“Then I watched Scott Pilgrim again with my 13-year-old daughter…and felt mildly ashamed for not appreciating director Edgar Wright’s talents as a visual stylist and cultural observer”: At Slate, Matt Zoller Seitz has come around on the subject of Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. It’s not surprising to hear Seitz didn’t like Scott as a character in the film, since he is kind of an ass (more so in the comic than the film, even), but I was surprised that one of the things he didn’t like was that the whole world of the film and all of its characters revolved around Scott. It is called Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

An extraordinary letterer: Todd Klein discusses lettering the next Alan Moore/Kevin O’Neill League of Extraordinary Gentleman book on his blog. It’s a great process read.

“Insane” about covers it: The LA Times‘ Hero Complex blog has a feature on actress January Jones regarding her portrayal of Emma Frost in the next X-Men movie, and she discusses preparing for the role: “The costumes are insane…It’s a lot of very body-conscious stuff. If you look at the comic book, she’s barely dressed.” (Aside: Is it weird that Emma Frost will make it into a live-action film before Wonder Woman? Surely a red corset and star-spangled underpants are no less realistic than some of Frost’s pastie-based costumes..?)

“Nuclear Bomb Detonates During Rehearsal For ‘Spider-Man’ Musical”: Quick, which media source is this headline from—The New York Times or The Onion? Okay, it’s from the latter, but with Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, it can be sorta hard to tell, huh?

“Arizona Cartoonist Talks Giffords Shooting, ‘Rabid Right’”: It feels rather wrong to bring up this weekend’s tragic events in the middle of a post of links to comics news—all of which is quite trivial in comparison—but Daryl Cagle’s political cartoon blog has a extensive post on Arizona Daily Star cartoonist David Fitzsimmons was among the commentators looked to by the cable news channels to talk about the atmosphere in the state in the wake of the tragedy. Cagle shares some of Fitzsimmons’ (superior) work. Cagle’s Political Cartoonist Index also has a gallery of political cartoons on the subject, which is, as always, an ideal way to see how the folks who get paid to process the day’s news through comics deal with something shocking and/or sad.

“‘The Cape” and the subversive secrets of NBC’s new superhero drama”: I wasn’t expecting to hear the word “subversive” used in the same sentence as the name of that Cape show, but EW‘s Jeff Jensen notes a small detail in the show—the appearance of a particular real-world comic book—and talks to the creators about what it means.

“At the same time, comics fans have a strong distaste for materials that are little more than brochures for movies”: The New York Times profiles Barry Levine and Radical Comics, focusing on the publisher’s business model of making comics as movie pitches. It’s a nice, thorough piece that discusses the relationship between film studios and comics publishers in general, but in terms of PR, I wonder if it hurts Radical as much as it helps Radical in the eyes of comics fans. NYT publicity is great, and the names of a lot of books get thrown around in a very public venue, on the other hand, it seemingly confirms the suspicion that many of their books are as much movie pitches as they are comic books.

Don’t shed too many tears for wahtever member of the Fantastic Four is dying: As Bully the Little Stuffed Bull demonstrates, it’s not like this will be the first time a member of the FF has bought it (Wait, Sue really wore that costume on the cover of FF #382? That wasn’t just a What If…? costume? Weird. Weirder still they didn’t have Jessica Alba wear it in the movies…) Elsewhere on Bully’s blog, Commissioner Gordon is a jerk.

Over on DeviantArt, they are hosting an Inception comic cover contest, with some pretty impressive entries. Over at Studio Revolver member Tariq Hassan’s blog, he had posted his entry into the contest. Not too bad for something put together in about five hours. It’s simple, it’s direct, and Hassan’s style comes through.

According to Hassan, DA provided a script that explains the moments before Inception movie starts.  Basically the end scene of the script is the beginning of the movie – it details how Cobb and company got into Saito’s head.

Now that’s the sort of comic I can get into. Be sure to check out the rest of the entries, as well as Tariq’s blog. Both are full of crazy talent.

Looks like the David E. Kelley planned Wonder Woman tv series is “not moving forward”, reports Entertainment Weekly. Apparently, their sources told them that all the major broadcasters have passed on the project. NBC was the final network that declined to bring back the super heroine. Of course, Warner Bros. TV has said they are not giving up on this, but it is definitely on hold.

