As somebody who digs comic book-based humor almost as much as I do actual comics, Marvel has outdone itself this time with its first episode of WHAT THE–?!:

The scene about Cyclops’ boyhood dream = priceless. Now discuss.

Some sad news from ICv2:

Inkworks Cards, which held the licenses to genre franchises including Alias, Twilight, the Spirit, and Serenity, shut down late last week.

The recession is what did the company in, ICv2 suggests, adding that the trading card industry as a whole has been hit hard by the free-fall economy. To make matters worse was the poor sales showing for the new Spirit cards, which fell flat quickly after reviews hit a rotten 14% on RottenTomatoes.

Inkworks was founded in 1995 by Allan Caplan. Its next release was scheduled to be the Ghost Whisperer.

This in from the Hollywood Reporter:

Idris Elba, formerly of the Wire and currently of the Office, is currently negotiating to play Roque in the upcoming LOSERS film. (Not Jessica Alba, by the way — I kind of thought that when I read the story, too.)

The upcoming adaptation of the Andy Diggle-penned Vertigo series will star Watchmen’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan and focus on a team of black ops commandos who are set up by the government.

But everybody knows… when you’re a Loser, you’re almost impossible to kill.

As you may have read on the Mothership today, there’s an awful lot of discussion regarding digital comics and alternative distribution.  And what you might have already read in the past few weeks is that struggling series — like Spider-Girl or Blue Beetle — are bravely trailblazing new means of reaching out to new readers and retaining the die-hards.

The question is — is it viable?

Let’s look at Exhibit A: Going digital. You probably saw the article which says that, according to an open poll by the Mothership, there’s a great many people out there who are willing — nay, anticipating — making the shift to digital comics. And it’s clear that Marvel is making some progress towards getting that growing demographic. The online debut of Spider-Girl is a great example of all this: this is a title that has been saved several times from cancellation. But of course, resources are limited, and if a book doesn’t work and isn’t tied within the framework of your larger universe, you gotta try something new (even if that something new doesn’t necessarily work). Innovation is the name of the game!

But that said — why lose the obvious zeal of the readership of a Spider-Girl or a Blue Beetle? So you take that character, keep aboard the best of the creative talent associated with the character — and you put a series up with a far cheaper platform. Printing ain’t cheap, and putting books online cuts out the middleman of publishing and distribution, so to speak. If they love the title enough — and, more importantly, you can’t get it anywhere else (so Wolverine, arguably not as great an investment unless done by a top-tier creator) — wouldn’t people flock to the product, no matter what the format?

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If it’s 120 pages, can you still call it a preview?

Deep philosophical questions aside, from now until May 5th, Viz Media is offering a special preview for NARUTO readers at shonenjump.com, according to a press release from the publisher. You do, however, have to have a password, which can be found on Page 20 of the May issue of Shonen Jump.

That said, this preview will give a sneak peak of Naruto Manga 45, which won’t be released in print form until July of this year.

The LA Times sure seems to be arguing so. I’m not quite sure, however, that I buy the tone of the article. A highlight:

There’s gold in them there funny books! Comic books and graphic novels are all the rage in Hollywood, and you can sense that, for a younger generation, a new sort of viable career path is emerging. That or it’s just the latest way of piling up rejection letters before shuffling off to corporate America in defeat.

At least my read on it, at any rate — comics are a sort of next-best-thing for aspiring screenwriters, novelists, etc., and much more “viable” [read: easier] to get into… which is pretty far from the truth, at this point.

Names like Brad Meltzer (novelist of the Tenth Justice), Aron Coleite (writer for Heroes), Jodi Picoult (author of Nineteen Minutes), Damon Lindelof (writer Lost), Jon Favreau (director for Iron Man) — all these people wrote comics work AFTER their mainstream hits. Of course, you clearly don’t have to start out in movies and novels, as there are lots of people who get their breaks — but just remember, Brian Michael Bendis pounded the pavement for nearly a decade doing indie books before making it huge with Ultimate Spider-Man.

Meanwhile, you’ve got studios buying properties from dedicated comics scribes (Steve Niles’ 30 Days of Night, Greg Rucka’s Whiteout, and it seems like every time you turn around someone is buying a Mark Millar story). The only two anomalies: Brian K. Vaughan’s transition to film with Lost (he still does a few books, but not quite as prolifically as before), and Radical Comics, which creates comic book properties with intent to film (and even then, a decent number of them are from Hollywood, too). In short, the pool may be smaller than Hollywood, but that sure doesn’t make breaking into comic book writing easy.

