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.

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.

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.

I kinda want to know who commissioned this and why, exactly, but I’m kind of afraid to know: Colleen Coover shows off a commission of three great things that go…weird together.

“The Punisher lives on the same world where Conan fought Kulan Gath during the Hyborian Age and a talking duck named Howard roams the streets of Cleveland”: Tim O’Neil talks a bit about the construction of DC and Marvel’s shared-universe settings, paying special attention to how they came to be, how such efforts can’t be forced and the strange cosmology/theology/physics of the respective universes.

“Cupid’s Nib”: If you were too busy doing romantic stuff with your loved one or crying on the shoulder of your Cuddle Buddy Batman about how very, very lonely you are (his shoulders are so soft and comforting…)  to go hunting for comics and cartoons on Monday, Michael Cavna collected ten of ‘em for your persual.

“Look in the DSM IV, but you won’t find an entry for what ails me: Manga ADHD”: Katherine Dacey discusses her difficulty in following and completing long-running manga series. It’s an interesting phenomenon. I know I’ve got the first volume or four of a good dozen or so manga series in my office that I’ve started but never finished, usually on account of the fact that I missed a few volumes and then feel too far behind to catch up. Some series are intimidating by how long they are already (One Piece and Inu-Yasha, for example), some series you like go on so long that you find yourself wishing they would hurry up and end (Ranma 1/2, for me), and others you find yourself sort of disappointed in when they actually do end (Death Note‘s a good example). There are probably similarities to superhero comics, many of which do go on forever, although with manga it’s the same creators telling the same ongoing story, so there aren’t the natural starting and stopping points you see in say, Spider-Man or Batman comics.

This is a place I never expected to see Doonesbury: Political fact-checking site PolitiFact fact-checks last Sunday’s installment of the strip, in which a character talks gun violence with a space alien.

As opposed to the Canadian cartoonist and designer: Mick Martin reviews Thor Vs. Seth, The Serpent God.

“The concept was simple, and there lay its success and downfall”: Jon Gorga takes a quick look back at Marvel’s “Year of the Woman” promotoin, and some of the publishing efforts. It’s a difficult thing to assess, so difficult in fact that I think it ends up just kind of being there, neither good nor bad. Like, it’s nice that they decided to do it, but on the other hand the fact that they have to do it underscores a problem that should be fixed not celebrated, but back on the first hand, not doing it would prolong the problem. I get dizzy thinking too hard about it, honestly. I think trying to promote female creators and female characters under the same initiative probably confused the matter, as every time there was a female character-specific one-shot by all-male creators, it couldn’t help but raise the question of why aren’t women making that particular new comic. Some good comics came out of it anyway, and I’m pretty sure there are more ladies working for Marvel now, including ones who were heavily involved with some of these books in 2010, then were working for Marvel in 2009, so that’s cool.

“Carol Ferris Barbie”: The LA Times‘ Hero Complex column looks at plans for Green Lantern movie tie-in merchandise, while The Beat enters “The Toyetic world of Green Lantern.” In the comics at the moment, there are 7,200 different Green Lanterns, two for each and every “sector” of outer space. I wish someone with the proper licensing rights would do a M.U.S.C.L.E.-like collection of cheap, green, little figures you could collect—imagine, 7,200 individual weirdo space-alien Green Lanterns! In the mean time, I see they have an action figure or sculpture or whatever of Blue Lantern Ganesh, and I have a birthday coming up soon…

“My reaction is about one thing, and one thing only: reading about the planning of wedding”: Nina Stone kinda sorta reviews Adrian Tomine’s Scenes From an Impending Marriage, and has a somewhat unusual reaction—it stresses her out.

Here’s a little something to make you sad: Yikes, check out how high the numbers are in this sales data Kevin Mellon found for certain titles from the late ’70s. (Via either Comics Reporter or Comics Alliance, I forget which).

Diamond’s secret shopper program finds stores are being pretty good about respecting street dates so far: According to this article, anyway.

“Most of them, these days, have art that falls within a specific, limited stylistic range”: Douglas Wolk uses Emma Rios’  artwork in Osborn as a springboard for a discussion of “What Superhero Comics Look Like.” If you ask me, he’s far too kind in his assessment of the “specific, limited stylistic range” of modern superhero comics, staking it out by using some particularly talented artists’ names as pegs, and citing cherry-picked examples of exemplaries of that style (like, it’s not like Frazier Irving, Frank Quitely or even J.H. Williams III have superhero comics showing up in comic shops every month or two or six or 12). But then, nobody asked me. (I’m just volunteering!) Anyway, intersting piece nonetheless, and I a good takeaway seems to be that weshould probably all be reading Osborn.

“Drawing is generally like digging a ditch…I basically know how far I’ll get each day”: That’s Joe Sacco, talking about how much work and labor is involved in cartooning in this See Magazine article. Adrian Tomine is interviewed for the same piece.

