Once again, it’s all words and no pictures! Here’s what jumped out at me from Diamond’s shipping list as looking either really good, really bad or somehow worth mentioning. Feel free to tell us in the comments section what looks really good, really bad or somehow worth mentioning to you. And/or to call me mean names.

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja Vol. 1: Night Powers: Chris Hastings and Les McClaine’s web-comic about a doctor who is also a ninja gets a paper collection thanks to Dark Horse Comics. The hard copy is a $20, 230-page trade, featuring an original story by Benito Cereno and McClaine.  You can read a short preview here and a giant one here.

Batman: Gates of Gotham #1: Given the number of Batman monthlies being published at the moment, a new Batman miniseries hardly seems like something noteworthy, but this one’s from the acclaimed Detective Comics writer Scott Snyder, and has the advantage of a different scope (guest-starring a mess of DCU detectives) and focus, on the history of Gotham City and its founding families. Snyder is co-writing with Kyle Higgins, while Trevor McCarthy is handling the art. It’s a five-issue series.

Booster Gold #44: This week’s only Flashpoint tie-in features DC’s only time-traveling superhero with his own title. Writer/artist Dan Jurgens and artist Norm Rapmund return to the book after a fun, funny run by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Chris Batista. Marvel’s big summer crossover, Fear Itself, is a little further underway, which likely explains all the tie-ins available this week: Herc #3, Avengers #13 and Invincible Iron Man #504 (The first is a $3 book, the other two are $4 ones).

DC Comics: Batman—Dark Knight, Dark City: This $8, 90-page kinda-trade collects the 1990 three-issue Batman story arc by writer Peter Milligan and artist Kieron Dwyer (with covers by Mike Mignola), in which The Riddler returns from retirment to dabble in late-‘80s darkness and Satanism. To fill up the page count, there’s a neat little one-issue story from Milligan’s too-short 1991 run on TEC, featuring pencil art by Tom Mandrake. I’d highly recommend this if you’ve any interest in Batman and missed these the first time around.

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Yotsuba&! v. 8-9
Written & Illustrated by Kiyohiko Azuma
Translated by Amy Forsyth
Lettered by Terri Delgado
Published by Yen Press

When I get a new comic, it gets slotted onto the bottom of my towering to-read pile. The exception to that rule is Usagi Yojimbo, which I always read immediately when a new book emerges. If I were to make two exceptions, Yotsuba&! might be the second such title.

Each chapter is titled “Yotsuba & something“, and that chapter follows our youthful protagonist as she, wide-eyed and full of wonder, explores the world around her. With absolutely hilarious results. In these two books, Yotsuba attends a school festival where her friend and neighbor’s class is distributing cake. She flies in a hot air balloon. Opposites, teddy bears, restaurants, typhoons and schedules also find their way into Yotsbuba’s inquisitive, excitable gaze.

Kiyohiko Azuma is a master at blending slapstick timing with innocent, childish enthusiasm. Yotsuba’s continual amazement and delight make her appear too young for her age, but Azuma’s ability to play the rest of the cast off her reactions only makes every situation that much funnier. With its warmth, affection and gee-whiz humor, Yotsuba&! stands out as something totally unique on comic shelves today. It’s easily one of the best books I’m reading, and well worth checking out.

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I can never see Herc’s thumbs-up face too many times: This Michael Agger piece for Slate doesn’t really definitively explain the origins of the meme “Cool Story, Bro!”, or find out who attached it to a panel from Incredible Hercules (It makes me think of Chris Sims, but I guess that’s just an image that makes me think of Chris Sims in general), but it worth noting simply because that’s a lot of Incredible Hercules to see on the generally Herc-free Slate.

Could Ben Grimm have really been Blackbeard?: Sean Kleefeld examines the evidence. Maybe they shoulda cast Michael Chiklis in the new Pirates of the Caribbean instead of Ian McShane…

Gene Ha doesn’t mess around when he does con sketches: Check out his Shade. (Via Speed Force)

I’m not going to miss reading articles and blog posts about Smallville: Despite my curiosity about seeing favorite characters in live-action on a TV budget and all the young, attractive folks cast, I never got into Smallville, and am pretty sick of hearing about it’s final season/episode at this point. I do like articles like this one, however, which have pictures of the subject I’m most interested in—the designs and costumes. Like Alan’s recent column, it’s a nice reminder of how widely varied, but generally awful, the designs were (I think Zatanna, Black Canary, Aquaman, Green Arrow and Booster Gold were among the best, while Martian Manhunter and—hoo boy—Hawkman and Dr. Fate among the worst).

