My original headline for this was going to be “horrible people plan on attempting to ruin otherwise awesome and fun event,” but that maybe a little too on the nose.

Reports surfaced today that the Westboro Baptist Church, the Fred Phelps-headed church that thrives on hate-filled publicity stunts, have targeted Comic-Con International in San Diego, kicking off in less than two weeks; specifically from 1:15 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, July 22. It’s galling to give them any publicity at all, since that’s exactly what they want, but the fact that they’ve targeted as innocuous and positive as an event as Comic-Con is really a testament to just how off their nut they are.

Part of their screed: “They have turned comic book characters into ideals, and worship them they do!” That’s way off-base, guys. We worship video game, movie and TV characters, too. Get with it!

Shadowland #1 hit retailers this week, the first part of this summer/fall’s “street-level” Marvel Comics crossover, focusing on Daredevil’s new role as leader of the Hand and self-imposed warden of the underground Shadowland prison. The main series is handled by the considerable team of Andy Diggle and Billy Tan, and the last page contained a pretty big shocker — unless, maybe, you paid close attention to the promotional materials surrounding the storyline.

Pretty totally completely huge Shadowland #1 spoilers after the jump!

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While it’s always fun — nearly obligatory, really — to complain about the Emmy nominations once they’re released (“Katey Sagal was robbed!” “No nominations for Community?” “The Real Housewives of Atlanta snubbed again?”), here’s one to be proud of: estimable comic book artist Dean Haspiel, frequent collaborator with Harvey Pekar on works including American Splendor and The Quitter, is official an Emmy nominee, sharing a nod for his art on the intro for HBO’s Bored to Death; along with designer/director Tom Barham, lead animator Marci Ichimura and compositor Mark Rubbo.

Bored to Death stars Jason Schwartzman as a fictionalized version of novelist Jonathan Ames, who collaborated with Haspiel on his first comic book work, the excellent, quasi-biographical Vertigo-published original graphic novel The Alcoholic.

Watch the intro, officially nominated for “Outstanding Main Title Design,” right here:

It just keeps coming! Friday is always a busy day for programming at Comic-Con International in San Diego (hint: they’re all busy days), with the Eisner Awards at night, and a bunch of stuff during the day. The schedule for July 23 is right here in full — including all of the juicy, announcement-laden comic book panels we’ll be covering live — and some highlights of especially unique and/or noteworthy panels follow. Two weeks away!

10:30-11:30 Neal Adams and Stan Lee: They Spoke Out—Against the Holocaust— Neal Adams (Batman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow) and Holocaust historian Dr. Rafael Medoff unveil the new series of educational “motion comics” they are creating with ABC News about Americans who spoke out for the rescue of Jews from the Holocaust. They will be joined on the panel by Stan Lee (co-creator of Spider-Man, X-Men) and will screen an episode from the upcoming series, illustrated by Neal Adams and narrated by Stan Lee. Room 9

Sometimes Comic-Con panels get pretty serious — I remember covering a panel about a graphic adaptation of the 9/11 report a few years ago. This certainly sounds like the type of project that showcases the power and flexibility of the medium, and the involvement of two industry legends certainly doesn’t hurt. (more…)

Funny, I always figured he was more of a Rolling Stones guy: Paul Pope sketches The Beatles.

I hereby quit Team Jacob, in order to join Team Aquaman: On NPR’s Monkey See blog, Linda Holmes lists “Five More Fictional Beings Bella Swan Should Fall Madly In Love With.” All five would make for a pretty interesting series of four prose novels, if you ask me (Not that anyone asked me. No one ever asks me anything).

It’s not often you see fans cosplaying a comics house ad: This “DC Women Kicking Ass” Tumblr blog thingee has a pretty neat image of various ladies preparing to pose for a recration of that “The Real Power of the DC Universe” ad…they just need to get a little bit closer, and lose the beefy Alex Ross Batman in the background… (Via Comics Worth Reading)

I’m not sure if One is enough to contain such an awesome Two-some: Chris Sims and Rusty Shackles outdo themselves with their latest installment of Great Comics That Never Happened, an issue of Marvel Two In One featuring the The Thing and…well, just click it. It’s timely!

