at least some service to the notion of simultaneous runs. Still though, the inclination for the big companies is to get ahold of a prodigious talent and then . . . put them on Uncanny X-Men. While I understand that strategy, wouldn’t it be wise to capitalize on the creator’s own steam and let them either do an out-of-continuity mini-series or an original work under the company’s banner? I’m not sure what monetary or contractual issues are at play in some of these moves, but surely a couple of creators would be amenable to creating something for the American audience. Surely someone would be interested in brokering more simultaneous releases."

Orson Scott Card - Preparing the world for more shitty decompression jokes:

"In its most recently communication with retailers, Marvel has noted that writer Orson Scott Card has requested that Ultimate Iron Man be changed from one six-issue miniseries to two five issue miniseries, as his storyline has expanded during the writing process. Marvel has agreed, and all future solicitation information will now note that the ongoing Ultimate Iron Man miniseries is now five issues. There was no word as to whether or not artist Andy Kubert will continue as the artist on the second miniseries."

The world waits to see if Tony Stark will have made it through puberty by the end of the first mini-series.

Larry Young lets the world in on the Ait-PlanetLar secret formula:

"Of course we're known in the comics direct market mostly for the testosterone-laden action-adventure books we publish like Astronauts in Trouble and Last of the Independents and The Couriers, and the like, because I'm the frontman and mouthpiece for the company and I apparently favor flannel shirts and workboots and don't shave. Mimi calls those books the 'boys and noise' part of our catalogue. What you may not know, because the direct market hasn't fully developed or yet exploited this market, is that our best-selling book is Electric Girl. We have a whole section of trade paperbacks (known internally and to select retailers as 'Mimibooks') that live a life outside of the direct market and enjoy the fresh air in the Real World."

Matt Fraction and Joe Casey say "And it looks weve made it once again,
and it looks weve made it to the end":

"Well, on a monthly book, the idea is that there is no real 'finish line' to cross. You've always got to tend to the overall momentum. I've left more series for non-story reasons... switch of artists that I didn't agree with, cancellation, editorial nonsense... so, for me, the job is done when either myself or the readers have had enough. There's more fatigue concerning the state of the marketplace where those factors do influence the ability to organically end a story you start up for the purest of reasons. But to type those words, 'the end' can be a pretty heavy thing for a writer. It's like the thing you're working toward the entire time, and yet if you're enjoying the process, you never really want to get there. I expected to feel some sort of depression when I finished writing EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES, because it was such a personally heavy fanboy project. And I was absolutely right. I did feel a bit of depression, a sense of saying goodbye to old friends. But what occurs after that sense of emotional decompression... is that you realize you've cleared the deck for some new passion to emerge. Some new story begins to become a priority. When you take a step back from the cycle, it can look a bit exhausting. But, in mainstream comicbooks, that's the job..."

Mark Millar on his plans for the Ultimates:

"We've got a lot of surprises in this volume and, as you'll have seen from the first few issues, it's very content heavy and featuring a lot of twists you might not expect. I wanted to create some new guys too, like The Union we see in issue four. I was re-reading Stan and Jack's Fantastic Four run recently and was open-mouthed at how many characters they introduced in a single run and I'd love to leave the Ultimate universe even half as rich by the time we're done."

The Bendis Board - Rebirth. Bendis explains:

"so i have invited some of my collaberators, and some of your favorite artists to have thier own boards on this forum. the MOB will each have one plus some people who have never had a board before. also, i was thinking... is an invite only adults only forum something that is appealing to you guys? so you can talk amoungst yourselves without worriing about the kids in the main board? this would not be a porn thread, just the satellite radio version of the board. what do you think?"

The kids respond:

"all that stuff tickles me with delight. seriously. like, really. and i love the idea of an adult board. it makes everything easier. i just think there shouldnt be references to it on the everyone board so as to not hurt feelings."

"An Adults-Only forum would be cool SO LONG AS topics were restricted to ONLY those with content that would otherwise pbe problematic. We don't want a split board. Crazy sex stories should stay on the main page."

"I don't know myself. I really enjoy talking to several of the underage posters. I might miss their involvement in the other forum. If this 'adult' are dwelt too much on mature themes, it might not really be a place I would spend a lot of time in anway. On the other hand, a family friendly forum might be something that could help the creators grow there audiences. On those grounds, I certainly could not begrudge such a move."

"Youre all missing the point. This board already is sanitized and kiddied. Wasnt it always some unwritten rule since it was at image that it had to be relatively family friendly? Why do you guys have to crusade so hard against it? This place gets 10000 posts a week, Im sure theres room for more than one forum."

Tom Brevoort manages to talk about House of M without really saying anything:

"I thought — and think — that this story is a natural extension of what we did in Disassembled. It’s a good story that takes full advantage of the larger Marvel Universe... What we’ll see as a result of the story isn’t so much a tonal shift as a logistical shift - some of the pieces are going to be in very different places when this is all over, and that’s going to affect how all of our various heroes do business in a significant way. But rest assured - there’ll be a marked difference in the Marvel Universe in the aftermath of House of M — one that’ll propel us directly into the next year’s worth of stories, at the very least."

Oh, Brian K. Vaughan board, what has become of thee?:

"I heard this topic on Howard Stern last week, and I've been thinking about it ever since. Who would win if these two fictional characters went at it? If the 616 U. Spidey went up against Vader from The Empire Strikes back, who walks away victorious? I say Spider-sense beats force. It'd be a good fight, but barring an immediate kill, Spidey's too much for Vader. The force is no match for distance, or a huge chunk of building comin at ya'. Plus, The lightsaber is a non-issue, thanks to Spidey-Sense. And Peter Parker's a brainiac, so he'd figure out how to disable Vader's suit. It'd be a good, long, epic fight... There can be only one, however."

"My roommate and I had a lengthy, extremely (yeah look at the icon) argument over this. Yeah, spidey sense is great but the force also allows for some near future precognition, part of the excuse why lightsaber fights can be so evenly matched for relatively long durations. Obviously spidey's got the edge in almost every physical aspect but it doesn't matter how fast you throw a punch if your arm is cut off in the process and jedi like vader have pretty good reflexes as well. Most of the tricks either one pulls ala impact webbing, pellets, web to the eyes or on Vaders side force choke, lightning (not sure if he can do that, not the point), or that incredibly akward looking saberthrow thing would be little more than filler while Parker jokingly insults him while attempting to infuriate him and Vader says he is really his other uncle in an attempt to make him fall to the dark side and lose his focus. I think Spideys insulting tactics would be about as useful as they are against an enemy like Black Tarantula. But Vader has always had a classic menace about him that comes without words that would be difficult for even one as smart alecky (not sure if that is actually a word) as spiderman to brush aside. The scenery is another thing to consider. Remember when luke did that jump in cloud city and hid from Vader until he sprung out and attacked him. Well spidey could do that sooooooooo much better. But out in the open with out a lotta places to hide and attack from vader has an advantage. There is really a lot for someone with too much time on there hands to consider here but I think I give vader a slight edge."

"I'd back a jedi any day of the week against spiderman. When someone can pick up and throw you against a wall WITH HIS MIND, there isn't alot of dodging you can do."

"You guys are all nerds! Vs. topics are teh sux! Besides, we all know that the winner in this fight is Mr. T. It's always T."

(I love that BKV posts "Paging Fanboy Rampage..." It's like he understands. And, dudes. It has to be Darth Vader. I mean, come on.)

Marvel announces a new Icon title - J. Michael Straczynski's Dream Police. Why don't you tell us about it, JMS?:

"The dreamscape has been used by a lot of writers and artists over the years... and the powers that be in these places have tended to be supernatural in attitude and appearance, so I thought, wouldn’t it be fun if these guys were more like beat cops? Nothing stuns or staggers them, it’s all part of a day’s work, no matter how weird things may get."

That's right: It's Powers meets Sandman.

Meanwhile, JMS has another Icon series in the works: "Colleen Doran has just come on board as the artist for The Book of Lost Souls, my new Icon monthly from Marvel, and I'm very much looking forward to what she does with the book, which is a somewhat surreal book in some ways, and very, very different than anything I've done before in or out of comics. Dark, moody, romantic, tragic, surreal, metaphysical...it's a book very close to my heart, dealing with the intersection between hope and hopelessness, the nature of love, the threat of greater darkness, madness, destiny, death, genius, magic, and best of all it has a talking cat named Mystery. What more can you ask for?"

After what seemed like a dull May, DC have a June to be happier with. Of note:

* Geoff Johns and Allan Heinberg take over JLA: "A star-studded creative team starts a 5-issue tale that has the JLA confronting the fallout from IDENTITY CRISIS! ...Before they can discuss the actions and repercussions of the League within the League, the JLA first must battle some old foes. The Secret Society of Super Villains has returned — and somehow they have more information on the heroes' lives than ever before!" Wonder if it's got anything to do with the events of Gail Simone's Villains United?

* Ed Brubaker's final issues on Gotham Central begin: "Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka reunite to tell a tale so big it brings all the detectives of Central together. A body turns up in Gotham belonging to... Robin?"