The most horrifying thing I’ve seen all week: Archie’s face on the Betty and Veronica cover Bully includes in this round-up of Oz-inspired comics covers, in recognition of L. Frank Baum’s just-passed birthday. He’s dressed as the Scarecrow, but it looks like someone made a scarecrow out of Archie’s face and…brr!

As a Cassandra Cain fan, I approve: Despite DC and the Bat-office seemingly having no idea what to do with the second Batgirl for the last five or six years—but trying something radically different and contradictory every couple of months anyway—it looks like Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham gave her a decent status quo, a cool codename, and a pretty neat new costume.

“Homogay…?”: This weird-ass article from Christwire.org is so over-the-top and the selections limited to out-of-context panels that the comics blogosphere has been making fun of of for years—where’s the one about the Joker’s boners, or Robin being the last person Batman touched?—that I think this is supposed to be a parody of conservative Christian alarmism, but, if so, it’s not really funny enough to waste too much time figuring out. It is the first time I’ve heard anyone use the term “homogay” before though. Is that common? (Via Tom Spurgon, whose link reads “it’s adorable when people think kids read comics”).

He’s right, I do like the fat guy, the horse and the frog!: Ty Templeton explains Thor.

The ability to build anything out of Legos instantly would be a pretty great superpower: This dude made me think of that.

Ryan Reynolds is easily started: Apparently.

If the free market chose the Justice League: I always read The Beat‘s sales analysis with interest, and for a while I would read Marc-Oliver Frisch’s DC month-to-month sales to see who the company’s seven most popular heroes were at a given time, with the arbitrary criteria of popularity simply being which characters headlining their own solo books sold the most copies in a given month. And then imagining them as a Justice League. I quit doing it after awhile, because it was almost always Superman, Supergirl and a bunch of Bat-people. This month is kind of interesting though, as there’s only three Bat-people, and the others are all traditional Justice Leaguers: Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Batman Bruce Wayne, Batman Dick Grayson, Superman, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman and Red Robin. If too many chefs spoil the soup, do too many Batmen spoil a League? On a less nerdy note is the fact that “a consistent, critically acclaimed creative team” on a Batman book that comes out like clockwork seems to be helping Detective Comics gain rather than lose sales, and several other titles seem to be increasing for no obvious reason, which Frisch suggests reflects the market reacting to the quality of the work itself instead of the usual gimicks.

Bloomberg is a busy news organization, and perhaps that explains why they were both late and short-handed against the DC Bullets on Thursday afternoon. The game wound up only going five and a half innings, and three Bullets had to play for Bloomberg to give the opposition a full line-up. Rookies Travis Hastback and John Choi, lacking seniority on the DC team, were optioned to Bloomberg, as was good-sport Jeff Boison. The trio proved very effective at run-stopping for the Bloomberg squad, but the Bullets eked out a 6-4 win.

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Has it been ten years already? My God, how time moves. Tonight is the final episode of Smallville, a series that began with the idea that it would show a young Clark Kent years before he would operate as a superhero, when he was just a teenager in Smallville, Kansas. Initially, the show went by a rule of “no capes, no tights.” Some familiar faces would show up, but in normal clothing rather than colorful costumes.

As the years went on, that rule began to weaken and then got thrown out the window. For the past few seasons, Smallville has taken place primarily in the city of Metropolis and has featured a large host of super-villains and superheroes. Let’s see how some of these comic book characters translated to live action, shall we?

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They made a Scott Pilgrim videogame, so maybe a Prison Pit one’s not out of the question: Fantagraphics’ Flog blog shares a link to a piece of fan art presenting the 8-bit videogame opening screen to a videogame that doesn’t exist…but should.