“The fantastic desperado is still on the loose, a threat to the safety of us all!”: Mike Sterling on the thrills of watching the news…in Metropolis.

To whom (at DC Comics) it may concern: After reading Ben Caldwell‘s Wednesday Comics Wonder Woman strip, which sometimes lost its struggle with the format but was otherwise beautifully designed, conceived and drawn, I would buy the hell out of this. See also: Caldwell’s Hippolyta (speaking Amazonian…which has its own alphabet?!) and kanga.

“Merely calling Jim Woodring’s comics surreal is selling them short”: The Onion‘s A.V. Club has a nice interview with the cartoonist here.

Wonder Woman #600
Cover art by George Perez

DC’s put out three big round-numbered issues in the past month, with Batman and Superman both achieving their 700^th issue and now Wonder Woman, via a little tricky addition, reaching the 600 issues milestone.  Batman 700 was, to me, jumpy and jumbled, and Superman 700 had moments, but didn’t seem to really push itself.  Wonder Woman 600 is definitely the best of the trio.  It doesn’t demand reading, but it’s warm, smartly written, well drawn and there’s always a place for solidly executed, if not revolutionary fun in the world of pop entertainment.

Wonder Woman 600 starts with a one-page introduction – a rare instance of a single-issue comic with an intro – by Lynda Carter, and it’s charming enough.

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Fans attending this year’s Chicago Comic Con are in for something a bit special as Burt Ward joins Adam West and Julie Newmar as guests. It’s not often you get the three stars of the legendary TV show together.

The closest I came to any sort of Bat-reunion was about four years ago with Adam West and Yvonne Craig, but nothing like this.

I wish the rights to the show will be figured out in the near future. It’s a shame the younger generation can’t experience a show this in syndication or on DVD.

According to Superman Homepage, Christopher Columbus, the director of the first two uber-successful Harry Potter movies, as well as the first Home Alone (yes, a bit of a throwback) has been offered to direct the Superman reboot and is considered the “right fit”.

A studio insider reports that “David Goyer really wanted to direct but nobody from either studio think he’s good in that aren. He’s great at coming up with story and ideas, like George Lucas. It’s his execution where he’s weak which is why people like Chris and Jonathan Nolan and Guillermo Del Toro have had the best results with his scripts.”

Okay, readers, do you think Columbus’ style will fly the Man of Steel into something new and exciting should the rumor be true, or could you think of somebody else better for the job?

Our pal Jess Peacock (Blog@ contributor and writer of The Crawlspace blog) had a chance to interview novelist and occasional comic writer David Wellington. Jess has allowed us to cross-post his chat here. Enjoy!

Characters Welcome: A Profile of David Wellington
Written by Jess Peacock

The journey of David Wellington from aspirant published author to horror genre literary powerhouse is well documented, and the source of infinite envy for those attempting to photocopy his success. “I couldn’t get published to save my life,” Wellington explains. “A friend suggested I could put some of my work on his blog. The first day I got seventeen hits. By the time I was finishing up my first serialized novel, it was something like forty thousand hits per update. That was when the publishers came calling.”

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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!

Yep, it’s here — the first round of Comic-Con International: San Diego 2010 programming, all of Thursday’s events, both day and night. Read the whole, enormous list here, and we’ve just started to dive in and find a few highlights, all happening on July 22.

