Publisher Carroll & Graf has set up a mini-site for the second volume of The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga, due out in October. I’m happy to see the preview includes a glimpse of Kate Brown’s beautiful “The White Tower,” which focuses on Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, the young princes who were placed in the Tower of London, and then never seen again.

(Via the Forbidden Planet International blog)

How hard is it to find decent non-San Diego-stuff to link to this hard: I’m resorting to an extensive, seven-part examination by Gary Sullivan on obscure cartoonist Joe Brainard:

In 1964 Brainard self-published the first in what was to be a series of two issues of C Comics. While this large-format mimeographed magazine did not physically resemble other comic books of the time (e.g., shiny color cover, offset printing, saddle-stitched), there is no question that all of the collaborations inside are examples of comics as comics are generally understood.

Despite the fact that Brainard published C Comics four years before Robert Crumb would debut Zap, Brainard’s example has yet to be included in any history of comics intended for adults.

All kidding aside, it’s a rather interesting essay if you have the time to dive into it (and extends into Sullivan’s ongoing look at non-narrative comics). Rather than give you all five links, I’ll just send you to Sullivan’s blog and tell you to scroll down to the bottom and work your way up. Yes, I am that lazy.

The usual suspects provide some interesting Q&As over the weekend. In this corner, Tom Spurgeon talked to occasional CR contributor Bart Beaty about his new book, Unpopular Culture:

SPURGEON: For that matter, what differences between the French-language and North American comics scenes can be tied into what differences between their supporting commercial and distribution structures?

BEATY: I think that a big difference between France and the U.S. in terms of putting out really experimental and personal material has been the system of grants that exists in France. I remember having lunch with Charles Berberian and some American cartoonists at SPX a few years back, and the Americans were complaining about not being able to fund a project that sounded very interesting. Charles just said, “Well, why don’t you get a grant?” And they asked from whom, and he said “Don’t you have a Ministry of Culture?” I think he was stunned to learn that there isn’t one. But if you look in the front of all those books from L’Asso, you always see a thanks to the Centre National du Livre, and those kinds of funding sources have really allowed a lot of work to happen that probably would not have otherwise.

Then in this corner, Elizabeth Chou talks to Fox Bunny Funny creator Andy Hartzell:

I really like your title, Fox Bunny Funny. Did it take much time to come up with it?

My original title was “Fox Rabbit Fox“, then I toyed with “Rabbitholes” before settling on “Fox Bunny Funny.” I like the fact that the word “Funny” is a hybrid of “Fox” and “Bunny“, like the city in the book is a hybrid of the two worlds. I’m glad you like the title…some people are a little stymied by it.

Because it symbolizes the influence of her dark side, Mary Marvel’s black costume has been one of the more controversial aspects of the Countdown miniseries. For Gwen Dreyer of Los Angeles, though, it’s a chance to let her inner fan out.  It also got her a spot on the platform during Saturday’s “Brave New Worlds” panel.  After the panel, I talked to Ms. Dreyer about what led her to dress as Black Mary for the weekend.

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Someone has posted video at DailyMotion of the San Diego-exclusive teaser for Iron Man.

Update: It’s down from DailyMotion, but you can see it on YouTube.

While the official unveiling of the armor from the Iron Man movie seemed to cause a stir, the big news of Day 3 came from Dark Horse, which announced a deal with the CLAMP collective to create an original shojo series for release beginning in 2009.

The agreement, which gives Dark Horse its first shojo title, calls for the manga to be released simultaneously in North America, Japan and South Korea. The publisher will release the series in a new format that it calls “mangettes,” 80-page digests that will come out on a monthly schedule.

The four-woman CLAMP team is known for such popular titles as Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits, xxxHolic, Legal Drug and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.

Vertigo confirmed it will publish a graphic novel from singer-songwriter Neil Young, based on his 2003 album Greendale. He’ll collaborate with writer Joshua Dysart and artist Sean Murphy.

And Marvel unveiled the creative teams for its now three-times-a-month Amazing Spider-Man series.

More Comic-Con coverage:

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Like she did from Budapest awhile back, Neil Gaiman’s daughter Maddie has taken over his blog at the San Diego Comic-Con. Gaiman mentioned in his spotlight panel Friday that his daughter asked him if he had looked at his blog lately. When he asked her why he should look at it, she said, “No reason.” No doubt she’ll blog about the Stardust premiere as well.

She even has a video up on YouTube where she sports a Scary Trousers T-shirt featuring her dad.

