Getting ready for the holidays? Ron Marz has some swag on his site that will not only give you a great stocking stuffer, but will also help kids in need. Marz, who wraps up his seven-year run on Witchblade this week, has posted on his web site that he is offering several of his comics on PayPal, with the proceeds going to Toys for Tots.

- Green Lantern Retroactive 1990s, also signed by legendary inker Terry Austin, for $15.
- Shinku #1, #2, #3, my creator-owned book with Lee Moder (mature audiences), all three issues for $22.
- Sojourn #8, #23, art by Greg Land, both issues for $15.
- Scion #6, #7, art by Jim Cheung and Rick Leonardi respectively, both issues for $15.
- Scion #8, #9, art by Jim Cheung, both issues for $15.
- The Path Prequel and #1, art by Bart Sears, both issues for $15.
- Mystic #6, #7, art by Brandon Peterson and Steve McNiven respectively, both issues for $15.
- Mystic #8, #9, art by Brandon Peterson, both issues $15.
- CrossGen Chronicles #5, one of my favorite issues, with some stellar art by the great George Perez, $15.
- Magdalena Vol. 1 TPB, signed by me and artist Nelson Blake 2nd, and including an original Magdalena sketch on a backing board by Nelson. We have only TWO of these available, so act sooner rather than later on these. The TPB and sketch package is $50.

The best way to PayPal your purchase is to email Marz directly at kmarz@nycap.rr.com, with the address you’re shipping it to as well as any personalization you’d like to request. But act fast, as these books clearly won’t stick around long!

Looking to do some good, and get some awesome art for it? The Albany Comic Con, a fantastic show in its own right, is giving back to those in upstate New York, which has been hit recently with hurricanes and flooding.

Among the artwork available will be an original Dick Tracy from artist Joe Staton, as well as a Doctor Who piece by Matthew Dow Smith, a Batman from John Hebert, a Universal Monsters piece from Fred Hembeck, and Superman from Paul Abrams.

The silent auction will take place during the convention, which will be held at the Holiday Inn in Colonie, N.Y. on Sunday, October 30. As someone who has hit the con before, the number of creators present make it well worth the $5 for admission. Guests include Ron Marz, Matthew Dow Smith, David Gallaher, Steve Ellis, Dick Ayers, Tom Peyer, Jim Starlin and more.

Even with a hurricane shutting down much of New York City and swamping plenty of the East Coast, it couldn’t keep away Read Comics in Public Day, a celebration of our medium that coincides with the birthday of Jack Kirby, one of the godfathers of modern comics. And plenty of ‘Rama reviewers tackled the challenge, with photographs as posterity:

Zack Kotzer (center) and friends, reading Daredevil #2, by Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and more

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Say it ain’t so!

Via Uncanny X-Men writer Kieron Gillen himself, the Associated Press has reported that the long-running X-Men series will end in October with issue #544, as Schism rolls through Marvel’s band of merry mutants.

“The X-Men are getting torn apart from within. The events of ‘Schism’ do more damage to the X-Men than any villain has ever done,” editor Nick Lowe told the Associated Press.

Schism, which pits longtime leader Cyclops against fan-favorite Wolverine for the future of the mutant race, has been likened as “the X-Men’s Civil War,” according to Marvel EiC Axel Alonso.

“The X-Men has always been a book with ideology and ideas at its heart, and to be fair to them — to best present them — you have to be entirely true,” Gillen added to the AP. “And if the story we’re telling demands that you end the Uncanny X-Men, you end the Uncanny X-Men. No, it’s not taken lightly — but it’s taken if it’s necessary to do it.”

For me personally, this is pretty sad news — Gillen only took over the book entirely back in April with #534.1, and so to hear that his run will end in October with issue #544 is just a shame. He himself has joked that after his ill-fated space series S.W.O.R.D., there are no limits to his power about getting a book cancelled, and has said he will not elaborate further on his future plans. Here’s hoping that Gillen has a place with the Children of the Atom once the dust clears for Schism.

Randy Mayor, you mad genius, you. I don’t know why no one else hadn’t thought to mix Glee and the Green Lantern Corps, but this is probably the best thing I will see all day. Go check out the rest of the DC Comics colorist’s art here.

[Hat-tip to Mike McCallister]

Hey, Rama readers! Want to be a hero for some kids in need? Then listen up!

For those who haven’t been following the destruction in Joplin, it’s been horrific. Buildings have been flattened, and the current number of fatalities has hit 125. Jeremy Haun, a Joplin resident and a Top Cow exclusive artist, has been tweeting images from the scene if you want to learn more.

