Stylized, super-cute versions of Marvel superheroes: clearly a winning formula. Just see the success of Super Hero Squad, Marvel Mighty Muggs, and the Marvel-themed apparel from Tokidoki (that Cap shirt is spectacular).

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What, you seriously haven’t seen it yet? Well then, here it is, the trailer for the animated version of All-Star Superman:

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Earlier this week DC and Marvel, the American serial comic book industry’s two largest players, released their solicitations for the comics they plan to publish in December of this year (DC’s are here and Marvel’s are here, if you missed ‘em).

These monthly solicitations, released about nine weeks in advance of the time the comics themselves actually show up in comic shops, always provide a pretty good snapshot of the companies, and thus the direct market built around them. A market you’ve probably heard sure seemed like it might be in trouble, if you’ve read any of the tons of commentary regarding sales data from this past August.

So I thought I’d pull out my fine-tooth comb and take it to the solicitations—since I went bald in my twenties, I haven’t had much use for my fine-tooth combs anyway—and see what data I could pull out.

As I did last month, I wanted to see which which franchises the Big Two were exploiting the most in terms of the numbers of books attached to each character/concept/IP. Additionally, this time I wanted to count up the number of books at the $3.99-for-22-story-pages price point, as it seems to be steadily increasing (most notably at DC, which eschewed that particular price point for so long) and, more out of curiosity than concern, what role other-media adaptations play in the two publishers’ lines.

As the big and still emerging news of the week—DC’s corporate rejiggering‚ indicates, these are two publishers that are still moving as they get comfortable with their new leadership structures, and a rather fluid market, so these numbers might change month to month, and not ultimately mean much of anything.

Still, as a purple puppet of a vampire taught me when I was a child, counting is fun! So let’s take a look, shall we?

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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!

For years they’ve teased it. He once did it unknowingly. He was once scared and confused when he floated in the early seasons. In the premiere episode “Lazarus”, we see Clark Kent realize his potential and, well, just take a look.

So, who else is even more excited for tomorrow night’s season premiere?

By Julie Opipari

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit is a thought-provoking series set in a dystopian Japan, where one in a thousand citizens is chosen by lottery to die. Upon entering elementary school, all citizens are forced to take part in the National Welfare Immunization. A nanocapsule is injected into each child, and one lucky recipient out of every one thousand will die between the ages of 18 and 25. Sounds like a great place to live, huh?

The reason for this death by lottery is to instill a fear of death in everyone, so that they value life more. It also helps to keep the peace, because anyone who speaks out against the National Welfare Act is branded a social miscreant, and bad, bad things happen to them. They are brainwashed or injected with a nanocapsule themselves. What a wonderful way to scare the crap out of the populace and keep them in line!

The series is told through episodic chapters that follow the lucky recipients of the ikigami, or death papers. There are a few reoccurring characters, the most important being Fujimoto. Fujimoto is a delivery man by trade; it’s his job to deliver the ikigami to those citizens who have been injected with the death capsules. He can only deliver the papers 24 hours prior to the scheduled time of death, and his job quickly begins to take a toll on him. Think about it – how could you keep getting up and heading to the office if you knew that you would be telling some young person that they were going to die within 24 hours? Ugh! I wouldn’t just hate Mondays. I would pretty much hate every day I had to do that.

At the start of the series, Fujimoto is idealistic and eager to contribute to society. As each day goes by, however, he begins to develop very dangerous thoughts. He begins to question the National Welfare Act, and begins to wonder what good it really does. Nobody is happier, the crime rate hasn’t decreased, and nothing much has changed. The only difference is that some young people, who haven’t had a chance to live life or make their dreams come true, are dying. That’s it.

I don’t usually like series that are presented in such an episodic manner, but the stories about the individuals who receive the ikigamis are full of emotion and suspense. I always wonder how they are going to react, because I know how I would feel if I were to receive one. It would not be a happy day in my life, and I wouldn’t be grateful for serving the government. A death shouldn’t benefit anyone, especially not the repressive government depicted in this series.

