The unsatisfying end of Birds of Prey: At Irrelevant Comics, Yan Basque gripes about Birds of Prey #13, which ended up being the unintended last issue of the current volume of the series, save for a two-issue fill-in before September’s relaunch.  Basque counts up the number of different pencil artists involved with the series, and how often the artists who actually drew the issues matched the artists who were advertised as the ones who would be drawing them. It’s not a very good record. Meanwhile, at House To Astonish, in the course of his weekly “X-Axis” review column, Paul O’Brien also notes that the book seemed to be written without any knowledge that it would actually be the end of writer Gail Simone’s tenure on the book, and, perhaps, the end of this pre-reboot verison of the book and team. It does raise the question of how long ago DC decided to relaunch the line, and how many creators they actually shared that info with. Did they know a year ago? If so, one wonders why they bothered working so hard to give so many characters new status quos in Brightest Day-branded books, if they were going to start over again in one short year.

Don MacPherson on DC’s fall line-up: In addition to looking at the books themselves, MacPherson looks at DC’s public relations of the matter, applauding the way they’ve dominated comics news and managed to keep a tight lid on such a big thing, and noting that they unfortunately let others (like Newsarama) name their new initiative, instead of branding it themselves.

Hundreds of words about Superman: Tim O’Neil talks about the Man of Steel’s greatest strengths in a pair of posts, here and here (And, in the process, points to some excellent Superman comics, some of which are often overlooked). Meanwhile, at The Comics Journal, John Hilgart talks at length about Superman’s face.

Just how crazy has DC Comics gone?: Crazy enough that Steve Rude would ask if he could maybe make them some awesome comic books and they said no, apparently. That’s just nutty. I can sort of see why DC would put him off for a few months, if they really want to instill a sort of uniformity to their line starting in September (there definitely doesn’t seem to be much in the way of stylistic variety in the designs and artists involved with their new 50-book slate, for example), but I can’t imagine it being a good idea to turn Rude down altogether. No original graphic novels or miniseries or Steve Rude Draws Whatever He Wants #1 one-shot? Ironically, yesterday DC  announced that Rude’s fourth choice on a list of DC characters he’d like to work on, OMAC, would be getting his own ongoing title—with DC publisher Dan DiDio co-writing it.

Now read this: Check out the Level Up creative team of Gene Luen Yang and Thien Pham’s cute strip about where the arcade heroes of yesteryear are now.

“Here is a period piece for our postracial times — in the era of Ella Baker and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the most powerful adversaries of spectacular apartheid are a team of enlightened white dudes”: In The New York Times, writer and X-Men fan Ta-Nehisi Coates talks about taking in X-Men: First Class with his son, and what he noticed that his son didn’t. Meanwhile, in the New Zealand Listener, David Larsen notes some of the quite disturbing implications of the film that the creators seem to have either not noticed or glossed over. And at his blog, David Brothers talks about his viewing (I agree with a lot of what he said, particularly regarding the awesomeness of Fassbender and McAvoy) and he also notes some of the disturbing (and hopefully accidental!) X-Men = Nazis implications. Peter David really liked it, though.

Nobody will ever like the  new Teen Titans: Andrew Weiss is so confident in the rottenness of the new version of the Teen Titans DC announced this week, that he’s already inducting them into his “Nobody’s Favorites” hall of shame. I can’t disagree. I personally experienced aesthetic pain while looking at the cover image of Teen Titans #1. Of course, someone somewhere must like it, or DC never would have greenlighted it, would they? Do you like? Speak up in the comments, please. I’m genuinely curious, as I have a hard time comprehending anyone liking it.

Wow, Bryan Lee O’Malley used to suck: Check out his 1988 Transformers comic for evide—oh, he was only eight years old when he drew that? Damn, that’s actually pretty good then. (And he drew better Transformers at eight then I can at 34, the talented little punk…!)

“Batgirl’s Last Dance”: Will Brooker covers the hell out of The Brave and The Bold #33, the Cliff Chiang-drawn issue where Barbara Gordon, Zatanna and Wonder Woman do karaoke to a Beyonce song.

“The salient reason that more people aren’t reading about mainstream superheroes, of course, is not because they are…confused by backstory — it’s that they don’t happen to be particularly interested in mainstream superheroes”: Here’s NPR’s Glen Weldon on DC’s post-Flashpoint plans.

Hey, did you know that George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise is popular in other countries that aren’t even America, even some countries that are in Europe, a cradle of actual culture, and not just pop culture?

I suppose I sort of knew that, in the back of my head, but I was still surprised to see actual evidence of it, in the form of Space Warped #1, the first half of a Boom Studio’s published translation of Herve Bourhis and Rudy Spiessert’s Rustic Wars.

