If you were holding out for a hero in the struggling NBC series, look again.

Entertainment Weekly has reported that Bryan Fuller, who many saw as the potential savior of the series upon his return to the show late last year, has confirmed that he is leaving Heroes once more.

The writer of the critically acclaimed Season One episode “Company Man” had initially left to pursue his series Pushing Daisies, which was cancelled at the end of last season.

“I’m crafting two pilots right now and it’s a lot of work,” Fuller told EW. “It was just too hard to [juggle] Heroes and my development; something had to give.”

Oni Press has announced that it will be holding its talent search at the San Diego Comic Con on July 22nd – 27th, as well as through the mail until August 15th!

In lieu of portfolio reviews, Oni has instructed prospective artists to illustrate at least one of the following five-page scripts (links to the scripts embedded below):

- A supernatural comedy titled Our Hero by Philip Gelatt, writer of Labor Days, and Indiana Jones Adventures.

- An espionage thriller titled Cold City by Antony Johnson, writer of Wasteland and the Dead Space video game series.

- A western drama titled Medicine Show by Frank Beaton, writer of various short stories appearing in This is a Souvenir, Outlaw Territory, 24/Seven and others.

Prospective artists should schedule an appointment with an Oni editor to ensure they will be reviewed, and should also bring 8.5″ x 11″ photocopies of both the penciled and inked art for Oni to keep as reference. And for heaven’s sake, make sure you have your name, e-mail, and phone number on not just your manila envelope, but on every single page as well!

Also, if you’re not able to attend the convention, you should send all the stuff mentioned above to:

ONI PRESS TALENT SEARCH 2009
1305 SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Suite A
Portland, OR 97214

If you have any questions, you should send an e-mail to talentsearch@onipress.com. If not, you should hear from an editor in three to six months on your work!

The Comics Reporter brings word of two more significant departures. Spurgeon indicates that Kate Napolitano, managing editor of ToyFare, may have gotten notice on Friday. Additionally, Spurgeon’s sources tell him that designer Jairo Leon was fired Sunday evening. Obviously, we’ll have more on this as it develops and what these changes might mean in light of yesterday’s announcement that Wizard Entertainment and Gareb Shamus are launching a new magazine, FunFare.

Following the success of the “Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels” academic conference, Boston University doctoral student, comics scholar and comic creator A. David Lewis has been granted a Library Acquisitions Award to create a new “Religion and Graphica” collection at the university.

The collection, which will contain works like MAUS, Persepolis, and Sandman (and one assumes, Preacher and Testament, two of my personal favorites), will be part of the School of Theology Library (OK, maybe Preacher won’t be appropriate).

According to the press release, this will be the first library collection devoted exclusively to the study of comics, and it comes in a religion department. This might seem odd, though I’ve had conversations before about the similarity of comics to religion, particularly superhero comics. They’re fables, archetypal stories that give us advice on how to live our lives, as well as part of a weekly routine–the Wednesday trip to the comic shop. Comics are reassuring, and fans often are very resistant to change in their books or their routine.

Of course, there are many brilliant graphic works that deal very directly with religion. Which ones would you suggest the library, which has already started purchasing, not miss?

In a rather baffling move, Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus has just released plans for a new parents-and-kids-oriented magazine, to be titled FunFare, which appears to be basically ToyFare for (and to some extent, by) younger children and their parents.

“Being the father of two amazing children, I am excited to share with other parents and their kids some of the best, innovative and coolest products that’s right for their families (and their budgets), FunFare is very personal to me,” said Shamus in a statement.

It’s baffling because Wizard World Philly ended yesterday, so the notion of Wizard rolling out a major announcement like this at 5pm on a Monday, through an e-mail press release, seems at best strange and at worst like a really obviously missed opportunity. Combine this with the fact that Wizard has been struggling with sagging magazine sales, major problems with their online retail component and massive layoffs (including some that became public after the FunFare announcement) and it really is hard to understand what’s going on over there.

