The headline is incredibly on-the-nose; just in time for SDCC, Entertainment Weekly unveils exclusive pix of two new characters for Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

As EW tells it . . .

One of the characters may look familiar to hard core Star Wars fans — she’s Aurra Sing (pictured above), voiced by Jamie King. First glimpsed in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, Aurra is described by Cartoon Network and Lucasfilm as a companion to cruel mercenary Cad Bane, “though she harbors her own sinister ambitions.”

The other new face sounds equally ominous. Her name is Sugi (pictured after the jump), a “ruthless, knife-wielding bounty hunter [who]  poses a new threat to the Jedi Knights and the heroes of the Republic.” Poor Annie. As if he needed more scum and villainy to contend with.

Something about Sugi’s head strikes us as more than a little familiar.  Darth Maul, anyone?

SDCC attendees can check the images out up close at the Cartoon Network booth this weekend.

So what do you think?  Excited by the new characters?  Watch Clone Wars?  Don’t watch Clone Wars?  Discuss it all here.

As for more Star Wars SDCC action, anyone think that we’ll finally hear word of the long-rumbling live-action series, or has that finally fallen off of fan radar?

The masses of comic fans are arriving in San Diego, and I’m among them. As I began to get off the airplane after landing in San Diego from Chicago, I noticed a conspicuous number of genre-themed T-shirts among my fellow passengers as we all waited for people to lower their short boxes down from the overhead compartments.

The geeks have arrived.

As we walked through the terminal, an announcer came over the loudspeaker and welcomed “all you fanboys and fangirls who are here for the Comic-Con this weekend.”

“And if you have an extra ticket,” the announcer added, “can I have it?”

We all laughed. As if.

While texting practically everyone I know in the comics business, asking what time they’ll be at the con, I was standing in baggage claim and noticed a group of guys setting down their luggage. One of them put his short box of comics into the pile. Soon after, another of the guys in the group walked over to the pile and threw his jacket down – not on the luggage, but instead draped over the short box.

I thought, “Dude, you don’t have to hide here. We’re all geeks.”

I snapped a photo to share, and as I sat down to send it off to Blog@, I saw someone walk by holding up a sign that says “Simone.”

I’m tempted to chase that driver down and say, “Why yes, I’m Gail Simone. Can you take me to the con for FREE?”=

Tim Burton has released to IGN the trailer for his upcoming film, Alice in Wonderland!

The film will star In Treatment actress Mia Wasikowska, and will have Tim Burton mainstays Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp, the latter of whom will play (who else?) the Mad Hatter.

This eye-popping movie (which despite all appearances, does not have the Joker anywhere near it, thankyewverymuch) is due out in January. What do you guys think?

Can even the vaunted Super Soldier serum save the Captain America movie from it’s biggest foe — international audience ambivalence?

MTV sat down with Kevin Feige, and gave an interesting bullet point list of Captain America news, including the fact that Will Smith — one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood, who has conquered the 4th of July numerous times with films like Hancock and Independence Day — is still in the running for Captain America, as well as some of the Thor runner-ups.

Now, the thing that’s interesting for me is the fact that based on these notes, it’s clear that Marvel is really nervous about parading a guy in the Stars and Stripes in the current world climate. Indeed, the film won’t even be marketed as “Captain America” abroad, but as “The First Avenger” — and they’re ditching the typical route of searching for an “unknown” to play the lead character (which worked so spectacularly with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine) in order to bring in someone who they know will bring in the money.

And to be honest, who else would be on that list? Will Smith is exceedingly bankable — but Feige says that if Smith were cast, Kyle Baker’s “Truth” storyline, which repositioned the Super Soldier Project as a Tuskeegee-like experiment on unsuspecting African-American troops, would not be used. Tom Cruise, once the most bankable star in Hollywood, is still clawing his way back to respectability after his public weirdness made him a tabloid target. That said, Forbes has an interesting list of bankable celebrities (granted, Will Smith is at the top of that list), with Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon all on the list — and after rewatching the Departed the other night, I could definitely see Damon nailing this.

But in my opinion, I think Marvel is really selling the cultural cache of one of its most heroic characters short. It did a surprisingly effective job with teasing the Super Soldier program in the most unlikely of films — the Ed Norton remake of the Incredible Hulk:

But even more importantly, Captain America doesn’t serve politicians or administrations — as Frank Miller once said, he serves the Dream.