The new title alludes to the source material being parodied, but the original title better reflects the premise. It’s well known that Lucas sought inspiration from a variety of sources, including Jack Kirby’s Fourth World comics, Japanese cinema, Westerns and Joseph Cambell-digested world myth, and Bourhis and Spiessert essentially take the original Star Wars movie as Lucas created it, and then walked it back toward some of that inspiration.

In other words, it’s still an adventure story with elements of fantasy set long ago and far, far away, but the long ago is pre-Industrial Revolution, and the far, far away is Europe.
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Awesome artist Simon Gane, drawing awesomely: Check out his Batman, Batgirl and, um, these other characters. (Ganked from Comics Reporter)

If First Class comes first, what comes second?: Johanna Draper Carlson raises an interesting dilemma regarding the latest based-on-a-Marvel-comic film, X-Men: First Class. If you want to read the comics it’s based on, um, what do you read? The heart of the movie is the Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr relationionship, but where is that in the comics? I think spread out all over, along with Hellfire Club and Emma Frost stuff, none of which is all that much like it was the movie anyway. Everything branded “First Class” in the comics, the Jeff Parker-written stuff, is fantastic, but doesn’t have anything at all to do with the movie, beyond the fact that Beast is in both. I’d recommend Marvel’s X-Men: First Class comics, but only for people looking for fun, accessible X-Men comics, not people specifically looking for something like the movie. (Besides, none of the comic book versions of Magneto and Professor X were ever as dreamy as Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy).

DC’s direct market sales for April: Marc-Oliver Frisch’s analysis on DC’s sales from April at The Beat should be of special interest this time, given how radically DC is changing their publishing game in September. Frisch calls the planned 52 new launches “a workable enough load for the market,” given DC’s April output.  I’m sure that’s reassuring to some who see the move as a potential direct market apocalypse, but I still have some doubts. (It’s workable, but only if enough individual readers want to try to read a ton of new books; it looks like a very tempting jumping-off point, and, if anyone was ever considering moving from signles to trades, DC created the ideal time to do so—take four to six months off, then start collecting trades in spring of 2012). Speaking of, DC’s latest announcement of new titles, it seems like each and every one of those books would have a much better chance of flourishing if released over the course of a season or year, instead of in a single month.

Drawn and Quarterly to have an awesome fall: Actually, perhaps it’s more accurate to say comics fans are going to have an awesome fall.

Does DC have an Alan Moore created/recreated character hit list?: Gavok examines the evidence.

Congressman Anthony Weiner gives political cartoonist license to make dick jokes: Michael Cavna rounds up some of the most eye-catching, and Daryl Cagle has a Weinergate gallery.

This week in comics! These comics are available! Probably!

American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #1: Joe The Barbarian artist Sean Murphy joins writer Scott Snyder for a five-issue spinoff miniseries. Set during World War II, Survival features vampire hunters Delicia Book and Cash McCogan.

Booster Gold #45: As one of the only regular DCU titles tying directly into Flashpoint, Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapumund’s book is positioned to benefit quite nicely from the big crossover event. It’s also just one of plenty of Flashpoint comics coming out this week, as four more three-issue miniseries launch: Flashpoint: Citizen Cold, Flashpoint: Deathstroke and The Curse of the Ravager, Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman and Flashpoint: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown. That’s five books, for $15, and just this week, completists!

Captain America: American Nightmare: Excited for the upcoming Captain America movie, and looking to read about his comic adventures first? Great, Marvel’s got plenty of them to choose from. So many, in fact, that the main problem is probably figuring out where to start. Just this week, there’s the above hardcover collection, by Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, Andy Kubert and others (250-pages/$25), Captain America By Dan Jurgens Vol. 1, collecting the beginning of the Jurgens-written run from the late nineties (260/$30), Captain America: The Fighting Avenger, which collects four all-ages stories from the likes of Brian Clevinger, Paul Tobin, Jeff Parker, Gurihiu, David Baldeon and others (120/$15) and Captain America: No Escape, which collects a five-issue portion of Ed Brubaker’s run on the monthly, penciled by Butch Guice (120/$16).

Congress of the Animals: New Jim Woodring! This 100-page, $20 hardcover is Woodring’s second graphic novel, and the first to star his Frank character. Check out a preview here.

DC Comics Presents: Impulse #1: Before Geoff Johns aged him, matured him and changed his superhero identity in Flash and Teen Titans, Bart Allen went by the name Impulse and had funnier more fun adventures than one finds in the DCU of today. This $8, 95-page almost-trade includes four issues from writer Todd DeZago’s run, including art by pre-Rebirth Ethan Van Sciver, Angel Unzueta and Walter Simonson and featuring guest-stars like Batman, The Joker, Kalibak and Impulse’s archenemy, Inertia.

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I think the latest announcement makes it official: DC Comics has gone and went insane. (Quick, see if you can spot the typo in that Source blog post before they fix it!) As the main page reports, DC is relaunching both Batman and Detective Comics with new #1′s, and trading creative teams, with Greg Capullo taking over for Jock as Scott Snyder’s collaborator. I have more frightened and confused thoughts on the subject here.