But one local shop — Hurley’s Heroes — has been standing up for the people who need it. They’re looking for all-ages comics to give to children whose lives have been upended by the tornado, and they need your help to do it. Here’s their address:

Hurley’s Heroes
1515 W. 10th
Ste. C
Joplin, MO 64801

Two other comics creators are also helping out — Trickster masterminds Skottie Young and Scott Morse, who have announced via Twitter that all proceeds from their art this week will go to Joplin. So what are you waiting for, Rama readers? Take these fine gents’ example and be a hero for the people of Joplin, get the word out, and let’s get those books!

[Hat-tip to Archaia for the heads-up]

All he wants to do is sparkle — but all he seems to do is suck.

But when you’re Teenage Satan, that seems par for the course — life is Hell, and high school is just only the beginning. A home-school flunk-out, Teenage Satan has to deal with his disapproving dad, survive the bullies and pine for his next-door neighbor.

But while dear old Lucifer might think his sparkle-crazy son might be a waste of space, there are three women who think he’s the bee’s knees — writers Marsha and Candis Cooke and artist Stephanie Buscema. Releasing Teenage Satan this September as an online comic extravaganza, they finally broke the news about their upcoming project recently at the Boston Comic Con.

“High school is like a horrible haircut,” said Candis. “You don’t want to go out into the world everyday, but you have to.”

And for Teenage Satan, getting away with that horrible haircut isn’t exactly going to be a piece of cake, not when your dad is the Lord of the Underworld. While he’ll be picked on by football player Joey and will crush hard on his next-door-neighbor Mary, he will have a few friends to back him up: Nick and Nikki, a Jack and Meg White-esque pair of conspiracy theorists whose exact relationship is strangely indeterminate, and Gabe, a ghostly pal who wants to help our hapless hero.

“It’s Hell for everyone — teenage life is Hell and we’ve all been there. There’s people going through it now,” Candis laughed. Everything gets better but teenage life, the years between 14 and 16, are the worst years of everyone’s life.”

For the Cookes, you might recognize the name — Marsha is the wife of DC: The New Frontier writer Darwyn Cooke, while Candis is his niece. Coming from that industry background, the Cookes felt that digital was the real platform for growth.

“Darwyn and I talk about digital all the time and we talk about the lack of material in the marketplace for young people,” Marsha said. “We go through the comic boxes and look for comics we can give during Halloween, and both are from Art and Franco. We didn’t think there was anything age-appropriate.”

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Want to help out a creator in need? Then listen up — legendary artist Gene Colan was hospitalized early Thursday morning, and he’s selling some books and artwork!

Details on the creator’s illness are sketchy, but Cliff Meth reports on his blog that the creator has had “a radiology procedure … to stop internal bleeding.” Meth has said that Colan is feeling optimistic, but is also in pain.

So how can you help? At the link above, you can purchase a number of signed books and even some artwork from the legendary creator, including signed editions of the Essential Iron Man and Daredevil books, as well as a full-color recreation of Iron Man #1 by Colan himself! So what are you waiting for? Dive in, and help a pro!

[Image via The Hero Initiative]

Most kids would be apprehensive about moving to upstate New York, but Victoria Thompson is at home with the weird, the different — and isn’t even afraid to make friends with creatures of the night. What sets apart the heroine of Matthew Dow Smith’s (Doctor Who, Witchblade) new Kickstarter novel, NIGHT FOLK, is that she’s all about the spooky and unusual.

Which suits Smith’s work just fine. Known for his moody, almost geometric artwork, Smith is shifting gears with this dark fantasy prose project, adding a comic book flair to each chapter with striking illustrations. Who are the Night Folk, and how does the spooky-savvy Victoria deal with them? With just seven days to go on Smith’s Kickstarter project, we caught up with the writer to tell us more about his work.

Newsarama: Matt, just to start off with, can you tell us a little bit about the premise of NIGHT FOLK, as well as touching upon the tone of your novel a bit?

Matthew Dow Smith: NIGHT FOLK is the story of Victoria, a young girl who’s always felt like an outsider. She doesn’t have many friends her own age, but she’s more than happy to spend all her time in her room, reading or drawing monsters in her notebooks. She’s always been drawn to the dark and unusual – scary stories, old Horror movies, that sort of thing – and one night, while she’s drawing the spooky tree next door, she sees something in one of the branches. When she sneaks out to investigate, she finds herself drawn into the world of the Night Folk, a race of strange creatures who inspired all our myths of monsters and ghouls.

It’s a fantasy story with a magical kingdom, strange monsters, and a lost little girl, but it’s all filtered through my sensibilities, so there are lots of shadows, mysterious strangers, and random glowing stuff, all the things I love to write about and draw.

