FirstWave #1 (of 6)
Written by Brian Azzarello
Illustrated by Rags Morales
Colored by Nei Ruffino
Lettered by Clem Robins
Covers by JG Jones or Neal Adams

This series promises to be one of DC’s most interesting and fun projects in a long while.  Perhaps since Brian Azzarello’s Dr. Thirteen serial.  FirstWave is basically a pulp hero mash-up.  It’s like when you were a kid, and you grew bored playing just Transformers or just Star Wars or just GI Joe, so you got out all your toys and invented scenarios in which everything co-existed. (Thankfully, Azzarello doesn’t face the scale problems I had when He-Man had to interact with Luke Skywalker!)  DC took several old properties they possess the license to but didn’t quite know what to do with, and they threw Batman onto the cover for added muscle in the marketplace (he’s not in the issue, anyway…), and they stirred them all together to create something interesting, and really, really fun.

As all of the characters originate in the old pulp magazines, or trace their direct inspirations to the pulp traditions, Azzarello’s able to mix the characters very effectively.  Their milieus aren’t so radically different from one another, so characters like Doc Savage and the Blackhawks exist comfortably in the same world.

This first issue devotes itself to setting the pieces in their places, introducing each and setting up their initial goal.  Consequently, it’s hard to say much about the series’ overall direction or its effectiveness in telling a story; I can tell you that Azzarello gives each character a distinct voice.  He seems to have a handle on the entire cast, and he juggles the page time very effectively, giving each one a chance to shine.  And he understands the violent, fast-paced, offbeat humor of the pulp heroes, giving the narrative a breathless feel.  So the initial returns are very positive.

Azzarello’s properly abetted in his fast-moving adventure yarn by Rags Morales, a veteran artist whose detailed, nuanced illustrations add emotional heft and physical reality to every page.  Morales accomplishes the impressive balancing act of maintaining the traditional imagery of these characters while still making each of them his own – it’s a feat to capture the caricatured aspect of Will Eisner’s Commissioner Dolan and make that feel at home next to the gritty, rain-worn Doc Savage.

FirstWave #1 shows a ton of promise.  It’s a good start, a rollicking fun time with the edge of danger and fun that I personally would’ve eaten up when I was a kid.  And it’s still pretty damn entertaining as an adult, too. (more…)

Do the Guaridans of the Globe get team uniforms?: I hope so, for President Barack Obama’s sake, as that is one ill-fitting suit he’s wearing there. That is supposed to be Barack Obama, right? I assume it is, since he mentions Amazing Spider-Man #583 and he clearly isn’t Spider-Man, as it’s not much of a likeness, is it? Oh well, I imagine the president must be a really hard person to draw, given how hard it is to find visual reference material of the shy, private, hard-to-photograph recluse. (And while I’m complaining about nothing, is it cool to call your super-team The Guardians of the Globe when there’s already a team called the Global Guardians? Isn’t that like calling your team the League of Justice or The Four Who are Fantastic?)

Thinking about the thought balloon: Joe McCulloch has a great think piece about thought bubbles in comics, brought on by a quote from Stephen King about being told not to use them in his script for American Vampire.

“Even if you can get past the fact that they lettered an entire graphic novel in Times New Roman… still managed to get everything wrong“: Chris Sims, the Internet’s #1 critic of bad comics involving the undead, reviews Twilight: The Graphic Novel, and finds it to be pretty terrible. The main problem? The lettering. I haven’t read it yet (I’m waiting for Twilight: The Graphic Novel—The Novelization), but Sims posts some pretty terrible-looking examples. If I had to guess, I would assume they tried to keep the bubble-shapes of manga, but those bubbles tend to be shaped the way they are because they once hosted dialogue written in a different language using a different alphabet and read in a different order. Anyway, I always enjoy seeing Sims exposed to things he doesn’t like.

