Time, dear readers, to explore Diamond’s expansive Previews catalog for comics theoretically shipping in July 2009.

Glamourpuss #8 from Dave Sim is available through Aarvark-Vanaheim.

AC Comics has an omnibus edition of the first nine issues of Femforce from 1985, which I’ve never read but has been around for over twenty years, so it must have some fans. Amaze Ink/SLG ships Gargoyles vol. 2: Clan Building, with several issues of unpublished material.

Archaia Studios is apparently off life support, with the second Mouse Guard collection, Winter 1152 available in hardcover.

If you’re trade waiting, Roger Langridge’s The Muppet Show gets collected by Boom in July. Same with Mark Waid’s first Incredibles miniseries and Boom’s initial Cars series.

Big Questions #12 from Anders Nilson and John Stanley Library: Nancy vol. 1 highlight Drawn & Quarterly’s offerings.

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I Still Live: Biography of a Spiritualist

Written and Drawn by Annie Murphy

60 pages, 7 1/4″ x 8 3/4″, go online for price

ghostcatcomics.com

One of the highlights of my recent trip to the Stumptown Comics Festival was a chance to meet Annie Murphy, creator of the graphic novella, I Still Live: Biography of a Spiritualist. She has an easygoing quality about her that is reflected in her book where she smoothly maps out for us a world we don’t see enough of in comics.

As a prominent leader of the Spiritualist Movement, Ascha Sprague was one of the best known women in America in the 1850s. Her headstone defiantly reads, “I Still Live.” Taking inspiration from this, Annie Murphy has created a book named by The Comics Journal as one of the top ten minicomics of 2008.  It has gone on to win a Xeric Grant.  

Murphy draws wonderfully spooky landscapes and portraits of 19th Century Vermont which she mingles with the writings of Sprague. We see Sprague emerge from a near death illness, believing she was revived by spirits, and evolve from a medium of spirits to a trail blazer in the earliest stages of the women’s movement.

Sprague lived during a time of tremendous tumult in America and the world. Murphy recounts the upheaval, be it the Communist Manifesto, the genocide of Native Americans in the name of Manifest Destiny or the surge in popularity with communicating with the spirit world. She does this with haunting and distinctive style as she pieces together history.  The story flows as it makes use of carefully placed washes, black space and reverse lettering with a preference for full page or two page scenes instead of panels.

And always she returns to the words of Sprague that, in turn, help guide Murphy on her own life’s journey. It all comes down to trusting oneself and the spirits: “Begin as though thou hadst a work before thee that must be done. Begin as though thou lovedst that work. And time shall tell the tale. Begin with us as friends, assistants, guides to help thy way. The nearer thou dost come to us, the nearer we shall come to thee.” 

Murphy manages to balance all the parts to this book: biography, history and autobiography. We see Murphy at the start as she first discovers Sprague one day in October which she describes as, “a time when the veil between the worlds is thin.” At the end, Murphy is ready to reveal a little more of herself as we see her struggle with her own purpose in life. Throughout, we feel the urgency of author and subject as both seem to meld into one force of energy. 

I Still Live is anything but predictable as it is told with a gentle but determined voice. It is a great example of how wide open the potential for the comics medium truly is.

Jin & Jam #1

Written and Drawn by Hellen Jo

36 pages, 6″ x 7 3/4″, $5 US

Sparkplug Comic Books

It took the Stumptown Comics Festival for me to finally come into contact with Jin & Jam, a fiesty sensation that should be on anyone’s short list for best minicomics of 2008.

The off-kilter opening full page panel sucks you into some kind of Harold and Kumar teenage adventure in the making via Japanese hipster flat art: two kids sitting on a curb staring into space, one with a burger, the other with a cigarette, with a raucous church service in the background all drawn in a wonderfully intricate thin line. The influence of Taiyo Matsumoto’s manga is undeniable and acknowledged with an appropriate rebel yell quote from Black & White on the intro page: “We can beat ‘em…just you ‘n me!” 