The “Holiday Issue” of FunFare will be available at the Big Apple Con in October, according to Shamus, and will feature a Top 100 list of toys for the holidays; thoughts and reviews from actual kids; and a couple of pieces on the history of the toy business. This seems an awful lot like the Toy Wishes specials that Wizard used to publish (thanks to Kiel Phegley for jumping in and reminding me what that publication was called), which Shamus had acquired, had a little luck with, but then seemed to forget all about at some point.

More information and the magazine’s initial “Hot Dozen” holiday toys are available at the magazine’s website.

Via Francis Manapul and the Source:

I don’t know about you, but this cover for Adventure Comics #3 makes me really happy.

Don’t worry, it’s not another variant cover, I swear!

John Hodgman, writer, voice actor and professional nerd, gave a great speech over the weekend at the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner, in which he grills President Obama over Superman, Conan and Dune.

Whether or not you agree with the man’s politics, it’s a very funny look over the 100 Year War between Jocks and Nerds, and how we nerds have struck back from the icy planet of Hoth. (I won’t lie, though, Hodgman totally schooled me in Dune trivia — and I read that series cover to cover!)

[Via Entertainment Weekly]

After he got through with it, it was a robot in disguise!

Via Topless Robot, there’s a guy (wow, I nearly typed “god”) in Lemoore, California who loved Transformers so much, he built an 18-foot-tall version of Bumblebee out of his yellow Volkswagen Beetle.

The statue, which weighs 1,200 pounds, even has what looks to be a PVC-pipe gun. Simply stunning, even if it stands almost as bow-legged as Tony Danza.

Valerie D’Orazio has an interesting article up on her blog about the pop culture magazine Tripwire.

While there had been some cyberspace campaigning to shore up order numbers, the magazine was unable to rank high enough to meet Diamond US’s benchmark. A highlight:

With “Comic Foundry” and “Comics Now!” gone, and “Wizard” seemingly in a not-so-awesome state…I dunno, what is the fate of the comic book magazine nowadays, anyway? Or the pop-culture periodical in general?

It’s a very interesting read, and does pose some interesting questions about comics coverage in general. (And this comes off the heels of another interesting article of Valerie’s for Comixology, in which she wonders what is the “line” that comics coverage shouldn’t cross.)

Just looking at one point she mentions — of the Big Companies having an in-house comics news apparatus — I think that the companies do already have their own outlets (albeit not as all-encompassing as an all-purpose comic news site, as someone who’s covering them on a daily basis). For me, and I say this acknowledging perhaps some subtle bias, I think having a mix of inside and outside coverage is healthy, as it gives both a steady stream of new material from the insiders, as well as a perspective (and perserverence) that truly comes from a neutral but invested reader. What do you think?

Lest anyone think political cartoons have lost their power to stir readers up: Herb Pinder discusses the reactions his paper received after running a controversial syndicated editorial cartoon by Don Wright that they published after doctor George Tiller was killed (above).

The curators couldn’t have been hurting for material to consider…: Tom Richmond brings word that the legendary, prolific cartoonist Sergio Aragonés’s work will be featured in an exhibit at Ojai Valley Museum in Ojai, California. If you’re anywhere near Ojai, you can learn more here.

Be on the look out for some jerk with a couple of laptops, one of ‘em full of awesome art: Paul Tobin has word that his pal comics artist Steve Lieber, who had just embarked on a media blitz to promote his new book Underground, had his laptop stolen. Tobin proceeds to level a series of movie-inspired curses at the computer thief. Now why Tobin would want a werewolf burglar out on the loose, I don’t know…

I bet The Daily Bugle and the papers of the Marvel Universe are full of stuff like this: Sunday’s Boston Globe ran a tongue-in-cheek parenting advice column entitled “What to do if your child has superpowers.” As long as you don’t enroll them in any weird private schools run by a bald guy with funny eyebrows who rides around in a wheel chair, they’ll probably be okay.

You might recall a discussion we had a few months ago about the initial round of teaser posters released to promote G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. I wasn’t very impressed with them, due to what I felt was an overall lack of style and creativity. some of you disagreed, or at the very least weren’t too bothered by the posters. With the movie’s August 7th release date approaching, Paramount has released a new batch of posters for us to enjoy, examine, scrutinize, and otherwise kvetch about. Go forth and check them out at Yo Joe! Magazine and follow along with the commentary. Let’s start out with the one that has the hot woman on it, shall we?