But anyway, that’s my read on it (and I’m probably reading a little deep). The newsy bit of the article may boost your spirits: Mediabistro is offering a $350 course on Comic Book and Graphic Novel Writing, taught by Simpsons Comics writer and UCLA prof David Seidman. If you’re interested, sign up quick — the course starts April 4th.

The renamed and re-numbered JSA title reaches its 25th issue this week, and the story concludes an arc by Geoff Johns and Jerry Ordway that sounds like it may be resetting the Marvel Family status quo into something a little less stupid than it’s been since the Trials of Shazam/Countdown/Final Crisis cycle of nonsense. Featuring a fully-painted upskirt cover by Alex Ross. The main site has a preview here; be sure to check out Billy Batson’s lighting crotch on the second page. For a more traditional take on the characters (that is, one you could give to a child and/or a new reader without having to explain a few years worth of terrible comics), the fourth issue of Mike Kunkel’s all-ages Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam also drops this week.

They are but two of the ten thousand new comics appearing in shops tomorrow. What are the other 9,998? Find out, after the jump! (Note: Actually, there are only about a dozen mentioned below).

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If you like what’s you’ve read so far totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

Entertainment Weekly reports the sad news that Andy Hallett has died. Hallett was best known for playing Lorne, singing demon and ally to Angel. The singer/actor had struggled with congestive heart disease, a condition that he first became aware of near the end of the Angel run in 2004. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel creator Joss Whedon reportedly created the role of Lorne for Hallett after seeing him perform. The character of Lorne continues to have a presence in the Angel comic, published by IDW.

The new Star Trek reboot is a hit! So what if it doesn’t come out for a month and a half? Paramount is already planning for the future by commissioning a sequel to be written by a trio with some genre pedigree and a good familiarity with the franchise.

As Matt reported on the front page, according to the beautifully-last-named writer at Variety.com, the writers who worked on the first are now working on the second: Robert Orci, (Transformers, Star Trek, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), Alex Kurtzman (ditto), and they’re joined by some dude named Damon Lindeloff (some weird island TV show).

They’re also getting Producer credits on the sequel, giving me even less of an idea of what “Producer” actually means in Hollywood.

The three writers said they’re waiting for “fan reaction” to decide what direction to take the franchise, which could either be a really good move or a completely moronic one. Either way, it’s clear that Paramount hasn’t given up on Star Trek at all yet, and in fact want it brought back to prominence for the next generation.

It is Scalped week, and therefore I really need no other comics. I mean, really, is there anything out there better? I dare you to find me a book that delivers so much every month.

It’s also The Boys, and Bang! Tango, about which I’m still trying to figure out my feelings. I’m intrigued, and yet not sure–but am still reading, so that counts, right?

So, to recount what I’m asking for with this feature: I want pitches from readers for comics/OGNs/trades that come out this week. Just listing a name isn’t enough–I know the names of books that are coming out. I want to know why I (and the rest of the comics-lovin’ world) should read them. Why are they great?

For instance. Everyone, everywhere, should be reading Scalped, because it’s dark and gritty and twisted yet at its core, is deeply emotional human drama. Yes, the characters’ damage often plays out in brutal violence–to themselves as often as to others–but it’s the glimpses of insight into what brought them to this level of hell (and occasional heaven) that are rarely found in comics, in prose fiction, or film.

Pitch away.

As I’m sure you read earlier last week, Runaways is getting a new creative team, with Kathryn Immonen writing and Sara Pichelli on art duties. But cover artist David Lafuente has just posted on his blog new images of the series covers — two of which aren’t even in Marvel’s solicit catalog yet:

…Now discuss.

So Examiner has an interesting interview with Chuck Dixon, discussing his tenure with Robin and Nightwing. He discusses some stuff, such as his distaste with Spoiler’s short-lived death, as well as his struggle to keep Tim Drake’s father alive despite all requests to the contrary… but this quote really stuck out, when discussing what his future goals were for the one-time Boy Wonder and current Red Robin:

My plan was to have Tim quit as Robin and become the new Blue Beetle under Ted Kord’s guidance. Batman would pick Steph to take on Robin’s role. Tim would then be featured in a six-issue mini as Blue Beetle until events in the Batbooks would bring him back to the fold. The idea coming out of this would be a BB ongoing in which Ted gets the idea to create what amounts to a Blue Beetle franchise. He creates what amounts to Blue Beetle Inc and has a representative in every DCU city. I was shot down on this one over and over. As soon as I left the title they did a kind of pale version of the story I had been proposing for more than a year.