11:30-12:30 Iron Man and Rocket Men: Is Stark Industries an Appropriate Model for Private-Industry Space Exploration?— Leading New Space entrepreneurs Mark Street (XCOR Aerospace) and John Hunter (Quicklaunch) discuss realistic options for future space exploration. Presented by the San Diego Space Society (SD Space), the panel also includes Chris Radcliff (SD Space) and Dave Rankin (The Mars Society – San Diego cofounder). Jeff Berkwits (former Amazing Stories editor and two-time Hugo Award nominee) moderates. Room 24ABC

Well, that’s definitely different. I don’t know if Tony Stark would approve of this, he was awfully concerned about people stealing his ideas at the beginning of Iron Man 2 (and the first issue of Avengers: Prime).

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Ain’t It Cool News is reporting that First Class may have found its Cyclops — and he’s already an old hand at the superhero biz.

One of AICN’s eyes and ears around Hollywood has said that Kick-Ass star Aaron Johnson is “one hundred percent locked” as Scott Summers, the moody teen whose uncontrollable optic blasts keep him at arm’s length from everyone around him — including his crush Jean Grey.

There’s been talk of Johnson joining Xavier’s School for the Gifted in the previous weeks, with /Film speculating that he was in the running for Young Cyclops or even Young Magneto. And actually, Contact Music has a picture of director Matthew Vaughn, Professor X James McAvoy, and Johnson — so maybe there’s some truth to this?

I’m not sure who that woman is on the cover for the October issue of Action Comics, but writer Paul Cornell does. If you check out the Mothership later today, I’ve been told all will be revealed… speculators, start your engines!

Today DC’s Source blog announced that the publisher would be working with the Picture Window Books imprint of Capstone to produce DC Super-Pets,  a series of 24 leveled chapter books launching in January of next year. Picture Window will be providing the writers, while Tiny Titans artist Art Baltazar will be illustrating.

There are a few more details at the Source post, including the titles of the first six books (no art or list of the various pets who will appear, although comics fans can probably make pretty educated guesses (Krypto and Streaky seem shoo-ins, The Red Bee’s prize bee Michael and Golden Age Airwave’s pet parrot Static are long shots).

Baltazar has been drawing pets, super and otherwise, in Tiny Titans since the title’s inception, and by this point has pretty much perfected the drawing of adorable versions of Ace The Bat-Hound and Hoppy The Marvel Bunny. (The cover above is from Tiny Titans #28, the all-Super-Pets issue).

Fans of a) DC’s super-pet characters, b) Art Baltazar’s work and c) children’s chapter books should be super-happy about this announcement. (I certainly am! Oh, the chapter books? I, um, I just read ‘em for the art, I swear!)

Earlier this year DC announced that Baltazar would be taking the Tiny Titans into prose with a pair of Grosset & Dunlap published chapter books, Tiny Titans Go Camping and Tiny Titans and the Science Fair.

J.H. Williams III is providing a variant cover for September’s Wonder Woman #603, and revealed the final image—as well as a bit of the process and some con sketches of the character—on his blog earlier this week. The variant is going to be one of those deals where DC has great modern artists “cover” iconic covers from throughout their publishing history in celebration of their 75th anniversary. (I just checked, and Emily Post says diamond is the appropriate gift for a 75th anniversary, not variant covers, although I suppose times may have changed).

Williams is covering the cover of 1942′s Wonder Woman #1, by  definitive Wonder Woman artist H.G. Peter, in which our heroine rides a white horse straight into enemy lines. A scary white horse. A demonic, red-eyed, horrifying monster-horse from hell.

Are Wondy’s Nazi foes freaking out because an invincible lady scantily clad in a bathing suit patterened after the U.S. flag is riding a freaking horse right into their front lines, armed only with a lasso, or are they freaking out because ach du liebe zeit the verdammt hell-horse is going to eat their flesh and devour their souls?!

Er, anyway. Awesome cover. And if DC ever decides to do a grim and gritty update of Comet The Super-Horse, I think they’ve found their artist for the project.