Wait, The Dark Knight and Batman Inc are both off schedule already?: Marc-Oliver Frisch has put together his monthly look at DC Comics’ sales charts for December of last year, which you can read at The Beat. Apparently the company’s top book was the David Finch written and drawn Batman: The Dark Knight #1, the very first issue of which was late, and the second issue of which is still over a month away, three months after the debut of the first issue. I hope this doesn’t date me too much, but when I first started reading Batman comics, they used to be monthly (Actually, I don’t think this matters all that much, as the series seems to really be more of a Finch fan-only title, and there are plenty of other Bat-books with more regular schedules to engage fans and keep the story going; flagship Batman Inc being off-schedule is a bigger concern).

Dwayne McDuffie is awesome: In lieu of linking to almost every one of these, I suppose it would be more efficient to simply say that this year for Black History Month, 4thletter! is highlighting great and influential black comics creators and suggesting bits of their bibliographies to read, so you may want to start visiting it daily (if you don’t already). Today Dwayne McDuffie gets the spotlight. I really like McDuffie; he’s never written anything that made me cry or broke my heart or changed my life or anything, but he’s one of those writers who consistently delivers superior product, and one of the first comics writers that Teenage Caleb finished a book and though, “Wow, that was pretty good,” and then looked at the credits to see who was responsible for making it so good.

“It seems so…redundant now anyway”: That’s Johnny Bacardi on why he’s lost interest in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, give that the Regular Old Marvel Universe has come to resemble it so closely. It’s part of a review of Ultimate Avengers Vs. New Ultimates #1 (which he bravely read despite not having checked in on the UU since Ultimates 2), which itself is part of his regular Confessions of a Comics Shop Junkie review column.

“It just wouldn’t be a holiday at ComicsAlliance without The KGBeast”: Chris Sims presents his annual crop of comic book-themed valentines in the style of the sort elementary school kids pass out during their Valentine’s Day parties. Included are regular Sims targets/topics, and some of the more laughed at characters and events of the last year or so (Yes, Arsenal clutching a dead cat is there).

I woulda guessed 12 issues tops, but Doom Patrol and The Outsiders are still being published: DC has the details of their previously announced Static series, which will be written by Felicia Henderson and drawn by Scott McDaniel and Jonathan Glapion. I was pretty disappointed to see McDaniel’s name in there. I really enjoyed his Nightwing and Batman work way back when, and I still like a lot of what he does, but I think the sorts of assignments he’s been doing the last few years that DC has given him have unfortunately made him seem like The Guy DC Calls When They Don’t Have Much Turnaround Time. Now if cover artist Keron Grant were doing interiors as well, I think we’d really have something here…

“It really is a pity that the appearance of Bane in the wrestler mask has led to many forgetting the mind behind the mask”: Paul Hicks’s latest Uncollected Editions feature at Collected Editions spotlights the first appearance of Bane, from Vengeance of Bane #1 by Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan and Eduardo Barretto. With an art team like that, of course the book looked great, and I remember liking that issue quite a bit—Bane was certainly a much more interesting character before and during Knightfall than he was after.

I prefer it to the final one, but I’m no editor: Ty Templeton shares an unused, refjected cover from his time on The Batman Adventures. Batman learning to read by reading a book entitled “How To Read” kills me, but then, I’m seeing it now as an old in 2011, not a kid in in 1991 or whenever.

Everyone appreciate Matt Baker: Both David Brothers and Sean Kleefeld have produced pieces about Baker, one of the all-time best good girl comics artists, and one of the relatively few black artists working in the Golden Age.

Disappointed with the lack of Disney material on today’s funnies pages?:D23 offers classic Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Scamp strips on a daily basis. (Via Flog)

Well, if she plays herself, she’s already got the initials for it: “[Lindsay Lohan] to star in next Superman movie?”

Ask and you shall receive, I guess: Back in September, I wondered aloud if I was crazy to want to read a comic book based on video games based on comics, since games like that Batman: Arkham Asylum look kinda interesting to me, but I’m not a game player anymore. If you’ve checked the main page already, then you’ve no doubt seen that DC is indeed publishing a comic based on the games. It looks like it will bridge the two games, which likely means it may appeal to the folks who are fans of the games as much as (or more than) folks who are looking to the comics as substitutes for the games (like me!), and they’ve got an ideal creative team (guy who wrote the games writing, concept artist for the games drawing). The most relevant, non-fan element of the announcement is how DC is marketing and publishing the comics electronically and on paper—that frightens and confuses me, but I am easily frightened and confused by electronics. Someone else can probably make sense out of it, and declare it a great idea or not.

Each of these are about 1,000 times funnier than the atual cartoons: Editorial cartoons explained. (Via Comics Reporter)

Now here’s a “get” that I doubt anyone saw coming: Congressman John Lewis of Georgia is going to co-author a graphic novel entitled March, to be published by Top Shelf. This will be the first time “the first time a sitting Member of Congress has authored a graphic novel.” No artist has been named yet, but Top Shelf says candidates are actively being considered, and the book is scheduled for tentative release next year.

