With San Diego Comic Con coming around the corner, there are a lot of people who are hurriedly pulling their travel plans together (I wouldn’t know any of those guys, no-sirree) — and then there are a lot of people who aren’t going at all.

So it kind of makes me wonder what Dark Horse has planned… Hashtag? #notatcomiccon? Looks like the Twitterati have something to look forward to next weekend. What say you, Rama readers? Start your speculating!

It’s looking like Marvel is putting in one more star in its Avengers constellation, as it looks like Fred Van Lente might be taking on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

“So it’s official,” Van Lente wrote on Twitter today. “I’m writing an AVENGERS book.”

That’s not all he’s writing, either — he’s a member of the Amazing Spider-Man Webheads, he’s co-writing Incredible Hercules/Prince of Power/The Chaos War with Greg Pak, he’s working on Iron Man Legacy, the Halo comic and Marvel Zombies 5…

But here’s what I’m curious about with this — what does this mean for Van Lente, and Marvel’s catalog of books? I don’t necessarily think he’ll be taking over any of the recently relaunched books: Van Lente did go on to say, that when the book is announced, “it’s the most “Van Lentean” AVENGERS title ever…” So let the speculation commence! What say you, Rama readers? Let us know what you think!

Judging book covers by their, um, covers: The American Institute of Graphic Art has considered over 800 entries, and narrowed them down to a list of 50 books and 50 covers boasting outstanding design for their annual 50 Books/50 Covers project. The selections become part of a traveling public exhibition, become part of AIGA’s archives and, of course, those responsible for the cover and book design get bragging rights. Among the honored works are Afrodisiac, Asterios Polyp and The Beats (Via AdHouse).

Even wilder guess: Last week fellow Blog@ contributor Troy Brownfield wondered if perhaps the motivation of the costume change-that-launched-at-thousand-blog-posts was film-related, and if perhaps Gina Carano was being considered for the lead in a Wonder Woman film. The Cool Kids Table agrees the change may have had to do with getting a film made, and has an even more unlikely candidate for the starring role at the bottom of this swell post (Also, how about that Jamie McKelvie design, huh? Looks like a similar idea to what they were going for, only with a more 21st century style).

Because I need an excuse to put off washing the dishes until tomorrow: “Why We Need Criticism”

Did he maybe mean to say “integral”…?: Heidi MacDonald wants to know why a particular quote from a Dan DiDio interview didn’t get more attention.

“Many geeks (like us) will have a decision to make, do we really want to see a 90210 version of one of the most popular comic book heroes after Sony gave the other guy the middle finger, or do we see an action-packed sci-fi space opera that has high expectations to live up to after the major critical and commercial success of the first film?”: As a fan of both Spider-Man and 90210 (Both the original and current versions!), I can confidentally state that yes, yes I do want to see a90210 version of one of the most popular comic book heroes. This piece seems kind of weird to me, as if the author is predicting the next Spider-Man movie won’t be as successful as the previous three because it seems as if its producers are actively trying to make it more successful than the previous three. Or something?

Aw, Teenage Caleb thought half the fun was that stuff out on his own: “Prepare for Neil Gaiman’s ‘Annotated Sandman’”

Dateline, 1978: Jim Kingman looks at DC’s line around the time it was exploding and imploding.

Prince Valiant v.2: 1939-1940
Written & Illustrated by Hal Foster
Published by Fantagraphics

If you read Wednesday Comics, you should know that the entire venture – particularly Gibbons and Sook’s Kamandi strip – owes its existence to Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant.  Those enormous pages were standard for Foster’s acclaimed strip, and the entire narrative approach and illustrative technique used in Kamandi was done in homage to Valiant.  Fantagraphics is now reprinting those classic Prince Valiant strips, having recently released the years 1939 and 1940.  It’s a great opportunity to find out why Foster’s influence is still being felt and acknowledged seventy years later.

In this second (the first covered the strip’s first two years, 1937-1938), beautifully designed hardcover volume, printed at the originals’ full-size to show off the full glory of Foster’s detailed Sunday pages, readers will find Prince Valiant aiding King Arthur in defense of England, working alongside his father to recapture the throne of his homeland Thule, and then sallying forth on adventures into the heart of Europe.  Long campaigns against Hun invaders and a jaunt into the seat of the crumbling Roman Empire, Rome itself, occupy the second year of strips collected here.

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By Christian Beranek

Things take time. Which is a weird thing to say in a day and age when 15 minutes in 1997 would feel like 60 minutes now. The faster we move, the slower things seem to take. It’s especially odd with comics. We have all of these amazing inventions designed to speed up the process of making these books — thing is, money ain’t worth what it used to be back in 1997 either.

Comics are expensive to make and buy these days. Especially if you’re doing it on your own.