You tell him, Geoff Boucher!: “Snoop Dogg wants to know why there are no black superheroes”

I would have guessed Tommy “Hitman” Monaghan: Mid-week MTV’s Splash Page imagined a “last man standing” battle royale between various Irish superheroes (and heroes of Irish descent), to determine the most powerful of the lot. I didn’t know Captain American was Irish. Plenty of Irish comics characters didn’t make that particular list, but this person drops quite a few names in a holiday piece fantasy-casting them. I’m fairly confident that Slaine could make Kyle Rayner eat his ring, lantern and the nearest couple dozen members of the Green Lantern Corps if they ever got in a fight.

I had Leslie Thompkins in the office pool: If you missed it on the main page, Vaneta Rogers interviewed writer David Hine about the identity of Black Mask II, which was revealed in Wednesday’s Batman #697. It’s a pretty big surprise, but I think it’s more of a, “Well, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me” sort of surprise, rather than an, “Of course! Why didn’t I see it before?!” sort of surprise. But I’m just glad it wasn’t Jason Todd, who in the past was revealed to be the mysterious new Red Hood, the second mysterious new Red Hood, the mysterious new muderous Nightwing and one of the several people playing Hush.

This week’s Booster Gold #30 sheds a lot of light on Rip Hunter’s decision-making process and the elements at play behind the scenes in the story. An action-packed story with guest art by Jerry Ordway for about 75% of the book, Booster finds his sister in Coast City shortly before it’s destroyed by the Cyborg Superman and must take her and get her home, all the while struggling with the ethical questions around leaving millions to die while the city is destroyed. Of course, it’s inherent in Booster’s mission that he has to do let the city burn–but, as Sondra Crain reminds him, it’s pretty unheroic to just give up hope and let people die.

At the same time, we start to find out what’s going on with that creepy guy who’s been walking around with a “The End is Near” poster and a ball cap for the last few months. Does he actually know something about Coast City’s future? And what does he have to do with Booster Gold’s mission? We talked to Dan Jurgens about his second-to-last issue (for the time being) on the title.

The Gold Exchange: Hi-Fi did a great job with this issue; how nice is it to be able to revisit one of the great storylines you’ve been involved with, and to do so with all the technological advances of today?

Dan Jurgens: Yeah. Having the improved paper, coloring and separations is a real treat. We used to fight for advantages like that and now we get them all the time. It was great to be able to have the explosive spheres rendered as spheres.

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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!

It was bound to happen, yet if anybody was going to do it, I’m glad Burton has his hands on it. Deadline reports that Tim Burton has found his next project: a stop-motion animated movie based on the Addams Family. It will not be based on any previous adaptations such as the animated cartoon of the 60′s or the live action one, or any of the live action movies, so it acts as an introduction to the Addams for a whole new generation, which I can easily get behind.

Burton’s intentions are  to go back to the source material which “displayed a sharper wit than could be place into a 60s family TV series.”

I’m really all for this. I’m a big fan of the Raul Julia/Anjelica Huston/Barry Sonnenfield flicks, though I finally got all the jokes later in life.

Let the casting rumors commence.

*snap snap*

Earlier this month Dynamite Entertainment released the first issue of Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet, a six-part miniseries adapted from Smith’s unused screenplay for the upcoming Green Hornet film.

Before the second issue of that series even shipped, a second miniseries launched, Green Hornet: Year One #1. This May will also see the launch of two more Green Hornet series, Kato Origins and The Green Hornet Strikes.

That seems like an awful lot Green Hornet comics, doesn’t it? And with each issue of each series priced at $3.99, that’s a lot of money to spend on an awful lot of Green Hornet comics, isn’t it?

Can today’s comics market possibly support that many Green Hornet comics? I mean, whatever the character’s virtues (I like the fact that Golden Age Green Hornet wears an ascot, for example), he’s not exactly a Batman, Superman, Wolverine or even Deadpool, you know?

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While we still await a detailed official statement from Harris to follow up on Stanley Harris’s comments in the initial “Vampirella to Dynamite” release from yesterday, other pros have begun to weigh in on the move for the well-known character.

One of them is writer Kurt Busiek. Fans may recall that it was Busiek that wrote Vampirella’s Harris revival, “Morning in America” in 1991. He’s also worked for Dynamite, including the Darkman/Army of Darkness mini-series.

