No doubt inspired by the upcoming X-Men: First Class movie, Iceman and Angel #1 is a First Class-like one-shot featuring work from first class writer Brian Clevinger and first class artist Juan Doe, and thus isn’t to be missed. Sealing the deal is the antagonist the two mutant superheroes are dealing with—Goom, the Thing From Planet X!

DC Comics Presents: Batman—Irresistable: This one should probably be called DC Comics Presents: Tom Peyer and Tony Harris, since the creative team seems to be the unifying factor in the two stories collected in this $8 almost-trade. The title story is a three-issue, 2003 Legends of The Dark Knight story arc, and to round it out they stuck in Hourman #22, which featured fill-in art from Harris and the Young Justice team looking up their Happy Harbor neighbor Hourman and failing to find him.

DC Universe Legacies #10: This is the tenth and final issue of the series chronicling the history of the DC Universe, as it supposedly stands after the continuity-bending events of Infinite Crisis, 52 and Final Crisis. So trade-waiters like me are now almost done waiting (The hardcover is due in August, according to the latest solicitations). So, what was the verdict readers? Was this any good or no? The old-civilian-remembers-continuity-like-history schtick from JLA: Incarnations and Marvels doesn’t seem like the most compelling premise. The main page has a preview here.

Egg Story: This is a comic book by artist J. Marc Schmidt about some eggs trying to escape the refrigerator. It sounds delightful.

Fear Itself: Book of the Skull #1: Ed Brubkaer and Scot Eaton kick off Marvel’s next big crossover event story with this special prologue one-shot, involving the Red Skull and his daughter. There’s a preview of it on the main page. It’s a $4 book.

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Political cartoonists on the tragedy in Japan: Daryl Cagle has begun assembling his gallery; Katsushika Hokusai’s famous wave image was a popular source of visual inspiration, as was the Japanese flag. Dave Fitzsimmons and Gary Markstein went with Godzilla, however.

A brief history of E.C. Segar’s Popeye: Writing for the LA Times, Anthony Mostrom details the origins of the comic strip character turned cartoon star.

I hope Oni Press uses this as a blurb on future editions: “The No. 1 Graphic Novel for Little Lambs”

Kevin Nowlan draws Yoda: I repeat, Kevin Nowlan draws Yoda.

Two great posts full of great art: iFanboy rounds up a week’s worth of sketches from the Internet, including a nice Batman Vs. Gorilla Grodd image by Gabriel Hardman and an even nicer Batman Vs. Wonder Woman image from Phil Noto (Didn’t that exact scene happen in an issue of JLA? Only Batman looked a little less nervous?) Meanwhile, Yan Basque posts a bunch of images form a young artist who seems to specialize in drawing great images of teen heroes—especially current Robin Damian Wayne (Who is the Colin he’s sharing a couch with in the first image? Should I recognize that character? )

Are we ever going to see a Peter Wheat collection of some kind?: I see these lovely looking Walt Kelly Peter Wheat comics linked to here and there on the comics blogosphere every few months or so. Here’s one at Whirled of Kelly, which I saw linked to at Comics Reporter the other day. I do hope some publisher somewhere is contemplating this.

Of all the comics in creation, I can honestly say Fletcher Hanks’ were the last ones I would have ever expected to be used as RPG source material: But what do I know?

“Hulk not understand second act! Hulk smash!!!”: Ward Sutton channels John Romita for a Turn Off The Dark review in the form of a comic story for The Village Voice. Within the panels you’ll learn what such Marvels as Spidey, The Green Goblin, Aunt May and The Hulk think of the it.

So what are the chances that the folks at DC designed the new, improbably revealing Star Sapphire costumes just in the hopes that cosplayers would wear them?: That was my first thought when I saw this picture. Okay, my second thought. Wait, I also wondered how it was staying on, so third thought.

The Mindless Ones vs. The Joker: Check out the first part of a three-part series examining different portrayals of The Joker, beginning with Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s The Killing Joke. It’s a great piece.

