The masses of comic fans are arriving in San Diego, and I’m among them. As I began to get off the airplane after landing in San Diego from Chicago, I noticed a conspicuous number of genre-themed T-shirts among my fellow passengers as we all waited for people to lower their short boxes down from the overhead compartments.

The geeks have arrived.

As we walked through the terminal, an announcer came over the loudspeaker and welcomed “all you fanboys and fangirls who are here for the Comic-Con this weekend.”

“And if you have an extra ticket,” the announcer added, “can I have it?”

We all laughed. As if.

While texting practically everyone I know in the comics business, asking what time they’ll be at the con, I was standing in baggage claim and noticed a group of guys setting down their luggage. One of them put his short box of comics into the pile. Soon after, another of the guys in the group walked over to the pile and threw his jacket down – not on the luggage, but instead draped over the short box.

I thought, “Dude, you don’t have to hide here. We’re all geeks.”

I snapped a photo to share, and as I sat down to send it off to Blog@, I saw someone walk by holding up a sign that says “Simone.”

I’m tempted to chase that driver down and say, “Why yes, I’m Gail Simone. Can you take me to the con for FREE?”=

Something’s spreading on Deviant Art, and it seems to be catching.

It started on the pages of comic artists like Francis Manapul (whose work is pictured at right), Dustin Nguyen, and colorist Christina Strain. A symbol with a cross bordered by four “E” shaped ends showed up on the Deviant Art pages of several comic book artists with the tagline, “It’s Spreading.”

But then the idea caught on, and the symbol started showing up all over the Deviant Art website, represented in a wide variety of artwork — and accompanied by the tagline, “It’s Spreading.”

What exactly is spreading remains to be seen, but it’s got people talking. New Ultimate Comics Spider-Man artist David LaFuente, who doesn’t have a page on Deviant Art but obviously visits the site enough to notice the phenomenon, posted on his Twitter page this morning, “the IT’S SPREADING thing has my attention.”

At left, I’ve shared a few of my “It’s Spreading” favorites that will give you an idea of how the symbol is being used by Deviant Artists. The images pictured are by Bill Reinhold (the hillside), Ben Kodjak (the shoes) and Kiora Keller (the self-portrait).

To see some of the “It’s Spreading” art yourself, you can check out this collection.

This whole “It’s Spreading” trend is most likely a viral marketing campaign by a clever comics publisher. Then again, it could just be some leftover April Fools joke or the result of a bar room dare. No matter what it is, it’s kind of fun to see how creative these artists are getting as they “spread” this funky little symbol.

The cast members announced for New Moon, the sequel to Twilight, pack a lot of geek cred – especially for a franchise whose fans are mostly female.

Announced this week by Summit Entertainment, the list of actors playing the vicious Volturi vampires introduced in New Moon includes some actors with surprising geek-media credentials. On the cast list are two actors who played X-Men mutants, one who portrayed Superman’s uncle Zor-El and another who played the werewolf leader in the Underworld films.

That’s one geek-packing posse of vampires.

Actor Michael Sheen may have won recent accolades for his role as David Frost in the Oscar-nominated Frost/Nixon film, but genre movie fans know him best for playing Lucian, the werewolf leader in the Underworld movie series. Now Sheen has been cast in New Moon as Aro, the charming yet creepy leader of the Volturi.

Other Volturi cast members announced this week include X-Men film alumni Daniel Cudmore (as the violent Volturi guard Felix) and Cameron Bright (as Alec, the vampire who has the power to cut off his enemy’s senses). Cudmore appeared as Colossus in X-Men: The Last Stand, and Bright played the young, bald mutant Leech in the same film.

Also cast as part of the Volturi is Christopher Heyerdahl, the actor who played Zor-El, Superman’s Kryptonian uncle, on TV’s Smallville. In New Moon, Heyerdahl will play the apathetic Volturi leader Marcus.

Rounding out the list of Volturi are the previously announced Dakota Fanning as the petite mental torturer Jane; fashion model Noot Seear as the human-baiting Heidi; Sweeney Todd actor Jamie Campbell Bower as the brutal Volturi leader Caius; and Charlie Bewley, a newcomer actor who will play super-tracker Demetri.

And Bower may have some upcoming geek cred of his own, as the actor is reported to be in final negotiations to appear in the two Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows films as dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, whose battle with Albus Dumbledore is legendary in the Harry Potter universe.

(Since Robert Pattinson is also a Potter movie alum, perhaps his confrontations in New Moon with Bower will involve magic wands?)

Another addition to the New Moon cast announced this week was Native American actor Graham Greene in the role of Harry Clearwater, a leader of the Quileute tribe of shape-shifting werewolves. (Greene’s probably best known for his Academy Award-nominated portrayal as Kicking Bird in Dances With Wolves.)

All of the actors from the original Twilight film, based on the Twilight Saga books by Stephenie Meyer, are returning for the sequel and the third film, Eclipse, which is scheduled to film soon after New Moon wraps up.