What if Image Comics failed to ship Spawn and nobody noticed?: Retailer/blogger Mike Sterling talks about some recent goings-on in funny books, including the fact that it took him so long to notice how incredibly off-schedule Spawn had gotten (And keep in mind, this is a blogger who is both the world’s most vocal All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder fan and used to celebrate Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk Day, the annual observance of when the next issue of that miniseries should have shipped. Also: Science.

“Tubby is such a powerful, hilarious and multilayered character that his supporting cast pales in comparison”: Rob Clough discusses John Stanley’s Tubby comics in the course of reviewing Drawn and Quarterly’s Tubby entry into their John Stanley Library collection. And I’m linking to it, because I love Tubby Thompkins (I just finished Dark Horse’s Little Lulu’s Pal Tubby collection last night, and Clough’s right—Tubby does overwhelm the narrative when he’s the star and doesn’t have Lulu to balance him. Still, too much of a good thing is better than not enough of it. Er, when it comes to comics, anyway). Clough’s piece is part of a series on D+Q’s JSL books; here’s the first one, on Nancy Vol. 2.

Did you know Misty Knight used to rock a pretty awesome belt-buckle?: Well, she did.

“These two. Yeesh“: Chris Sims discusses the absolute worst couple in all of comics history (if not the history of the world), and I bet you can guess who it is before you click on the link.

Chuck Dixon, with a fantastic find: Check out his blog to check out Art Adams model sheets for the alien monsters that were the primary antagonists in DC’s mid-’90s summer crossover, Bloodlines. Those comics are pretty maligned these days, but Teenage Caleb liked most of the ones he read, and Grown-Up Caleb still thinks concentrated efforts to create new characters is a postive thing for publishers as old as DC. Also, those alien monsters are pretty cool, a mix between fossilized dinosaurs and Giger-style aliens.

Speaking of DC crossovers…: I know it shouldn’t, given how long I’ve been following this industry now, but the fact that they’ve already got action figures based on Flashpoint, a miniseries/line-wide crossover event that hasn’t even published its first issue yet, kind of surprises—and dismays and depresses—me.

Who hasn’t!: “Have you always wanted to have Gary Groth as your landlord?”

The term “ReTweet” made me smile: The Weekly Crisis has been following the latest Marvel creative retreat via the Twitter tweets of many of its participants, seeking clues about the future of Marvel comics stories. Here’s day one, day two and day three. Personally I’m excited about the new direction for Cannonball proposed, but disappointed that the words “World War Man-Thing” never came up (Maybe that will be the follow-up to Fear Itself though, since whatever knows fear burns at his touch…)

Billy Graham?!: Oh, that Billy Graham.

“Yes, it’s true, there was very nearly a Harley Quinn-type character on the Batman 1966-69 TV series!“: Bully details another ditzy blonde type who falls for The Joker in a Batman TV series, identifying her as a possible proto-Harley. In other prominent comics bloggers discussing the live-action Batman TV show, Mike Sterling recently presented a fairly air-tight argument that “Adam West Batman Is The Best Batman.”

So is Marvel teasing Dark Horse comics now…?: Remember Marvel’s Who are the Mystery Men teaser thingee from a few days ago? Well, Dark Horse just announced plans to publish some new Mysterymen comics.

Does this mean they’ll let him join the Justice League for longer than three issues sometime soon?: Speaking of teasers, DC’s latest Flashpoint related one features a little logo and a question about former Titan Cyborg—”When Did Cyborg Become Protector of Truth, Justice and the American Way?”—so he may have a pretty big role in the miniseries and accompanying event. I kind of feel bad for the poor guy; after years of having to hang out with Beast Boy, he finally graduated to the Justice League last March, but was off the team an issue or three later.

“One of the most interesting aspects of Crisis was the fact that the Anti-Monitor was a really convincingly creepy dude”: Tim O’Neil has been discussing the hell out of Crisis On Infinite Earths in a series of blog posts, and this one about the death of the Flash—complete with plenty of scanned panels to illustrate—was pretty striking for the its conclusion, contrasting the Flash (and Supergirl) deaths with the deaths of super-characters in Big Two comics over the course of the last few years. I really liked that opening sentence though—the Anti-Monitor always disturbed me because I wasn’t sure if he just had some sort of extremely chapped, chalky white lips, or if he had baleen like a whale around his mouth hole. Giant, eye-less dudes with baleen are pretty scary.

Maybe she should play her instead of Annie…?: Fantagraphics’ Flog blog notes the similarity between Willow Smith and a Love and Rockets character.

Upcoming comics that look promising: Check out the cover of Hans Rickheit’s upcoming Folly: The Consequences of Indiscretion, details on a new Matt Howarth graphic novel and details on a sequel of sorts to Lamar Abrams’ Remake, one of my top ten books from 2009.