And it just keeps going from there. Who would have thought so much could be invested in a fistful of fast food and cigarettes? Hank spits out a french fry into Jam’s hand after she forces him to give it back. Unsatisfied with that, in grand cartoon style, she slams her fist down on his skull. With contempt in one hand, she pilfers one of his cigarettes. With mercy in the other hand, she embraces him while he begins to cry cartoon tears. Then we cut to a dramatically foreshortened hand as scruffy Jam raises Hank’s pack of cigarettes up from the curb and offers a smoke to the fair maiden, Jin. Thus, the name of the book: Jam meets Jin and we see the start of a new friendship.

Just a panel of Jam sitting on the curb in her hoodie chomping away, all feral, on a burger would make an excellent poster. The design sense and the ear for whip-smart dialogue is killer.

There are a few moments when it seems to falter, mainly in the depiction of Jam which fluctuates a little more than it should. But, overall, hey, this is a totally awesome comic. The sense of wonder is uninhibited and authentic. Give me the antics of Ting and Terng, the conjoined twins, any day. From the fight scenes to the more dreamy moments, it’s all systems go. Already, by the end of the first installment, Jin & Jam looks poised to be a much talked about oddball hip comic.

When you’re looking for energy and excitement, go for the best. While many people choose Red Bull for their adrenaline-of-choice, Image Comics is looking for people to get hooked on Tasty Bullet.

Tasty Bullet is the story of Tamar, an adrenaline junkie as well as the spokeswoman for energy drink Tasty Bullet, marketed specifically in mind for the hard-wired ADD action junkie.

Yet when Tamar nearly dies doing a stunt for her corporate masters at Bullet Corp., she begins to learn about her own dark past, setting her up against the Teen Death Squad, “Spiritual Terrorist” Ali Hajjaj, as well as her own addiction to Tasty Bullet.

The book, created by Batman: City of Light artist Arnold Pander and Vertigo editor Jonathan Vankin, will be hitting the stands June 2009. And stay tuned to Blog@ for an interview later!

Via Heidi over at the Beat, the latest (mis)use of the Internet has come to horrifying, writhing life.

Be warned — this customized JibJab video is possibly NSFW and may induce you to (A) spit-take or (B) instinctively kick your computer in the face.

Sigh. This is why we can’t have nice things. And by that I mean SkyNet is now self-aware. To be fair, at this point we probably deserve it.

In case you’re wondering, the men in this video would be — Alan Moore (complete with funny hat), DC head honcho Dan DiDio, Marvel EiC Joe Quesada, Paterson Joseph*, and comic gossip columnist extraordinaire Rich Johnston. You may vomit out of joy, or, like me, you may simply vomit.

*And no I have no idea why Paterson Joseph is in this. Maybe somebody liked the show Jericho?

Who’s stronger: Spider-Man or Batman? Lieutenant Commander Worf versus Predator? Darth Vader or Gandalf the Grey?

Heroes star Milo Ventimiglia and his production company DiVide Pictures, along with Agility Studios, are coming out with a webseries called Ultradome, which will pit the best of the best of sci-fi and fantasy in an arena not unlike Spike’s Deadliest Warrior. Gladiator versus Apache Warrior?

Pfft, let’s see Bat’leth versus Batarang.

“My whole life has been spent engaged with friends in intellectual debate … like whether Captain Kirk is tougher than Spock or if Middle Earth is a more difficult place to live than Tatooine,” Ventimiglia told the Hollywood Reporter. “With ‘Ultradome,’ we can bring these debates to the public and settle them in the most logical way possible: through armed combat.”

The first episode of the series — Lord of the Rings versus Star Wars — will launch this summer. Hopefully the series will be a bit more action-packed than, say, College Humor‘s take on that holy of holies — Batman versus Superman.

Despite NBC having announced most of their shows next season, genre sleeper hit Chuck is still on the bubble, as they say, until May 19th.

Michael Ausiello over at Entertainment Weekly says that the slacker spy, along with Law & Order, Medium, Life, and My Name is Earl are still being decided by NBC execs. Law & Order and Medium seem to be about negotiating how many episodes, but people really want to know what the Chuck is up with Chuck.

If the show does meet an untimely demise, it could possibly follow in the footsteps of Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller, who is moving his cancelled series to DC Comics. Chuck previously has roots with the Warner Bros.-owned publisher, having had a six-issue miniseries published last year by Wildstorm.

For all you Tolkien fans out there, this weekend was the premiere of the little fan-film that could: the Hunt for Gollum.