Imagine what would have happened then, eh? As cool as that could have been with Dixon behind the wheel, I refuse to imagine a comicsverse without Jaime Reyes. You can read the rest of the interview here.

Just got the 411 from the Hero Initiative of some interesting news:

Artist Josh Medors has been struggling with cancer for awhile, with groups like the Hero Initiative and BOOM! Studios helping whenever it could. But this story is even more amazing: Josh’s condition has brought a new artist into the fold — his 10-year-old son, Garth. Garth’s favorite artist is David Finch, and so when his father was able to obtain a printed blue line of Spider-Man, Garth began what hopefully will be a long stretch of inking.

So the story continues: Garth’s first instinct: to put the art online to benefit his father’s cause. “This is the first time Garth has showed any interest in art,” Josh wrote the Hero Initiative. “After Garth finished inking the piece he came to me and said ‘Mom I want to put it up for auction to help Dad fight his cancer.’” You can check it out here — but if there’s a Right Reason for art… this is it.

So I got to attend a nice comic-related event this weekend, when I was invited to check out a screening of Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist. Directed by Andrew Cooke and produced by him and his brother Jon, this documentary is a really interesting look at one of the patron saints of comics.

It’s funny, because I was first introduced to Eisner’s work at my very first journalism gig. My editor, after learning that I liked comics, loaned me a preview copy of The Plot — which turned out to be Eisner’s last work. Since then, I’ve read a decent amount of Eisner’s work, both in terms of the Spirit reprints, A Contract With God, as well as his now seminal textbooks on sequential art as a medium. But I’ve always found that by adding the human element, you learn almost by example, and the Cooke brothers’ film really strikes a nice chord with this.

Probably the most haunting thing about this movie is the fact that the Cooke Brothers managed to secure so much video footage of Eisner. It’s almost like seeing a ghost — but I think it’s a necessary experience for so many readers of our generation, who didn’t discover Eisner until he was already gone. Interviews with other late greats like Gil Kane and Jack Kirby (both of whom deserve documentaries of their own) are just as important, in my opinion, and give the film a real sense of weight. If nothing else, it’s probably one of the last artifacts of some truly great talent, worth seeing for that alone.

Of course, while I do feel that Eisner’s contributions to the medium might have been a touch underplayed, the examination of the medium’s effects on Eisner himself are illuminating. The son of a set painter and a business-oriented mother, the quote about Eisner creating a synthesis of both his parents’ hopes seems organic and natural. The liberal use of images from To the Heart of the Storm were exceedingly appropriate, and made me really want to check that book out once more. But for me, I think the film really sings when it discusses Eisner’s return to the medium after rising prices and creative wanderlust ended the Spirit’s run in 1952. Having creators like Art Spiegelman and Denis Kitchen — as well as video from the late Eisner himself — discuss the back-and-forth collaboration between Eisner and the growing Underground Comix movement was just fascinating, and touched upon a part of Eisner’s legacy that I think transcends the Spirit.

It’s a shame this movie hasn’t been released in any sort of DVD or televised broadcast, simply because it’s a valuable touchstone to a true master of the medium. If you do manage to hear of a new screening of the film — and when I asked director Andrew Cooke (who’s working on an Andy Capp biopic next, he said), he said he wasn’t quite sure when the next one might be — I would strongly suggest you check it out.

More on Pat Oliphant’s recent Israel cartoon: The Washington Post’s Michael Cavna, The Boston Globe’s Michael Paulson, The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg, and Global Research in International Affairs Center Director Barry Rubin all discuss what Goldberg refers to as Oliphant’s “headless jackbooted muscle-man with a sword pushing a Star of David-shaped shark unicycle” cartoon.

Christian thinks it’s unfair people are always expecting him to follow Christ: A letter-writer expresses his displeasure at a political cartoon Tacoma, Washington’s News Tribune ran making fun of the pope for saying the dumbest thing this particular pope has ever said. He asks that the cartoonist be terminated (Don’t worry, Mr. Angry Letter Writer! At the rate we’re going, market forces will see that all cartoonists are soon terminated!). The letter itself is only four-paragraphs long, but it contains this gem: “Christians have, for centuries, been expected to turn the other cheek, and it’s now long overdue for them to say no more.” Yeah! Why are Christians always expected to turn the other cheek? Just because the Christ they’re named after taught them to do so doesn’t mean that they…hey, wait a minute…

“Villains revealed for Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark stage show”: I hope this is true. I’d love to see how Broadway goes about making Swarm for a live stage show. Trained bees? Can they use trained bees?