Sienna Miller as The Baroness

Ah, Sienna Miller. Looking at her here, I have only one thing to say: Man, Jude Law is an f’n moron. I confess that as a knee-high nerdling in the 80s, I never found the Baroness to be particularly attractive. Maybe it was the creepy, European accent that turned me off. Or the fact that she was just a shrill, unrepentant witch. Whatever the reason, I never developed a fanboy crush on her like a number of other Joe fans. (For the record, my heart belongs to Zarana.) But I have a feeling that the lovely Ms. Miller is going to change all of that. This is a fantastic poster, with Miller rocking the classic Baroness look in a dynamic, exciting pose.
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Did you give Mysterius the Unfathomable a try during its DC Comics WildStorm six issue run? After reading the last issue of the series, out last week, I’m as big a fan as when I started and I can only hope that this is not the last we see of the magician/mystic/detective and his lovely assistant, Delfi.

Created by the team of writer Jeff Parker (Agents of Atlas) and artist Tom Fowler (Mad Magazine), this series says goobye for now. A lot has been said about the quality of this series to which I add that this is one you’ll want to read more of once you let yourself inside this fully realized world of quirky supernatural goodness.

It’s in the last couple of issues that things come to head between Mysterius and Delfi. With their lives in mortal danger, Delfi lashes out at her boss for being so selfish as to allow them both to get into such a mess. Just when he needs her the most, she abandons him. Of course, Mysterius does not realize how badly he’s behaved or how badly he needs Delfi. In the end, they both may need each other far more than they could ever admit.

And that is at the heart of this story. Nevermind, for a moment, the witches, the zombies, and the pits of hell that also make up the plot. Basically, this is a buddy story. Mysterius may seem to be a dapper yet bumbling middle-aged man with a pot belly. But, when he’s teamed up with the right assistant (this time it would be Ella Tamblyn aka Delfi) he has a better than even chance at summoning his formidable magical powers. It also helps if he can somehow make a human connection with his Delfi and, despite himself, he just might be able to inspire her to help him. Some pretty successful comics titles are based on much less. The foundation is in place for this series to come back with a bang and I would prefer it to be sooner than later. Check out the Word Balloon interview with Jeff Parker where he says he’d love to pursue more Mysterius comics and would definitely see a possible TV show. His first choice for an actor to play Mysterius would be Geoffrey Rush. I still see Bill Murray as a contender but I can see why Rush would fit right in.

Thanks to the artistry of Tom Fowler and colorist Dave McCaig, all hell can break loose spectacularly in this final issue. Human (and nonhuman) excess runs amok in this satire of Burning Man which is worthy of the best Mad Magazine parody. Much has been said about the European look of this comic. I would go ahead and say it is a European style, both in the writing and art, which is made up of elegant detail, delicate exaggeration, and overall irreverence. Most of these characters are mercilessly drawn with more than a little junk in the trunk. Things are played up for laughs and it works quite well here even when depicting minions from hell battling zombies. Americans can sometimes take things too seriously, including minions from hell and zombies.

Understandably, Mysterius the Unfathomable is a special taste, sort of like Seaguy, but easily accessible. Once you get the collected trade to this year’s best kept secret in comics, you’ll see what the fuss is about and you’ll enjoy lingering over it. Here’s a sample of a nice added touch of spookiness. Delfi and Mysterius are en route to see a client when Delfi thinks she sees something strange:

Delfi: Wait–No…How did he turn the other way so quick? Look here, bird!

Mysterius: You…can’t see his face?

(pause)

Mysterius: Did that bird not have a face?

Delfi: Well, I’m sure it did, I just couldn’t see it. No big deal, sorry to stop everything. I just do that.

Mysterius: No, it is a big deal if it was a portent. Faceless bird…

Delfi: Can’t a portent be for something good?

Mysterius: Almost never.

Towards the end of this story, just when everyone should be resting easy in a comfy epilogue, off in a corner, there it is again, that bird without a face. What a cool and eerie way to say that Mysterius remains at your service.