Taking place in between the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it concerns a young Aragorn as he hunts down the monstrous Gollum. Gollum, whose mind and body was twisted during his ownership of Sauron’s Ring, has left his cave determined to take back the ring from Bilbo Baggins, the “thief” who took it from him years ago.

But the real interesting story comes from that of the filmmakers. This high-quality work of fandom was shot in three days in September 2007, by a large group of Hobbit lovers — all for free. The film obviously had to be a non-profit, in order to avoid conflict with the Tolkien estate. Here’s a copy of the trailer:

DC, via their blog the Source, has posted a preview image for a new #1 in August:

But who is Batgirl?

Speculation has run rampant since the preview image of Battle for the Cowl, in which some people believe the limp hand appearing out of the coffin is none other than the current Batgirl, Cassandra Cain.

Since then, Cassandra had made herself more prominent by bringing together the team of substitute heroes known as the Network — yet original Batgirl Barbara Gordon is starring in a series known as the Cure. Even the Spoiler, aka Stephanie Brown, has returned from the comic book grave, and has been known to take over vacant superhero positions — at one point even assuming the mantle of Robin.

The use of a slightly modified version of Cassandra’s costume will certainly have readers abuzz — yet the lipstick on our heroine makes me wonder if it could possibly be the no-nonsense Cassandra under the cowl. (Or I could be quite possibly overanalyzing a simple choice in coloring.) At any rate, Newsarama readers voted last month in favor of Cassandra keeping the role of Batgirl — but only time will tell who will be hitting the streets of Gotham this August.

“No, stop it already”: The National Post’s Afterword blog interviews the Essex County trilogy’s Jeff Lemire as part of their countdown to next weekend’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival. The format is a bunch of short, random questions given short answers, giving the Q and A more of a quiz-like feel. The answer above was to the question “What comic should be adapted by Hollywood that hasn’t?” You’ll also find links to similar features they’ve done on Dash Shaw, Adrian Tomine and others, and more will presumably follow throughout the week, like these ones on J. Torres and Ryan North, so you may wanna keep your eyes peeled.

“God-Man: The Movie”: This week Ruben Bolling’s Tom The Dancing Bug features a trailer for the dark superhero movie re-invention of the strip’s resident superhero, the most powerful superhero of them all. Out-dark that, Christopher Nolan!

“[B]ut a long time ago that what’s the Direct Market was set up to do: give people a chance to buy the one comic book they wanted to buy”: Tom Spurgeon ruminates on news that cartoonist James Turner’s new series Warlord of IO doesn’t qualify for Diamond’s new minimum standards, and what that means not just for Turner, but for the direct market and comics in general. Well worth a read.

“We’re out there…and we’re working very closely with other divisions to see what’s the best way to get this thing into the most hands”: Over on the main site, Matt Brady recently conducted his regular chat with Dan DiDio about all things DC, and that’s how DiDio responded to the question of whether or not there was “any kind of marketing push centered on Wednesday Comics in order to get the word out about the material to the audience beyond the Direct Market.”  I hope to God DC’s already sending review copies to, like, every newspaper in America. Given how big the “newspapers are dying” story has been played up in the media recently, particularly in newspapers, I imagine arts editors all over would be thrilled to write a story about comics/superheroes (a hot trend!) that so consciously tries to replicate the unique experience of reading a newspaper (a thing newspapers love talking about!). Plus, Neil Gaiman is involved, and the media loves talking to/writing about him. He’s like the most affable comics figure in the world, this side of Stan Lee. I’ll honestly be both surprised and disappointed if I don’t see at least as much attention paid to Wednesday Comics as I did to the Batwoman’s-a-lesbian story in 2006.

The DC Bullets softball squad showed a little early-season rust at the start of their 2009 opener against the Paris Review on Thursday, April 30. After a sluggish offensive start, third baseman Michael Lorah (2-4, RBI, run) drove home their first run with an RBI single, chasing home second baseman Erin Dawald (2-4, RBI, 2 runs) in the third inning.

In the fifth, the flood gates opened up, with three consecutive run-producing plate appearances. Dawald drove in pitcher/outfielder Sal Cipriano (4-4, double, 2 runs) with an RBI double. Shortstop Adam Schlagman’s (4-4, run) base hit pushed outfielder Heather Einhorn (2-4, run) across, and outfielder Adam Staffaroni’s (0-2, two fielder’s choices, sac fly) sacrifice fly brought Dawald home for the inning’s final tally.

