Yesterday, sources including Comic Book Movie spread a rumor that Heath Ledger’s Joker was going to be Forrest Gump-ed into Christopher Nolan’s upcoming third Batman film, 2012′s The Dark Knight Rises.

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On Psych‘s first season DVD set, showrunner Steve Franks identifies star James Roday as the biggest Twin Peaks fan he knows in the commentary track for the pilot. It’s relevant, because one of the guest stars in the Psych pilot is Don S. Davis, who played Major Briggs on David Lynch’s quirky mystery show.

This week, in recognition of Twin Peaks‘ twentieth anniversary and Roday’s fandom, Shawn and Gus finally head out to the Cinnamon Festival in “Dual Spires”, a small town with a strange cast of characters and some dark secrets. Featuring not one, not two, but seven former Twin Peaks cast members (six in their Psych debuts), the show has been one of the most heavily-promoted in Psych‘s history, and Roday has been doing a full-court press, doing dozens of interviews about “Dual Spires,” an episode he championed, co-wrote and says is the Psych episode he’s most proud of. Recently, the star spoke to Blog@Newsarama about the tribute show. (more…)

“Schumacher doesn’t really seem to grasp what sets Eisner’s considerable output apart”: Charles Solomon reviews Michael Schumacher’s Will Eisner: A Dreamer’s Life in Comics for the LA Times. He didn’t like it much.

“So, now in Ireland’s darkest hour who can the Emerald Isle count on to save the day?”: Damien McCrossan’s article for BBC News meanders a bit, but the subject is interesting and fairly thoroughly covered. Where are all the Irish superheroes, he asks, ticking off various familiar names and eventually naming some emerging characters who could be part of the, um, Emerald Age of comics.

“For the occasional comics reader, the search for a satisfying graphic novel can be frustrating; it’s a market that still caters to aficionados”: At Salon, Laura Miller makes some recommendations of some high-quality comics for the graphic novel-curious. As one of those “aficionados” the market caters to, I second this list as a pretty strong one—maybe not the best nine books available or anything, but certainly nine quality works that are all likely to come up in conversations about graphic novels at mixed-company holiday parties.

Oh yeah, this war’s still on, isn’t it?: Perhaps the most damning criticism of President Barack Obama’s relative failure to magically undo all the ills of the “War on Terror” era of American history is the fact that David Rees’ Get Your War On comic, launched at the same time the Afghanistan war was launched, returns. It’s in New York magazine, where it can apparently be most easily read, but you can also view it online in a less-than-ideal format. Rees’ foul-mouthed, funny-because-it’s-unfortunately-true, clip-art driven strip isn’t for everyone, but, as a perusal of the complete collection or online archives proves, Rees was more right more often than just about anyone who had anything to say about America’s wars over the course of the last decade. It’s unfortunate that the subject matter is still around and thus GYWO can return, but if we have to be fighting many wars forever, then I’d rather there be more funny comics about it than less.

You know, I think I like these more than most 90′s X-Men art that Marvel published: Ben Morse shares the sketches of the X-Men that he did as an 11-year-old. They are awesome.

Golden Age Flash is hard core: Living Between Wednesdays‘ Johnathan shares a few panels of Jay Garrick being unbelievably violent and cruel to some thugs. That seems like an awfully Spectre-ish sort of punishment; I guess the JSA was a bad influence on Jay.

I thought they started doing that in the seventies?: “Should Comic Book Companies Bring Fanfic Writers Into the Fold?”

Last night on Conan, Mr. O’Brien offered up a glimpse of now-in-previews musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Sure, it seems a bit unusual, but much like his old Actual Items bit, it would be a waste of time to make this up. (Doc Ock is in this thing, too?)

Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur
Edited by Jim Amash and Eric Nolen-Weathington
Published by TwoMorrows

This long form interview with classic comics illustrator and one-time DC Comics publisher Carmine Infantino will be of interest, primarily, to Infantino and DC fans.  It’s a solid piece, covering the full breadth of Infantino’s career, which means that it’s also skimpy in places as the interviewer (Amash) and interviewee race to the next big moment.

Fortunately, Infantino had many big moments, from being among the last artists to draw the Golden Age Flash to designing and drawing the seminal adventures of the Silver Age Flash, from reworking Batman during the 1960s to overseeing DC Comics during the early days of the direct market.  Infantino’s not shy with his opinions, particularly at the end as regards the current state of superhero comics and the fates of his creations Barry Allen (death and rebirth are covered) and Ralph Dibny.

Ultimately, it’s not quite essential reading, but for fans of this dynamic artist or readers interested in the span of comics history he represents, Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur provides plenty of interesting stories and insights into one man’s working methods, perspective on his career and evolving feelings regarding the industry itself.

Well, this is surprising to read: Deadline.com reports that Frank Darabont, writer/director/executive producer of AMC’s The Walking Dead adaptation, has let go of the season one writing staff, and is considering going all-freelance writers for the show’s 13-episode second season.

Given that the show has been a commercial and critical success at this point — breaking ratings records for AMC and being dubbed “the best new show on TV” on the cover of last week’s Entertainment Weekly — the news seems unexpected. As the Deadline article points out, writing staff changes between seasons is common, but total overhaul is rare, and foregoing a writing staff entirely is nearly unheard of in American TV (and, as Deadline points out, is something the Writer’s Guild may dispute).

Darabont wrote two episodes of The Walking Dead‘s six-episode season one and had a hand in re-writes with the other four, with comic book series creator Robert Kirkman writing one, and fellow freelancer Glen Mazarra responsible for another.