Busiek said, ” . . . sounds like great news — I had some problems with the publisher at the abrupt end of my tenure on the book, but never with the character. So congrats to Nick and everyone at Dynamite! I think Vampi could be even more compelling today than she was at her best, and am eager to see what they’ll do with the series.”

We also received a statement from Scott Licina. Licina served as executive editor of Fangoria Comics when parent company Fangoria Entertainment attempted to acquire the character several years ago. In fact, Licina was told to make the acquisition announcement while on-stage at a Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention in San Jose in early 2007. The deal subsequently fell through. Today, Licina runs a number of ventures, including The Scream Factory.

When asked for comment, Licina said:

“Oh, I just love talking about Vampirella acquisitions since the Fango brass left me holding the bag back when. Actually, the fact that Fango didn’t get Vampirella in the end turned out to be kind of a relief; that meant that she wasn’t swallowed by that morass. As for Dynamite, I wish nothing but the best for Uncle Forry’s gal. Vampirella’s the grand lady of horror comics, and she deserves to be treated with respect. The Ackermonster gave our medium a gift with that femme fatale, and she remains an icon, the most recognizable comics big two outside the Big Two, so to speak. I hope that she has a long life (or unlife, as the case may be) with Dynamite.

Your bud in four-color blood,
Scott Licina
Scream Factory Studios Foreman”

We anticipate other reactions in the near future, and will update this post accordingly.

Entertainment Weekly reports that Sir Ian McKellan’s official website brings word that “The Hobbit” begins shooting in July.  The official statement at the site reads thusly:

THE HOBBIT’s, two films, start shooting in New Zealand in July.  Filming will take over a year. Casting in Los Angeles, New York City and London has started.  The script too proceeds.  The first draft is crammed with old and new friends, again on a quest in Middle Earth. 

The director Guillermo del Toro is now living in Wellington, close to the Jacksons’ and the studio in Miramar.

And now, to get you in the spirit . . .

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Okay, so I really wouldn’t call a world renowned author and a cult TV show an “invasion”, but it makes me more envious for those who are attending this show.

Neil Gaiman will be headed towards C2E2 and will take the stage for a benefit appearance on behalf of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF). An “Evening with Neil Gaiman“, a paid, ticketed event, will take place on Saturday night, April 17 at 7 PM in the Arie Crown Theater at McCormick Place in Chicago with 100% of the proceeds benefiting the First Amendment legal work of the CBLDF.

The event will be Gaiman’s only public appearance at C2E2 and will begin at 7 PM with doors opening at 6:30.

Tickets will be available both to C2E2 badge holders as well as the general public (though tickets to C2E2 are not necessary to attend, however different pricing applies).

But of course that’s not all.

The new series of Doctor Who,  featuring the debut of Matt Smith as The Doctor and Karen Gillan as companion Amy Pond,  kicks off on BBC America on Saturday, April 17, but BBC America and C2E2 are giving attendees a sneak peek. BBC America presents its special premiere screening of the first two episodes of Doctor Who on Friday, April 16. Fans attending will be the first to see Episode 2 in the U.S.

Seriously, to all of you attending this: You just got spoiled.

For all you Michigan comics fans out there, we’ve got some cool news for you!

Michigan State University has announced that its annual Comics Forum will be taking place on March 26-27, at the Residential College of Arts and Sciences.

What’s more — Eisner winner Guy Davis, who has rocked our socks with his art in Dark Horse’s B.R.P.D., will be this year’s keynote speaker, speaking from 7-8:30pm on the 26th.

The campus’ LookOut! Gallery will be holding an Artist’s Alley, and will host an exhibit called “From Superman to the Small Press: The Library of Comics Shows Its Stuff,” which will have original art from its enormous Comic Art Collection. Between that and panels from academics and professionals, what’s not to like?

Our very own super-sleuth Mike Avila has wondered: how did Lois Lane afford that swanky apartment from the first Superman film?