Outside of her appearing on DC animated’s Justice League franchise, Wonder Woman has not appeared in live action since the 1976-1979 series starring Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince and Steve Trevor, respectively.

I just don’t get this. Smallville ends in a few months and this would have been the perfect heir. With Batman: The Brave and the Bold on the air, with a Green Lantern animated series coming soon as well, I’d gladly settle for a Wondy animated series at this point.

Jim Woodring makes me feel inadequate in a whole new way: For those following the Jim Woodring/giant pen saga  (hopefully, all of you), it’s about to reach its climax Sunday, with a demonstration of the seven-foot steel dip pen nib and wooden handle at Seattle’s Skinner AUditorium of the Gage Academy of Arts. Woodring will be using it to draw giant drawings. Photos will surely emerge by the next of these little link round-up columns, but in the mean time, you can read all about Woodring and his quest at Wired.

The best part of this post was it took a while for the gag to dawn on me…like, I had a, well, you know…: The Beat celebrated The Feast of The Ephiphany yesterday, in one of my favorite posts of the last 24 hours.

Just when you thought Luann couldn’t get any ickier: At Comics Curmudgeon, Josh Fruhlinger draws unwanted attention to the use of a verb with multiple meanings in the notoriously sex-obsessed comic strip. Given the rest of the sentence it’s used in, it’s actually kind of amazing that it made it through and landed on the comics page. On your way through the post to get to the ickiness, make sure you stop and admire what’s going on in the Spider-Man newspaper strip at the moment—Aunt May is totally marrying The Mole Man! What is with her attraction to dumpy, bespectacled supervillains with bad haircuts and a fondness for green outfits?

Scott Pilgrim comics still popular: Icv2.com shares a BookScan chart, which reveals that Bryan Lee O’Malley’s six-part series owns the top ten slots on the chart, with two volumes of Walking Dead and Matsuri Hino’s Vampire Knight the only other books sharing that coveted part of the chart. Scott Pilgrim didn’t seem to suffer the bubble and burst effect of many books that are adapted into movies—irregardless of how those movies do at the box office—then. Good for Scott Pilgrim. And Bryan Lee O’Malley. And Oni Press.

I was hoping it meant mass popularity for Miss Buxley dresses: “Beetle Bailey Becomes Inspiration For Fashionistas”

Second best publishing news of the year so far: Seth has a sorta prequel to Wimbledon Green coming out this year, told in the same style as that book and starring the Greath Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists (Best news is, of course, still Fantagraphics’ complete Carl Barks announcement).

Today is read about James Strum day: The amazing cartoonist responsible for the amazing Market Day (and plenty of other amazing books) is the subject of lengthy features at both The Comics Reporter and The Malaysia Star today.

Superman vs. Muhammad Ali
Written by Denny O’Neil & Neal Adams
Illustrated by Adams
Inked by Dick Giordano & Terry Austin
Lettered by Gaspar Saladino
Published by DC Comics

Okay, yeah, this one’s a little campy. Look at that title: how couldn’t it be? Try to imagine a fictional character based on Ali’s public persona without a twinge of camp.

That said, don’t take it very seriously and it’s a fun romp of a book. Tremendously fun. The plot’s simple enough: an alien armada orbits Earth, but they’ll spare our planet if our champion can best their champion. Superman and Ali both claim to be said champion, and so a preliminary bout is fought – under a red sun on the aliens’ homeworld.

The premise is a little outlandish, but O’Neil and Adams have fun with the proceedings and offer a little misdirect regarding Superman’s status after his bout with Ali. The art’s terrific, if perhaps difficult to follow for novice comics readers. Adams’ constructs several balletic fight sequences, and one grandiose Ali speech, that left at least one comics-virgin friend of mine with a headache.

The reprint of this 1978 oversized comic comes in two editions: a comic book-sized hardcover, and a humongous “replica” edition hardcover. I read the latter incarnation, and it’s wonderful to see. Adams’ art looks amazing viewed at the larger size, screaming off the pages. The paper stock is a little flimsy and the page count skimpy for a $40 book ($30 for the smaller model, which is still steep for less than 80 pages of story); if you can find a discounted copy, Superman vs. Muhammad Ali should certainly entertain.