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In the dog-eat-dog world of professional comic-bookery, it’s always gratifying to see creators play nice. And in the case of Skullkickers’ Jim Zubkavich and The Sixth Gun’s Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, it’s more than just a common courtesy — they’re helping drum up each others’ sales by placing ads in each other’s books.

“Cross-company promotion like this is rare in the comic biz, but both creative teams are enjoying each other’s series and felt that the audiences were quite compatible, so we set up an ad swap to see if we could cross-pollinate interest between readers,” Zubkavich wrote on his blog. “Creator owned comics are all in the same boat and we’re looking for every edge we can get in this market.”

For those who haven’t been reading, both series have recently released trade paperbacks. The Sixth Gun follows a scoundrel and an innocent girl as they wrestle with some demonic pistols in the Old West, while Skullkickers chronicles two nameless bounty hunters as they fight zombies, witches and other fantasy ghouls.

As far as the cross-promotion goes, the most recent issue of the Sixth Gun just came out this Wednesday, while Skullkickers returns in late May for its second arc.

Awesome sense, tingling!

So I saw the Spider-Man Musical on Broadway a few weeks back for my birthday. To say I was disappointed is probably an understatement. (I’m pretty sure the phrase “I’m not on enough drugs to appreciate this” was used shortly after the second act began.) Disappointed, I said to myself: Where else will I get that Parker charm on stage?

The Spidey Project has got you covered — and the show is now up in four parts on YouTube. I’m about 10 minutes into this, and I’m already totally smitten: Seeing Peter Parker’s life as, well, a bit of a comedy is a great way to keep the energy moving as well as play up the sheer absurdity that is The Parker Luck. Nerdy Betty Brant is probably the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long, long time, and Flash Thompson’s “Captain Hammer”-esque jockery is just awesome.

Stemming from some extremely dedicated (and clearly musically adept) fans who created the script and score in 10 days flat, this is the sort of respect and love of the source material that, well, the Broadway version of the show just completely lacked. Even as it lacks the (alleged) polish of a $65 million budget, the cast of this show should be proud of this funny, funny accomplishment. Check out Parts Two, Three and Four. Seriously, Spider-Fans, you just hit the jackpot.

Feel that the King of the Seas could spruce up his fashion sense? Project: Rooftop has just unveiled the winners of their “Aquaman: Sea Change” contest, which has challenged several artists to come up with some new threads for Arthur Curry.

Here’s the first place entry, by Daniel Mikah Govar — more winners after the jump!

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Could Zack Snyder have found his General Zod? The Hollywood Reporter sure seems to think so, as they’ve posted a rumor that the big villain for the upcoming Superman relaunch: Viggo Mortensen.

According to THR, Mortensen is a “person of interest” to Snyder and producer Christopher Nolan — one of the big questions remains whether or not Mortensen jumps on board for Universal’s Snow White film, and whether or not they can juggle the two schedules.

That all said and done, if Viggo does put his stamp on the role immortalized by, err, Terrance Stamp, I am totally in for this movie. They’ve already announced a slew of cool casting news, including Henry Cavill as the titular Man of Steel, as well as Kevin Costner as potentially playing Pa Kent. What say you on all this, Rama readers? Sound off!

Think the Sixth Gun is so good, you just want to rap about it? Or maybe you’re looking for a few nerdcore Infinity Gems to put on your iPod? Oni Press and comics rapper Adam WarRock have you covered, as they released a free Oni Press-themed mixtape this morning.

The mix contains songs about titles such as Super Pro K.O. (and features some album art from series creator Jarrett Williams), the Sixth Gun, Wasteland, Queen and Country and a lot more. Also, there are interludes with creators including Williams, Greg Rucka, Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, Jen Van Meter and Antony Johnston.

Adam WarRock (aka Eugene Ahn) has been on the scene for awhile now, blasting into Internet celebrity with his recap track to the first five books of the Scott Pilgrim series. He’s recently gone on to leave his job at a law firm to pursue his geekery as both an art and a vocation. And did I mention that this mix tape is free? Well, what are you waiting for? Click on this link and download this thing!

This video, by Cross Eyed Bear Comedy, is probably the worst and best thing you will see all day.

I would watch the heck out of this Archie movie. There is some seriously black comedy in here, including Reggie’s drug habit, teen pregnancy, and Jughead apparently eating a dog because his advances to Archie are not reciprocated.

The best part? Mashable says that this movie (and apparently 10 more) were made in one weekend with just $3,500. Awesome. Just… awesome.

Disney buying Marvel? Pssh, that’s only the beginning — the Washington Post has reported on a “seismic shift” in the world of newspaper comic strips.

United Media, which owns Dilbert, Marmaduke, Pearls Before Swine, Get Fuzzy and more, is slated to outsource all of its comics content to Missouri-based company Universal UClick.

