Johanna Draper Carlson has noticed something fascinating about the upcoming Archie revamp:

At the official Archie site, Betty has a blog. Ok, that’s typical marketing. However, this post, about the upcoming makeover, is a bit odd: Betty hates the idea… The next post suggests SOMEONE was aware of a line being crossed…

Is this the Archie equivalent of Marvel’s Assistant Editors’ Month? Did someone leave for the holidays without logging out of the blog posting account? Or is this more milking the story, or are they setting up for a quick return to the traditional style by saying they were only responding to their readers?

Brian Hibbs considers Diamond’s role in the industry:

One thing that I know about Diamond is that Diamond doesn’t want any controversy; in fact they want to look like the good guy whenever practical.  And, so, Diamond is vehemently opposed to any possible circumstance in which they’d have to “police” their clients.  That’s one of the reasons we’ll almost certainly never see Street Dates — in order for dates to have meaning, they have to have a consequence for someone breaking them.  Yet Diamond is not interested in being the ones who dole out (or even investigate) that consequence.  Why would they?  They have nothing to gain except bad will.

The Bendis Board reacts to Joe Quesada’s comments about DC trying to Marvelize, from last Friday:

“I think Quesada can be a bit petty at times, but I’m not going to say he shouldn’t be sniping at the competition. If anything, I think DC needs to get nastier and stop thinking of themselves as ‘the old, respectable company’ that doesn’t sink to that level.”

“I dont care if he’s wrong or right, but that was well spoken and well articulated. He could have been an asshole about it and really put DC down hard. Was there any need for it, probably not, but for what it was it was well said.”

“Sometimes Joe Q does rattle the cage but it’s always been like this DC is good but… they never had a Stan Lee type figure who goes out there and talks to the fans. Joe Q has his own weekly interview with Newsarama the only close thing I’ve seen DC doing is 5.2 but thats in relation to 52 more then anything else [...] In this case it’s a well thought out view, to me DC heroes have been very distant and somewhat hard to relate to, and no amount of bumbling Clark Kent does will ever make me think otherwise.”

“Very classy indeed and hopefully dc can listen to joe so it can be a decent company again.”

“Not really, given how Marvel is a perfect comic book company and DC’s characters are so inherently weak for the purposes of storytelling that they will never produce stories as good as what Marvel has to offer. It’s science.”

“It’s useful to stick with a phrase like marvelize, because that could mean a number of intangibles regarding characterization, stories,art, hiring specific creators, etc . That’s 1969 talk, and frankly both watches what the other does and copies the other’s best ideas. (cough vertigo cough) [...] If anyone truly believes Marvel has been the only innovator in comics during the last 40 plus years, then you’re just sipping kool-ade brewed by the house of ideas.”

“I know the guy takes a lot of shit online, but it has to be said: he’s one of the most intelligent, well spoken men in the industry. No EIC can ever be perfect, but the man brings a fresh perspective to the company, and he’s really concerned about helping the industry, which, as someone that wants to work in the industry, I have the utmost respect for. I agree with him. I think DC needs to take a close look at some of their characters. I find DC’s crop of characters, for the most part, unrelatable. The last time I was really interested in any of them was during Morrison’s tenure on JLA. I loved the portrayal of Kyle Rayner, Wally West and Plastic Man. In fact, I kind of liked seeing how Kyle felt like these characters were too big to relate to.”

“No one’s saying DC wasn’t trying to copy Marvel in the beginning. They were new, fresh, and doing things very differently. Of course DC should try to copy a thing or two. But he acts as if DC’s still doing it. DC and Marvel have been on the same even writing keel since the 80’s. Neither side is doing anything different or grandiose than the other one. All the stories tend to be recycled through as many realistic filters as possible. The only real difference here is Marvel doesn’t have as many corporate people looking down wanting to make sure the characters will always be licensable the same way so they have more oppurtunity to rock the boat. DC usually does follow up when they can but in a different storytelling ability. But Joe always wants to act as if to say ‘Marvel always does things first.’ And its not true.”

Eagle-eyed viewers of the Transformers trailer may have noticed a reference to the website http://www.sectorseven.org/; visit it and use the password “takara83″ to log into an alternate reality game based on the movie.

Yesterday’s Foxtrot noted that creator Bill Amend will switch the strip to a “Sunday only” format starting Dec. 31 …

“After spending close to half of my life writing and drawing FoxTrot cartoons, I think it’s time I got out of the house and tried some new things,” said Amend. “I love cartooning and I absolutely want to continue doing the strip, just not at the current all-consuming pace. I’ve been blessed over the years with a terrific syndicate, patient newspaper clients, and more support from readers than I probably deserve, and I want to assure them all that while I’ll be now a less-frequent participant on the comics pages, I’ll continue to treat my visits as the special privilege they are.”

