On his weblog, Impulse co-creator Mike Wieringo talks about the death of Bart Allen:

This one hits a bit closer to home since I was in on his very beginnings, having been asked to design his IMPULSE persona when Mark Waid created the character in FLASH (which granted me the title of ‘co-creator’… but make no mistake, this was all Mark’s baby. I was happy to accept the royalties and residuals that came from that status, but I didn’t have any illusions). Let me be clear– I haven’t read FLASH #13. I don’t really read that many superhero books anymore because the dark and depressing nature they’ve adopted just doesn’t interest me. I got my fill of that in the mid 80’s with DARK KNIGHT and WATCHMEN. I’ve read many reviews of the ‘event’, though… and I think the reaction overall has been that the story was 1) very badly done… and 2) in the end, a real yawner and not something that’s had the ’stunning event impact’ that DC was hoping for. I think this is symptomatic of the idea that fans are simply getting a bit weary of all this kind of thing. I think that the event-comic-that-heralds-the-death-of-lots-of-characters has become the new gold-foil/Lenticular/Acetate/holographic cover of the 2000’s. They’re stunts… gimmicks meant to sell comics. The writing seems to have taken a back seat to earth-shattering events that are having less and less impact as they are overdone.

He also compares the “stunt” mentality Marvel and DC seem to have fallen into with their respective universes to the “We don’t need writers” attitude that came after the birth of Image, that resulted in comics with great art and crappy stories. I remember those days well, and not kindly.

“Maybe I’m just a middle-aged fuddy-duddy who has lost touch with what makes for interesting comics.” No Mike, I don’t think it’s you.

It’s a slow news day. This is a cute advert. That is all.

Eddie Campbell talks about the lengths one will go to scratch an itch:

I had let the world know that I was something of an enthusiast for the old Batman stories, particularly late ’40s early ’50s (Schwartz, Sprang etc. -Here’s an article I wrote on the subject way back in 2001. I just reread it and I still like it.) I was invited to pitch a script idea for a proposed Batman to be drawn by Tony Millionaire. I wasn’t interested in that and I don’t know if it ever came about with another writer, but when I mentioned the whole thing to my pal White, he said he had been sitting on his own Batman idea for some time, and how dare I turn down the gig without asking him first. I mixed this up with half an idea of my own and pitched it to Joey Cavalieri at DC. Somehow we got in.

Then I made things complicated. I said that nothing would make me happier than to draw this myself. They said they didn’t allow a situation where a creator would both write and draw the same book unless he was ‘incorporated’. I mentioned this to Whitey, whom you may remember is a chartered accountant, so that’s exactly his field. He said, “It’s not as complicated as you think. A company’s just a box of documents you can keep under your bed.” And it doesn’t cost too much either, well compared to the amounts I’ve been bandying about here of late. Now, companies are usually named and indexed by having two unassociated words hinged together (well, this is the campbellian explanation), so he finds a combination that he figures will embarrass me, runs the checks to confirm it’s not already in use, and next thing you know I’m director of a company named ‘Antelope Pineapple Pty. Ltd’, just so I can get to draw Batman.

SFist, a local San Francisco-area blog, chats with a couple of the contestants in Platinum’s 2007 Comic Book Challenge, Bay Area residents Kevin Buckley and Marcus Thiele.

The blog describes their pitch, “The Strange and Many Eyes of Dr. LeFaux, as such: “As a young man, Roger LeFaux loses his eyes in a deal with a demon to see his late wife one last time; 30 years later, LeFaux, now a professor, fights the forces of darkness with the help of his two graduate assistants and a startling array of magical jewel eyes.”

Scripts for three issues of the comic can be found on Buckley’s website. Thiele’s LiveJournal, meanwhile, has a lot of great artwork, like the Batman image posted above.

Our summer of ♥ continues, as Jason Rodriguez tells us why he ♥’s Page 22. Jason’s the editor of several comic projects, like the upcoming Postcards (due in stores July 24), Elk’s Run, Kill All Monsters and Western Tales of Terror. More info on his work and upcoming appearances can be found on the Eximious Press blog.

Take it away, Jason …

Page 22 [peyj twuhn-tee-too] n. – The last page in a serialized comic book; not necessarily the 22nd page. The name comes from the standard comic format of 22 pages of content and 10 pages of ads.

There used to be this Mom & Pop store called Louie’s on Henry Street between Carroll and President in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. As kids, we’d stop there everyday after school because Louie’s had everything a kid liked more than homework: DJ Boy and Operation Wolf, boxes upon boxes of Joyva Jelly Rings, quarter waters, and comic books. I’d spend a small portion of my allowance on chocolate and sugar water and arcade games; the rest would go to a comic book that caught my attention. G.I. Joe, Transformers, and the occasional Spider-Man – even some of the more embarrassing comics like Mad Balls, Popples, and the Get-along Gang occasionally made their way home with me. I never had a desire to collect consecutive books. I never felt like I had to pick up the next Batman comic. I spent many years of my childhood perfectly satisfied with purchasing a comic book, reading it, enjoying it, and then deciding what book I was going to pick up next.

