Hey, remember that time Rob Liefeld and Mike Mignola collaborated?: No? Well, Liefeld does, and he has some neat images to share too. Now I kinda want to see Liefeld draw Hellboy and the BPRD gang…at least on a cover or pin-up, anyway.

Something I will never get sick of seeing: Jaime Hernandez drawing Wonder Woman. Why oh why did DC ever cancel Solo, their greatest idea for a comic book series ever? Can you imagine a Jaime Hernandez issue of Solo?

Is Johnny Ryan a better concert poster designer, or a better concert line-up assembler?: You decide! (Link not safe for work, obviously…or is saying that after already saying “Johnny Ryan” considered redundant?

Big Questions will be a big book: In fact, I think I’m going to have to ask a carpenter to come over and add a few feet on to my Drawn and Quarterly bookshelf, and maybe reinforce it. As the first of these pictures shows, the book will be even bigger than some of D+Q’s awfully big books.

James Kochalka is a very good dancer: Check out his moves in this Beyonce video (For his song entitled Beyonce, that is; he’s not a back-up dancer in an actually Beyonce video, although I would kinda like to see him performing in something like this). In other Kochalkappenings, this American Elf strip is a nice demonstration of how adulthood is pretty much the same as high school, only interminable.

Abhay Khosla is pretty much the best: The latest evidence.

“I remember them from drawing them so intently as a child that my hand remembered drawing them more than I remembered them”: That’s Vicki Scott, from  a neat little video interview thing she and Bob Scott, the artists involved with that new Peanuts comic I reviewed the other day. Returning to characters you used to draw as a kid every once in a while is a really cool, really strange experience. Every few years or so I’ll sit down and spend a few hours just drawing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Uncle Scrooge or Batman villain The Scarecrow over and over.

“Yeah, new guys, I can do that like breathing. I can piss new guys out like a race horse with Charlton rates”: That’s Evan Dorkin imagining the thoughts running through Jack Kirby’s head when he sat down to make Captain America Annual #4, which featured Magneto hanging out with a pretty lame-o Brotherhood of Evil, which included guys like The Peeper and The Lifter. Well, when you create some 5,000 characters in the space of 40 years or so, they can’t all be Doctor Doom, you know?

Get ‘em George Takei!: Add the Star Trek actor to the list of people who think moving the setting of Akira to the U.S. (and thus casting non-Japanese actors) for a live-action film adaptation is a pretty dumb idea. While I admit being attracted to the sheer insanity of casting twenty-something white guy Robert Pattinson and 30-year-old white guy Justin Timberlake as Japanese teenagers Tetsuo and Kaneda, if they don’t land Pattinson while he’s still  a chick-money magnet, I can’t imagine this going over well at the box office or in film reviews. How did the “whitewashed” and/or Americanized live-action big-screen adapations of Godzilla, Dragon Ball and The Last Airbender go over, in terms of both money and popular esteem?

This looks awesome: Fantagraphics’ Flog blog shares a nice illustration piece by Tony Millionaire, for a book that sounds almost as awesome as the Millionaire piece looks.

Brian Hibbs on recent events: I enjoy reading Savage Critics ringleader Brian Hibbs’ posts on new comics, like this one on recent events like Fear Itself and “The Death of Spider-Man,” because he responds to the works not just as a fan (I liked this, I didn’t like that) or a critic (this was good, this was bad, here’s why) but also as a retailer. After all, he’s the guy who has to try and sell this stuff to his customers.

“Anyway, this was the most fun I’ve had in years and I’m really grateful for the response to it so far”: Artist Kevin Nowlan discusses his work on Hellboy: Buster Oakley Gets His Wish, a one-shot released this past Wednesday.

Doubleshot of Sims: Comics Alliance’s Chris Sims discusses “The Best, Worst and Weirdest Alternate Superhero Deaths In Comics” in light of Ultimate Spider-Man’s ultimate death, and joins forces with one of my personal favorite artists for a comic book that never happened, Fear Itself: 1942.