I don’t know how to pronounce it, but I like it: Down The Tubes has details on a new edition of  work featuring Sláine, Pat Mills and Simon Bisley’s Celtic Conan-type, coming to the U.S. Also on Down The Tubes, there are some details about a biography of a Terry Nation, a screenwriter for the old Dr. Who series, entitled The Man Who Invented Daleks. I barely even know what a Dalek is—Dr. Who is one of several large blind-spots in my nerd-culture knowledge—but that looks like a pretty neat book.

Personally, I would have picked a series with far fewer issues: At Chasing Amazing, Mark Ginocchio chronicles his quest to collect every single issue of Amazing Spider-Man.

Wonder Woman’s costumes on real women: As Jill already  mentioned, NBC has apparently passed on the much-discussed Wonder Woman series. I’m kind of disappointed; whether it would have been great, awful or somewhere in between, I was at least very curious about it, and I can’t imagine it being any worse than all those other terrible live-action TV superhero shows of the last few years. Anyway,  Noah Berlatsky has an interesting piece over at Comixology regarding Wonder Woman’s costuming, and how what works fine for a drawing doesn’t always work well for a real woman. The TV Wondy was the launching point of the article, but H.G. Peter’s original costume design and art is the focus.

And finally, speaking of comics and television…: The LA Times asks, “Will comic book hero Stan Lee turn into a zombie for ‘Walking Dead’?” and The Courier and Mail is among the venues reporting that Dynamite, Kevin Smith and Jonathan Lau are making a Bionic Man comic book (as you no doubt already saw on the main site).

The many random superpowers of J’onn J’onnz: Silver Age Comics looks at The Martian Manhunter’s powers as they originally began to emerge. And a few days previous, a look at J’onn’s greatest enemy.

Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, in handsomer days: Sean Kleefeld found some images of Wheeler-Nicholson, the founder of what would become DC Comics, the guy who kinda sorta invented comics and one of the many colorful characters of the Golden Age, and shared them on his blog.

Is the Preist movie based on a “graphic novel”…?: This article about the film based on the manhwa series, published state-side by Tokyopop, refers to the source material is a graphic novel in the headline. It’s one of several I’ve noticed in the last few days to do so. I know the term is a malleable one, but even at its most malleable, I’m not sure it applies here. What do you guys think?

Two rather idiosyncratic reactions to Thor: Law and The Multiverse explores the legal issues raised by the film in a pair of posts,  and Kalinara notes the greater-than-usual female presence in the film.

Yeah, Death Note will do that: Curt Purcell thought he could spend just a few minutes on the addictively suspenseful manga series and walk away.

Softball’s always fun, but it’s most fun when your team plays a evenly matched foe. Two teams see-sawing the lead, each at-bat becoming magnified in the game’s final outcome, every out a tragically missed opportunity – it doesn’t get any better. In The Daily Show squad, the DC Bullets seem to have found an equally matched rival. Their first confrontation last summer is already part of Bullet lore.

Although their second game (thankfully) didn’t occur on the hottest weekend of the year, it matched the excitement of that initial game on every other level. In the end, as they did one year prior, The Daily Show emerged triumphant, walking off with a game-winning single in the bottom of the eighth inning to secure the 12-11 victory.

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These are the times that try a fan’s soul, or at least a fan’s wallet—starting tomorrow, DC and Marvel will both have big, linewide crossover/event/unified branding storylines going simultaneously. Marvel’s Fear Itself started a few weeks ago, and now DC’s Flashpoint, a Blackest Night-like event launches with Flashpoint #1.

Geoff Johns is writing, And Kubert is drawing, and the premise is that Flash foe the Reverse-Flash has messed with the time stream enough to create a radically altered DCU. IT’s a 40-page, $4 issue.

This week also sees the release of Flash #12, the conclusion of a story arc entitled “The Road To Flashpoint,” which presumably has something to do with Flashpoint. Johns writes that as well, with Francis Manapul on art.

What else is out this week? Let’s take a look together, shall we?

Batman Incorporated #6: This is the issue with Chief Man-of-Bats riding a buffalo on the cover. If for some reason you need to know more than that, the main page has a preview.

Batman: Arkham City #1: This is the first issue of a five-issue miniseries based on the Batman videogames, meant to bridge the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum and the upcoming Batman: Arkham City. Paul Dini is writing, and Carlos D’Anda is handling the art.