And on the subject of DC relaunches: Bully, The Little Stuffed Bull proves once again why he should be in charge of the comics industry, naming his 52 tiles, which include the likes of Batgirl, Inc. starring Barbara Gordon, Stephanie Brown, and Cassandra Cain and Anyone Else You Want; Are You Happy Now? #1; Tom Spurgeon offers his own wish-list, five titles strong and, finally, Ty Templeton follows DC’s lead and launches his own 52 new versions of his Bun Toons.

Oracle no more?: While some fans are having fun with DC’s announcement, others are pretty concerned about what it means for some of the characters, including the most prominent person in a wheelchair in all of superhero comics (Professor X doesn’t count, because he’s always standing up, and also is also a mutant). Here are two posts expressing concern that Barbara Gordon will quit being the center of the DC heroes’ information and intelligence universe and one of their greatest leaders just so she can go back to her Bronze Age status quo, on DC Women Kicking Ass and Irrelevant Comics.

I want all of these: Check out Seth’s roller derby team logos. Then buy shirts of each. And give them to me. Please.

Anders Nilsen looks like this: Only hotter, I’m told.

“Just how many times can Hollywood insult Scotland?”: The Herald isn’t happy with a change X-Men: First Class made to one of its characters. Comics writer Alan Grant is quoted in the article.

So what’s Bryan Lee O’Malley up to?: Apparently, his fourth outline of a new project. He offers evidence via Twitter.

“We have a larger global footprint … than all of the major museums in the world combined”: That’s DeviantArt co-founder Angelo Sotira talking about the site in this USA Today feature.

Thomas Zahler’s weirdest commission?: The Love and Capes artist shares an unusual commission request for an image featuring both Power Girl and Ms. Marvel, and reveals a line he just wouldn’t cross. (By the way, if you haven’t ever seen it before, Zahler’s commissions page is a great way to waste time on the Internet).

Fearpoint and Flash Itself: Tim O’Neil on the latest chapters of the two big publisher’s two big series. (I think…it’s a creative piece, as far as comics reviews go).

I don’t know, would my blog post make a good rap song?: “Could My Screenplay Make a Good Graphic Novel?”

Yuichi Yokoyama’s Garden is by far the strangest comic of any kind I’ve ever read.

It’s a lovely looking object, as much of what publisher PictureBox releases tend to be. It’s an eight-by-six-inch square containing a fat, 330-page page count. It’s printed right to left, as it would have been in the original Japanese, and the white dust jacket is covered in generously spaced, slanted square reproductions of the panels from within, here printed in red ink. Within them are speed lines, large Japanese letters in a mechanical, sound-effect font, and strange characters engaged in mysterious, exciting-looking actions.

The very first panel is a close-up of one of those strange figures, telling a group of its fellow figures, “’Fraid the agarden ain’t open today.” After a few sentences of conversation—“What sort of garden is it?” “A very good garden”—they decide to walk around the fence and, when they find a break in the fence, enter the garden anyway.

The garden isn’t any sort of park and doesn’t seem to have any real vegetation—it’s a bizarre landscape filled with unusual and unlikely things, many of them seemingly falling somewhere between organic and mechanical, as if the entire system were an alien, inorganic organism.  There’s a river a waterfall of balls, a bride of swivel chairs, houses and mountains of every conceivable material and design, strange forms of conveyance, fake trees, towns where every single thing is put on wheels.

For the book’s 300-plus pages, this group of individuals—the size of which is never defined, but is evidently quite large—explores this space, splitting up and getting deeper and deeper into ever more complex, more imaginative and more dangerous territory.
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The dust from DC’s bombshell: If you missed it, and I’m not sure how you could have, here’s the USA Today article featuring the announcement itself. Here’s Tom Spurgeon’s more-cogent-than-most reaction to the news (that Spurgeon is one cogent fellow, isn’t he?). Here’s Heidi “The Beat” MacDonald’s round-up of creator and retailer tweets on the matter. Here’s Brian Hibbs’ reaction, offering the retailer’s point of view, and really focusing on those 52 titles. (Which is a strangely exact number, particularly if you’re having trouble thinking of, say, 10 DC characters capable of selling more than 20,000 books a month…or ten DC writers whose work you want to read monthly. It occurs to me as I write this that 52 is the same number of worlds in the current DCU multiverse, which may suggest there will be, like, five different Batman titles starring five different Batmans from five different earths or something, but also suggests a real randomness to this output explosion—those 52 worlds came about simply because there were 52 issues of 52, which was determined because it was a weekly series, and there are 52 weeks in a year. Huh.)  Here’s J.K. Parkin of Robot 6. Here’s Michael Cavna of The Washington Post. Here’s Flash-focused blog Speed Force taking a close look at Jim Lee’s Flash redesign (it’s boring old Barry Allen, based on the eye color). Here’s Tom Foss. Here’s Snell, who notes that the people who are announcing all these new titles which are going to be better than the old titles are the exact same people responsible for all those old titles that sold so poorly they needed rebooting. Here’s Jim Smith. Here’s Kiel Phegley, objecting to an omission in the new Justice League line-up, which seems particularly glaring given the new teams sartorial choices. And finally, here’s my own initial reaction from last night, which admittedly consisted mostly of disgust at the JLA’s matching dumb collars. I’m honestly having trouble even processing this announcement (or the reboot/redesign half of it, anyway), as it seems like a out-of-control line expansion applying the “Brand New Day” formula to not just a single franchise, but every single thing DC publishes. It just seems so…risky.