Additional offensive highlights included run scoring triples by pitcher/outfielder Joel Press (2-4, triple, 2 RBI, run) in the sixth and outfielder Pat Brosseau (3-4, triple, 2 RBI, 2 runs) in the seventh. Catcher/outfielder Larry “LP” Vollano (1-4, home run, 2 RBI, run) capped the scoring with a two-run bomb to finish a five-run seventh inning rally. This makes LP the early leader for 2009 Rookie of the Year.

Alas, the Bullet’s sluggish start was both offensive and defensive. The ten runs scored by the Bullets in the final three innings look nice on paper, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the 16-1 deficit the Bullets found themselves in after the fourth inning. Final score: Paris Review 20, DC Bullets 11.

Game Notes:

At least one error can be attributed to nearly every single Bullet in the first four innings. The Bullets set a new standard for their ugliest half-game in a long history of ugly half-games.  No defensive stars worth nothing this time around!  Unless you count a couple excellent plays by the opponent’s left fielder.

Big thanks for injured stars Fletcher Chu-Fong and Doug Harrison for showing up to provide moral support, and a shout out to DC’s VP-Manufacturing Alison Gill for trekking out to cheer on the Bullets.

Still no sign of the super soldier Nel Yomtov in the early going this season. Perhaps he’s trying to hook on with a “better” team. Good luck with that!

Tips o’ the hat to rookies Jerry Cerza (1-4, RBI, run, FC) for stepping in at first base, and Jeff Boison (1-4, FC) for splitting time with LP in the outfield and behind the plate.

Fans can come watch the DC Bullets softball team in action this Thursday at 5:30pm at North Meadow, Field #2 against Popular Science.

Still haven’t seen it. However, two ladies I love have, and they both have reactions that I’m probably likely to echo.

Becky Cloonan

Blogger Renegade Evolution.

(Yes, women can be shallow, too.)

I promise to see it too, and to write a review that isn’t entirely about the relative hotness of Hugh Jackman and Taylor Kitsch.

Just mostly.

In the world of superhero comics, there aren’t many guys more synonymous with a particular creation than Erik Larsen is with his long-running, creator-owned Image book Savage Dragon. With a new issue out for Free Comic Book Day, the one-hundred-and-fiftieth issue coming up, major story beats that have given the book essentially a “reboot” without actually affecting continuity, and ominous hints that Overlord—one of Dragon’s most dangerous nemeses—will return in the coming year, it seems like a perfect time to sit down with Larsen and discuss the future of the title.

Today’s issue, #148, includes an extended guest appearance by Daredevil (no, not the horned one from Marvel—the navy-and-red-checkered one who’s seen appearances in Image’s Next Issue Project and Dynamite’s Project Superpowers, among others) and his sidekicks from the Golden Age—a group of young adventurers called The Little Wise Guys.

SPOILERS are in full effect for Savage Dragon #148.

Blog@Newsarama: Now, Daredevil and the Little Wise Guys—are those guys something that you took away with you from the Next Issue Project?

Erik Larsen: The Golden Age Daredevil was briefly seen in our first Next Issue Project book, Fantastic Comics #24–but it was a cameo–he was one of a dozen characters from the Golden Age. He’ll be in an upcoming Next Issue Project comic– but he’s just a cool old character whose costume I’ve always loved. When I was doing research for the Next Issue Project I really took to the Golden Age Daredevil and the Little Wise Guys and I wanted to do more with them beyond an eight-page appearance that they’ll have in Silver Streak Comics.

Blog@: Are they going to be fixtures in Dragon’s world for a while? Obviously we’ve lost a good chunk of the supporting cast over the years, and the last twelve-or-so issues hasn’t gone any easier in that regard…!

EL: Yeah, The Golden Age Daredevil is going to be a fixture for a while.

Blog@: Is it fun, with these old characters in the mix, to be able to un-ironically write some of their old-school dialogue? I mean, Daredevil actually called somebody “Chum.”