Tom Spurgeon over at the Comics Reporter has likened the move to “Marvel outsourcing all of its comic books to DC.” The Washington Post says that the outsourcing deal should be completed by June 1.

“A review of our operations — and the marketplace we serve — made it clear that we should seek greater efficiency by teaming up with one of the other remaining players,” Scripps president and chief executive officer Rich Boehne said in a statement. “In [Universal UClick parent company] Andrews McMeel we found the scale and skills to carry forward the comic properties we have nurtured for many years.”

While the Washington Post said there was no word as to layoffs just yet, Spurgeon believes there may be a greater long-term effect as far as the number of players in the newspaper strip landscape is concerned. What say you, Rama readers?

Half-man. Half-robot. All good intentions.

For those who haven’t heard about the news, Detroit has had itself a little bit of an android dilemma — namely, a giant Robocop statue being built in the city. Earlier this month, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing shot down the idea of having such a statue built — but every meme has its price, and this week, a Kickstarter campaign successfully raised $50,000 to produce said Robocop statue.

Now, yeah, it’s kind of funny, but you know something? There’s actual people in Detroit who could use that $50,000 for more than just our Internet lulz, you know?

Which is where Ron Marz comes in. He and Gary Whitta had a discussion about the merits of the statue — Marz saying that it’s dumb to pay $50K for a statue when people are hungry, and Whitta saying that whimsy has its place, particularly with the weakened economy.

And lo, a compromise was made — Robocharity! Both Marz and Whitta have donated to Forgotten Harvest, a food pantry in Detroit. Want to join in, and be the hero that Detroit deserves? Donate some funds to Forgotten Harvest here, check out the initiative’s Facebook page, and then start talking it up on Twitter using the hashtag #RoboCharity. Well, what are you waiting for? Show the good people of Detroit that Robocop isn’t just an empty statue — he can inspire greatness out everyone, too!

Johnny Storm may be gone, but the Fantastic Four is living on, with Marvel releasing a new character redesign by Marko Djurdjevic. Featured in this lineup is Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Thing and — perhaps not surprising to many — the Amazing Spider-Man.

“The point of these new costumes is to really hammer home that everything is fresh and new in the series again — and that it feels like a black-and-white world, following Johnny’s death,” Marvel Tom Brevoort SVP of Publishing wrote in the image above. “Marko Djurdjevic took my suggestion of ‘white outfits’ and ran with it. The hexagonal emblems were all him.”

What say you on all this? Are these monochromatic outfits a fashion faux pass, or is this redesign as Fantastic as the team who inspired them? Only one thing’s for certain — Spider-Man is going to have to get a bigger closet. What say you, Rama readers? Sound off!

This might just be the end of an era, folks — DC Comics has announced that it will no longer be carrying the Comics Code Authority Seal of Approval, in favor of a new in-house rating system for their books.

The new ratings, according to co-publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio, are as follows:

E – EVERYONE

Appropriate for readers of all ages. May contain cartoon violence and/or some comic mischief.

T – TEEN

Appropriate for readers age 12 and older. May contain mild violence, language and/or suggestive themes.

T+ – TEEN PLUS

Appropriate for readers age 16 and older. May contain moderate violence, mild profanity, graphic imagery and/or suggestive themes.

M – MATURE

Appropriate for readers age 18 and older. May contain intense violence, extensive profanity, nudity, sexual themes and other content suitable only for older readers.

Vertigo, according to the publisher, will not have these rankings, simply having a “For Mature Readers” note on their catalog.

With the new ratings system beginning in April, this will mark the first time that both Big Two publishers have been without the Comics Code Authority since the 1950s. Marvel dropped the CCA in 2001, to institute their own in-house ratings system. What do you think about this, Rama readers? Is the era of the CCA officially over? Sound off!

Hold on to your Batarangs, people — we’ve got a gamechanger for the new Batman movie.

Because Christopher Nolan has announced who’s going to play Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. And her name is Anne Hathaway.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Anne Hathaway,” Nolan said in a press release posted by the Los Angeles Times, “who will be a fantastic addition to our ensemble as we complete our story.”

And if we’re looking for something else ominous, check this out — apparently Tom Hardy will be playing Bane, the juiced-up strongman who successfully broke the Bat. Hardy, who played Eames in Nolan’s last film, Inception, might not be your first pick for the toughest man in the Secret Six, but look at this image from Cinema de Merde, in Hardy’s movie Bronson — that dude can get RIPPED.

At any rate, Rama readers, we got ourselves a villain and… maybe something else. But isn’t that always like Catwoman — to be complicated? What say you, Rama readers? Is the curiosity killing you yet?