The Ottawa Sun profiles Golden Age comic creator Alvin Schwartz, the man credited with creating Bizarro:

Where he consorted with the likes of rebel artist Jackson Pollock and writer Saul Bellow, Schwartz now toils — as one Internet commentator put it — “in the backwoods of Ottawa, Canada, in a small farm cottage where his only neighbours are cows. One might call it a fortress of solitude.”

He may be away from the action but Schwartz is far from forgotten. Just last summer, he was the recipient of a major comics industry award for excellence in writing.

In addition to Superman and Batman, Schwartz also worked on Aquaman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and the Green Lantern. And he’s credited with creating the comic book character Bizarro.

Schwartz also wrote two Superman “operas” and wrote a novel called The Blowtop, “the book that sparked the Beat Generation.”

In case you haven’t noticed, I can’t get enough of The Venture Bros. So I look forward to what’s become a holiday tradition: the special Venture Bros. Christmas song.

This year, Rusty Venture gathers friends, family and foes for Venture Aid 2006, a moving rendition of Do They Know It’s Christmas? I promise you, there won’t be a dry eye in the place.

(Via Jackson Publick)

As I steal an image from Kevin’s Christmas covers post, I wanted to take the opportunity to wish our readers a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukkah, Season’s Greetings and all that good stuff.

In the spirit of the season, our last gift to you before signing off for Christmas: holiday-themed links to explore after you’re done opening presents, drinking eggnog and watching the Eagles bow down before the might of the playoff-bound Dallas Cowboys. (Although how can you not like Brian Dawkins?)

Enjoy, and be sure to check back next week, as several of us will be around post-Christmas:

–Chip Zdarsky shares a holiday tale.

–Seven Hells has been counting down the ten heroes that could liven up your holiday party, from Jonah Hex to Mary Marvel.

–I remember seeing this for the first time a few years ago: Cecil and Britches in “No Santa Today.”

–Paul Pope illustrates what Reed gave the Thing this year.

–Paul Dini has a new Christmas-themed Rashy episode.

–Santa and Rudolph have been rescued.

–Fox’s the 24th:

–CNET’s Daniel Terdiman helps Spider-Man save Santa.

–The Edmonton Journal looks at high-end toys as last-minute gifts.

–Holiday fine print.

–And to top it off, a look back at some B@N holiday-related posts: Santa Claus’s greatest hits, Crime’s gonna need a miracle, ‘Twas the night before Week 33, Day 6…, Christmas, covered, Happy Holidays from ACT-I-VATE, Child’s Play charity raffle, ‘Tis the season, Spurgeon as Santa: Sack o’ conversation, Humbug, I say! Humbug!, Holiday Heroes Auction kicks off, Is this the press release of the holiday season?, Infinite Christmas? That’s sooo 2005, Does whatever a spider can. But in a fireman’s outfit, Nothing says ‘happy holidays’ like …, The gifts that just keep giving, Batman and Robin, last-minute shoppers, Fa la la la la, la la la la, What would Hiro want? The New Frontier, apparently and last but not least, our gift-giving guide, parts 1, 2 and 3.

Have a great holiday!

From the Reuters “Second Life News Center” comes word that Warren Ellis will write a weekly column on Second Life:

Ellis, whose work includes “Transmetropolitan,” the futuristic story of gonzo journalist Spider Jerusalem, has been in Second Life since January and publishing “Second Life Sketches” on his Web site since August. His home in Second Life can be found at Integral Bay.

“Second Life is not only the biggest digital art installation in the world, but potentially the most radical shift yet in the way communities are formed online, and possibly also the germ of the next great operating system,” Ellis said. “It’s not only a place where people get as strange as they can, but an incubator for the future.”

“As a writer who deals with both the strangeness of people and the state of the future, Second Life is like a lab for me,” he added.

The first column will run Jan. 9. If you aren’t familiar with Second Life, the Wikipedia article helps explain the concept:

Second Life (SL) is a privately owned, partly subscription-based 3-D virtual world, made publicly available in 2003 by San Francisco-based Linden Lab, and founded by former RealNetworks CTO Philip Rosedale. Users can visit this virtual world, almost as if it were a real place. They explore, meet new people, participate in individual and group activities, and, if they decide to visit often, they learn new skills and mature socially (in the sense of learning the culture of the virtual world).

For more info, visit the Second Life website.

Conan fans tired of just reading his adventures will have the chance to live them next year with the release of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, a multiplayer online roleplaying game (kind of like that Worlds of Warcraft game that’s popular with all the kids these days). Actiontrip.com talks to game director Gaute Godager about the upcoming release:

ActionTrip: We’re interested to know why you guys chose Conan as a setting for the game. What exactly inspired you to do so?

