Fanboy Rampage!!!

Peter David responds to critics (like me) of the way the launch of his new Spider-Man book coincides with a new Spider-line crossover:

"It's a way of doing a crossover story in which writers don't feel like they're doing bits and pieces; (2) readers who prefer particular writers can read a month of their stories in a row rather than piecemeal chapters; (3) regular readers of the respective books will be exposed to writers and might--with any luck--like what they see and check out those writers on their own regular, respective titles.

"My first month of stories will essentially be one complete tale. FNSM is told from Peter's POV, MK will be from MJ's POV, and the third will focus on Aunt May. The main storyline will be resolved by Part 3, which will be in ASM. Now...will it have elements that tie into a larger crossover? Yes. One would hope they'll be interesting enough to prompt readers to continue reading the full arc. But if not, you'll still have a complete story, soup to nuts, just as if I were doing a three parter in FNSM. The only difference is that you'll get it in one month rather than three. I would like to think that's a good thing. But if you guys think that's a bad thing and don't want to read them, well...okay. I think that's kind of unfortunate, but it's your call."

Andrew Helfer talks Batman - Journey Into Knight, his new "Origin of Batman" miniseries:

"One of the things that's always gone through my head is that at some point the obsession of the Bruce Wayne character just doesn't seem to hold in my mind... This life long obsession, this life long burden and this goal to avenge the deaths of his parents. One of the things I deal with fairly extensively in the story is the idea that Bruce Wayne's life has not been filled with the consequences of his parent's death. If they were a poor working class family and the mother and father are gone and the kid goes to foster homes or the kid is on the street the burden of his parents death is thrown upon him and remind him constantly of the consequences of that moment in time where his parents were killed and his life is destroyed by it... But Bruce Wayne, he had a trust fund, he had a man servant. It was basically Richie Rich. Not to say that it wasn't meaningful to him, not to say that it wasn't a traumatic event in his life, but the subsequent events in his life would never really reinforce the trauma. Everything that happened after that almost kind of pushes him away from living with trauma. Aside from the fact that his parents are gone, which is definitely a big thing, he had all the comforts."

Drawn and Quarterly publish manga, and other goodness:

"Drawn & Quarterly has announced its release plans for September and October, and they include not only the company's first manga, but also several other promising releases. The manga title is The Push Man and Other Stories, by Japanese alt grandfather Yoshihiro Tatsumi. This collection of short stories will be published as a 176-page hardcover at $19.95 in September, edited, designed, and with an introduction by Adrian Tomine."

Also appearing: Two travelogues, and Seth's new book Wimbledon Green.

Mark Millar, Mark (and, for a couple of responses, Sabrina as well) Peyton and Alice Doyle talk about Millarworld's relaunch.

Millar: "Millarworld.tv is to millarworld.biz what X2 was to X-Men. We've got a bigger budget, we've got a crack team and we know what we're doing now. Our forums, at present, get around 3 million hits a week and over 250,000 unique visitors a month. Obviously, we're delighted by that, but we've always seen the forums as the first step towards something bigger and that's a free multimedia site for nerds just like us in every corner of the globe. The new site is slicker, of course, but it also has a much wider range of features from a store and a blog to a creative workshop for new writers and artists and an online Millarworld magazine."

Doyle: "Mark has never asked us to buck up his ego and we've never offered. If we did the Magazine would last about two days. The only rules we have for any review or feature are honesty and no bashing. We don't get paid for our work here so we're not going to become any richer and, especially on the Internet, it's impossible to agree with everyone. Someone is always going to think you're wrong, whatever you say, so you might as well say what you think. But give a good reason for your opinion and back it up."

M. Peyton: "Even Millarworld has never been about stroking Millar's ego. As editors and contributors we've gone into this with a fair idea of who we think are interesting people and our interview list for a start reflects that. If we get in a well-argued review slating Millar then we'd run it, but if it's fanboy whining about Ninjas then please just keep walking."

S. Peyton: "Even though a few of the contributors/editors of The.Magazine do moderate Millar's forum it doesn't mean we are all huge Millar fans. Though I do enjoy his accent, and I have read a few of his books it doesn't make me a card-carrying member of the Mark Millar Fan Club."

The plot thickens at DC:

"Newsarama has learned that, in an abrupt change of course, DC Comics has chosen to step back in regards to its Manager, Marketing Communications position. On June 13th, Newsarama reported that the position was filled by Bill Rosemann (who had held equivalent jobs with Marvel and CrossGen), who would be moving over from DC’s Creative Services department. Reportedly, DC staff was informed of the reversal of Rosemann’s position change via a companywide e-mail Tuesday. The internal announcement confirmed speculation that something was happening with the position and Rosemann, as he was not listed as a DC staffer who would be attending Comic Con International San Diego (the announcement being made in a DC Dispatch newsletter, which came out of the Marketing Communications office)."

Newsarama has some details about October's Spider-Man crossover, The Other:

"According to sources speaking with Newsarama, and confirmed by this week’s Wizard, 'The Other' traces its roots back to Amazing Spider-Man writer J. Michael Straczynski’s 'The Book of Ezekiel' arc, which introduced the idea that not only was Peter Parker not the first spider-based hero, but that the world was filled with individuals taking their powers from various animal totems... According to Straczynski, in speaking with Wizard, the storyline will play with hints he’s been leaving in Amazing that something is wrong with Peter, and he’s getting progressively worse. The storyline will also feature the return of Morlun, who was introduced in the 'Ezekiel' arc – a villain Spider-Man has never defeated. Strazynski, [Marvel Knights Spider-Man writer Reginald] Hudlin, and Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada tease the storyline in the Wizard piece, neither confirming nor denying the identity of 'The Other,' or if Peter Parker will be under the Spider-Man mask after the final word is written and page is drawn."

It's a 12 part storyline that runs across three books for four months - Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Knights Spider-Man and the launching-from-this-crossover Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Each of those books' regular writers will handle one month of all three titles, with the fourth month seeing the writers return to their regular haunts. Seems like an odd way to launch Peter David's new Spider-book (I was interested in it, especially with Mike Weiringo on art, but knowing that David's only going to write the first issue and then disappear for two months, and that the first four issues are part of a line-wide crossover has kind of killed that for me), but what do I know?

John Byrne on being the Action Comics artist:

"I need lots of reference, to orient myself in the changed reality of the current Superman... I can't switch on my default Jimmy Olsen, for instance, because Jimmy doesn't look the way he used to. Nor does Lois. Nor does Perry. This is very much a part of what makes it feel like doing a whole new and different character... I am a great believer in keeping characters 'on model'. I really, really, really do not approve of this 'personal interpretation' crap. Superman should look like Superman. Batman should look like Batman. The impression, no matter how many artists are involved, should always be that each and every one of them/us is looking at the same model."

TV Guide offer, somewhat surreally, signed copies of Ultimate Fantastic Four:

"The superstar creative team of Mark Millar (writer) and Greg Land (artist) will sign copies of Ultimate Fantastic Four #21, for a special sweepstakes in the July 3rd issue of TV Guide. Mark Millar, writer of Ultimate Fantastic Four #21, says, 'Fantastic Four is the family car of Marvel Comics. It was their first book back in 1961, saved the business and has such a reverence among the fans that I can't believe they're letting me write this thing.' He continued 'Having this book come out at the same time as the movie compounded with a massive TV Guide promotion has just shot me into Geek heaven. I can die happy after this and I just hope you guys get a kick out of it too.'"

TV Guide, though?

Paul Jenkins on The Sentry, his returning Marvel series:

"I give the credit for what the Sentry became and is to Joe Quesada and to Bill Jemas... Even though Bill gets a hard rap for being a loony, under his watch at Marvel, certain things happened, and Marvel went with something like The Sentry, which was something utterly off from what had come before, and they did the promotional work for it. That has paid off, so now, as he’s come into the New Avengers, Brian has this full character to play with, and I get to tell more stories about him... When people read the first miniseries, I’d like to think I caught most of them off guard with the twist of the Void’s identity. I’ve got a bigger twist coming. The twist in this story might be one of the more important revelations in the Marvel Universe, ever. There’s a great secret in the Marvel Universe, and when it comes out, that knowledge is as dangerous as it could ever be. And it all revolves around the Sentry."

Yeah, but will it break the internet in half, Paul? That's today's benchmark.

Warren Ellis talks about his new Image book, Fell:

"I started with the format, and half an idea. Mentioned it on my email diary, noting that it'd never happen because an artist would have to be insane to produce 16 dense pages a month for no money (we're doing it at Image, where all the money is on the back end -- I'll have written six or seven scripts for no payment at all by the time #1 is released). And Ben Templesmith emailed and said, hell, I'll do it. Which surprised me for several reasons, not least being I thought his soul was owned by The Steve Niles Corporation."

Rich Johnston has a new LiTG up, concentrating on creators' rights. We find that Marvel aren't paying Jack Kirby's estate any royalties on anything Fantastic Four, that Warners offered Denny O'Neil the movie novelization of Batman Begins because he complained that he hadn't read the script, that nobody knows what the "dirty laundry" (in Joe Quesada's words) is that prevents Marvel from doing anything with the Ultraverse characters, and that Mark Millar can get a plug anywhere.

It's also time to vote what kind of column you want in the future. Me, I vote A.

What is Warren Ellis's secret Marvel team book? Millarworld quotes a recent Bad Signal - "laid out a dozen pages of #7 of NW, the New Marvel Book (which, it appears, is going to use the tagline I wrote: 'Healing America by beating people up.')" - and starts guessing:

"NW? Team book? Oh christ, it's New Warriors isn't it..."

"At least we know it'll be 'New' something. I was worried there for a minute..."

Mark Millar pops in: "NW stands for Nice Willies. It's a history of Marvel genitalia starting in the present day and going all the way back to the private parts of the earliest Marvel heroes like Namor and the original Human Torch. He's wanted to write this for some time and is months ahead of schedule."

Back to the guesses:

"It's Neil Williams, a guy I knew when I was about 7."

"NW= NO WOLVERINE. The only Marvel title to guarantee no appearances by the old canuckle-head!"

Joe Casey and Matt Fraction discuss the greatness that is 70s Marvel:

"Now, the Marvel stuff is just outright weird-- and I mean weird-absurd or just weird-weird. Starting with the former: my pal and mine Jeremy Love (of the Love Brothers) pointed me to a story in the Luke Cage book that might just be the greatest comic story ever written. Dr. Doom has stiffed Luke Cage for a $200 bill. I don't even know what Cage did to earn the $200, but he did something. So, anyway, in a rage over being ripped off, Luke Cage storms into the Baxter Building to forcibly borrow a vehicle that'll get him from New York to Latvia quickly, so he can beat the hell out of Dr. Doom and collect. He scraps with the FF briefly and Reed eventually decides Okay, you can borrow the rocket car. Because Reed's down like that.

"So Cage goes to Latvia, where he stumbles on to a robot slave revolution against Dr. Doom. These robots are fighting for their freedom from the oppressive and cruel yet ironic regime of Doom. Cage sorta follows the robots to basically get to Doom's castle, where he goes after Doom directly, ignoring all that robot rigamarole. He fights Doom a bit, who is totally impressed that he came all that way to whip 200 dollars out of his ass, and agrees to pay up if Cage helps to snuff out the revolution. WHICH CAGE THEN DOES, so blinded by his desire for 200 dollars that he's completely unaware of whatever symbolic parallels may abound. And abound they do.

"Anyway. So, once defeated, Doom is impressed yet again that Cage is so tough, and so single-minded, and he pays up.

"This is all ONE FUCKING ISSUE.

"Man, they really don't make 'em like that anymore."

Speakeasy boss Adam Fortier talks about what makes his company so special:

"As a smaller company we’re more hands-on and accessible to the creators we work with. We lay everything out on the table and involve our clients at almost every step. We are very transparent in what we do and how we do things. Once we develop a relationship with a creator, it’s all about honesty- good, bad and ugly. I don’t think you’ll find a Speakeasy Comics client that thinks there’s a power imbalance in the relationship. If you find one, let me know because I’ll try to fix that... We make it explicitly clear when projects are due. We also make it explicitly clear that individuals that don’t pull their weight can and will be replaced. It’s not a threat, it’s a fact. I think the people who approach us have their own drive to keep things on track. This is a great opportunity, putting out a book of which you have total creative control. People recognize that and they try and stay ahead of the game schedule-wise. This is a business, not an art project to be done at someone’s leisure. Slacking has financial consequences for everyone involved."

The Joe Quesada board considers what superhero they'd most like to meet, if they were real:

"For me i guess it would have to be Green Arrow. All grumpy and liberal with a heart of gold."

"if you're talking 'super-hero', i've gotta go w/ Superman. don't think anyone could create a more likeable impression than him. charisma, baby. if you add in a provision for secret identities/more of a social thing, who wouldn't love to take kitty pryde out for some ice cream? programming geektalk, logan & lockheed anecdotes, the girl would be a *** of a date."

"Black Cat 'cos of the tits"

"stacey x - guaranteed to get some that way."

Tim Townsend gets an unusually nice deal from Marvel:

"Marvel made me the most flattering offer I’ve ever had in my career in that I get to work with Chris [Bachalo] as much or as little as I want on Uncanny [X-Men] – I get to cherry pick pages to ink on an ongoing basis. I mean, that’s just unheard of, so that’s extremely flattering... Chris, probably more so than anyone I’ve ever worked with, lets me participate in the process. He lets me draw a bit – I spend time with a pencil on each page we do together, and he’s 110% supportive of that, and always has been. I’ve always said that Chris is probably the most singularly creative guy in comics – he’s just pure creativity. He’s always out there, always trying new stuff, and is just fearless. As a result of that mentality, he understands when I’m trying new things, and supports that, even if it doesn’t always work out. We nearly always see eye to eye, and agree on what works and what doesn’t. It’s just a little more gratifying at the end of the day to finish up a page with Chris, and know that I did something more than just go over someone else’s lines."

No pies for you, San Diego:

"Image Comics is NOT bringing pie to its fans in San Diego. The Ultimate SDCC giveaway hit a snag. Though the Image Comics giveaway was targeted to fans, the Convention Center's policy about food giveaways on the convention floor made it fiscally impossible to bring the delicious Home Run Pies to the show."

When even the Bendis Board is making cheap jokes about House of M, then you know Bendis may be missing his target:

"So what do we think is gonna happen in HoM #3... to 'crack the internet in half'? I have no clue but this has been hyped a lot. Quesada said he doesn't know which shock is bigger--HoM #3 or Young Avengers #5. I'm pumped for both. But I can't even imagine what could be that big of a shock in a story that will basically be put back to normal--for the most part. Any thoughts?"

"22 more pages of exposition?"

"NOTHING. It's more bullshit B&Q hype. Unless it somehow segues into Neil Gaiman finishing his Miracleman story through a Marvel press, NOTHING will happen."

"Cyclops Will Be A Badguy Instead Of A Good Guy!!! Or Some Other Character Will Do Something They Don't Normally Do."

"I'm done caring about the hype. Last year they said the guest in Disassembled was gonna be shocking and amazing and instead of Miracleman we got Magneto. I'll believe that it's shocking when I see it."

Igor Kordey's at Comic Foundry, talking about Smoke and his experience as an artist:

"Sorry, damsels and gents, but there are no tips or little secrets of the craft this time. Only hard work. The more you draw, the faster and better you get. After a certain number of years, you come to the point where you just KNOW what to do, without looking at the references or such. Like practicing a piano or guitar 10 hours a day — after a while you are able to improvise without looking at the notes. It is just the same. And, of course, it depends on what basic education you have. And you bet I had a damn good one. It was not 'How to do it in 100 lessons,' but I was taught how to observe the world around you all by yourself, to find a clues and make conclusions all by yourself, and to plant within you a craving and desire for self-education, which for me never stopped... They say I'm one of the best; they are probably right. I learned my skills by noticing and correcting mine or other writers' or artists' mistakes. Again, it's about self-education, and about asking yourself nonstop, 'Is that the right way, is that the best solution?' and trying NOT to pamper myself by choosing the path of least resistance."

Rich Johnston makes it onto the BBC talking about his new series "Political Creatures", along with Pat Mills, in a story about politics in British comics (Skip to 16:20 for the story. Or alternatively, sit through Andrew Neil talking about ID cards for a long time).

A cautionary tale for Marvel's lawyers:

"The news that Marvel and Fox were suing Sony Pictures over the release date for Sony's superhero comedy Zoom (and the comedy's similarities to the X-Men) didn't surprise many in Hollywood where Marvel has a reputation for being quick on the legal draw (see "Fox & Marvel Sue Sony"). But litigation can come back and bite you if you lose, a hard lesson that Marvel may learn at the hands of the WWE, the premier professional wrestling league... Marvel lost the initial case and a just concluded appeal process, in which the judge concurred with the original judicial finding that the Toy Biz/WCW contract did not grant licensing rights to the named wrestlers outside the context of a WCW program. Now lawyers for the WWE are back in court in Atlanta asking for a judgment of $1.25 million to cover the legal fees and costs incurred by the WWE during three-and-one-half years of litigation."

Lee Barnett on trolls:

"I believe it was Kurt Busiek, some years ago, when this was discussed (specifically the booting of someone from an online forum), who said 'restriction of venue is not restriction of speech'. And you know what? I kind of agree with him. Locking someone out of a Forum doesn't restrict their right to say what they wanted to say; it just moves where they say it. Of course you wouldn't expect trolls to understand this. Thankfully it's rare these days that anyone is stupid enough to protest that getting booted breaches their First Amendment rights to free speech. Though to be fair, at least they're consistent: if they're daft enough to protest on these grounds, they're also too daft to understand the explanation as to why they're wrong."

I lose track with all these conventions. Apparently there was one in Charlotte, NC, this past weekend, and Marvel did a panel at it:

"When asked if Marvel would have a response in kind to DC’s Philadelphia announcement of signing Adam and Andy Kubert to exclusive contracts, Quesada said that Marvel has announcements that will be made shortly, and fans should 'hold on to their chairs.'"

Start taking guesses now.

A message from the wonderful Nora Lally-Graves leads me to Clickwheel, who are offering comics for your iPods. Ain't technology grand?

M'colleague Ed Cunard is taking questions. Please go over and ask away. In a similar manner, Tom Spurgeon is not taking questions, but is taking money. It's rare that I'll ever ask you to part with cash on my say-so (Yes, I know that there was Laurenn's thing earlier, but that was for a good cause as well, so shhh.), but Spurgeon is both The Real Deal and A Writer of Quality, and ultimately deserving of your virtual dollars.

Joe Quesada spins at Newsarama when asked about the importance of House of M in the grand scheme of things:

"There is an end game that we’re heading for, a place we’d like to see the Marvel Universe at in a few years. This place will allow us to tell some pretty interesting stories while putting many a genie back in the bottle. House of M is one of those stories that help us get there. Perhaps in my mind it’s not the most important because I’m thinking several moves ahead, so perhaps it’s unfair of me to say it’s not the biggest or most important. Perhaps some will disagree with me when we’re finally there perhaps some will agree with me once they can see the entire landscape.

"The fun part will be to take our readers and the characters on the journey that gets us to the end game. I always equate publishing with the world’s largest Sisyphus stone. Once you get that rock to the top of the hill it’s rolling back down waiting to be pushed back up. So, I’m sure that a year or two before we even get to our end game, we’ll be making plans on where the Marvel Universe needs to go next."

So now we know. Even Marvel's Editor-in-Chief doesn't believe the hype that House of M is "the comic event of the decade".

You know it's bad when you've had Marvel's leaked solicits for September for a day and you're still almost too bored to write about them. Let's try anyway, shall we?:

* House of M continues, but doesn't conclude. Weren't there supposed to be two issues each month? September only sees issue 7: "The staggering conclusion to the Marvel event of the decade begins here. The heroes have gathered around the forces of the House of M. But who was really responsible for these heinous crimes against humanity? And will the world ever be the same again?" Here's a clue to the answer of that last question: Most probably, yes.