Number 1,345 on the list of Things Child Caleb Never Thought Adult Caleb Would Say: Wow, Snarf is cute.

Is Batman really the World’s Greatest Detective, or has he just convinced himself that he is in order to get away with punching dudes?: Johnathan of Living Between Wednesdays notes that one time Batman totally punched out a doorman for wearing argyle socks.

Good thing Batman wears gloves; that thing’s probably crawling with cooties now: The Weekly Crisis calls attention to a fine piece of Batman/Catwoman art by Amanda Conner.

Chris Sims vs. The Guardian Project: At Comics Alliance, Sims discusses “The Ten Most Insane Characters From Stan Lee’s ‘NHL Guaridans.’” It’s weird how incredibly out there some of the characters are, while a few others are basically just Marvel characters wearing slightly different costumes. Unable to narrow it down to just ten, Toronto Life rates all 30. To review all thirty guardians for yourself, you can always visit the Guardian Project website.

Looking back, I think liked the “’get it all over with in one month’ pattern” the best: On the occasion of the announcement of Fear Itself and Flashpoint, Douglas Wolk counts up the number of tie-ins in to various Big Two crossover event/series, from Blackest Night and Siege all the way back to Millennium.

I really like that Howard Porter image: At The Cool Kids Table, Ben Morse explains “Why super speed beats flight.”

GBH Hornswoggler knows who the Mystery Men are: Is Flaming Carrot creator Bob Burden going to be working on a Marvel Universe book now? Because I hear there’s an opening at The Fantastic Four for a guy on fire…

“How much of a work has to remain for it to be legally defensible? Although Lost Girls might pass muster, how about a single panel from Lost Girls?”: I don’t have any jokes or commentary to add here, I just wanted to point you in the direction of an excellent article on The Comics Journal regarding the complicated and sad case of Steven Kutzner, currently in prison because of “possessing visual depictions of fictional crimes against fictional characters” and many of the issues associated with it.  His case is a bit more complicated than “the Simpsons porn case” would lead one to believe, in part because he was seemingly punished on the lip of more than one slippery slope.

Meet Vermont’s cartoonist laureate: Jen Vaughn has a nice, thorough introduction/appreciation to the work of James Kochalka, who may have recently been named Vermont’s cartoonist laureate, but he remains a national treasure.

I second all of these recommendations: Sequential links to a bunch of comic comics you can read online. That Cat Rackham stuff from Steve Wolfhard is amazing, and I link to it every chance I get.

My first two guesses were “God” and “his parents”: 20th Century Danny Boy takes a look at the creation of Black Lightning, a character who is old enough to be a classic character but not so old that the folks who made his original comics are dead or befuddled, and the various claims of who exactly created him, and to what extent.

“This is the definition of saturating the market”: I admire comics bloggers like Paul O’Brien, who specialize in a single character or team of characters. Sometimes I even envy them. But not this week, when Marvel released almost a dozen X-Men comics, and O’Brien was duty-bound to read and review them all on House To Astonish.

The revolution will be cartooned: Daryl Cagle’s Political Cartoonists Index is a perfect gateway into how the world’s cartoonists are reacting to and depicting the events in Egypt. Here’s the gallery of Egypt cartoons, here’s how Jordanian cartoonists are responding, and here’s the work of Sherif Arafa, the cartoonist for state-run Egpytian paper Alittihad.

Comic Runway asks why does Lois Lane cosplay as Lara Croft while working: I’ve worked on the staff of a few newspapers, and the laides who worked there generally wore either casual business attire or jeans and t shirts. Maybe “casual business attire” is just different in Metropolis…? Anyway, Comic Runway. Enjoy the previous posts, too, won’t you?

I bet it wears better than it reads: Check out this neat corset made out of a Wonder Woman comic, which looks like it was shortly after the “One Year Later” reboot.

Hey, did you know Brad Meltzer wrote “the graphic novel ‘Justice League of America’”…?: The Huffington Post says he did, so it must be true.

“We the comic books, your hostages, turn to you with a plea…nay, a warning”: You probably new Michael Netzer was an incredible artist and an incredible beard haver, but did you also know he could channel the voices of comic books? Check out this letter to Marvel and DC from their comic books (Via Comics Reporter)

He had me at “juddering”: Charles Hatfield has produced one fine piece of criticism in this longish review of Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s JLA/Avengers, “the definitive instance of the superhero baroque, and the point past which we no longer need have bothered,” for The Panelists.

Kelly Thompson ruins super-bomb pops: I always enjoy Kelly Thompson’s “Cover Solicits in Three Sentences Or Less…” features, and this one’s no exception. I particularly liked her take on Batman: Europa, even if I will never enjoy a particular frozen treat ever again.

