Here’s something you don’t see often — or, well, ever: a comic-book creator on the shortlist for a fashion award. But Grant Morrison is among the nominees for Most Stylish Male in the 2007 Scottish Style Awards.

Other nominees in the category are actors James McAvoy and Kevin McKidd, and goalkeeper Craig Gordon.

The winners will be announced in a ceremony on Oct. 26.

The arts-and-crafts magazine Make got Clyde Fans author Seth to provide the illustrations for their new Halloween issue.

Tom Spurgeon talks to Mean author Steven Weissman about his new book and his “L’il’ Tykes” characters:

SPURGEON: How do you feel in general about seeing your early work again? Were you happy with the way it looked? Is there an area that looking back you’re happiest that you’ve improved in?

WEISSMAN: I think the comics in Mean are pretty hilarious. They’re funny looking, the stories are all over the map, I don’t know.

I can admit that, say five years ago, I wouldn’t have seen this as a worthwhile project. This was work I had been pushing away from, you know, artistically. Now, I’m pushing off from the comics I was doing in 2002, 2003, and I think I can be more objective about these older stories. Does that make sense?

Rachelle Goguen talks with cartoonist Scott Chantler about Northwest Passage, Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen, Hawaiian Dick and more:

Q: What does the success of smaller comic publishers such as Oni Press mean for comic creators in terms of what they can offer that larger publishers can’t?

Mostly what they offer is freedom. If you want to do your thing, Marvel Comics and DC Comics are not going to let you do that. They want you to draw Spider-man, or Superman, and conform to the editorial direction for those characters, as dictated by the corporations who own them. With a company like Oni, you’ve got an operation that’s run by three guys, which has a lot more opportunity and desire to take risks. Like, say, publishing a story set in Canadian frontier history.

What’s been interesting in the last few years is that smaller companies like Oni have been just as successful selling their books in Hollywood as the bigger publishers with more recognizable characters have been. So while the immediate pay-off isn’t as great at the smaller companies, there’s still the promise of big-time financial rewards.

There’s much more at the link, of course.

As revealed in the comments section of last week’s post, the Daniel Clowes comic that inadvertently led to a teacher resigning his post after giving it to a 13-year-old student to read turned out to be issue No. 22, later republished by Pantheon Books as “Ice Haven.” The book has become one of Clowes’ most critically acclaimed works, winning a recommendation by the School Library Journal for “grades 10 and up,” so more than a few folks have been riled by the news.

Tom Spurgeon and David Welsh have been doing a great job providing commentary and links over the past few days as the story developed. Heidi’s post, however, has to win some comments award, not just for its sheer length, but also because the alleged mother of the daughter in question posts not just once, but twice, providing some helpful perspective.

I’m going to refrain from offering any more opinions on the case at this point (oh OK, here we go, the teacher showed poor judgment, but I don’t necessarily think he should have been forced to resign, nor should the police have gotten involved), but please feel free to offer your thoughts.

Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan have announced the “full reversion of publishing and other media rights” of their acclaimed series Demo, originally published in 2003 by AiT/Planet Lar.

“Demo is one of the most important things I’ve done,” Wood says in the press release. “And it’s been my continuing mission for it to reach as many people as possible. We’re currently exploring options and offers from other publishers with that goal in mind.”

The 12-issue series about ordinary, if often troubled, young people with extraordinary powers was a darling of the comics blogosphere, and earned two Eisner nominations.

I post this because it’s worth noting, but also so we won’t be surprised if and when a Demo collection is announced at another, larger publisher, or if there’s movement in other media.

The full text of the press release can be found below:

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Jeff Trexler summarizes the latest developments in the Siegel family lawsuits against Warner Bros. and DC Comics over the rights to Superman and Superboy.

Those mostly take the form of motions from plaintiffs and defendants, and “additional memoranda in support of their positions,” including declarations of support for the Siegels from Mark Evanier and Jim Steranko. It was also revealed that Superman Returns director Bryan Singer will be deposed by Nov. 30.