In this case, the dream of a better world. While having a World War II epic is certainly within Marvel’s prerogative, I feel like Captain America’s best quality is the fact that he is a man out of time — in short, he’s a human time capsule of all the nobility and selflessness of a bygone era, and I think it would be interesting to see him wrestle with the post-9/11, post-Enron, post-Operation Paperclip era, where America has teamed up with the enemy, and clasped new ones to its breast, but still strives for greatness. (In other words, Richard Donner’s Superman meets Austin Powers, but played straight.) It’s this sort of story that could confront the rest of the world’s ambivalence to the U.S. head-on, and would really give some solid allegorical weight to a prequel that may otherwise be written off as an action flick.

What say you, Rama readers? Do you think Will Smith could be the One? Is there another bankable star you think would be ideal? Tell us what you think about “The First Avenger: Captain America”!

If you don’t think Blackest Night — with its zombie Black Lanterns and brutal deaths — is violent enough for your tastes, don’t worry: we’ve got worse.

40 worse.

And don’t worry, Casey Kasem isn’t running this list — but the Invincible Super-Blog’s Chris Sims, along with Complex Magazine, is!

With titles such as the Goon, We3, 30 Days of Night, and the Walking Dead, I definitely think that Sims and company are off to a good start with this list — even if I don’t know how much I agree with the inclusion of a title like Devil Dinosaur, Transmetropolitan, or even Walt Simonson’s Thor. That said, making lists like these are pretty tough, and are always open to interpretation: I am struggling to think of a Wolverine story that stands out as particularly over-the-top with it’s violence (which is weird, considering this is a story about a guy with knives in his hands) — maybe the Claremont/Miller limited series?

However, as Sims himself even points out on his own blog, there are a few misses that seem peculiar — I think Robert Kirkman was criminally overlooked here, with only his Walking Dead series making the list, considering the carnage that has ensued for the last few issues of Invincible (not to mention the titular character in the Destroyer being completely covered in the blood of people he’s killed). I’m also surprised books like Miracleman, Kick-Ass, and 300 also didn’t make the cut, but what can you do — this is still a list with some love in it.

What say you, Rama readers? What’s the most violent comic you have ever read?

Zachary Gordon has been cast in the lead role for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the Hollywood Reporter has said.

Gordon, despite being just over the age 11, has done work with National Treasure: Book of Secrets, How I Met Your Mother, Robot Chicken, and Afro Samurai.

In addition, Kick-Ass’s very own Hit Girl Chloe Moretz is in negotiations to play the female lead, “an intense student with a wry sense of humor who dresses in all black.”

The illustrated novel follows the misadventures of Greg Heffley, as he tries to survive sixth grade — even with girls, bullies, and a disgusting piece of moldy swiss cheese at the back of the school.

Thor Freudenthal (there needs to be a superhero with that name) will be directing the film, while Nina Jacobsen and Brad Simpson are producing.

By Bon Alimagno

When I think of San Diego Comic-Con, I remember the Yogi Berra line, “No one goes there any more: it’s too crowded.” I never really got the wisdom of that till the last time I was at Comic-Con, two years ago when I thought I would die right there on the show floor. I was going from one end of the floor to the other and around the area where the video game companies, movie studios and DC Comics bleed into each other, I got quickly swallowed up by a dense river of humanity, compelled to keep walking in whatever direction the river flowed. I had no idea where I was going or when the crowd would thin enough for me to go my own way. I only knew that I had to keep walking, shoulder to shoulder, trying to keep from wondering if I was stepping on dropped ice cream sandwiches, foam tchotchkes or small children. This experience lasted for nearly the length of a football field. Any hesitation and I was sure to perish. Honestly, I am not kidding. Comic-Con has become a spectacle for spectacle’s sake. Much like Woodstock, one’s presence there is rapidly becoming a status symbol. “I was at Comic-Con” isn’t a declaration of geekhood, but a badge of honor: that you were courageous enough to enter such a vortex of bedlam and were still strong enough to survive.