I sold my copy of Mouse Guard #1 to a Half Price Books for a dime when I got the trade collection: I really wish Rich Johnston wouldn’t do this; I thought the death of print Wizard would be the end of comics speculation, or at least comics media’s promotion of it as an important aspect of the medium, but I guess not. Of course, maybe I’m just bitter because if I would have kept my copy of Mouse Guard until today, I could trade it in for five tanks of gas…

Brecht Evens’ late 2010 graphic novel The Wrong Place was a great one, but it was also a revelatory one. Evens used words and pictures to tell the story, but he also used color, page space and implied, invisible panels co-created by the reader’s act of reading to tell that story in a unusual, perhaps even unique way.

I haven’t read all the comics yet (although I’m working on it!), but I’ve read a lot of them, and I can honestly say I’ve never read anything quite like The Wrong Place.

This week Top Shelf released Evens’ Night Animals, and while it’s rather different than The Wrong Place, it is a new Evens comic and thus the most like Wrong Place of anything I’ve seen so far.

The title page of the slim, 48-page volume bears the sub-title, “A Diptych about What Rushes through the Bushes,” and the contents that follow are two short, wordless stories that indeed share a nighttime setting and a massive menagerie of beautifully, bizarre creature.

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Gilbert Hernandez, Master of The Universe: Fantagraphics’ Flog blog links to a link featuring Hernandez MOTU art, which the blog saw linked to at another site’s blog. Which I am now linking to. Not the original, but the link to the link and the link to the other link to the link. Journalism! Anyway, it’s an awesome piece of awesome art. Even if it makes me realize I am either so old my long-term memory is rotting away, or my knowledge of MOTU characters has been replaced by other, more relevant facts over the decades—Who’s the lizard guy? Whiplash? A Snake Man? And there was a girl Orko? What the hell? I have no memory of this!

And speaking of Fantagraphics: I confess that my first reaction to seeing this 3D rendering of what the publisher’s upcoming Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Vol. 1: Race To Death Valley was to utter a swear word, preceded by the adjective “holy” and followed by an exclamation point.

You know what a a live-action Inhumans movie means, right?: Live-action Lockjaw!

Maybe if DC would have promoted the return of Super-Hip, Doom Patrol wouldn’t have been canceled: Johnny Bacardi proclaims his excitement over the inclusion of obscure DC character Super-Hip in an upcoming issue of Doom Patrol. (How obscure is Super-Hip? He appeared in DC’s Bob Hope comics, which I’d love to see get Showcased some day, and an old Doom Patrol comic, which Bacardi shares. He also teamed up with Batman and Brother Power, The Geek to fight the Mad Mod in the first few pages of an issues of Batman: The Brave and The Bold, the only comic book in which Batman could team up with Brother Power, The Geek and Super-Hip to fight The Mad Mod).  Bacardi also talks up Keith Giffen’s Doom Patrol in general. Have any of you guys been reading it? (It’s looming cancellation indicates that too few people were). Is it that good? I tried the first few issues, and dropped it during the Blackest Night crossover—I didn’t much care for the art.

The downside of part of the Comics Comics crew taking over The Comics Journal‘s website?: No more comics Comics Comics.

Batman Inc. update: Has Batman appointed the Batman of Vermont? Looks like.

Is it just me, or does this seem like a fairly light week for comic books? Or, at least, terribly noteworthy comic books? Please let me know if it’s just me. Otherwise, here’s what jumped out at me this week…

Comic Book Comics #5: The Action Philosophers team of Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey finally roll out the latest issue of their series about the history of comics. This one’s the “All-Lawsuit Issue!” and features some of the greatest battles in comics history, including DC vs. Fawcett, Disney vs. The Air Pirates and Jack Kirby vs. Marvel. Also featuring Miracle Man, Dan DeCarlo, Steve Gerber,  Howard the Duck, Josie and the Pussycats,  and the Creator’s Bill of Rights. Whew! You can check out a preview here.