Deadman Vol. 1: This $20, 180-page trade collects Strange Adentures #205-213, the original Deadman comics stories from the late ‘60s. Aside form introducing the character, these issues are probably best known for Neal Adams’ art. He illustrates much of this collection, but the other creators involved are no slouches either: Arnold Drake, Carmine Infantino, George Roussos and others.

Devil’s Concubine: Writer/artist Palle Schmidt’s original graphic novel is a crime/noir sort of deal involving two hitmen in a job gone bad in Europe. It’s an $18, 100-page trade paperback, and you should be able to spot it pretty easily—just look for the Peter Snejbjerg cover.

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Last week’s Etsy Made Me Do It focused on the Mighty Blonde One, Thor. Once a week I sift through the millions of Etsy listings to find the best in geek chic for Blog@ readers. This week I decided to showcase one Etsy user whose crafts I found particularly delightful. His username is spandexsplinters and I give you his wooden superheroes and villains.

“The Joker. Batman’s long time arch enemy. Not sure if he runs in fear or from The Joker’s Halitosis,” writes spandexsplinters. This Sinister Hand Carved Wooden Joker is 5.5 x 1 inch, carved out of basswood and finished with acrylic paints. $25. (more…)

Blank Slate’s upcoming slate: Down The Tubes shares the British publisher’s plans for the near future, which include a lot of neato stuff, like that Nelson collaborative graphic novel thing with the beautiful cover. Elsewhere on the site, cameos by several Scottish comics creators who aren’t Grant Morrison are revealed in a panel from All-Star Superman.

Some state politician vs. Neil Gaiman: At The Beat, Heidi MacDonald follows the goofy objections that Minnesota House Majority Leader Matt Dean has to Gaiman receiving $45,000 speaking fee to speak at a library that hired him to speak there (It began with Dean saying he hates Gaiman and calling him “a pencil-necked little weasel” and claiming that he practically stole the money. The various volleys and reactions have been about as sad and occasionally amusing as one might expect in such a situation.

“Who Is The Mighty Thor, And Why Should Anyone Care?”: At his blog Too Busy Thinking About My Comics, Colin Smith looks at the first issue of The Mighty Thor, the Marvel comic that seems specifically positioned to appeal to new readers interested in the movie. He finds it wanting. (Those Langridge/Samnee Thor: The Mighty Avenger trades seem like they oughta do the trick though, matching the tone of the film’s Thor/Natalie Portman relationship).

Superman vs. Spider-Man….Sorta: Ty Templeton presents a Mother’s Day cartoon, one which is a good illustration of my personal belief that Krypto the Super-Dog is the scariest character in comics. Speaking of the oft-linked to Templeton, it’s his birthday today—Happy birthday, Ty Templeton!)

They were the best of bin Laden cartoons, they were the worst of bin Laden cartoons: Michael Cavna and Slate collect the best cartoons reacting to the death of Osama bin Laden (I think Slate‘s “best” usually just means “a bunch”), while Matt Bors looks at the worst.

“Is this the way to make Wonder Woman work on the big screen?”: This Interestant post compares a potential Wonder Woman to the actual Thor movie, in that both feature mythological superheroes. I found it interesting because it was my thinking that the upcoming Captain America movie was the most natural parallel to a potential Wonder Woman movie, given that it features a star-spangled superhero fighting Nazis in World War II.

Now that’s an original superpower: Manta-Man is a man who can turn into a flying manta ray.

“Kat Dennings Gets Her Comic Book Movie Wish, Sans Workouts”: Thor might have been Dennings’ first comic book superhero movie, but it’s not her first superhero movie.

Congratulations: To the Doug Wright Awards winners, Aaron and Kempo and the folks who made the Thor movie (Can you believe that the possibility of a Warriors Three spin-off movie even exists? Truly, we live in an age of wonders).

Thor vs. Green Lantern, the Hi, I’m a Marvel… edition: JustSomeRandomGuy does it again.

On Thursday, April 28, the DC Bullets were supposed to match up against Archie Comics. It rained; the game was cancelled. This past Thursday, another match-up against a comics industry softball squad was missed when Wizard cancelled on the Bullets barely 24 hours before gametime. (If they weren’t already dead to me, they’d be dead to me now, I jested.) So the Bullets took the field anyway – those field permits are use ‘em or lose ‘em, after all.

