There’s always been a degree of correlation between professional wrestling and comic books — one of the biggest pro wrestlers in history is named “Hulk,” after all. If you know Scary Godmother creator Jill Thompson, you may have heard that she’s a big-time pro wrestling fan, with grappling connections running as deep as illustrating WWE legend Mick Foley’s children book, Halloween Hijinx, back in 2001.

Thompson has a mutual admirer in current WWE star Daniel Bryan (known in his days on the independent circuit by his given name of Bryan Danielson). Bryan has in the past expressed his fondness for Beasts of Burden, the Dark Horse series written by Evan Dorkin and illustrated by Thompson. Last night on SyFy’s WWE Smackdown — yes, pro wrestling airs on SyFy and has for years now — he debuted a new ring jacket designed by Thompson. Earlier today, Thompson tweeted her original drawing. Click to enlarge!

And check out the finished product in living YouTube color here:

The new duds didn’t prove lucky on this occasion, as Bryan fell to WWE World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry in the main event cage match. You’ve still got the Money in the Bank briefcase, Dee-Bryan!

After seeing that more than 5,000 people voted in a poll about whether or not Spider-Man should have stayed married – a retcon that happened four years ago now – I started wondering: Why don’t people care about Superman’s marriage?

I mean, Superman got forcibly divorced from Lois just a few months ago with nary a peep, or not the kind of reaction that would have 5,000 people voicing their opinions four years later, at least. Is it that no-one cares about Superman, period? Not that many people liked his marriage to Lois in the first place? Or is there something particularly objectionable about the way that the Spider-Man marriage was undone that keeps the fires burning for that particular subject?

(For my part, while I think that the idea that Peter Parker being married limits interest or potential in the character is ridiculous, I also think that Amazing Spider-Man has been so much more enjoyable since Brand New Day, with the book’s renewed focus on its supporting cast and a tone more similar to “classic” Spidey stories than what the book had featured for almost a decade up to that point, that I find myself not that bothered by the undoing of the marriage; the book’s better – to me – as a result of all of the changes that happened at that time, so I’m happy.)

Clearly, John Byrne is thinking about the original X-Men uniforms if these two recent sketches are anything to go by:

(Sketches from here and here; click each image for a full-sized version.)

I really miss the original X-Men uniforms; they’re right up there with Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern costume (the revised Gil Kane version from #35 onwards, thank you very much, and yes, I know how bad that makes me sound) for me as the most wonderfully simple and elegant designs for superheroes. Yes, the Fantastic Four’s costumes have generally been simpler, but more dull, as well; the X-Men and GL costumes have a great visual balance between light and dark that works really well on even in uncolored linework, something that’s relatively rare in superhero costumes. I know that the X-Men as a concept have moved past this kind of uniform look – although the New Mutants have pretty much resurrected it – but… I wish we could see a return to it for awhile, hoods and all.

I don’t know whether to be amused or depressed that Edward Champion’s “Boilerplate for All Future Comics Articles” from 2006 (but recently uncovered again by Heidi MacDonald) still holds true today:

Comic books (use at least two of following) [are being taught in today's classrooms] [are selling ___ copies (insert sales figure of your choice that you feel best reflect economic boom)] [are being compared against Ulysses (MANDATORY COMPARISON)] [appeal to the young at heart] [are a sexy alternative to the novel].

Comic books are more than just Superman and Batman. [NOTE TO JOURNALIST: Avoid esoteric superhero references here. Stick with the big guns.]

[Frank Miller reinvented the form with The Dark Knight Returns.]

[Art Spiegelman tapped into personal experience for Maus.]

[Chris Ware has now transposed his talents to The New York Times.]

I guess it’s safe to say that comic books aren’t just for teenagers anymore. They just might be [categorized as literature] [be more than a guilty pleasure] too!

Actually, considering some of the press that’s surrounded DC’s New 52 relaunch – and there’s been a lot of it – I’m not even sure that anyone uses the “Comic books are more than just Superman and Batman” any more. Unless they’re going to follow it up with “There’s also Mister Terrific and Static, too – and they’re black!” or something similar.

We’ve learned by now that news often comes from the strangest of sources, and in the tradition of the full “New 52″ Justice League lineup — which still hasn’t been seen in actual comic books — being revealed via a drinking glass company, today we have our first look at The Amazing Spider-Man‘s Lizard, courtesy of a PEZ dispenser:

Of course, there’s some inevitable degree of translation between plastic PEZ dispenser and CGi creature in a big-budget live-action film, but that should at least give us an idea of the overall Lizard visual; the parts that don’t involve arms, legs and a lower torso, of course. Kudos to ComicBookMovie for sniffing this one out.