Hmm, did they ever consider just making all their comics really good…?: Here’s David Bitterbaum on four recent DC comics, three of which he liked and one of which he hated.

Supergirls rock and rolling: My God I love Cliff Chiang…is he drawing all 52 of those books? Because that might work…

I’d second this, so long as there are parades involved: “Geek Pride Day”

While it is the night before Wednesday, it is also the night after Memorial Day. In year’s past, that would have meant that comics would have been delayed until Thursday, but Diamond’s new-ish arrangement with comics shops should mean that shops have new books on sale tomorrow as normal. You might want to call ahead to your local shop however to make sure that’s the case before you make a trip.

If you do, and if the new books are there, then these are some of ‘em you should find…

A Bride’s Story Vol. 1: This 190-page, $17 hardcover from Yen Press is the first installment of manga-ka Kaoru Mori’s comic about a 20-year-old’s marriage to a 12-year-old boy from the next village, and their adjustment to their new lives. Mori’s previous series was Emma, so if you liked that, you may like this.

Citizen Rex: This 145-page, $20 hardcover collects Mario and Gilbert Hernandez’s  miniseries about a gossip blogger and a robot celebrity.

Comeback Kings #1: Bruce Lee, Jim Morrison, Elvis Prseley, Andy Kaufman and Tupac Shakur are not only not dead, they fight crime together. At least they do in this comic, by Matt Sullivan, Gabe Guarente and Ethan Young. Albert Ching interviewed the creators for the main page a few months back.

Constructive Abandonment: Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber collaborate on a series of paintings with text that achieve something like a fine art Far Side. It’s a $16, 65-page, seven-by-seven hardcover, and you can see a few examples here.

Fear Itself #3: Marvel’s summer crossover, which actually started in spring and won’t wrap up until the fall, will be three-sevenths over with this chapter. Like the preceding one’s, it’s still by Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen, and at the 22-page/$3.99 price point. This week’s tie-ins include Fear Itself: The Deep #1, a sort of story-specific Defenders revival by Cullen Bunn and Lee Garbett. If that’s not enough Fear Itself for you, there’s also Thunderbolts #158 and Herc #4 (For Fear Itself-free Hercules, there’s the fourth and final issue of Wolverine/Hercules: Myths, Monsters and Mutants, a mini I’ve been enjoying)

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Lea Hernandez was a Dave Stevens “Good Girl”: The comics creator shares a story (and some pictures) about posing for the late, great Rocketeer artist.

I know Tom Spurgeon was kidding, but I wouldn’t mind reading that series: In this link round-up, Comics Reporter Spurgeon mentions a few pieces contemplating DC’s post-Flashpoint publishing plans, and jokes “I’m hoping it’s a Lt. Marvel event series.” The Lieutenant Marvels are three guys—Tall Billy, Hill Billy and Fat Billy—who can share the Shazam powers with Billy Batson. Considering the publisher’s difficulty in coming up with a version of Captain Marvel they can sell (a problem of their own creation, if you ask me, as they keep trying to fix something that’s not broken), and how popular their event that basically turned much of their character catalog into Lieutenant Lanterns of various colors (Blackest Night), an event series in which various DC heroes become deputized as Lieutenant Marvels doesn’t sound that far-fetched (You know what’s awesome about superhero comics right now? It’s almost impossible to joke about them, because there is virtually no idea that seems too ridiculous for a publisher to attempt).

Well for God’s sake, don’t just sit there blogging—put him out!: “Matty’s on Fire”

“There wasn’t a whole lot about the pilot that I didn’t like”: Conor Kilpatrick watches the Wonder Woman pilot for iFanboy, and he kinda liked it.

Lots of goodies coming from Fantagraphics: Check out the publisher’s previews of Jim Woodring’s Congress of the Animals, Mickey Mouse by Floyd Gottfredson and the covers for Michael Kupperman’s highly-anticipated (by me and, I imagine, a lot of other people) Mark Twain’s Autobiography, 1910-2010.

Does Krazy and Ignatz promote teen pregnancy?: Fact: The only thing safer than the 100% safe practice of abstinence is to hurl a brick at the back of the head of anyone who shows the slightest romantic interest in you.