If you have a Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, access to the Internet of any kind, TV, radio, eyes or ears, you’re no doubt familiar with Ted Williams, the currently ubiquitous “homeless man with a golden voice.” He’s gotten a lot of positive attention (and job offers) from the story, but there’s no reason for this unprecedented goodwill towards the downtrodden to end with Williams. Here are three comic book characters who could easily benefit from Tedomania.

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Written and created by Brian Andersen, art, colors and letters by the talented Celina Hernandez. For more So Super Duper go to:www.sosuperduper.com!

Back in November, David Sedaris was a guest on The Daily Show and he was there to promote his then-new collection of animal fables, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk.

During the interview, Sedaris told host Jon Stewart that his original title for the book was Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls, but his editor responded, “Please don’t put the word diabetes in your book title,” and came up with final one instead.

I thought of  Sedaris’ editor when I opened an envelope to find a review copy of the fourth and final collection of Johnny Ryan’s Blecky Yuckarella strip, entitled Fuc_ __u, _ss__le.

Please note that I’m not trying to be demure and avoid saying “the F-word” and “the A-word” here on Newsarama; that’s the actual title of the actual book. Underscores are used to make the title look a bit like an unfinished game of hangman, an image emphasized by the cover, which features Ryan’s Blecky character hanging from a noose, her limbs shaking as sweat drops and  yellow-colored drops emanate from her figure (It’s the first of many appearances of piss in the book).

What if Ryan had Sedaris’ editor? If “diabetes” is a bad thing to have in a book title, how about the two words in Ryan’s title? And how would that initial conversation go? Perhaps “Hey Johnny, what do you want to call your new book?,” leading into an R-rated Abbot and Costello routine, with the editor all “Wow, what the hell Johnny? I’m just asking! There’s no need for that kind of language!”

Ryan obviously doesn’t have Sedaris’ editor, nor Sedaris’ publisher, and Fantagraphics Books is obviously quite in tune with Ryan’s sense of humor. This is, after all, the fourth of their Blecky books, and they’ve published two volumes of Prison Pit, starring a protagonist whose name I’m pretty sure I can’t post on Newsarama, as well as Ryan’s Angry Youth Comix.

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As you may have heard, Stan Lee — the comic book legend responsible for co-creating multiple Marvel icons, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man and the Hulk — now has a much-deserved star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, with a ceremonial unveiling held just yesterday.

Though I live in Los Angeles, I don’t make my way out to that part of the town very often (y’know, I have so many fake Oscar novelty awards already) but ventured into the thick of Touristville to make an obligatory pilgrimage to see Smilin’ Stan’s scintillating star. (Alliteration in tribute to “The Man,” of course.)

And hey, here it is!

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Steel #1
Written by Steve Lyons
Illustrated by Ed Benes
Colored by Blond
Lettered by Pat Brosseau
Cover art by Alex Garner
Published by DC Comics

While it’s impossible to say much about the “Reign of Doomsday” arc that begins in this one-shot comic, it shares at least one similarity with Doomsday’s initial appearances. This comic is wall-to-wall fighting. Although there’s not much room given to developing the protagonist, Steve Lyons seems to have a solid handle on John Henry Irons’ character, though the tragic angle’s overplayed. The dull plot has a few hiccups, however (like, why does Doomsday need to threaten Natasha, forcing Steel to “come to him,” when they were already fighting and Steel was in his hands?!), which is surprising given how little plot there actually is. Dialogue’s passable if unexceptional, as is the art. In short, it’s a workman-like superhero comic, readable but not recommended.

And since I know you’re dying to know, Internet, John’s final fate is left hanging. Guess you’ll have to read the rest of the crossover to find out.

Batman Beyond #1
Written by Adam Beechen
Penciled by Ryan Benjamin
Inked by John Stanisci
Colored by David Baron
Lettered by Steve Wands
Cover art by Dustin Nguyen or Darwyn Cooke
Published by DC Comics

Batman Beyond returns in a new ongoing series. Terry McGinnis’s origin is wisely ignored here, opting instead to get straight into the meat of the series. Terry’s trying to balance being Batman and having a family, Bruce is his aging mentor, and the Justice League is … seeking justice.