* JLA Classified double ships, completing the Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire run.

* The bizarrely named DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy debuts: "You can't afford to miss DC SPECIAL: THE RETURN OF DONNA TROY, a spectacular 4-issue miniseries written by Phil Jimenez that unites artistic titans José García-López and George Perez for the first time and heralds the triumphant return of one of the DCU's most popular characters!" In case Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and George Perez aren't enough for the fanboys, the solicit also promises "The RETURN OF DONNA TROY is a new beginning for Donna Troy — and a stunning prologue of things to come throughout the entire DCU!" What, again?

* Darwyn Cooke takes over Solo: "Saddle up to the bar and grab a stool next to Slam Bradley, as the down-on-his-luck P.I. guides you through some of the craziest tales he's ever heard. Thrill to the adventures of King Faraday in Cuba, dig the Question's Middle Eastern math lesson, and attempt to understand a geek's growing passion for his vacuum cleaner. And Slam's stories end with a bang, as he spins a revenge yarn featuring Batman!" Like that doesn't sound like the recipe for a fun book...

* Jeph Loeb continues to make Superman/Batman the best big dumb superhero book that you wanted to read as a kid. You know why? This line: "Plus…not introducing the startling Bizarro and Batzarro!" Batzarro, my friends. Batzarro.

* Remember Chase? That title's Dan Curtis Johnson and JH Williams team up to write Legends of the Dark Knight, with the remarkable Seth Fisher on art: "J. H. Williams III, Dan Curtis Johnson (CHASE) and Seth Fisher (GREEN LANTERN: WILLWORLD) deliver the 5-part 'Snow,' telling the origin of Mr. Freeze from a new perspective! A family tragedy, coupled with the creation of an untested technological development, forges the obsession of a super-villain."

* The 2000AD reprint line comes up tops. The Ballad of Halo Jones, anyone? Or perhaps you heard my surprised squeal of delight about The Complete Indigo Prime?

* For the kids: $6.99 trades (digests? It doesn't say on DC's site) of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.

* For the adults: We3 gets traded pretty damn quick. Well, by DC standards.

* Alan Moore, Leah Moore and John Reppion bring us Albion, the revamp of old British comic characters: "Britain never had any super-heroes. It had something much stranger: a collection of paragons, monsters, and clowns that vanished a quarter century ago, never to be seen again. Who were Robot Archie and the Steel Claw? Who was Captain Hurricane, or the Spider? And where have they been for 25 years?"

* This month's gorgeous covers:

Ryan Sook's Zatanna #2:



James Jean's Green Arrow #51:



Tim Sale's Catwoman: When In Rome #6:



Darwyn Cooke's Solo #5:



Jock's The Losers #25:

CBR talk to Mark Siegel, editorial director of First Second:

"I think our approach is a little different [from existing publishers like Top Shelf and Drawn & Quarterly]. In some ways there's a little overlap and in some ways I'm really pleased for that because I believe creative competition can be a very good thing overall, basically driving the form onward in to its future. We're going to be doing most of our books, with a few exceptions, in full color. That's an important distinction. We'll be exploring color, quality color, not just your basic primary screaming colors. There are certain colorists in Europe who have pushed narrative color into some interesting places. So that's one part of it, in that they're going to look and feel a bit different. Also, thematically we're going to be opening up avenues that you don't necessarily find elsewhere. We're also going to be building bridges with other fields and disciplines very deliberately. Playwrights, novelists, historians and journalists. It is a gamble and I'm trying to stack the odds in our favor by teaming some of those people with some very seasoned artists who know graphic novels and understand the form and its possibilities."

A retailer considers what Marvel's move into 7-11s may mean for the content of Marvel's books:

"What if the continued story format is unworkable [for casual readers]? What would it take to get back to the format used years ago? This beckons to one of my favorite rants about what the REAL cost of a comic is nowadays. To wit: In the past, you would spend well, let's use the mid-seventies price just for devil's advocacy, say 25 cents for your average comic. Today, that same average book is about US$2.25. So that's 9 times greater over 30 years. But, in that 1970s comic there was a pretty good chance that you'd get a full story with a discernable start and finish. Today you get a small chapter of that same story drawn out over four to eight issues. Granted there are huge differences in artwork, production values, blah, blah blah. Fine, I get it. But if you think about it and use the four-issue model, that's really 36 times the cost of that same story in the mid 70s! Using the rule of 72, it's easy to see that this represents a rate of about 12.5% annually compounded over ther last 30years. Not a bad rate of return if you could get it! The eight-issue model represents more than a 25% annual compounded cost for that same comic's contents! The point of all this? The publishers would have to do some very heavy editing to cram that story back into the original one book self-contained format of 30 years ago. Could it be done? Sure, but it would require that writers and artists re-align themselves to producing books with much more "meat" in a very small package. Perhaps this is a very interesting premise... more content for less dollars... hmmmm..."

Larry Young responds to critics. Not necessarily critics of his work, per se, but more critics in general:

"But, seriously, commentators, isn't that whole line you toss to creators (who try to interact with you as an audience member) of 'creators should just grow thicker skins' as silly as the creator line (thrown back at commentators) of 'just try to produce a comic book and then we'll listen to you about what you think of our comics!'? I mean, really? Does context mean nothing? Yes, if a genetics professor tells me 'Emancipating Lincoln' from Proof of Concept is implausible because you can't get clonable DNA from Abe's blood-soaked shirt in the museum under Ford's Theatre, well, yeah, maybe that's an interesting exchange to have. But if some college sophomore half this writer's age says that you can't have a society of Lincoln clones in the future because some Star Trek: The Next Generation episode said you can't clone a clone without introducing disastrous results in the resulting organisms... well. You can see how creators maybe would tend to look at context a little closer than commentators, just on a sanity-preserving level alone."

With Rich Johnston off becoming a father (Congratulations, Rich), the role of comics' premier rumourmeister falls to Blair Marnell at All The Rage:

"With no less than four comic boards getting hacked this week, the first question that comes to mind is 'who did this?' And we may have our first ID. The GutterZombie mods have reported that their site was attacked by Russian hackers who call themselves 'Net Soldiers' and hang out at this site. Apparently, they put their name all over everything at GZ. It’s not clear if they are also responsible for the other comic board attacks, but with all four coming so close together, it can’t be a coincidence. So the next question is why? Why would Russian hackers even care about American comic sites? It doesn’t make any damn sense..."

Brian K. Vaughan is feeling nervous about his message board in light of recent developments:

"[Is the b]oard acting wonky for anyone else? Uh-oh, will the Cabal be the next to fall the mysterious Comic-site Saboteur...?"

"A little, but I wouldn't hit the panic button until you see a bunch of gay porn posted. That was the beginning of the end of the Bendis board..."

"What is going on here? Why is the site acting all weird? Is this the end of everything, say it isn't so. Has the government finally decided to shut us down, well I won't go without a fight whos with me , I say REVOLUTION."

"Fuck! Someone is after the boards. This cannot be simply a coincidence."

Ross Richie, the man who inspired Stan Lee, talks up Boom! Studios at CBR:

"I'm not interested in playing the market share game. I don't mind starting out small. I just want to do great books with creators I enjoy and give them a venue to cut loose. And market the hell out of it so that the audience knows it's there. A little piece of turf where the creators find their voice and flourish. If I'm doing it right, it'll grow."

The Law vs. Marvel vs. City of Heroes, part 1:

"In a ruling Wednesday, a US District Court judge dismissed several key claims brought by Marvel, and limited the scope of the suit, and the damages Marvel was seeking against NC Soft and Cryptic Studios, makers of the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG), City of Heroes... [A]ccording to the defendants, the exhibits used by Marvel to show how easily characters could be created that were similar to Marvel characters were in fact, created by Marvel or its legal team, not characters that actually existed within the game. As the judge agreed, this is an important point, as everyone and their MMORPG-playing mother, since the suit was announced, has tried to create characters that were similar to Marvel characters to see if there was ay weight in the comic company’s argument."

Much more in the article at Newsarama.

Sean Maher offers up possibly the first poetry-based comics giveaway in the entire blogathon, with the well-worth-reading 1000 Steps to World Domination as the prize that you are to race for, as Wayne Coyne would have us believe. But don't take my word for it, take Sean's:

"Really, while [1000 Steps creator Rob] Osborne is beating the drum here for his plan to take over the world through comics, I think this stuff could be inspiring and funny to anyone. The fundamental lesson isn’t a particularly new one ('Bust your ass to succeed at all times and you will be an exceptional person,' basically) but the delivery is clever and compelling, with a unique sense of humor that’ll charm your pants off and an account of the challenges Osborne’s fought along the way that takes itself just seriously enough."

It's poetry! For comics! It's what all the cool kids will be doing six months from now... today!