Better crowd control, beginning with a significantly lower cap on attendance, won’t be enough to tame Comic-Con. Comic-Con by its very nature can not be tamed. That is now the point of it. Looking over the guest list, the programming, the torrent of announcements sure to come, Comic-Con is not so much a celebration of pop culture but an overdose of it. Where else can James Cameron, George Lucas, Tim Burton, John Lassiter, Matt Groening, Ray Bradbury and Hayao Miyazaki all be in one place other than perhaps the Oscars. And that is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg of Comic-Con luminaries. Now surely these are the names who will suck up all the oxygen in the room. Anyone else who makes news, like say the comic book publishers who are supposed to be the real stars of the show, will do so because their announcements are of such a spectacular nature that they can’t be ignored. Even then, publishers are dropping their bigger announcements Wednesday and Sunday to maximize their chances the press will notice. Last year, Neil Gaiman writing Batman wasn’t announced till Sunday when the show was almost over.

So imagine the decision we have to make: is it worth it to buy booth space, reserve hotel rooms, fly out there and ship at least a dozen large packages of comics and convention supplies to be anywhere from the 50th to the 500th most important thing going on at the show? Before we even land, we’re in a very deep hole with limited foreseeable return on investment. And when you’re a company as small as ours, you have to be wise enough to know how to make money and even wiser to know when not to lose it. The idea that anyone might get that magical lead at Comic-Con is a bit of a myth. With the internet it’s not that hard to get a hold of us. Anyone can reach us at the contact information at the bottom of Vampirella.com’s homepage or through twitter (@realvampirella).

San Diego Comic-Con is an effective marketing tool for those who don’t need it. It’s become an incubator of buzz for next year’s blockbuster, a launching pad for this winter’s viral marketing campaigns. But for all but the largest and well-heeled comic book publishers, it’s a humbling experience. In all likelihood the majority of comic book publishers in attendance will be an afterthought for 100,000 of the 125,000 people at the show, as they scurry from a Twilight panel in Hall H to a signing at the Nintendo booth. There’s little we could do at Comic-Con that would attract the attention the expense of going out there would merit. Just making a point about not being there may actually be more attention grabbing than anything we could do if we were there. I’d rather save the money and spend it on making comics. $1.99 comics.

Till next time…

Bon Alimagno is Director – Publishing & Editorial for Harris Comics, publishers of Vampirella.

“It really is not a movie, in a traditional sense. And if you try to analyse it in those terms—and not in terms of its relationship to pop culture—then you kind of miss the point”: The Guardian has a nice long, wide-ranging interview with Zack Snyder about his Watchmen film. The above quote is from the Trying To Explain Why Nobody Liked It portion of the interview.

“Westlake wouldn’t entrust his favorite brand name to anyone else. That changed, though, in the final months of Westlake’s life in an unexpected way that had nothing to do with Hollywood”: Geoff Boucher has a nice long piece on Donald Westlake, Darwyn Cooke, past Parker adaptations and crime comics on the LA Times blog. It’s well worth a read. I neglected to mention it in last night’s look at what was due for release this week, but Cooke’s Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter should be in your local comic shop this week (if it wasn’t there last week). You can read a preview of it here, if for some reason the “Darwyn Cooke” part isn’t enough to sell you on it.

“Leonardo DiCaprio Does Aquaman”: Er, is a slash fan-fiction writer responsible for the headlines at Cinema Blend?

“Does a change of shorts mark a feminist shift for a comic book icon or are pants just pants?”: The Toronto Star ran a story about Supergirl starting to wear shorts under her skirt, and one of the people they contacted for comment was Toronto retailer and comics blogger Chris Butcher. Butcher provides all the good questions he was asked and answers he gave that didn’t make it into the final story on his blog.

“I was very much into this creepy, ominous first chapter that takes the revolving-door aspect of death in superhero crossover events to a horrifying extreme”: I really enjoyed reading this piece about Blackest Night by Living Between Wednesdays contributor Dave Howlet. It’s a very positive take on the book (and the Green Lantern monthly in general), which I think makes it something of an exception among the assessment a lot of my favorite critics gave the book’s first issue, but it’s also a pretty insightful one. Howlet argues rather persuasively that there’s a  good reason why Hal and Barry are front and center, and that Geoff Johns is leaning toward the sort of genre commentary few usually associate with the popular writer’s work.

Here’s a taste:

Barry Allen’s ultimate sacrifice in Crisis on Infinite Earths opened the floodgates for killing characters off as a selling point, and everything came full circle last year when he was resurrected in Final Crisis. Clearly, it’s not enough to kill characters off to sell comics anymore—now you’ve gotta shock everyone by bringing them back to life. And that’s where Blackest Night comes in, I suppose.