Stuck Rubber Baby
Written & Illustrated by Howard Cruse
Published by DC/Vertigo

It’s somewhat a shame that Stuck Rubber Baby, high on the short list of most literarily ambitious (and successful) comics of all time, hasn’t gone through four times as many printings as it has.  Nevertheless, here we are, with a new edition, marking the fifteenth anniversary of SRB’s original publication.  In case you’re wondering, it holds up very well.

Stuck Rubber Baby was, from the start, a book out of time, with events simultaneously disconnected from it times, and themes deeply embedded into its culture.  The novel charts the life of Toland Polk, a young man coming to grips with his own homosexuality while the American South struggles to accept the civil rights movement of the 1960s.  So the book’s plot is explicitly a thing of the past, yet the (unfortunately) timeless aspect of bigotry prevents it from becoming irrelevant.  In truth, given the recent struggles for gay marriage and public acceptance, Stuck Rubber Baby’s message remains highly integrated into today’s society.

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This year’s installment of Comic-Con International in San Diego is officially two weeks away, poised to hit Southern California with an impact rivaling today’s 5.4 quake. Preview night commences in 14 days, and the massive programming schedule will start to be unveiled tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. PDT. Oh yeah.

So let’s get good and ready, k? We’ll take a look here at some of the most psyched-worthy panels, exclusives and events surrounding the festivities. What better place to start than the wonderful toys only available within the convention center walls (and eBay afterwards, and probably online retailers, and maybe at a comic book shop, but mostly at Comic-Con), with plenty of cool and unique (read as bizarre) offerings this year. Let’s start with Mattel — most of these will be available in limited amounts online after the convention through MattyCollector.com, though some of them have accessories that can only be had a Comic-Con. Even the exclusives have exclusives these days, y’know?

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Hey, Rama readers, give this a gander!

Now a while ago, we posted about an art auction mainly consisting of Venture Bros. and other animation art. This time, there is a similar auction but this time around all of the art featured is done by well-known web comic artists, like Chris Hastings and Anthony “Nedroid” Clark. All proceeds from the Web-Comics Auction will be donated to the Colbert Nation Gulf of America Fund, which is being managed by The Baton Rouge Area Foundation.

A great auction full of great talent for a great cause.

Shadowland #1 isn’t even out stateside yet, but Marvel Comics has announced that the book has sold out at Diamond. So if you’re a first printing type of guy or gal, you might wanna get to your local comic shop early-ish tomorrow to nab the initial issue of the “street-level” crossover. If not, you’ll probably be interested in these second printing covers (in stores July 28), one featuring Daredevil – in his new, suitably dark costume — flanked by the Hand and the other with Daredevil and Bullseye striking a familiar pose. Both are images seen first in the Shadowland teasers released this spring, and both are after the jump. (more…)

I’m working on some ideas for what will become either a longer piece or a couple of pieces on being a genre fan and a genre parent. That is, what’s it like when your kids start taking an active interest in your hobby or hobbies? The same films? And so on. How do your prejudices affect the kids, at all, and do you watch material differently now with them versus your original experience?

My kids have been into super-heroes for a while, but I’ve really noticed more facets of this as they started to get into Star Wars. They are crazy about it, especially Connor, my five-year-old. But he embraces all levels of it (the original films, the toys, the video games, kids books, Clone Wars, etc.) equally, and I find myself wondering if things like my prejudices about the later movies will have any impact on their experience. After all, it should be THEIR experience.

I also wonder what the proper age to introduce kids to mainstream comics is anymore. The boys read a few things now again, with the Boom! Disney books, Johnny DC and Marvel Adventures being up top. But man, take a look at titles that I was already reading by Connor’s age, and we all know that there’s some grim business out there. I tell Connor about some stories because he’s interested by the covers, but it’s one thing to break down Siege into “The bad guys invade Thor’s home and the Avengers get back together and kick their ah–er–butts,” and it’s another thing to let them actually read a book where multiple characters get ripped asunder.

So, some soft polling here: what’s it like when your kids come in the door, and what are you sharing with them?