“Maddening ouroboros of self-reference” is actually  a pretty good way to describe it: The Seattle Times reviews two recent episodes of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon. Part of that entails just counting off the crazy amount of allusions to what sounds like the entire history of Superman and Batman comics. I should note that critic Andrew A. Smith means “maddening ouroboros of self-reference” in a good way.

Hi gang. I usually try to have my Wednesday, Monday and Friday linkblogging up by around 10:30 in the morning at the latest, but technical difficulties left me unable to access the site until right about now-ish, so this is about 12 hours late. Just in case you were wondering why this is showing up now, and why it’s shorter and lamer than usual.

Aaaugh!: His toes! You can see his toes! Dear God in heaven, why can I see his toes?!

Kapow aftermath: British comics focused site Down The Tubes has a very thorough post covering the Mark Millar-founded, London-based convention, including a ton of links to other pieces and reactions to the event. If you were curious about it, I can’t think of a better starting point to reading about it, really.

The monumental cartoonists of Canada: Bryan Munn of Sequential acts as tour guide to the many landmarks and monuments devoted to cartoonists that dot the Canadian landscape.

This made me laugh: The literal-minded among you please note that the sign is, of course, sarcastic, and you should not—I repeat not—try Amazon. Your package probably won’t even get through the post office, and I’m pretty sure you’ll get in some pretty serious trouble.

“On the whole, I actually found this one chapter to be interesting and fun to read”: Having been burned by these types of comics before, Nina Stone hesitantly attempts to read Fear Itself #1, and likes most of what comes after the ugly, ugly cover. I concur that her idea of a transfeminating Red Skull is a lot cooler than the Red Skull’s daughter trying to out-Red Skull him.

A couple of publishers on their Eisner nominations: Drawn and Quarterly’s Peggy Burns admits to feeling very appreciated over the publisher’s 11 nominations, which almost half as many nominations as books they publish in a given years. Mathematically that’s…well, I can’t do math. Still, I bet if you subtracted the number of nominated works from the complete number of books D+Q published last year, and added up the nominations in comparison to that number, it would be pretty impressive book-to-nomination ratio. Meanwhile, DC announced their many nominations in a post entitled “DC receives 14 Eisner Nominations, The Most of Any Publisher.” Is it worth noting that of those 14, ten are for Vertigo 0r Vertigo-like (Joe Kubert’s Best/Writer Artist nom for Dong Xaoi, Vietnam 1965) books and two more are for projects far outside what one might consider DC Universe continuity comics (Tiny Titans and Wednesday Comics, for Best Publication For Kids and Best Graphic Album Reprint, respectively), leaving only two “true” DCU books nominated—Superboy for Best New Series and a Billy Tucci short from DCU Halloween Special 2010 for Best Short Story. I’m not trying to diminish the publisher’s accomplishments—one of its great strengths is the way it publishes a wide variety of work for a wide variety of audeinces within the structure of mainstream comics publishing—but I think its worth noting where what the Eisner judges consider “the good stuff” is coming from at the moment, I think.

Speaking of math and comics: Check out this heady, intersting analysis post entitled  “Mathematical Equivalence of Comics.” I wish I had to take a class on that in high school—I’m certain it would have come in more handy more often in my adult life than either algebra or trigonometry ever did. (Via Comics Reporter)

Black Widow’s weapons of choice—sexist?: Here’s an interesting discussion of Marvel’s super-spy’s versatile bracelet/gauntlet thingee. Please note that the name of the blog is NSFW.

So who’s drawing what from when?: DC announced the titles, logo designs and writers of their Retroactive books at WonderCon recently, and now The Source blog is going to start rolling out the names of the artists. First up? Eduardo Barretto on the ’70s era Superman one-shot. (Nice.) Keep your eyes on The Source for more reveals. This initiative provides plenty of opportunities for the cynical among us to make cracks at DC, but it also provides a lot of opportunities to see great work from great creators, many of whom we don’t see appearing on the new comics shelves as often as they should. Meanwhile, Don MacPherson of Eye On Comics offers his thoughts on the project, and offers some guesses as to who some of the artists might be. He mentions the timing of the event might make some of the creators more attractive folks to send to this season’s many conventions, and bigger draws once they’re there. I hope it gets some of these guys bigger readerships and perhaps more work—I certainly wouldn’t object to seeing a Barretto-drawn Superman or a Norm Breyfogle-drawn Batman showing up as often as, say, an Eddy Barrows-drawn Superman or Tony Daniel- or David Finch-drawn Batman.