Not that I don’t also enjoy reading critics that take a switch to the book, though.

Here’s national treasure Tucker Stone on one scene from the book:

And Hal Jordan can’t even answer questions with words, like—he’s so bad at talking that he has to use his ring to make cartoon answers to serious questions? If you were the Flash, and you’re not, but if you were the Flash and you said “Shit, I don’t really want to know the answer, but who died?” and then the guy didn’t say anything, he just put on a laser show—that would be kind of weird right? Wouldn’t you think that was kinda weird?

Stone’s assessment is also ultimately positive though. Or positive-ish. “This isn’t a concept that will actually fail to achieve its goals,” he writes. That’s positive, right?

“No Juicetice, No Peace!“: David Reese, America’s greatest war 21st century war correspondent and also a pretty funny cartoonist, was less than pleased with Jamba Juice using the same public domain clipart and style of word balloon he used in his very popular, eight-year-long Get Your War On strip. In addition to biting off Rees’ style, the ad misses a few essential elements of what makes GYWO so appealing.

1.) There’s no swearing.

2.) There is no mention of a national politician.

3.) It’s not funny.

Luckily, Rees is at his funniest when he’s at his most outraged, and his website is currently blowing up with Rees vs. Jamba Juice content. Enjoy! (I found a link to this at Tom Spurgeon’s website, and then took it and put it here. If Comicsreporter.com were a newspaper, I would be complicit in its destruction by doing that).

Hah! I’m back with another crazy idea. So, I think it will surprise no one to learn that I think and talk about comics a lot. I’m on several message boards, and have filled up my Google Reader with dozens of comic related feeds. As soon as I finish reading a new issue, I rush to the twitter about how much I enjoyed it. Well, after watching some TEDtalks and stewing on the Google Wave Tech Demo a while, I thought “Why is all this discussion happening in different places?” I’m not talking about news sites, which offer wonderful community and extra insider content. I’m talking about discussion of the books themselves. Why can’t we talk about them within the books? This would be possible in a digital copy.

Think about a letters page that runs next to the comic on each page, or reading along with some buddies and seeing their comments pop up next to the panels as you read. Creators interacting with readers on details of the story and art through a running dialogue streaming in the margin. Build a friends list to filter out the chaff comments you don’t want to see. Come on, if you are even reading an article like this, you have to see the potential. The sign of some of the more successful webcomics is often a healthy dialogue in the comments under each strip.

One of the reason’s why I believe mainstream comics haven’t gone digital yet is because there is little more brought to the experience while so much is taken away. Until there is some feature added to comics in the digital form that can’t be reproduced in the analogue form, the shift over to digital will be delayed. It’s the difference between watching VHS and DVD. Same basic content, but packaged differently and with bonus material.

Now this sort of idea could be implemented in several ways and for different kinds of digital comics. With the launch of LONGBOX, people may be curious if this will start drawing more comics to the digital form. What if the interface of such an application looked something like my mock up shown below?

The tools and etiquette for communicating in such a manner already exist. It’s only a matter of implementing them in this new context. Let’s also look at mobile comics viewing, on the iPhone in this case. Many mobile comics are viewed by sliding each panel left or right to navigate the comic. What if one was to slide any panel up or down to see the comments made about it, like so:

Digital comics don’t have to be just comics that are digital. Take the elements of applications and websites that you like and build them into the comic. Create a totally new experience through the combination of storytelling and interaction.

Agree, disagree? Questions, comments? Love poems, hate limericks? Want to paypal me wads of digital cash for my brilliance? Email: latino.kyle (at) gmail (dot) com.
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Kyle Latino

The library is a great place for readers to discover comics, and it’s a great place for comics readers to check out things that they want to try without spending their hard-earned cash. I’m looking at comics that I find in the New York Public Library system.

First, my apologies of the feature’s absence in recent weeks.  The book I was reading is an absolute brick, and it took some time to get through it all.  So here we go:

Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie is one of the most recognized names in pop culture, and this brick of a book that IDW and the Library of American Comics published collects the origins of that iconic kid. The saga begins with Annie living at the “home,” accepting heaps of disrespect and scorn from the nasty headmistress, Miss Asthma. However, she’s taken in as a charity case by Mrs. Warbucks, who only sees helping Annie as a social maneuver, and then Annie’s life becomes one unending adventure.