The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art: Jerry Robinson’s 1974 classic has been reworked and updated to cover the medium from its orgins to today for this $40, 300-page, nine-by-twelve-inch hardcover from Dark Horse. Preview here.

Girl Comics: Marvel’s 2010 stunt miniseries featuring all-woman creators on every single aspect of the book is finally released in trade format. So if you were waiting for the trade, you can stop waiting now. It’s a $16, 120-page book, and features a who’s who list of contributors, including Ann Noncenti, Jill Thompson, Collen Coover, Lea Hernandez, Carla Speed McNeil, Trina Robbins, Faith Erin Hicks, Stephanie Buscema, Ming Doyle and plenty of others.

Legion of Super Villains #1: Artist Francis Portela joins writer Paul Levitz for a $5, double-sized oneshot featuring Legion of Superheroes bad guys. Portela was the artist for that all-villains, “MODOK’s 11” miniseries Marvel published a few years back. I liked his art on that. I guess he’s building a reputation as The Guy To Hire To Draw Villain Books…?
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On Ollmann: Jeet Heer at Comics Comics and Jeet Heer at The National Post both discuss Joe Ollmann’s excellent Mid-Life. Say, what are the chances of two guys named Jeet Heer both writing about the same book on the same…Hey, wait a minute!

In which I bury the lede: The Comics Journal has an exclusive preview of Seth’s upcoming and hotly anticipated The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists, which features a similar style and subject matter to his excellent Wimbledon Green. By the way, The Comics Journal‘s website has been completely redesigned. New site edtior Tim Hodler has an editorial here, and Comics Reporter Tom Spurgeon has a lengthy Q-and-A with Hodler and his fellow site editor Dan Nadel here.

Avengers movie to film in Avengers comic writer Brian Michael Bendis’ hometown: Apparently. (Only 50 miles from where I am as I type this, if you have a small role for  a 5’8, 34-year-old bald guy with bad posture and no acting experience, Joss Whedon!). Meanwhile, Cleveland’s Plain Dealer has a poll asking, “who is Cleveland’s ultimate villain?” Two of the five they suggest already have their own comics: Lebron James and The Torso Killer.

Does it count as a “reveal” if it’s simply a reiteration of old news?: “DC reveals future ‘Earth One’ plans”

“First look: Super-creators pair up for ‘The Infinite’”: I don’t have anything to say about the fact that Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld are teaming up for a comic book series, beyond noting that it’s odd to see it announced in USA Today. The Walking Dead show must have really raised Kirkman’s star, and Liefeld’s career over the last decade or so hasn’t done much to diminish his.

On the occasion of Will Eisner’s birthday: As Lan Pitts noted yesteray, Google used their doodle to honor Eisner this weekend. Ty Templeton, Johnny Bacardi, Michael Cavna and Politically Illustrated were among others who marked Eisner’s birthday.

Is Black Panther actually the second black costumed superhero?: Sean Kleefeld says yes, after having done some research on The Black Phantom. And on the subject of race and superheroes, here are two posts about two notoriously weird comics about white characters becoming black for a story: Tim O’Neil on that time the Punisher visited “a ground-breaking plastic surgeon who just happened to be a drug-addicted hooker” who turned him black as a disguise, and E. Peterman of Girls Gone Geek on the Lois Lane story “I Am Curious (Black).”

“Can New Characters Flourish in Today’s Market?”: The folks at iFanboy look at the comics charts in an attempt to parse which characters and concepts are “new,” and how they’re doing. It’s interesting reading, even if I’m not sure to what degree turning The Hulk red or putting new kids in the Batgirl and Robin costumes should be considered new, but this is always a topic worth considering/fretting over. Particularly for folks working in comics. (Even if for merely mercenary, monetary reasons: Barb Wire, Spawn, Kick-Ass, The Mask, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Scott Pilgrim and that lady from Whiteout all had major motion pictures made long before Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern, The Flash and Wonder Woman).