Neil Kleid talks branding:

"Characterization is branding. Branding is characterization. For every Tom, Dick or Harry in a work of literature there are specific sets of emotions, motivations and arcs. 'Vito Corleone' is a brand. 'Julius Caesar' is a brand. 'Jimmy Olsen' is a brand. Genre is easy – everyone wants to tell a cowboy story. Everyone wants to write a mob drama. The challenge – the fucking KEY- is taking the genre you choose to work in, whether superhero, sci-fi, horror, romance or porn and making it your own. Making it uniquely YOUR OWN. And the best tool to help make your story uniquely your own is your character. Is your character your brand? If the consumer has heard of your character, have you done your job? If the consumer IDENTIFIES with your character, have you done your job? I've been known to be wrong before but my hypothesis is yes, your character is a brand. Even if your character is you."

Larry Young and Maureen McTigue offer their own thoughts. Maureen:

"My advice to any writer is always, just write. Don’t concern yourself with the big picture, with the little details, just write. Write the story you want to tell, give birth to the characters you want to create. And if people read it and go back to it and find themselves attached to the people in your story, then you’ve done your job, you wrote a good story. But is it a brand? No. It’s a good story. If you get more out of it, if you can move on to the second book, or the sequel, or some merchandising, yes, then you’ve created a brand. First and foremost, though, just create. Tell your stories, build your worlds. Branding comes later. Stop worrying about it."

I know that all of you are hooked on Funky Winkerbean with the whole "John is arrested for selling adult comics" storyline... but did you know that said storyline was going to have a shocking guest star? Take it away, John Byrne:

"This is the trial Tom is going to have me testify at, I think. He hasn't shown me what he has me saying -- he says it's 'satire'. Uh oh!"

The Brian Vaughan board finds itself the place where displaced Bendis Boarders congregate:

"Is the Bendis Board dead? It was a fucking freakshow and now its not working at all."

"All I know was, a little after 5 PM est, really weird shit start going on with the board--PM's weren't working, then they were showing 5400% capacity, then posts per page were decreasing, then posts were disappearing, as were sigs/emoticons/avatars/pics/etc. On Image Central, someone posted really, truly disgusting old man gay porn. On the Bendis board, we were just making funny posts about who was responsible, what our last words were, etc. I figure it was hacked, and will be back within 24 hours."

"I hear you people are all civilized and not-insane here. I'm not sure that will work for me. Quick, someone do a parody thread, or talk about taint punching."

"I already had a thread deleted...this place is worse than Millarworld ..okay..that's an exaggeration"

Tokyopop announces a 160-page freebie promo magazine. Newsarama posters concentrate on the important things:

"One thing that bugs the hell out of me about most manga collections is the crappy typefaces they use. That's comic sans in that promo art -- it's a frickin' Microsoft font pre-installed on every stupid computer in the world. They sell enough comics -- buy a real @#$% font already!"

Titan Books collects rare British comics from before my time. The press release announces:

"Titan Books has joined forces with IPC Media to rescue and restore classic British comics characters The Spider and The Steel Claw, rare strips that have lain dormant in the vaults of IPC for more than thirty years. Titan’s classic comics line will finally introduce these long lost IPC comics characters to an all-new generation of fans... These new editions of The Spider and The Steel Claw will feature exclusive background information, fully restored artwork, and beautiful hand-painted covers by Gary Leach and Brian Bolland, respectively."

Oddly enough, the press release doesn't announce that these will be coming out in time to cash in on Avalon, the Alan Moore-plotted DC series that resurrects said characters.

On the one hand, it's a terrible thing. On the other, the last line makes me laugh:

"Art 'Gerry' Roberts is on a quest to bring justice to the villain who took his comics... 'He took all of my Marvel Team-Up issues, 1 through 250," the pained collector said. "And all the annuals.'"

(Thanks, Mike.)

Isotope Regular Sean Maher starts off his new blog by asking for trouble:

"I am always, always on the look out for some great new comics to read. And I'll give you my word right now - if you can give me a pitch for why I should be reading your favorite book, I will check it out. I will buy at least one issue. If I dig it, I'll write about it here on The Zealot's Lore. That's a solid gold promise. Try me. And try to really explain the book's appeal; think about why you love it, and tell me. I don't want you to write me a book, but 'You should buy Superman 'cause it rules' is not quite enough. Give me one concrete reason, and I'm sold. You'll not only have pimped out at least one copy of your favorite title, but I might just give it some free publicity as a result. What've you got to lose?"

It would be evil of me to tell people to take advantage of Sean's openness and solid gold promise, but still. Go on.

It's back:

"Millarworld is back up and you'll notice a few changes. First up, the forums have been streamlined and rearranged at Mark Millar's request. I'm sure you will still be able to find your favorite sections. Secondly, due to server loads we've decided to cut Private Message boxes from the 'member' group. People whom donate/subscribe or otherwise contribute to Millarworld will retain their privilages [...] Third, we've changed the donation/subcription to a lower price and some added benefits. So not only will you be support Millarworld's server costs, you'll get some perks as well. The downside here is you must have access to a Paypal account. Finally it's good to be on a new server after being down for a while."

Robert Kirkman on the Invincible movie:

"There will certainly be tweaks here and there. Nothing I’d really want to go into too much detail about. There will be much less superheroes in this movie than in the comic. The focus will be more firmly on Mark/Invincible and his father Nolan/Omni-Man. There won’t be any of the side characters featured in the comics... It’s going to be a large section of the series, with stuff cut out and what’s left will be streamlined and expanded upon. I’m really excited to be doing this. I get to really explore some things I glossed over in the series and cut out stuff I didn’t like or thought could play out better. Anyone who’s read the series isn’t going to be sitting there saying 'I know what’s going to happen next' if this thing gets made. There’s some more twists and turns added in."

The Sci-Fi Channel announces that it will premiere the Man-Thing adaptation. The Comics Journal board seizes the opportunity for humour:

"it went direct to cable? ha! maybe it will start a trend of swamp monster movies on cable. i can see it now... 'Showtime & EROS present: Anton Drek's Swamp Pud!' (think about it kim thompson. you could become the avi arad of alternative comics.)"

"Man-Thing needs an extremely verbose narrator to drone on incessantly, describing everything that happens onscreen and what each character is thinking all through the show. Someone Rod Serling-esque... or maybe Patrick Stewart. Because if there is no one to say 'Whatever knows fear BURNS at the Man-Thing's touch' as the fake-looking CGI figures burst into flame... well, what's the point?"

"it does looks like the execs at Scifi have a new programming idea: 'i know, let's do a series of man-whatever flicks!' witness the horror that is MANSQUITO!"

The Bendis Board makes fun of Bendis's dialogue. The world may end:

"He Writes Like How Idiots Talk. In Chicago Last Year At A Panel. He Said That He Writes How People Talk, Like That Makes It Good. That Is The Most Pain In The Ass Dialogue To Read."

"Um...well, you know I think...I think that...I think he does a pretty good, you know, a real good job of writing dialogue."

"The problem is, he's got how SOME people talk down to a science. I think he needs to mix his dialogue style up more for, you know, some extra flavor."

"I dig it. The dialogue. Like what he does, with... um, you know, that thing. The thing he does? You know. The thing."

"I was thinking--I was--and i dunno if he--I mean he relly does a ecent job of it, but it's not like he--I mean he can't actually write the wy people fucking talk or else he'd be fucking--you know--um, cursing and shit every other--you know--w--w--word."

"if i had to talk to such people, i'd slap them silly!"

ADD gets James Kochalka to answer 5 Questions about Superf*ckers. Or, as I call it, that book I was excited about until I saw the price point:

"Well, SuperF*ckers is not the name of the superhero team. It's actually just the name of the comic book. The superhero team remains unnamed in the book itself. Basically, it's a bunch of 19-year-old superheroes living in a big clubhouse together, playing video games, trying to think up new ways to get high, holding tryouts to recruit new members, teasing each other, trying to spy on each other naked, worrying about who's gay and who's not, and converting to Christianity. SuperDan, their leader, and Percy, his sidekick and trapped in Dimension Zero, and I guess things have started to deteriorate while he was away. Every character has a complicated back story, but I don't really reveal any of that. The story starts on issue #271. As of this date, I'm just about to finish drawing the second issue (it skips ahead to #274). I have one page to go."

Good lord, Blogger might be working again. I should take advantage of it by pointing out that Steve Englehart is still working on his low self-esteem issues, as his latest Comic Book Resources interview shows:

"I figured we needed a brand name for [the classic Englehart/Rodgers Detective run from the 70s...] Everybody calls it 'The Englehart-Rogers Detective' or they call it sometimes 'The Definitive Detective.' I was talking to Peter Sanderson who said, 'They should just put 'The Definitive Batman' on it.' And I said, 'Oh yeah, DC's going to do that.' I later ran that past Joey Cavalieri who laughed quite hardily."

"Are these words from the future?" ask Larry Young and Brian Hibbs. The future apparently involves Larry, an all-female, all-miniskirted space crew, cocktails, and death on Mars. How many times have we heard that old story?

The Bendis Board: Back at full strength:

"Who would you rather watch fuck? Scott and Jean? Scott and Emma? 'Emma and Jean' is NOT allowed! Obviously, we'd all prefer to see them together, but that's not what I'm asking."

"Booooo-urns!"

"Emma Frost is a bad girl. I like bad girls."