So, a few weeks back I spoke about my efforts to raise funds for a project called Unhappy White Girls. I was looking to achieve $6000 in 40 days. I ended up with $2305 when time elapsed. Not a bad total, but the thing with Kickstarter is you do not receive any funds for your project unless you reach your mark. $6000 would have covered expenses on the book. $2305 would have helped, but not brought us home.

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From the poorly kept secret department: Jeff Lemire, the writer of the upcoming new Superboy title and writer/artist of Vertigo’s Sweet Tooth, is now exclusive with DC Comics, as announced on the publisher’s blog, The Source. (more…)

DC Bullet co-captains Adam Schlagman and Sal Cipriano were contacted last Thursday evening by representatives from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, looking for an opponent for an open date in their schedule.  The Bullets agreed to the game, to be played by Daily Show rules, which includes nine innings of softball rather than seven, but the late notice and holiday weekend conspired to deprive the team of several key players.  Sluggers Jay Kogan and LP Vollano, ace pitchers Larry Ganem and Joel Press, and five-tool stud Lauren Fries were among the missing players, as the DC Bullets fielded only nine of their twenty-person roster Monday evening.

With Mike Lorah filling in on the mound, the Bullets stifled the Daily Show sluggers early.  After a lead-off home run in the bottom of the first, a series of infield pop-ups and routine fly balls kept the Daily Show to a single run through four innings.  The Bullets, weighed down themselves by the mid-90s temperatures, struggled to sustain long rallies, but scored consistently to seize the early lead.

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Yeah Americans, listen to your Uncle Sam. Because the Fourth of July was observed on the fifth of July this year, comics won’t be waiting for you on the shelves of your local comic shop as per usual this Wednesday, but will instead be there on Thursday.

Feel free to visit your shop and buy some graphic novels or back-issues on Wednesday anyway though; your local comic shop owner might be lonely and enjoy the company/patronage. In the mean time, we have a whole extra day to think about the books below!

Avengers: Children’s Crusade #1: Marvel’s ever-swelling Avengers franchise borrows the title of a 1993 Vertigo crossover event series (Which, despite the prominent involvement of Neil “Sells Books Easier Than Any Other Name” Gaiman, isn’t currently available in trade format?!) for Young Avengers creators Allan Heinberg and Jimmy Cheung’s long-awaited return to the characters. The story? Wiccan’s reality-altering powers are getting Scarlet Witch-ish, so he goes in search of the fallen Avenger believed to be his mom. Some of his teammates and the Old Avengers think that might not be such a great idea. The nine-issue series is shipping  bimonthly, and will cost $4 for 22-pages of story.
Preview here.

Batman: Odyssey #1: I may be mistaken, but I’m fairly positive this new limited series is about Batman’s epic sea voyage home to Gotham City after fighting in the Trojan war, while Alfred and Robin must fend off unruly superheroes who want to take the Dark Knight’s place. I am completely positive that it’s both written and drawn by the legendary Neal Adams, one of the most influential artists to ever put pencil to paper in order to produce an image of Batman. It’s a $4, oversized issue.

Blackest Night: Did you decide you would wait until Blackest Night was collected before reading it? Well then, your wait is over. Blackest Night ($30, 300 pages), Blackest Night: Green Lantern ($25, 270 pages) and Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps ($25, 265 pages)  all see release this week. I was honestly a little surprised that Blackest Night and the Green Lantern tie-ins are being collected in two individual collections, as the stories are fairly integrally entwined. You can certainly read Blackest Night straight through without reading any GL—although you’ll certainly feel like you’re missing something—but I don’t think the GL issues will stand up that well on their own. Plus, while the Blackest Night art team did a pretty swell job, the GL art team of Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy and company was by far the artistic highlight of the event for me. Anyway, here’s the three central parts of the sprawling Blackest Night event/story if you were waiting for collections…if you were waiting for trade paperbacks specifically, you’ll have to keep waiting a bit.

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Kirby: Genesis is coming!
Dynamite presents Alex Ross, and he’s bringing a friend!
Stay tuned for full announcement coming soon!

Our friend Jess Peacock of The Crawlspace returns with more genre-related prose reviews . . .

Bite Me by Christopher Moore
Review by Jess Peacock

It has been 15 years since Christopher Moore introduced us to Jody and Flood, the titular characters of the delightful novel Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story. Since then, we have become acquainted with a motley supporting cast of characters, including an Emperor of San Francisco and his loyal canines, a raucous group of corner store employees tagged the Animals, a Hot Topic Goth girl with nosferatu dreams, a nefarious blue skinned Las Vegas stripper, a sadistic vampire Lord, and a pair of detectives who constantly find themselves way in over their well intentioned heads. So when Moore adds a giant vampire cat into the mix, suffice to say it seems perfectly fitting.

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They’ve already lost Peter Jackson — but is Gandalf the Gray next?