* "Crossover" concludes in Ultimate Fantastic Four: "On an world they never thought they’d visit, the fledgling F.F. find themselves hunted by the strangest enemies imaginable. And only one man can offer them salvation—the mutant master of magnetism—Magneto! The story you never thought you’d see comes to its shocking end!" Wait, this is the story I never thought I'd see? God, apparently I'm really unimaginative.

* More obvious questions in the Amazing Spider-Man solicit: "Will the web-head and the New Avengers stop the revitalized Hydra from bringing the United States to its knees...?" Oh, I don't know. Surprise me.

* Thank heaven for Spider-Girl: "A hideous spider-creature, a giant turtle, Millie the Model and a road-runner?! Is Spider-Girl really experiencing all of these bizarre transformations or has she finally lost her ever-loving mind? (Of course, there’s always another more sinister possibility...)" See? Now that sounds like fun. Sadly, it's probably not.

* The Sentry gets another mini-series, "FROM THE PAGES OF NEW AVENGERS—THE GOLDEN GUARDIAN OF GOOD IS BACK," according to Mr. Solicitation. Guess that disappoints all the Marvelites at Millarworld who think that House of M will break the internet in half by revealing that the Sentry is really Miracleman.

* Talking of New Avengers and let-downs, "David Finch returns to debut the mysterious New Avenger everyone has been talking about all year!!" in New Avengers itself. But you know why everyone's been talking about the mysterious New Avenger, Marvel? Because they're asking why they're on the cover and not in the book itself. And then they're asking why they should even be bothered. That's why.

* Marvel Milestones points out Marvel's next big launch: "The world still needs...the Champions! Thrill to three titanic tales featuring the fantastic founders of the sensational seventies super-group! A legend is born as Ghost Rider, the most supernatural super hero of all, hits the highway in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #5 (August 1972) – but is he alive or dead? Plus: The Black Widow first teams with Marvel’s Man without Fear in DAREDEVIL #81 (November 1971), and Iceman hips his readers to the inside story of his sub-zero existence in a story from X-MEN #47 (August 1968)."

* The start of the Fantastic Four solicit ruins the end of the previous issue: "Hot on the heels of last issue’s shocking final page, the FF are faced with a two-pronged attack!" See, now people will be reading the issue expecting the shocking final page, and whatever the shock is, it won't be what they expected, and they'll feel disappointed. It's the Marvel version of NBC's "Don't miss the last five minutes" adverts.

* Marvel loses faith in Kitty Pryde: "Retailer Note: This was originally solicited as a 6-issue limited series, but is now a 5-issue limited series."

Newsarama has some pictures and a nicer view of things.

Mark Millar wants to get the world drunk:

"We haven't done this since we launched Millarworld three years ago, but it worked out brilliantly with booze-ups everywhere from New York and LA to Australia and Asia. The idea is very simple: Every big city requires one BOOZE-CHIEF. He or she will be our organizer and should post their names below with details of the pub they've selected for everyone in their city to get rat-arsed in.

"Mark and Sabrina are having a party in Leeds and will post the details below, but London, New York, Paris, etc, are all available. This is the first this has been mentioned so get in quickly if you want to boss your friends around. The pub, once selected, gets details posted here and you can all swap cell-phone numbers to make sure nobody gets lost. We have a huge list of people for all the major cities, but I'd like to see this up on the Bendis boards, etc, too and once all the pubs are finalized we'll post the complete list with addresses on Newsarama with our big Millarworld magazine launch interview.

"This site [Millarworld.net, the forums] will be closed for 24 hours on the final day of the month (to build anticipation) before the huge relaunch of the site, the creative forum, the message-boards and, most importantly, the new Magazine. We'll give more details in the Newsarama interview, but if you want to hear what Joss has to say about Wonder Woman and Serenity and what Goyer has to say about Batman you'll log on first of July (and every month afterwards) for the details."

Suddenly get worried about Neil Kleid:

"Comedy is my life. People don’t know this, but I’m a funny guy beneath my black Goth death armor and my Marilyn Manson makeup. When not reading The Poisoner’s Handbook for the fiftieth time or dreaming up new characters to rewrite into Sandman when Gaiman finally dubs me the up and coming Neil, I sit in my room and write dick jokes. Ones with small chickens in them."

Dick jokes with small chickens in them?

Hmm.

He's talking comedy at Big Pond this week, with Tom Beland and Dan Taylor.

Comics Foundry give away autographed comics. And not just autographed by random "Joe Publics", either:

"Prizes include comics autographed by the legendary Neal Adams, Jim Lee, Brian K. Vaughan and star artists and writers on Gotham Central, Starman, Runaways, Batman Dark Detective, Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Identity Crisis and more!"

Once he made the Entertainment Weekly Must List, you'd think that fame and fortune would have been rushing towards Larry Young. But, oh no! What was rushing towards Larry Young was a sense of his own mortality:

"So, there are three levels to this club we're at, Deep. Downstairs it's nice and cool, everyone's chilling out and it's quiet... Upstairs it was hot as hell and just a crush of people. So, Marc, Mimi and I are talking at this one table in the middle section, watching the beautiful people and all of a sudden I feel this thing hit my arm from above. I look up and there's a waitress that had dropped a bottle of beer on me. It was empty, but it did drop about eight feet and it just sort of glanced off my arm. It didn't hurt, but I said to Mimi, 'If that had been a foot over it would have hit me directly in the head and we'd be having a different evening.' That was the big scandal. I narrowly avoided death."

Speaking of love, Speakeasy Comics is asking for it. And they're willing to pay for it:

"Basically we want to be showered with love from our fans, and we’ve started a fan reward program to coordinate it... In order to be considered for the prize we want a letter from our fans explaining why they like Speakeasy Comics and why they love the titles they’re reading. The letters will be evaluated on written and visual components, so we encourage everyone to be as creative as possible. Multiple entries are welcome, but they had better be all different! Now here’s the tricky part: fans also need to get a retailer to sponsor them. The entry has to have a retailer address, phone number and contact person that we can call to verify that you’re a Speakeasy fan. One retailer sponsor per entry, so if you enter 3 times, you’re going to have to make friends with 3 retailers."

Thank God it's Friday. Is it a bad sign for your week when you love Fridays so much? Probably. Or perhaps it's just a sign that you're a lover in general, the kind of person that Richard Ashcroft wrote his not-really-a-hit "Song For The Lovers" about. The kind of person, in fact, that might be interested in a good Harlequin romance manga from Dark Horse. Editor Shawna Gore explains:

"These are Japanese manga adaptations of best-selling Harlequin Romance titles... Harlequin licensed hundreds of their best selling novels to be adapted into manga by the Japanese publisher Ohzora. They’ve been adapted by some of Japan’s up and coming manga artists as well as top-selling manga artists. There are some well known names on the manga side as well as the American side – if you know your Harlequin writers – in these titles, so really, they’re already a blend of East and West... [W]hen adapting the Harlequin manga was proposed, we had some editors who didn’t know what exactly to make of it, because it’s not Trigun, Akira or Blade of the Immortal. That’s not to say they didn’t get it, just that they weren’t used to working with this type of material. On the other hand, I found the idea fascinating, and really wanted to see it and get it rolling. I mean, a publishing juggernaut married to manga in this fashion? That’s cool."

Denise Mina talks to Newsarama about her upcoming run on Hellblazer:

"JC is a bit of broken man at the start of my run, but that’s all Carey’s doing so I can’t take any credit for that. JC comes to Glasgow with an amnesiac friend but when they get into the friend’s house they find a lot of scary stuff there that can’t be explained. It soon becomes clear that the friend is in a lot of danger and JC has to try and find out what he’s been up to. See? This is a blurb, the para you put on a book jacket which wriggles and giggles and tries not to give anything away. Obtuse enough for you? I hope I have told you something there."

Over at the Isotope lounge, Jock is showing his style sheets for Batman Begins. They're rather nice.

Chris Butcher writes about licensed comics:

"Licensing is a very funny way to do business, in the world of comics. You (as a publisher/studio/creator) pay a bunch of money to somone to publish a comic based on their intellectual property. I say funny, because the other half of the time folks are cranking out storyboards, calling it a graphic novel, and begging someone to pay them some money to turn it into a spectacular puppet show. Licensing someone else's intellectual property means you're actually trying to make money selling comic books, and considering there's the licensing fee, a percentage off the top for the property holders in many cases, and the creative staff making endless changes to ensure that all of the super-marionettes look on-model from panel-to-panel, your costs are pretty darned high. You've got to really sell an awful lot of books to make it worth your while. If your GI JOE or TRANSFORMERS launch at 75,000 or 125,000 copies sold, NO PROBLEM! You've got yourself a porsche! If not? Well the bills still have to get paid at the end of the day..."

Much more at the link; it's well worth a read.

The Bendis Board think about variant covers:

"the first six New Avengers incentive covers were a neat idea, but they don't match up with each other for shit. Wasn't that the whole point, to see all these new talents combine their interpretations of these characters into one solid team image? For as much money as people are spending on these things, I'm sure they have a bitter taste in their mouth, and are not eager to continue buying this stuff. House of M #2: An incredible cover, completely fucked over by some printing problem. Every single copy we received today had the same long scratch-looking mark on the front. Great. These will sell REAL well. When you have to increase your order to get more of these things, and you get an inferior product that won't sell, is this something you are going to continue to do? With as often as we have to deal with delays on high profile Marvel books, don't they think we could have waited a week for the variants, with a clean press run? I should[n't] just blame marvel. DC's shorting initial print runs so they have an excuse to do a pretty unnecessary 2nd, 3rd, and sometimes 4th print with truly uninspired variant covers. See any of the countdown to infinite crisis 2nd prints for what I mean... I'm just terribly afraid that what could be a cool little think for collectors and retailers alike will end up getting over done to death, and done shittily at that, and could end up harming the industry. these statements are my opinion, and mine alone."

"There were six books with variants yesterday. I literally saw people not find the cover they were looking for, and leave. That's how I feel about Red Sonja. I'll love to be in on the book, but it sucks that I'll probably not be able to find the cover I'd prefer.Between the variant madness and all the lame crossovers, it's not really a fun time to be a comics fan."

"bitch bitch bitch. You might not be having fun, but every sales number available tells a different story, as does fan reaction. You are very, very alone."

The Brian K. Vaughan board is upset about recent Marvel creative changes:

"I'm actually very disappointed with Marvel for their dicision to drop Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir from New X-Men: Academy X. So much so that I may drop the book with their departure. IMHO, Marvel has renegged on the support they pledged to give this book. This series has especially suffered from the fact that Marvel has not come through on their promise to bring in a good, regular artist: Michael Ryan. Only DeFilippis and Weir's writing has kept this book afloat, and now Marvel acts as if the writers are the problem. Just like BKV's departure killed Mystique, when a writer(s) is so clearly the driving force behind a series, no one -no matter how good that replacement may be- is going to be able to pick up the pieces. Though I hear the incoming writers are amazing (I'm not a fan of X23, so I can't say I have an opinion), my prediction is this book will unfortunately die by the end of the year."

"They were deffinately made to leave. Academy X being one of the few books I read, one with a distinct lack of Wolverine. Now with the removal of the writers, Michael Ryan as the 'main' artist and the addition of X-23 and her creators I don't know if I will continue enjoying it.. I guess I'll give them the benifit of the doubt."

"I'm indeed crazy bummed about this. Still I enjoy what they created enough to at least give the new team a shot, hoping that they carry the torch with the chracters I've come to enjoy reading a lot more than I thought I would."

A Millarworld thread on Mark's Ultimate Fantastic Four sheds some light on working timeframes at Marvel, as Mark explains:

"Issues are usually being finished around a week before they go off to press and the colouring and lettering is often done in stages as the pages come in. Greg only started this [issue 22, due in August] eight weeks ago and is already on our third issue so we're in great shape. He'll be working on issue four by the time issue one comes out so, although that doesn't SOUND like a huge amount of time, that's probably the furthest ahead I've ever worked with an artist (outside of the Ultimates break where we gave Hitchy some big catch-up time).

"So, in a nutshell, the schedule is great. Land draws at least a page a day and so each issue is being done in 3-4 weeks. If anything, we're ahead of schedule so I'd expect he'll use this as an opportunity to do some covers. He's remarkably fast for a guy who puts this much detail into the books. The mods will know what I mean with ish 22 and the sheer number of Marvel Universe characters here. It looks like Crisis or the original Secret Wars.

"Also, I never, ever work Marvel method. Once or twice in maybe five years, we've made a couple of clunkers and had a panel or two changed, but the way this works is that I write a full script, the artist draws it, I see the art of of curiosity as it's getting lettered and coloured and then they send me a PDF of the issue to check and see all the words and balloons are in the right places. There's never time to change art by that point."

(EDIT: I'd originally said that the thread "reveals that the 'Crossover' storyline isn't an Ultimate/Regular Universe crossover" due to the mention of a "President Thor" only to be emailed and left messages in the comments thread that they're unrelated storyarcs and I was talking out of my ass. To which I add, what else is new, and oops.)

The Marvel Comics/Brian Hibbs legal settlement draws closer to a conclusion:

"When Newsarama last reported on the settlement, Hibbs’ attorney, Nancy Ledy-Gurren explained that Judge Charles Ramos denied approval of the settlement due to the fact that he wanted the class action to be opt-in rather than opt-out. While the judge’s ruling in February could have resulted in Marvel and Ledy-Gurren contacting all the retailers in the class again, she and Marvel took the judges’ ruling to Appellate Court. The Appellate Court unanimously agreed with Marvel and Ledy-Gurren (keeping it as an opt-out), and has ordered Judge Ramos to allow the settlement to move forward.

"The Judge now has, according to Hibbs, 30 days to sign the order from the Appellate Court, and from there, Marvel will have 30 days to pay all the settlement amounts due to retailers. As Hibbs sees it, affected retailers who filed the appropriate paperwork with the Court could see their credit vouchers as early as mid to late August."

After being delayed until September because of artist Steve McNiven's schedule, Ultimate Secret has a creative change - Tom Raney takes over the art for the final two issues. Joe Quesada explains why:

"While our original goal was to have Steve finish Secret, and ever growing deadline pressure made it very tough to wait. This pressure not only came from our scheduling of next year's big Ultimate events but also Steve's next project which is going to be huge. So several factors went into this decision and all made tougher by the fact that Steve is working his tail off. Thankfully what has made the medicine go down smoother is that Tom Raney became available to do the final two issues. I don't think that anyone can complain that an artist of Tom's caliber will be finishing the series."

You don't think anyone can complain? Joe, meet Newsarama:

"There is very little I hate more than switching artists mid-storyline ... except switching artists in a %$!@#*@# MINI-SERIES. Why did they make McNiven fill in on New Avengers if he was going to need to get a fill in on Ultimate Secret? Why didn't they just have Raney do New Avengers? !@#$(*#$*(!@$*(!@$*(@#%*(!@#%*(!@$*Y!@#% ~!!!! GR! You don't switch directors in the middle of a frickin' movie, do you? (Okay, yeah, I know, Gone with the Wind had like four directors, and Richard Marquand was more or less pushed aside on Jedi after a month or so, but still.)"

"I can't believe they have delayed the book till September AND changing artists! Hell, they should just throw in the towel on this one and get someone to finish the last three issue posthaste and walk away from this disaster."

"marvel needs to stop jumping the gun. I understand that artist can be slow about meeting deadlines, but if you have a 4 issue series, then don't ship, heck don't even solicit #1 till you have just about everything in the bag."

"Disgusting! I really feel cheated!"

Fantagraphics' Eric Reynolds wants to make something clear:

"A number of retailers whom I respect have dressed me down for comments I made last week about the first issue of Mome debuting at the MoCCA and San Diego conventions before hitting stores in late July. They believed that I was actively encouraging folks to buy the book from us at a con rather than waiting to get it at your local comic shop, which was never my intention, but it brings up a point that I can never emphasize enough: please support your local comic book retailer, if they support the books you like. Too few shops anymore support the alternative presses like Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, Picturebox, etc. If your local store does, they deserve your business."

I found this interesting (from the letters section Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter), mostly because I'm with Rob. What's the deal with these?

"I recently saw a collection of Max Allan Collins' first miniseries for CSI, that IDW originally put out. The thing about this collection, though, was that it was sized like a paperback novel, with each page having only one panel, so it gave it some heft. It was black and white, which made it cost as much as a normal paperback. There were a couple racked with the graphic novels at the bookstore, but the majority were racked with the other CSI novelizations and with Collins' other novels. Is there any way to find out how well these are doing?"

Tom has some sales figures, but I'm wondering whether I've missed promo bumpf on this format. Does anyone know anything 'bout these books?

Over at Comic Foundry, Robert Venditti talks about Top Shelf's first "mainstream" book, The Surrogates:

"From the beginning, I knew I wanted the series to be five issues. When I was jotting down my notes and cobbling together the plot, I made sure to end each issue with a revealing plot point or a moment of heightened dramatic tension, something to bring the reader back for the next issue. There was a fair amount of strategy involved, as with each issue there were several subplots that needed to develop in order for me to reach the desired ending, and I only had 24 pages to work with. There were scenes that I rewrote multiple times, only to leave them out in the final version because they were taking up space I needed for more important material. I really liked some of those scenes, too. But in the end, if something is preventing you from developing the characters and forwarding the plot as much as you could be, then it doesn’t belong. Everything has to serve the story."

An old familiar favorite returns at Millarworld:

"On another thread, a comment was made that I have seen in a number of places: 'Well, THEY(?) keep saying DC doesn't have to be profitable. They consider the comic arm R&D. If the books make a profit, cool. If not, they still have the concept to be dusted off later.' how true is this? From reading 'the books', DC Comics is a standard business unit within the Warner Bros Entertainment group. Anyone with industry knowledge want to give me the lowdown?"

It must be the start of the pre-SDCC lull. The response, anyway:

"If anyone believes that WB is cool with DC not turning in a profit, they are absolutely crazy."

"From a stockholder's point of view, the Marvel investor is buying into a company with an important stake in the publishing of comic books (though, of course, films and licensing are the larger moneymakers today). The Time-Warner investor, on the other hand, is looking at a company with a number of media arms that dwarf the actual comic business; their decision to invest or not is unlikely to hinge on how Teen Titans is selling. What DC's comics publishing business (as opposed to their films and licensing) adds to the TW bottom line wouldn't buy the posters and billboards for the next Harry Potter film. I have no idea how that affects the thinking of anyone in a position of corporate responsibility at either company, but I can see how one could logically conclude that DC can be allowed a bit more leeway in terms of turning a profit. Doesn't make it true, of course."

"Things to remember about the DC sales structure. A Single does not have turn a profit, but a if it goes to trade it needs to make money. Also all of the real big profits come from the lack of lisencing fees to be paid out between the film and the comics division."

Retailer Steven Bates talks about comic book movies:

"People ask me all the time if a new movie, based on a comic book character or series, brings in new customers to the hobby. While we sometimes see a blip in interest following a movie (Ghost World, Blade, Spawn, Hellboy, and Constantine all come to mind), I would be hesitant to call these curious dabblers in comics 'converts' or 'regular customers.' Sometimes it sticks, but often the paper counterparts pale in comparison to the big screen versions. Ignoring low budget and/or blatantly bad movies, like Man-Thing, Catwoman, and Mystery Men, movies are now capable of doing everything comic books could, only seemingly better. Where we once relied on comics for that magical combination of myth-making characterization and muscle-bound choreography, now we turn to movies for the same emotional and seismic impact. For that matter, as one comic book writer told me, we can get both the soap opera AND the bombastic battles every week on WWE, so why read about 'em?"

Dark Horse create a movie tie-in that isn't a movie tie-in:

"The publisher is currently running an abridged adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds by Ian Edginton and D’Israeli at its website. The story kicked off Friday, June 17th, and won’t be ending until the last Martian drops. The creative team, of course, is also responsible for Scarlet Traces and the upcoming Scarlet Traces: The Great Game (due in November), two stories set in a post-War of the Worlds world. Edginton and D’Israeli’s story is the classic original, recounting the events after a Martian craft crashes in Victorian England."