Icosahedronal comics are the future of comics: Check out Stuart Immonen’s “prototype for a laterally plotted freeform 3D comic.” (Via Sequential)

Unsurprisingly, Jill Thompson can draw pretty much anyone and anything well: Check out her Jughead and Betty, via The Beat.

This woulda been on the cover of TV Guide, if that Birds of Prey show asn’t canceled so fast: Chuck Dixon posts a nice Joe Jusko image of that show’s lead character, with her parents in the background.

Isn’t the term “Crazy Michele Bachmann” redundant?: In honor of Representative Michele Bachmann’s rebuttal to the State of the Union speech, Daryl Cagle rounded up a bunch of cartoons from political cartoonist Steve Sack, who shares a state with Bachmann.

“His body is composed entirely of wood; essentially he is a living breathing maple tree”: Finally, the Stan Lee-created-superhero-based-on-an-NHL-team-name we’ve all been waiting for, The Maple Leaf! I think Lee cheated a bit on this one, as he’s more of a tree-like Swamp Thing kinda guy than a, um, big leaf. Eye Weekly comments.

A Death in the FF: There are a lot of stories about one of the four members of the Fantastic Four seeming to die in this week’s issue, in the comics media, the mainstream media and all over the comics blogosphere and the Twit-scape. I could probably fill this column with nothing but links to various reactions to and stories about that death, but I assume that if I get bored collecting such links, you would probably get bored reading them, dear reader. So instead, I’ll simply link to this nice little round-up that Heidi MacDonald did over at The Beat, which includes such salient angles as Stan Lee’s reaction. Also, it may behoove you to check out Bully, The Little Stuffed Bull’s latest post on the subject of how very often one of the four members of the Fantastic Four get killed (Get it? Behoove? That’s a cow joke!). Aside from the funny commentary the million or so panels Bully posts provide, it’s a fun thing to scroll through simply to see how much the members of the FF and their costumes and hair styles and what have you have changed over the decades. Like that crazy get-up Sue is wearing above—I still maintain that the live-action Fantastic Four movies would have been much bigger hits had Jessica Alba wore that version of the comic (By the way, I forget—why was Ben Grimm wearing a bucket on his head at that point?) Finally, David Brothers posts the panels in which the one who bites it seems to bite it—I’ve heard nothing but good things about writer Hickman’s run on the title so far, but boy, that art style sure isn’t one I enjoy looking at.

Say, wait a minute…: Didn’t Ed Brubaker wear that very hat when talking about the Death of Captain America? Is that Marvel’s designated talking-about-the-death-of-a-character style of hat?

Can naked ladies sell comics?: The Suicide Girls website/media empire has long had a healthy interface with the comics medium, from running interviews with creators there to having that gal from Hack/Slash pose on their site. Now, the next logical step—IDW is publishing a four-issue Suicide Girls comic book series. Laugh if you like, but it’s being drawn by David Hahn and will feature covers by Cameron Stewart, two immense talents whose work is always worthy of your eyeballs. The press release quotes editor Mariah Huehner as saying, “I’m sure everyone will have a pre-conceived idea of what this series will be all about. And hey, it WILL have nudity and pretty girls and tattoo’s.” (Hey, I see a typo! There’ s an apostrophe where there shouldn’t be one! Can I have a lucrative job proof-reading press releases, IDW?). I’m glad to hear there will be nudity, and hopefully they’ll throw in some photo pin-ups too. I have long been utterly perplexed by things like Sarah Palin pin-ups in books like Steam Palin and the near-nudity in all those Zenescope books—if the market supports that sort of thing, then surely there’s room for actual pin-up girls, actual nudity and high-quality artwork depicting ‘em in the market.

Speaking of Palin comics: The Atlantic asks, “Why Are Comic Books Obsessed with Sarah Palin?” Good question. More important one? Why is the news media obsessed with Sarah Palin?

If he’s not doing Thor or The Muppet Show, what is Roger Langridge doing?: Well, he’ll tell you.

OMG Sara from Tegan and Sara and I have something in common!!!: Check out this video of her talking up Jeff Lemire’s wonderful Essex County. The only thing better would be if she sang a song about how much she liked Essex County.

This again: At E! online, someone asks, “Does Hollywood hate women?” in the context of Anne Hathaway being cast as Catwoman, while there’s no news of a Wonder Woman film yet. The answers remain the same: When Hollywood has made films starring comic book superheroines, they usually tank (and are usually spectacularly poorly made films, not that those two things necessarily have anything to do with one another). You know the laundry list by now: Supergirl, Barb Wire, Tank Girl, Elektra, Catwoman. It no doubt complicates things that the list of feamle Superman and Batman level of characters is limited to Supergirl, Batgirl, Catwoman and Wonder Woman, who was conceived fused to a set of past historical circumstances that make her a less fluid character than the other two points of DC’s trinity. As for Marvel they’ve got, um…hm. Yeah, I can’t really see any films starring any of Marvel’s superheroine headliners (Like, if Hulk movies can’t get enough momentum to launch a sequel, it’s hard to imagine a She-Hulk movie, you know?)