Annie finds herself in the care of “Daddy” Warbucks, a two-fisted tycoon (who apparently made his money as a weapons manufacturer during World War I and frequently hires a cast of suspicious thugs when he needs extra muscle to get Annie out of trouble!) for some time, before Mrs. Warbucks ships her back to the “home.” She’s farmed out as hired help, escapes to live on a farm for a short while, joins a circus, spends time as a hobo, and helps a small town banker thwart a band of thieves. Through it all, Annie’s upbeat nature inspires friends and her relentless curiosity and determination thwarts criminals and wrong-doers.

The strip is very well drawn, with big open eyes that draw readers in, and a lively line that pushes the excitable manner of its protagonist. The stories occasionally seem half-considered (see the random conclusion of Annie’s circus life), but are mostly solidly plotted and come to reasonable and satisfying denouements. If the strips do occasionally bog down in repetition, you’ll rarely find it in the perils Annie faces. It’s during the good times that readers are likely to find their attention wandering, as Annie or “Daddy” wool-gather about each other’s many wonderful attributes or how keeping your chin up will carry you through life’s hardships.

Little Orphan Annie is one of the most popular newspaper strips in comics history, and Harold Gray deserves nearly every plaudit awarded to him.  The strip is fast and fun, adventurous and full of heart.  It’s well drawn and only occasionally too saccharine.  And best of all, you can find these historically and creatively important comics in your local library.

Here’s another of the many special treats at San Diego Comic-Con: The Cartoon Art Museum’s Third Annual Sketch-A-Thon to raise funds for the museum, in San Francisco, celebrating this year its 25th anniversary. Just go to booth #1930 and remember to say hello to the museum’s hardworking curator, Andrew Farago.

During the entire convention, cartoonists will be doing sketches at various scheduled times and you can purchase sketches from such talents as Jeff Keane (The Family Circus), Keith Knight (K Chronicles), Bobby London (Dirty Duck), David Lloyd (V for Vendetta), Ted Naifeh (How Loathsome), Phil Foglio (Girl Genius), and many more. A fine example of Bobby London’s art is pictured above.

You can visit the Cartoon Art Museum‘s Facebook page or their Twitter page (@cartoonart) for scheduling updates.

While at San Diego Comic-Con, if you’re looking for something very unusual in a place full of the unusual, then you may enjoy the Pop Perversity panel discussion on Friday, July 24 from 6pm to 7pm in Room 32AB.

The panel will feature Isabel Samaras (On Tender Hooks), Ron English (Popaganda) and R. Sikoryak (Masterpiece Comics).

The panel is moderated by Colin Berry (On Tender Hooks).

From the press release:

Parodists from the worlds of art and comics show how their sharp, sly images blur the boundaries between the popular and the profound, the propagandistic and the profane. Parody is a familiar part of our culture, but when done right it can still shock and awe, revealing deep truths while it makes us cackle.

Don’t worry, this story isn’t about Mickey Mouse neurotically monologuing about his money troubles, his superpowers, or battling monsters with names that sound like you’ve had a stroke.

Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment, which has put together projects such as Striperella and Who Wants to be a Superhero?, will be unveiling their new partnership with Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, a motion comic called Time Jumper, which will be distributed exclusively on iTunes.

Time Jumper is about the story of Terry Dixon, a student who finds a time travel device after the death of his scientist father. With this device, he will join H.U.N.T. (Heroes United, Noble, and True*), a team of secret crimefighters, as they battle C.U.L.T. (Council of Unstoppable, Lethal Terrorists — and thank goodness I didn’t spell that acronym wrong) for the fate of the world!

The best part of all this? Natasha Hendridge along with STAN LEE HIMSELF will be lending their voice talents to this 10 episode series. And for that alone, I am totally sold on this. For all you San Diego Comic-Conners, you should check out the sneak peek of the motion comic this Thursday.

*And if the voice talent wasn’t enough, any story that has an acronym like this has my seal of approval.

Forget repulsor beams, flamethrowers, and sci-fi cluster bombs — the strongest weapon in Iron Man’s arsenal right now is Matt Fraction. And Marvel has just announced that Sega will be unleashing the Eisner-nominated comics writer on the upcoming Iron Man 2 video game.