The reviews themselves: Is it a sign of event fatigue that I didn’t find more Fear Itself #1 reviews among the comics blogosphere during my last two trips through it, Thursday and Sunday nights? Here’s a few sentences on it from Tim O’Neil (“Not terrible”), a review that takes an interesting tangent into relevance in comics and how this one features a scene that chooses to “go half-assed and bring the real world in, only to shy away from actually saying anything about it?”  by Yan Basque (“[B]y the time I’d reach the last page, I was itching to find out what happens next”) and a more formal review by the previously mentioned Don MacPherson (“The saving grace of this book is the artwork”). I think O’Neil wins the blurb-off here…who wouldn’t at least be tempted to buy a big, fat hardcover collection with the words “Not terrible” quoted on the cover?

This week’s discussion topic: This week’s Village Voice is the special “Comics Issue,” and features a great cover by Ward Sutton, depicting comics characters in the styles of different catoonists (Jack Kirby’s Charlie Brown! R. Crumb’s Olive Oyl! Et cetera!). The most talked about/blogged about issue raised by the issue? That of paying and not paying cartoonists. Here’s the Voice article “If Cartoons Are So Big, Why Don’t They Pay?”, and here’s a little round-up of some of the many reactions to the piece and its existence in the Voice.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if Marvel tried its hand at that format again? Well, guess what? It did, and quite recently”: Don MacPherson discusses Marvel’s recent flirtation with the magazine format. Have you heard of them?

Peanuts by Eric Reynolds, age 8 or 9: On the Flog blog, Fantagraphics’ Reynolds shares some childhood comics he did as a kid.

Noooo!: Why can’t you just leave poor Dr. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana alone, Titans?

“‘Just look at it,’ quoth the Helfer”: In light of the recent announcement of DC’s Retro-Active comics, in which J.M. DeMatteis will be re-teaming with Keith Giffen and Kevin Maguire for the ’90s Justice League issue, the writer shares an old essay about how he got involved with the franchise. It’s a fun piece with some fun behind the scenes details, and a good argument for the value of a talented, engaged editor working closely with creators on a title.

“Miller and Varley’s Joker”: The Mindless Ones series “Three Fools” continues with a look at The Joker in Frank Miller and Lynn Varley’s The Dark Knight Returns. It’s a particularly intersting piece following the first part, which covered The Killing Joke, since Dark Knight isn’t particularly known for its Joker.

“Once upon a time the mouse named Batman…”: James Kochalka tells the best bedtime stories.

“I know I’m supposed to get all excited about the Thor movie, and the Green Lantern movie, and the Herbie the Fat Fury movie, like everyone says I’m supposed to…”: What live action superhero is Ty Templeton most excited about these days? Click to find out! I must confess, that particular hero translates remarkably well to that particular venue, which generally doesn’t do live action superheroes all that well.

It’s new to me, too: Check out this iFanboy post, in which a 2004 Frank Quitely image featuring the Masters of the Universe characters gets dug out and shown off.

I just read a review copy of Chester Brown’s upcoming Paying For It, and am still processing it and am thus still a long way from writing an actual review of it yet (it doesn’t come out until May). But one of my favorite aspects of the book were the scenes in which Brown’s comics versions of real-life friends and cartoonists Seth, Joe Matt and himself would hang out and talk about the subject of the book (Brown’s “whoremongering,” as Matt calls it, and their various theories on romantic love/human relationships). Here Matt, whom you may recognize as the author of Spent (in which Brown and Seth also appeared as supporting characters), reviews Paying For It…or at least its portrayal of him in some scenes.

“G-g-g-ghost World?”: Check out this neat “mush-up” of Ghost World and Scooby-Doo.

“So let me throw out a few vaguely related thoughts that I can’t really seem to flow in a cohesive narrative right now…”: Sean Kleefeld on what still strikes me as the strangest announcement of the weekend.