Have I missed something, or has Rich Johnston just decided to quietly give up on that whole journalism thing and hope no-one notices? This week's LiTG features stories that could've easily run in the column during the muck-raking rumormonger days in terms of both tone and content - We get updates on JMS's Marvel career, culled from messageboard posts, a non-story about Grant Morrison's new position at DC and what that may possibly mean about an old project that may possibly have been turned down for a rumored reason, another non-story about the lack of good creator feuds (again culled from messageboard posts), a small interview following up on a story from the column back when it was a rumor column, and two plugs for upcoming Rich work. Whatever happened to the promise that the journalistic version of the column showed with that Alan Moore column? Bah.

Newsarama breaks down the MTV interview with Avi Arad about Marvel's movies into bite-size chunks of craziness. For example:

"On next August’s Ghost Rider, Arad said the big-budget Nick Cage 'morality tale' will sport a PG-13 rating and a 'Southern rock' soundtrack and ethos, that one scene will feature Ghost Rider facing off against a CGI, The Perfect Storm-like tidal wave, and at one point he’ll be completely submerged... though Arad added you can’t extinguish hellfire."

Because when someone says "Ghost Rider" to me, I don't think "Motorcycle-riding stuntman who has a flaming skull for a head because he sold his soul or something like that", I think "A giant tidal wave." Along similar lines, Arad compared a prospective Submariner movie to Jurassic Park, and described the in-development Ant-Man movie as "a Honey I Shrunk the Superhero kind of story."

Okay, so with the DC crossover books getting the sales boosts and the buzz, and fans all a-tizzy about the Geoff Johns/Grant Morrison consulting roles, not to mention Batman Begins tickling the nerd clitoris and Superman Returns getting mainstream media play already, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Marvel fans might be feeling a little bit sad these days. Where are their buzzworthy books? How can anyone be excited about a sequel to Avengers Disassembled and the promise of a new Spider-Woman title?

Well, apparently, very easily, as Newsarama regular DaReekster demonstrates:

"2005 is the year of Marvel! Just look at what we've got lined up... House of M by Brian Michael Bendis.. the man, the myth, the writing machine! Top 10, baby!! Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man by Peter David and Mike Wieringo!!.. need I say more? How about Top 10! Joss Whedon and John Cassaday confirmed for another twelve issues on Astonishing X-Men following a brief break.. Top 10? Heck, yes! **Spider-Woman by Brian Michael Bendis?! Say it ain't so, DR.. say it ain't so!! Top 10 for sure! Asked by a fan (well, more like begged) recently during a regular message board Q&A session on his Jinxworld website, 'If there ever is a Spider-Woman ongoing, Please, Brian, please...You write it!!!' Bendis replied, 'It’s cooking.'** Need I even mention the continuation of The Ultimates by Millar and Co.? Oooh yeah! Go, Marvel, go!"

Oooh yeah, indeed.

Heidi MacDonald offers up a short essay about comics in bookstores, and what this may mean to the industry, to the medium, and to us:

"[T]he more people I talk to, the more uncertain everyone is over the changes. Comics natural sense of disenfranchisement has sent a tide of dread over the shores of Skull Island. The new club that wants us as members just can't be good. Of course it's not that simple, and Skull Island's shores are rocky and treacherous. The first worrying trend is all the cartoonists nurtured in the playpen of SPX ankling their long-time publishers for Random House and so on. Alternative and Top Shelf seem to have been the biggest victims of this trend -- Fantagraphics has had a long term relationship with Pantheon over such cartoonists as Chris Ware and Dan Clowes, and seem to be used to it by now.

"It's also not at all clear what kind of penetration these big houses are going to get into the comics shop distribution channel. (That's the kind of fancy talk we've been picking up lately.) Most of those books would only have sold a thousand copies in comics shops to begin with, but it would be a shame to cut off the Comic Reliefs and Hanleys' along the way. Mainstream publishers don't seem to have a clue as to how the LCS system works -- not that you can blame 'em really -- but this is something that will have to be worked out. Still, there seems to be a lot of worrying about the bookstore trend. Will comics really be able to survive in the bookstore arena, or is it just another hurdle that can never be cleared?"

More at the link.

The comics internet's response to yesterday's announcement that Grant Morrison is to, apparently, be the Julius Schwartz for DC for the next few years has been for the most part one of excited joy. Millarworld, for example, can hardly contain itself:

"There is a god. And his name is Grant Morrison."

"This is amazing news!!!! I trust Grant with anything!!!! He could take crap and make it smell like roses."

"In Grant we trust! It's currently amazing to watch as long time Marvel zombie friends start taking notice of DC and suddenly deeming it's universe coherence as a major turning on point. Congrats to Didio & co. for pulling this off."

The Bendis Board is also, for the most part, enthusiastic, but some are less so:

"Might be cool, might be awful."

"so he's like DC's version of bendis now"

"At least Bendis makes people sound like people instead of insane."

The Joe Quesada board has similar thoughts about Morrison's new role being similar to the unofficial one Bendis has been playing at Marvel:

"[W]hat are the people who bash Marvel for having Bendis and Millar 'run' the company going to do now that DC are doing it with job titles and everything?"

"Maybe people question Marvel's reliance on BMB & Millar, not because they are relying so much on two writers for the bulk of their mainstream line, but because they don't believe that those two are up to the task they were given. Certainly Stan & Jack were up to the task and I don't hear even the most devout of DC fans criticizing Marvel over Silver Age era Marvel relying too much on THEM."

"I am of the opinion, and it's only an opinion, that Johns and Morrison are more flexible writers than Bendis and Millar. All four are very talented and successful writers, all four have acheived both critical and commercial success at various times. In terms of who I like reading and have enjoyed, Johns and Morrison tie for top place. Johns is more consistant, but Morrison can be brilliant, even if some of his stories fall flat for me. Then Millar, who gets close to Johns and Morrison but isnt as much to my taste as either of the first two. I don't much like Bendis stuff anymore, but for the first thirty or forty books of his I read I liked it a lot, so he comes in last for me. Infinite Crisis may be a huge suckfest, but Johns has not let me down yet, and has, for me, untangled a LOT of crappy continuity over the last few years (Hal Jordan, JSA), wheras Bendis has, for me, created a lot of crappy continuity over the last few years(Daredevil, Avengers). I guess it's about personal taste, and mine leans towards Johns and Morrison although Bendis and Millar are both good."

But that's enough about Millar and Bendis! The John Byrne board focuses on what's important, in a thread entitled "Too much power for one man?":

"Grant Morrison leaves me cold. Hopefully he won't ruin any character I care about."

"Ugh. He even compares himself to Julius Schwartz. Whatever. Now, if only he understood superheroes."

"as someone said before, he my Love superheroes, but he doesn't respect them. I think i would much prefer someone who didn't like superheroes but was a professional who respected the work, and characters, and past creators - Johns and Morrison seem to be complete opposites, a traditionalist and someone who has never gotten a characterization right in his life. I've hoped all along that Seven Soldiers was out of continuity, now they pull this . . ."

Via Tom Spurgeon, it had to happen:

"Who's stronger Superman or Hulk? Who's faster Barry Allen or Wally West? Who cares?! The most important comics debate is one we hope to settle with a six-week battle royale tournament -- Which comics-book babe is the hottest? A sexist question? Certainly. But it's one comic fans have been arguing for decades. We've rounded up 66 hot comic-book ladies (two come in pairs) and now it's your turn to decide who's the fairest of them all. As the summer begins, so does our battle. Though the babes have been picked, only you can determine who moves on and who gets left in the gutter... How you choose to vote is completely up to you. The term 'Hottest Babe' can mean different things to people. Do you vote for the largest bust size, the best hair, skimpiest costume, fighting prowess, intellect? It's up to you -- whatever punches your ticket. Vote and see if your picks make it to the next round. Who will be declared the Hottest Comic-Book Babe? You decide."

Random disturbing phrase from the "nominations": "Now that Kitty's all grown up, she can phase through us anytime."

Fantagraphics' Gary Groth writes about his MOCCA trip:

"I get to the airport in plenty of time, but I have a weird experience in the queue to go through the bomb-detector. I put my metal objects in the tray, as instructed. Since I would just as soon not take off my shoes, I wait to be told whether I have to or not. One would think this would be standardized by now throughout US airports, but I've discovered that sometimes you do, sometimes you don't, that there's no rhyme or reason why you do or don't have to take off your shoes. I wait for instructions and the security guy says, 'I recommend you take off your shoes.' Recommend? Immediately my anti-authoritarian antennae start twitching. What the hell does that mean? This is the first time I've heard this peculiarly ambiguous locution used in this context. Is this what they teach security guys at airports to say at airport security school? 'We recommend that you take off your shoes'? As in 'We recommend that you do not carry .44 Magnums on the plane'? I ask him what that means. He repeats that he recommends that I take off my shoes. But, I don't have to, I ask? No, I don't have to, but blahblahblah. So, I can walk through the metal detector with my shoes on? That's cool? We recommend, etc. Well, what the hell. I want to know what this means, so I stroll through with my shoes on. The second I reach the other side, this same guy furiously signals to two other security goons to accost me, take me over to the side, 'wand' me down, and demand that I take my shoes off. Now I know."

Brian Michael Bendis is feeling faux-indecisive, asking the following question on the message board populated by his fans:

"Should I Do A Panel In Chicago? I wasn't going to because i can't top the car wreck of last years and people will come expecting one, but at the same stuff is happening. should i? i guess so."

The Bendis Boarders play their parts well:

"Do a panel to pimp your shit, plus you need to call Levitz a douche bag just because."

"To hell with Chicago. You should go to San Diego and pimp the game, bitch!"

"I think you should at least try to create a worse car wreck."

Marvel and Fox team up to fight crime. No, wait. I mean, team up to fight another studio's superhero movie:

"Even before the film has gone into production, Fox and Marvel have filed suit to prevent Zoom starring Tim Allen from ever seeing the light of day. Based on the comic Zoom’s Academy for the Super-Gifted by Jason Lethcote, Marvel and Fox claim that the film version of the same is confusingly similar to its X-Men franchise. While the graphic novel was not strikingly similar to the Marvel movie franchise, it is alleged that the script for the film is a near copy of the film. Starring Tim Allen, Zoom features an out of shape superhero (Allen) who is called back into action to train a new group of teens to be the world’s next generation of superheroes. Fox and Marvel claim that Zoom copies many elements from X-Men, including an underground training facility, teenage mutant super-heroes and a dark government program looking to control the heroes."

Is Ryan Higgins a friend to all? Of course he is, because he sends me links to rants like this one, from a fan on the John Byrne forum:

"There's an active hatred of Byrne in what's left of comic fandom. Byrne could be curing cancer with his books, but the whinny crap-eating donkey-raping pigs that make up comic fandom will still whine and cry about it, and will actively campaign to get his stuff cancelled. But, lo and behold, each time that happens, he's back with another book. And each time, we all huff and puff and try to keep the books alive, and it's a losing battle, but... that's looking at the smaller picture - the bigger picture is that, no matter what, each month, we'll get some Byrne, no matter how much the f*cking scum that make up comic fandom whine, cry, beg, cheat and steal. So they can have their little victories of getting each book cancelled - let them have it - it's all they have in their sad mastabatory lives - yet we, the fans of John Byrne's work, continue to get his stuff each month, no matter what.

"Remember - all those sh*t-eating pigs can do is get books cancelled here and there - in the bigger picture? We still get Byrne every month. We're still a strong enough base of fans to merrit monthly work - DC knows that. No matter what, if we look at the bigger picture, we're always the winners here.

"Take it a step further; we've got the high ground anyway - we're celebrating something we like. Those botched abortions spend, nay, waste time on things they DON'T like. Can you think of anything sadder than that? Makes crib-death look funny.

"So, screw it. Let's be really honest here. We all knew Doom Patrol was doomed from the get-go - it's a serving of fois de gras at a pie-eating contest - frankly, comic fandom, that fat, bloated, gassy should've-been-a-blow-job that it is, is just too f*cking stupid to enjoy it. It never stood a chance. We should all understand that. So why waste tears over a non-existant 19ith issue? Be glad that we managed to get 18, and look forward to whatever Byrne will do in it's place.

"Remember, true believers - we've just better people. We enjoy something. Stop and pat yourself on the back.

"No matter what the fat f*ck at your local store tells you, no matter what you read on-line, no matter what it says in the fan magazines... you are the winner here. You are the better person.

"Besides... even if you're not a good person, at least you don't get some sick sexual pleasure by massaging your limp and flacid sore-ridden member when attacking a guy who makes super-hero stories. Seriously - sadder than crib-death."

I can't work out if the best part of that is that the writer obviously has some problem with swearing, and so he censors one letter out of each swear word, instead of just coming up with another way of saying the same thing without swearing at all, or if the best part is the wonderful variety of insulting fans who disagree with the author. You can just imagine him writing it. "Ohhhh... Those fans who don't like what I like... they're 'whinny' crap-eating donkey-raping pigs! No, no! Wait! They're shit-eating pigs! That's right! And, uh, and... and they're fat!"

Ryan Higgins, God bless you for bringing this joy to my life.

Fucking. Hell. DC really do believe in forward planning, don't they? And they've got one of the best in the business to do it, this time:

"As [Dan] DiDio went on to recount, the ideas [cut from Seven Soldiers] were just too good to waste, and he figured that he should just put [Grant] Morrison to work in the DCU in a consulting/development relationship, similar in a way to what Geoff Johns has with the publisher. Rather than working to shepherd characters and situations into and out of Infinite Crisis more smoothly however, Morrison is looking at the post-Crisis DCU, helping to populate it, or, more accurately re-populate it with some revitalized characters and concepts. Some will be written by Morrison, while others will be moved to other creators for execution... Both DiDio and Morrison stressed that the writer isn’t pulling books or concepts out from under creators and handing them back a radically altered concept that they have to shoehorn into their existing plans, rather, Morrison is looking through DC’s catalog of characters and concepts that haven’t seen the light of day for a while, and 're-imagining' them for a modern audience. Rather than working with the 'known' of the DCU, Morrison is looking to bring back the unknown to today's fans, or at the very least, the largely forgotten and lost to time."

Again, much more, including Morrison's take on the gig - the "newly sentient" DC Universe idea gets mentioned again - at the link.

Tom Spurgeon on DC being #1:

"My hunch is that DC believes by planning well and planning ahead they can add vigor to its overall line strength coming out of this sequence of 'Important' Mini-Series. We'll see. For now this is a lot of money tied up in stuff that history tells us doesn't lead to much of anything but more of the same, just less so. The crazy thing is that for once, there's no plausible deniability about what is going to happen. The direct market is already showing signs of weakness in the middle, and has for quite some time. You keep pulling a piece of taffy so that there's a big chunk at one end, and eventually that middle gets pulled apart. That supposedly good May for DC was a month of overall decline for comic books in the direct market. Compare the two publishers dominating periodical comics and the nine publishers able to launch a top 20 graphic novel, and it's pretty easy to guess which category has the ability to grow. Of course, it may soon be that DC and Marvel take their market dominance to this category and strangle the shit out of it, too."

Much more at the link.

Breaking the official embargo by a few hours, Broken Frontier has the DC solicits for September up already. What's happening in the last few months countdowning to Infinite Crisis?

* Bill Willingham is having fun keeping Robin close to the original concept: "As Tim prepares to make the biggest decision of his life - whether or not to leave Batman's employ for a Black Ops job in the U.S. government - an old flame comes back into his life. The problem? This one died in the Gotham Gang War. Love has never been so creepy!" Zombies and Black Ops. In Robin. Yeah, sure. Whatever.

* A very bizarre way to end the solicit to Superman/Shazam: First Thunder: "On sale Sept 8 • 1 of 4 • 40 pg, FC, $3.50 US Edited by Mike Carlin". No other book gets an edited by credit.

* Superman shows that he loves crossovers more than anyone in the latest issue of his eponymous book: "Superman's being pulled in all directions in an issue that ties into all four miniseries springing from COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS! Omac is running loose. Villains are united. Magic is everywhere. Naturally, it's a perfect time for Bizarro to show up!"

* "The Birds return to Metropolis - and one of them's staying for good! Three guest artists - including Bruce Timm - tell the tale of one unforgettable moving day!" Bruce Timm! Bruce Timm! I loves me some Bruce Timm. I also loves me some Gail Simone. Therefore, science states that I should loves me September's issue of Birds of Prey.

* The post-Geoff Johns Flash gets a nice start, with Stuart Immonen and Kathryn Kuder co-writing and Steve Lightle illustrating a fill-in.

* Hey, remember Identity Crisis? Green Arrow does: "Green Arrow faces off against an old villain who's suddenly become much more deadly. His name is Doctor Light, and he wants revenge on the heroes who violated his mind! Guest-starring Black Lightning and the JLA!"

Not convinced? Look! James Jean cover!



* DC's Archive series goes... unexpected: "The first archive in a series collecting the adventures of Kamandi, the last boy on Earth, by Jack Kirby! In these tales from KAMANDI #1-10 (1972-1973), Kamandi - one of the few survivors of the Great Disaster - must make his way in a world populated by bizarre mutated animals and other strange wonders!" Kamandi? We get Kamandi before we get the Fourth World Archives, or even OMAC?

* The solicit for JSA seems to come out of nowhere: "Alan Scott pays a visit to Hal Jordan as Hal prepares to leave Earth with Donna Troy. But Alan has one last favor to ask Hal, and it will be one of the hardest things a Green Lantern has ever tried to accomplish!" Wait, Hal Jordan's leaving Earth? With Donna Troy? What, can none of DC's resurrected heroes stay on the planet anymore?

* Huzzah for DC's unexpected digests! "A digest-sized collection reprinting SGT. ROCK'S PRIZE BATTLE TALES, plus stories from the pages of G.I. COMBAT and OUR ARMY AT WAR! It's 10 classic stories featuring nonstop action direct from the Silver Age of comics!" and "A manga-sized collection featuring the classic origin and first adventures of the Swamp Thing (also collected in the full-size tpb SWAMP THING: DARK GENESIS), including the first 10 issues of the original SWAMP THING title, all by the legendary team of writer Len Wein and artist Berni Wrightson." DC's Essentials line, "Showcase Presents" also launches, with Superman and Green Lantern both getting volumes. Welcome to DC remembering that they have a pretty good library of old stuff worth reprinting relatively cheaply.

* Say what you like about The Omac Project, the covers by Ladronn have been great:



* Grant Morrison blows our little minds with the last issue of Manhattan Guardian: "Is a broken, embittered Jake Jordan ready for 'Sex Secrets of the Newsboy Army'? Who were Captain 7, Kid Scarface, Baby Brains, Ali-Ka-Zoom, Chop Suzi, Li'l Hollywood and Millions the Mystery Mutt? What was the vow they made as children outside the United Nations building? What did they do that was so wrong - and why will the entire world suffer in an alien hell if the Guardian makes the wrong decision this time?"

* Meanwhile, Seven Soldiers rattles on with the first issue of Mister Miracle: "A young Shiloh Norman is all grown up, and now, with the help of his Mother Box - an alien computer - he has become the world's coolest escape artist, a cross between David Blaine and Puff Daddy. After a hallucinatory encounter with the being called Metron, the formerly aimless and dissatisfied Mister Miracle finds himself with a new mission in life. He now believes he has evidence of an apocalyptic cosmic war being fought through human agents on Earth! Shiloh's seen the light. He knows the score - and he may have lost his mind!"

* Wildcats relaunches. As does Authority's Kev series of specials, by Garth Ennis. Woo.

* Now that we know that Alan Moore is leaving DC, their first step towards reassuring ABC fans that they won't fuck up the line? The Official Handbook to the ABC Universe. No, seriously: "ABC: A-Z is the first in a series of six one-shot specials featuring card-stock covers brought to you by an amazing collection of comic book creators, filled with page after page of informative material guaranteed to satisfy ABC fans everywhere! This initial volume reveals all the secrets and will answer any questions about Tom Strong and Jack B. Quick, along with their supporting casts and gadgets!" Oh dear.

* Finally, Vertigo quits: "In this virtuoso graphic novel, Harvey Pekar - whose American Book Award-winning series American Splendor was the basis for the celebrated film of the same name - tells the story of his troubled teen years for the first time, when he would beat up any kid who looked at him wrong just to win the praise of his peers. And when he failed to impress, whether on the football team, in math class, in the Navy or on the job, he simply gave up. A true tour-de-force, THE QUITTER is the universal tale of a young man's search for himself through the frustrations, redemptions and complexities of ordinary life."