"Don't you lonely fanboys have anything better to do? You're merely reinforcing the public's perception of us as nothing more than geeks obsessed with drawings of women with big breasts. SHAME ON YOU ALL! Ok now that that's out of the way, I'd watch Scott and Emma [...] Although, I'm sure Scott and Jean got pretty hot and heavy in the early years and I certainly wouldn't mind watching.......... uh......maybe I've said too much"

"You actually think Jean's the kind of girl that gives guilt-free blow jobs while she's on the rag? I don't think so. Meanwhile, I bet Emma offers them up for breakfast and lunch."

"With threads like this I can't believe that this Borad has a bad rep out in the ether of the internet. High minded discourse like reminds me of the great discussions that went on in Athens between Socrates and Plato. With that said I gotta go with Jean and Scott, redheads are much hotter."

"This Is The Best Borad Around Numbnuts."

Ed Cunard: All should bow before him. The entire post is dead on, but even if you don't agree with him, you have to acknowledge the sheer fucking brilliance of his idea store.

Thank you, John Byrne, for this:

"Are Bloggers Journalists? This question was being posed on MSNBC as I was having lunch at my favorite eatery. First thing that flashed into my mind was 'Are transvestites women?'"

Sadly, there then follows a sensible discussion that doesn't reflect the sensational intention of Mr. Byrne's original post. Luckily, Byrne returns with one more fun generalisation to try and prod the discussion in the right direction:

"It occurs to me, having posed the question, that there is one rather simple test of whether or not 'bloggers' qualify as journalists, and since I know next to nothing about the mechanics of 'blogging' I now pose that test in the form of 3 questions: Does the 'blogger' have to submit his material to an editor or any other such control before it is posted to the internet? Or is 'blogging' as uncontrolled as posting to a message board? In other words, does it take anything more than being able to press an 'Enter' key to become a 'blogger'? If the answers are No, Yes, and No respectively, then I would say Bloggers are not Journalists any more than are people who send out Xmas letters every year."

DC releases previews of the two variant covers for Jim Lee's last Superman issue. Warning: They're not as nice as Maleev's Daredevil covers.

Alex Maleev offers up previews for the fourth and fifth parts of the Decalogue story arc in Daredevil. Warning: They're nice.

Newsarama posters discuss the oft-asked question - "Newsarama: Bad for comics?":

"We are vile ungrateful bastards! How DARE we complain about Hawkeye's death? Or Liefeld's art?!? Or the Azz/Lee run on Superman?! We should buy everything produced by Marvel/DC/Image/etc. WITHOUT uttering a single word! EVER! Seriously, I think sites like this help. Newsarama has opened me up to books I would never have looked at (Walking Dead, Flash, etc.). So, Newsarama is good in the sense that it opens you up to things you may have over looked. You get honest opinions. And if an anti-fan pops up to bash a book, people here will speak up and defend their favorite read. Or, if you get a uber fan who hypes up a crappy book, we'll speak up on that as well."

"Wells... as much as I love this place (and as much as Benis complains ) I don't think this message board has that much of an influence... regardless of what a or b may say about a or b book, people will always buy what they feel like buying (if not, ask John Byrne or Chuck Austen's fans...) I say this place is actually good."

"I think it's bad because between the black tar heroin selling and white slavery peddling going on here, there's no green left over for people to buy the 4-colour funnies."

Lee Barnett wants to see some comic cover versions:

"I think that it would be fascinating to see how a plot from yesteryear would be interpreted by today's creators. Both the demands of today's readership for more involved stories and the consequent requirement to give ever deeper and greater thought to the motivations and behaviour of characters would combine to create a genuinely different creative process than that which existed when the story was first published. I'd be lying though if I said I didn't have some qualms as to whether this would actually work. I do wonder how deep and involved the plots were in the Golden and Silver Ages. The strong, some might say restrictive, demands of rigid intra-company continuity is a relatively recent concept, and way back when, a writer didn't have to concern themselves on the characters' other recent appearances."

Joe Casey and Matt Fraction talk art:

"I do think the purely visual cues in comicbooks are probably the most elusive elements of the art form. At the same time, they're also the most instinctual for the really good artists out there. Some guys are naturalists... Steve Dillon, Sean Phillips, Charlie Adlard, Dave Gibbons. Some guys are cartoonists... Eisner, Darwyn Cooke, Paul Pope, Paul Grist. Some guys are expressionists... Kirby, Jack Cole, Ditko, Gene Colan. Others are realists... Hitch, Cassaday, Steve Epting, Michael Lark. In each of these areas, the 'automatic thinking' that seems to go on never ceases to amaze me. To read a story without reading the words... I dunno, there's something magical about that skill. It's definitely an area of the medium where I'm a guy standing on the outside, looking in (as most pure writers undoubtedly are)."

A retailer wonders whether the direct market is letting the industry forget about it:

"Two million Marvel comics were sent to 6,000 schools for free to be given to kids. What a fantastic promotion. Get those kids some comic books. I don't know how the numbers compare to Free Comic Book Day, but I feel like this promotion has done what FCBD wants to do--deliver comic books straight to the demographic. Kids! Again, a large mass merchant (Target) was chosen to partner with Marvel. I have seen this book and it says, "Check out a big selection of comics, including titles available exclusively at Target." Now Target ponied up the money for this book, I'm sure. Krypton Comics doesn't have the kind of money Target has. Combined, could the direct market stores have paid for this book to get sent to kids? Maybe. One of the largest comic book promotions in recent memory and Target takes the customers. Or should I see it as Target creating new customers for me in later years after the kids become hooked? The problem I have, is while future customers are great, the direct market needs new customers NOW!! Target doesn't need comic book customers, hobby stores do."

The Shuster Award nominees are announced:

"Canadians can vote for their favourite Comic Book writer, artist, cartoonist (writer/artist), publisher and/or achievement starting Wednesday, March 2nd. Nominees were selected by the Shuster Awards Nominating Committee, which consisted of five individuals from across Canada. Results will be announced and awards will be presented at a special ceremony starting at 4:30 PM on April 30, 2005, at the Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon, which will be held at the National Trade Centre, Exhibition Place, in Toronto, Canada. Plans call for future ceremonies to be held at other major comic conventions across Canada. From coast to coast, Canada is home to many of the comic book industry's top talents. The SHUSTERs are a way of recognizing and celebrating the achievements of Canadian creators - past, present and future."

This just in - Newsarama is addictive:

"Help i am getting addicted to posting please help how addicted are you."

"There's only one known cure. Get and hammer and bang it against your head. 5 times. Hard. Very hard."

"Please, you've only posted 85 times. When you post 85 times in one morning THEN you've got a problem."

"God, once I posted a 120 times in one day. Never will again will Newsarama trap me for hours. ~Must post more~"

"Its good isn't is, i want to get 2000 posts"

Finally driven batshit insane by being asked the same question all the time, Brian K. Vaughan asks his board members "Where do you get your ideas?" not realising where the thread will end up:

"Reviewers seem to assume I get my ideas from illicit drugs."

"Hey, Grant Morrison has made a career out of it. Yes I know that he says otherwise but it's not funny if I have to say 'According to most people's misconceptions of Grant Morrison he has also gotten all of his ideas from illicit drugs!'"

"Grant Morrison was abducted by aliens after a week long drug binge. If you want ideas, get abducted by aliens. It seems to work."

"Actually Grant HAS admitted to getting his ideas from Drugs. I think he said thats where he got the idea for the Filth, Animal Man, Doom Patrol,The Invisibles. Plus he said he also got it from him being a Wiccan. Though I Now I think he said he gets them from nature, and stuff."

"Grant is actually a Choas Magician, something i'm working hard at becoming."

"If I've learned anything from comics, it's that chaos magic doesn't exist."

"Read this post again, knowing what you now know about Wanda."

Spider-Man - A killer? The Bendis Board investigates this shocking accusation:

"Has anyone ever read the old Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5?? It's the one where Spidey uncovers the secrets of his parents. Anyway, in this issue, Spidey is swinging down the streets in Algeria, and some dude fires a missile from his car at Spider-Man. Now, instead of just dodging the sucker, he JUMPS IN FRONT OF THE DUDE'S CAR, forcing the rocket to SMASH INTO THE GUYS CAR...and the impact of the explosion eventually KILLS HIM. Spidey DELIBERATLY makes the missile explode this dudes car. needless to say, i just read this today and am extremely disolusioned!! nah, not really, but that's seriously messed up."

"Spider-Man has murdered again also apparent in the Spider/Wolverine one-shot in the 80's. He accidentally killed someone sneaking up on him thinking it was Wolverine."

"Yeah...Pete seems to only care about life when he's in the U.S. Once he crosses the boarder he smashes people of other cultures like the cockroaches they are (his words). Apparently Uncle Ben's xenophobia and racism speeches are the only other things that stuck with Pete after the power and responsibility rant."

"Spider-Man's killed on another occasion, too. He went to some other planet in a Marvel Team-Up (I think it was an issue with Starfox in the 130's or so), and he threw some alient tyrant off a cliff and killed him. Didn't seem to care much either. The prick..."