There are few things I like more than pet versions of superheroes: One of them might be these sorts of creative exercises, in which The Absorbascon makes up some dogs to join Ace the Bat-Hound and Krypto the Superdog in a Justice Pack of America.

This crazy thing freaks me right the hell out: It seems like something you’d find in a haunted mansion. And it even generates its own spooky music? Brr! Still, I totally want one to put over my mantle.

Art from comics masters before they were stars: Cartoonist Ed Piskor spent some time going through some old Comics Journals and Amazing Heroes and assembled a post chockfull of art from the likes of The Hernandez Brothers, Bruce Timm, Kevin Nowlan and others. Take a look. Speaking of Piskor, Top Shelf just announced that they would be publishing his complete WIZZYWIG next year. Piskor’s a great artist and his hacker series is a great comic, so this is great news. He’s been self-publishing trade collections so far and promoting them all on his own, so I imagine this will free him up to keep making great comics and leave it to the fine folks at Top Shelf to get his work in more hands. (If you don’t want to wait, you can buy the trades here, and read some of WIZZYWIG here).

“Technically, it’s a graphic novel adaptation of an all-new Peanuts straight-to-DVD movie, which in turn is based on several classic Peanuts strips”: Glen Weldon of NPR taks a look at Boom/Kaboom’s announcement of their new Peanuts ogn. When Boom first teased a Peanuts project, my first guess was that they had gotten the rights to collect the 1960′s comic books published by Dell and Gold Key. Turns out I guessed wrong. This is actually better news though, because it means a) a brand-new Peanuts comic (For some reason, I love the comics but hate the cartoons, so won’t be seeing the DVD, but am looking forward to the Boom book) and b) the Dell/Gold Key material is still out there, waiting to be collected. Be sure to read the Weldon post to the end, as he lists the titles of 40 Peanuts cartoon specials produced between 1965 and 2006, and plants four fake ones in there (What’s the one where Patty and Marcie were in France? That one depressed me so much as a child).

“Realism,” quotation marks and all, can be a strange thing to demand from any form of fiction, and it can be a strange thing to decry the lack of.

This seems especially true when the fiction under discussion comes in the form of comics, probably because the form has been dominated by genre works for so long that straight comics literature divorced from easy genre classifications (horror, romance, superhero, crime, etc) are still (relatively) new.

Of course that fiction’s not real—it’s fiction. Someone is making it up. How realistic do you want it to be? The easy answer is that it should be realistic enough that you can forget that people are behind the scenes inventing it long enough to lose yourself in the story and the drama enough to enjoy it, or be affected by it.

I think comics struggles with this a bit more than other media like, say, prose or film, simply because it is easier for them to achieve different types of verisimilitude. A film looks like the real world, the written word is the way we communicate a lot of information—a novel might look or read the same way a letter or email or news article might.

But comics? Someone had to draw all those little lines making up those people, and the little bubbles surrounding all the words, whether they hand-lettered those words or had a computer program do it for them.
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Just a guess guys, but I imagine Marvel went with Monsters over Mojitos because comics about you guys fighting stuff are more action-packed then comic books about you guys drinking fancy drinks.

Anyway, the comic that the pugilistic pair above are discussing is, of course, Wolverine/Hercules: Myths, Monsters and Mutants, a four-issue miniseries in which one of Wolvie’s foes teams up with a couple of Herc’s, necessitating the two heroes team up to fight them. It’s by Frank Tieri, one of mainstream comics’ premiere writers of tough guys, and drawn by artist Juan Roman Cano Santacruz. You’ll recognize it by it’s cover though—from the great Joe Jusko.

In fact, you may have already bought it, seeing as how it’s now halfway through New Comic Book Day, instead of the night before, which is when I usually post this column. As I mentioned last night though, sickness kept me from spending Tuesday the way I had planned to spend Tuesday, so I’m running super-late with this. There are so many good and/or interesting looking comics in shops this week though that I didn’t want to just scrap doing a column entirely this week.