In addition to the tense vignettes, the art makes this series shine. Motoro Mase is master of capturing facial expressions. The illustrations give the emotional depth necessary to make this such a compelling series. Shock, anger, dismay, fear. There is a gamut of emotions that surges through each page of this comic, and you can’t help but get caught up in the rush of feelings.

Clocking in at 7 volumes, the series isn’t overwhelmingly long. The books are part of Viz’s Signature line, which means that they have a larger trim size and each volume weighs in at about 230 pages. The books are attractively put together, and the dialog flows naturally and just sucks you into each volume. If you are looking for an intelligent read that will give you something to think about, this might be just what you are looking for.

When Julie Opipari isn’t mucking around the barn, she can be found trying to make a dent in the massive pile of manga that keeps following her home from the bookstore.  Not wiling to admit she has a problem, she blissfully continues to anticipate the latest releases despite the cries of agony from her credit card.  She cheerfully blames her addiction on the stresses of college and post traumatic work disorder, and is grateful that her family grumbles only occasionally about the amount of time she spends buried in her books. In addition to reading Your Manga Minute every Wednesday, you can read more of Julie’s work on her blog, Manga Maniac Cafe.

That’s right. Teri Hatcher to be a Lane once again.

The Ausiello Files have reported that Hatcher (who once donned the mantle of Super soulmate Lois Lane) will portray Lois Lane’s (Erica Durance) mother in the upcoming and final season, but not in the way you would expect. Ella Lane has been dead for quite some time, but Lois discovers some old tapes of her mother…so flashback ahoy, in a way.

The Superman cameos keep on coming. I mean, they had Annette O’Toole for most of the seasons and people from Christopher Reeve to Dean Cain to Margot Kidder. Hatcher joins cast of alumni and I honestly never thought I would see the day she would be on the show.

What do you think, readers? Perfect fit, huh?

After directing such genre films as 30 Days of Night, Eclipse, and one of my all-time favorites, Hard Candy, David Slade is possibly adding another comic book franchise to his resume. According to the Vancouver Sun, Slade is in the running to direct the Wolverine sequel.

“I can say that I’ve met with Hugh Jackman and he is a very nice fellow, but you never know with these things,” the director says. “There are several projects I’m interested in now, and that’s one of them.”

So he wants the job, but do you think he’d be suited best for it?

I knew before even clicking which publisher this comic was going to be from: “New comic book to feature Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg”

Hopefully the Defenders: “What Are Marvel’s Post-Avengers Plans?”

Grant Morrison’s first appearance?: In his weekly column about the week in comics, This Week In Comics!, Joe McCulloch uncovers an early appearance of one of DC’s most popular comic book characters.

Happy birthday, Richard Cook: Cook turns 30 this month, and is celebrating the milestone in the traditional way—reading and reviewing superhero comic books published during the month he was born.

I wish I hadn’t seen this: Because now I want to buy the new Sandman trade paperbacks just to get the newly colored art, despite the fact that I already own these stories in serial and trade paperback form. Of course, I suspect that’s the reason Vertigo’s Pamela Mullin post the examples on the Graphic Content blog. Damn you, Mullin!

The P is for Peanuts, not Paranormal: Check out Bruce McCorkindale’s Peanuts/Hellboy mash-up fan art.

“Good job, funnybook reporters!“: As the number of stories dealing with the subject on our front page and the frequency with which they’re being posted indicates, the biggest and still-developing comic book industry story of the week is DC’s rejiggering, and what it will mean for all involved. In his Journalista! link-blog, The Comics Journal‘s Dirk Deppey takes the comics press to task for not paying attention to one of the biggest aspects of the story—that up to 20% of DC’s workforce might not end up being part of their workforce any longer. (Deppey’s post, by the way, is also a pretty good round-up of early stories and reactions, and thus not a bad place to start if you want to survey the first round of reporting and commentary on DC’s move).

Is Mark Waid still mad at the Internet?: I don’t know, but according to the review of the Waid-written Amazing Spider-Man #643 that makes up part of Tucker Stone’s latest Comics of the Weak column, an early scene of the book is devoted to “the mimicry of certain ‘I don’t buy super-hero comics because they’re just straight up…gross now’ punditry.” Huh. Wasn’t the first issue of Irredeemable just a superhero comic book writer’s revenge fantasy against complaining fans on the Internet…? By the way, the elipsis in the Stone quote above was put there to take out just one word. Which word was it? Click on the link to find out!