“Oh, I am Zee Sad Supair Villain, No?”: Evan Dorkin pities The Gray Gargoyle; Chris Butcher hosts. Maybe sorta NSFW-ish…?

“Star-spangled, earnest, and totally a product of World War II. That description could be referring to either Captain America or Wonder Woman…”: Writing for i09.com, Charlie Jane Anders meditates on the similarities between Cap and Wondy, and ponders why the former is getting his movie made, while the latter’s had trouble even getting a TV show off the ground. Also, “Why this wrestler guy you’ve never heard of the new Batman villain?”

How did they narrow it down to just eight?: “The 8 Most Awkward Sexual Moments in Comic Book History”

“My biggest comics thought in the last week has been about Deadpool”: At Comics Comics, Dan Nadel shares a few negative thoughts about DeadpoolMax, and shares Jog’s attempts to sell him on the book.

“But, dear readers, a fact: Batman is fun. Batman is so much fun, and that is why everyone makes comics about him”: That’s from Kate Beaton’s explanation for why she did a half-dozen, three-panel gag strips featuring Batman under the title “The Adventures of Sexy Batman.” Sometimes I feel a little weird linking to Beaton’s comics like, every single week. But come on, Kate Beaton + Batman x Sexy…what linkblogger could resist that formula? If I ever found a lamp containing a genie that wanted to grant me three wishes, I think my second wish would be that DC had a one-issue revival of their Solo series just so Kate Beaton could draw a whole comic book’s worth of her take on various DC heroes. So far we’ve seen Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Sexy Batman.

“At a reported 5-foot-8, Hathaway apparently would be Hollywood’s tallest Catwoman since the ’60s”: The Washington Post‘s Michael Cavna discusses  this week’s big casting news—a pretty and talented lady is going to be in a superhero movie—and finds some strange angles.

It’s hard out there for a unicorn: Check out Lizz Lunney’s The Magical Unicorns of Keith the Wizard, running as part of Top Shelf’s Top Shelf 2.0 online comics feature thing.

Today I really missed Dirk Deppey: The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) released their annual list of media award nominees and, as usual, the comics category is depressingly narrow, focused mainly on superhero comics fromMarvel Comics and DC Comics (and the latter’s imprints). Actually, this year’s list of five nominees only includes two or three super-comics (depending on how picky you want to be about assigning Buffy The Vampire Slayer to a particular genre), and notes books from Dark Horse and Archie Comics, in addition to the Big Two. I guess that’s progress, right? The GLAAD list used to occassion an annual scolding from Deppey, until he himself got sick of scolding them. Now that Deppey’s Journalista is no more, let’s look to Christopher Butcher for criticism of the GLAAD awards.

Do you have any questions about Wolverine?: If so, you won’t by the time you get to the end of this post by Bully.

Would Brenda Starr have ever wanted for readership, let alone left the comics page, if she was always drawn like this?: Check out this 1943 watercolor image by Brenda creator Dale Messick.

“If this movie fails, what second tier DC heroes will get their chance on the big screen?”: ICV2.com parses the bad buzz, and some unsourced worse buzz from folks who sound like insiders, about the upcoming Green Lantern movie.

“As I look back on a decade of being in comics…I have to wonder if 2010 (maybe 2009?) was the end of an era”: Writing for iFanboy.com, Mike Romo takes a moment to reflect on his personal buying habits and relationship with comics, and realizes the people who used to make the sorts of comics he liked to read aren’t making as many of the sorts of comics he likes to read anymore. I always find these sorts of personal reflections pretty fascinating, because if they are representative of any significant portion of the readership, than it could spell bad news for the direct market, and if not, it’s just a personal story of some disenchantment setting in with a reader. (Via Comics Reporter, which has a slightly newish design you should go check out, if you’re not reading it daily already. Like you should be doing).

“Drawing Boehners”—plural—woulda made for a funnier headline: The Hill checks in with political cartoonists about getting a handle on John Boehner, whose recent promotion to House Speaker means he’ll be starring in a lot more political cartoons.

How did they beat Bluewater to this?: “The Royal Comic book? Behold the Kate & William Graphic Novel”

It’s actually sort of astounding that they haven’t done this yet, although their old model works perfectly fine: “Archie Comics Plans Its First Original Graphic Novel”

Green is the color of money, after all: Despite reviews ranging from so-so to middling, the Seth Rogen-starring, Michael Gondry-helmed Green Hornet film—which I believe has been in development before the invention of the television—did pretty well at the box office this past weekend. ICV2.com calls its estimated $34 million take “the highest-grossing opening ever for a live-action superhero comedy,” which sounds good. But I think that just means it did better than Mystery Men and My Super Ex-Girlfriend, right? The Washington Post‘s comics-blogger Michael Cavna also takes a look at the movie’s take, and has a nice little summary of the Green Hornet in general. Any of you guys seen it yet? What’s the verdict?