After a productive practice, New York Community Bank showed up for a 7:00pm game on the same field. Except their opponent also stood them up. Rather than have both teams go home disappointed, the Bullets and NYCB opted to play a friendly few innings. In a lopsided four-inning affair, the Bullets emerged victorious, 23-10.

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Your FCBD reminder: This Saturday is the very best day of the entire year (Sorry, Christmas!), but circumstances beyond my control (stupid day job) will prevent me from visiting a comic shop for Free Comic Book Day goodies. Fantagraphics’ Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse, Top Shelf’s Top Shelf Kids Club (See Chris Eliopoulas “cover” characters created by James Kochalka, Andy Runton and others!),  Drawn and Quarterly’s John Stanley’s Summer Fun, Marvel’s Captain America/Thor (By the Mighty Avenger team of Robert Langridge and Chris Samnee) and Image’s Super Dinosaur Origin Special #1 are the book’s I’m most interested in and excited abou, so let me know how they are if you pick any of ‘em up. Also, drop some cash on a trade or something while you’re there scoring freebies; I think proper Free Comic Book Day etiquette demands it. If you’re only a casual comics reader, in which case I’m surprised you’re reading this at all, you can find your nearest participating shop here.

FCBD in USA Today: America’s most copiously colored newspaper has a short feature on Free Comic Book Day in today’s edition. Yesterday, they ran a feature story on DC’s upoming Flashpoint, and, to a lesser extent, comic book publishing event/crossovers in general.

“Who would you pick, Miller or Morrison, to ‘explore’ her past?”: DC Women Kicking Ass talks about Frank Miller and Grant Morrison’s interest in a Wonder Woman comic. I’d like to see both, actually (and I’m sure DC would as well, given the fact that those are two of the most marketable names among today’s creators). I’m sure both would be a blast, although I don’t know that either would do a good job of communicating the “real” Wonder Woman that Marston and Peter created. The best Wonder Woman comics of the past decade or so have been Adam Warren’s Empowered comics,  but it would probably be redundant for him to do another comic about bondage, feminism, male-female power struggles and relationships and superheroes at this point, even if a Wonder Woman comic would give him new characters and classic designs to play with.

“Well, every so often I need to be reminded that comics are supposed to be a fun part of my life”: The Supergirl-centric Supergirl Comic Box Commentary blog lookst at Tiny Titans #39, that would be the “pink” issue, an  ideal reminder of just how much fun comics can be.

Peter David thinks Thor is better than The Incredible Hulk, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Iron Man 2 and Punisher: War Zone: On his blog, David called it “easily the best Marvel movie since ‘Iron Man’,” although I don’t think that says a whole lot. Bloggers are starting to respond to thier own viewing experiences. The Comics Journal‘s  Dan Nadel didn’t like it, while Heidi “The Beat” MacDonald and Savage Critic Brian Hibbs had more mixed feelings. I plan on seeing it in a couple hours of here, and I imagine that as long as Natalie Portman gets enough screen time, I’ll be at least mildly entertained—the ability to stare at Natalie Portman for long periods of time even made the last few Star Wars movies endurable, after all.

This sounds like a funny premise…that’s about five years too late: Writer Chad Blakely has written a graphic novel entitled Kidnapping Kevin Smith, about two comic shop employees who kidnap the director/writer/actor/comics dabbler in an attempt to force him to write a screenplay about them. Really nice Mike Allred cover image though, and a good “get,” considering Allred’s history with Smith’s intersection with comics.

“A History of Storm in Comic Covers”: Doubles as a sad commentary on the deevolution of the importance of drawing skills and design on comic book covers over the years.

In the DC Comics Universe, there are different types of magic aligned with either order or chaos. And long ago, there were also forms of magical energy that were aligned to neither of these fundamental forces. The Guardians of the Universe, near-immortal beings who created the Green Lantern Corps, believed that these random, unfocused magicks were too dangerous to leave alone. So they collected the energy and imprisoned it in the heart of a star.