ICv2 looks at market trends for last month:

"Graphic novels were again the growth engine for over-all comic dollars in May, with a 36% growth rate in graphic novel dollars outweighing a 4% decline in periodical dollars to produce a 1% increase in dollar sales for comic periodicals and graphic novels combined vs. the same month in 2004. May completed a five month string of growing graphic novel sales in comic stores. Comic periodicals have been flat to down during the same period."

Joe Rice talks about alternative ways to "push comics forward":

"Superhero comics usually have the fashion sense of, well, a middle-aged nerd. And I'm not talking about the superhero costumes, either. That's another subject entirely. I'm talking about how superhero artists often depict people in normal clothes. The clothes usually range from nondescript (Kirby's infamous crowd scenes, to use an excellent artist as an example) to insane retarded blind person. It doesn't have to be that way. You don't even have to go out a lot or live in New York (but it does help). Fashion magazines are available everywhere, and some of them even have good stuff in them. Hell, Vice Magazine has great examples of 'Do's' for free on their website! Great artists like Dan Clowes know that how a character dresses shows a lot about them (contrast Random Wilder to Dan Pussey to David Boring). Not every character should be a fashion plate, but their clothes SHOULD say something about them. But mainstream guys seem to miss the boat most of the time."

Val Staples talks about his continuing Crossgen-related debt at All The Rage:

"I sold off all my MVCreations prototype stuff, comps, rares, etc... anything of value to a fan/collector. It kinda stinks I don't have anything to remind me any more of what we produced at MV aside from a few copies of each comic that I kept. But that's just how it is... Thus far, I've taken care of a number of artists... But I still have about $45,000.00 in artist debt to tackle, about half of which is due to my friends Emiliano Santalucia and Enza Fontana. I still live with my family, which I have done since January. And I'm almost out of personal belongings. So, I've cut costs as much as I can. After this last auction, I will need to rely on my freelance work to pay off the remaining debt."

Brian Michael Bendis explains Why Spider-Woman:

"There isn’t a person on this web site who doesn't understand the feeling of some personal connection to a character or that the character's existence inspires wild imagination. For me, Jessica Drew is right up there with Spider-Man, Daredevil and Nick Fury in that regard. She's also way hot."

Here's one for all you art lovers out there: Jock previews two upcoming Losers covers.

Brian Hibbs puts it in terms that everyone can understand:

"Here’s the weird thing, most every recent sign coming from modern DC makes the company look, on the outside at least, as no more than a company obsessed with Market Share. This is a jarring change for me at least, as I clearly remember Paul Levitz, 10 years or so ago, explaining at one of the RRP meetings that DC wasn’t interested in being #1, in and of itself – that DC was more interested in supporting creative people, and that, in many ways, being #2 was a constant prod to produce better work. And you know what? As a philosophy, that’s the correct one.

"The long term health and stability of the Direct Market depends upon keeping a long-term perspective of what is important. That a book like, say, Transmetropolitan, just barely broke even (or, even, lost money) as a periodical release is far less important in the face of those 10 Transmetropolitan trade paperbacks on the shelf that generate money month-in, month-out, forever... So, when I see signs that DC is now more interested in something as pointless and as ephemeral as market share, it scares me deeply, deeper than I probably have been since the Heroes World boondoggle.

"Why is chasing after market share ultimately pointless? Because it’s about stealing (or, if you prefer 'capturing') the customers of another business, not creating new customers."

Newsarama has May's sales chart. DC win, and make me wonder where all the Green Lantern fans came from all of a sudden:

"Just two months removed from Marvel’s dominant and unprecedented margin of victory in Diamond’s March 2005 Actual Sales Market Share charts, DC Comics has built upon their April comeback and in May had their best showing in recent memory, charting in at the #1 positions in both the Dollar (percentage of dollars generated for all products sold) and Unit (the percentage of raw books sold) Market Share categories in the same month for the first time in nearly 5 years. DC led the Dollar Share category with 35.29% to Marvel’s 34.79% and the Unit Share category with 41.03% to Marvel’s 39.80% (full chart below). To break it down for historical perspective (meaning the modern Diamond era), DC’s victory in the Dollar Share category is its first since August 2003 when they eclipsed Marvel by a little more than half a percentage point, 33.12% to 32.53%. And you have to go back even farther and to an Initial Orders sales chart (meaning not reflecting reorders) to find a month DC led in the Unit Share category – January 2002 to be exact – and that 'win' did not come without some controversy."

Well, now we know why Marvel is going all out with the variant covers.

For those of you who can listen - Frank Miller talks about Batman on NPR.

Image's September solicits are up at CBR, and in some odd draft form. Do they always have things like "AD COPY" and "TAGLINE" before the ad copy and tag lines? It seems bizarrely transparent. Anyway, of interest:

* Fell, Warren Ellis's new series, launches: "Detective Richard Fell is transferred over the bridge from the big city to Snowtown, a feral district whose police roster numbers three-and-a-half people (one detective has no legs). Dumped in this collapsing urban trashzone, Richard Fell is starting all over again. In a place where nothing seems to make any sense, Fell clings to the one thing he knows to be true: Everybody's hiding something. Even him."

(Amusingly, the full solicit continues with "FELL is a new series by WARREN ELLIS (TRANSMETROPOLITAN, PLANETARY) and BEN TEMPLESMITH (30 DAYS OF NIGHT), about murder, love, strangeness - and what people hide" before saying that the tagline is "Everybody's hiding something." Do you think they're trying to tell us that there's something about someone hiding something in this comic? If only they weren't being so damn subtle about it.)

* Pigtale creator Ovi Nedelcu gets a sketchbook, Desene: "These sketches and scribbles are taken directly from both his analog and digital sketchbooks and collected for the first time ever in this new deluxe hardcover book. Also included are Ovi's notes and thoughts as he takes you through some of the processes and techniques involved in his work."

* The Gift is aiming high. Its ad copy is "GUARANTEED TO BE THE MOST TALKED ABOUT BOOK OF THE YEAR!" which, really, is just blatantly untrue in this year of House of M and Infinite Crisis. And All-Star Batman. And All-Star Superman.

* Eric Stephenson and The V's Jamie McKelvie do what looks like an Oni book, Long Hot Summer: "Alone amidst a crowd of Southern California mods obsessed with scooters, soul and style, nobody takes Ken seriously. He mooches everything from rides to cigarettes to meals - usually from his best friend, Steve. But that's all about to change. Ken has just met the girl of his dreams. Too bad she only has eyes for Steve. It's going to be a long, hot summer."

* By the time you get to the Top Cow solicits, you'll be convinced that you're reading first draft solicits by mistake. Particularly when you see the line "NOTE: All Wallace & Gromit stuff is on a double-page spread ad". "Stuff"? There's a technical term.

Pantheon's upcoming titles confirmed; art comics fans excited by reissuing of mostly old material:

"Pantheon will release The ACME Novelty Library on September 20th, a new hardcover by superstar cartoonist Chris Ware. The 9" x 15" 108 page book, which will sport an oversized belly band, is a tabloid-sized collection of single page cartoons, along with a luminescent map of the heavens, assorted cut-out activities, a history of the ACME Novelty Company, rare photos, and more. MSRP will be $27.95... Pantheon will release Charles Burns' Black Hole on October 18th. The 352-page comic-sized hardcover will collect the ten issues of the comics published by Fantagraphics over the last ten years. And the two-volume Persepolis series will get some new packaging for the holidays. A softcover edition of Persepolis 2 will be released. And on October 25th, a boxed set of both softcover volumes will street at the bargain price of $23.90."

Also in the article, and of more interest to gossip hounds like myself:

"Craig Thompson has also signed to do a graphic novel for Pantheon. Habibi will be about his travels in Morocco; no publishing date is scheduled. This is a one book deal for now, according to Pantheon. We asked Chris Staros of Top Shelf, Thompson's current publisher, what the future held for Top Shelf's releationship with Thompson and he declined comment."

Anytime anyone declines to comment, I immediately read something into the decision. I can't help myself.

Mark Millar and Brian Bendis - "Wild" and "crazy" guys. Mr. Millar? If you would begin:

"Bendis said he had enough of me showing off about how our Crossover story launching Greg Land and my run on UFF (next month) is going to kick the arse of New Avengers both in terms of quality and sales. He asked me to put my money where my mouth is and Joe Q gleefully started rubbing his hands together because, well, he likes this kind of thing. As you know, the Jim Cav/ Superman bet where I lost a grand to Harry Knowles (plus some other bets you never heard of) means that my wife has banned me from throwing any more cash around. Thus, the stakes just got a little higher and I hereby promise that if New Avengers outsells my Ultimate FF ish 21 in July I will go through the entire Chicago Wizard Con completely sober this year. THAT'S how confident I am (and yeah, I might have had a peek at some of the early tracking numbers before I made this bet, but so what?)

"New Avengers is indeed a monster, but Crossover features pretty much every character in the Marvel line-up drawn by Greg Land and some of them have their tits out. You really can't beat that. Also, there's another little surprise up my sleeve which you won't know until you see this so I'm expecting a very fast sell-out too and a quick second printing."

Mr. Bendis? I believe it's your turn:

"honestly, i didn;t want any part of this, but mark shaving his head sounds like a real bet!! he'd buy 50k of his own book not ot have to do that. hmmm... well, mark? ready to really bet, i'll shave your head at the marvel panel in chi if and when you lose."

Your show, Mr. Millar:

"It's a deal. I'll look good regardless."

Todd McFarlane may be returning to Spawn, according to Newsarama:

"In regards to the Spawn comic book, McFarlane said that he’s working to reassert himself back into the title. 'I sort of let Spawn the comic book go on autopilot, and we've got issue 150 coming up (146 is on the stands now) and I want to shake things up here so I just had a two-hour conversation with somebody overseas who might come on board in a creative capacity in bringing on a new editor and sort of go in a different direction, I'm sort of saying, ‘Hey it's time to shake the dust off this guy a little bit, and get people excited about the comic book.’'"

Look! It's Entertainment Weekly's annual Must List, of people, movies, music and other things that are the coolest of the cool and the tops and the Louvre Museum of the world. And it's chock-full of very good things indeed. Why, there's The Daily Show: Indecision 2004, the DVD collection of their election coverage from last year. And there's Sean Maher, who sadly isn't the blogger behind The Zealot's Lore, but instead the actor from Serenity.

But keep scrolling down the list and you'll find two names very familiar. Congratulations, then, to Robert Kirkman, "Profilic Comics Writer", and Larry Young, "Indie-Comics Editor". Here's hoping that Hollywood reads EW, beats more of a path to your doors and gives you obscene amounts of money to keep doing what you're doing.

Presumably, this weekend's copy of EW will have the full stories on both gentlemen.

Tom Spurgeon acts as the voice of making things official in this case:

"Surprising no one and all but leaked during Wizard's Philly show, Wizard made official yesterday that cartoonist Frank Miller will be a co-guest of honor with collaborator and fellow comics industry heavy-hitter Jim Lee at Wizardworld's showcase show in Chicago, to be held in early August."

The Joe Quesada board - and I haven't been there in ages, mostly because I forgot that it existed - is concerned about DC's verbage:

"Shouldn't it be... Infinite Crises?"

"Yes, if it were referring to a number of individual crises. However, I believe it is referring to a single crisis that seemingly lasts forever."

"Or at least until the end of it."

"Yeah, let’s not take issue with the crisis plurality junk. Look at the infinite part. Can’t they call it Finite Crisis?"

"Crisis that lasts quite a long time but ends eventually!"

"Lengthy Crisis, but With Conclusion?"

"Not Secret War, Crisis."

Ultimate Fantastic Four #21 gets a variant cover. Remember when Joe Quesada used to pretend that he didn't like variants? Whatever happened to those days?

Talking of Tom Spurgeon, he's over at The Pulse again, counting down to the infinite crisis that is SDCC:

"Asked if the ability of shows like the various WizardWorld conventions to create buzz around their comics panels presented a specific challenge to Comic-Con, [Director of Marketing and PR, David] Glanzer suggested that the number of announcements and news coming from CCI was more than impressive as it stood right now... Glanzer did say that like the other shows, the move has been from press conferences that CCI used to set up to companies preferring to make announcement at panels, and that the perception of fewer announcement in San Diego was perhaps due to taking place in the context of announcements from a wide variety of entertainment concerns. That doesn't mean CCI is less interested in comics, Glanzer says, because from their point of view what takes place when a movie company makes an announcement is that an additional amount of coverage is generated. "When movie companies come in with their own public relations scene and an internationally known celebrity and makes an announcement, that may get more media hits than an announcement from a comic book publisher. But it doesn't mean that article is knocking the comics publishing news out of that position." Glanzer also noted for the Pulse that the con's historical mission also means a number of panels about comics history that may not immediately translate into comics news."

Inspired by Tom Spurgeon, the best Victor Von Doom thread ever.

ICv2 looks at the "hidden" Manga consumer:

"The availability of comfortable reading space and easy access to big manga selections have long attracted readers to big box bookstores such as Borders and Barnes and Noble. The theory of these retailers is that consumers that come to sample will also buy, but there's definitely a subset of visitors to such stores that read the complete manga volume in the store and don't purchase it... The upshot [...] is that there are probably even more manga readers than either sales figures through stores or circulation figures through libaries reflect."

Warner Bros. says "Hey, fuck Batman. Have you heard of this new guy we've come up with called Superman?":

"With a super hero that transcends all demographics, a solid S-Shield business and a new feature film from Warner Bros. Pictures, Superman Returns, slated for release on June 30, 2006, Warner Bros. Consumer Products positions the franchise for a worldwide resurgence in 2005 and beyond. Superman will reach new heights as one cohesive licensing program inspired by both Superman as a character and the S-Shield as a stand-alone symbol. Warner Bros. Consumer Products and its licensees will create merchandise that reinforces what is cool about Superman and what makes him different from other super heroes.

"Superman is famed in many different forms including illustrated comic books, cartoons, movies, home video, television (animated and live-action), video games and more. Mattel, the global master toy partner for the property, will introduce a new line of products inspired by the highly anticipated live-action feature film, as well as the core brand. The S-Shield, which continues to be a fashion symbol and hot trend with high-end apparel being placed in upscale retailers nationwide, has become a personal statement of strength and confidence. The release of the film will broaden the reach of the property even further and drive product category expansion for Superman as a brand."

ADD won't be happy:

"Though neither [Geoff Johns] or DC [have] officially given Johns a title, the writer has entered into an editorial/consulting agreement with DC through Crisis, which is seeing Johns take a more active role in helping to shepherd the characters of the DCU both into the coming Crisis, and out through the end, seven months later. DC’s Dan DiDio explained: 'The idea of working on Infinite Crisis, and being able to craft such a complex maxiseries for us was daunting at best. Geoff was spending a lot of time tracking the four miniseries, following the characters, and seeing how they were all coming into it.

"'But more importantly, because we wanted to make sure that Infinite Crisis clearly established a lot of jump-on points for new series and new characters, Geoff was also very closely involved with seeing what we’d be doing with the characters following Crisis, and where they’d need to be by the end. So, he was reading a lot of material prior to things, and was responsible for a lot of the material that would be coming out of it as well. Geoff, being Geoff, he was more than willing to do this on his own time, but from my standpoint, I felt that we wanted to do the right and fair thing, so I wanted to craft an agreement that we could compensate him for the time and energy he was putting in to reading the new material, and offering suggestions on the best way to come in and out of Crisis.'"

Much more at Newsarama.

Via Laurenn McCubbin, I really don't know what to say about this...

Tom Spurgeon has more on the changes within DC at The Pulse:

"With respected industry veteran Bill Rosemann moving into the position of manager, marketing communications at DC Comics, many in the mainstream comics community wondered what this meant for longtime director of sales and marketing communications Patricia Jeres. Rosemann's new position brings with it duties similar to those undertaken by Jeres in past years. Additionally, the line of communication described in yesterday's news story at Newsarama was between Rosemann and Senior Vice-President Stephanie Fierman, not between Rosemann and Jeres... For their part, DC Comics responded to inquiries Tuesday morning about Jeres by declining to comment on any fact concerning her employment, her current status, her future status, or any way in which a job for her might dovetail with Rosemann's responsibilities. It is almost certain that if Jeres is to continue at DC in some capacity, it will not be in the same position that she has held for a number of years at the company, or at least not in a position that encompasses those same duties. In some ways, the leave of absence highlights what many now see as an inevitable switchover. DC's front desk is still directing callers to Jeres' voice mail for those who ask for her by name, but when THE PULSE asked to be sent to the person who could take a call on Jeres' behalf, we were directed to Bill Rosemann's office."

Spurgeon also talks with Jeres herself, and looks at what Rosemann's (sideways?) promotion may mean to those outside DC.

The Bendis Board faces up to the cold hard truth. Or, rather, doesn't face up to it:

"How much money do spend a year on comics?"

"I don't even want to think about it..."

"Quicken says $1858.06, but that's not counting cash purchases."

"I don't want to think about it."

"Way more than I spend on my car insurance."

"hey, we all sure the fuck eat waaaay the fuck more than we spend on comics. I think I'd rather spend money on comics than food, so there you have it! it's SO worth it."

One retailer dares to stand up and tells the world "My job is cool":

"I think that for the overwhelming majority of the population, comic books are a love affair that they felt pressured into ending. I see it every day when someone comes into the store and picks up a comic that they 'loved to read as a kid, but didn't know they were still around.' Don't be embarrassed about loving comics. Instead, feel sorry for those who for whatever reason don't share our passion. And then give them a little nudge into a comic shop. After all, why should we have all the fun to ourselves?"

Tony Caputo continues his class on licensing and Marvel:

"Licensing would no more 'mess up the characters and the Marvel Universe' than the current editorial team. I'm sure there are fans that think creative talent may be doing that right now, published under Marvel Comics. The issue is that licensing them would save corporate Marvel Enterprises millions of dollars a year, provide them with far more scalability beyond their existing infrastructure (you can publish far more titles if you have ten licensors doing it for you), and negotiating power at the end of each licensing term... Investors bought into Marvel Comics because they have 4700 mature intellectual properties, many highly-recognized worldwide with the power to sell anything from underwear to movie tickets. Do you think kids today are buying Spider-Man comic books because they like comic books, or because they like Spider-Man?"

Millarworld considers the shrinking market and how to fix it:

"[W]hy is that [in the 1990s] that sales were in such high figures relative to today? Top spots seem to be in the region of 100K, maybe a bit more. I know back in ye aulden times, issues shifted one million plus, but that seems to have been down to low cover prices and wide distribution through every distribution channel going, right down to the vendor literally on the street. I've read elsewhere of continually dwindling numbers of LCS, but is this the sole reason? Is the high-and-getting-higher cover price to blame, particularly given that, in the light of the big crossover events, collecting all the issues would hurt most pockets (and OK, so the publishers say you don't know to pick 'em all up, but you just know they've their fingers crossed behind their back when they said that...). Did the plethora of variant editions, gold-foiled, silver-foiled and so on, particularly hurt the market? Has the number of comics fans just dropped off so much, or is it the casual impulse readers that have left in their droves? So tell me, oh learned MW boarders, why the fall off? Has it shown any signs of being reversed and, if not, what do you think should be done to make it happen? I'd appreciate the history lesson."

"If you ask twelve experts, you'll get a dozen different responses to your questions. Warren Ellis recently made a comment about the direct relationship between the number of comics shops in business and the average number of comics being sold. To paraphrase him: with significantly fewer comics shops around now than there were in the early-to-mid-90s, it becomes harder for current fans to make purchases or to browse new material, and potential new customers are lost because they've never even seen a comics shop."

"Which is why they need to bring some select titles back into super markets, gas stations and book stores."

"I agree. I recall holding up shopping in the supermarket (much to my then girlfriend's dismay) because of the large amount of comics they used to carry. It's a great place for comics, think how many kids go through there."

"Yeah after this summer if you have a spinner rack full of Spider-Man, Batman and Superman..forget about it! Easy sales."