This looks pretty awesome: That is all.

Resisting urge to fill this spot with a dirty joke: “‘Akira’ Director Leaves And Keanu Never Came”

“Where to Go Next for Sports Manga”: This list by Johanna Draper Carlson recommending various sports manga by sport looks like a fairly useful starting point for Americans interested in the genre. I (obviously) love comics of all kinds, but throughout my life interest in sports has ranged from zero to very little (excepting high school cross country and track, which I participated in), and I’ve read very few of these (four out of 18, to be exact). Given my lack of interest in or knowledge of sports, I was quite shocked how suspenseful I found the early volumes of Prince of Tennis. One Pound Gospel and Maison Ikkoku are both quite brilliant (although the latter isn’t really a sports manga, anymore than those X-Men issues where they play baseball are a sports comic).

I wanna know why Ryan Reynolds says “Green Lantern’s Light!” like he’s playing Christian Bale playing Batman: “Five Things to Know About Green Lantern Before You See It”

“The problem isn’t the promotion itself, but rather the industry’s proclivity for milking a good, original idea of all of its appeal and strength”: Don MacPherson takes a closer look at Marvel’s announcement of retailer-specific variant covers for Amazing Spider-Man, following in the footsteps of IDW’s Godzilla-squishing-your-local-comics-shop variant cover promotion.

Standard comic blog subject in Washington Business Journal?: Not really. This article, “Green light women superhero movies,” is actually much more tedious than that.

In case you were wondering, Covered is still pretty awesome: Anthony Vukojevich covers Frank Miller and Al Milgrom’s cover for Rom #17.

“Under all the brawn…Steve Rogers is still a 98-pound weakling with a huge heart”: That’s Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso in USA Today, explaining the publisher’s “I Am Captain America” covers, which demonstrate that we all have the ability to become a hero like Captain America. All we need is steroids. Lots and lots of steroids. Super soldier serum! I mean super soldier serum!

I hope it wasn’t just because she’s a Marvel and he’s a DC: “Ryan Reynolds speaks about his divorce from Scarlett Johansson”

Wherever comics are sold?: “Where is DC Comics?”

What, Frank Miller’s Sin City didn’t count?: “Finally: True Comics about a Lifetime of Sex with Prostitutes”

Maybe, but have you read any modern ones? They’re even worse: “It’s Undeniable, Old Comics Suck”

Action Comics #901: Artist Kenneth Rocafort joins writer Paul Cornell on Action Comics, which has returned its focus to Superman after Cornell’s Luthor-starring arc. Rocafort and Cornell will be continuing that weird “Reign of Doomsday” storyline that’s been running through various DC Comics for months now. The main page has a preview here. Meanwhile, if you missed it, DC also has a reprint of the over-sized, $6 Action Comics #900 coming out this week.

DC Comics Presents: Green Lantern: Willworld: This 2001 origial graphic novel was most notable for its amazing artwork, courtesy of the young and up-and-coming artist Seth Fisher, who unfortunately passed away in 2006. This is a hell of a showcase for his skills, as the story features a young Hal Jordan waking up on a strange world full of bizarre imagery. J.M. DeMatteis scripted. Like all of the DCCP reprints, its $8 for somewhere in the neighborhood of 100-pages.

Deep Sleeper: IDW is reprinting this follow-up graphic novel to The Coffin, by the creative team of Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston. It’s a 145-page, $22 hardcover.

Emma Frost Ultimate Collection, Mystique By Brian K. Vaughan Ultimate Collection: Two big books featuring characters featured in this summers X-Men: First Class film. The former is a 430-page, $35 trade featuring all 18 issues of the 2003-launched Emma Frost ongoing from writer Karl Bollers and a variety of artists. The latter is a 310-page, $25 trade collecting the first 13 issues of the Vaughan-written 2003 Mystique monthly.

Green Lantern #66, Green Lantern Corps #60 and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #10: You know how DC plans to publish only one single comic book the week of August 31, Flashpoint #5? Can they really pull that off? Because that would demonstrate an extraordinary amount of control of what they publish and when, and if they can do that, why on Earth would they publish issues of all three titles participating in the “War of the Green Lanterns” crossover story on the exact same day? That seems kind of insane, doesn’t it? There’s a whole lot of Green Lantern material out this week besides those three issues, too. There’s the aforementioned DCCP reprint of Green Lantern: Willworld, the 180-page, $23 trade collection Green Lantern Corps: Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns and the 130-page, $13 trade collection Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Emerald Knight has six stories in it, two of which feature Hal Jordan and the GLC.

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What, none of Bluewater bio-comics made the list?: Here are CNN’s “top five political comic books.” Number two on the list is probably particularly relevant right now, given the news of the later part of last week.