Gaute Godager: At one point, a few years ago, we sat down to plan our next MMO. We knew we wanted to do something with a license, and we played around with several different ones before we settled with Conan. While there were many other licenses available to us, we instantly knew what we wanted to do when the Conan license turned out to be available. This is just such an incredibly rich franchise and there is so much stuff for us to draw upon when making a game based on it. Its probably one of the best licenses you can have when making an MMO - there are over 70 years worth of books and comics to draw from and I don’t think we could ever run out of content even if we tried. Also, I really think the Conan universe is so different from the typical high-fantasy worlds out there. This is something I think players are going to embrace because it is different. We’re not trying to do what everyone has done before us. We’re trying to create a truly unique MMO, not only technology wise, but also when it comes to the setting and the world itself. Conan is one of the world’s greatest fantasy heroes, but he resides within a world that really separates itself from the others. It’s a much more sinister, brutal and realistic world than what people are used to. Magic-users do not run around with pointy hats shooting pink stars - they will summon the demons of hell that will stop at nothing to rip your throat out. This is a large step away from the typical high-fantasy literature people are used to, simply because it has a much more realistic focus than what you’re used to. Okay, realistic is perhaps stretching it a bit too far - after all, this is a world where you will end up battling one hundred foot monsters rising up from the waves!

Cartoonist Michel Gagné posts a fantastic sequence by animator Dean Dodrill, inspired by the cover to Zed #8.

(Via the Flight blog)

Women’s Work, a brand-new website for women who work in and around the visual and literary industries, is open for business. Leigh Dragoon, Shaenon Garrity, Rachel Hartman, Lea Hernandez, Lisa Jonté, Karen Krajenbrink, Layla Lawlor, Karen Luk, Carla Speed McNeil, Rachel Nabors, Leia Weathington, and Stevie Wilson are all members of the collective.

I won’t be so corny as to say, “It’s like Christmas come early!” But that’s only because I have tremendous restraint, and haven’t finished my first cup of coffee.

However, I’m excited that Warner Bros. has released the cover art and contents for The Venture Bros. Season Two DVD. It’s tough to top the Season One packaging, which featured a gorgeous triptych by Bill Sienkiewicz, but I like this new cover: It has a ’60s spy-fi feel to it.

The two-disc set includes all 13 episodes from Season Two, plus commentary on every episode — Season One had commentary tracks on just six — deleted scenes and, perhaps best of all, a tour of Astrobase Go!

The set will be available April 17, 2007.

(Via TV Squad, and JK)

Joanna Draper Carlson points attention towards Caleb Monroe’s blog resource for new creators:

I’ve created this page as a resource for other beginning and up-and-coming comic creators because I always wish there had been a site like this for me when I was getting started. The most etensive feature is the directory of submission guidelines. It’s intended as a constant work in progress, so if there’s something you’d like to see or a page you know about that I don’t, or if you discover a broken link, then please let me know. I’m a writer, so my categorization of these sites might be biased toward helping the writer, but most of the sites themselves are equally useful for both writers and artists.

It’s apparently been around for awhile, but you know this internet - it’s big and sometimes finding good things like this takes time. Go and visit.

Wizard knows what Christmas is all about, and reminds you, too, by listing the ten greatest Christmas toys ever:

Castle Greyskull (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe)… Whereas nowadays you can whip out your $400 Sidekick 3 to impress your peers, in 1981 this was the schoolyard status symbol. A trap door! An elevator! A flag! A drawbridge with teeth! And you could fold it up for safe storage! Some schoolyard bad boys opted for Skeletor’s Snake Mountain (which had an echoing microphone!), but the rest of us lusted for Casa de Teela.

Suddenly I’m flashing back to when I was seven years old and Craig Henderson boasted about owning this…

Ahhh, the 1970s. When Stan Lee looked kind of groovy.

We’re nearing the end of the year, which can only mean one thing - People start talking about was good about the last twelve months. Even here in San Francisco, the nostalgic urge is overtaking us all: Ian Brill goes first, but Jeff Lester takes up the baton pretty darn sharpish, it has to be said.

USA Today has the first look at the Silver Surfer from The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which opens in June. Trailers will be shown this weekend before 20th Century Fox’s Night at the Museum.

Neil Kleid, writer of the just-concluded Ursa Minors!, dropped us a holiday greeting this week as well.

Theories abound as to the identity of Supernova, 52’s mysterious Metropolis marvel.  With just over a month to go before the big unmasking, some frontrunners include former JLA mascot Lucas “Snapper” Carr, former Leaguer Ray “Atom” Palmer, the time-master known as Rip Hunter, an alternate-timestream version of Booster Gold, or some combination thereof. 

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