"I've always thought the 'no killing ever' rule didn't make much sense. Heroes shouldn't go around with shotguns like the Punisher and blow up anyone who looks at them crosseyed, but I think if I was a hero, I would abide by the rules that cops do. If you're a threat to my life, or to other people's lives, and there's no other way to stop you, you're leaving in a body bag."

Tom Brevoort on J. Michael Straczynski taking over the writing duties on Fantastic Four:

"JMS has written more well-received comic books than most, including an outstanding run on Amazing Spider-Man that even the folks who didn't really care for it had to admit was well-constructed and well-presented. Same goes for Supreme Power, and Rising Stars, and so forth--not to mention Babylon 5, widely considered among the two or three best shows ever in its genre. And yet, JMS writes one story that people don't like, and suddenly he's some sort of crazy risk, a talentless hack, a guy people feel no confidence in, a guy that people with not even a fraction of his talent feel comfortable slamming, as though this is somehow clever and they're the first person to think of it. I expect JMS to bring his strong humanitarian vision of speculative futurism to his run on FF, along with all the hallmarks of his writing that have been in evidence for the last two decades. And sure, Sins Past wasn't to my tastes especially, but no writer ever produces nothing but hits--even the giants of our industry have done books that do nothing for me. This isn't science. It's art, it's entertainment, it's alchemy. There's not a specific recipe for a successful comic book, and nobody's ever going to bat 1000."

The last Lying In The Gutters for awhile. It'll be missed.

The Columbia Journalism Review looks at the role comics can play in journalism:

"[C]ode-switching, the ability to alternate between the realistic and the symbolic, is a major strength of comics journalism. It is also one reason why editors are likely to shy away from it — or, as with the recent newspaper strips, to relegate comics journalism to cultural coverage and human-interest stories. When it comes to the front page, newspapers favor plain language, in part to protect the readers from the seductions of rhetoric, of art. And comics are irreducibly artistic. But such reasoning also cuts the other way. The hard-nosed, facts-are-facts tone of 'journalistic language' is also seductive. Plain-speaking is itself a kind of rhetoric, which wins trust precisely by seeming to leave rhetoric aside... In comics journalism, more so perhaps than in any other medium, the reporter’s role is consistently emphasized. He is often present, not merely as a voice or a talking head, but as a moral viewpoint and as a participant in the events described. 'You become part of a story if you’re a journalist,' [Joe] Sacco says. 'I mean, you can try to write yourself out of it, but you become involved. I think it’s more honest to show that your involvement affects people.' As the reporter comes into focus, we see that he is not a neutral conduit for news and information, but a person like ourselves — a fallible human being, vulnerable to bias and ignorance and error. By acknowledging his own humanity, the writer can encourage the reader to think critically about what he or she reads. Comics are well suited to that role because of the inherent narrative properties of the medium. They are not merely illustrated stories, or pictures matched with commentary. Instead, the narrative relies on both the words and the pictures; meaning is produced by the interaction of image and text. Yet each element remains to some degree independent of the other. For this reason, and because several sets of text-image blocks can appear side by side on the same page, comics are well suited to represent the fragmentation of experience during crisis, or the incommensurable views of opposing sides in the midst of conflict, or the kaleidoscopic chaos of a desert carnival like Burning Man."

Not content with giving the world Dom DeLuise and Burt Reynolds voicing animated action figures of themselves, Seth Green comes to comics:

"Hugh [Sterbakov, co-writer of the new Top Cow title The Freshmen] and I thought it would make a really cool movie, in the vein of X-Men or Superman - a 'grounded in reality, comedic college environment/kids get superpowers' kind of story... [We plan to] take the comic world by storm, single handedly revitalizing the comic as an entertainment medium and totally ****ing up all the kids who read it... for life."

Wait, would that be an exclusive 11-page preview of Filler, the new graphic novel from the creators of Teenagers From Mars, up at the Isotope blog? Why, I think it is.

For those who feel that the publisher of said upcoming graphic novel needs some love as well, Logan Polk provides it here.

I know what you're thinking: What does John Byrne think of the Siegel/Warner lawsuits? Well, let's ask him:

"Siegel and Shuster did not get a 'bad deal'. They got the standard deal, and they got it for a character that had been rejected by every syndicate in the country (and one in Canada). DC -- more correctly National Periodicals -- was not some fiendish evil corporation ripping off a couple of poor Ohio farm boys. They made an offer which S&S were completely free to decline (Superman had been languishing in a drawer for about 4 years at that point, and S&S both had regular gigs at National already), and having bought the character National showed no indication of having any idea what it was they were about to unleash... The situation is not unlike if I were to turn my house into a luxury hotel, making a fortune, and then one day wake up to find the heirs of the original builder camped on my doorstep demanding their 'fair share'. Perhaps one of the most important things to keep in mind, in this case, is that Siegel and Shuster did, indeed, make a fortune of Superman, by doing the newspaper strip for many years, but they unfortunately chose to fritter away that money on pointless lawsuits. The current claim is possible only because the Law has changed -- a change which, as I have noted before, I am sure would be considered unconstitutional were it a criminal and not a civil case."

Brian Michael Bendis performs public service selling duty:

"BUY RUNAWAYS GOD DAMN IT!!! the new first issue is so good, just packed with ideas and winks and nods and great coloring. we need to live in a world where this is a top twenty book. if you love marvel comics you have to buy this. its a great marvel comic. even though he beat me to the punch on the support group bit, mines coming in DD, but that's what i get for leaving UXM such a mess for him. should the new avengers come to LA and pay them a visit?"

The Bendis Board respond:

"Please, no. I am glad the book is doing well, but I am just not a fan of runaways."

"Also, [a New Avengers crossover] Would Be Stupid."

"It could happen IN Runaways, then you wouldn't have to read it..."

"Tell it to the guy who doesn't buy 60 books a month. If Runaways wasn't in my top 60 books to read each month, I would have to turn in my comic fans' badge. And hell, yeah, the New Avengers need to pay a visit. But what I REALLY want to see is Runaways vs. Young Avengers! The all-guy team vs. the all-girl team! Asgardian needs to hit on Nico and get bitch-slapped across a room by Karolina. And then Hulkling needs to fight Old Lace!"

Matt Craig writes, amongst other things, about the comics and their journey into the bookstores:

"The trouble is, my local chain bookstore is crap. Every week, it's the same thing: straight in the door, straight to the graphic novels, and straight out again. They stock a few of the usual suspects - Satrapi, Spiegelman, Bart Simpson - but that's about it. On one hand, it's a good thing: I don't go over my weekly comics budget. On the other, it sets me up for regular disappointment. And worse, in a broader sense, it means that the people of my small West Midlands town aren't exposed to the sorts of comics that the high-fallutin' people of Leicester and Nottingham enjoy. (Look at them there, lording it over us with their SWAMP THING trades and their copy of EGG STORY.)"

Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's Mr. Punch gets adapted into a BBC 3 radio play, for your listening enjoyment.

The Guardian starts a week of Robert Crumb articles with a profile of the man himself:

"Crumb has chronicled our basest desires for 40 years. He is the professorial pervert, the shameless monster who let it all hang out in his cartoons. He lusted after women with big butts and big muscles; he showed his wise old Mr Natural, a man desperate for spiritual transcendence but thwarted by physical desire, having sex with overgrown babies; he drew cartoons about incest in model nuclear families - 'The Family That Lays Together Stays Together'; he fantasised about sex with headless women; he portrayed a black woman, Angelfood McSpade, the incarnation of pure lust, as the ultimate jigaboo jungle bunny. He took LSD and pot, and celebrated the excesses of his imagination. But he did more than that. What made his cartoons so powerful was their ambivalence - while embracing his fantasies, they also reflected a disgust and fear of what he exposed about himself."

Newsarama looks at Marvel's 2004 Q4 numbers:

"Overall, the Q4 numbers more than doubled compared to 2003. According to the company, its net income rose to $30.1 million, or 27 cents per share, from $13.5 million, or 12 cents per share, a year ago. Sales grew to $100.5 million from $85.7 million last year. Analysts were expecting sales of $86.8 million ($0.16 a share) in Q4 2004. Publishing was up 16% compared to Q4 2003."

Tom Spurgeon writes about the Siegel/Warner cases:

"Not only are the specific legal issues in these suits fairly complex, the broader ramifications the case might have on the comics industry are difficult to project. These are massively profitable and extremely well known characters, for sure, no one questions that. Even the possibility that a percentage of ownership might change hands, or there might be a payout in exchange for any claim to these rights, is a pop culture Atom Bomb. And yet, somehow, I don't feel the possibility of a lot of fallout. The more I think about it, the more I believe the culture of comics is at this moment better insulated against the shockwave of ideas and moral re-positioning that would have been felt more greatly were these motions to be filed in a previous decade. As significant as this case might be, I wonder if any outcome could change the general status quo of American comics when it comes to issues of creative ownership and reward. Most of us, if not all of us, seem to be at least a little bit okay with how things are, how things are run. We say so with our dollars, our choice of employment, and our silence.