“I’m not the biggest Neal Adams fan. This will not change my mind”: Blog Into Mystery blogs into Adams’ Skateman #1. What I wouldn’t give to see Adams have Skateman team-up with Batman in a Batman: The Odyssey special…

That White Queen costume doesn’t look quite 1960s, and yet doesn’t look quite modern to me either: Total Film attempts era-appropriate X-Men: First Class for their issue featuring the upcoming X-Men film.

Great headline, guys: “The Green Lantern comic is the basis for a movie due in June”

That’s about 23 more expressions than most super-comics artists seem capable of mustering these days: Brad Mackay closely examines a two-page spread of various Superman faces and expressions he found in DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle. (Via Comics Reporter)

And they’ve already got a theme song!: A recent installment of James Kochalka’s American Elf diary strip was entitled “Pitching Superf*ckers,” and was about he and four guys on his team pitching the four people on “their team.” “I could write a whole graphic novel about the emotional dynamics in that room,” Kochalka wrote. Man, I would love to read that graphic novel. Almost as much as I’d like to see a Superf*ckers cartoon.

Mr. Tawny would look swell dressed as Eustace Tilley: In a follow-up of sorts to a piece on Chip Kidd and Geoff Spear’s Shazam! book, Jaime Wolf of the New Yorker writes a nice, short biography of Captain Marvel creator C.C. Beck, paying particular attention to the part of his career after he stopped making Captain Marvel comics, and instead turned to Captain Marvel paintings. Wolf mentions he’d like to eventually see a gallery show of those paintings. I’d settle for a nice book collecting images of them.

It’s Even More Depressing Than Usual, Charlie Brown!: In the spirit of Garfield Minus Garfield comes “3eanuts”, which chops the fourth and final panel off of installments of Charles Schulz’ Peanuts strips, thus depriving each narrative of the tension-relieving punchline.

Gary Groth on Carl Barks: The Fantagraphics publisher talks a bit about his company’s upcoming collection of the great Good Duck artist’s duck comics in the latest issue of The Carl Barks Fan Club Newsletter.

Wow: Check out Jillian Tamaki’s hand-sewn book covers.

Hey remember when DC published a comic for little girls by Peter Bagge and Gilbert Hernandez?: Well, Fantagraphics is collecting it. That was one of those occasional comics from the Big Two that seems so incredibly unlike anything you’d ever expect them to publish taht it kind of seems like someone just made it up or something. Like, if someone told me about it, I might think they were lying. Except in this case, I remember the house ads and seeing it on the shelves.

“Who’s the pair everywhere at each high-class affair?”: Hey, it’s the entire eleven-minute and eighteen-second Snake ‘N’ Bacon pilot!

“11 Reasons why Marvel’s Godzilla is still King”: It’s difficult to argue with any of these, really.

Who’s morning Johnny Storm?: At The Cool Kid’s Table, Ben Morse dicuss the totally dead forever Johnny “Human Torch” Storm’s “various girlfriends and shape shifting alien wives.” Prior to that, he posted pictures of the Greek symbol Omega in various superhero comics for some reason. He included Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple’s fairly awesome Omega The Unknown, but negelected to include the original, totally awesome Omega The Unknown.

Your second look at the new TV Wonder Woman?: The first photo of Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman that was released was much-discussed pretty much everywhere people discuss superheroes, and a common complaint seemed to be the shiny, plastic-y, off-the-rack look of the costume. Well, it looks less shiny, plastic-y and off-the-rack on set, as you can see in this series of images. I was a little bummed she changed boots, as the blue boots in that initial image were my favorite thing about the costume. I still contend the new Wondy costume looks infinitely better than the majority of the superhero costumes on Smallville, like this Blue Beetle get-up, for example. [UPDATE: Oops, looks like the main page also has the same images. That's the beauty of the Internet—you just don't get that kind of two people talking about the exact same thing at the exact same time in different sections of the same venue in print media!]