The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Rhys Ifans as the Lizard and Andrew Garfield in the title role, is scheduled for release (in 3D, natch) on July 3, 2012.

…to be raised by this (utterly lovely) cover for the upcoming hardcover collection Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight Vol. 1 - coming from Dark Horse in June, and collecting the first ten issues of the series – is, “Doesn’t Buffy apparently own a lot of clothes with her own logo on them?”

(In case you don’t remember, she also has a tank top that proudly displays her logo.)

More seriously: Good Lord, but Jo Chen just does phenomenal work, doesn’t she?

Over at design website Core77, Dave Seliger lists what he thinks are the Seven Graphic Novels Every Designer Should Know:

When you’re at the next design firm holiday party and your co-workers are rambling on about the “complex psychological profiles” of the characters in Watchmen, you can speak up about the hottest graphic novel you just read (as recommended by the Core77 clogger team).

The choices are interesting – Akira, 100% by Paul Pope and the original two-color run of Casanova are all in there – but, of course, what sticks out for me are the books that didn’t make the list: No King City? No Parker? Of course, this kind of list exists for people to ask “But what about [Book X]?”, but it does make me wonder what books I’d put on this kind of list, and why (I mean, there has to be some Kirby on there, right? And something from Brendan McCarthy…). Hmm…  What graphic novels/comics do you think deserve to be on any designers’ must-see list?

DC is continuing to sell lots and lots of copies of Geoff Johns and Jim Lee’s Justice League #1, the Aug. 31-released comic that kicked off their “The New 52″ relaunch. The publisher announced today via The Source that the issue is getting a fifth printing (a first for The New 52 and a relatively rare feat in general these days), showing up at comic book shops just a bit after the new year — Jan. 4, 2012.

Justice League #1 netted a reported 186,000 units in first-day Diamond sales, and is now well over the 200k mark in combined sales. The next issue, Justice League #4, is scheduled for release on Dec. 21.

Something that’s jumped out at me from recent product updates is this line from Marvel:

FANTASTIC FOUR #601 will be printed in a self-cover format, where the paper stock on the cover and the interior are similar.

It’s appeared in the last couple of shipping updates from the House of Ideas, unusually (Normally, such updates appear once, especially for something as minor as paper stock changes), but that’s not what’s interesting me; no, I’m more curious about why the book is being printed in “self-cover format.”

The cynical answer is probably something along the lines of “They’re changing the cover stock to something cheaper in an attempt to save money,” and that might be true, but the announcement doesn’t necessarily say that it’s the cover stock that’s changing; what if the stock for the interiors is being upgraded (or, more likely, both stocks are being bumped simultaneously)? And more importantly, why?

There’s something about this that reminds me of the fifth issue of Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles, way back when; that issue was released with four “de-enhanced” variant covers, each offering abstract images printed in red and black ink on brown cardstock as part-design statement, part-flipping the bird at the variant craze that was engulfing comics at the time (This was back in 1995). F4 writer Jonathan Hickman is known for his design sense, so what’re the possibilities that “self-cover format” relates to some design decision (I would love it if it were an issue made up entirely of covers that tell a story, but I doubt that’s the case, somehow)?

(Admittedly, the book having three variant covers might put an end to this kind of speculation. Guess we’ll see on December 21st…)

James Robinson tweets the truly depressing news that The Shade may end before its time, if sales on the mini don’t improve:

If sales don’t improve it may be cancelled before the 12 issues are done.

Truly depressing, of course, for two reasons:

1. It means that DC is joining Marvel in the “finishing mini-series before their limited run is done” school of thought (Mind you, DC have a history of this; The Great Ten and, years ago, Slash Maraud were canceled early).
2. The Shade is a great book with a fantastic art line-up. Future issues are slated to have work by Jill Thompson, Darwyn Cooke, Javier Pulido and Frazer Irving, and when you factor in current artist Cully Hamner, that’s pretty much an unbeatable line-up of talent right there.

DC told CBR that there were no plans to pull the series earlier, but it’d be nice to see numbers rise on this series to ensure that doesn’t come up as a hypothetical again anytime soon.

I suppose when I was writing V for Vendetta I would in my secret heart of hearts have thought: wouldn’t it be great if these ideas actually made an impact? So when you start to see that idle fantasy intrude on the regular world… It’s peculiar. It feels like a character I created 30 years ago has somehow escaped the realm of fiction.