2011 Glyph Awards Winners: I don’t always list award winners here, because there are so many awards, but then I feel like I probably should list the Glyph Awards winners, since I was one of the judges this year, but then I think maybe I shouldn’t because it’s gauche to do so given my involvment, and then I think it’s not about me so I why am I overthinking it and anyway, here’s who won what. Congratulations to all of the winners; and to all of the losers, I hope you realize I was totally susceptible to bribes, so if you didn’t win, you have no one to blame but yourself for not offering me large sums of money. (Legal disclaimer: I’m totally kidding)

Rapturetoons: In light of recent predictions that didn’t quite go off (Guys, Jesus said “of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” right there in the gospel of Matthew!), Sequential rounded up some Rapture-related comics on the Internet, while Daryl Cagle did the same with political cartoons on the subject.

“We can all agree now that it was crap, right?”: Writing for Mightygodking.com, John Seavey examines the impact of Marvel’s Civil War series five years later, specifically looking at what changes the series wrought that Marvel embraced and which they ran away screaming from at first opportunity. It really does seem like a lot of the latter, and not so much of the former, huh?

And you say the sky is what color, exactly?: “‘Beetle Bailey’ set bad example”

I always enjoy reading stories like this: At Sequential Tart, Anita Olin talks about how she got into comic books. (Via The Beat)

Mike Sterling apologizes: But sometimes, when you’ve been thinking about some small aspect of a 1974 Swamp Thing comic book for years, it’s best to just put it on your blog and get it off your chest.

What comics publishers talk about when they talk about selling out: I imagine most of you have heard some version of this before, but Jason Wood does a nice job of explaining what exactly it means when a publisher announces that a comic book has sold out in this piece for iFanboy. I suppose it varies from publisher to publisher, but personally when I hear one of the bigger publisher’s announce a comic book selling out, it  usually just confuses me, since comics are ordered far in advance and are unreturnable, making direct market publishing awfully close to printing-to-order. So sometimes when I read some announcements of sell-outs, I can’t help but translate them into “We messed up pretty badly” in my head. Anyway, the info Wood presents is always worth keeping in mind when parsing publisher PR.

Nice @#$%ing cover: Fantagraphics’ Flog blog shares word that Paul Hornschemeier is providing the cover for Dan Sinker’s The F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel, a fake twitter account attributed to the notoriously foul-mouthed Obama chief-of-staff turned Chicago mayor that rapidly evolved into a fantasy novel of sorts. From what I’ve read of it, the book should be really funny, and that’s a damn fine cover image.

If so, it’s probably Circe’s doing: “Is ‘Wonder Woman’ Cursed?”

Superhero comics won’t truly be mainstream until newspapers care enough to Google the correct spelling of  “Spider-Man”: That personal pet peeve aside, this Ottawa Citizen feature on Dale Eaglesham, premised on his upcoming Alpha Flight comic, is a nice spotlight of a deserving talent.

“Life After ‘Walking Dead’”: This Fear.net article, sub-titled “Five Horror Graphic Novels You Need to Read,” has a very broad definition of horror, and I’m not sure those five works would necessarily appeal to someone who liked Walking Dead (It’s not like it has much in common with Jill Thompson’s Scary Godmother comics, for example), but no one can ever go wrong with Jill Thompson, Rick Geary, Richard Sala, Thomas Ott and Lorenzo Mattotti.

“After all, if you’re going to ogle a drawing, it would be nice if it appeared to be human”: Good point, Matthew J. Brady.

IDW’s TMNT creative team is…: Comics Alliance put the word “exclusive” in brackets after their “IDW Announces ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Creative Team” headline, so I’ll link to their peice. That’s news I’ve been waiting to hear announced for quite some time now, and I’ll admit that it was pretty shocking news. There are three names attached, two of them belong to people whom I had never heard of, and the third of which is literally the last person I ever would have expected to hear as being attached to this project. Well, literally the last comics person—my grandfather is probbly the last person in general I would have expected to hear is attached to this project.

Steph Cherrywell’s Pepper Penwell and the Land Creature of Monster Lake is perfectly entitled—not simply because it’s a rather funny title, but also because it indicates the extent and nature of the silliness of her pitch-perfect teen sleuth parody.

When we meet the British school girl detective, she has just cracked the case of how her classmate cheated to win a cross-country race (like many of Pepper’s cases, it involved ice), and it’s one case cracked too many. Because of the chaos she’s caused, her headmaster expels her.

“And just like that, the story of Pepper Penwell, Girl Detective, was at an end!” Pepper narrates. “The story of Pepper Penwell, Girl Spunky Adventurer With Detective Elements, on the other hand—that was just beginning!”

That story sends Pepper to the remote English village of Monster Lake, so named because, as the new head of the town chamber of commerce explains, “the monster lives near it, not in it.”