Genius! Why has no-one thought of trying to sell Spider-Man, Batman and Superman to kids before?!?

As Batman Begins gets released, Fox say "We have a superhero movie franchise too!", releasing a teaser poster for next year's X3. Shame there's so much trouble getting it started.

Warren Ellis releases the cover to the first issue of Fell, his collaboration with Ben Templesmith.

Marvel milk the fan dollar a little bit more:

"Marvel has announced a July release for the House of M #1 Director’s Cut, a $3.99 version of the debut issue of the 8-part limited series sporting 'number of extras that Marvel Director's Cut editions are known for.' ...Marvel has not released the final page count or full details as to what the special will include, but Newsarama can report it will include a reprinted Newsarama.com interview with series writer Brian Bendis. This will be the 4th variant version of House of M #1, including the original printings with the Ribic and Joe Quesada variant covers, the upcoming new printing with an Olivier Coipel gatefold cover and now the Director’s Cut."

Millarworld.biz, the expanded version of Millarworld - described today by a well-known comics pro as "a personal website with a Blogspot blog and photo gallery" - launches. Maybe it's my computer, but it looks like none of the images in the photo gallery are working right now, and there's nothing in the blog, either. But stay tuned.

Newsarama works out how much it'll cost to keep up with all the crossovers coming this summer. Warning - It's a lot:

"Calculating the full cost of a full-on Countdown commitment is a little more problematic, requiring some creative accounting and a lot of research. For one, Countdown itself is a prelude to another upcoming and yet-to-be-solicited event, Infinite Crisis. DC has also announced many stories - some going back as far as two years, and some not identified as official Countdown tie-ins (like last year’s Identity Crisis, the current Red Hood story in Batman, and The Return of Donna Troy) - are key stories in a larger tapestry that all comes to a head in Crisis. And because there are likely many more unannounced tie-ins to come throughout next spring when Crisis concludes and all DCU titles begin “OYL” (one year later), fans planning on getting it all might consider applying for an open-ended line of credit at their local comics shop."

Heidi MacDonald on MOCCA:

"Let's cut to the chase: The 2005 MoCCA fest was another huge success. Terrific exhibitors, a stellar programming line-up, good after hours socializing and attendees with money to spend made it, in many ways, the model indie comix show. Not to say that there wasn't a bit of adversity. Although last's year's show was threatened by sticky floors, this year had to deal with a broken air conditioner on a day that turned New York into festering New Orleans, with 95 degree days and 85 degree thunderstorms. Temperatures soared, everyone glowed, and conditions in room C got pretty desperate. The most precious commodity on the floor was no rare comic, but rather a chilled bottle of Vitamin Water. However, had this been a traditional comicbook convention, the smell may have been unbearable. Here let it be said for all times, indie cartoonists and their fans have fairly good hygiene, and the smell never took on visible dimensions."

Marvel gets into DC's "licensing books to DK" game with a surprising first effort (well, a surprising author, anyway):

"Veteran comic book artist Dan Jurgens has created How to Draw Marvel Characters, an illustrated guide that takes would be artists through every phase of the comic creation process. The 96-page hardcover ($19.99) includes tracing overlays and stencils as well as tips from top Marvel artists and three Masterclass sections showcasing your favorite Marvel characters. DK Publications is releasing How to Draw Marvel Characters in January... In February of next year, DK is publishing another volume of interest to Marvel fans, Avengers: The Ultimate Guide ($24.99), a 128-page full color hardcover that tells readers everything there is to know about the Avengers, including their incredible origins and the extent of their superhuman powers. A companion volume aimed at younger readers is the Avengers Ultimate Sticker Book ($6.99), a 16-page, 8" x 11" paperback that comes complete with more than 60 full color stickers."

Gail Simone versus the V. It all starts with Nick Locking's dismissal of a recent issue of Gail's Action Comics:

"I got as far as 'Thank you Great Bwana Superman for protecting our innocent African village from dread whitey, you are now part of the tribe'/'Thank you, African mother, I'm now off to knob Lois, cheers for making my cape look like a toga' and gave up."

Gail responds:

"Well, except for the fact that that's a real tribe (I got most of my information from people who had just been there a few days before I wrote the scene) and he doesn't protect them from Whitey (what the hell? Whitey who? What Whitey? You sure you read the issue?) and that's a pretty stupid reading, Nick, I'd say that's very astute! Protected them from what Whitey? Are you somehow imagining that there's no harrassment of indiginous peoples in Africa? Or if you're not saying that, is Superman supposed to be above such things? Or should white people not give aid because it's somehow condescending? Enlighten me. Always fine to bash my writing, I have no problem with that, but I'm genuinely baffled by your scorn of the situation as established."

Nick:

"Was he not protecting them from something? I have to say the V Comics Thread doesn't really have a huge standard of factual accuracy to be upheld. I just wasn't really keen on Superman-in-a-toga helping out the noble and kind native tribespeople of wherever image. If he was really Super he'd have given them all a net connection and some DVD players."

Gail:

"Yes, but what you said was he was 'protecting them from dread whitey,' correct? And yet, the militia attacking the tribe were black. Your scorn got away from you, and the brilliant point you were trying to make, that I was being patronizing and slightly racist, is just utter bullshit, and one I don't tolerate well. Superman in a toga, which isn't a toga at all but the exact way these tribesman wear their robes and I'll be happy to show you photographs, is a simple statement that he's a citizen of the world, and considered a bit more than a tourist by the tribe. How that's patronizing, as you're implying, I don't get. Would it be patronizing if he took his boots off in a Japanese household?

"Look, whatever...the part that bugs me is you implied something very insulting that is so not part of me or part of the character that the fact you intentionally or unintentionally misstated the scene irritates me, but not enough to keep this going. I like you still, anyway, and a writer defending their work (even when it's against something that never happened, like your Whitey comment) always comes off as just grumpy and whiney, as I well know. So, never mind. But I hope other people might actually read what's on the page, instead of making up something just because it's better snark-fodder. I mean, standards gotta be maintained! It's the V, baby! ;)"

V regular Jamie McKelvie steps in to defuse the tension:

"As someone who's not read the comic in question, I don't know how you deal with the subject matter. But I think Nick's point comes from the fact that in Amerikan comics, when a character deals with somebody from the rest of the world, it's some form of stereotype. Be it the Irish drunkard terrorist, the English cockney geezer, or in this case, the African tribesman. I can't think of an Amerikan comic where there's an African businessman who lives in a city, for example."

Gail:

"Right, but...shouldn't the person making that accusation know what they're talking about? Nick's (sorry, Nick) showing an ignorance of the situation AND the comic, and yet, he's still being snarky about it. I, like most people, don't dig being called, even obliquely, a racist. I'm sure most of you wouldn't, either. I DO pay attention to this stuff, and if I have a character in Singapore or Hong Kong or Beijing or wherever, I do my absolute best to make it not merely a stereotype. I do research, I buy books, I speak with people who live there, I do fact checks, and on some occasions, I go there myself in person. If what you're saying is true, and Nick's implying there are no tribes like the one shown, then, well, ####, he's utterly mistaken."

No, I don't know what the filtered word is. It's the V, they have their own rules there. Anyway, back to Jamie:

"Just because something's a stereotype, doesn't mean it doesn't exist in real life. I don't he's for one minute saying tribes like that don't exist in Africa (and I don't think he's inferring you're racist either), but he's saying that's all that's ever really shown of the entire continent in Amerikan comics. Thinking specifically of recent Superman, there's BIRTHRIGHT, too."

Ms. Simone:

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, Jamie, I was the one who suggested the Biko-like character in Birthright to Mark Waid (and in fact, that individual is directly referenced in our second issue as someone who shapes Superman's worldview). I stand by my motives in both cases. To me, Superman is, and I could NOT have made it any plainer, 'One heart, many homes.' He's not being condescending...he genuinely likes and respects these people. It's part of why he's Superman and not Real Strong Farmer Guy. And you're inferring a lot from Nick's post, which is factually screwed up, yes?. I say read it again, because these defenses don't match what he actually said."

Jamie:

"I'm not implying Superman is condescending to anyone, Gail. I'm also getting Nick's opinion from his subsequent posts, not just his initial one which may be factually incorrect, but was making a joke to make a point."

Gail:

"Ack, this is just bizarre. So, no matter if it's accurate or not, real world or not, you're screwed because past writers got it wrong. No matter if it's perfectly in character for Superman to help people who aren't white ####, it's somehow racist and insensitive. I don't know, guys. Can I call bullshit? I'd rather have a Superman who cares about people and is utterly color-blind."

Craig McGill now takes up the "trying to calm things down" baton:

"There are a lot of tribes in Africa still, so it's fair play. And Gail can't be blamed for what other folk have done."

Sadly, this time it's Nick who doesn't go along with peace:

"It doesn't matter at all whether there are tribes in Africa or not. And Gail is not being 'blamed' for what other people have done, she's being 'blamed' or as I refer to it 'critiqued' for repeating a scene/archetype that has been done to death in times past, and that yes, is a bit patronising."

Gail puts an end to the conversation:

"You know what? Screw you, Nick. You don't know me, you don't know how important this cause is to me, or how much money and time I've devoted to it. Someone's being patronizing here, and it's not me. From the goofy stuff you've said here, I'll put my knowledge of the subject matter up against yours any time. It's a real thing, it's going on right now, I did my research, and the Superman I like to write wouldn't want to stand by and watch it happen. That's all. You want to give it some goofy spin, that's your business."

(Of course, when I write "an end", I mean "It's the V, so conversations never end. This one, in fact, spins out into outrage and togas made of pizza." Go and read for yourself.)

What is a comic book, ask Matt Fraction and Joe Casey (whom I owe an email that I will write as soon as I get time, honest):

"I gotta' say, lately I've fallen on the side of those who think superhero comicbooks are, for the most part, not quite delivering on a single issue level. I don't even think too much about price, I think more of the experience of reading a single superhero comicbook. On that basis, I kinda think we are lacking. It's an old gripe, but the casual reader is undoubtedly going to be hopelessly lost by most single superhero comicbooks... and I don't mean 'charmingly confused' as most of us were when we first picked up a random comicbook off the drugstore rack. I mean lost. When the covers make a point to say, 'Part 3 of Whatever,' I don't think we're doing the best job inviting in new readers of any age group. Believe me, I'm not grumpy about it. For me, I see opportunity here. The fact that the discussion is coming up yet again means there might be some change in the air."

DC continues its internal shuffle:

"[T]he company has confirmed that its marketing department has also seen a change, with Bill Rosemann, who had been working as Manager, Creative Services since November of 2004, moving to Manager, Marketing Communications... Rosemann’s new duties include coordinating DC news and information with the trade media and retailers, as well as developing and coordinating DC’s programming at conventions. The move is effective immediately.

Is this my new favorite Batman drawing ever? Possibly.

The Royal Academy of Illustration and Design have a blog. They would like you to visit and see their art and to make Chip less sad.

Rob Osborne talks about 1000 Steps to World Domination, and his new book, Sunset City:

"I can’t think of many comic books that star senior citizens, unless you are counting Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. So I think Sunset City is a bit of a risky proposition with the general comic-reading audience. But I like that about the work. I like that it’s unusual. I like that after reading 1000 Steps, you may find this work totally unexpected. Sunset City is a pretty dramatic tale, and after the humor of 1000 Steps, I wanted to take on a darker, more serious subject matter. There are life and death issues, romance and gun play. That being said, the story has offbeat humor counter punches throughout. For example, there are retirees doing water aerobics and a foul-mouthed, sex-crazed clown."

AiT/Planet Lar: Overshipping Comics Better:

"In order to simultaneously thank retailers,keep that AiT/Planet Lar avalanche rolling, and herald the next upcoming graphic novels in the AiT pantheon of entertainment, publisher Larry Young announced today that copies of THE BLACK DIAMOND: ON RAMP will be free overshipped to retailers. 'And when I say ‘free’ I mean free,' Young said. 'Fully fifty percent of a retailer's initial orders on the BLACK DIAMOND color book will be added to their orders for free. If a retailer ordered 100 copies of the thing, he's getting 150. If he ordered fifteen, he's getting twenty-three, and I'm personally picking up the tab. Not only can he or she use those extra copies to give away to folks who may have been initially reluctant to sample our first color book, or to those who want to know what all the noise about us is all about; not only can he sell 'em and keep the money as my thanks for initially picking up the book... but I'm paying the extra freight our distributor, Diamond, charges, as well. It's all free to the retailer!'"

Mr. T returns:

"The opening issue of 'Mr.T' is pretty much a mystery thriller that takes place in more of a real world, very street level setting... A lot of strange stuff is going on, including a dangerous new drug. The neighborhood is really falling into decay because of it. Someone needs to pull it out and clean it up, but the only person who can do that is nowhere to be seen. As for what the 'Mr.T' comic is about, it's going to be a comic with a real entertainment factor. It'll be contemporary and will be layered with action, adventure and intrigue. It'll also have depth and substance. And, hey, it's got a sensational star!"

Mark Millar writes about the effect of 9/11 on Batman Begins:

"We all live in the post-9/11 world now, particularly those of us who work in the American entertainment industry. The first thing I did when I was asked to revamp Captain America and the Hulk for Marvel Comics was to have them recruited by Homeland Security and shipped to the Gulf to defend American oil interests. Even poor old George Lucas has peppered his ill-advised Star Wars prequels with revolts in the Senate, dark forces taking over the old republic and an endless war being conjured up by a malevolent, all-powerful empire.

"It’s no surprise then that the main villains in Batman Begins are The Scarecrow, a rogue academic who generates artificial fear in the people of Gotham as much as Fox News and their terror alerts do in the real world, and Ra’s Al-Ghul, an impossibly rich, international terrorist who declares war upon America from his secret cave on the other side of the world. These myths are at their most potent when set against a familiar backdrop and what could be more familiar than our own world? Even Batman himself, as Nolan and Goyer stress at every opportunity, isn’t doing anything a developed human body couldn’t accomplish. Everything from the bullet-proof costume to the amazing fight-scenes to the contents of his utility belt have been worked out by experts and grounded in realism to the point where even the Batmobile was designed and built by a real-world military vehicle manufacturer as a functioning piece of hardware... That, to me, is what makes this movie so enduring and powerful. Contemporary tastes are so sophisticated, even our children won’t accept Batman’s pointy ears and tights without an explanation as to why he’s wearing kinky clothes. Batman Begins gets under the cape and cowl and rationalises a septuagenarian concept for a discerning audience and this, for me at least, is incredibly positive.

"In an age dominated by talk of dumbing down and imbecile attention spans, here’s a movie with an IQ and a subtext that’s almost as big as its budget. When I consider the calibre of people being hired for what have always been considered popcorn flicks , I realise we’re not dumbing down any more, we’re dumbing up. And as someone who makes his living by appealing to the masses, that’s the most exciting thing I can imagine."

As promised, Comic Book Galaxy relaunches today, with a front page essay from Mark Millar, a competition to win all AiT/Planet Lar books ever, Shawn Hoke writing about minicomics and Ed Cunard interviewing Tom Spurgeon, amongst other worthy things to read.

Infinite Crisis is so intense it even affects DC Editorial. Dan DiDio explains:

"With every editor, from Mike Carlin and Joey Cavaleri to Steve Wacker and Joan Hilty, we’ve spun out and separated bits and pieces of the DC Universe, so that everyone gets to try something new, while at the same time, while every single editor is involved in the creation of new series and new directions for characters across the board as we see them coming out of Crisis. The best part about it, as I said before, is that I have a great staff, and every single one of them is essential to what’s going on at DC, and I hope they all stay here for a long time to come. This is what it’s all about – to keep everybody excited, fresh, and hungry to be doing more great comics here."

With Mike Carlin being named, maybe some of the rumors about his leaving DC will disappear...? Or maybe not. The article points out that the "group" books are being shifted:

"Current Batman Group Editor Bob Schreck will move from the Bat-office to overseeing the All-Star line. 'Bob will be there to help solidify that line, and build those projects, as well as take on some new, high-end special projects,' DiDio said. Following from that change, Peter Tomasi will become the editor on Batman and Detective Comics, while the Superman titles will move from Eddie Berganza to current Bat-editor, Matt Idleson. Berganza will receive the JLA in addition to his other titles."

Nothing will ever be the same again!

Slave Labor's Dan Vado talks about SLG's Disney licensing deal:

"Disney originally came to me about something else that, ultimately, we couldn’t get done, but I maintained a cordial relationship with the people who contacted us... A little over a year ago, I made an offhand remark to someone about how I would like to do a story about Wonderland after Alice left – to try and tread upon some new ground within Disney’s version of the world. They were intrigued by the idea, so I wrote up a proposal, not really knowing where it was going to go, for a line of comics that would be along those lines – using their brand, but doing things a little differently, and aiming for a slightly older audience than Disney is most associated with. They were interested in seeing if they could move their brand over to the teen market, which we seem to have penetrated reasonably well... I think these titles will appeal to the traditional SLG fan, as well as Disney fans that are looking for something new that’s not the usual Disney fare."

Via Ed Cunard, the Yahoo Discussion Board response to a news story about comics' increasing mainstream popularity. When "yahoo and other 'major media' types always the last ones to the ball park. graphic novels have been popular since forever, dumbasses" is one of the more sensible responses, you know it's bad.

Alan David Doane responds to critics of Comic Book Galaxy, days before the big relaunch:

"It seems like the simple act of demanding quality and passion from those who provide – or attempt to provide – readable entertainment is seen as an act of arrogant elitism. For the minority in the comics internet audience who sees things that way, I doubt there will ever be any changing their mind, so even bothering to try is probably a waste of time. For the rest of you, though, I think we've pretty well established our mission over the past five years, and while we've strayed off the beacon a time or two, we know what we want this site to be, and on Monday morning, it's going to be much closer to that goal."

Frank Tieri on his new Weapon X miniseries:

"Andy Smith is replacing Bart Sears as of issue #3. In fact, we’re so pumped about having Andy come on board that we’re even thinking of complying with Marvel’s current policy of slapping the words 'New' or 'Ultimate' in front of every single one of their titles-- hence renaming the book NEW ULTIMATE Weapon X: Days of Future Now. That, and we didn’t feel the title of the book was long enough."

Warren Ellis is a brave man. He's doing another Q&A thread at Millarworld right now, and here are some of the questions he's been asked:

"And have you read the script for V for Vendetta yet? If so what do you think? If you could care less ignore my last question."

"My cat is scared of you... Do you like cats Warren?"

"Do you have a favourite DJ?"

There are also some fine questions, but it's more fun to point out the silly ones.

The Bendis Board tries to get into the mind of their illustrious leader:

"i think bendis is putting alot of himself into Luke. sure luke is a lage black man but stick w/me. Luke joined the avengers because he wanted to tell his daughter that he was an avenger and to do something that she could be proud of. maybe bendis wanted to write the high profile comic for similar reasons? i know he has said it was a dream of his but i bet this entered into the decision process a bit. or i am just blowin' smoke up our collective asses."

"i think the anal sex scene [in Alias #1] was definitely Bendis 'putting a lot of himself into Luke' or would that be 'a lot of himself into Jessica?'"

"Yeah, whenever I hear 'Luke Cage', I picture a bald, white jewish man. Has this joke been made?"

Bendis responds:

"i'm jessica jones!! analyze that!!!"

A retailer writes at Newsarama about publishers announcing sell-outs. This bit screams for attention, though:

"Newsarama Note: shortly after Marvel’s announcement of a sell-out of House of M #1, it was pointed out to Marvel by Newsarama that roughly 1,300 copies of the issue were listed as being in stock according to the Diamond Comic inventory database. Marvel’s Director of Sales David Gabriel said that those were copies that had been released from a slight overage that is held as replacements for damaged copies that are received by retailers."

Marvel's editor exodus continues:

"Marvel editor Stephanie Moore has informed creators, contacts, and colleagues that her last day as a Marvel staffer will be Friday, June 10th. Moore served in Marvel’s editorial offices for nearly 3 years. In her email Moore explained she is attending UC Berkeley this fall to start a degree in English literature."