That’s Alan Moore, talking to the Guardian newspaper about the Occupy and Anonymous movements using the mask from V for Vendetta as ways of identifying themselves (while, obviously, obscuring themselves at the same time). Moore’s co-creator on V, David Lloyd, has spoken about the use of the mask he created before, including pointing out that Anonymous seems to have missed the point of the character in the original book, as opposed to the movie adaptation:

I guess they’re forming a union and wanting a unifying image, which in one sense is against the true concept of V from the book, where he stands for individualism. But the image in the movie of the mass protest of ‘Vs’ was one of a unified front of resistance against tyranny, so I can understand how that could promote the concept of one group with one collective face. And, of course, the more stylish an image is the more attractive and impressive it is for anyone wanting a brand.

Congratulations to DC Comics, which has been named as one of America’s Hottest Brands by Advertising Age:

In a move fraught with risk, Time Warner’s DC Comics reworked nearly every character under its supervision in an effort to make popular heroes and heroines more appealing to a broader audience. This fall, DC canceled all its continuing series — including decades-old titles “Action Comics” and “Detective Comics” — and restarted them from a new “Issue No. 1″ or launched something different altogether. DC has also made certain that a digital comic is available the same day its print counterpart hits the retail racks.

The piece is shorter on accolades than you may expect, noting that the DC relaunch was likely prompted by Marvel’s success, and ending by asking whether the initial sales success is sustainable in the long term. But nonetheless, this is another PR coup for the publisher, topping off what’s been an impressive second half of 2011. It’s all downhill from here, probably…

The two most attention-getting Archie Comics things in years — openly gay character Kevin Keller and possible future series Life with Archie — combine in January.

As previously announced, the adult version of the character will get married in Life with Archie #16, and the publisher has released the cover, up above, with Mr. Weatherbee apparently especially affected.

For those of us who’ve been interested in the strangely-dwindling fortunes of Marvel’s diversity when it comes to solo titles, editor-in-chief Axel Alonso kind of addresses that over at CBR:

I think you’ll see our commitment to diversity is apparent across the line, and has been for some time. Black Panther has anchored a monthly title on and off for the past 8 years, and is certain to be back in the mix in 2012, Luke Cage has been a central character in [Brian] Bendis’ Avengers, and Shang Chi’s role in “Spider-Island” is a taste of things to come — and those are just three characters off the top of my head… It’s not like we’ve stopped trying, either. Besides Miles Morales in the Ultimate Universe, we’ve introduced a wide variety of multicultural characters in the Marvel Universe: the super-powered bounty hunter team, the Zapata Brothers, from “Moon Knight” and “Deadpool Team-Up”; Reptil from “Avengers Academy”; Coldmoon and Dragonfire from “Point One”; Raizo Todo from “Fear Itself: Hulk”; and “Battle Scars” Sergeant Marcus Johnson, who is a character you’ll definitely want to keep your eye on — I mean, eyes. Also, Striker just came out of the closet in “Avengers Academy,” and Wiccan and Hulkling continue to play a huge role in “Young Avengers/Avengers: Children’s Crusade.” I feel like I’m just getting started.

He later goes on to say something unexpected: “Creating any character with the intention of having them anchor an ongoing title is probably the fastest way for them not to catch on.” While that’s probably just good business sense in today’s market, especially for Marvel, there’s something very… I don’t know, pessimistic about both creators’ ability to come up with compelling new characters and readers’ willingness to stick with books featuring new ideas in that point of view; it feels as if it dooms Marvel’s ongoing series output to spin-offs and revamps for the foreseeable future for some reason, although I can’t believe that was his intent.

Minimal posting today (Basically, this) and tomorrow, normal service will resume on Monday. Happy Turkey Day, everyone.

Potential read-of-the-day: Mark Millar explaining why he’s against simultaneous day-and-date print and digital releases for comics:

I really think day and date release is a disastrous idea and makes no economic sense at all to comics as a business. It’s potentially ruinous for comic stores, and in the long term it’s not going to do publishers any favors either. I see the attraction on a very superficial level. They think they’re cutting out the middle men and all the guys taking a piece of their gross, but there’s an equivalent number of hidden costs in digital too, and it’s short term thinking to obliterate the life-blood of the medium.

There’s a lot, lot more in the piece itself, which I highly recommend checking out.

I can see where Millar’s coming from, but I think he’s wrong in a number of places; if nothing else, I think the experience of DC’s New 52 launch has pushed back significantly against the idea of simultaneous print/digital releases as “potentially ruinous” for comic stores, considering print sales rose dramatically across the line (in the short-term, at least. Long-term, of course, it remains to be seen what’ll happen), and I think he’s ignoring a sizable new audience by writing off digital as a tertiary market akin to movies playing on television years after release – Haven’t both Marvel and DC indicated that digital audiences seem to be in addition to, and not replacing, the direct market readership in their experience?