Speaking of Wonder Woman…: This H.G. Peter-drawn “Wonder Woman, Amazon Baby Sitter!” comic is fantastic, even if none of the events in the actual comic quite live up to the image on the title splash page, of Wondy pushing a baby carriage with a T-Rex happily crammed into it.

“If you look at the series, it’s typically Godzilla — he’s coming to wreak havoc on Japan…There’s no question that it’s unfortunate timing”: That’s IDW’s Ted Adams discussing this week’s release of Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1 a San Diego Union-Tribune article about a Godzilla-destroying-Japan comic coming out in the midst of Japan’s current tragedies. When the earthquake an tsunami first hit, many political cartoonists turned to Godzilla as a symbol of Japan and/or devastation in Japan in their initial cartoon reactions. (I know I had a hell of a time yesterday thinking of a non-offiensive Godzilla gag to draw at the top of my new release preview column).

Jeff Smith visits Yakko, Wakko and Dot: Sadly, they didn’t seem to be home.

Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez draws the Marvel Family: Check out Jeffrey Klaehn’s little gallery here. It still boggles my mind that when DC wanted to make Mary Marvel “sexy,” they crammed her into a tighter costume with a tiny, barely there skirt instead of just, you know, having a person who draws really well draw her really well.

AAAAAAAAAA!: In this post from Brian Hughes, he discusses why he seems to be buying fewer and fewer DC Comics lately. The main reason I call attention to this post is that Hughes also points out something I so far hadn’t noticed—Phil Jiminez is a great artist, but his Bouncing Boy will haunt your dreams.

Sexless Superman is my favorite Superman: A. David Lewis discusses Superman not being “a sexual being” at The Hooded Utilitarian. I disagree with a lot of what he writes in terms of factual stating—Superman’s not a sex symbol? Then why do so many people wanna have sex with him?—and comic book Superman seems to have sex with comic book Lois Lane all the damn time now that they’re married. Lewis’ article may go away towards explaining why seeing comic book Superman make bedroom eyes at comic book Lois Lane never fails to creep me out. I tend to think of them as my parents for some reason (Like, in the way that I would think about my parents, not in that I think they are actually my parents), and don’t want to hear them allude to doing it. Anyway, it’s well worth a read, being about superheroes and sex, everyone’s two favorite subjects.

The saddest thing you’ll read all day: Deadline Hollywood reprints the contents of a letter the late Joanne Siegel, wife of Superman creator Jerry Siegel and the inspiration for Lois Lane, sent to Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes just a few months before she died. The issues raised sure makes discussions like who’s playing Lois Lane in the latest Superman movie seem kind of frivilous, huh?

My mind is having trouble processing the idea of Bill Murray’s Batman…which makes me want to see it all the more: Michael Rechtshaffen recounts the many famous names who either clamored for or were once considered for the film roles of Superman and Batman.

Jeff Parker on all things Jeff Parker: I enjoyed this wide-ranging interview with the talented Marvel writer currently responsible for Hulk and Thunderbolts.

J.H. Williams III tries to bring Funk to a pice of his cover art: Here’s a look at Williams cover for the somewhat controversial Static Shock Special, including a nice little walk-through of his thought and creative processes.

“And it’s a bloody good comic, with a couple of moments where it becomes the best thing Garth Ennis has ever done”: Bob Temuka reads Garth Ennis, John McCrea and company’s Hitman series. (I certainly can’t think of a better exmaple of Ennis writing strong characters and compelling drama). I agree it’s a great comic, and among the talented Ennis’ best. I really liked the way Temuka highlighted aspects of the book too, as it forced me to recall great bits from the series and, in  a few cases where I couldn’t remember the reference, to get curious about it all over again.

James Kochalka has got to have one of the most interesting resumes in comics: Check out the cover he provided for the magazine Trends in Cell Biology.

Did you know Jim Henson made a Muppet Wizard of Id pilot?: Well, he did, and Alan Gardner has four minutes of it.

My favorite part of comic book conventions I don’t attend?: Seeing Cliff Chiang’s convention sketches. This round from C2E2 includes some characters who look a bit unusual but also pretty awesome in Chiang’s style, like Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Ramona Flowers and Julie Adams…in the clutches of the creature from the Black Lagoon, of course.