EL: It is fun. And just as Captain America played the “man out of time” role I can play similar beats with The Golden Age Daredevil. But I don’t expect him to use archaic phrases forever. He’ll adjust pretty quick. And remember, Savage Dragon is set in “real time” so an issue equals a month–and just like in the real world–people grow and change. In a year’s time he’ll be acclimated and a casual reader wouldn’t necessarily peg him as a guy who just stepped out of the ’40s. (more…)

“How a ridiculous Canadian mutant conquered the world”: Grady Hendrix provides Slate.com with an entertainingly written introduction to Wolverine and his rise in popularity. He states that Wolvie only has two ongoing titles at the moment though. With Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins, Wolverine: First Class and the new Wolverine: Weapon X, he’s up to four solo titles, isn’t he?

Speaking of Slate and wolverines: Nina Shen Rastogi takes a close look at the claim that wolverines are, pound for pound, the strongest animals in the world, and leads to a couple hundred words of hardcore wolverine biology. And Slate‘s film critic Dana Stevens totally hated the movie.

Great, now I’m hungry for thin mints: Did you know the Girl Scouts have a comics badge? Comicsgirl did. Check out her post about the badge, and the requirements for how scouts can earn one. It’s pretty darling. (Via WFA)

I look forward to a movie called Archie Origins: Jughead’s Hat: Have you ever wondered what the deal with Jughead’s hat is exactly? Wonder no more.

“These are like Superman Gone Wild“: Terri Gross interviews Craig Yoe about his Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-creator Joe Shuster for NPR’s Fresh Air. You can listen to the eighteen-minute interview (and read Stan Lee’s introduction to the book) here.

A certain DC Comics character is coming back from the great beyond, and if my inbox is any indication a lot of you are wondering how this could have happened.

The answer–or at least a possible explanation–below.

Warning–spoilers ahoy!

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When I say the HERO Initiative has teamed up with Ralph’s, I’m not talking about Chief Wiggum’s kid.

The philanthropic organization known as the HERO Initiative has a brand spankin’ new offer for all you California comic fans on Free Comic Book Day.

If you set up a card with Ralph’s Supermarket, you can show your new card to Collector’s Paradise (in Winnetka) or the Comic Bug (in Manhattan Beach), and get a FREE What If? comic drawn by the late great Mike Wieringo. (Collector’s Paradise will also have Marc Guggenheim, Mike Kunkel, Joe Benitez, Jim Mahfood, and J.T. Krul sign some stuff and take part in the FCBD festivities with HERO.)

But how do you sign up? The HERO Initiative explains:

1) Sign in to Ralphs.com with your email and password
1a) If you have not created an account, create one now! Takes about 60 seconds!

2) Go to:

https://customer.ralphs.com/ManageCommunityRewardsStep1.aspx

3) Complete the three-step process; When signing up, our NPO # (non-profit organization #) is: 80680, and we’re under our corporate name, “A Commitment To Our Roots.” Don’t let it throw ya!

For all those who don’t know, the Hero Initiative does a lot of great work for a lot of creators in need. So why not kill three birds with one stone: help the Initiative, get a great book, and maybe even get some groceries!

A couple of quick items for Free Comic Book Day tomorrow that I thought were worth taking note of:

First off, to celebrate the recent release of The Perhapanauts: Triangle from Image Comics, my What’s Perhappenin’? column over at Comic Related is taking part in a Free Comic Book (Autograph) Event. And when I say “taking part,” I mean I made it up this morning and that’s why it’s just now being announced.

Anyway, any reader who buys The Perhapanauts: Triangle while they’re at their store on Free Comic Book Day should send it in with a receipt. Contact me at russell@comicrelated.com for the address to mail your book and receipt to (since I don’t want to leave it here on the site), and we’ll return it to you, signed by Todd Dezago (and anyone who gets them to me fast enough will also get them signed by artist Craig Rousseau, as the pair of them will be together next weekend). Comic Related will pick up the postage, but we’ll need you to include self-addressed return envelopes so that we can simplify the process and minimize the mess for Todd and Craig.

Readers who don’t have a receipt can also participate, but will be shuffled to the bottom of the pile so that the people who can be verified as Free Comic Book Day customers will get first dibs. This is just a way for the creators to thank readers for their support.