Again, Batman Beyond #1 works as a competent superhero book, but it lacks that hook to really get you going. Writer Adam Beechen spends too much page space following his future villain into a storage locker, while a nattering fellow employee trails behind, explaining how wrong his actions are, nor does the lackadaisical dialogue between Terry and his family draw the reader into their family dynamic. Beechen’s set up an interesting schism in the plot, however, with Batman, the villain and the Justice League each having their own interest in the coming conflict.

Ryan Benjamin’s art carries the story effectively, with strong layouts and clean lines. If you’re a fan of the characters, there’s enough in Batman Beyond #1 to entertain, but it’s far from must-read right now. If, like me, you’ve seen maybe a half-dozen episodes of the cartoon and have only a vague knowledge of the cast, you won’t miss much.

Yo, prospective comics artists? Looking for some advice from the best of the best?

Well, Comics Experience has an offer for you — how’d you like to get critiqued by John Romita Jr.? Yessir, the artist of Avengers is going to be doing a guest critique for the group’s Creator Workshop — and as they say, that critique could be you.

What do you have to do to be in the running for the lucky critique? Submit your artwork to the Creators Workshop before January 22. The workshop meets online on the fourth Thursday of the month at 9pm EST for $29.99 a month, or $149.95 for six months.

For those who don’t know about Comics Experience, it’s a comics education course taught by IDW editor Andy Schmidt, with instructors ranging from former Marvel editor John Barber, G.I. Joe penciller Robert Atkins, colorist supreme Chris Sotomayor and a lot more. Want more info? Email info@comicsexperience.com.

Too bad they never made an X-Men movies in the seventies: As The Beat notes, Rick Veitch could have totally played Wolverine. If Clint Eastwood were unavailable, of course.

All of Africa…?: I’m torn by The Source‘s mention of “The Batman of Africa” in this announcement, as it plays into the Africa-as-a-country-rather-than-a-continent stereotype (note all the other Batmen are referred to as the Batmen of specific countries). On the other hand, up until recently there was only one Batman, making him the Batman of the whole world. And then we have to consider the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, a non-Bruce Wayne Batman who was also the Batman of an entire planet. Hmm…

“Good god! You’re calculating-”: Ryan North’s T-Rex does the math on the “EXPECTED REAL-LIFE BATMAN GENERATION RATE.” No one tell Batman how low the odds of generating a Batman actually are, as it could really screw up his whole world-wide franchising Batman, Inc. plan.

“But by the beard of ‘Uncle Elvis’…”: Michael Cavna of The Washington Post explains why DC was right to bring back the letters pages. One element I liked was the goofy punning letter page names that say “correspondence” and “Suicide Squad” at the same time, like, I don’t know, Deadman’s “Dead Letter Office” or The Spectre’s “Aiiieeeee-mail” or whatever. If I reall, new titles generally held some sort of reader-submitted suggestion contest in order to come up with a good name.  I’m going to start thinking of a letter column name for the new Red Lantern monthly right now (Blood-puke-o-grams? Red Letter Letters? Rage, Rage Against The Dying of the U.S. Postal Service? Hmm, this might take some thought…)

That’s a hell of an 88th birthday present: Stan Lee, the elder statesman of super hero comic books, just received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There were a plenty of stories in the mainstream and comics-specific media about this, but I’m going to link to this one on CNN.com, because it refers to Lee as “Spider-Man’s ‘dad’” in the headline. What does that make Steve Ditko? Spidey’s mom?

It Came From the NYPL
Cross Game v. 1
Written & Illustrated by Mitsuru Adachi
Translated by Ralph Yamada & Lillian Olsen
Published by Viz

Mitsuru Adachi is, I suspect, one of the two dozen or so best comic book creators in the world. The acclaim I’ve read of his work in Japan is astounding, and the two series I’ve so far encountered in English have only exceeded the hype. Viz previously brought American readers Adachi’s Short Program, a two-volume collection of melancholy and humanistic short stories. Now, Cross Game arrives in the States.