The saddest title to a blog post I’ve read in months: “I guess porn is the only way I get to see my favorite DC women on film”

Don’t look at this tumblr thingee: Seriously, don’t. You won’t like what you see! It’s not good for you! It might upset your stomach! (Via Mike “Black Fury” Sterling)

Marvel shipping two issues of their monthlies in a single mont, good or bad?: Bob Bretall discusses, and iFanboy offers further commentary. It’s a tricky one, especially if the plan is to publish more than 12 issues a year, as some folks at Marvel have stated was the plan. I agree that if you love the title, it’s a great thing, but if it’s one you’re on the fence with, the accelerated schedule will only accelerate the time in which you decide to drop a title. One likely side effect is diminishing the role of the artist in a particular title, though, as writing, say, 14 or 18 comic scripts a year (I think Brian Michael Bendis does that eveyr month, actually) instead of 12 is a hell of a lot easeir than drawing 14 or 18 comic books per year  instead of 12. Thoughts? (Via Comics Reporter)

Are superheroes still Jewish?: Eli Valley checks in. (By the way, I’d buy a pickle from Superman…and I don’t even like pickles). (Via Comics Reporter again…where would this entry be without Tom Spurgeon’s links to cherrypick from?)

Two thoughts on two great DC artists: Good God Rags Morales sure can draw, can’t he? I hated that comic book, and hate it more each time I reread it, but I’m having  a hard time thinking of a better-drawn bad comic from the last 20 years or so. Why isn’t DC (or someone, anyone) publishing a monthly, Morales-drawn comic? That’s something I’d love to spend my comic book money on (Speaking of Morales and how awesome he is, did you guys pick up the recently recleased Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms Vol. 1 from IDW? If not, you totally should; it’s Morales doing non-superhero stuff, and it’s great). Also, DC’s Source blog is kicking off another Flashpoint Friday, with a Jim Lee redesign of Element Girl (Now Element Woman), last seen in Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred’s Wednesday Comics strip. Her costume is…pretty dumb, actually, just patches of clothing here or there, and I have no idea how it stays on (Glue? Elemental powers? An invisible fabric stretching between the visible stuff?). It made me realize that although I love Lee as an artist, I don’t care for his costume design work at all (factoring in his Wonder Woman and Huntress redesigns).

A great comics-related  you’re not going to read: Dean Trippe and Daniel Krall apparently pitched DC a series of ilustrated young adult novles called Lois Lane, Girl Reporter. I believe it’s currently being shelved alongside athe Absolute Edition of Tintin Pantoja’s Wonder Woman comic in Dream of The Endless’ library…

Mark Trail tracks Billy Keane: Drawn and Quarterly’s Chris Oliveros shares some images of a really neat looking place in Orlando. For comic strip fans, anyway.

How late is Batman Inc anyway, and who’s to blame?: In a image and information round-up post from his visit Wizard World Toronto, David Diep says the delays are “a combination of slowness on Grant and Yanick’s part” and that we should expect more delays and/or fill-ins (Paquette disagrees with what Diep reported, and takes the full blame for the book not being monthly). My favorite part of Diep’s post, however, was the sentence, “Francis [Manapul] revealed that Jim Shooter isn’t the easiest guy to work with.” Manapul was talking about the way Shooter’s writing style and his own art style mesh, not the reasons past pros have cited for Shooter not being the easiest guy in the world to work with.

In  other Batman scheduling related news…: Matt Duarte tries to figure out whatever happened to the caped crusader’s creative team (on Batman and Robin, which was created as a Morrison and friends book, and has since become a Batman Confidential/Legends of the Dark Knight-like book).

“‘Event fatigue’ is easy to say but hard to prove: how do you decide whether or not fans are sick of events if they still continue to buy the events?”: In the course of reviewing Fear Itself: Book of the Skull and some other recent books, Tim O’Neil wonders about how Marvel’s latest event got put together, and how it compares to the events it is following. Me, I think it’s a little too soon after Siege for more Norse gods business.

I don’t think they do  either of those things, personally: “Do Superhero Movies Make Us More or Less Fearful of Transhumanism?”