Over at Life’s Little Mysteries, a new site by Newsarama parent company TechMediaNetwork, Mike has put together some surprising figures for all you non-New Yorkers out there, showing that Lois’ apartment has a little bit of history — and  a whole lot of moolah:

240 CPS is a pre-war rental building that went up in 1941, and is considered the first apartment house in the city to make extensive use of balconies. Facing Central Park and overlooking Columbus Circle, it was designed by the architectural firm Mayer & Whittlesley. Aside from Ms. Lane, real-life famous faces such as Renee Zellweger have been tenants, as well as Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the author of “The Little Prince.”

The building has made cameos in several films and TV shows, including 1984’s “Ghostbusters,” during the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man’s rampage.

Apartments on that ritzy block in the real world often sell for $2,000 per square foot. The wraparound terrace surrounding “Lois Lane’s apartment” had more square footage than the average New York apartment.

The only thing I can think of is she took all those gifts from Lex Luthor and sold ‘em all on eBay. I don’t think a reporter’s salary, even at the Daily Planet, could otherwise cover such a ritzy place!

To say comics writer Steve Perry has had it rough is putting it lightly. He’s a single dad, he’s struggling with an increasingly uphill battle with cancer, and he’s been standing on the razor’s edge of a growing financial abyss.

He needed a hero. At this year’s Megacon, he got an Initiative.

Perry has written a lot about the Hero Initiative up on their blog, and it’s definitely worth your time to read:

I want everyone to know The Hero Initiative saved my very life with it’s good will, generosity and kindness. They allowed me to seek some medical help and enabled me and my son to put a roof over our heads — I was homeless with that little boy in my van last year. The Initiative gave me the breathing room to get some Medicaid and food stamps, and while we are always in danger of losing our home, electricity and belongings at any moment, I will always be grateful from the depths of my heart for the past six months of fairly solid home life I have had with my little boy.

I was treated by the Initiative folks with a respect and decency I am simply not used to, having to endure at the mercy of Government Officials, as I to go through the Social Security Disability application process to secure a monthly income, and live off food stamps and $200 a month State assistance. It is an amazing thing The Hero Initiative does — and they do it with a respect and kindness that makes those two words, Thank You, so ineffective.

The thing is, this story is not unique — the Hero Initiative helps out struggling creators in need all the time. If you’re TRULY a comics fan — if you’re TRULY someone who values supporting creators — you need to check out the Hero Initiative’s site, and see what you can give.

Want to see Scott Pilgrim rockin’ out, live-action style? Then take a gander at this poster, via ComingSoon.net:

I’m excited. The movie is due out August 13.

Okay, back on schedule…

So what’s the range on a JLA teleporter, anyway?: Forget about the Titans breaking up for the twelfth time, didn’t Starfire just join the Justice League? What’s she doing joining the space-faring REBELS team too?

“Who would shed a tear for ‘Hägar the Horrible’ in the age of ‘Fun Home’ and ‘Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth’?”: Josh Lambert considers the fact that the newspaper comic strip’s days may be numbered, in the lede to this review of Jules Feiffer’s new memoir, Backing Into Forward.

How are they going to do Old Lace…CGI or Muppet?: Man, this Runaways movie doesn’t look a damn thing like the comic.

“The novel passed my 11-year-old girl’s test with high marks”: Hope Larson’s upcoming Mercury gets mentioned in this round-up of local writers and author readings in a Mountain Xpress column.

Do…do they come in men’s sizes? Maybe a medium?: I…I have a, um, a friend who might like to wear something like this around the house.

If America is the new Rome, we’re in for some wacky years ahead: In celebration of the Ides of March, Bully The Little Stuffed Bull presents the fall of Rome in comics form and it’s…well, you’re going to have to click on the link to believe it. Seriously, click that link.

Not only is he not my favorite, I completely forgot he even existed: Unsure how to address the “New Blood” heroes that arose from DC’s 1993 line-wide summer crossover in his ongoing “Nobody’s Favorites” feature—since they’re all nobody’s favorites with the one obvious exception—blogger Andrew Weiss decides to pick the worst of all the New Bloods. Who is it? Click to find out!