So let’s take an extremely belated look, shall we?

An Elegy for Amelia Johnson: The 30-year-old title character is about to die from cancer, and one of her final wishes is to have her two closest friends travel across the country to personally deliver her final messages to people in her life. It’s 130-page, $15 hardcover from writer Andrew Rostan and artists Dave Valeza and Kate Kasenow. I have a copy of it sitting right here next to my laptop as I type this. I haven’t read it yet, but the artwork looks quite gorgeous.

Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #1: Webcomics creators Malachai and Ethan Nicolle become comics-comics creators with this new three-issue miniseries from Dark Horse Comics, publishers of the Nicolle brothers’ Axe Cop collection. Preview here.

Captain America and Falcon #1: This is the first of five Captain America and… oversized, $4 one-shots Marvel has planned for the month. It’s by writer Rob Williams and artist Rebekah A. Isaacs. “The First Thirteen,” Crossbones, Batroc and The Secret Avengers will also get team-up specials.

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“Did I mention I like Arlo and Janis too?”: Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds, Kim Thompson, Gary Groth and Jacob Covey debate the merits of Scott Adams’ Dilbert via emails with each other for some reason. It’s pretty great reading. I really had no idea that Dilbert was so incredibly controversial.

The new Death Ray cover is cool: In fact, it is so cool, , I kinda wish I didn’t already have 2004′s Eightball #23, where Daniel Clowes’ story of a guy who finds a death ray was originally published.

“Hey, Johnny Depp! Here Are Some Superheroes You Should Play”: This list-article offers five suggestions for superhero-ish roles Depp should take on. There are some…interesting suggestions. I can’t imagine any female I know would be very happy to have Depp play The Question however, as his beautiful face would be obscured for far too much of the film’s running time.

“Comic Book Girl ‘Nerd Panties’ Trend on Facebook—Is Your Daughter Next?”: I can’t figure out if this is real or fake. I assume from the huge gallery of girls wearing ‘nerd panties’ that follows the piece that it must be fake. Well, that and the Wertham era concern over Batman, expressed as if English was the writer’s second language: “As reviewed, Batman is the story of a middle-aged man who fancies forcing a boy to wear tight see-through stocking.” But I don’t know, there’s all kind of dumb, blatantly hypocritical stuff on the Internet. So, um, good job, guys? It’s close enough to the real thing that I wasn’t 100% sure if it was a parody or not.

“Neil Gaiman and Jim Lee’s collaboration, 100 Words, Now Available Digitally”: So says DC’s Pamela Mullin at The Source today. The piece is a poem about death by Gaiman, illustrated and turned into a seven-page comic by Lee. You can purchase a digital version for 99 cents, with all profits benefitting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. So, 100 words for 99 cents—that works out to a penny a word, with the 100th word free.

…is postponed due to sickness. If I survive the flu, then I should have an installment of the column up tomorrow morning.

“Read enough of these notes, however, and you get the impression that shojo manga artists are both incredibly boring and completely insane”: Shaenon K. Garrity offers a brief survey of end notes and side notes that appear in a great deal of shojo manga, in which the authors address their audiences and talk a little about themselves. It’s got a great headline.

Sweet Tooth gets even sweeter: This week’s issue of the ongoing Vertigo series from Jeff Lemire will have some very special special guest-artists—Matt Kindt, Nate Powell and Emi Lennox. You’re probably going to want to take a look at it.

Perhaps the word “best” should be in quotes…?: Writing for The Comics Journal, R. C. Harvey examines the make-up of some collections of last year’s best political cartoons, and whether they actually are or not.

Speaking of TCJ…: Nathan Wilson gives the collected edition of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne a review, and takes the opportunity to discuss the changing singles-vs.-collection comics market, and how Grant Morrison’s work works within it.

How not to sell manga: Christopher Butcher chastises someone from Tokyopop for seemingly blaming their customers for noting that plenty of manga series that get translated and published for U.S. markets don’t ever actually complete their runs.