The Bloom County Library v.1
Written & Illustrated by Berkeley Breathed
Published by The Library of American Comics/IDW

An admission: Prior to six or seven years ago, I’d never even heard of Bloom County.  I mention is because reading this volume got me thinking about how sometimes, for whatever reason (in my case, the strip’s ending when I was still fairly young and, in any event, its lack of inclusion in my local newspaper probably had quite a bit to do with my ignorance) sometimes we all overlook things that really deserve our attention.  Now obviously every reader out there can’t read every comic that might possibly appeal to them, but this book served as a notice to me to keep an open mind – just because you or I haven’t heard of a particular comic (or musician or film, etc.) doesn’t mean it isn’t incredibly influential and/or very, very good.

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Damn, she looks upset.

As DC announced back at San Diego, Jimmy Olsen will be the co-feature in Action Comics (written byNick Spencer and artist R.B. Silva) and will be aided by Chloe Sullivan. Well, the Source finally revealed Chloe to the masses and I’m confused by something: while this has similar features to Allison Mack, why would you want to make a character whose niche was gadgets and gizmos, just another reporter?

“It’s a pretty different continuity, which I think has always been the challenging part of bringing Chloe into the DC Comics Universe,” Spencer told TV Guide. “She’s never existed in the comics before, so in order to make a part of Clark’s life when he was a teenager in Smallville, you’d have to do it somewhat retroactively, and it would age Chloe as a character a lot, since Superman is well past that part of his life in the books.”

Oh. I gotcha. Works for me.

So readers, what do you think of the introduction of Ms. Sullivan?

Tonight in Los Angeles, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse gets a premiere screening along with a panel discussion from cast and crew, both at the Paley Center — and, yup, Newsarama will be there, covering the panel live.

The panel is set for around 8:20 p.m. local time, so 11:20 for you east coasters. Stay tuned to the front page shortly before then to follow along at home.

Confirmed at this point for the panel: Bruce Timm, Executive Producer; Lauren Montgomery, Director; Tab Murphy, Writer;; Andrea Romano, Casting/Dialogue Director; Susan Eisenberg, voice of Wonder Woman; Rachel Quaintance, voice of Artemis & Lyla.

Mickey joins a rather rarefied club of characters this week, with the release of Mickey Mouse and Friends #300. The issue will feature the story 300 Mickey by Stefan Petrucha and Cesar Ferioli Pelaez, in which Eega Beeva accidentally clones his pal Mickey a few hundred times too many, as well as a classic Floyd Gottfredson-drawn story from the 1930s.

Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis #3: Just a friendly reminder, this is the comic book with the greatest, strangest comic book cover Marvel has ever published.

This cover is so great it really makes me wish I worked in a comic book shop, just so I can hear people—especially visitors who haven’t already seen it online—react to it.

Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #16: Just as the Halloween episodes tend to be the very best of each season of the cartoon, Bongo’s Halloween annuals tend to be the very best of their year’s worth of Simpsons comics. Or, if not the best, then at least the very weirdest. This year’s contributors include Evan Dorkin, Peter Kuper, Kelley Jones and Lemmy (Yes, that Lemmy). The price of admission is $5.

Black Widow #6: Says the solicitation at Marvel.com:”New readers, jump aboard here! Duane Swierczynski and Manuel Garcia kick off a new era for the super-spy Avenger known as Black Widow!” Keep in mind this is only the sixth issue of a new series and it has a new creative team kicking off a new “era.” Apparently the length of an “era” in 2010 comic books is now only five issues long.

Fire & Water: Bill Everett, the Sub-Mariner and the Birth of Marvel Comics: The title and sub-title pretty much say it all. This hardcover book by Strange and Stranger author Blake Bell features what looks to be substantial prose biography and appreciation, along with plenty of artwork from an artist who helped build the foundation for Marvel as both a publishing powerhouse and a fictional universe. It’s a $40, 215-page hardcover, and you can download an excerpt and see a video and slideshow preview here.