What the world needs: More hobo comics. Thank you, J.D. Wilkes!

American Vampire #1: The presence of Stephen King is definitely the big draw of this new Vertigo series about a new species of solar-powered vampires, so big ups to Vertigo for going with a nicely designed cover by artist Rafael Albuquerque instead of slapping a gigantic “STEPHEN KING Presents: STEPHEN KING’s American Vampire by STEPHEN KING and Friends” on the front of the book. This first issue, like the next four, will be over-sized and feature two stories. King and Albuquerque are joined by writer Scott Snyder. It’s a $4 book.

Avengers: Standoff: How big a deal is Geoff Johns these days? Big enough that Marvel, the company he’s not working for and whose editors and creators are always complaining about DC’s efforts to promote Johns’ books and events, are publishing a fancy-schmancy $25 hardcover collecting a bit of his short Avengers run…with “Geoff Johns” taking up as much cover real estate as the “Avengers” logo.  Collected within the book’s pages are a whole mess of 1998 Avengers books, by Johns, Mike Grell, Dan Jurgens, Alan Davis, Gary Frank and Ivan Reis.

Batman #697: Tony Daniel reveals the true identity of Black Mask II, who appeared during Daniel’s Battle for the Cowl miniseries. I hope it’s not Jason Todd again.

Batman International: This $18, 170-page trade paperback collects a trio of stories of Batman fighting crime in foreign locales. The Jim Lee cover image comes from the cover of last May’s Batman in Barcelona: Dragon’s Knight, a Mark Waid and Diego Olmos one-shot collected within. Also included are Alan Grant and Frank Quitely’s 1998 one-shot Batman: The Scottish Connection, and Grant and artist Arthur Ransom’s two-part 1993 Legends of the Dark Knight story “Tao.” None of these stories reinvent the Bat-wheel or anything, but they’re all quite solid and feature some great artwork.

The Brave and the Bold #32: Would the JMS on Superman and Wonder Woman announcement have been more exciting if it came before his run on Brave and the Bold which, while full of interesting pairings and risky stories, has mainly proved that he doesn’t really “get” any of the DC characters he’s written there so far? This one is another interesting pairing, Aquaman and Etrigan The Demon. We’ll see how it goes. Art by Jesus Saiz, as per usual.

Bunny Drop Vol. 1: This $13, 200 page trade paperback from Yen Press tells the story of a 30-something bachelor who adopts the seemingly mute young daughter of his grandfather, sired with a much younger woman and completely unknown to the rest of the family until after the grandfather’s funeral.

Dead@17 : The Witch Queen #1: Writer/artist Josh Howard kicks off a new four-part mini, this one billed as the franchise’s “PENULTIMATE CHAPTER.” I really love Howard’s artwork, but am ridiculously far behind on this series of miniseries. Maybe I’ll finally catch-up once it’s over.

Green Arrow #31: What’s next for Green Arrow Oliver Queen after shooting Prometheus in the face with an arrow? Judging by the cover of this issue, crying in a weird church with Justice Leaguer stained-glass windows. Writer J.T. Krul and artist Diogenes Neves lead GA down his post-Cry path, which includes being chased by his fellow teammates and revealing a secret that “will change his life and the lives of the people around him forever.” Hmm…he voted for Bush in 2000? His goatee is fake? He never really liked Hal Jordan?

Green Hornet: Year One #1: Time for a spin-off already? But Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet #1 just shipped like two weeks ago, and that’s only the first part of a six-part series!

Hercules: Fall of an Avenger #1: Marvel continues its efforts to make both Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente’s Hercules storyline and Jeff Parker’s Agents of Atlas story hard to follow by moving them both into a brand-new title…which is simply a two-issue miniseries. Why not just have two more issues of Incredible Hercules? I don’t know; I’m not in comics publishing.  Anyway, the immortal Olympian god Hercules totally died in the last issue of Inc Herc, and the mourning starts here! Since this is Pak and Van Lente, there will hopefully be more than just crying and eulogies going on. Also, there’s an AoA back-up as well, justifying that $4 price tag.