Kochalka crossovers: James Kochalka teams his Johnny Boo and Squiggle up with Spider-Man on one of those blank covers Marvel sometimes publishes, while this installment of his American Elf strip features a panel of art by the great children’s author Mo Willems and a Kochalka-drawn Pokemon. And what does Moe Willems been up to, when not making awesome books or hanging out with the Kochalkas? Having his picture taken.

“I still wasn’t sure what to make of the arrival of SpongeBob Comics #1, until a note from Duffy fell out”: Brian Heater reviews SpongeBob Comics #1, in the context of superior kids comics edited by Chris Duffy and featuring the work of great cartoonists better known for their adult work.

I haven’t read this all yet, but I assume Jog talking Swamp Thing for a million words is worth your time: It’s at The Hooded Utilitarian.

It’s hard out there for a fan: Long-time comics blogger (and likely first person that comes to mind when you hear the phrase “Doctor Strange fan”) Neilalien rounds up recent Strange appearances throughout the Marvel Universe, two of which are written by Brian Michael Bendis. Given the fact that Bendis writes some 25 books or so each month for Marvel, I wonder if he’s ever going to sit down at his computer with Neilalien on his mind and think, “You know what? I’m going to write a totally awesome Doctor Strange appearance, just for him!” His 11th blogiversary would have been a good occasion for such a gift.

Speaking of Bendis…: A blogger catches him conflating the two most famous locations in UFO lore, which are in reality two states away from one another. Although maybe it’s different in the Marvel Universe…?

“Only in the Comics”: At The Comics Journal, R.C. Harvey examines recent comic strips that tell jokes that could only be told in that particular medium.

“I would wonder about the motivations of those people who’d seek to discredit and disenfranchise our teachers…”: Cartoonist John Porcellino fondly remembers a teacher who helped him as a student, in light of the turmoil in Wisconsin and too many other states. Naturally he does so in comics form.

Slow news days are always good days to check in on the Nick and Norah of online comics criticism: Not that there’s ever a bad day to do so. At the Facutal Opinion, Nina Stone reviews the newest Garth Ennis comic, Jennifer Blood, while Tucker Stone tears into a new batch of super-comics, and then has Nina interview him about some of them.

The clever idea at the center of Dracula: The Company of Monsters is an obvious one, suggested by the “Bloodsucker vs. Bloodsuckers” tagline on the back of the first volume collecting the ongoing series.

Dracula may have been a ruthless prince who impaled his foes, literally did a deal with the literal devil and became an undead blood-drinking fiend, but at least he’s not a modern CEO.

The “You know who the real monsters are…?” statement is a staple of horror and monster entertainment, and its one this comic has the cognizance to apply to the major problems of the day. Certainly the commentary may at times be a little too pointed, as when Dracula makes a “That is the difference between a prince and a chief executive” speech, disgusted that the corporate CEO that engineered his resurrection and is keeping him chained in the company HQ’s basement has laid off hundreds of workers in order to improve the balance sheet.

But then, perhaps there is some poetry in a the sub-text of a story about the undead refusing to stay buried.
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Rest in peace, Dwayne McDuffie: Unfortunately, it seems like there’s really only one story of any real import in comics at the moment, and it’s a sad one. Our sincerest condolences to Dwayne McDuffie’s family, friends and fans. And to the comic book and animation industries in general, both of which are poorer without him still working in them. Remembrances, eulogies, anecdotes and expressions of shock and grief are pouring in form all over the comics Internet. I’d suggest you bookmark Tom Spurgeon’s “Collective Memory” feature on Comics Reporter, a regularly updated clearing house of information about McDuffie.  In the mean time, here are some of the first posts and articles about McDuffie I cam across last night and this morning: The Washington Post, The Weekly Crisis, Peter David, Chris Sims, The Onion‘s AV Club, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Church, Ben Morse, Variety and Heidi MacDonald. Again, please keep an eye on Spurgeon’s “Collective Memory” for more; the above list is hardly exhaustive, and sure to grow with every pasing hour in the next few days. Now let’s look at some more trivial news, shall we?