Ryan Higgins wants you to know that he thinks that Batman Begins doesn't suck:

"I will personally come over to your house and kick your ass if you have any complaints about this movie. Really. Seriously. It’s that good."

Meanwhile, Newsarama or Marvel watchers with long memories can be happy that Mike Doran isn't dead, but instead reviewing Batman Begins:

"This is a new, fully realized, and immersive vision of DC’s Dark Knight that not only stands on its own as a genuinely awe-inspiring achievement in action-adventure, but could mark a turning point for how comic book superheroes are interpreted on film."

Brian Hibbs has obviously read the previous comments:

"It's a very good movie, but it's not like the second coming of superhero films, or anything like that. Several reviewers are way overselling it, man."

Wow, if only DC could capitalize on this buzz somehow...:

"On Monday, Gotham won’t be the only city Batman calls his own. DC’s Dark Knight (who also has a movie coming out, as you might have heard) will get major exposure, thanks to the inclusion of a special edition Batman comic being given away in The New York Post. As you can probably guess from the cover illustration, DC Comics has confirmed for Newsarama that the special issue is a reprint of Batman #608 by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee and Scott Williams, the first part of the 'Hush' storyline... DC has confirmed for Newsarama that the issue will contain the Comic Shop Locator Service toll-free number, as well as in-house ads for the Batman: Hush trades, which collect the 12-part story which begins in the giveaway issue."

Via Johanna, Lee Barnett follows up on the lack of response to the Times' "Comics are mysoginistic" article of last week:

"Since no letters had appeared by Tuesday in response to Maher's piece (although there was a letter regarding another article about mysoginy) I called both the Letters page people and the Editor's office. They suggested I write in, and I got a response from the Deputy Managing Editor today:

"Dear Mr Barnett

"The Editor's secretary has passed me your e-mail of June 7 regarding your objections to the article by Kevin Maher in The Times of June 2 about Sin City, a comic book film adaptation - we are sorry they have caused you and others to write.

"To answer your first point regarding lack of publication of letters in response to the piece the Letters Editor tells me that those received were unprintable - 'incoherent rants' orchestrated by some online comic enthusiasts group, which is presumably how you know The Times received some. Letters for publication are at the discretion of the Letters Editor: we receive over 400 a day, many of which are eloquent and of which some 16 or 17 make it to the page. We can also assure you that there is no misogynist policy at The Times - the media has always had a good record as an equal opportunities employer and a healthy proportion of department heads at this newspaper, including that of the T2 section where the article appeared, are female.

"While we can appreciate your objections this was a contemporary piece examining and interpreting an 18-rated film that is expected to have an impact in Britain and was quite justifiably looking at the phenomenon of comic books to better explain its mystique and appeal. It also appeared alongside a favourable review of Sin City (it was given four out of five stars) which also dealt with the stylish adaptation of the books. Mr Maher's piece, based around a review of the Sin City books by Frank Miller, was not all opinion - it was also laced with comments, facts and history from the world of comic books. By publishing the books' details The Times pointed its readers towards taking a look for themselves.

"We would disagree with your suggestion on the evidence of one short letter that The Times is "in the unenviable situation of appearing to give a voice to those decrying misogyny in one regard while ignoring it in another." We will also make Mr Maher aware of the various objections so that he may better understand the situation.

"Thank you for taking the trouble to write.

"David Chappell
Deputy Managing Editor
The Times"

The V respond:

"I think what most likely happened was, 'Here's another email from a comics nerd. Delete!'"

"...97% of the responses I saw were well below the standard of correspondence expected by The Times, and most of them would indeed qualify as incoherent rants. They were fuelled by dudgeon, not rationale. Of the few that made their point clearly, most took too long to make it. The very fact that The Times was deluged with responses gave the whole exercise a rather pathetic air, to be honest. Sending them one well-written letter might have allowed for a public rebuttal. Sending them a hundred internet posts prefixed with a 'Dear Sir' was hopelessly misjudged."

"There's a lot of dudgeon present here too, to be honest. I think you'd have to be half-blind to say that comics weren't incredibly misogynist, on average."

Millarworld, perhaps unsurprisingly, has a different view of things, including apparently forgetting their effort to orchestrate a rebuttal:

"Nice to know that they were considered 'incoherent rants', they obviously didn't check all of them thoroughly. To be honest, given how much of an incoherent rant the original article was, it makes me more angry that they would just disregard all of them and say it was 'orchestrated'. The fact is that people wrote in because they were pissed off about the article and a good number of those reflected that pretty eloquently. I mean, who else is going to write in but people who like comics?"

"BOLLICKS TO THAT. Is basically what they just said."

"apparently they are quite happy with having their stereotype validated and seeing everything like an orchestated reaction from us"

"Missed the crucial point of human existence -- printing a letter would be admitting they did something WRONG."

"Eh, who actually expected them to care? That is why mine was most assuradley, a biting rant."

The 4th Rail's Randy Lander has given up the regular schedule of reviewing to deal with some pressing issues:

"Well, folks, it's finally come to this... my comp pile is about to kill me. I've got stuff that indy creators sent to me last year among the stuff that came in last week, and I'm beginning to feel a little like Sisyphus (Google search it) of comic reviewers. So I'm going to do something a little crazy in June in order to catch up in time for San Diego. Effective immediately, I'm putting my First Look and regular reviews on a sort of weird, temporary hold. Best of the Weeks from me will likewise be temporarily halted. Instead, I'll be reviewing in a massive capsule format that should, if all goes well, be a cross between Snapshots, my one-and-only Backtracking (another victim of an excess workload) and special columns like the feature on STAPLE. I will be putting all my effort into getting everything currently in my comp pile reviewed, in rough order of when I remember getting it. I'm not promising to hit 100% of everything ever sent to me, because honestly, I don't think I'd ever catch up, but I will try and review at least one thing that everyone has sent me."

The new regime starts this week with a couple of indie graphic novels and some mini-comics being reviewed.

Mike Netzer's web presence has moved and been renamed:

"As Flaming Sword emerged from this web complex last week, it became apparent to me that the present web design was from a different time and for a different purpose, no longer suitable for what Flaming Sword Productions aspires to become. It's thus become an urgent matter to address the issue now, while we're in our first steps. We need a new suit and I'm very busy sewing it right now."

Look for Flaming Sword Productions here, and marvel at a logo that reads FlSawmoirndg.

Blog pundit watch: Johanna has some good observations about Marvel patting itself on the back for the marketing of House of M ("These promotional ideas don't sound particularly new or original. Especially since the discount cut came a month after the marketing effort began, which makes the suspicious among us wonder whether Marvel felt the need to goose sales when the first effort wasn't working. And that brings to mind the always-present questions: how many of those over 200,000 copies sold wound up in the hands of readers? And how successfully will the remaining issues and tie-ins and crossovers maintain the sales level?"), while Heidi reacts to the announcement of the New York Comic-Con. Both are worth your time.

David Hine talks about his new Colossus mini-series:

"If it wasn’t special and significant to me, I wouldn’t bother writing it. Mini-series are a vital and exciting part of Marvel’s output. A lot of writers have a story or an idea that may not fit into the monthly continuity of a title but work as a stand-alone title. With team books I often feel that the characters are jostling each other for space and relationships sometimes have to be dealt with superficially. In a solo book, you can really get under the skin of an individual character. Bloodline is Colossus’s quest to discover who he really is. The story wouldn’t have worked with the rest of the X-Men tagging along."

A planned discussion of overrated X-Men books at the Bendis Board quickly becomes a discussion of overratedness in general:

"I don't think any comics are overrated(or movies, books, game, ect, for that matter)"

"uhmmm okay...well I guess I do, I think there are some books that are hyped up over nostalgia or some small detail and arent actually good when you sit and read them, cool that you dont agree, I understand if you're of the whole school of art is art and it exists indepently of critics and that each perons hould bring their own individual experience and knowledge to a piece and create a personal judgement upon that...but I think we allow ourselves to preaccept certain works as being high caliber because the general critical theory has said it is, thus I am attempting to start a conversation in which we break said bonds and heretically discuss so called iconic stories with dissenting opinions"

"Over-rated implies that everyone else is wrong for liking it. I don't care for Blankets, but I don't call it overrated. I just say that it's a popular book that didn't work for me."

"I just hate the whole term 'overrated' It's bullshit. If you don't like a story and you want to discuss it then more power to you. I didn't get much sleep last night so i'm a bit of a crab right now."

"I'll bet everyone would agree that the term 'overrated' doesn't make any sense if I said Alan Moore was overrated...."

"Whoever said there is no such thing as being overrated needs to take a better look at things. EX: TITANIC made assloads of cash, being heralded as one of the greatest films of all time. Now, it's a $10 DVD no one cares about. Overrated. People were saying Halo 2 was the greatest videogame ever made. However, many, MANY people feel otherwise. Overrated. It's not only a difference in opinion, it's the fact that the masses think it's great, and you think it's crap. It's overrated. It's not as great as the masses say."

Has Marvel hit rock bottom, asks a Newsarama poster:

"Has Marvel finally hit rock bottom? That their only attraction is the shock factor that they are not even hiding that well? Marvel once a great comic has lost their edge because of this 6 comic story line in and out bullshit. Marvel had deciding that since they can’t beat DC in their creative and original story lines that they must find a way to draw in characters…and how do they do that? The time warp direction and possible deaths. Such as the case that when they were promoting the possible death of a big character that has become popular in the last decade and it ended up being NorthStar…what the hell? I didn’t even know who he was until a few months ago. And now they are saying that they will kill Gambit, that a woman will come between him and Rogue... first of all I swear that comics don’t know how to do the entire shock factor. It is because of stupid spoilers; maybe if they kept it secret and released it…it might have been good. Though I heard about the death of the Blue Beetle a few months before hand, I was still shocked by what had happened. Gambit shouldn’t die, I know a lot of people don’t like him but he has been a favorite character of mine since I was little. They shouldn’t kill characters off for ratings, if they die it should be part of an involving, deeply emotional, story. Characters can die, but come on…come on…Marvel stop selling yourselves to the Entertainment business devil. Stop revolving around your (partially) successful movies and start thinking about your souls. STOP KILLING PEOPLE OFF UNNEEDISHLESS!"

Yes, that's right. He said "unneedishless".

Other Newsarama posters feel the need to respond:

"Everybody keeps saying, 'MARVEL IS GOING DOWN, THEY SUCK, JOE QUESADA SUCKS, DC JUST SIGNED MICHEALANGELO AND CHARLES DICKENS, SO MARVEL SUCKS WEINER!!' but you know what? MAKE MINE MARVEL!!"

"Are you honestly suggesting that Marvel has hit rock bottom? What about DC hitiing rock bottom? You mention that Marvel is using a time warp direction and possible deaths.... Hmm...wasn't 'possible deaths' the hype of Identity Crisis, and Countdown? And aren't all DC titles warping ahead a year after Crisis? I mean, you complain about 'marvel copying DC', and yet when you go out on many message boards (including this one) you find people complaining that DC is making their universe too dark right now (and they say that it is much like the marvel universe)..... As for 'big deaths' being promoted.... Sue Dibney? Booster Gold? I didn't even know who they were until a few months ago. Now that I know, I dont care."

Mark Millar teases Millarworld denizens:

"Millar working on SUPERMAN book..., ...but not for DC. You'll never figure this out so don't even try, but it's going to be a lot of fun. This doesn't affect my Marvel contract at all because neither DC not WB see a penny from this. Ho ho."

After some guesses as to what kind of Superman book he could be doing, Mark clarifies somewhat:

"This is Superman, not Supreme or Majestic or whatever. Superman."

First things first: Larry Young is the nicest man in comics.

Heidi posts that Variety is reporting that We3 may be optioned by New Line, the studio behind Lord Of The Rings. Grant Morrison is apparently in talks to write the script, with Mark Millar preparing to be loudly appalled at some way in which DC will screw Morrison out of money while reminding everyone that Wanted was optioned for a movie as well.

I am very jealous of Brian K. Vaughan. I always wanted one of those when I was a kid.

If you want cheap Marvel trades, sign up to Millarworld and look here:

"Hey everyone. We've got a little problem here at Comics Conspiracy, and it's the fact that there are just so many new tpbs coming out, we don't have room for them all! In fact, our Marvel tpb shelf is bursting at the seams! I need to clear some of these out NOW! So, here's the deal. Any Marvel tpb we have in stock is ON SALE, just to MillarWorld posters! Buy any one Marvel tpb at regular price, and get another (at equal or lesser value) for an AMAZING 60% OFF!!! Not to take away the discount from California residents, we'll even pay your sales tax!

"This sale is limited to Marvel tpbs in stock (which are HUNDREDS, if not a THOUSAND OR MORE!), and on a first-come-first-served basis... All orders will be processed in the order they arrived, regardless of method. Since many tpbs will sell out, please note that I cannot guarantee that I'll be able to get you everything you're looking for, but I'll try my hardest."

Email linkage at the MW thread. Offer valid until Monday. Ryan Higgins, you are a fine man.

Broken Frontier has a three-part interview up with Kazu Kibuishi, about Daisy Kutter, Flight, and, well, most everything:

"I get people submitting their portfolios and things like that, and generally I ignore those now, because I have decided to just decide myself, or go and seek ‘em out. I’m always looking at work, so if someone is doing something somewhere, anywhere, in the industry, on the web, it’s likely that through my network of friends that I would find it eventually, if it’s good material. The point is not to “make it” into the book. The point is for everyone to do their best stories, and the ones they have always wanted to do. My biggest fear at this point is that people are looking at Flight as some kind of grand institution of comics-making, and that they are just trying to be a part of it... Just do it for yourself, it really shouldn’t be about being in Flight. And those are the stories I look for. When someone has an original voice, and it’s really, really strong, and they have good technical/foundation skills, and they obviously have a passion for what they are doing, and they seem like smart, nice, funny people. Very intelligent people I can spot pretty quickly, and I usually invite those folks. I invite people mostly on the merits of who they are, as people, because I have to put so much trust in them, it’s very important for me to know that I can."

Part one is here, part two here with the third and final part here. And for those who haven't seen it yet, Kibuishi talks briefly about Flight's move to Ballentine at Newsarama.

For those of you who like to watch probably-illegal, never-shown adapted-from-a-popular-comic TV via the online internet web, go here (Via here).

Via nominee Heidi, Lulu announce the nominees for their 2005 awards.

Posters to The Comics Journal board aren't convinced about Daniel Clowes' Ice Haven book:

"I'm getting a copy, but is it really worth over $15 just to have a pretty, smaller shaped Eightball #22 with like ten new pages (less than that, if you think of it in terms of the original size of Eightball #22)? Do the new stories all that much to the work as a whole?"

"Let me just say this: outside of Eightball No. 15, which combined the 'Caricature' story with the Ghost World episode where Enid dupes the guy in the windbreaker, Eightball No. 22 is my all-time favorite. Still, the new book is not worth it. The added panels are insignificant to the story as a whole. It's not like the stuff in 20th Century Eightball, which really was a worthwhile addition to the previously published material (even if it didn't add to a cohesive story)."

"I wonder why Clowes even bothered releasing this material as an issue of Eightball, rather than putting it out as a graphic novel in the first place? I understand if it is a serialized work and then you collect it all, but it felt pretty complete to me in it's Eightball incarnation."

"I can't speak for Clowes - but all of his stories have traditionallly appeared first in Eightball and then in other formats. So he did Ice Haven for Eightball and perhaps only later decided/was asked to revise and republish in a different format. As a comic book, 22 only really reached comic shops; as a collection published by Pantheon, Ice Haven will reach beyond the comic market into bookstores and will get more widely-read and reviewed than a comic would. So that's a good thing and a reason to republish."

New York gets a new comic convention next year:

"Reed Exhibitions, which runs over 400 shows a year worldwide, has announced plans for the launch of New York Comic-Con, a new annual trade and consumer event that will focus on comics and related fields anime, games, film, TV, toys, videogames, and licensing rights... The first New York Comic-Con will be held February 24th-26th, 2006, at the Javits Center. Friday the 24th will be a trade day; Saturday and Sunday will be open to consumers. The first quarter positioning will make the New York Comic-Con the ideal showcase for films debuting in the prime months of April, May, and June. Diamond Comic Distributors is a major sponsor of the event... New York Comic-Con is also getting major support from trade publishers. ICv2, Publishers Weekly, Variety, Library Journal, and Playthings have all signed on as co-sponsors of the show. Publishers Weekly, Variety, Library Journal, and Playthings are all publications of Reed Business Information, a Reed Exhibitions sister company. Reed Exhibitions also owns Video Business and School Library Journal."

Brian Michael Bendis has seen Batman Begins, and he likes it:

"it is scrumptious!! yummy tummy!! superb production on every level. genuinely moving. crackling acting. for adults more than kids. can't wait for you to see it."

The Bendis Board is not so happy about this state of affairs, apparently:

"Bendis is a fag for being able to see the movie before the rest of us lowly peasents."

Neither is Mark Millar:

"I'm so jealous of this. As I said to B this morning when he rubbed this in first thing, it's absolutely wasted on him as he's not even a Batman fan. It's not fair!"

What if Marvel gave up publishing entirely for licensing?, asks Tony Caputo:

"The most wonderful thing about licensing intellectual property (IP) instead of producing, is that you’re doing a mere fraction of the work, spending near-zero operating dollars (legal fees, professional fees, reviewers, etc), and can still generate substantial revenues. As long as there are publishers out there willing to license a character, foregoing any rights in the artwork, stories, and characters forever, you can make the magic happen... Once all 4000 of Marvel’s characters are up for grabs for comic book publishing, there would be a swarm of interested parties from all over the world, and not necessarily the best choice for the IP. You’ll have wealthy father who’ll pay for their son (thirteen years old), to draw a MAN-THING comic book, because he saw the movie on the Science-Fiction Channel. A typical corporation wouldn’t care who or what, if he walked in the door with a $250,000 advance on royalties check."

Comics Foundry talks to the incomparable Seth Fisher:

"I was a Math Major. So, I think in a mathematical way. I use perspective as mathematics. I think of colors mathematically. I think of composition mathematically. It’s just the way I am. Will mathematics improve your art? It will if you let it, but that goes for everything. Start with what you ENJOY and build from there. It will keep you coming back to your art again and again. The key is to use your own experience to find a unique vision for yourself. Suppose you are a gardener in your spare time. You are going to have a vast knowledge of different flowers, and you should be using that in your art. Just make sure that on every panel there is a potted plant and you work will start to shine. Suppose you are a guy that works at Burger King. That’s cool too. You start to draw your customers. There is always a connection between your interests and your art. Sometimes you really have to work to make the connection, but when it finally comes your work will really explode."

Sal Buscema covers New Avengers:

"Marvel Comics announced Tuesday that artist Sal Buscema has been chosen to provide the final Silver Age-flavored 'Startling Stories' variant incentive cover for New Avengers #10, the fourth and final chapter of the 4-part arc focusing on the Sentry. As previously reported, each issue of the upcoming story arc will feature a cover by regular series artist David Finch and an alternative 'incentive' reflecting the creative conceit behind the Sentry character, that he was one of the greatest Marvel heroes and that all his early adventures have been forgotten by the Marvel Universe at-large."

Andy Diggle responds to Rich J's new LITG:

"A few months ago, I took Rich to task for an article he posted about me which featured a number of factual errors. When I pointed out that he really ought to have checked his facts with me first, he countered that as a 'rumour monger' rather than a 'journalist', it was more important to be entertaining than right. That may well be true. But he's now claimig to have turned LITG into an 'investigative journalism column', and once again he's run a piece about me without checking his facts first... and the piece again contains at least two factual errors. Not bad considering it only runs to three sentences... Rich, if you're reading this - my email address is right there on my website, and you can post to my forum. If you're going to pretend to be an 'investigative journalist', at least try to make a bit of an effort, eh? How hard is it to drop me a fucking email?"

Amongst the errors: Diggle's DC contract isn't up until June (as opposed to last week, as Rich said), and he isn't talking exclusive contracts with Marvel, as reported.