Years later, the Starheart developed a mind of its own and released a piece of itself into space. It landed on Earth as a meteor and the first man to discover it carved it into a lamp. It passed through many hands over the centuries, later influencing another man to carve it into a lantern, perhaps because the Starheart sought to emulate the technology of the Guardians. After granting death to some and new life for another, the Starheart lantern decided to give a human being power, to have its own Green Lantern warrior just as the Guardians did. In one account, this was due to the lantern having merged with the soul of a dead Corps member.

Alan Scott was an ordinary man who found the Starheart lantern just before a bomb meant for him wound up killing several other people. Wishing to avenge these deaths, Alan took a piece of the lantern and made a ring, as he was instructed to by the magic force that then empowered it. Calling himself Green Lantern, Alan Scott was the first Earth-born human being to use this title, even though he was not a member of the Corps. As the Emerald Crusader of Gotham City, Alan’s ring protected him from most forms of harm while allowing him to fly, phase through solid matter, deliver blasts of energy and fire, and create physical objects he imagined. It’s major weaknesses were Alan’s own concentration, the need to recharge the ring regularly with the lantern, and that the green flame had difficult with plant-matter and especially anything made of wood.

Guarding Gotham City for years, Alan Scott also became a founding member of the Justice Society of America, history’s first superhero team. As the Golden Age of Heroes ended, Earth’s first Green Lantern retired for decades along with many of his peers. He only operated on rare occasions, such as when he decided to investigate the new vigilante Batman who appeared in Gotham years later. Soon after the modern age of heroes went into full swing, Alan Scott finally returned to the fold along with many other Golden Age heroes who still had some fire in them. Along with the surviving members of the old JSA, Alan now helps to guide and train a new generation of heroes. Over the years, he’s sported quite a few different outfits. Let’s take a look then. As usual, this column is focusing on mainstream continuity.

BIZARRE MASKED HERO

Alan Scott debuted in July, 1940 in All-American Comics #16. He was created by artist Martin Nodell and writer Bill Finger, the same writer who penned most of Batman’s early stories and came up with the Dark Kngiht’s origin. When Alan Scott first went into action, he just wore his normal clothes and was surrounded by a halo of green light and flame. After taking down the criminals who had intended to kill him with a bomb, Alan Scott decided that it didn’t need to stop there.

He could become a masked vigilante, like the ones that had been showing up in the last few years. He needed a mask to protect his identity, of course. As he considered a design, he thought to himself, “I must make myself a dreaded figure! I must make a costume that is so bizarre that once I am seen I will never be forgotten!”

Well, “bizarre” is right. Alan Scott was not exactly a fashion designer and it showed. This costume looks as if he grabbed a lot of stuff from the storage room of a theater. A swashbuckling shirt, laced boots, simple canvas pants and a high collared cape. And many different colors. For a guy called Green Lantern, green doesn’t seem to be the dominant element here. (more…)

“As there are any number of reviews out there that will tell you why you should avoid this book, I’ll provide a little contrast by illuminating what I liked”: Collected Editions actually finds a few things to like in  the Justice League: Rise and Fall collection, which includes The Fall of Green Arrow and the Prism-award winning Rise of Arsenal.

You know, I’ve been waiting to see these guys reappear in a new DC Comics ever since Batman Inc was first announced: “Green Arrows of the World Meet the Battling Bowman”

Reminder: Michael Dooney still draws pretty ladies very well.

The Mindless Ones‘ “Three Fools” Part 3: I linked to the first two parts of the series, so I might as well do the third as well, focusing on Grant Morrison’s version of The Joker that has appeared during his current run on the Bat-books and began, oddly enough, way back in Aztek.

New Teen Titans was apparently a great source of “Nobody’s Favorites” characters: Andrew Weiss tackles DC’s first dude named Azrael.

There seems to be some confusion regarding the definition of a “shirt”: Because if you take some time to explore Hot Chicks In Batman Shirts, you’ll find that  some of those shirts are clearly undergarments, and some of the girls aren’t even wearing shirts. It’s probably NSFW, I imagine (Via Tom Spurgeon, Your #1 Source For Photos of Attractive Women Wearing Superhero Merchandise!)

Speaking of Batman shirts…: Bully, the little stuffed bull-ogger, does some detective work that I think would make Batman proud, closely examining a Batman shirt purchased from Target. Also at Bully’s Comics Oughta Be Fun, he presents some less than masterful work from the comic book masters.