The Human Torch? But I thought he was dead!?: As a vegetarian and fast food-phobic, I was kind of dismayed to hear that Taco Bell would be carrying some special Marvel comics, as I kinda wanted to see ‘em, but not so much that I’d ever want to eat anything from Taco Bell (or encourage any friends and family to do so in order to get some comics). So I really enjoyed Sean Kleefeld’s reviews of two of the books. It sounds like the comics are actually pretty decent, especially relative to the sort of art you might expect to get from Taco Bell.

New Scott Pilgrim from Bryan Lee O’Malley!: Okay, it’s just a single image, but I’ll take what I can get. On the occasion of his birthday, O’Malley created an image of Scott and most of the girls in his life. In bathing suits. Happy birthday O’Malley, and thanks for the present.

“The Online DC Universe Is Dangerous, Confusing, Pretty”: Topless Robot shares a little video of cut-scenes from DC Universe Online, which apparently consists of Jim Lee-drawn art given motion comic-like treatment. Have you guys tried reading the comic book based on the game at all, DC Universe Online Legends? The artwork in the first two issues was all around rotten, from Ed Benes’ terrible, terrible covers to the Howard Porter-led art staff’s rushed, sloppy interiors. I suppose asking Lee to illustrate a bi-weekly comic on top of all the work he did for the game proper would have been insane (plus, it would only delay more All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder, and the world desperately needs all the All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder it can get), but it’s still kind of shocking to see the gap in quality between this work and the work in the comic. At the very least, repurposing Lee art or having him do some covers would have made the books infinitely more attractive…

Stan Sakai interviews Usagi Yojimbo: What are you waiting for, just click already!

What, no Superman: Earth-1?: The Los Angeles Times has announced the finalists for their annual Book Prize, which includes a graphic novel category. Those are some very strong contenders, and it’s refreshing to see work of that caliber, inspiration and individuality being recognized.

When writer Geoff Johns first introduced Orange Lantern Larfleeze to his Green Lantern comics,  Hal Jordan kept comparing the character to a Muppet, eventually settling on Gonzo as the specific Muppet that Larfleeze reminded him of.

I don’t see it visually, but perhaps Larfleeze’s voice sounds like Gonzo’s. This Wednesday provides a good opportunity to compare and contrast yourself, as Gonzo stars in Muppet Sherlock Holmes, which gets a trade collection, and Larfleeze guest-stars in Lex Luthor’s Action Comics #898.

Ayn Rand’s Anthem: The Graphic Novel: Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey’s Action Philosopher and  the star of Benjamin Frisch’s Ayn Rand’s Adventures in Wonderland returns to comics! Sorta! Writer Charles Santino and artist Joe Staton adapt the controversial thinker’s most student-friendly book into a $15, 145-page graphic novel.

DC Comics Presents: Batman—Conspiracy #1: This edition of DC’s $8, almost-trades reprint program is essentially a showcase of the work of artist J.H. Williams III. Williams illustrated the title story, a three-issue, 1996 arc from Legends of the Dark Knight, written by Doug Moench and inked by Mick Gray. The collection also includes the Williams-illustrated Detective Comics #821, the first issue of Paul Dini’s run on the title.

Deadpool #33, Deadpool Corps #11 and Deadpool Team-Up #884: Great scheduling, guys!

Feeding Ground #4: I don’t really care for this Archaia series about…well, something about werewolves and border crossings and an evil corporation, but there’s definitely an appealing weirdness to the artwork. And there’s no denying that it has the best covers. Check out the cover for the fourth issue, and a preview, here.
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Mary Worth vs. Twitter: Do you follow the ongoing adventures of Mary Worth? Yeah, me neither. I do follow Josh Fruhlinger while he follows them though, and the current story arc is about the title character trying to learn about Twitter and its hold over people. This Short Packed comic strip having fun with the story arc is pretty great. Back to Fruhlinger, yesterday he pointed out that Mary Worth isn’t the only ancient comic strip character flirting with Twitter.