Ruben Bolling on the issues of the day: Here’s a couple of killer recent strips from the Tom the Dancing Bug creator. First, a strip somewhat inspried by Tangled, but may remind you of certain perennial controversies surrounding Tintin. Second, “Classix Comics Presents: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Corrected to Reflect Modern Sensibilities.”

“Just as it’s bad to keep buying comics out of habit, it’s bad to keep NOT buying them out of habit!”: I enjoyed this kinda sorta review of Identity Crisis by Sean Kleefeld. He hasn’t read many superhero comics in a long time, was mainly familiar with the DC characters featured from comics he read as a kid (plus some more recent Green Arrow runs) but received a copy of the book as a Christmas gift and took the opportunity to check in on DC super-comics. He offers an interesting perspective.

If you read one process piece today…: At Comics Comics, the great John Porcellino discusses drawing comics at the same size as their final print size. Porcellino calls it working “100%”, which is actually a pretty fitting way to describe many aspects of Porcellino’s work.

“Superhero Movies By The Numbers”: This infographic at Cinema Blend boiling modern superhero cinema down into some easily digest factoids is pretty neat. It even has a Marvel vs. DC component; interesting that while Batman and Superman are the two most popular superheros for film adapations, more movies have been made of Marvel characters and more money has been made by Marvel movies.

No, no, maybe, they already made about a million of ‘em, please God no never, and sure, as long as it’s  Sin City-style: “6 Graphic Novels That Should Be Adapted Into Movies”

But what does a guy who always thinks and talks about superhero costume design think?: Dean Trippe from Project: Rooftop reacts to the first image of the new live-action Spider-Man comstume.

On the subject of DC’s upcoming Flashpoint: The announcement of DC’s next big crossover event story reminded Don MacPherson of another story Flash story involving alternate-reality version of their heroes which was also entitled Flashpoint. Guess there’s not much chance that the 1999 mini will end up in a trade of DC Comics Presents collection any time soon now, huh? Meanwhile Comics Alliance‘s Chris Sims responded to the teasers in typical Chris Simsian fashion: Making his own joke ones featuring his favorite characters.

“An offensive right hook in a good cause is fine – but not below the belt”: Guardian editor Chris Elliot considers the line between caricature and stereotype, and talks to Guardian cartoonists for guidance.

Mystery at Ralph’s Comics: Mike Sterling notes a sudden surge of interest in DC’s event Zero Hour at the shop he works at. I liked that one pretty well—lots of neat-o tie-ins, it was probably the first and last time I found Hal Jordan to be a compelling character and the timeline at the end was an obsessive DC fans dream come true. I think DC should require that anyone who wants to massively change DC continuity first spend the time required to update that timeline. I bet we’d see a whole lot less reboots, retconcs and mutliverse mucking with.

The only thing more exciting than the current Spider-Man comic strip story arc?: Reading it along with Josh Fruhlinger. I dig his theory on the origin of of the latest big, green underground monster to snatch Aunt May.

“But still, this is carrying a stupid trend to ridiculously stupid extremes“: Comics blogger “Snell” of Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep does not care much for DC’s character-posing-on-white-field-before-their-logo/icon/symbol theme month, arguing that it takes the decade-long trend of generic covers to the extreme. I like most of the ones I’ve seen so far, the exceptions mainly being the ones where the had to reach for a symbol to slap up there and the unfortunate choice for Jonah Hex’s symbol.  Elsewhere on SMotD, Snell notes that the climax of one of those books—Starman/Congorilla #1—contradicts a statement Dan DiDio made about death in the DCU post-Blackest Night.

You’re probably gonna wanna bookmark this one for a while: As is his holiday tradition, Tom “Comics Reporter” Spurgeon ran interviews with seemingly everyone in the comic book industry during late December and early January. The series is now complete, and you can find a nice collection of links to each of the interviews in the finished series right here.

I believe that pen actually is mightier than most swords: Jim Woodring publisher Fantagraphics has plenty of images and video of Woodring and his giant pen in action. Check ‘em out here.

“The Evolution of the Comics Media Tie-in”: At Publishers Weekly, Shannon O’Leary looks at the current spate of comics tied to television and films, and how that association helps sell them. The phrase “The Watchmen Effect” gets thrown around a lot.

Faster then a Speedo-wearing bullet: (Sorry). At the Hooded Utilitarian, Richard Cook revisits that neversending source of out-of-context hilarity, the 1992 Marvel Swimsuit Special, and notices something unusual for a Big Two super-comic: It’s really, really gay (“Amazingly gay,” in Cook’s words). The art and styles are both definitely…of it’s time, but I can see how appealing these things might have been to teenage boys gay and straight in the early ’90s. I say bring back Swimsuit Specials, Axel Alonso!