OK, I know it’s a cliche for comic fangirls to have crushes on Gambit, but in the interest of full disclosure–well, you get the picture. Especially in the wake of the luscious Taylor Kitsch in the Wolverine movie, my lust has been rekindled.

Marvel decided to toy with my emotions further on this one and have Mike Carey write Gambit’s origin story. Mike Carey! I think I may have squealed out loud when I read that. It takes a lot to make me buy superhero books, but an origin story for a character I dig, written by a writer I love? Sign me up.

The only downside? Is this really the only issue we get, guys? I mean, really? You finally give us a Gambit origin story, and it’s only a one-shot? That’s such a tease.

It reflects in the comic, too. It’s not so much an origin story as a selection of flashbacks, unfinished stories-within-a-story that don’t really add up to anything. Each little section of this comic could’ve been a full book–or several books–in itself. Instead, we get a bunch of setups without any payoff, never a complete story.

It’s even sadder because the art is truly beautiful, lush settings, closeups so real you could reach through and touch them, and yes, a shirtless fight scene (thanks, guys). What I wouldn’t do for several more books with this creative team working on this character…

If you’ve been following the recent goings-on in the Marvel Universe, then you know the score: Norman Osborn, having “singlehandedly” saved the Earth from the Skrull invasion, is now officially the man in charge of keeping the American citizenry safe and secure from danger, with the help of his own brand of Avengers. This major change to the Marvel U’s status quo, dubbed Dark Reign, has had one major inherent flaw from the very beginning: Osborn is formerly and publicly known as the villainous Green Goblin, and his Avengers are a team of felons, murderers and psychopaths secretly posing as bonafide heroes.

Ronin, leader of the underground band of Avengers, publicly called out Osborn on national television in New Avengers #50 and reminded the general public that maybe having a known whack-job in such a high position of authority isn’t the best idea in the world. This bold move forced Osborn to respond to Ronin’s charges in a sit-down TV interview in Dark Avengers #5. Did Osborn, and by extension Dark Reign mastermind Brian Michael Bendis, succeed in explaining away the huge gap in logic that put a murderer like Osborn in charge? Your mileage may vary, but I’ll tell you what I thought about it after the jump.

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Neil Swaab’s comic strip Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles is pretty much the same as Jim Davis’ Garfield. The only differences are the details and the degree.

Garfield is, of course, about an overweight house cat and his often adversarial relationship with the loser human being he lives with. Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles is about a teddy bear and his often adversarial relationship with the loser human being he lives with.

Garfield’s human foil is a stay-at home cartoonist named Jon who never seems to be working, and is always complaining about his inability to achieve what he wants in life. Mr. Wiggles’ human foil is a stay-at home cartoonist named Neil who never seems to be working, and is always complaining about his inability to achieve what he wants in life.

Much of the humor in Garfield is derived from the lead character’s vices: His laziness, his gluttony, his selfishness and his readiness to hurt others in his life, emotionally or physically (usually by throwing something in Jon’s face, or kicking Odie off a table). Much of the humor in Mr. Wiggles is derived from its lead character’s vices: His drug problem, his many sexual deviances, his pedophilia and his readiness to hurt Neil (usually by hitting him in the genitals, or sexually violating him while he’s sleeping).

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Wow, is it that time already? Sometimes, you have to give a shout-out to the men who have raised us. But in comics, sometimes having a dad isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For every Luke Cage, we get a Magneto — because villainous fathers have always been a time-honored trope in the comics community. So with that in mind, we at Blog@ decided to take a look and create a light-hearted, sometimes tongue-in-cheek (and obviously subjective) look at the top ten best and worst dads in comics!

The Top 10 Best Dads in Comics: With parental fatalities often being the impetus for superheroics, it’s tough to find a good dad in comics. But the good dads are often the best, even if they’re no longer with us. Let’s take some time to tip your hats to these great men in sequential art.

10. Ted Knight: Ted shows that it’s never too late to connect with your kids. Somewhat estranged from his son Jack until his son David is killed, Ted soon establishes a bond with his son through advice and adrenaline. While Jack first was all about himself, now he’s a hero, partially because of circumstance, but mainly because of the interaction he has with his dad.