"Should we be okay? One of the things hard to stomach about American comics is its occasional presumption of moral superiority due to the type of material it publishes. Yes, this is true of smaller companies, who often presume their relative artistic excellence gives them license to cut corners. But with the big companies there's an even bigger disconnect between the values espoused in its work and the way people are abused by their actions or lack thereof. It's one thing to value fair play, but quite another thing to be dragged kicking and screaming into enforcing it in your contracts and conduct, over the course of decades. The record for the treatment of comics creators is frequently depressing, extends back through the history of the medium, and is too long to get into here in any great detail. Suffice to say, if comic books were a comic book, it's pretty clear who the heroes and the villains would be for the majority of the title's run."

Newsarama continues looking at the Siegel-DC lawsuits:

"As mentioned yesterday, Joanne Siegel and Laura Siegel Larson, widow and daughter of the late Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel filed a complaint in US District Court against DC Comics, Time Warner, Warner Brothers Entertainment, and Warner Brothers Television in regards to the rights to Superboy... Of course, it is interesting to note that DC’s current Superboy has nothing at all to do with Siegel’s original ideas, that is, Conner Kent, a member of the Teen Titans, is not 'Superman as a boy.' Rather than rocketing to space, the present-day Superboy was created in a test tube, by blending the DNA of Superman and Lex Luthor. It’s interesting, but of relatively little importance to this matter, as the Conner Kent character was created in 1993 as part of the “Death of Superman” event storyline, nine years prior to the filing of the Notices of Termination by the Siegels, and four years prior to the filing of the Termination on Superman. Although, it is fodder for conspiracy theorists – did DC see this coming down the road as early as 1992-93, and opted to kill the character and create new versions rather than continue to use a character it might (as early as 1999) only own half the copyright to? Probably not – though Superboy is a new creation, the Superman that came out of the other side of the Death of Superman was the same one that went in the front."

The John Byrne board respond to news of Marvel's plans to return to 7-11s:

"Not long before Marvel comes back to JB, hat in hand."

"Joe, truer words could not be said. Now whether JB would be interested is another thing altogether. He does have a rather full slate currently. Still creators like Mr. Byrne will be an absolute necessity if M***** is even remotely serious about doing this. Have to have pros than can produce 'timely' work on the newstands after all. That means recruiting creators with an actual work ethic."

"Go one further...professionals that can produce TIMELY work AND can write in such a way as that ANYBODY can pick up and issue and not be LOST or have to have read the previous 385 issues in order to 'get' it."

"I don't want JB back at Marvel. I want him doing Doom Patrol and the Demon."

Byrne responds to that last comment:

"[Doing Doom Patrol and the Demon] is a whole lot like being back at MARVEL anyway!"

Are comics too cool? The Brian K. Vaughan board investigates:

"I've read comic books since I could, well, read. As long as I remember they've been there for me, and what I love about comic book people in general is that there is no sort of like, 'Trendy cool competition.' With good music you see that a lot, you here the, 'Oh no, it's mainstream, now everyone likes it' bullshit - the language of tools... But all of a sudden, I'm feeling overwhelmed. Everyone is 'into' comics, but they don't appreciate the medium you know? It's like they are just into them to sound cool and edgy. When did this happen? Is it ever going to end? Will it blow over? I've spent a good part of my life NOT being trendy - and now, I feel like I'm drowning in cool."

"I could care less. As long as the comic writers and artists I like still publish the titles I enjoy, why get into a fit about who else is 'into comics'? Its just a waste of mental energy and stress."

"I say this same thing when people complain that a band 'got trendy'. Get over it. It doesn't matter. More people are doing what you're doing. Unless you were doing it to be different, than where is the problem? If nothing else, this means there are more people being turned on to comics, which means more sales, which means more people likely to purchase those underdog titles we all love so much. That means less good titles cancelled at issue 7 or some crap like that. I, for one, am all for comic book trendification."

"[D]ude, comics are trendy now? When I get together with a large group of people, me and 2 other fanboys get snickers and rolled eyes from the others. Comics isn't trendy round here. I kind of envy you. It'd be nice to have more people to talk comics and swap trades with."

The Bendis Board commemorates the passing of Millarworld with a thread devoted to... well, strange infighting, really. Here are some out-of-context (not that they seem much better in context, mind you) examples of the witty comebacks that happen when Bendis boarders and Millarworldians clash!:

"You are such a tool. I mean seriously. You come here with your act and then when people call you on it you tell them they are taking it too seriously. As if your nonchalant attitude makes it seem like you don't."

"It is time to clock back in anyway ladies. Enjoy the rest of your drama in a nice soft reclining chair."

"[J]ust keep telling yourself that as you embarrass yourself by coming to this forum to act like an ass, instead of coming here to talk comics. 8 posts all dedicated to sucking on Millar's nipple? That's just sad."

"Get over yourself. The way you showed proof was in a very condescending tone, just as every post from you has been, but I don't think that surprises anybody who know how you all act over there. Delusions of grandeur , for sure. I'd love to keep talking to you, but I'm not going to. I've got real life concerns to deal with, so have fun."

The internet: One big happy family.

Warren Ellis's Streaming - while apparently missing some text this week, unless a sentence really starts "in several years, because" - is worth checking out, if only for his thoughts on the spread of the comics internet:

"Comics coverage and discussion on the net is impossibly fractured now, and the big boards that are left are pretty relentlessly comics-mainstream in intent. Larry Young once said to me that there was a time where, to hit everybody and talk to everyone he wanted to talk to, he only had to hit my forum. Now he has to go to twenty places. Of course, that's partly also because of the continuing growth of the net. 2500 unique visitors a day used to hit my old message board. Something over 8000 people a day now hit warrenellis.com, and that's not counting the RSS readers and the 800 people picking it up through LiveJournal. I'm kind of scared to imagine what the bandwidth load might be like if I opened a message board again. Point being, there's no longer a handful of strong focus points to promote a work through on the net anymore. Instead, there's a whole pile of news/magazine sites and anything up to a hundred 'comics blogosphere' pages narrowcasting to small, intersecting audiences. It's got to be daunting, starting out and wondering how to get the word out."

Paul O'Brien looks at Marvel's January numbers:

"Marvel get off to a flying start with the first chart of 2005, sweeping the top 13 and holding 20 out of the top 25. This might at first seem like a remarkable achievement. In fact, the success is a little more modest than it appears. In December 2004, DC had five books in the top 10 - IDENTITY CRISIS, SUPERMAN/BATMAN (twice), GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH and SUPERMAN. None of those books shipped in January. IDENTITY CRISIS is finished; the others are just late. And let's face it, it's not that hard to sweep the top ten when DC fail to ship any of their most popular titles. But this does illustrate a slightly different side to Marvel's success. Over the last couple of years DC has managed to get a handful of books into the top of the charts. But most of their superhero line continues to lag below Marvel's. The average Marvel superhero book sells rather better than the average DC book. Take away the top three DC titles, and that becomes very clear."

Fanboy Rampage favourite Alex de Campi talks at Newsarama about Smoke:

"Smoke was born out of a kind of angst I was having about the world in general. I kept feeling as if we’re all on the razor’s edge right now, that the whole diplomatic house of cards is about to come crashing down around our heads. And I’ve lived through that when it happened in the Emerging Markets in 1997-98 - currency crises, mass protests, government-sponsored corruption, and more. But I kept wondering what it would be like for that to happen in the West. So I thought, let’s create a world very much like ours, but with a few parts of the equalizer shoved up a bit higher. Then let’s give events a gentle push in just the right place, and watch them snowball... Smoke was originally intended as a fairly short maxi-series, and the events that occur in the three issue limited series ripple through and magnify into increasing horror and destruction on a national, then a global, scale in the rest of the series. If sales allow us to do the rest of the series, that is. I won’t say how long the maxi-series is intended to be, other than it’s about a third the length of a Vertigo maxi-series. I like a story to be told short, hard and fast, and then to get the hell out. When a maxi-series ends, the reader should think, 'No, not already!' rather than 'God, finally.'"

While I've been doing the work that I actually get paid for (for a change), Heidi's been on fire, with stories about the temporary end of Millarworld, the state of Marvel's business standing, and Marvel's move into 7-11s:

"Every day we read about someone launching a line of educational comics for kids. Everyday we hear about librarians unable to keep comics on the shelves in kids sections. Every day we read that manga paperbacks aimed at kids sell 10-60k copies. This has been going on for years. People aren't doing it because of some insane gamble that has only a prayer of paying off. It's solid business sense. It isn't rocket science. KIDS LIKE COMICS. That's a fact. Marvel knows that it's weak among kids and girls. They are trying to remedy that. They are already in Targets everywhere and have been for a while. Do they have the editorial resources to achieve it? I have seen a lot of horrible comic books that people think kids will like. But -- and I hate to say it -- the bar is pretty low. Tokyopop's Cine-Manga lines -- books based on Kim Possible, Sponge Bob and so on that use stills to tell the stories -- sell very, very well in bookstores. We're not talking John Stanley here.

"But this isn't a slam dunk. Oh no. It is a rocky road, because no one -- I repeat -- no one in the American comic book industry outside of Tokyopop and Viz has shown that they have any idea what 'civilians' will read. But some one has to try. Marvel knows they have to escape from Skull Island. They've got to get back to the mainland, because everyone is running out of coconuts."