Until Page 22 knocked me upside my head.

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Variety reports that Rogue Pictures has hired Stephen St. Leger and James Mather to write and direct the film adaptation of Chris Kirby’s The Lost Squad.

St. Leger and James are best known for directing TV commercials as Saint & Mather. Their short film, Prey Alone, has been generating buzz online. (The trailer is really worth a look.)

The Lost Squad, about a unit of Allied soldiers who fight Hitler’s occult forces during World War II, first appeared in Digital Webbing Presents #7 in 2003. The six-issue miniseries debuted at Devil’s Due in September 2005.

According to Variety, the plan for the adaptation is to “overstylize the action in the vein of Warner’s recent graphic novel-based hit 300.”

Related: The Lost Squad blog

Writing for AfterElton.com, François Peneaud looks at the history of DC/Wildstorm’s gay Batman analog, Midnighter, focusing on how the character’s sexuality has been handled in his current solo series.

The seventh issue of the new series, written by Brian K. Vaughan (who’s already proven his gay-friendliness in his Ex Machina series, where a mixed-race gay marriage takes place), begins with a cute full-page kiss between the two married men, thus breaking the no-kissing track record of the series so far. But even Vaughan falls back on using a homophobic villain in his issue. Homophobia seems to be shorthand for “bad guy,” but it reeks of laziness from the writers. After all, we don’t see the opponents of female characters always behaving in a misogynistic way. It would quickly get boring and would rightfully raise a few eyebrows.

Issue 9 goes on sale next week.

It just wouldn’t seem like a proper comics convention if I didn’t get the chance to gloat over all my purchases afterward. So, in order to satisfy my rampaging ego, here’s a look at nine books I bought at MoCCA on Saturday: (more…)

Broken Frontier talks to “Garage Band” and upcoming “Notes From a War” author Gipi:

BF: Sometimes you add sound effects to your panels, a scratch on the arm, a clatter down the stairs. Why do you do this? Is it meant to emphasize the otherwise quiet, or near-silent ambience of the scene?

Gipi: I think silence doesn’t exist at all in the modern life, so I can’t draw a scene without “writing” some noises inside it. It’s really something natural for me. I mean, if you live in a big city, you’ll find yourself always in the middle of some noise. These noises are often a continuous breath. When I draw a scene inspired by reality, I find myself automatically “writing” noises too. Also, noises break the rhythm of reading, creating pauses and little breaks.

The Washington Times talks to Jeff Smith (part two):

“Bone, the Movie”? I am very interested in movies as an art form and would like to see Bone as a film, but I do not want to see it as some kind of schlock. I just have not met the right filmmakers yet. I have talked to a million of them. Frank Miller waited until the right guy knocked on his door, and I will wait just as long. I’ll know when I meet the right person to do it.

And Forbidden Planet talks to seminal European publisher Raymond Leblanc:

Stripgids: Your relationship with Hergé did change over the years, though.

Raymond: My relationship with Hergé was always very cordial and friendly, but it was not always very easy. The reason was very simple: Hergé was absent much too often. Sometimes the magazine had to go without Tintin for months at a time, all the while carrying his name. In the end the readers started complaining. It was a very difficult time, which resulted in very heated correspondence.

Here’s some oddities of note that occured while I was on vacation last week:

* The American Library Association held their annual conference in DC, and ICv2 has all the juicy details:

Asked by the moderator for their best moments in building their graphic novel collections, two responses illustrated both the emotional and statistical impact of adding graphic novels to libraries. Reynolds recounted an incident in which a teen male in full goth regalia, including black fingernails, told her “I want to kiss your feet” in appreciation for finding graphic novels at her library. And Krueger recounted how in reviewing circulation reports after expanding his libraries’ graphic novel collections, he was astounded at how many times graphic novels were circulating, asking himself “How is this even possible?” with a three week circulation period, and finding the same pattern of heavy circulation on title after title after title.

* Frederick Schodt and Carl Horn talk about manga on NPR! Awesome! (Related: Shaenon sings the praises of Mr. Horn.)

* Also at Same Hat!, view a SpongeBob/Junji Ito mash-up! Or, make a giant hand!

On her blog, illustrator and art director Laurenn McCubbin announces that Showtime has optioned Rent Girl, the 2004 graphic/illustrated novel she created with writer Michelle Tea.

Tony Jonas (Queer as Folk) will be the executive producer. The show will be written by Shawn Schepps (Weeds). McCubbin writes that she and Tea will be producers.