9. Mr. Fantastic: While Reed Richards is a bit of an absent-minded, albeit good-hearted, space case, it’s clear how much he loves his kids. It’s one of the reasons he’s pushed himself as hard as he can go, to support his children, and while he can sometimes be a little distant, when push comes to shove, you know Franklin and Valeria come first to this super-stretchable polymath.

8. Wally West: When he had to make a work-related trip, he took his kids along for the ride. This might be a glib way of looking at Infinite Crisis, but that’s pretty much what happened — during his battle with Superboy-Prime, Wally was being sucked into another dimension. But he brought Jae, Iris, as well as his wife Linda along with, and raised his kids — despite their superspeed aging — in that parallel world. He has since fought the Speed Force itself — taking a hit on his own limitless speed — to save his children from its shackles. This guy? A great dad.

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Two comics for the price of one: that’s the idea. You get a regular full-length comic, and then you get a nine-page original extra story at the back. In this case, you tag a nine-page story of a character with a cult following that has been bitterly disappointed with her cancellation onto a brand-new original monthly that ties in to the other major DCU event of the moment. It’s win-win, right?

Well, it doesn’t have to be, but in this case it definitely is. I was one of the people more interested in the Manhunter backup than the Streets of Gotham story, but I’m glad I had to buy one to get the other. Streets of Gotham may tie into the rest of the Bat-books, but I didn’t feel at all lost reading it. Paul Dini knows his noir, could do it in his sleep, but here he’s having fun giving a bunch of lesser-known (translation: I hadn’t heard of ‘em) Gotham characters a workout.

Dustin Nguyen’s art manages to be cheery and dark in the same book, often in the same panel, but the book’s real charm is in living up to its name. It’s a superhero story, but one that takes place on the street and feels more like a crime drama, bringing a grittier, more realistic feel to the stories. It’s Batman from an outsider’s view, and it’s worth a read.

The street feel leads nicely into the backup feature. Kate Spencer’s been transported to Gotham to act as the new DA, but she hasn’t left her crime-fighting proclivities in LA–though she has left her son, a feature that will no doubt come back in later issues. Nine pages is basically only enough to set up a story, so this one was mostly exposition, but it manages to fill in the gaps with Kate beating a story out of someone rather than with simple conversation.

Manhunter was already a pretty dark book, and things are probably unlikely to lighten up for Kate Spencer in Gotham. The real question will be managing to make the backup features worth the money for readers who aren’t thrilled with the main title, but the creative team on this one (Marc Andreyko and Georges Jeanty) suggests that DC isn’t skimping on the backup book any more than they are on the front.

Together, the two make a nice pair of noir stories to roughen up your pile of superhero books–or to superhero-up your pile of rough books, in my case. In this case, the experiment gets two thumbs up. My only suggestion would be a bigger indication on the front cover that there’s another feature in the back. I wouldn’t have noticed the band across the bottom on the stand, particularly on the stands that some stores have that obscure the bottom half of the cover.

Earlier this year Boom Studios launched a rather well-received kids imprint with comics based on characters from Jim Henson’s Muppet Show and Pixar’s animated movies. Next up? Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #699 and Mickey Mouse and Friends #297, according to ICv2.com. The last publisher to release these long-running titles was Gemstone. Apparently Boom won’t be continuing Gemstone’s bigger, more expensive format, but will publish 24-page issues at a $2.99 price point.

UPDATE: Matt Brady talks to Boom publisher and co-founder Ross Richie about the Boom/Disney deal on the main site, and you can read the interview here.

“They trap you with the Batman name, and I don’t know what their underlying mission is…I was outraged”: That’s Charlotte, North Carolina mother Yvette Spivock in an article in yesterday’s Charlotte Observer. She had purchased last summer’s Batman Confidential #18, the Batgirl-chases-Catwoman-into-a-nudist-club issue by Fabian Nicieza and Kevin Maguire, at a library for her 12-year-old son, and was less than happy with the content, in which the two female characters are both TV naked (you know they’re not wearing any clothing, but the body parts you can’t show on TV are covered at all times). The reporter apparently spoke to an unnamed representative for the company, who told her Batman Confidential is intended for readers age 16 and up, and that “ the company often places a star on the cover of kid-friendly comics.” That’s news to me, and I read a lot of Johnny DC books, so I wonder if there was some miscommunication there. Looking at the cover for that particular issue, I don’t see a Comics Code Authority seal anywhere, but then, DC applies those seals in a mysterious way I’ve never quite understood (It was on a recent issue of Green Lantern in which some characters were brutally, graphically killed, but was absent from the next issue, in which a character has his hand chopped off). The Spivok parents stressed they weren’t angry with the library, and don’t seem too outraged in general, given the goofy picture they posed for to run with the story.