“And you wouldn’t know it from looking at his drawings, but Gorey also loved soap operas, especially All My Children“: NPR’s Weekend Edition featured Alexander Theroux, author of The Strange Case of Edward Gorey, on this Sunday’s show. You can read (or listen to) the story here, as well as check out an excerpt and some images from the book.

Matthew Vaughn’s next superhero film features a…familiar premise: The Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class director has apparently set his sites on a yet-to-be released comic about retired superheroes in a rest home. Blastr collected some tweets from Mark Waid and Gail Simone, the latter of whom wrote a miniseries about a superhero retirement home.

Batman vs. D.H. Lawrence: Noah Berlatsky discusses Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, in the context of a scene from a D.H. Lawrence short story.

This sounds kind of awesome: The Oregonian profiles the efforts of a Portland naturalist and some local comic bookers to create Terra Tempo: Ice Age Cataclysm!, a graphic novel about a prehistoric cataclysm that helped shape the area. Time travel and cool Ice Age beasts are involved.

Cartoonists gotta eat: I’m still working my way through the massive, reader participation comments section, but this Comics Comics article by Frank Santoro about cartoonists and day jobs is well worth a read.

So is the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man movie a reboot, or an Untold Tale…?: Thinkmcflythink.com tries to puzzle out some comments from Avi Arad. If I’m understanding the Arad quote correctly, he seems to be saying that the new movie will take place between (or during?) the other movies. I don’t much like the sound of that. As long as J.K. Simmons is J. Jonah Jameson though, I don’t really care. If he’s not, I will shake my fist at the sky for quite a bit, let me tell you.

Who is Adrian Tomine talking to now?: Drawn and Quarterly, the publisher of his Scenes From an Impending Marriage, offers a brief round-up.

I like how “What does Stan Lee think about ____?” is pretty much always worth a blog post: Michael Cavna checks in with one of Spidey’s two dads regarding the new movie Spider-Man costume, and the mechanical vs. organic web-shooter questin.

Ryan Dunlavey’s cover covers are the best cover covers: Dunlavey reimagines Liefeld’s 1991 X-Force #1 at Covered. His previous contribution was adding some more accurate blurbs to the cover of Marvel’s G.I. Joe #1. (Speaking of indie artists and G.I. Joe, when’s IDW gonna go ahead and publish some anthologies giving the property the Bizarro Comics/Strange Tales treatement…?)

I’m not gonna lie, I think this guy looks kind of awesome: At Living Between Wednesdays, Johnathan profiles one of Green Arrow’s not-exactly-The Joker villains.

“I can’t say whether the judges ever took Essex County seriously, but I can say that their criticisms as expressed weren’t very serious”: That’s The Beguiling’s Christopher Butcher talking about Jeff Lemire’s graphic novel being eliminated early in the competition for Canada Reads in this National Post article.  Jeet Heer and Darwyn Cooke also weigh in. Essex County was the first graphic novel ever to appear in the competition.

On the surface, Rob Vollmar and M.P. Mann’s Inanna’s Tears (Archaia) is an engaging period drama, set almost as far back in recorded history as one can go, as the means by which history gets recorded are just being invented in the course of the story. More specifically? The city of Sumer within the Middle East’s fertile crescent, some 5,000 years ago.

The known world seems built around the city, while the city seems built around the temple, and the temple is built around the goddess Inanna. She is represented by her earthly consort, a sort of high priest, who names his own successor at the end of his life.

The last high priest chooses Entika, a young woman, to succeed him as Inanna’s consort and mouthpiece, which stresses her relationship with fellow temple servant Anarin and aspects of city government, while emboldening a wicked leader of the people who live outside the city’s gates.

On the surface, it works quite well.
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