I’m playing catch-up here with photos … here are a variety of shots taken over the last few days …

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The mothership has pictures up of the Iron Man armor that was unveiled at the Marvel booth earlier today, but Blog@’s Carla Hewitt was also on hand and took some pictures of Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. …

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TV Squad reports from the Heroes panel at Comic-Con that filmmaker — and occasional comics writer — Kevin Smith will write and direct the first episode of Origins, six-week spinoff that will air during the show’s mid-season hiatus.

Update: Newsarama has a full report from the Heroes panel

Publishers Weekly reports that the CLAMP manga collective has signed a deal with Dark Horse Books to produce an original manga series that will be released simultaneously in the United States, Japan and South Korea beginning in 2009.

According to PW, the publisher will release the series in a new format that it calls “mangettes,” 80-page digests that will come out on a monthly schedule.

The four-woman manga team — Ageha Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi, Mokona, Satsuki Igarashi — is known for such popular titles as Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits, xxxHolic, Legal Drug and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.

Update: MangaBlog has the official press release

MTV’s Movies Blog has photos of a sleek Audi R8 with the vanity plate “STARK 4″ parked outside of the Omni Hotel in San Diego. Earlier this week, Paramount Pictures announced it had partnered with Audi for a campaign to promote Iron Man. As part of the deal, the R8 will appear as Stark’s car in the movie.

Brian Wood has posted the cover art for The New York Four, the graphic novel he and artist Ryan Kelly are producing for DC’s Minx line. It’s among the imprint’s second wave of titles, announced yesterday.

Seeing this Karl Kerschl cover for DC’s upcoming Teen Titans Year One miniseries makes me unspeakably happy.

A collection of some of what’s being written from and about Comic-Con:

• Gray Horses creator Hope Larson, who’s not in San Diego, reacts to winning the Special Recognition Award at last night’s Eisner ceremonies: “Holy crap! I won! Do you know that moment in every high school story when the heroine first sees the list on the wall, and learns she’s won the lead in the musical, and she’s sure this isn’t happening, someone’s made a mistake? That moment is real.”

• Artist Cliff Chiang checks in, and discovers some of his artwork adorning the DC Comics booth.

• The New York Times on the film elements of Comic-Con, and provides a photo gallery.

• Bully the blogging bovine has the exhibitor’s view from the floor on Day 2: “It’s an incredibly busy day: Friday day tickets are sold out so we’re at full capacity here, but unlike BookExpo America at the Javits Center in New York this past June, the AC is cranked up to ‘Hoth’ and it’s pleasant to work and move about. ‘Here they come!’ shouts someone down the aisle, and while my natural impulse is to cry back ‘Walkin’ down the street, get the funniest looks from everyone they meet!’ it’s actually the cry to arms for dealers and exhibitors to batten down the hatches: the con attendees are on the floor.”

• At Active Anime, the gang from Del Rey Manga is blogging from the convention floor.

• I swiped the cosplayers photo from the Flickr set of “cranberries,” who’s contributing to the growing Comic-Con photo pool.

Friday was a lot less hectic than Thursday. I finished Deathly Hallows just after breakfast and decided to skip the big movie-news panels.

In fact, I spent a lot more time on the convention floor on Friday. The floor is organized with the TV/movie exhibitors on one end and the comics companies and retailers on the other. I did have some back-issue needs (got 80% of Jack Kirby’s 2001!) and wanted to get some toys, so I used the quiet time before the big crush of people to scout around and come up with some strategery.

But you don’t want to hear about that. I left the floor at about 11:15 to head upstairs for the “Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy”/”Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends” panel at 11:30. I’m only a casual Billy & Mandy fan, but my wife and I love Foster’s.

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Sony Pictures has launched the full, official website for 30 Days of Night, with all the bells and whistles — including a section devoted to the Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith comic on which it’s based. The movie opens Oct. 19.

Variety reports that Benderspink (Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina) has secured the film rights to Mark Powers’ Drafted.

The comic book, from Devil’s Due Publishing, centers around an alien race that arrives on Earth to help humanity defend itself from an invasion from another alien force. The series debuted last month with a 99-cent preview.

John Silk will oversee Drafted for Benderspink, which hasn’t set up a studio or named a screenwriter.

One of the highlights of Friday was when Carla, Tom and I got to meet Bully and his handler, John, both of whom were extremely nice. Bully’s blogging from the show and sporting his Star Trek uniform, and from what John told us, he’s having a ball.