In this week's LITG, Rich Johnston looks at the internal workings of Marvel and DC, and reports on J. Michael Straszynski's review of the V For Vendetta movie script. The real news, mind you, comes from his smaller pieces at the end of the column:

"Andy Diggle's exclusive deal with DC Comics ran out last week, will be working with Marvel shortly. Expect a project announcement or indeed a Marvel exclusive announcement over the summer. Neither Andy Diggle or Marvel Comics responded to inquiries. The Kubert Brothers' exclusive deal with DC Comics was announced at the weekend. What was not announced was that they will be working on the 'Detective Comics' series, with scripts written by Grant Morrison. Expect official confirmation over the summer. Neither DC Comics or Grant Morrison responded to inquiries. Andy Kubert could not respond to questions about future projects."

Morrison on a Batbook? Hopefully it'll be the same Batman that appeared in his JLA Classified story, if it's true...

Inspired by Johanna's comments about her recent experiences on Usenet - "If you were looking for more support for the idea that comic fans have issues with women, you should go check out the responses I got when I posted my House of M comments on Usenet. They included 'yeah, comic books are sexist, and that's the way they should be, because comic book fans are overwhelmingly male' (note the confusion of superhero comic books with all comics, as though the books they were interested in were the only ones that existed); the surprisingly simple 'you're wrong', usually peppered with assorted personal insults; and the ever-popular 'no, YOU'RE the one who's sexist' (did you forget to include the words 'rubber' and 'glue' in that stunning display of kindergarten logic?)." - I thought that I'd go check out that thread to see just how bad things could get. I'll know better in future.

The thread started with Johanna posting her thoughts on House of M, which had many reasonable complaints, but which started with this somewhat controversial statement:

"As a woman who's not interested in having (and thus choosing not to have) children, I find the underlying premise of House of M -- woman who can't have babies goes crazy with grief and destroys the world when the men don't restrain her -- offensive, out-dated, sexist, and stupid."

Now, while I don't think that's the underlying premise of House of M myself - but then I also thought that Identity Crisis wasn't inherently about the rape of Sue Dibny, just that said rape was a very clumsy cheap exploitative bit of writing to get the characters to where they needed to be for the writer to do the story he wanted to do - I can see it as a valid reading (especially when she clarifies later: "I'm afraid people are taking my wording a bit too literally. Let me try again: Wanda can't have her kids. When she creates them, men come in and yell at her to that effect. They 'take them away' from her. She can't (isn't allowed to) have them."). Of course, others may not share my perspective:

"Oh would you grow up! Wanda went crazy because they erased her memories of her imaginary children. You're like one of those women that think that Wonder Woman's costume is sexist because it's so revealing, but don't ever complain about the Sub-Mariner's 'costume' aren't you? It wouldn't surprise me considering that you're obviously a screaming feminist."

"You may be surprised to learn this, but comic books aren't written solely for YOU, JoHanna Draper Carlson, and with YOUR life goals and priorities in mind. Brian Michael Bendis is writing a story about a character, Wanda Maximoff, who -- shock! -- is DIFFERENT from you, who wanted children, had them, and who loved her children very much, and who now is suffering deeply because they have been 'taken away' from her. Maybe you ought to practice what you preach and try and step outside your own experience sometime."

"In other words, you think all women should have the same disinterest in having children that you do. Um... you do realize how bigoted that is, right? Niiiiice... so much for the liberation of women..."

The conversation then spins off into a discussion of feminism and why it's obviously a Bad Thing, mostly from some clearly bitter men:

"The fact that even though feminists claim [equality of the sexes] to be their belief, but prove their hypocricy in their actions and the way they live. I.e. griping about women being treat like 'sex objects', but then sleep around with any guy they can find. Not to mention the fact that when feminists do get into a committed relationship, the male half of said relationship is generally whipped and the female half makes all the decisions concerning their relationship. That's what's so offensive."

"Note how fringe radical feminists argue for freedom of choice for women -- but only if they choose from within a pre-selected range of choices that radical feminists set up for them. If a liberated woman were to choose a traditional role -- such as deciding to stay home and bear children -- she must be a victim of sexism."

But hey - Are comics in general sexist? Apparently not:

"Its pretty when women, or Shawn, complain about male dominated aspects of the superhero genre, when y'now, it was always there to begin with, and probably, for the hardcore audience, part of the appeal. It's like buying an issue of Playboy and complaing about the nude women."

"What we have hear is actually sexism... The people making these assertions consider women inheretently sexual, so they flock to examples of women less than full clothed. What they don't notice is the far more prominent half naked guys featured in many more comics. After, all, they're just guys, they can't be sex objects, now can they? So once again the allegedly progessive complainers are actually sexist themselves."

Back to Johanna's original comments, and the reactions to them:

"Women who want to have babies and can't are often forlorn and depressed. Insane women who want to have babies and can't often delve deeper into insanity or imagine that they actually exist. Insane women with reality altering powers who want to have babies and can't are a threat to reality based upon their insanity alone, much less anything else. Quit whining. It's offensive, out-dated, sexist, and stupid."

Ah, discourse.

Now, I think that the recently announced Showcase Presents books - essentially DC's version of Marvel's Essentials books - are a great idea. Cheap phone book collections of silver age material, alternating between well-known superheroes (in an incarnation that is likely to appeal to the general public's nostalgia as well as fanboys) and more obscure characters who would be less likely to get "regular" trade paperback collections. Jesse Baker, of course, disagrees:

"[O]utside the Legion and MAYBE JLA and the late 1960s Neal Adams Batman stuff, I don't see it selling well. They SHOULD make their B&W phone book line 80s onward exclusive and focus solely on stuff that won't ever be given a proper TPB release. Stuff like Swamp Thing (starting from the VERY BEGINNING and not the fucking Anatomy Fucking Lesson), New Teen Titans, All Star Squadron, the Giffen JLA, the post-Year One Batbooks, The Post-Crisis Superman, the Wally West Flash, Suicide Squad, Hellblazer, Shade the Changling Man, and such. Stuff that people would fucking want to read but DC refuses to collect or collect in proper fashion."

Matt Fraction and Joe Casey talk about the effect of the internet on comics professionalism:

"When a pro takes the shots... it just makes everything that much smaller. It's tacky, embarrassing, titillating, bitter, unprofessional... it's tabloidism, you know? And, honestly, when you can read a page-by-page breakdown of how JMS is taking shots at DC in one book, and how Loeb is shooting right back in another, and how a Lois Lane stand-in is raped to death in another... it appeals to that base instinct to which the internet inherently speaks. Like shouting 'FIGHT!' in school when a fight'd break out."

If only I had the ability to watch this right now...

Heidi MacDonald previews the forthcoming Will Eisner biography:

"[Author Bob] Andelman goes far beyond the Eisner most of us knew, the tireless supportor of comics as an artform. That Eisner is here, but it's the actual man we learn about, from such well-known aspects as his poor childhood to his partnership with Jerry Iger to his years in the Army, to some less well-known anecdotes and events -- Eisner's early romantic exploits (including Iger's hiring a prostitute for him, unbeknownst to Eisner), the death of his daughter at age 16 from leukemia, and the many failed businesses that went along with his triumphs. This is a rich real life narrative that everyone interested in the history of comics should read."

Bruce Jones, on his latest "I am the new go-to guy at DC" book, Vigilante:

"From the point of view of a superhero book, I think this may be the darkest think I've ever done or maybe anyone's ever done. We pulled no punches. The thing about it that's most appealing to me, is the climate of freedom Wildstorm gave me to really get in there and plumb the depths of the characters psyche--I mean really go down deep and discover what makes him tick and why. This will be used as a slow reveal throughout the series. It's also a pretty sexy book, but not—I hope--without good reason. As for surprises: well, if anyone out there actually figures out the big surprise reveal, they should be working in comics. The clues are all there...it's sorting them out that's half the fun."

Still concerned about the portrayal of women in comic books, Millarworld takes a poll:

"Non-cheesecake artists who excel at cheesecake... Is the depiction of women in comics merely a means of perpetuating socially-constructed definitions of feminine beauty? Should comics be used to question these attitudinal norms, which endorse a narrow conceptualization of feminine beauty and maintain sexist expectations about how women ought to look?"

"Not too into cheescake or soft core porn comic book art, but I will say Jaime Hernandez probably draws the sexiest and cutest women. And when he wants to draw them sexy/or near porno style he's probably one of the best at it. As for just regularly drawing women I really like Jae Lee's stylized work."

"I like the cute, curvy women drawn by Mike Allred, Darwyn Cooke, and the little I've seen from Jaime Hernandez. This is in contrast to the more obvious cheesecake work by J. Scott Campbell, Art Adams, Jim Lee, Adam Hughes, Frank Cho, and Terry Dodson (although I like their women as well). I didn't bother to list the 'bad girl' artists I don't care for as much."

"Kevin Maguire. Fire and Ice were never sexier."

"Oh, yeah. JLI #16 had Fire trying to get it on with Batman, but he kept putting her off, what a moron. And she was brazilian too, wasn't she?"

"Yes she was. But I always found Adam Hughes' Fire and Ice sexier, even though he drew them in LESS revealing costumes!"

ICv2 follows up on the news that Heidi broke over the weekend:

"SLG Publishing founder and president Dan Vado told ICv2 he was 'ecstatic' about an agreement with the Walt Disney Company, which will allow SLG to create a number of comic book series based on Disney properties... SLG has plans to sell both the comics and graphic novels at Disney parks and specialty retail chains as well as via the direct market, while making the graphic novel collections available to bookstores as well."

Comic Book Galaxy is soon to relaunch, with an all-new line-up of writers. Alan David Doane explains why:

"See, I began to feel some weeks ago that Comic Book Galaxy was losing the plot somewhat. That in my depression, and with a number of personal problems, I had not provided the editorial hand needed to keep the site on-mission and on-target. I had a gifted group of writers, but was failing to give them much guidance or feedback. And while it's hard not to talk about this without seeming arrogant, I know that they appreciate feedback, criticism and praise whenever any of those are merited. I know because they tell me. In a very real way, and both my wife and Chris Allen initially laughed at this analogy, but I increasingly see CBG as the teaching hospital of comic book websites. Look where folks have gone from here: An Eisner nominated comics writer; a successful editor-in-chief at a popular and growing comic book publisher; many writers have come through the doors of the Comic Book Galaxy Virtual Lounge and gone on to do great things in this industry. Many now write for other sites or have created their own weblogs. And to me, those accomplishments are as great as getting nominated for an Eisner or running a comic book company. Because when you leave here, I think if nothing else, you take with you the idea that if comics is to grow, to be pushed forward into its own bright future, it takes active participation, communication and engagement. Like selling Rio Rancho Estates, it takes brass balls, the supreme hubris to say that comics -- as an industry, and as an artform -- can be better, to explain some of the ways that can actually happen, and to point the way to comics that are already well along that road while the corporate comics publishers in large part continue the destructive, backward-looking editorial and business policies that have so marginalized them in the eyes of the public while Manga, non-superhero fiction and artcomix are clearly ascendant in the mainstream media, in bookstores all over the country, and in the minds of people ranging from young girls and boys buying Manga to the library director who contacted me a few months ago looking for help in creating a new graphic novel category for a regional eductional system. Good comics are everywhere right now, even, surprisingly, in some comic book stores. The Beguiling in Toronto. Earthworld in Albany. Million Year Picnic in Cambridge. Atomik Pop in Norman, Oklahoma. Modern Myths in Northampton. And they're exploding in the media, in large chain bookstores, and in independent bookstores that are discovering that graphic novels have a place on their shelves, often an increasingly expanding one.

"So, I began to feel some weeks back that it was time for a change. Chris had signaled that he was entering a different headspace vis a vis CBG, and between my car accident and other changes, so was I. I began to envision a NEW Comic Book Galaxy. Eventually I even started thinking of it as THE NEW COMIC BOOK GALAXY, and began asking around to see if there were any good writers I admired who maybe were simpatico with the evolution I was picturing for the site. Check the staff page a week from today, and you'll see that there were more than a few. I am profoundly grateful for the leap of faith everyone has made in either sticking with this site, or in signing on for this first day in its newest and most exciting phase ever."

The Bendis Board - oddly invested in the current goings-on in DC books:

"Batman's Revenge on the JLA Starts on Wednesday! In JLA #115. So I hope. He needs to kick some motherfucking superhero ass. Big time."

"i cant fuckin wait"

"It's gonna be suh-weet."

"I Know How Awesome Batman Is, But One Good Punch Is About All I See Hawkman Letting Him Get Away With."

"All he needs, my friend."

"With Guy Maybe."

"you mean you?"

"Well, I'm No Hawkman."

"That you aren't, Guy, that you aren't."

"Ooh, Kittens Got Claws."

Craig Thompson sells out to the mainstream, maaaan:

"Craig Thompson, the award-winning cartoonist behind Blankets and Carnet De Voyage, has reportedly signed a deal to do a book with the Pantheon Graphic Novel line. Pantheon Editor Chip Kidd confirmed to THE PULSE that the signing had taken place, although he is not the editor at the company who will be taking him on. The other editor at Pantheon frequently in charge of graphic novel projects is Dan Frank. Rumors of the signing swirled around last weekend's Book Expo America, although it was unknown with which Random House imprint Thompson had aligned himself. Although Random House cannot release such information and cannot confirm or deny any financial aspect of such a deal, let alone engage with speculation, rumors on the BEA floor supposedly had the advance in the high five figure/low six-figure range. The advance is not quite that size, says the cartoonist. Thompson told the Pulse, 'It's true that I'll be publishing my next book Habibi with Pantheon/Random House, which I'm quite excited about, but the money amount is an inaccurate rumor.'"

At WW Philly, Joe Quesada said that House of M would leave fans "hugely surprised and hugely depressed". Millarworld is hugely confused about that comment:

"What? Why would he want readers to be 'hugely depressed'? I just don't understand this comment..."

"What's not to understand? A ton of comics try to have an emotional impact on the readers. Watchmen is regarded as one of the best books in the history of the medium and it's horribly depressing."

"Well, comic books fans don't seem to be too hard to depress..."

"Well, well... moving right past 'frustrated', 'annoyed' and 'jaded' and straight to 'depressed'? Quesada's certainly ambitious..."

"I see nothing wrong with making fans depressed, as most of my favorite songs are depressing songs, and some of the best films ever made are depressing as hell."

"I HAVE to think that he was trying to be funny and it utterly failed in print. He has an astonishing ability to irritate the heck out of me in his interviews and I've pretty much had to stop reading them. I'm sure he cares about Marvel, the books and the fans, but often it doesn't read that way."

"He seems more concerned with being cool and kicking DC's ass in the sales department than he does telling stories with integrity and creativity. I realize he's trying to hype his comics/company/creators but, he's very off-putting to me. That being said, in this case, I think it's obvious that he was trying to suggest that this story would have an unusual amount of emotional resonance with us fan type peoples."

Ed Brubaker talks about his upcoming Dr. Doom miniseries:

"[Doom is] the smartest and most arrogant person in the world, a man who the world has tried to break since his birth, but who has never given in, but he’s not evil... He feels he's got a destiny, and it's something that drives him, and makes him more important than other people. Like I said, I'm writing this as if it's this giant twisted tragedy, so you watch him going from an innocent kid to the ultimate tyrant. It's a lot of fun, and deeper than most people would expect from something like this, I think. It's a mental journey, and I'm trying to give it the weight of a novel or something like Citizen Kane. Not that it'll be as good as Citizen Kane, but why not swing for the fences, right?"

Newsarama asks whether you're completely up-to-date with what happened at WW Philly this weekend.

Peter David confirms the accidental(?) reveal from Bob Wayne:

"We had wanted to wait on an announcement to have the final contracts signed (they're not) and having sample artwork from the new artist (we don't). But Bob Wayne just announced at the Wizard Philly Con that 'Fallen Angel' is going to IDW, so the timing ship has just sailed from the harbor. So yeah, 'Fallen Angel' will be relaunching in December (we hope) from IDW. The first storyline will reveal the Angel's true origin and, thus, will be an ideal jumping on point for anyone who hasn't read it until now."

Randy and Don at The 4th Rail both loved it enough to give it full marks, and if you haven't given Alex De Campi and Igor Kordey's Smoke a try yourself, James Sime is making it easy for twenty of you:

"In order to participate in The Smoke Filled Giveaway all you have to do is send your mailing address to james@isotopecomics.com by Sunday, June 12th at midnight Pacific time. Winners will be selected at random and posted on Alex de Campi's 'Full Tilt Boogie' Messageboard thoughout the day on Monday, June 13th."

Free comics, kids. All for the price of an email.

Comic Book Resources have had some good reports from WW Philly today - their Joe Kubert report in particular:

"In January of 2006, in the pages of 'Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy,' a six-issue all ages mini-series from DC Comics written and illustrated by Joe Kubert, one of Rock’s co-creators, Sgt. Rock and Easy company head out on another dangerous mission; one that might shorten the war and alert the world to a despicable evil... Kubert is having a blast writing and drawing [the series]: 'I only hope that people who pick up this book will get a kick out of it and come anywhere near enjoying reading it as much as I have writing it,' Kubert told CBR News. 'The stuff that I’m doing now I’m getting more of a charge, more of a pleasure. I’m only hoping that after all these years of doing this stuff that I’m maybe bringing a little something extra to this one.'"

You know it's bad when this is my favorite news out of WW Philly so far:

"With so many great classic stories at their disposal, it's no wonder that DC Comics has finally decided to follow in the footsteps of other publishers and offer affordable black and white collections from their stable of characters. DC Showcase Presents makes its debut this September with a Superman and Green Lantern volume. These Silver Age spotlights features 500 black and white pages of action, adventure, and - something that era is famous for - fun. Like the Marvel Essentials, the DC Showcase Presents volumes are designed to be affordable reading copies of the material. The publisher chose to stay in the Silver Age for these collections, because that's what many considered to be the 'most fertile' period. As most classic comic fans know, obtaining original editions of each story reprinted in the collection could run in the several hundred to thousands of dollars, depending on the condition. However, these volumes are an affordable $16.99."

Starting with a Superman volume and a Green Lantern volume, the collections will then move forward with Jonah Hex and Metamorpho volumes...

This just in from WW Philly:

"Adam and Andy Kubert have signed 3 year exclusive contracts with DC... As Newsarama readers know, Marvel and DC have escalated their battle over exclusive creators signings over the last several years, with many big names declaring their alliance to one or the other publisher and a few even moving 'across the isle' to do so, offering solid public relations opportunities for both companies. Perhaps the last signing that had this much surprise impact, however, was when then New X-Men writer Grant Morrison signed with DC, announced now infamously during 2003's San Diego Comic-Con International (along with Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale and Greg Rucka). What makes the dual Kubert signings perhaps even more surprising and significant is most industry observers did not regard the brothers' services as 'in play'. For years they were two of Marvel's most reliable commercial performers and 'go-to' artists, and their exits leave both a substantial vacancy in Marvel's creative roster and a PR blow to weather. Of course, the acquisition of the Kuberts’ services by DC will also surely cause some to wonder if any of Marvel’s creators are immune from the reported lure of the DC roster of characters, Dan Didio, and the packages that can be hammered out between creators and the publisher."

WW Philly's X-Men panel has finished, and Newsarama has the fairly dull details. But, hey! New Excalibur returns the title to its original concept - a superteam in Britain led by Captain Britain... so lots of "new" there, then. Warren Ellis character Pete Wisdom is a cast regular, because writer Chris Claremont "jokingly said that other creators had been stealing his characters for years, so it was time to 'steal some back.'" What else? Um... House of M was hyped:

"Naturally, the panel was asked a question if House of M was an alternate universe, Quesada reiterated that it’s not, and that there will be major repercussions throughout the Marvel Universe. 'Fans will be hugely surprised and hugely depressed' at the coming changes, he added. Also on the House of M front, Quesada stated that this summer’s crossover storyline is only the beginning, and that there will be five major 'tentpole' events coming in 2006."

Marvel: Learning the wrong lessons from DC's current multiple Identity/Countdown to/Prelude to/Infinite Crisis success.

(And about House of M... Am I the only person who's seeing this as Marvel's Zero Hour? That it'll end up not in a fully-fledged reboot, but with minor continuity things - like Genosha, various characters having their secret identities revealed, and the "fake" Magneto/Xorn in Grant Morrison's NewXMen - being swept under the retcon carpet and setting up short-lived new status quos for characters?)

