Oh, so that’s why they’re called “Top Shelf”: Top Shelf has released some of their plans for 2010 and beyond on their brand-spanking new website, and there is a ton of great stuff to look forward to. New work from Alan Moore, Jeff Lemire, Nate Powell, Craig Thompson, James Kochalka and Jeffrey Brown. All-ages books, and stuff just for grown-ups. More Super Spy, more Korgi and and more Incredible Change-Bots. New printings of old stuff. New printings of new stuff. Kochalka’s Dragon Puncher, which has the above image as its cover.  Here are their 2010 plans, and here are their future plans.

“Except it turns out it’s very hard to make a lot of money off comics, unless they are mint-condition books from the ’50s, ’40s or even earlier”: In the wake of the million dollar Action Comics sale, Michigan writer Nancy Crawley brings a handful of her son’s old comic books to a local shop for a feature story on the current back-issue market.

“If they made him black, they really wouldn’t have to say much else”: Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic responds to the latest Captain America casting rumor, and uses that as a springboard to chat about the possibility of a black Cap and how well John Stewart’s race was handled in the Justice League cartoons. (Here’s a thought: Why not cast a Japanese actor as Captain America, and really blow everyone’s minds?)

Spoiler—James Kochalka is not really an elf: I really enjoyed this feature on the way some cartoonists draw themselves and the way they look in real life. (Via Comics Reporter, via Comixtalk)

This isn’t quite as awesome as the ad I imagined in my head while clicking on the link: Check out this Frank Miller-drawn Hostess ad at Brian Hughes’Again with the Comics.

Thank God for that…what if he didn’t?!!!: “EXCLUSIVE: Mark Millar gives Goyer/Nolan SUPERMAN reboot blessing!”

D+Q’s FCBD offering to feature Tubby: Um, maybe that’s not a bit of news that excites you as much as it does me, on account of the inordinate amount of affection I have for Little Lulu’s overweight, master-of-disguise foil. Tubby is my Batman and my Iron Man, my Hellboy and Love and Rockets, all rolled into one. Anyway, check out this swell cover for Drawn and Quarterly’s Free Comic Book Day comic book—Yow!, and anthology of John Stanley comics—and then click over to the FCBD site to read a preview, the epic story of that one time Tubby totally grew a real handlebar mustache over night.

God bless Michael Kupperman: Oh, and God, please let this be a new ongoing series from Kupperman…pretty please? (Via Flog!)

I may just be an easy mark for a silly high concept…: But this looks awesome. (Via Comics Worth Reading).

Attention Project: Rooftop: Please design Luke Cage some new threads. Marvel’s got the poor guy running around fighting crime half-naked these days, apparently. He wouldn’t even be able to get service in a convenient store dressed like that.

Huzzah!: I’ve been rather irritated with the fluctuating page counts on DC’s main Blackest Night series, as I miserishly refuse to buy 22-page comics for $3.99, and BN would sometimes skirt awfully close to the 22-page mark. So I’m heartened to see that the final issue will feature ten extra pages for $3.99. I’ll have to break out my calculator and back issues to count pages and do some arithmitec to make sure it all adds up to about 13.5-cents a page (the average cost of a page in a 22-page, $2.99 comic book), but ten extra pages sure beats no extra pages.

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