The Superman trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 22, 2008.

For background, read Newsarama’s series of articles, and our own analysis, by Tom Bondurant.

(Via The Legion Omnicon)

Mark Evanier has pieced together the YouTube uploads of BBC4′s In Search of Steve Ditko documentary in one convenient player on his website. So, instead of skipping around to seven videos, you can watch the entire documentary in one place.

I’ve spent part of the past week reading the book Blink by Malcom Gladwell. The book is about the snap judgements we make constantly throughout life and why they can often be more correct than those decisions made consciously, over a lengthy period of time.

The book talks not only about how distrustful we can be about our immediate, subconcious reactions, but also how difficult it can be for many of us to articulate the thinking process behind them. A renowned tennis expert, for example, can predict when a player will double-fault before he hits the ball almost every single time, but he can’t tell you why he knows he’s going to do so. He can’t explain why he’s always right.

Bear with me, I’m actually going somewhere with this (I think). (more…)

Well, Wednesday was the Big Day! Superheroes Green Arrow and Black Canary got themselves hitched in a very eventful issue!

Naturally, reactions were mixed.

(Caution for Spoilers)

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“If you tell a kid he’s worthless once, you won’t really cause much damage. You tell a kid he’s worthless every day for six months you’re going to mess with his head.”

The person who said that to me wasn’t discussing anything to do with comic books, mass media, pop culture, or politics. It was just a simple statement about children. I wouldn’t have connected that quote to this subject if not for an email conversation which was nitpicking a previous debate about race in pop culture. I’d failed in convincing my debate opponent that the comedic sidekick who talks a good game but falls to pieces at the first sign of trouble was a racist stereotype. She did not believe me, and likely still doesn’t even after I pointed out that the cowardly black guy has been around since before the Civil War because there are white comedic sidekicks and black competent sidekicks.
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In Brian Churilla and Jeremy Shepherd’s upcoming The Engineer: Konstrukt, from Archaia Studios Press, an ancient sentient entity is feasting on the fabric of space and time, and only one man can stop it: The Engineer. Using a colossal pipe organ that permits him to cross dimensions, The Engineer searches for the lost components of The Konstrukt, a mechanism that can manipulate reality. With it, he hopes to defeat the entity and repair the damage it’s done.

Churilla (writer-artist) and Shepherd (writer-colorist) have provided us with a 10-page preview of the first issue of the four-issue miniseries, due in stores in November. The Engineer: Konstrukt #1 is solicited in the current issue of Previews.

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Today marks the 70th anniversary of the release of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which reinvigorated the fantasy genre — some might argue that it created “modern fantasy” — and gave generations of nerds something to talk about.

Of course, The Hobbit, and the more complex and mature Lord of the Rings, also bred countless inferior imitators. But you have to take the good with the bad.

The new issue of Entertainment Weekly hits the stands today with a spoiler-laden sneak peek at the second season of NBC’s Heroes:

As any student of TV history can report, sophomore seasons can be slumpy. Cockiness, ambition, the ridiculously unreasonable demands of journalists (those jerks!) and network execs (see: No. 4 NBC, desperate to maintain its one certifiable hit) — a small sample of the kryptonite that can cripple a phenom’s follow-up year. Heroes — created by Tim Kring, the non-nerd whose ingenious conversion of geek tropes into mainstream drama has made him TV’s newest cult pop auteur — would seem to have the brains and humility to avoid these pitfalls. Listen to this: ”I’ve been a stick in the mud the past year,” admits Milo Ventimiglia, whose Peter the Power-Absorbing Super Sponge was last seen blowing up over Manhattan with brother Nathan the Flying Slimeball (Adrian Pasdar). ”Parts of this — the crowds, the blind excitement of people — terrify me. That kind of closed me off. But this year…I’m trying to embrace it more.”