Noooooooooooo!: Achewood has gone on hiatus…and it sounds like it may be a long hiatus. This is obviously pretty bad news for fans of the strip, and pretty surprising when one considers that Chis Onstad has been a bottomless ocean of gags and ideas for years now. Of course, seeing as he’s seemingly done the work of at least a dozen cartoonists on that strip over those years—writing blogs in the voices of the characters, bits of prose, recipe books, etc.—perhaps it’s not that surprising.

I like the idea of The Leader vs. Anyone, really: Inspired by the latest Invincible Iron Man story arc, Ben Morse plays “Mix & Match Super Villains.”

Wait, neither of those guys is Japanese…: “Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield Among Frontrunners For ‘Akira’ Adaptation”

Colleen Coover’s “Cat Ladies”: The Gingerbread Girl artist shares a commission of Catwoman and The Black Cat hanging out together. Odd, I always assumed those two characters would hate one another, but I guess they’re not as catty as I thought they’d be. ..

Kyle Baker Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Click already, click!

“The Problem with the New Teen Titans”: Ben Morse discusses DC’s difficulties in making the stars of Wolfman/Perez Titans work once Wolfman and Perez stopped doing them, comparing them to “the townies that graduate high school and then rather than go to college or move on, just hang around their old haunts trying to relive their glory days but often just coming off desperate.” He also suggests what DC should do with them. Simply not continually throwing them together every few years just to see that it doesn’t work and breaking them up for a few more years before trying again seems like the ideal place to start to me. I also agree with Morse that Wally West should totally be in the Justice League right now; in fact, it seems downright insane to me that he’s not.

Flog programming note: The Fantragraphics blog has a new addition to their “Weekend Webcomics” feature, Michael Kupperman’s Up All Night strip from Washington City Paper. The first installment is awesome.

If you’re gonna swipe, swipe from the best: Buzz Dixon notes an old pulp cover’s similarity to a 19th century painting, as well as a possible if rarely cited inspiration for Batman. (Via Comics Reporter)

So I had five years and I still haven’t figured it out?: Michael Cavna notes some cartoons noting Twitter’s fifth birthday.

The one aspect of Wonder Woman that always garners attention?: Costume redesigns. Here’s Cavna, E!, New York Magazine‘s Vulture blog, Project: Rooftop and you can find a sizable round-up at the bottom of this When Fangirls Attack link collection.

“I’m mindful of the fact that original comic art is a dying animal in a way, as many artists are producing their work exclusively by digital means”: Don MacPherson on collecting original comic art.

You know who should draw Wonder Woman?: Richard Sala. One of my favorite pretty girl artists shares a rather old Wondy commission he did, featuring Dr. Poison and The Cheetah in the background. As great as Sala is at drawing pretty girls, he’s even better at drawing the sorts of colorful, creepy folks that composed Wondy’s original, criminally underused rogue’s gallery.

But how does he go to the bathroom?: “Amazing Yoshi Puppet Costume Stomps All Other Marios at Wizard World”

I love this headline: Particularly because “Hey, why not have Wolverine fight everybody?” doesn’t really seem like a capital I idea. That doesn’t mean the comic won’t be cool, of course; after all, it’s all in the execution.

Four panel Jason crossover comic: I’m not surprised he took out the others so quick, but after decades of combat training, I woulda thought Beetle Bailey would be harder to beat. (Via Flog)

Jeez, how old is Mr. Wilson then?: “Dennis The Menace Turns 60″

Keith Knight draws Godzilla: The occasion, sadly, isn’t a happy one. Knight’s text-heavy strips like this always bear some consideration though, I think, both as a testament to how potent his images are that he can get away with using so few and one hardly notices and because they “read” just like comics, despite the fact that the word-to-image ratio is so out of whack.

Whoever it is who owns the Sheena license should talk to Ross Campbell: These are awesome, especially so given the reservations he expressed concerning jungle girl concepts. Given his ability to draw sexy women and to draw realistic women, Campbell is actually a great artist for this genre, as icky as it can be conceptually.

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…

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.

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).

“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.