Nation X #4: One word: Doop!

Ristorante Paradiso: This $13, 175-page manga from Natsume Ono (Not Simple) tells the tale of a mother/daughte reunion and romance in and around a little restaurant in Rome.

Siege #3: It’s the penultimate issue of the four-part miniseries which is not only the, um, “THE MARVEL BLOCKBUSTER OF THE YEAR!!” but, you know, the one which depicts “the greatest battle ever seen: SIEGE!!” Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel, still doing their thing. Also in Siege-related events this week, there’s Brian Reed, Chris Samnee and company’s Siege: Embedded #3 and Bendis, Mike Deodato and company’s Dark Avengers #15.

Wonder Woman Chronicles Vol. 1: Hooray! This is the release of the week as far as I’m concerned, one of by asking after for quite a while now. Like the Superman and Batman Chronicles collection programs, this will collecting all of Wondy’s adventures in chronological order. The original William Moulton Marston and H.G. Peter Wonder Woman comics remain the very best Wonder Woman comics (in my not-so-humble opinion), and while there have certainly been great Wondy comics since, none have ever been this good. It’s $18 for 190 pages and includes material from All Star Comics, Sensation Comics and Wonder Woman #1. Please consider buying a copy, to encourage more volumes. Now I can finally quit asking for Wonder Woman Chronicles trades, and focus on asking after Plastic Man Chronicles and Captain Marvel Chronicles more loudly…

Hi gang. Thanks for your patience during the last few days as we made some improvements to Blog@. I’ve been saving up links while it was on the operating table, so I’ve got a deluge of ‘em for you this time out. The column will be of a more manageable size next time around.

“Superhero Tragedy Porn Is Bad For Comics”: The headline pretty much says it all. That’s Cyriaque Lamar writing about why things like mutilating the former Speedy and icing a grade-schooler for shock value probably aren’t great strategies for quality superhero comic books. Other reactions to Cry For Justice’s gross final issue include Corrina Lawson’s for Wired’s Geek Dad blog (“Do you really need to write in the death of a little girl in order to sell comics about Green Arrow and Speedy? Is that the very best storytelling possible for these characters?”) and Tucker Stone’s Savage Critic trend piece on baby-killing (Three instances is officially a trend, right?)

“Why So Many Superheroes Are Drawn to New York”: I enjoyed this New York Times article by Peter Gutierrez. He moderated a panel entitled “New York, the Super-City,” and the NYT had him write a few paragraphs about how New York influenced superhero comics. Sure, there’s a pretty obvious answer as to why the city had played such a big role—that’s where the comic book publishers and creators were all based—but it’s still an interesting thing to ponder. Especially given that New York (and faux-New Yorks like Metropolis and Gotham) are still the centers of the Big Two superhero universes, despite the fact that that fax machines and the Internet have enabled creators who have never even visited New York to work on comics set there. There’s also an eleven-image slideshow, including one of my all-time favorite comics—the one where Namor just sort of wanders around New York wrecking the joint while The Human Torch follows his trail of destruction.  Also on the subject of New York and superheroes, there’s this piece from The Atlantic.

“Higgins inspired by sketching, story of Pinocchio, vampires”: I love this headline, which sits atop an article about Dusty Higgins, the artist behind Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer. It’s a student newspaper, so I guess I shouldn’t make fun but, well, too late now.

“Four graphic novels to read before you die”: Well, four is a more manageable number than 1,000, but there are some surprising choices on this mini-list by Bryan Young. How surprising? Well, Alan Moore’s not on there, but Mark Millar and Jeph Loeb are, and one of those four comics is a licensed one based on a movie franchise.

“Jake brakes for superheroes”: MTV’s Splash Page reports that Jake Gyllenhaal Would ‘Never Pass Up a Superhero’. I think starring in Prince of Persia is close enough.

“Things haven’t gotten better since Milestone published its last comics in 1996…superhero comics present an even more lonesome landscape for those looking for characters of color”: This Techland piece by Evan Narcisse on Milestone comics is interesting, but I don’t think it’s true. I mean, Milestone may not have much of a presence on comics shelves now, but are there really fewer characters of color in superhero comic books today than in 1996? Really?