Cross Game tells of Ko Kitamura, his friends on the high school baseball club, and his relationship with the sisters who’ve lived next door to him for his entire life.  While it’s a romantic comedy at heart, Cross Game features notable amount of baseball action and its fair share of early tragedy.  But what really sets it apart is Adachi’s (with assistance from his translators) ability to capture the nuances of his characters, the humor and the pathos, via their witty dialogue and his casual pacing.

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Since taking over as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics in 2000, Joe Quesada has hosted his “Cup O’ Joe” panel at conventions all over the globe, offering fans a chance to speak their mind to him directly.

With today’s news that Axel Alonso is taking over as editor-in-chief as Quesada focuses on his position of Chief Creative Officer, questions are being asked across the industry, but perhaps none as vitally important — with as far-reaching implications on the future of both the comic book business and the world of entertainment as a whole — than these: Will Alonso be hosting a similar panel? And will the title of it also be a pun based on his first name? Together with my long-time collaborator Ben, we tackled the second question, coming up with a list of some likely candidates.

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This week licensed sci-fi novelist Steve Lyons makes his comics-writing debut with Steel #1, an Ed Benes-drawn one-shot kicking off a “Reign of Doomsday” storyline that will run through several different titles in the coming months.

Since crossovers tend to begin with the death of a character—part of some blood sacrifice ritual certain editors engage in as part of their religion worshipping evil gods they believe control comics sales—plenty of Internet chatter has been devoted to the fact that Steel might not make it out of this one alive.

I wouldn’t bet on his death though. Steel fan Shaquille O’Neal is 7’1, weighs over 300 pounds, and has fists that are twice the size of the average comic book editors skull—DC would have to be insane to risk annoying a fan that big.

Batman Beyond #1: Writer Adam Beechen and artists Ryan Benjamin, the creative team behind this year’s surprise hit Batman Beyond miniseries, return—this time for an ongoing engagement. Please note by “hit” I merely mean that enough folks liked and bought the mini for DC to greenlight an ongoing, something of a surprise given the specificity of the franchise—an alternate future version of Batman based on a TV cartoon from nine years ago—and the fact that the original Batman Beyond ongoing failed to outlive the TV show and was canceled after just 24 issues.

BB Wolf and the Three LPs HC Limited Music Edition: This special edition of J.D. Arnold and Rich Koslowski’s graphic novel reimagining of the Three Little Pigs story as a tale set in the blues music scene of the 1920s Missippi Delta comes with a special CD of blues songs recorded specifically to accompany the book. If you haven’t checked it out yet, this is probably a pretty great opportunity to do so…especially if you like blues music as well as comics.

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Written and created by Brian Andersen, art, colors and letters by the talented Celina Hernandez. For more So Super Duper go to:www.sosuperduper.com!

Check it, Rama readers — Vertigo has announced that that long-lost masterpiece of Grant Morrison’s, Flex Mentallo, will finally be available again in 2011.

The book, drawn by Frank Quitely, was a spinoff of Morrison’s subversive run on Doom Patrol. But due to legal issues stemming from the similarities of the lead character to comic book bodybuilding icon Charles Atlas, the run quickly became a hot commodity; never reprinted or collected.

According to Graphic Content, the collected edition — a “beautiful Deluxe Edition hardcover with bonus material” — will be out sometime this fall. What say you, Rama readers? You excited to see this story finally brought back to the public eye?

Brody’s Ghost v. 1
Written & Illustrated by Mark Crilley
Published by Dark Horse

Mark Crilley’s already created one of my all-time favorite series, the upbeat, hilarious and relentless imaginative Akiko, and his follow-up, Miki Falls, reinvented his art style and added emotional heft, yet retained the creative world-building of its predecessor.  Crilley returned a few months ago with a new series, Brody’s Ghost, a six-book serial about a young man who is approached by a ghost. This ghost, a young woman named Talia, needs Brody’s help to accomplish a task so she can get into heaven – except callously indifferent Brody’s trapped in a funk after a bad break-up.