Nonetheless, there are reasons to sweat. First, there was the nearly 20 percent drop in ratings last spring after a momentum-killing seven-week break. Then there was the cliff-hanger-heavy finale, which spawned much What happens next? wonder, yet also inspired a lot of That was it? disappointment. And now, with the departure of writer Bryan Fuller, who left to create ABC’s new buzz fantasy Pushing Daisies, the show must press on without one of its most valuable players. Emmy nods or not, it’s time for Heroes to prove itself all over again. And Kring knows it. ”Season 2, in many ways, is about lessons learned,” he says. ”The stakes are higher, that’s for sure. But I try not to think about them, because it doesn’t make an already challenging job any easier.”

The Season Two premiere airs Monday at 9 p.m. Eastern on NBC.

Related: EW.com’s Season One episode guide

Related: EW editor, and comics writer, Marc Bernardin, on the above cover

The Oklahoman checks in on the state’s “adopted Asgardian,” gauging the reactions of local fans and retailers to Marvel’s relaunched Thor series (which, if you’ve been following along, has the home of the Norse gods relocated to the Sooner State).

“Business has picked up on it,” says Jared Copeland, assistant manager of Dragonfyre Comics in Oklahoma City. “We’ve got a lot of people who aren’t comic-book people coming in and picking it up because he’s here [in Oklahoma].”

As if he knows that I’m leaving for parts unknown (Oh, okay; Europe) tomorrow, Mark Millar offers up something that’ll get his fans excited and his haters agitated:

Civil War was Marvel’s biggest selling series since the early 90s. So how do we follow that? What character or group or regular book do you feel we’re doing now for next April? I don’t think it’ll be named for another month or two yet, but curious as to what you think we’d work well on.

I’ll tell you this much… I’m having a great time. I stopped writing War Heroes at number 3 and FF at our tenth issue as I’m so far ahead. Started the [Steve McNiven] project a couple of months back and just finishing issue seven now. I’ll have the first big arc (eight issues) done by the time the thing’s announced and then I can jump back onto Kick-Ass. I’ve never been this far ahead before (using my time out wisely towards the end), but it’s a bloody great feeling. The book’s worked out really well too. Steve is itching to get started.

Some clues:

It involves a symbiote at one stage in the story, the death of the greatest Marvel hero, a new President, a blind superhero driving a car 3000 miles and The Hulk as you’ve never seen them (yes them) before. It’s a lot of fun and I have a feeling this is going to be MASSIVE.

Start saving now.

Retailers, you can build that extension you’ve been thinking about. As of January I’m back, my friends!!!

It’s a good week for Death Note fans, or those wanting to know what all the fuss is about: First, Viz Pictures announced it has secured the theatrical and DVD distribution rights to the live-action movies. Now, Anime News Network reports, Adult Swim has confirmed it will debut the anime series at midnight Oct. 20.

Inspired by this post introducing creators Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick’s new son to the world, I thought I’d offer congratulations to and share some baby pictures from a couple other creators who became parents this summer.

Here’s Ultimate Fantastic Four artist Mark Brooks and his son, Jack Preston, who was born in July (and even has his own baby MySpace page):

And Amazing Spider-Man artist (and soon to be Wolverine artist) Ron Garney with his son, Tristan, who was born in June:

Congratulations! And make sure they have plenty of paper and pencils around the house so they can draw like daddy.

The Poetry Foundation has another comics adaptation up (number five in the series for those of you counting). This time it’s Paul Hornschemeier tackling Ted Kooser’s The Giant Slide.

Following on from Marc Bernadin asking why his Wildstorm series The Highwaymen wasn’t a success, Steven Grant spends a lot of his latest column at CBR pondering the same question:

Was THE HIGHWAYMEN bad work? No. All things considered, especially considering it’s the product of talent with little comics experience, it’s good enough. In 1993, good enough was more than good enough. In 2007, for most readers, in an unknown project good enough just isn’t good enough.

Much, much more in the link, including why it’s not good enough, and why that might not have mattered anyway. Well worth your time to check out.