Tom Spurgeon, meanwhile, has other thoughts about Marvel and 7-11s:

"I'm probably not alone in suggesting that perhaps the most interesting thing about the 7-11 deal is how DC reacts to Marvel's Big Gulp Sputnik; the potential for a two-company push into this area is probably greater than one."

Also on Newsarama, Rich Johnston writes a great piece about V for Vendetta:

"V For Vendetta. A story about personal responsibility that makes Spider-Man look like the infant parable it really is. A book about power, fascism, anarchy, the impotence of democracy, the potential of humanity and the innate contradictions of the English. And the book is rooted in those idiosyncrasies. Taking its theme from that most bizarre of annual celebrations, Guy Fawkes Night when people gather around bonfires eating jacket potatoes and parkin, setting off fireworks while watching the burning effigy of a man put to death for the Catholic terrorist act of blowing up the political seat of Protestant power, the Houses Of Parliament. And we think he's great.

"Britain has a history of turning its villains into heroes. From communist thieves like Robin Hood, to the highwayman Dick Turpin whom rich ladies would love to be held up by, through to the Kray Twins and those behind the Great Train Robbery. Have you ever noticed that the best villains in Hollywood movies are English? And didn't you really want Alan Rickman to push Bruce Willis off the top of that building? C'mon... And so we have V. A murdering terrorist against a state, one that may have exceeded its powers, but also a state that the population as a whole support. There's something perverse amongst us that admires a strong grip, even while it’s round our throats.

"And V doesn't let us off the hook with some easy action-adventure solution of deposing the dictator and letting democracy reign in its place. He's proposing anarchy as a solution to fascism. He provides no structure for solution merely 'do what thou wilt'. It’s the opposite movement to the current situation, but is that really a better way to be?"

The comments under the article are worth reading, as well.

Newsarama takes a look at issues surrounding the latest legal battle between DC and Jerry Siegel's family:

"The issues raised in the Siegels’ complaint are fairly well known, although in legal form, the issues move into forms that are perhaps more...official. The complaint offers several pieces of previously unknown information, including quotes from letters suggesting that Warner Brothers and DC Comics were fully ready to split the copyright of Superman 50/50, and more. Specifically, the Siegels are asking the Court to clarify once and for all the ownership of the Superman copyright, the establishment of profit-sharing of Superman (with appropriate accounting), the ownership of the 'S' shield; damages due to Time Warner preventing the Siegels the ability to use their portion of the Superman copyright in the marketplace; damages due to intentionally causing injury; a declaration that Time Warner has violated the Lanham Act, and damages due to their losses as they claim that the defendants have violated California Law by not including the Termination of the Transfer of Copyrights in its annual report.

"The Siegels filed their complaint in October of last year, and the defendants answered in November with a response and a counterclaim. Both finally provide a fascinating look at DC’s strategy of legally claiming ownership of Superman, defending the challenges to Siegel’s work for hire status, and more. The response and counterclaim also outline events that have until now, not been revealed, including the Siegels filing to Terminate the Transfer of copyright for The Spectre, the negotiations and potential deals between DC and the Siegels, the claims made against Superboy, Smallville, and Superman; the importance of advertisements from 1938, and how something that appeared almost as a throwaway in Superman #1 has come to be a critical piece of DC’s counterclaims in regards to the ownership of Superboy.

"While the complaint, response and counterclaim has been filed, no one even remotely expects a slam-dunk win for either side. Issues such as those named in the complaint will, if it goes to trial, possibly allow for an unprecedented referendum on issues of copyright."

CBR walks you through the production of the first seven pages of Sea of Red #2:

"Image Comics and the 'Sea of Red' creative team of Rick Remender, Kieron Dwyer and Salgood Sam have provided CBR News with a seven-page preview of 'Sea of Red' #2. But this isn't your run of the mill preview, no. Below you'll find the script to the first seven pages of 'Sea of Red' #2, along side of which we have the breakdowns by Kieron Dwyer followed by Salgood Sam's finished artowork without the lettering. This way you get to see each member of the creative team's work in its purest form."

Stan Lee continues to lead a charmed life and coast by on past successes:

"Stan Lee and Robert Evans will produce a feature film based on Lee's new superhero creation 'Foreverman,' according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film will be written by Peter Briggs (Hellboy). Ancillary products, such as comic books, are also planned, according to the article. Although no details were revealed, the new superhero will have 'the problems of dealing with everyday life,' as Lee's Marvel characters did."

James Sime says "Why not download exclusive PDFs of Project Superior?", but using slightly different phrasing, over at the Isotope Communique.

Josie and the Pussycats return with a brand new sound, well, look:

"It started with Sabrina in June of last year, and this June, Archie’s Josie and the Pussycats get a manga makeover courtesy of Tania del Rio, who did the honors for Sabrina. Thanks to what Archie calls 'unprecedented success' of del Rio’s take on Sabrina, Josie and the Pussycats new team will be del Rio writing, Chris Lie penciling, and Andrew Pepoy on inks. Nelson Ribeiro and Victor Gorelick will edit... Unlike Sabrina, however, the manga versions of Josie and the Pussycats will appear in both of the formats offered by the publisher: digests and monthly issues. The new versions of the characters will appear in their own stories within the issues, as Josie and the Pussycats do not currently have their own title."

Paramount picks up Robert Kirkman's Invincible for development:

"The Image series has been picked up by Paramount, with Kirkman himself attached to adapt it for the screen. According to Variety, the studio is looking to turn the property into a franchise of its own... Variety reports that Lorenzo (Constantine) di Bonaventura and Circle of Confusion will produce. The film, for di Bonaventura, will be his fourth venture into the superhero/pop culture genre, as, along with Constantine, the producer is attached to Doom and the Transformers movie."

Chris Butcher continues to make me wish that I was in Toronto:

"Premiere Canadian comic book retailer The Beguiling is proud to present the 2005 Toronto Comic Arts Festival, occurring on Saturday May 28th and Sunday May 29th 2005 in Toronto, Canada. This will be the second gathering of International independent cartoonists, comic artists and graphic novelists under the TCAF banner, and it's bigger and better than before!"

Guests include Darwyn Cooke, Seth, Jeff Smith, James Jean and Cameron Stewart.

Shawn Hoke weighs into the direct market debate:

"In Indianapolis, there are two comic store chains, Comic Carnivaland Downtown Comics and between the two chains there are at least eight stores. There is only one store that doesn't make me wish for the death of the direct market. The most convenient shop is downtown near my bus stop. I usually have ten or fifteen minutes between buses and often I'm tempted to stop in to kill time. Instead, I leave there wanting to kill whoever orders their stock... This downtown store, part of a chain named Downtown Comics, must only receive the front of Previews magazine, because not only is that all they stock, but it's all they know. Ask about anything other than Batman, Spider-Man, Green Lantern or X-Men and you'll get the standard slack-jawed stare, followed by the shoulder shrug...

"If this is the Direct Market, then I hope it fails. If you have ignorant employees and a limited stock, you deserve to fail. Shops like this do the industry and the medium of comics a disservice simply by existing. If you have an employee that's never even heard of The Comics Journal and a manager that says, 'No, we don't stock that,' then you deserve to fail and I hope you do. You'll eventually go out of business, and it will be long overdue when that happens."

Following on from a number of emails to the site, Tom Spurgeon writes more about the importance of both the bookstore and direct markets to comic publishers:

"No one should be surprised that there's this kind of emotional element to the direct market, and where I think pundits are unfair is in only charging retailers with thinking this way and not recognizing how much publishers have exploited goodwill or other supposedly noble notions for business advantage. I think this has enabled a lot of systematic sloppiness far deadlier to the market's health than whether or not D&Q has an artist tour this summer. Big companies refuse to schedule their books in a way that helps retailers avoid the shelves getting clogged. They stack them; they flood the market; they're late; they have holes in the backlist. Hideously undercapitalized smaller companies have for years published as soon as they get material, meaning no advance support, and without respect to the solicitation calendar, which makes it hard for the retailers to move the product when it finally gets there. It's these factors that need to be changed, and these factors have little or nothing to do with romancing the bookstore -- except, perhaps, that discipline learned in one market can have a positive effect on the second.

"Like many retailers, I hold out dim hope that the majority of newly announced book lines will succeed. I believe, like many publishers, that the mid-list will do better at a comic shop targeting more active and knowledgeable readers than they will at a bookstore. I'm not sure DC isn't making a big mistake by pursuing a market I'm not totally convinced wants what it has to offer. And I've always felt DC and the other big companies like Marvel have failed their industry by abandoning the search for a long-term growth strategy in favor of whatever weird system helps their bottom line when it comes to market share and corporate positioning."

(Fantagraphics' Eric Reynolds responds.)