So Brody’s Ghost is a supernatural adventure, with emotional overtones and redemption themes.  The art’s terrific – detailed and nuanced, with strong designs and a compelling world design; the mysteries of Talia’s death and afterworld travails hang over the entire book like a massive eclipse, yet Brody’s struggle to rediscover his own worth remains the emotional core through the first book.

Of course, it’s a six book cycle, so Brody’s Ghost v. 1 feels somewhat slight, concerned more with laying groundwork for Brody and Talia’s partnership, and establishing the baseline high concept for the series. As a result, the first book isn’t entirely satisfying, but it is intriguing, leaving plenty of room for readers’ imaginations to run amok with possibilities for the remaining five books. Mark Crilley’s previous work suggests he’ll keep me guessing through the series’ run, and despite a slightly slow start, I’m hopeful that the foundation laid in Brody’s Ghost v. 1 will lead to greater things in the future.

It’s a story as old as time itself—or at least as old as ongoing, in-universe superhero stories. A writer whose run on a book is either seminal, or at least considered the defining one for the characters or title. He leaves—either as a result of executive meddling or the creator getting bored and running out of ideas—and ultimately you’re left with two negative results: First, the guy who takes over is nowhere near as good; and second, any dangling plot threads left by the maestro vanish completely into oblivion. Sometimes, though, the stars align, the readers’ voices are heard and the writer in question gets back on the horse and takes another shot at the story. It doesn’t always work, particularly when the same factors that forced him out in the first place are still in effect at the publisher…but sometimes you strike gold.

[Note: Since this story discusses dangling plot threads both resolved and unresolved, please not that SPOILERS ARE ON. And since not all comebacks yield the results the creators want, I’ll be editorializing a bit on whether or not these stories worked. Remember that your mileage may vary and try to remain calm when commenting. And last but not least, remember that I’m only considering creators who were gone from the books for at least a few years. That means Brian Michael Bendis’ relaunch of Ultimate Spider-Man doesn’t count, and neither does Marc Andreyko’s on-again, off-again relationship with Manhunter. This list is in no way meant to be complete or comprehensive, but instead a representative sampling prompted by the recent conclusion of arguably the most fully successful such stories—my first example below.] (more…)

The first week of January seems pretty early to make what’s sure to be the biggest publishing announcement of the year: Fantagraphics is going to publish the complete Carl Barks. Wait, that’s not right. Let me try again: Fantagraphics is going to publish the complete Carl Barks! (There, that’s better.) Chris Mautner of Robot 6 scored the exclusive announcement, and interviewed publisher Gary Groth about the project.

Cyke on skates?: The National Hockey League and Stan Lee’s previously announced plan to create a different superhero for each of the NHL’s 30 teams sounded pretty cool when first announced, although the first of the NHL Guardians to hit the ice is a little less than impressive. He’s the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Penguin, he wears yellow and black, and has a weird little cape thing that gives him “super-maneuverability,” plus a magnetized suit and “ice missiles.” You can get a look at his costume here and an unimpressed reaction from the sports world here.  I’m a little disappointed myself, but I suppose cool costume creation is more in a Project: Rooftop wheelhouse than that of Stan Lee, who specialized in the word half of the comics equation. Penguin is joined by The Los Angeles Kings’ hero, The King.

Ty Templeton vs. religion: The talented cartoonist and prolific blogger has been counting down some of his best work from the year ending, and this superheroes vs. religous figures post is pretty fantastic. Superman vs. Jesus, The Hulk vs. Buddha and Batman vs. some monsters of the Bible…place your bets before clicking.

New rule—Brian McLachlan is the only one allowed to do licensed movie comics from now on: I don’t know why Google News Alerts alerted me of this post from way back in August of 2010 just this past weekend, but I’m not going to let it stop me from posting a link to the Smooth ‘n Natural web comic creator’s many awesome-looking movie comics that never existed but should have covers. (Via Geeks of Doom)

Abhay connects the dots: The Savage Critics critic talks about some of the most talked about comics of 2010, noting that Charles Burns’ X’ed Out is basically the same comic as Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy’s Joe The Barbarian, and Morrison’s Batman comics are basically a desperate cry for help.