As it turns out, DC’s “Blackest Night”/rainbow of Lanterns Corps comics make them perfect for Pride events: Boston comics shop Comicopia had a float in this year’s Boston Pride Parade, to both show their support and promote their store. The Bostonist conducted a short interview with Comicopia manager Shannon Outlaw to find out what was up with that group of superheroes marching. Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Wonder Woman and Rainbow-Brite were among those passing out leftover FCBD comics and other goodies along the route.

Oh no, now your copies of Shadowman and Guy Gardner: Warrior or worthless!: Photographer and blogger “Color Me Katie” finds some old comics at a thrift store, and finds the pages make for fun, cheap, colorful wallpaper.

It always freaks me out a little when I see what autobiographical cartoonists look like outside their comics: The San Francisco Examiner profiles Julia Wertz, who has a new collection of her comic strips out. I like the part where she talks about how some people resisted her strip because they don’t like that one word in its title. Me neither! It’s one of the three words I can never bring myself to type or say out loud, under any circumstances. Good comic, though.

Speaking of SF media…: The San Francisco Chronicle has a short piece on Adrian Tomine and Seth, in advance of their speaking engagement at a library there last night.

Wow, I haven’t heard the words “Death Row” in a while…: Billboard reports that the music publisher EverGreen signed a deal with WIDEawake, the company that owns the assets of of the legendary/infamous Death Row record label. Among their plans are “a new brand extension called Hustle City, which will debut first as a graphic novel including a CD insert of music related to the story line.”

As many of you no doubt have read, a federal appeals court has refused to grant the petition for rehearing in the Dwight Whorley case. Whorley had been convicted of possessing child porn, receiving obscene manga and sending obscene email.

The court ruled 10-1 against rehearing the case, but the focus of attention has been the lengthy dissent, in which Judge Roger Gregory urged Whorley to take the case to Supreme Court. Among other things, Gregory argues that Whorley’s conviction violated the First Amendment insofar as it punished speech pertaining to “imaginary children.”

Judge Gregory’s may have struck a chord in the comics & manga communities, but odds are that it will not make a similar impression on a majority of Supreme Court Justices, let alone appellate judges in his or any other federal circuit. The Court established years ago that fiction and drawings can be obscene. There is no split among the federal circuits regarding that issue, and the Supreme Court is not likely to view protecting pornographic depictions of children as a compelling reason to overturn decades of established obscenity jurisprudence.

Anti-censorship advocates, including Judge Gregory, have been wont to quote passages from the 2002 Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition decision regarding the unconstitutionality of banning virtual images, but these passages don’t prove what people think they do. In short, the quotes are being taken out of context–the Aschroft case dealt with a statute that banned virtual images regardless of whether they were obscene, a constitutional problem that current law arguably corrects.

There are equally substantive issues with Judge Gregory’s argument that obscenity communicated over the Internet should be regarded as personal, akin to private thoughts or matter read in one’s home, rather than connected to interstate commerce and thus a legitimate subject of federal law. This blog is not the place for an extensive analysis of Commerce Clause jurisprudence and the regulation of electronic communications, but suffice it to say that for Whorley to prevail on this point, the Supreme Court would essentially be nullifying precedent that provides the basis for much of Congress’s present legislative authority, let alone analogous principles that have enabled Congress to regulate obscenity sent by mail or through Customs.

Still, if people want to file appeals claiming that the Internet is intrinsically private or that images of fictional children cannot be obscene, that’s their right–it is, after all, a free country, at least in regard to the freedom to pay lawyers to make quixotic arguments.