Just how sexy is Catman?: Let’s ask superhero sexiness-ologist Rachelle Goguen.

Miss Martians: Check out this collection of Miss Martian sketches at The Cool Kids Table. I think Juan Doe’s is my favorite Miss Martian.

There’s probably not a documentary out there that can dispel the stigma that the only people reading them are socially backwards freaks”: This guy did not care for word of the documentary Comic Book Literacy.

This person is wrong: Stardust isn’t a graphic novel-turned-book, it was a serialized, illustrated prose book turned book turned comics series turned graphic novel.

“The interesting thing about Disney is, for a company perceived as being stodgy, they do a good job of reinventing themselves”: That’s SLG Publishing’s Dan Vado talking about his company’s experience with their Disney licensed comic Haunted Mansion, which seemed a lot more SLG than Disney, in an article in The Seattle Times. It’s a business piece about Disney, although the world of comics comes up a few times, given that one big acquisition the company made relatively recently.

Don’t ask me why, but for some reason the thought of Superman and Lois Lane being intimate creeps me the hell out: Here’s John Glenn Taylor’s look at an early instance of the famous comics couple spending a night together. (Via Comics Reporter).

“But he found many newspapers were leery of dropping old standard strips for his pixelated strip about human-robot relationships”: Here’s another Seattle Times piece, this one about web comics creators like Diesel Sweeties’ Rich Stevens.

Attention Penguin!: This week’s Five For Fridays topic at Tom Spurgeon’s The Comics Reporter was that of what artists should illustrate the covers for what classic works of literature. There were a ton of great suggestions, so many that I hope that even if Penguin doesn’t make any of these happen, some enterprising publisher somewhere stumbles upon the list and commissions an pin-up collection of some of these artists doing imaginary book covers for public domain works. After all, it’s hard to have someone put the idea of a Junko Mizuno or Johnny Ryan Lolita cover into your head and not wanting to see what such a thing would end up looking like, you know?

Apparently SyFy’s philosophy believes that big things can come in small packages — in this case, they’ve picked up a pilot for a new superhero series called “Three Inches.”

The series is about a slacker who discovers that he’s a telekinetic — which for him, means he only has cultivated his talent to move objects about three inches. The series will be written by Twin Peaks’ Harley Peyton.

” ‘Three Inches’ is a fun, smart, offbeat spin on the superhero genre,” Syfy exec Mark Stern told the Hollywood Reporter. “It’s a very postmodern approach, with a really wonderful, tongue-in-cheek script.”

Existence 2.0 is getting another lease on life — this time, as a film for Paramount.

The Image book by Nick Spencer and Ronald Salas follows a scientist who is murdered by a hitman. The catch? The scientist was creating body-swap technology, and so his murder becomes his greatest opportunity, as he lives the life of his now-deceased assassin.

That is, until his daughter gets kidnapped by the very clients he sought to double-cross. And that’s when things get a little crazy.

According to Empire, Spider-Man 2′s Miles Millar and Alfred Gough will be working with Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes on the film. For a taste of the book, be sure to check out our 11-page preview here.

Captain America prospectives are continuing to assemble — with a new face already having put in time as a Real American Hero.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that director Joe Johnston has brought in a new face to the already large casting cal for Captain America: Channing Tatum, who has played soldiers in movies ranging from G.I. Joe to Dear John. This is in addition to the news that Keira Knightley, Alice Eva and Emily Blunt all jockeying for the role of Steve’s love interest (who Deadline is saying is Peggy Carter, while HR is saying Golden Girl Betsy Ross).

While it’s not like Tatum’s acting chops rocked viewers’ collective socks off during the surprisingly underwhelming G.I. Joe, but consider this — not only does he have the build for the role (unlike, say, John Krasinski), but Dear John’s numbers — which knocked out Avatar in its first week — makes Tatum a bankable hit. (Indeed, Deadline is heavily implying that this role is Tatum’s to lose.) What say you, Rama readers?