Pepper is looking for a missing drum majorette, who accepted a free ticket to visit the village—which the suspicious chamber of commerce lady has transformed into a sort of Disney World of monster toursim—and then promptly disappeared.
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Doug Moench and Russ Heath, Doug Moench and Roger Ebert: Bhob shares an old Moench/Heath strip, and the story behind it. (Via tcj.com)

Life imitates political cartoon: Michael Cavna shares a 2003 cartoon about an Arnold Schwarzenegger love child by Cam Cadrow, which now looks prescient.

Bad movie, good beer?: Bryan Munn didn’t care for the Thor film, but he drank a rather appropriate-sounding beer before taking it in. (I’m pretty positive those 3D action sequences would have made me ill if I had any beer in my stomach, although I did like the movie for the most part).

“One psychologist even changed the comic book world and influenced…the feminist movement”: Psychcentral.com profiles William Moulton Marston.

The logic of most of these reasons is completely unassailable: “Why Aquaman is the best damn superhero in comic history”

Flashpoint vs. Fear Itself: Yan Basque counts up August’s number of tie-ins for each series/event/thing. Which one wins or loses depends on whether you think a huge number of tie-ins for a big, huge series is a good thing or a bad thing.

Hey, Al Milgrom’s first name is Allen?: The veteran artist gets profiled on the occasion of the Thor movie making Marvel superheroes the main topic of pop-culture conversation for another few weeks.

Once again, it’s all words and no pictures! Here’s what jumped out at me from Diamond’s shipping list as looking either really good, really bad or somehow worth mentioning. Feel free to tell us in the comments section what looks really good, really bad or somehow worth mentioning to you. And/or to call me mean names.

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja Vol. 1: Night Powers: Chris Hastings and Les McClaine’s web-comic about a doctor who is also a ninja gets a paper collection thanks to Dark Horse Comics. The hard copy is a $20, 230-page trade, featuring an original story by Benito Cereno and McClaine.  You can read a short preview here and a giant one here.

Batman: Gates of Gotham #1: Given the number of Batman monthlies being published at the moment, a new Batman miniseries hardly seems like something noteworthy, but this one’s from the acclaimed Detective Comics writer Scott Snyder, and has the advantage of a different scope (guest-starring a mess of DCU detectives) and focus, on the history of Gotham City and its founding families. Snyder is co-writing with Kyle Higgins, while Trevor McCarthy is handling the art. It’s a five-issue series.

Booster Gold #44: This week’s only Flashpoint tie-in features DC’s only time-traveling superhero with his own title. Writer/artist Dan Jurgens and artist Norm Rapmund return to the book after a fun, funny run by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Chris Batista. Marvel’s big summer crossover, Fear Itself, is a little further underway, which likely explains all the tie-ins available this week: Herc #3, Avengers #13 and Invincible Iron Man #504 (The first is a $3 book, the other two are $4 ones).

DC Comics: Batman—Dark Knight, Dark City: This $8, 90-page kinda-trade collects the 1990 three-issue Batman story arc by writer Peter Milligan and artist Kieron Dwyer (with covers by Mike Mignola), in which The Riddler returns from retirment to dabble in late-‘80s darkness and Satanism. To fill up the page count, there’s a neat little one-issue story from Milligan’s too-short 1991 run on TEC, featuring pencil art by Tom Mandrake. I’d highly recommend this if you’ve any interest in Batman and missed these the first time around.

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I can never see Herc’s thumbs-up face too many times: This Michael Agger piece for Slate doesn’t really definitively explain the origins of the meme “Cool Story, Bro!”, or find out who attached it to a panel from Incredible Hercules (It makes me think of Chris Sims, but I guess that’s just an image that makes me think of Chris Sims in general), but it worth noting simply because that’s a lot of Incredible Hercules to see on the generally Herc-free Slate.

Could Ben Grimm have really been Blackbeard?: Sean Kleefeld examines the evidence. Maybe they shoulda cast Michael Chiklis in the new Pirates of the Caribbean instead of Ian McShane…

Gene Ha doesn’t mess around when he does con sketches: Check out his Shade. (Via Speed Force)

I’m not going to miss reading articles and blog posts about Smallville: Despite my curiosity about seeing favorite characters in live-action on a TV budget and all the young, attractive folks cast, I never got into Smallville, and am pretty sick of hearing about it’s final season/episode at this point. I do like articles like this one, however, which have pictures of the subject I’m most interested in—the designs and costumes. Like Alan’s recent column, it’s a nice reminder of how widely varied, but generally awful, the designs were (I think Zatanna, Black Canary, Aquaman, Green Arrow and Booster Gold were among the best, while Martian Manhunter and—hoo boy—Hawkman and Dr. Fate among the worst).

The most horrifying thing I’ve seen all week: Archie’s face on the Betty and Veronica cover Bully includes in this round-up of Oz-inspired comics covers, in recognition of L. Frank Baum’s just-passed birthday. He’s dressed as the Scarecrow, but it looks like someone made a scarecrow out of Archie’s face and…brr!