Looks like the Hobbit may be in danger of losing another of its heavy hitters due to inexorable delays: Sir Ian McKellen spoke on TVNewZealand, and had a potentially ominous take on his future with the film.

“Well, I’m not under contract. And my time is running out. I’m enjoying working in the theatre and, frankly, I would like to race after doing Waiting for Godot and get on with doing another play, but we’ll have to see. I don’t want to give the producers the impression that I’m sitting waiting.”

Kinda scary, eh? And while we found this on /Film, these reports are going all over the place. I can’t really imagine it being a Lord of the Rings movie without Jackson and McKellen, at this point. What say you, Rama readers? Give us your thoughts!

Yo, Toronto readers! You got an itchin’ for some sketchin’? Well, here’s an opportunity for your jonesing that’ll also help kids in need.

Flash artist Francis Manapul (and a whole lot more, including Agnes Garbowska, Daniel Wong, and Briana Chan) are doing some sketches for Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto until 4pm today. The address is 320 Front Street West. Literally, it’s going on right now, so hit it!

[Hat tip to Udon for the heads-up]

Enjoy some Fourth of July leftovers: At the Hooded Utilitarian, Richard Cook has a swell survey of Captain America covers entitled “Punching Hitler Since 1941,” Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine presents a particularly awesome Uncle Sam story (check out the top two tiers on the twelfth page posted!) Diversions of The Groovy Kind presents a Steve Ditko Liberty Belle story (same name as the now DC-owned heroine, different heroine).

Are we still talking about Wonder Woman?: Yes, we’re still talking about Wonder Woman.  DC’s Source blog offers up a round-up of links to media coverage, mostly from the outside-of-comics media (which is a pretty handy post if you wanted to take the temperature of the general public in regard to the change in costume), When Fangirls Attack has a second massive link round-up on the subject (scroll down to the “Wonder Woman is too Unpatriotic and Feminist!” section for the truly golden content) and, finally, Chicago Now has a slideshow story entitled “Comic Hero Makeovers,” but the wide focus is perhaps better defined as “characters,” since Kool-Aid Man, Dora the Explorer and Strawberry Shortcake are among those featured.

Are we still talking about Wilson?: Yes, we’re still talking about Wilson. Chances are you’ve already seen dozens of reviews of Daniel Clowes’ graphic novel Wilson,  a pretty greate work that deserves all the attention it’s been getting. Well, here’s a pretty big one: Sam Lipstyle reviews it for the New York Times’ Sunday Book Review. Wilson publisher Drawn and Quarterly’s Peggy Burns has more Wilson/Clowes links of note here.

One good reason to buy lots of Fantagraphics books and never say anything bad about them on the Internet: On a rather regular basis, Fanta staff are trained in the use of firearms. Photographic evidence of the most recent such exercise staff bonding/critic intimidating surfaced on the Internet over the weekend (Via Comics Reporter).

Johnny Ryan addresses the serious issue of how oil spills effect sea life: In typical Johnny Ryan fashion, of course. This particular installment of Blecky Yuckarella is safe for work though, so I guess it could have been much more harsh.

‘”Revolver’… on the other hand, unfurls at breakneck speed, with an unhinged, almost drunken vigor to the deliberately rough drawings”: The Chicago Tribune reviews Matt Kindt’s latest work, Revolver.

Beloved author (or, more accurately, rabidly followed and immortal author) Harlan Ellison is, according to his own website, selling off a large chunk of his collection of rare, exceedingly rare, and “Holy Grail” rare books and comics. Included are items such as issues of “X-Men” and “The Avengers” based on Ellison’s work, as well as several personalized copies of rare Sandman books, personalized to Ellison from Neil Gaiman. Items range in price from just a few dollars, to several hundred dollars a pop. Ellison’s own wife will be fielding calls for two hours a day from July 6-8 regarding the purchase of these books. A catalogue of the items he’s offering can be found here. No time to waste!

HAPPY FORCE OF JULY, EVERYBODY!

Ah, remember when we reported that up and comer Benjamin Walker had been cast as young Hank McCoy, aka Beast in the X-Men: First Class feature? There are rumors circulating that he opted to leave the role to reprise his role as Andrew Jackson in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson when it moves to Broadway. In addition to that, rumors are also circling about Walker’s departure having to do with his…age? According to FilmStage.com, Walker (28) was fired from the role because he was deemed too old to be a student, especially since James McAvoy (the new Professor Xavier) is only 31. That is a valid argument, but the story doesn’t end there.

Apparently after Walker was released from the role, Fox auditioned more actors, but then re-decided that Walker was indeed the best for the part, but now may not take it because of…well, the rumor of him leaving for Broadway. So it appears, Xavier Institute is minus one student for the moment.