Heidi breaks the story that Marvel are moving back to mainstream stores:

"Marvel held one of its periodic presentations for investors yesterday as part of a Bear Stearns conference, and, perhaps mindful of the black eye they got when Elektra tanked, Peter Cuneo and Avi Arad made several announcements. Most important from the comic book standpoint, Cuneo revealed that Marvel comics will be going back into 7-11s. 'Marvel will be in 6000 7-11 convenience stores,' he announced. 'This doubles the number of outlets for our comics.' 'We wanted to go back to the times when kids could ride a bike or walk to a 7-11 and get a comic. We've developed a product for this market,' added Arad. Cuneo characterized the deal as 'big and impactful' and a way to get Marvel in front of a whole new (or 'old', if you look at it that way) audience."

New product? Hmm...

An old Joe Casey interview is "remixed" for CBR:

"[I]f that teenage readership still exists out there, it's our job as writers to be able to speak to them. To write something like 'The Intimates,' which sets out to try and depict the teenage experience (in an admittedly hyper-realistic fashion), you're communicating more directly with that audience. You're not so much dealing in metaphor, as you would if you were writing 'Superman' or 'X-Men,' you're dealing more in documentary. You're documenting something akin to your own experiences and hopefully finding something universal within that. The stakes are really high when you're a teenager. You cling to your perception of life because, to you, that is reality. It doesn't matter if that perception is accurate."

The Fantastic Four go back to school:

"Through its Cover Concepts division (which Marvel acquired in December of 2003) , Marvel will distribute a six-week lesson plan for 2 million second-fourth graders, part of the Do Your Thing school campaign. The program will see over 8,000 teacher guides shipped to 6,000 public schools throughout the U.S. The program is slated to run March 14th through April 29th. The program also includes the distribution of 1 million Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four comics that will go directly to students. According to [Variety], the materials will teach students about the pride the Four take in their interests and talents, ideally leading kids to take pride in their own abilities and interests and in what makes each of them unique. Lesson plan materials will highlight science, reading, math and visual arts."

Of more interesting educational comics news (to me, anyway):

"Hyperion Books for Children has teamed up with The Center for Cartoon Studies of White River Junction, VT, to publish graphic biographies for young readers. The Center for Cartoon studies will package the books for Hyperion Books for Children, drawing in critically acclaimed authors and illustrators. The first two biographies in this series will be Houdini, written by Jason Lutes and James Sturm and illustrated by Nick Bertozzi, about the world's most famous escape artist whose illusions riveted the country during the early 19th century; and Satchel Paige, written by James Sturm, about the legendary ballplayer whose great pitching talent spanned five decades beginning in the era of the Negro Leagues. Both biographies are slated to release in fall 2006."

Just recieved in email:

"On Newsstands March 1st, Nickelodeon Magazine presents: The Best of Nickelodeon Magazine SPECIAL ALL-COMICS ISSUE! This 58-page giant collects tons of hilarious comics from eleven years of Nick Mag’s THE COMIC BOOK. See for yourself the incredible variety of talent assembled in one place... You will want to keep this magazine forever as a testament to how cool kids comics can be."

And you're wondering just how cool kids comics can be? Well, look at this partial line-up of creators: Scott McCloud, Craig Thompson, Mark Martin, Terry Laban, Andi Watson, Sam Henderson, James Kochalka, Kieron Dwyer, Stuart Immonen, Mitch O’Connell, and Stephen DeStefano. So, you know, pretty cool, really.

Denny at the Bendis Board has problems with The Comics Journal's interview with BMB:

"I have a question. I was reading the 'outtakes' online. Did you write [Dean laughs] or was that him? If it was him it was totally lame. I hate when interviewers do crap like that. Please note: The interview isn't about you! No one cares if you laughed!"

Another poster disagrees:

"Geez Denny, you're like a jealous girlfriend or something... I thought it worked. It was the best interview with Bendis I've ever read, and he had some great, insightful questions. His personality came through a bit, so the laughing fit. BTW, his laughs are noted throughout the TCJ interview, so prepare yourself..."

Denny isn't convinced:

"It's not jealousy, it's just a preference. If I was jealous I'd say, 'If I had 40 pages my interviews would be better.' (Don't get me wrong, the two intereviews I did were better.) I just have always felt that people read the interview for the interviewEE, not the interviewer. I could care less if this guy laughs. When I'd go through my editing the first thing I cut was me going on, I streamlined my questions and gave all of the spotlight to the person I was interviewing. Honestly, I don't care what he thinks, I don't care how he felt about a story, I came to read what Bendis or Brubaker or Vaughan or Millar or Ellis thinks. You know? But that's my opinion."

Enter Bendis himself:

"your incorrect on this one my beautiful denny. in this instance, the interviewer was properly describing the tone of the interview. he was a tough audience. if he laughed, it was a good joke [...] if you remember that marvel dc interview in wizard. that interview was much more friendly than it seemed because the laughs and smiles were not part of the report. it seemed that loeb was up my ass. which he was not. go ahead and make 'loeb was up my ass' your sig you sick fucks."

Denny still isn't convinced:

"The thing is, I don't/didn't need his [laugh] to know the tone of the interview or when you were making a joke or saying something funny, but I guess others may not. It's part of reading comprehension, but it might help that I've also interviewed you and spoken to you so I can 'hear' you. (Didn't mean for that roundabout name dropping/bragging thing just then.)"

Millarworld says "Those damn colorists":

"I'm just think that colour has become a very importnat part of the production of today's comic (look at Richard Isanove or Laura Depuis.... today they're important enough to even be named on the covers)... but what about older artists? Do they're styles work well with the new colouring? I think John Byrne's older stuff was wonderful but alot of the new stuff he puts out just doesn't jive with the new colouring.... even John Romita Jr. when inked by Klaus Janson kind of looks a little off........ old Amazing Spider-man never looked better (I'm thinking issue 244 or there about, specifically) with those two.... is it just me who thinks this? Are there other artists who just don't jive with the shiny new colour.... No? yeah? anyone?"

"Well, it's less to do with pencils, and more with inks. As a colorist myself, I like to work with the simplest blacks as possible. My favorite is when I'm given animation-stle linework, with the barest of lines defining the form, and no 'blacked in' areas. The more shading an inker attempts to apply to the work, the less compatible it is with smooth digital colors. After all, in real life there ARE no black shadows, everything is some variety of color. So some old school pencilers still use old school inkers (or ink themselves), and those works inevitably suffer when passed to a colorist, because the color-st's hands are basically tied. It's not the penciler's fault though, a good colorist can work with ANY pencils (and any inks for that matter, so long as they're allowed to overwrite the inks when necessary)."

"Personally I wouldn't miss digital colours as I feel already there's too much emphasis on them. Let the line art reign supreme."

"My problem is when colorists decide to add lines and definitions that the artist didn't. My biggest problem with this is when they decide to add muscles and clevage. Ultimate Colossus is beefy enough, and the Scarlet Witch doesn't need the extra voluptuousness."

Marc Sumerak talks about the Machine Man revamp, Machine Teen, at Newsarama:

"Is it a super-hero book? Not quite. I mean. It's not like Adam's ever going to put on a costume or call himself Machine Teen in public. I like to think of the book more as 'sci-fi-high' -- a nice combination of classic super hero and science fiction mixed with a healthy dose of modern teen drama! It's about learning to live with who you are. It's about discovering that being 'perfect' isn't nearly as important as just being 'human.' It's about coming to terms with your past -- no matter how dark -- and using that knowledge to shape your future. It's about learning how to intercept a hail of gunfire without sustaining severe damage to your datacore. It's part high school drama, part corporate conspiracy, and part kick-ass robot-fightin' action!"

Joe Casey and Matt Fraction discuss the lack of great stories in mainstream comics these days:

"When I think of my favorite comics stories, even if they're part of an ongoing title, there's a pure, defined start and stop. It's a fully formed thought, you know? There's a feeling of permanence to what it's about-- it doesn't feel like a stunt or gag or artificial-- these were stories grounded in something other than the desire to be on top a Wizard list or a Diamond list. And mostly? I don't know that there was a desire by the creators to create a 'classic story,' you know? Like, I think Roy Thomas and Neal Adams-- I think it was them, right?-- just wanted to do an Avengers story with the Kree and the Skrull. Nothing reads like they were thinking, hoo, boy, this is one for the ages. They weren't self-conscious like that, I guess. I think Walt Simonson sat down to do THOR because he had all these crazy ideas and nobody was going to say boo. I think Howard Chaykin probably figured he was the smartest kid in the room and wanted to prove it with AMERICAN FLAGG!. Does it ever feel to you sometimes like a lot of books these days are long on quips but short on guts? And I don't mean courage, although you could make that argument, too. I mean, like, substance? Weight? Oomph? I don't even know what the word is."

The Isotope has a blog, suddenly. And although it's not clear who's writing, they're talking sense:

"In my experience I've found that the majority of comic readers are looking for one very simple thing in their comic entertainment. Something that makes them love comics all over again, even if that means checking out something that falls just outside of their comfort zone. More often than not, if a reader hears that a book is good, they'll at least flip open the cover and see what it has to offer. If they like the look and it's in their price range they'll give it a try. More than anything comic readers just want to be entertained and occassionally enlightened by their comics. And they don't like missing out on the comics that might do just that for them."