As a Cassandra Cain fan, I approve: Despite DC and the Bat-office seemingly having no idea what to do with the second Batgirl for the last five or six years—but trying something radically different and contradictory every couple of months anyway—it looks like Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham gave her a decent status quo, a cool codename, and a pretty neat new costume.

“Homogay…?”: This weird-ass article from Christwire.org is so over-the-top and the selections limited to out-of-context panels that the comics blogosphere has been making fun of of for years—where’s the one about the Joker’s boners, or Robin being the last person Batman touched?—that I think this is supposed to be a parody of conservative Christian alarmism, but, if so, it’s not really funny enough to waste too much time figuring out. It is the first time I’ve heard anyone use the term “homogay” before though. Is that common? (Via Tom Spurgon, whose link reads “it’s adorable when people think kids read comics”).

He’s right, I do like the fat guy, the horse and the frog!: Ty Templeton explains Thor.

The ability to build anything out of Legos instantly would be a pretty great superpower: This dude made me think of that.

Ryan Reynolds is easily started: Apparently.

If the free market chose the Justice League: I always read The Beat‘s sales analysis with interest, and for a while I would read Marc-Oliver Frisch’s DC month-to-month sales to see who the company’s seven most popular heroes were at a given time, with the arbitrary criteria of popularity simply being which characters headlining their own solo books sold the most copies in a given month. And then imagining them as a Justice League. I quit doing it after awhile, because it was almost always Superman, Supergirl and a bunch of Bat-people. This month is kind of interesting though, as there’s only three Bat-people, and the others are all traditional Justice Leaguers: Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Batman Bruce Wayne, Batman Dick Grayson, Superman, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman and Red Robin. If too many chefs spoil the soup, do too many Batmen spoil a League? On a less nerdy note is the fact that “a consistent, critically acclaimed creative team” on a Batman book that comes out like clockwork seems to be helping Detective Comics gain rather than lose sales, and several other titles seem to be increasing for no obvious reason, which Frisch suggests reflects the market reacting to the quality of the work itself instead of the usual gimicks.

They made a Scott Pilgrim videogame, so maybe a Prison Pit one’s not out of the question: Fantagraphics’ Flog blog shares a link to a piece of fan art presenting the 8-bit videogame opening screen to a videogame that doesn’t exist…but should.

I don’t know how to pronounce it, but I like it: Down The Tubes has details on a new edition of  work featuring Sláine, Pat Mills and Simon Bisley’s Celtic Conan-type, coming to the U.S. Also on Down The Tubes, there are some details about a biography of a Terry Nation, a screenwriter for the old Dr. Who series, entitled The Man Who Invented Daleks. I barely even know what a Dalek is—Dr. Who is one of several large blind-spots in my nerd-culture knowledge—but that looks like a pretty neat book.

Personally, I would have picked a series with far fewer issues: At Chasing Amazing, Mark Ginocchio chronicles his quest to collect every single issue of Amazing Spider-Man.

Wonder Woman’s costumes on real women: As Jill already  mentioned, NBC has apparently passed on the much-discussed Wonder Woman series. I’m kind of disappointed; whether it would have been great, awful or somewhere in between, I was at least very curious about it, and I can’t imagine it being any worse than all those other terrible live-action TV superhero shows of the last few years. Anyway,  Noah Berlatsky has an interesting piece over at Comixology regarding Wonder Woman’s costuming, and how what works fine for a drawing doesn’t always work well for a real woman. The TV Wondy was the launching point of the article, but H.G. Peter’s original costume design and art is the focus.

And finally, speaking of comics and television…: The LA Times asks, “Will comic book hero Stan Lee turn into a zombie for ‘Walking Dead’?” and The Courier and Mail is among the venues reporting that Dynamite, Kevin Smith and Jonathan Lau are making a Bionic Man comic book (as you no doubt already saw on the main site).

The many random superpowers of J’onn J’onnz: Silver Age Comics looks at The Martian Manhunter’s powers as they originally began to emerge. And a few days previous, a look at J’onn’s greatest enemy.

Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, in handsomer days: Sean Kleefeld found some images of Wheeler-Nicholson, the founder of what would become DC Comics, the guy who kinda sorta invented comics and one of the many colorful characters of the Golden Age, and shared them on his blog.

Is the Preist movie based on a “graphic novel”…?: This article about the film based on the manhwa series, published state-side by Tokyopop, refers to the source material is a graphic novel in the headline. It’s one of several I’ve noticed in the last few days to do so. I know the term is a malleable one, but even at its most malleable, I’m not sure it applies here. What do you guys think?

Two rather idiosyncratic reactions to Thor: Law and The Multiverse explores the legal issues raised by the film in a pair of posts,  and Kalinara notes the greater-than-usual female presence in the film.

Yeah, Death Note will do that: Curt Purcell thought he could spend just a few minutes on the addictively suspenseful manga series and walk away.