More on political cartoonists and the Tuscon tragedy: Monday I linked to Daryl Cagle’s Political Cartoonist Index, noting it was a good place to see how the nation’s political cartoonists were processing a killing spree that seems at least partially politically motivated (what with it occuring at a political event and all). Michael Cavna of The Washington Post also offers a nice starting point for such a survey. In this post, he gathers some of the various cartoons (some of which also appear at Cagle’s site), while in this post he speaks to several cartoonists about how they and their colleagues have been responding.

“The charts don’t include a lot of surprises, but a few things are worth pointing out…”: Writing for Techland, Douglas Wolk picks some data points out from the 2010 sales charts and offers up some food for thought. Creator-owned works like Scott Pilgrim and Walking Dead ruled the book charts, but they were also supported by other-media adaptations. Mark Millar-written books featuring his own original characters (or “original” characters) are more popular than Millar-written books featuring Marvel characters. Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison are the beginning and the end of DC Comics’ successes. A lot to ponder, really.

The most specific best-of list I’ve seen so far: At Polite Dissent, a comics blog that often focuses on the practice of medicine within the funny books, Dr. Scott notes “The Best (and Worst) Comic Book Medicine of 2010.” Congratulations to Dr. Mid-Nite and all the winners, and please be wary of this Dr. Blake fellow.

A-O-Ka-Zar: At The Cool Kids Table, Ben Morse discusses “The Ka-Zar Conundrum,” and thus allows me the opportunity to read the name “Ka-Zar” over and over. I love that name—seeing it, saying it, typing it, tinking about it.

“Then I watched Scott Pilgrim again with my 13-year-old daughter…and felt mildly ashamed for not appreciating director Edgar Wright’s talents as a visual stylist and cultural observer”: At Slate, Matt Zoller Seitz has come around on the subject of Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. It’s not surprising to hear Seitz didn’t like Scott as a character in the film, since he is kind of an ass (more so in the comic than the film, even), but I was surprised that one of the things he didn’t like was that the whole world of the film and all of its characters revolved around Scott. It is called Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

An extraordinary letterer: Todd Klein discusses lettering the next Alan Moore/Kevin O’Neill League of Extraordinary Gentleman book on his blog. It’s a great process read.

“Insane” about covers it: The LA Times‘ Hero Complex blog has a feature on actress January Jones regarding her portrayal of Emma Frost in the next X-Men movie, and she discusses preparing for the role: “The costumes are insane…It’s a lot of very body-conscious stuff. If you look at the comic book, she’s barely dressed.” (Aside: Is it weird that Emma Frost will make it into a live-action film before Wonder Woman? Surely a red corset and star-spangled underpants are no less realistic than some of Frost’s pastie-based costumes..?)

“Nuclear Bomb Detonates During Rehearsal For ‘Spider-Man’ Musical”: Quick, which media source is this headline from—The New York Times or The Onion? Okay, it’s from the latter, but with Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, it can be sorta hard to tell, huh?

“Arizona Cartoonist Talks Giffords Shooting, ‘Rabid Right’”: It feels rather wrong to bring up this weekend’s tragic events in the middle of a post of links to comics news—all of which is quite trivial in comparison—but Daryl Cagle’s political cartoon blog has a extensive post on Arizona Daily Star cartoonist David Fitzsimmons was among the commentators looked to by the cable news channels to talk about the atmosphere in the state in the wake of the tragedy. Cagle shares some of Fitzsimmons’ (superior) work. Cagle’s Political Cartoonist Index also has a gallery of political cartoons on the subject, which is, as always, an ideal way to see how the folks who get paid to process the day’s news through comics deal with something shocking and/or sad.

“‘The Cape” and the subversive secrets of NBC’s new superhero drama”: I wasn’t expecting to hear the word “subversive” used in the same sentence as the name of that Cape show, but EW‘s Jeff Jensen notes a small detail in the show—the appearance of a particular real-world comic book—and talks to the creators about what it means.

“At the same time, comics fans have a strong distaste for materials that are little more than brochures for movies”: The New York Times profiles Barry Levine and Radical Comics, focusing on the publisher’s business model of making comics as movie pitches. It’s a nice, thorough piece that discusses the relationship between film studios and comics publishers in general, but in terms of PR, I wonder if it hurts Radical as much as it helps Radical in the eyes of comics fans. NYT publicity is great, and the names of a lot of books get thrown around in a very public venue, on the other hand, it seemingly confirms the suspicion that many of their books are as much movie pitches as they are comic books.

Don’t shed too many tears for wahtever member of the Fantastic Four is dying: As Bully the Little Stuffed Bull demonstrates, it’s not like this will be the first time a member of the FF has bought it (Wait, Sue really wore that costume on the cover of FF #382? That wasn’t just a What If…? costume? Weird. Weirder still they didn’t have Jessica Alba wear it in the movies…) Elsewhere on Bully’s blog, Commissioner Gordon is a jerk.