Directed by Chris Weitz (About a Boy, The Golden Compass), New Moon is said to have a larger budget than the first Twilight movie. Twilight had a budget of only $37 million, putting it close to the category of an indy film, yet it ended up with a worldwide box office gross of over $379 million, and is among the top-selling DVDs of the year so far. Fans are hoping Summit puts money behind this one, because with shapeshifting werewolves and superpowered vampires, they’ll need extra cash behind this movie for all the special effects – otherwise New Moon will squander away what geek cred it’s earned with this cast.

Entertainment reporters from the New York Daily News and The National Ledger are reporting that makers of the Spider-Man musical are looking for a “huge theater” in which to house the production. Reporters talked to Tony Award-winning director Julie Taymor of Lion King fame at the premier of her new film Across the Universe. Taymor is making the Spider-Man musical with musicians Bono and The Edge from the rock band U2.

Says Taymor in the National Ledger report:

“I’m very proud of the songs that Bono and Edge wrote. It’s a real rock-and-roll musical, so we’re not worried about that aspect. We just have to find where we’re going to do it– even if we have to do it in a tent, which we’re looking into – and when. It’ll at least be a year away.”

This news comes on top of the story that has been circulating that Marilyn Manson requested a role in the Spider-Man musical because he’s such a fan of the web-slinger. “Marilyn just asked me if he could have a part in Spider-Man. The funny thing is, he really liked the music on my new movie,” Taymor said, according to a report from Bang (via stuff.co.nz).

As Newsarama cited in April from a Playbill report, the musical was scheduled for a reading back in July to determine whether it was worth staging anywhere – particularly if it was worth staging in New York. This latest news about the search for a New York home seems to indicate it’s been deemed worthy of a spot on Broadway. But let’s hope Taymor was just joking about the tent.

Maybe it’s because I love finding a mother of two like me who also reads lots of comics, or maybe it’s just that my kids have brought home her Babymouse graphic novels from school and gotten me hooked, but I wish I could make it to the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., this Saturday to meet Jennifer L. Holm. The festival, which takes place on the National Mall, will host about 70 authors including Holm, who creates the books for her Babymouse series with her brother, Matthew.

The Washington Post has a close-up about Holm today in anticipation of her appearance, and an article in the newspaper’s KidsPost section about her newest book, the part-prose/part-graphic novel, “Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf.”

Gaming blogs from to TRMK to Gaming Today are reporting on a formerly dismissed rumor that the next Mortal Kombat game released by Chicago-based game developer Midway could be Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Comics characters.

The rumor was written off by most online gaming fans when it surfaced recently on the IGN message boards in a post by someone who supposedly has a “friend” inside the company, but now TRMK has cited their own sources who have confirmed the next MK game will indeed be a “vs.” style game. Added to statements by developers that they are “reinventing everything from the ground up,” gamers and MK fans are starting to think the formerly dismissed rumor might have some merit.

Fans of the Marvel vs. Capcom game might like the possibility. However, the idea of a game like Mortal Kombat, known for its gory fatalities, pairing with the likes of anti-killing superheroes like Batman and Superman still seems far-fetched. After all, being a long-time MK player myself, I can’t imagine getting quite the same thrill out of Sub-Zero’s finishing move if it’s Batman’s spine he’s ripping out – and DC would like that even less. And MK fans are not happy about the suggestion that game developers might, to appease DC Comics, release the newest MK version as a non-fatality game that will be rated T.

The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat has reported that Michael George, owner of Comics World and organizer of the Pittsburgh Comic-Con, has waived extradition to Michigan, where he faces charges for the murder of his wife 17 years ago.

As Newsarama reported on Aug. 7, George was arrested in Pennsylvania but was to be extradited to Michigan. According to the latest report, Michigan authorities have charged George with first- and second-degree murder and a weapons violation in the execution-style killing of his then-wife, Barbara Marie George, on July 13, 1990, in the back area of the comics shop he owned at the time north of Detroit. According to reports, the 32-year-old woman died from a single, close-range gunshot to the head from a semi-automatic handgun after she closed the comics shop, also called Comics World, to prepare for a surprise birthday party for her husband. Reports also indicate $30,000 worth of comics were stolen at the time.

George’s attorney, Tim Leventry, said George decided to fight the charges in Michigan after receiving documents about the case from prosecutors. From the article:

“No information in those documents, we believe, suggests any form of homicide,” Leventry said.

“We want to get Mr. George to Michigan as quickly as possible to have a preliminary hearing.”

George is expected to be transported to Michigan in 10 days to two weeks, Somerset County District Attorney Jerry Spangler said.

The article goes on to quote Thomas Eleinko, assistant prosecuting attorney for Macomb Co., Mich., who said that George “has no bona fide alibi for his whereabouts at the time of the shooting.” The prosecutor also alleges the couple had an unhappy marriage, and that George received $125,000 in life-insurance proceeds as well as $13,000 in other benefits. A similar report from The Associated Press says that prosecutors are alleging “the motive was an extramarital affair and a six-figure insurance policy.”