A tale of two stacks: Abhay Khosla writes about a stack of random comics he found at his parents house, a stack of new #1 comics he’s been planning to write about, how he relates to each stack, and how they relate to each other. It’s a great read.

“Everything That’s In My Webcomics Folder Right Now”: Tom “Comics Reporter” Spurgeon offers a very readable walk-through of the comics he reads online, which functions as a nice introduction to web comics (and comics that can be read on the web).

“Sexual Spider-Man” comic scandal update: As mentioned here this weekend, a local Omaha, Nebraska TV news team put together a story about the mother of six-year-old finding an inappropriately sexy Spidey comic in her kid’s school library. The report didn’t identify the comic, but now ICv2.com has. Apparently it was Amazing Spider-Man Vol.2: Revelations, which Marvel’s own rating system says is inappropriate for children under 12. Whew. I can’t remember anything in those early J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr. stories that was at all sexy/sexual/potentially inappropriate. The station ran an image of Mary Jane in a bikini, so I suppose there were the usual number of images of MJ flouncing about scantily clad, but that’s it. The kid could have gotten a much, much, much worse Spider-Man comic.

How do you like your Wolverine? Dark, Rampaging, Regular, or Grande Mocha? Decisions, decisions… according to this week’s My Cup O’ Joe, Marvel EiC Joe Quesada gave the skinny on some breaking developments for the Ol’ Canucklehead.

First and foremost, the standard Wolverine title will be wrapping into Marvel’s Dark Reign crossover, now assuming the title of Dark Wolverine — the series will focus on Daken, Wolverine’s homicidal son. “Daken is like Logan…minus any sense of boundaries.” Quesada said. “The world had better beware.” Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu are on writing duties, while Giuseppe Camuncoli will be handling art. I’m at the very least digging this cover art:

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Disclaimer – I don’t think about this stuff all that much, but this one stuck me as odd. And no, that’s really not Black Canary’s hand talking a la Cartman’s in South Park with Ben Affleck.

Quick – name the one thing that characterized Marvel’s Hank Pym for years – decades even.

Right the first time – he hit his wife, Janet Pym. In anger. It was a pretty horrible thing when it happened, and its echoes got worse and worse. In his (limited) defense – he did have mental problems. But yet – that domestic abuse reverberated, and was often used as the short-hand characterization for Hank, while being the “thing she had to get over” or otherwise motivation for some of Janet’s stories and character development.

That was in the early ‘80s.

Fast forward to the next century. Last week, as a matter of fact, Justice League of America #31. Fourth page. Black Canary sucker punches her husband in the face in front of a witness (Green Lantern). Now let’s break this down a little more – she’s a trained martial artist – one of the deadliest in the world. He’s a man in prime physical condition who is knocked down by the hit. When he tries to joke it off, she threatens him with “Don’t make me smack you again.”

Her reason for hitting him? “Embarrassing me.”

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As I see it, there are two determining factors that make or break a comics anthology: The creators included and the premise of the book.

In both cases, the Julia Wertz-edited I Saw You… (Three Rivers Press) has rendered itself more or less review-proof, given the huge number of creators involved (just about every reader is going to love, like, dislike and loathe someone included) and the specificity of the premise, making for a highly subjective reception (Basically, you’re either going to dig it or your not).

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In response to Entertainment Weekly’s All Time 20 Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture, Jezebel wants to know who your pop culture heroines are.

Entertainment Weekly has compiled a list of the “20 All Time Coolest Heroes In Pop Culture,” of which only 5 are women: Sydney Bristow, Ellen Ripley, Nancy Drew, Foxy Brown, and Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.

The Jezebel ladies suggest “Veronica Sawyer, Xena, Lydia Deets, Coraline, Hermione Granger, Claire Huxtable, Veronica Mars, Wonder Woman, Harriet the Spy, Matilda, and, of course, Eowyn.”

Since this is a comics blog, I’ve got to add to that list from comics. I’m going with Megan McKeenan from Local, Death and Delirium from Sandman, Evie Hammond from V for Vendetta, Tulip from Preacher, and of course, Tank Girl.

Who are your favorites?