Also, Mike Cavallaro, the artist behind IDW’s pitch-perfect The Life and Times of Savior 28, sent me a flier advertising an ACT-I-VATE event in New York City for Free Comic Book Day. The details are below:

The eleven short stories that make up Cecil and Jordan In New York: Stories By Gabrielle Bell (Drawn and Quarterly) all flow so effortlessly into one another, and compliment one another so strongly that the experience of reading it was like that of listening to an album.

The songs might have been written over a period of years, come from a variety of inspirations and have been originally put down in different practice spaces and studios in different cities or different countries, but when you listen to them as an album for the first time, they’re part of a seamless, unified whole, and seem like that’s the way they were meant to be all along.

That’s what this book is like.

It collects Bell’s stories from a variety of anthologies—Kramer’s Ergot, Mome, her own Lucky—but there’s nothing fragmented about the collection. There’s a consistently honest, observational tone that overrides the stylistic difference and narrative choices in each of the stories, differences that may only be apparent on a second, closer reading and binds the stories together.

Here are a few words about every single one of them.

“Cecil and Jordan in New York”

The title story is a wonderful act of subversion, a short magical realist story that reads like any of Bell’s Lucky stories. The young, female narrator talks about her and Jordan’s moving to Brooklyn and trying to stay out of the way of those putting them up.

And then, halfway through, she turns into a chair.

This is the story which director Michael Gondry has adapted into Interior Design for his part of the trilogy film Tokyo.

Visually, it’s the least Gabrielle Bell-looking story in the collection, a brightly-colored story in which few of the lines are black, and even the narration boxes and dialogue bubbles are blue rather than white.

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Interview with Julia Wertz, creator of I Saw You…Comics Inspired by Real Life Missed Connections. Who doesn’t love missed connections? Even better in comics form.

Girl-Wonder.org has a new blogger at 1000 Miles Outside Metropolis, and her first post is on the perils of reading indie comics in a lousy economy. Check it out.

Comicsgirl is actually looking forward to Marvel Divas. And she makes me rethink my snark. (h/t When Fangirls Attack)

Daryl Cagle’s Arlen Specter cartoon made me laugh, and I love when he posts his progress on a cartoon.

Suzie at Echidne of the Snakes takes on Dollhouse-as-boyfriend-test. Take note, gentlemen.

I totally love when political bloggers blog about comics. Attackerman on Wolverine.

Finally, don’t forget G. Willow Wilson’s May Day AIRlift project. Buy comics, help a good cause. You can indeed still participate buying from your local retailer…

The Perhapanauts by Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau has to be one of the most consistently entertaining reads on the stands from any major publisher. Funny, quirky, full of rich characterization and sometimes violent, the comic captured my imagination when it was first released as a couple of miniseries by Dark Horse years ago, and has only improved over time. The erratic publishing schedule can be a distraction, particularly because with a dense narrative and supporting “backup” stories by Dezago and a host of other artists in the backs of the issues there’s a lot to try and remember for two, four or six months until the next one comes along—but the recent collected edition of their first arc—Triangle—has been a blessing. Not only do you get to read all of Triangle in one sitting, but to check out the HUGE collection of special features in the back—stories reprinted from black and white specials or Image exclusives, a cover gallery featuring all of their “extra” and variant covers, fake letters from fans responding to fake issues; and then the fake covers drawn by Craig Rousseau of the issues that were being responded to. It’s like a Criterion Edition DVD; I could buy this collection JUST for the special features and still feel like I got off cheap—but then I re-read the story and realize just how lucky we are that Image picked up this title when Todd and Craig were done with Dark Horse.

Blog@Newsarama sat down with Todd Dezago to discuss the collection and all things ‘Hap.

Blog@Newsarama: In the annual, I did notice a few things I’d missed before. First off, Big’s interaction with Choopie about the katana–is that something that’s going to pay off in one of our backup stories eventually? It seems like just the right kind of tale.

Todd Dezago: aside from helping choopie to cleave the chimaera in half, big’s samurai sword does have MORE of a tale to tell… just not yet.

Blog@: Second–does The Chief have some kind of power over electronics or is it just the way they run the system at BEDLAM that allows him to override?

TD: thought the chief is the top man at BEDLAM and therefore the guy with the buttons and switches to control everything in the facility, no, he doesn’t have electrical abilities. (more…)