Shortly after his wife’s murder, George relocated to Pennsylvania where he and his wife, Renee’, founded the Pittsburgh Comicon, which celebrated its 14th anniversary in April.

My teenaged daughter dragged me to the movies over the weekend, which usually means I’m going to watch a predictable teen flick with a message or something painfully family-oriented. But this time I got a bit of a surprise when the teen movie featured a young female lead character who loves comic books.

Sydney White, the modern take on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs starring Amanda Bynes that opened this weekend, doesn’t break much new ground as a teen movie. But it definitely breaks the stereotype of comic books being for boys because the film’s heroine reads and loves them, something my comics-reading daughter and I appreciated.

And when I looked up pictures over the weekend of Bynes for this post, I was further surprised to find out that it was her idea to make her character a comic book fan. As she told The Early Show on CBS earlier this month:

“I grew up loving Archie comics and I was obsessed and I collected them,” she said. “I have like 400. I still have them. I, basically, when I was meeting to do this movie, said ‘What if my character had a comic book, you know, obsession?’ So they added it in and now my character is a comic book freak as well, so it kind of makes her relate to dorks.”

For those of you not familiar with Bynes, she grew up performing on Nickelodeon, even starring in her own show, and could be described as the Carol Burnett of my daughter’s generation (or the Tracy Ullman or whatever your generation’s female comedy-skit queen was named). So, since seeing the movie on Saturday and finding out about Bynes’ collection, my daughter has not only already informed about a dozen of her friends that the movie star also reads comics (“just like me”), but has counted her comics to see how long it would take her to reach the 400 mark (“just like Amanda”).
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Inspired by this post introducing creators Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick’s new son to the world, I thought I’d offer congratulations to and share some baby pictures from a couple other creators who became parents this summer.

Here’s Ultimate Fantastic Four artist Mark Brooks and his son, Jack Preston, who was born in July (and even has his own baby MySpace page):

And Amazing Spider-Man artist (and soon to be Wolverine artist) Ron Garney with his son, Tristan, who was born in June:

Congratulations! And make sure they have plenty of paper and pencils around the house so they can draw like daddy.

The comic book art exhibit in Montclair, N.J., at the Montclair Art Museum that Chris Mautner told us about in July is refreshing its exhibit, which has focused on the extensive comics collection of Hollywood producer Michael Uslan as well as a display of work by Joe Kubert and his sons Andy and Adam.

The new additions include mural-sized paintings by comic book artist Greg Hildebrandt and a display of photos by Dulce Pinzon, who photographed immigrant workers dressed in superhero costumes that she made herself, in an exhibit called, “Dulce Pinzon: The Real Story of the Superheroes.”

From NJ.com:

So she shoots Bernabe Mendez hanging out a high-rise window washing the panes, but dressed in a Spiderman outfit. Or Oscar Gonzalez, dressed as the Human Torch, slinging flaming fajitas around the grill on his job as a cook in New York City. Beside each photo Pinzoon lists the Mexican state the worker came from and how much he sends home each week. (The Torch sends back $350 a week, for example, and the more famous Spidey, $500).

More details and images of the exhibit at montclairartmuseum.org.

For my first post on blog@, I wanted to confidently thank J.K. Parkin, who asked me to do this, and kindly ask readers to be patient with the rookie, but then decided I should just fess up to the truth. This is intimidating as hell.

Last night, after waiting until the last minute to figure out how to post on Blog@ as I fill in for the resident geniuses who usually do this unenviable job, I found myself downright nervous. Interviewing clever people is one thing, but attempting to be one myself is a whole different ball o’ wax. The thought crossed my mind that I could back out at the last minute in a desperate attempt to save face.

But then a telephone conversation I had the night before crossed my mind. And at the risk sounding like a braggart, I’ll share that it was Geoff Johns doing the conversing, and the subject was fear, on which Geoff is pretty knowledgeable, seeing as he’s the guy who created a big yellow embodiment of fear and thousands of his fear-wielding minions for DC.

And as we talked about how fear can be disabling and how it acts as a constant barrier to new experiences and opportunities, Geoff pointed out that overcoming fear is necessary if you want to live life to its fullest, comparing this fact of the real world to how the characters he writes have to overcome fear in order to do defeat their enemies and triumph in their roles as Green Lanterns.

So as I stared at my computer screen last night and wondered how the hell I would find a way to do this blog@ gig without making a complete, unmitigated fool of myself, I figured if Green Lanterns can overcome fear as they use their power rings to fight the evil Sinestro Corps, then surely Vaneta Rogers can find enough courage to write something on Blog@. That’s honestly what got me to do this job — inspiration from a bunch of flying space superheroes. And if that doesn’t prove what a geek I am, I suppose nothing will.