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Oh, Doc Shaner. When will you ever be not awesome?

At Shaner’s blog, he’s doing these sort of sketches to prepare for the start of this week’s ComicTWART theme: Popeye, the Sailor Man. “I’ve been a fan of Popeye long before I got into comic books, watching the Fleischer cartoons that ran on television when I was a kid,” explained Shaner. ” I only discovered the strip in college, but if you go back and look at some of the early Segar strips that’s some of the funniest writing in comics history.  Not to mention the fluid and dynamic cartooning.”

I love the fact he has Volstagg and Wimpy in the background.

Everyone is waiting for big news from DC Comics this week, wondering if they’ll be staying or going. We got our hands on some leaked notes from a major company-wide meeting, and let me tell you, their plans are truly shocking!

1) That’s No Moon: DC Comics will be moving to a “to scale” moonbase modeled off of the original JLA design.

2) You know what it means: Not sure what this means, but repeated over and over in the meeting notes is one word: Jabberwocky. What IS Jabberwocky? What, you don’t know? I mean, I know. Of course I know. I was just checking if YOU knew…

3) DC is going all-digital for monthly comics through Zune Marketplace: Yup, they’re completely abandoning all the work done on PSP and iOS devices, instead opting for the 10 people that own Zunes to have digital comics. It’s an unprecedented move, not likely to ever be seen again.

4) Geoff Johns is a Robot: Well, can’t say this one was kept very secret. Engineered by the Guardians of the Universe to police the stars, Geoff Johns broke free of his original programming and came to Earth to write comics. Also revealed, the Manhunters will return in a special cross-promotion with Twitter and 7-11 called “Infinite Slurpees.”

5) Final Crisis was all a big misunderstanding: In a meeting between Grant Morrison and Dan DiDio, when Grant Morrison asked, “What did you do in animation?” Didio said “Reboot” and Morrison said, “Hey, no problem.”

So there you have it folks, all the gigantic DC News. Hard to believe that’s what we’ve been waiting on since the restructuring a year ago!

*this is a work of fiction. Unless you’re Rich Johnston, then you can reprint this all as fact, Rich.

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!

As confirmed at Marvel.com, the much-anticipated “Avengers: Earth’s Mightest Heroes” hits the air on Wednesday, October 20th at 8:30 pm EST on DisneyXD. But wait, there’s more!

Beginning Wednesday, September 22, Disney XD, DisneyXD.com/Avengers, Marvel.com, MarvelKids.com and Disney XD Mobile will roll out 20 micro-episodes introducing the team’s core members. Each five-and-half-minute episode focuses on the back story, allies and nemeses of the heroes before the Avengers were formed.

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That's not funny; he's an alcoholic.

Living in a college town (Athens, GA to be precise), I deal with my fair share of hipsters. Not a day goes by that I don’t see someone walking a duck on a leash or some dude with a rat tail wearing a shirt that says “World’s Best Grandma,” you know, for irony. Maybe that’s why this article from the intrepid purveyors of comedy jokes at College Humor struck me… See for yourself.

If you happen to live in a fly-over state, I can assure you that these are very accurate.

Smallville has historically divided comics fans; while many have seen it as tonally one of the truest interpretations of the character ever to be filmed with real humans, both post-Crisis fans of Superman and purists of any era have taken issue, at various times, with the show’s use of Superboy, its continuity or, most recently, the bizarre death of Jimmy Olsen (don’t worry, folks–his parents have another kid also called Jimmy).

All that said, this writer had never been able to get into the first few seasons simply because they seemed aimed at a different audience; the teen angst on display in the first few seasons was much more reminiscent of Dawson’s Creek than of any Superman comics I’d ever read, and the involvement of Jeph Loeb (whose Superman comics were hit-or-miss for me) kind of poisoned the well a little bit, too. (more…)

Archie Comics has established a surprising amount of cultural relevance lately — most notably the introduction of gay character Kevin Keller — and they’re at it again, with a two-part story starting in December featuring Riverdale-ized versions of Barack Obama and Sarah Palin.

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