That said, I kind of love his commentary about the importance of good direct market retailers:

Retailers are as big a part of comics now as the characters or the creators. They’re not just an outlet. These are carefully crafted communities and owned and staffed by people with a genuine passion for what they’re doing in a way that the ‘Amazon Also Recommends’ box isn’t quite going to match.

Seriously, go read the piece. Agree or disagree with him, I think this might be the kind of thing we need more of to have a real conversation about where digital fits in with the current comic industry, and where it should fit in going forwards.

Looking over Marc Olivier Frisch’s comments on the second month sales of DC’s New 52, I noticed that sales increased on Wonder Woman, Batwoman, Catwoman and Supergirl, all of which are in the top 40 (Wonder Woman and Batwoman are both in the top 20, in fact), and it made me think about the fact that Marvel’s only two female-led solo books have just been canceled for low sales. The success of these DC female-led books stands in sharp contrast to the fates of their Marvel equivalent, which made me wonder: Why? (more…)

If you’re concerned about the amount of double-shipping seen in February’s Marvel solicits, there’s an upside – it’s not necessarily going to be a regular thing, but Marvel titles are upping their frequency, according to Tom Brevoort via his Formspring:

In most cases, [2012 ongoing Marvel titles will release] more than 12 issues, though it’ll vary from title to title and creative team to creative team.

I’ve been surprised by the negativity I’ve been seeing online from Marvel fans about the double-ship method, I admit; I honestly would’ve expected a lot more “Twice as many issues of a book I like!” than complaints about cost or concern about the publisher cannibalizing its own audience (There are plenty of people with the former attitude, admittedly; I’m just surprised by the greater volume of the latter within the Marvel fanbase). (more…)

Really, who saw this coming? The Syfy channel has ordered a pilot script based on DC Comics’ Booster Gold, according to a report in the Hollywood Reporter. The script will be written by Andrew Kreisberg, a screenwriter who’s previously worked for DC writing both Batman Confidential and Green Arrow/Black Canary, as well as episodes of the Justice League animated series, and will “center on Booster Gold, a washed-up athlete from the future who travels back to the present in hopes of becoming the greatest super hero of all time,” according to the Reporter.

This won’t be Booster’s live-action debut; he appeared in an episode of the final season of Smallville written by Geoff Johns, although that will be unlikely to connect with this new version. Somewhere, Dan Jurgens is smiling to himself at the prospect of the word “boosterrific” breaking into mainstream geek usage.

It’s admittedly a bit dry, but Craig Fischer’s post at the Comics Journal about Jack Kirby’s control of the reader’s focus in his art is well worth picking through:

Another way to indicate peripheral elements is through thickness of line. In the following panel from the second page of Fantastic Four #60 (March 1967), the figures dominate the foreground, especially Ben Grimm, whose outline is inked with thick holding lines, whose skin is dotted with spot blacks, and whose body is moving left-to-right in a dynamic diagonal… As we look away from the characters, however, and allow our eyes to roam around the panel, we can see that the machinery on the far wall is inked with a much thinner line than the contours that surround the characters in the foreground. The formula is intuitive: the foreground is drawn in thick, eye-catching lines and the background in unobtrusive thinner ones, to create the illusion of receding depth. And the artist has the option to ditch backgrounds altogether if s/he wants the reader’s interest to focus exclusively on the characters.

It’s a post that draws attention to Kirby’s still-unparalleled skill in the composition of comics, but also the contributions made by inkers and colorists; these days, I think that colorists shoulder a lot more responsibility for keeping different planes of depth distinct for the reader, for better or worse. Looking at black and white artwork from a number of modern day mainstream artists, there’s been a move away from thickness of line to differentiate that in linework alone – Look at uncolored art from Marc Silvestri or Jim Lee, for example; the amount of detail/cross-hatching “confuses” the eye when it comes to the important of lineweight, I think. Reading this post, I wondered to what extent Kirby’s legacy has been… reduced isn’t the right word, exactly, but selectively chosen, perhaps. Masters like Kirby, or Alex Toth, had skills that went beyond surface style, but I’m not sure how many of those skills have been studied or even noticed by a lot of artists working in superhero comics today.

(Of course, then there are artists like Chris Samnee, Marcos Martin and Javier Pulido, who have shown themselves to know exactly what made Kirby, Toth et al such masters, so it’s not a basic “Hey, these young kids don’t know nothin‘!” scenario…)