There are reports that with the underwhelming performance of Knight and Day, A-Team and the abysmal Marmaduke, Fox is trying very hard to get “First Class” right, I just hope there aren’t too many hands pulling the project in too many directions.

Of course, we will update the situation as it develops.

If you checked out our preview of Shadowland #1, arriving in stores this coming Thursday, July 8 (books one day late, holiday weekend, y’all), not only did you see the prelude to a tantalizing “oh snap!” moment between Bullseye and Daredevil, backed by the Hand, you also saw a certain gun-toting vigilante recently shredded to pieces by Daken during “Dark Reign” and stitched back together Frankenstein’s monster-style by Morbius the Living Vampire, looking pretty totally alive:

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Olivia Munn appears to have been genetically engineered in a laboratory (or teenage boy’s bedroom, a la Weird Science) to be a geek dream girl — a cute lady who talks about nerdy things and is willing to dress up as a superhero in some sort of entirely unrecognizable costume.

She rose to national recognition through co-hosting G4′s Attack of the Show (TV’s geek-friendliest sixty minutes since The Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour), but since then has added to her CV in a big way: she’s written a book, had a quick part in Iron Man 2, and last month made her debut as a correspondent in no less of a distinguished (and reliably relevant and hilarious) stage than The Daily Show. Her second bit aired last night: (more…)

Next to Superman and the Batman, there is only one character in fiction whose stories have been in continuous publication for about 70 years now. Created by William Moulton Marston, whose research helped the creation of the lie detector, this character is the third part of the “trinity” of DC Comics: Wonder Woman.

Long ago, the goddesses of Olympus resurrected women of Earth who had been unjustly murdered by man’s aggression. These women of various ages, races and backgrounds became known as the Amazons and inspired many myths. After a brief enslavement at the hands of Herakles and his men, the Amazons retreated from “Patriarch’s World” and went to live on Themyscira, a magical “Paradise Island” where they would be hidden and wouldn’t age.

The centuries went on and the Amazons made a peaceful society, developing advanced technology and always practicing their warrior ways. But Queen Hypollyta had been pregnant when she’d first lived and been murdered and she still longed for a child. Making a baby out of mud and clay, she asked the goddesses for this one favor and they gave her a daughter: Diana, blessed with incredible speed, strength, resiliency, heightened senses, a connection to animals, and the ability to fly.

Eventually, when Princess Diana was barely out of her teens, the Amazons realized they couldn’t remain detached from the outside world. They chose Diana as their warrior ambassador, to spread their teachings and fight off anything that threatened Earth and her children. Given blessed armor and a mystical lasso of truth that compelled others to obey her, Diana was called “Wonder Woman.” Over the years, she’s done many amazing things while wearing a wide variety of outfits. And her latest costume has caused a lot of debate, including amongst myself and some special guest commentators in this piece.

But enough backstory. Let’s take a look, shall we?

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“Wonder Woman, Bring back the legs, the muscles, and the flag, please”: Here’s another piece from a mainstream media source complaining about Wondy’s new wardrobe…and another one from someone who seemingly doesn’t read Wonder Woman comics anymore. You know, if everyone who complained about the costume change this week actually read a Wonder Woman comic a couple times a year, then maybe her comic would actually be a hit. Or, at the very least, ranking higher than Green Arrow on charts like these. I suppose there is an important lesson for DC in the reaction to the Wonder Woman-gets-pants story—there are a ton of people interested in the character that don’t actually read her comics out there, meaning the potential audience for the character is pretty huge. So make with the Earth One GNs and all-ages out-of-continuity manga already!

The ladies who compiled this deserve gold medals for linkblogging: I mentioned in my post yesterday that the tsunami of Wonder Woman-talking-about overwhelmed me to the point where I just couldn’t keep up. How many posts are there about Wonder Woman on the Internet? Well, When Fangirls Attack found roughly three billion, which you can see assembled here. Wow. That is a lot of posts.  For me the must-read one was that on Project: Rooftop, in which the P:R gang responds at great length to the redesign. Most of them weren’t terribly enamored of it, although Jemma Salume loved it enough to draw it almost immediately.

This Batcave Beach comic sounds kinda neat: Even if it isn’t about Batman, Alfred and the sidekicks all taking a family trip to the beach. (Via Comics Reporter)

Well, it seems like a lot when you put it like that: With Zuda officially going the way of CMX, Chris Arrant counts the dead DC imprints (Via Journalista)

It’s not often you see an article that uses a preise, reverend and rabbi joke as the lede: “Funnyman, and the Jewish superhero’s story, is finally being told”

Good luck making an Ant-Man movie anything but hilarious!: “‘Ant-Man’ Will Have Same Level of Comedy As ‘Iron Man’, Says Edgar Wright”

Sadly, it’s not a Star Trek/True Blood crossover: “Star Trek, True Blood Stars Collaborate on Comic-Book Series”