M.O.D.O.K. has a challenge for you:

Refreshing your web browsers is futile! I – MODOK! — have taken over this pitiful Internet site to deliver an intellectual challenge to those few with the cerebral stamina to withstand it!

Near this communiqué you will find a combination made up of six three-digit numbers, beside an image rendered by one of my most trusted slaves, Marko Djurjevic, depicting me – MODOK! –and five members of my team: Chameleon, Deadly Nightshade, Mentallo, Living Laser and Puma.

Using my vastly powerful, 144-lobed brain, I was able to figure out the first five numbers myself. But I must confess that even I – MODOK! – cannot figure out the sixth number. I suspect that there may be a connection between the contents of the picture, comics trivia, and the numbers.

WHOEVER CAN USE HIS OR HER PITIABLE TWO-LOBED BRAIN TO COMPLETE THE NUMBER SEQUENCE WILL BE REWARDED HANDSOMELY!!

The winner will be drawn into an issue of Modok’s 11, the upcoming series that features a team of loser villains trying to rob a casino. I think. And c’mon, Living Laser? Puma? I think Spot is a member, too, so “loser villains” is being nice. Luckily Fred Van Lente is writing it, so it ought to at least be an entertaining team of loser villains.

Entries are due July 10.

Related: Ben Towle on the M.O.D.O.K. phenomenon

Comics retailer and blogger Lisa Lopacinski has put out the call for people to join P.O.W.E.R. in Comics, the new online community “where people can share ideas on how to increase the activity of women and minorities in the comic book industry rather than just complain about how it hasn’t happened yet.”

P.O.W.E.R. stands for “Promoting: Ownership, Writing & drawing, Editing and Reading.”

“This is a grass-roots community,” P.O.W.E.R. founder Lopacinski writes on the homepage, “where people can share their ideas and experiences about getting comics into new communities and share letters, press releases, and blogs about not just what’s wrong with the comic book community, but how to fix it.”

Nick Owchar with the L.A. Times reviews the first Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus:

The work presented here shows why Kirby, who died in 1994, deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Will Eisner, say, or Alan Moore and Frank Miller. All these comics creators pushed and expanded the genre into new areas. In some ways, Kirby’s comics are a rich time capsule — not just for his tribute to the Flower Children of the ’60s with the Forever People, but in recurring themes about fallen father figures, the power of young people and youth movements, the tensions caused by unwinnable wars and the standoff between two major powers, New Genesis and Apokolips, which undoubtedly was inspired by the Cold War. “I hear you, Orion!” Darkseid yells as they first confront each other. “The battle begins!”

These Kirby creations came in the early 1970s, after his bitter departure from Marvel, where his style had set the tone and brand for that house. According to Morrison and Evanier, Kirby felt snubbed by Marvel’s management, that he was treated as a mere penciller while Stan Lee was given sole credit for some of their mutual creations. “They thought everything good on the pages had come from Stan,” writes Evanier, who had worked with Kirby. “One lawyer-type even told Jack he was delusional to think he was anything more than a dime-a-dozen pencil- pusher. It was enough to drive a person to rage. Or at least over to the competition.”

I’ve been looking of a reason to post this adorable Death Note fan art, but I haven’t found one. So, I’m posting it anyway.

I snagged it from Japanator, but I can’t figure out who drew it. If anyone knows, tell me and I’ll credit the artist.

Variety reports that Paramount Pictures has purchased the rights to The Foundation, the upcoming Boom! Studios miniseries created by artist Kody Chamberlain (Tag, 30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales).

The five-issue miniseries, written by John Rozum (Midnight, Mass) and illustrated by Chamberlain, revolves around a secret team devoted to prevent the prophecies of Nostradamus from coming true.

Boom! founders and owners Andrew Cosby and Ross Richie will produce the adaptation for Paramount.

I’ve seen plenty of 300 spoofs and mash-ups over the past several months, but this hilarious mockumentary, about what happened at the goat path leading to the Thermopylae pass, is easily my favorite. Go, watch the story of the brave 305.

(Via Neatorama)

Kevin mentioned the Crossing Midnight trade in Can’t Wait for Wednesday this afternoon, so I thought I’d remind everybody that Mike Carey is holding a contest where the winner gets a signed copy of the book. Go exercise your creativity and enter the contest.

Is it still Tuesday afternoon?

Time slipped away from me this week. I’ll chalk it up to being in mourning over the death of Bart Allen. Maimed, stripped of his personality, absorbed into the Speed Force, aged, depowered and then killed — all within four years. The poor kid can’t catch a break.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, right: It’s time for Chris Maunter and me to sift through the titles shipping this week to a comics store near you.

It’s a fairly quiet week, release-wise, so we’ll just dive into our picks.

As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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