“‘Iron Man 2′ presented me with the opportunity to work with both SEGA and Marvel on creating something wholly unique—a story that exists at the crossroads of the comics I write, the film universe I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute to, and a wholly immersive interactive experience like this game,” Fraction said in an interview at Marvel.com. “Writing a game presents an entirely new challenge, where the player engages with the world, with the big and small aspects of the place and characters. They’re a coconspirator in the narrative. I hope it’s as exciting and challenging to play as it was to write.”

Currently, in the comics storyline, Fraction has led Tony Stark down a desperate path as he becomes the “World’s Most Wanted,” as he escapes the clutches of Norman Osborn and the international military group known as H.A.M.M.E.R. With a list of all the world’s known superhero identites in his brain, Tony has been steadily erasing his mind, knowing full well the price he’ll pay: not just his unmatched genius, not just memories of his best friends, but even basic motor skills.

According to the Marvel interview, Sega apparently took fan comments on the first Iron Man game — a game which Metacritic gave an unfavorable 45 review — to heart, focusing more on hand-to-hand combat with a redesigned control scheme. “Iron Man has an undeniably huge fan base, and we really wanted to give them the game they have been waiting for,” said SEGA of America’s vice president of marketing, Sean Ratcliffe.

The game is due out in the spring of 2010 for the XBox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, PSP, and Nintendo DS.

The Bullets matched up against a squad from Magnetic Theatre on Saturday afternoon in Central Park. There were plenty of laughs and a lot of stat padding, though not much in the way of competitive game play. By the second inning, the Bullets add a five-runs-per-inning limit to their half of each frame, and three times in six turns at bat, the run-cap ended the inning before Magnetic Theatre could obtain that elusive third out. In the fourth and fifth innings, the Bullets made a combined two outs, but the theatre crew did finally turn the Bullets away scoreless in the top of the seventh.

Among the (many) offensive highlights:

SS Adam Schlagman posted a 5-5 game, with two homers, five runs scored and five RBI.

P Mike Lorah was 4-5, three runs scored, one RBI.

3B-LF Nel Yomtov drove in three and scored twice, while collecting three hits in his five plate appearances.

LF-3B Andrew Arnold homered to start his 4-5 day, as he collected two runs scored and three RBI.

RF-2B Sal Cipriano accumulated three hits in five appearances, including a double, a run scored and 2 RBI.

The afternoon’s most dramatic moment came when the comedic crew from Magnetic Theatre faced a two-out situation with runners on first and second in the bottom of the seventh inning. One out from a rare slow-pitch softball shutout, the Theatre squad cheered rowdily when a flare into center field dropped for a two-run double, scoring their first (and only) runs of the day.

With the 23-2 win, the Bullets record is 7-5 (2-3 in New York Media League action).

Game Notes:

Given their trouble finding players for Saturday’s game, the Bullets would like to extend a hearty thanks to “Friends of DC” Ryan and James for their contributions, and to Jen, Chrissy and Rafael of the Magnetic Theatre for coming over to play with the opposition for the afternoon.

The Bullets New York Media Softball League schedule resumes 5:30pm Thursday afternoon at Central Park’s North Meadow, Field #2.

If there’s a chance to meet Stan Lee, hey, I’m going to grab it. And, anyone out there in a position to make that happen, you can take that as a really big hint. I’m like anyone else going to San Diego Comic-Con when it comes to something like that. Actually, there is one way to maybe meet Stan but let’s move on.

This is a calm before the storm. My partner, the cartoonist, Jennifer Daydreamer, and I are very excited about going to SDCC on many levels: as creators, as fans, and even as gawkers. Well, maybe I should speak for myself but there’s sure to be a lot of gawking and, if you can’t do that at SDCC, where can you?

I’ve been flooded with oh so many options. And it’s still, as I say, the calm before the storm. I let myself get caught up with everything down to reports of giant squid invading the waters off San Diego. Shouldn’t they have done that last year for Watchmen? Bad joke, I know. Well, you can’t control the forces of nature anymore than you can control the forces of marketing. Some things I’m pretty sure I’ll pass on like a chance to levitate a ball supposedly by mind control. I’ll probably pass on any games too although I might take a look just to be fair.