The DCU prepares to jump forward a year, next March:

"Allow us to clarify: as a result of the events in Infinite Crisis, all DC Universe books will jump ahead by one year in their respective timeline. Just prior to the [WW Philly DCU] panel, Newsarama got a few quick words with Didio to explain what’s coming a little better. The larger name for where and when things pick up as a result of Crisis is, specifically, 'One Year Later...' 'The series will pick up with the new direction already in progress and the heroes established in their new status quo,' Didio told Newsarama. '’One Year After...’ sounds like you are dealing with the direct repercussions of Crisis, which is not the case.'

"As for how things will play out, publishing-wise, all DCU books will make note of the Crisis in their February issues, corresponding with Infinite Crisis #5. Then, in March, all DCU books will be set 'One Year Later...' relative to what was seen in their February issues. Got that? Good, ‘cause that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 'There will be big scale changes,' Didio said. 'New characters, perhaps new series, new alliances, friendships, relationships, changing locations, and we might not even have some of the same people under the masks one year later.'"

Tom DeFalco is obviously excited about Last Hero Standing:

"Marvel - in the person of Editor Tom Brevoort - actually called me [to write this series]. The sales of the Spider-Girl paperbacks have been doing quite well in the mass market and at schools... Marvel wanted a limited series that could reintroduce the rest of the MC-2 characters to the world... This story is being set in one possible Marvel future and the events will have a lasting effect on that future. If you consider Spider-Girl's universe real, it's a real story. If you don't, it's a What If story. I, however, am not sure any comic book story is really 'real', but that's me."

Roy Thomas gets back to doing what he does best - stories about superheroes in WW2:

"ANTHEM, by Roy Thomas and artists Daniel Acuna and Jorge Santamaria Garcia, is a darker saga of an alternate Earth, and of the super-heroes who were created to save it. In this world, Pearl Harbor wasn't just an attack by Japanese planes on a sleepy Hawaiian base. It was a full-blown assault on the US West Coast by Imperial Japanese forces spearheaded by a towering monster that could mop up the ocean with Godzilla, and on the East Coast by Nazi shock troops . . . and ray-firing flying saucers!"

Danielle Corsetto talks about Girls With Slingshots, webcomics and her relationship with Bill Jemas's 360ep company:

"360ep is in charge of a bunch of stuff that I don't know how to talk about properly, so I'll put it in the layman's terms that I understand. Though we're rolling pretty slowly right now, once I get off my ass and start pulling things together, 360ep is going to take care of all publishing and merchandising for GWS products. I retain full rights and creative freedom over the strip, which was the main reason I signed with them. Lucky for me, the guys and gals at 360ep don't even bat an eyelash at phrases like 'Just bag the dildo, bitch' and 'I'll tie your pre-pubescent nuts into a bow.' When I met Teresa at a quiet Thai restaurant in New York for the first time and she recited the quote 'Loves the cock' in her normal, medium-volume voice, I knew it was meant to be."

Heidi MacDonald puts yesterday's "Comics aren't mysognistic! Quick! Find some girls who agree!" crusade in perspective:

"While countering this highly negative tone of Maher's piece makes sense, The Beat couldn't help thinking of the way that, woman are always put in charge of, say, the Family Values department to say it okay. 'I love wearing the veil, it makes me feel respected as a woman!' you know, that kind of thing. Not to say that all the well-meaning folks on various message boards are trying to put women in veils -- far, far from it. But they seem a little, well, detached from the priorities that female creators may have in their careers. For instance, the names Grayson, Simone and DeCampi were constantly thrown around. It's great that there are three whole women writing comics who aren't also cartoonists -- actually five if you count Fiona Avery and Louise Simonson. That's, like, a 300% increase over the last five years when there was only Grayson and Simonson. Yay.

"The Beat knows first hand what it's like running a cause. Back when The Beat was heavily involved in Friends of Lulu, the organization for women in comics, we were always calling on the usual suspects -- Doran, Pini, Amanda Conner, Jill Thompson -- for endorsements and donations. Bless them, some of them were able to spend the time, others weren't interested. And The Beat never begrudged those who didn't have time. After all, keeping a busy freelance career going is a full-time job, as is being some kind of symbol for a whole generation. And when there are so few successful women in mainstream comics, it must get tiresome to be constantly called upon. So it's nice that all the guys who run comics want the gals to come around and set things right. But maybe a better way to spend time would be to make sure there are more gals doing comics in the first place."

Upcoming mini-comic Kevin Analog (which, according to its creator Benjamin Birdie, is "about a semi-maudlin guy who fights crime with mix tapes") has a new way to promote itself - A mixtape competition:

"Kevin Analog is fresh out of quality mix tapes, which are the lifeblood of his frequently lackluster war against Minnesota's criminal and supernatural element. The only thing that stands between him and a slightly more difficult rest of the day IS YOU. Send him your mix tape as soon as humanly possible and, should he choose yours, you'll be able to watch him use it first hand in his next exciting appearance."

You also win original art. Go and check it out, before running to your large music collections and wondering what the first track should be.

Marvel.com feels the effects of House of M:

"Eric Magnus will be the center of attention, once again! This time at a charity gala in his honor hosted by the British Royal family. Prince Namor, King T'Challa, Sir Victor Von Doom, Genis-Vell, Princess Ororo of Kenya and a smorgasbord of international glitterati are expected to pay tribute to the man in a once-in-a-lifetime event commemorating the anniversary of the rebellion against homo sapien oppressors that held the world captive for decades."

"Season X of Sapien Death Match launched last night in Chicago with reigning champ and fan fave Tony Stark racking up another win, mangling MBC Productions’ latest robo terror and pulverizing three challengers in the final round of one-on-one combat."

The internet... it's tearing in half already!

Help Kelly-Sue DeConnick and Laurenn McCubbinn help people:

"We've probably hit you up for donations [for their charity Triathlon-ness] already (though, on the off chance we haven't, please feel free to drop by our donation sites -- links at the bottom of this missive!), this time we're hitting you up for assistance with our SDCC FUNDRAISING PROJECT: The Daruma Comics Internet Index Project [...] Laurenn and I want to put together a book -- an index to comics-related sites on the web -- that we'll offer as a bonus at SDCC for donations over a certain dollar amount. (We'll take out what it cost us to have the books put together, then divide the rest between our two fundraising accounts."

Follow the link to find out how you can assist this book's birth.

As part of the general Millarworld revamp, they're revisiting their original content idea, as Mark Millar explains:

"One of the sections we're doing is a free online magazine. I'll be writing for this with some of the biggest names in the industry and the first issue is looking pretty bloody great. But this isn't confined to pros only. Submissions are open to everyone. The magazine will mainly focus on movies and comics, but will cover everything from games to politics in the Features section. Just imagine Esquire for Geeks and you'll see where we're coming from. This is getting a HUGE mainstream launch, will feature interviews with the biggest names in comics and Hollywood and you could be in the first issue. Submir yout Features idea to Alice via Millarworld and remember that our deadline for the first issue is just a couple of weeks away."

Interested parties, apply here. Does anyone else remember the first time that they tried this?

Newsarama prepares for Wizard World Philly:

"Word around the industry water cooler is a few major announcements could be made during the weekend, and as usual Newsarama will be there to cover the action, provide new preview images debuting at the con, and follow-up on some of the big stories with expanded coverage."

Listing the panels at the con, I'm amused to see the following listing: "11:00am EST - House of M (Marvel’s summer event)" Does anyone not know what House of M is by now? Hasn't it ripped the internet asunder already? Anyway; the con starts tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to finding out what rumors are true for this one...

It'd be entirely wrong of me to do anything other than point out that Robert Taylor's rebuttal column to the Times "Comics are mysoginistic" article got up there very quickly, I'm sure. But as I'm in an odd frame of mind, I'd like to point out the end of said column:

"I don’t understand Maher’s need to make all comic books seem elitist and sexist when there is such a broad selection of genres and possibilities in the medium. There are comics for everyone, whether you are male, female or child."

That's right; "child", the mysterious third gender.

Earlier, Taylor also calls Gail Simone "a femme-scribe", and describes the Elektra movie as "a movie that does indeed sometimes showcase Jennifer Garner’s buttocks". He also lists the hobbies that make him not a stereotypical comic book geek without a life; curiously, one of those hobbies is "read[ing] Tom Clancy books." Why only Tom Clancy?

This column fascinates me, and I'm not entirely sure why.

I'm having a shitty day. No, no - no need to comfort me, these things happen sometimes. But as if a sign from above that, well, maybe everything isn't as bad as all that, Neil Kleid emails a link to his new column at Buzzscope. Said column? Understanding Nazis, by Captain America.

Oh yes.

"If the history of Nazis in comics’ spectacularly varied past is any indication, the future will be virtually impossible to predict – for example, knowing where and when the Red Skull will next rear his murderous crimson head. But our definition can offer us some clues, and this time the secret is not in what the definition says but in what it doesn’t. For example, our definition says nothing about Nazis relating to DC Comics, Image Comics, Oni Press, Dark Horse Comics, whatever’s left of CrossGen, IDW, Top Shelf, films, books, CNN, actual historical textbooks or first had accounts of the Nuremberg War Trials. No names are listed in our definition, no types of evildoings other than blowing my poor partner Bucky to patriotic bits, god bless his soul. So don’t give me your 'Per Degaton' or your 'Master Man' – if they’ve never heard of the selfless sacrifice of James Buchanan Barnes, they’re not worth your time or mine.

"Nothing is said about HYDRA and AIM. No one cares who fought Namor, the Human Torch or Dum Dum Dugan apart from the times I was there schooling them and the creep in question was wearing an ugly purple mask with a foofy fur collar. Unless we’re talking about the Red Skull or Hitler, of course. They’re pretty evil, too. Oh, and Strucker. Mustn’t forget Strucker.

"Those of you who hunt Nazis for a living – or would like to someday – probably know that keeping up with names and dates is a full time job. There are so many Nazis in comics that it would take an army of readers to study them all. Well, I fought with an army, son. The United States Army. I’m here to tell you however much you may try to understand the world of Nazis in comics, part of that world will always lie in shadow... a mystery. Out of reach... just inches from my clutching grasp, waiting to be gripped and strangled BETWEEN MY STAR SPANGLED FINGERS—

"Sorry, again."

Controversy - harder to manufacture than you'd think, as the Bendis Board finds out:

"Superman/Batman jabs at Bendis [...] Jeph Loeb seems to either be having fun, or very bitter, depending on the actual relationship between the two. Let's take a look at the jabs in this one. I'll start. It ends with 'A caller from Portland, Oregon, who's just happy to be listening to the show.' Don't Bendis live there?"

"I don't really get how that's a jab, to be honest. And I haven't picked up anything obvious in the few issues I've read."

"I should specify it's for #20. In a recent interview you could see that Loeb was kind of upset. Anyways, the caller was from a radio show, where people called in, commenting on violence in the media. The DJ would say these great things about every callers local, and then said that people in Portland are, essentially, just happy they're getting the radio."

Bendis arises to squash the intended FIGHT rumor: "loeb's a pal of mine. he's... how shall i put this? he's just not that good at humor"

The Board is displeased:

"can the Jeph Loeb Enemy Watch finally be put to bed? This is like the tenth time someone has brougt him up here with 'evidence' that he's mad at Bendis or is after him or something, and every time Bendis posts that they're pals, and there's nothing to be mad over. I know it's been tough since Kevin Smith publically apologized to Brian and Chuck Austen left X-men we havn't had a high profile writer to target with our online rage, but lets stop grasping at straws here people. A target will present itself in due time, be patient."

"I thought we already replaced both of them with Reginuld Hudlin?"

"Nah, he's not sucessful enough."

The, as they say in America, "London Times" thinks that comics are mysoginistic:

"The comic-book geek, long regarded with paternalistic tolerance by mainstream culture, has been cruelly undone by his latest big-screen crush, Sin City. For despite pretences of sophistication — a Cannes premiere, a media charm offensive, and even suggestions of High Art — this computer-generated comic-book adaptation is so steeped in fetishistic adolescent imagery and casual misogyny that it overexposes the sinister appetites of its hardcore fanbase. In fact, such is the sublime level of sexual sadism on display here (paedophilia and slut-killing are big in Sin City), and so relentless is the leering softcore depiction of prostitutes, dancers and slatternly lowlifes, that the movie unwittingly reveals the frank and masturbatory hatred of women that is fundamental to any understanding of the comic-book geek."

Millarworld leads the charge to rebut, with Millar responding to a suggestion that he respond on behalf of comics:

"Let's organize this today. Forget Alan, go for Leah Moore. A man standing up to this will just neutralize that guy at best. A bunch of female creators can make him look like a dick. Why doesn't Alex [De Campi] become the ringleader here and contact the Times directly asking if she can write a response with three other female writers and artists (Colleen [Doran], Gail [Simone] and Leah). We don't need any others and all four are very good. However, prior to this, to get The Times excited, we all have to send a letter of complaint and ask that we hear the female creators getting voice here. I'm going to write my letter now and send it to the email above. Once you've done the same post your DONE IT below. Once we've got ten, Alex can contact them directly and kick ass. They'll jump at the chance once they see all the heat. Rapid rebuttal. Go for it!!!!"

Although too busy to ringlead as Millar wanted, Alex posts her letter of complaint, as does MW regular Alice Doyle and Mark himself.

Retailers guide ICv2 says "Graphic Novels are here to stay!":

"The increased popularity of the graphic novel and its penetration into new channels is not likely to be a short-lived phenomenon, according to an article in the ICv2 Retailers Guide to Graphic Novels #5, released on the eve of the Book Expo America trade show being held in New York this weekend. The article compares the current trend to a similar upsurge in graphic novel acceptance in the early 90s, and finds a lot of differences. Because of the wider acceptance of graphic novels; the movie, videogame, and TV tie-ins; the level of talent that's being attracted to the medium; and the changes in the audience, ICv2 believes that the current trend has much stronger underpinnings and a greater likelihood of turning into a long-term phenomenon."

Dark Horse takes an unexpected licensing step:

"HARLEQUIN ENTERPRISES LIMITED announced today a content licensing agreement with DARK HORSE COMICS, which will see the comics publisher release HARLEQUIN books in manga format in the United States, Canada, U.K. and Australia. Under the agreement, DARK HORSE will publish manga adaptations of six topselling HARLEQUIN titles under the Harlequin Ginger Blossom banner. Harlequin Ginger Blossom will be divided into two color-coded lines -- a 'pink' line, which is aimed at younger readers, and a 'violet' line, intended for more sophisticated readers. The agreement is a six-book deal -- three books for each line -- with a title from each line arriving approximately every three months."

DC are bringing back Warlord, they're bringing back Jonah Hex... What is going on? While you ponder that imponderable, here's Luke Ross, artist of the upcoming Jonah Hex ongoing (read: cancelled by issue 12 in this market) series:

"Visually the combination of [Hex's] hideous and normal visage is something that greatly appeals to me. If explored well that can contribute a lot to the stories, reinforcing the duality of his character, contrasting moments of cruelty when dealing with his enemies with gestures of kindness for those he knows are innocent. That’s an aspect I would like to explore better graphically."

Brian K. Vaughan shares the love:

"First of all, I love superhero comics. Most of the series I write star super-folks, and many of my favorite books feature dudes with powers far beyond those of mortal men and women. But recently, I've learned that for lots of people, Y: The Last Man is one of the few non-superhero books (or the ONLY non-superhero book) that they’ve ever read. That's flattering for Pia and me, but also a little depressing, because it means lots of you are missing out on some amazing stories that were a huge influence on Y and/or are much better than our little book could ever hope to be. In the hopes of sharing the wealth, I'd like to recommend ten non-superhero graphic novels that I'm confident any comic fan will love."

At the start of July, BKV will be giving ten people free books from his list, if they've added them to their Amazon wishlists. Go to the thread for details.

Will DC kick Marvel's ass this year? Because, obviously, that's what it's all about. Someone asks Mark Millar over at Millarworld:

"Mark, what do you think of the comics press and media giving so much attention to DC these days, and not as much to Marvel? Even on your own website, the threads with the most action seem to be from DC. Being one of the 'Marvel' men, I'm sure Marvel is noticing this. I know your name isn't attached to House Of M, but do you truly believe this will bury DC this summer and 'crack the internet in half?'"

Millar responds:

"Marvel will always kick DC's ass in terms of sales (something that bugged me when I was a big DC fan in their excellent 1980s period), but DC will occasionally get more press because-- well, the reporters just get bored talking about Marvel all the time and DC has a couple of good things out this summer. Crisis will be a good thing for them sales-wise, Rob is always news and All-Star Batman HAS to move the needle just with the creative team involved (especially after Sin City). GL seems to have done well too, but nothing else even SMELLS like top 25 so-- just like the last couple of years-- I think DC will get three spiked books in there, but nobody will really buy much of anything else. They're great at focusing on three books and making them a huge success, but the rest of the line has suffered in the last three years (their overall profits are down). But I wish them nothing but the best. I have lots of friends over there, both creators and editorial. Both companies doing well is good fo everyone. I just can't see how they'll complete against the juggernaut of what Marvel has planned for the summer. I fuck off at the end of the year, which will make a small dent, but they have bigger fish to fry by Christmas. I've seen their plans."

Other posters have their own answers:

"You know, i don't really care about 'who's kicking who's ass' - and it doesn't matter really. All I want is good comics. And I don't care who is publishing it, or who is selling more. I don't even look at the publisher logo anymore, just the book title and the creators involved - thats all what matters IMHO."

"This response smacks of sanity and good common sense. You sure you're in the right place?"

"You guys actually think DC is capable of putting out 'good comics'? Maybe you haven't read a DC book recently."

"Marvel always beats DC because Marvel super-hero comics are consistently better than DC's, and that's what people want. That said, I wish more people got the non-super DC stuff, which is often pretty good. But Superman, Batman, JLA, Green Lantern, the IC lead-ins, those are all kind of dull to someone who doesn't get geekasms when Catman tells someone off."

Gail Simone on working with Rob Liefeld on her upcoming Teen Titans stint:

"Dan DiDio's very, very smart, and he understands people-- he knows that the more dangerous a job sounds, the more I can't resist it... So working on a beloved book like this that the readers feel so strongly about, with a lightning rod artist, that's just the kind of thing I like... The thing about Rob's art is, it appeals on a visceral level... So I'm obviously trying to fit the story to match that kind of energy. I like that some of Rob's pages reach out and slap you in the face-- I find that vastly preferable to the sedate, slumbering style that so many superhero comics have fallen into... My son, who loves manga and has no interest in superhero comics, came into my office while I was looking at Rob's sketches and he asked who drew them... He's never done that before and he specifically asked when this book was coming out. One look and he was hooked."

Bendis continues his Comics Foundry interview:

"I’m never more happy with myself then when I’m not full of crap. I’m never more sickened by myself or other people when I see they’re full of crap. Even if you’re writing and you’re writing and you’re kind of fooling yourself and you’re writing something you think you can do. And not to be all full circle with you, but when I was writing the X-Men, I really tried to make that gig work the first time I had it, but I was full of shit. That went on for three months before I finally said, 'No, I can’t do it.' But those were three months of tricking myself or trying to convince myself I’m not who I am. The lesson I learned there was, Don’t be full of shit. And don’t make other people pay for your shit, too. It’s a trickledown thing. If you’re full of shit – it’s like I said before about emotions – you’re going to make your collaborators full of shit, then the readers are going think it’s full of shit, and they’re full of shit for buying it and it’s not nice!"

Yesterday, CBR, today Newsarama - M. Zachary Sherman talks Seal Team Seven:

"I like to describe this book as a Tom Clancy Sci-Fi adventure. It's got political intrigue, drama, action and plot points that twist and turn in directions no one (hopefully) sees coming. It's also got kick-ass tech (a very special thanks to Alex Jaeger for designing the entirety of the Atlantians world) and amazing art by Roberto, who by the way is the key behind visualizing exactly what I had in my head. All in all, a fresh, new perspective on Atlantis that I hope everyone enjoys."