Mostly, I see myself coming to this from a somewhat bookish outlook. I’ll zero in on the more offbeat, the more literary and art-related. But I’ll be open to just about anything too and keep in mind that a lot of stuff defies easy labels. For example, I’m totally with Sarah on the merits of Phonogram and I’m totally with Lan on the merits of Blackest Night. And I’m totally in tune with the undeniable: Twilight. That alone is a force to be reckoned with. Which reminds me, I will need to be sure I have ear plugs handy for fans screaming their bloody heads off.

So, if you feel like it, let me know what you look forward to this year at SDCC, whether or not you’re actually going. And remember, you can catch live TV coverage of SDCC on Saturday from our friends over at G4.

If you like what you’ve read so far (c’mon, how can you not?) totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

Watchmen, the long-awaited screen adaption of the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons comic book series, came to DVD and Blu-Ray this week. With both a director’s cut from 300 filmmaker Zak Snyder and the theatrical version of the movie in stores (and online to download, and on your TV for on-demand, and all the other wonderful things that big releases get nowadays), it’s probably a little tough for the casual fan (or even a hardcore fan who’s never seen the movie in cinemas) to decide what’s the best buy if you’re going to own it on DVD.

Go for the director’s cut. No question. Do not pass “Go.”

Aside from the fact that the movie—based on the graphic novel and set in an alternate, dystopian 1985 where Nixon is still president and a serial killer appears to be targeting masked vigilantes—was phenomenal, and the fact that if you’re reading an article here at Comic Related, you’re clearly a comic book fan and can use more Watchmen in your life, there’s the fact that everyone’s favorite character—Rorschach—ended up on the cutting room floor way more than any other character, and way more than you would expect.

Presumably because three minutes at a time of “Rorschach’s Journal” monologues did little to advance the action, and weren’t exactly thrill-packed for viewers who weren’t familiar with the story already, the director’s cut restores a lot of Rorschach material that wasn’t in the theatrical version of the movie. This, of course, begs the question of who the hell was in charge of editing the film. Would you cut Wolverine out of an X-Men movie? Clearly whoever was making these decisions had never read the comic or talked to the average Watchmen fan. Rorschach was bound to be (and was—he’s Freddy Krueger now, after all) the breakout character of the film, and with the theatrical cut already tipping in at around two and a half hours, it seems like a no-brainer that another five or ten minutes wouldn’t kill anyone if it meant more screen time for the character destined to become the film’s icon.

There’s also very little that’s disconcerting in the added scenes. They flow well—often better than the “cut” versions of the same sequences—and add to the narrative of the film. Overall, I think it’s safe to say that Watchmen: Director’s Cut is a prize for everyone. It makes more sense than the theatrical version of the movie, a boon to the uninitiated, and for fans of the graphic novel and the original movie, there’s extra content, added character beats and depth that was lost in the name of brevity—brevity that they never got to begin with.

As someone who said at the time that Watchmen was possibly the best superhero movie ever made, I stand by it—but implore anyone watching the film for the first time to forget about the version you missed in theaters and pick up the slightly longer version of the movie. It’s fully worth the extra five bucks and twenty minutes.

No, it’s Fantomah, the white Queen of the Jungle who wears a black negligee and whose face melts off when she uses her super-powers, which are about as random and god-like as Stardust The Super-Wizard’s! She’s on the cover of this week’s You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation!, the second and final collection of Fletcher Hanks’ Golden Age superhero and adventure comics work, covering the period in his career where his work took a turn toward the more representational and naturalistic, and began addressing issues relevant to—Aw, I’m just kidding. It’s a bunch more bat-shit insane weirdness and violence. Paired with I  Shall Destroy All Civilized Planets!, You Shall Die will comprise a complete collection of Hanks’ small but potent body of work. It’s 225-pages and will cost you $25. You can download two preview stories here.

It’s but one of a slew of worthwhile projects out this week. Join me after the jump for a rundown of some of the others.

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So I’m quite jealous of all of you going to SDCC this week, picking up art and sketchbooks and other fun things. I’m stuck with my regular comics-buying spree, which this week includes Gotham City Sirens #2, and Wednesday Comics and…and…and that’s it?

Man, you con-goers really do get all the fun. It seems every now and then that the comics-universe conspires to put everything I like out in one week and leave me fairly barren the next. But it follows that someone else is having an excellent week with tons of books they love coming out. So if that’s you, please share!