Is it gauche to linkblog back to your own blog?: Because I’m gonna do it. I have some suggestions for future issues of DC Comics Presents. How about you guys? Anything you’d like to see re-presented in DC’s $8, 100-ish page almost-trade format?

Once a week I sift through the millions of Etsy listings to find the best in geek chic for Blog@ readers. Last week I showcased some snazzy geek glassware to wet your whistle, this week it’s all about the Mighty Blonde One. Marvel’s Thor hits theaters in the U.S. this Friday so in honor of the Thunder God I’ve found some items on Etsy worthy of his (or your) usage.

If you have no interest in owning a Flaming Thor Helmet there’s something wrong with you. Sure, you could potentially burn your house down but you’d look wicked awesome doing it. User MegaPlow has created this piece, complete with stand, for $400. Although he states in the listing, “I can not suggest you wear it, I recommend you never wear it, as its dangerous!” Verily.

Need a place to store a card? Try this Thor Recycled Comic ID, Bus or Metro Pass, Library Card Holder from user Japip. The comics are posted on black paper then covered in vinyl and sewn together to create this item which sells for $4.

Just imagine all the information you could fit in Thor’s head. Approximately 4GB thanks to this Thor USB Flash Drive! User Monstoes created this and several other cool USBs from vending machine toys. Sells for $29.95

Even Thor needs to wear a suit sometimes, right? When he does, I’d like to think he wears Mighty Thor’s Hammer Mjollnir Cufflinks. User TheCrossings has these made from pewter and hand paints them. $35.

I’m not sure it would be entirely fair for Thor to play golf but that doesn’t mean you can’t play golf WITH Thor. Hence, the Thor Golf Club Cover. “Sized to fit clubs from the number 1 wood to your tiny putter, made out of acrylic fiber to prevent damage and it is machine washable,” says user TraceyKnits. This one is just $29 with many other superhero and geeky characters available.

As always, bear in mind, since Etsy is a craft website and not a commercial, mass-market dealer, items are almost always one-of-a-kind or in very limited availability. When you see something you like, buy it. It may not be there the next time you surf round. (Yes, it’s a very dangerous site for your wallet.) Also, since most items are created individually, many sellers are willing to customize something specifically to suit your needs. Just ask!

What’s due in comics shops this week? A whole bunch of stuff, on two days, not just one (Remember this Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, so plan on visiting your local comic shop a second time on Saturday). In the mean time, here are some of this Wednesday’s releases that looked good, bad or interesting to me this week…

Alexandro Jodorowsky’s Screaming Planet: The writer’s name is the one above the title of this $25, 125-page hardcover collection of Humanoids material, but plenty of American fans are likely going to be attracted to the all-star list of international artists involved, including J.H. Williams III, Jerome Opena, Adi Granov, Ladronn and plenty of others.

Avengers Academy Giant-Size #1: This Paul Tobin-written, Ed McGuinness and David Baldeon-drawn comic featuring the Avengers Academy characters and The Young Allies team-ing up against Arcade has already been solicited in a few different formats, but it finally sees rlease this week as a huge 80-page, $8 single issue. As with DC’s DC Comics Presents format, I think this is a pretty good way to sell certain comics in the era of $4/22-page book—it’s pricey, but given its page count and relative to a lot of what’ son the shelf, it’s a great value. (Also, I have a weakness for Arcade). It’s not the only Avengers Academy book out this week; Avengers Academy #13 features the heroes going to their prom in a story by Christos Gage, Bily Tan and Sean Chen. I haven’t read any of the series yet, but everyone who has seems to like it.

Bat Boy: The Complte Weekly World News Comic Strip by Peter Bagge: Just what the title says. This 100-page, $18 harcover collects Bagge’s newspaper-style gag strip featuring one of the late, great supermarket tabloid’s most famous cover boys.

Cyclops Vol. 1: This $20, 115-page hardcover collects the first two instalmments of the futuristic sci-fi action story from the The Killer team of Luc Jacamon and Matz. I’m not a fan of the genre and didn’t really transcend that genre, so it wasn’t really my cup of tea, although you may like different tea than me. The art and production were certainly sensational, and our own David Pepose gave it rather high marks on the main page’s Best Shots review feature.
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Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths
Written & Illustrated by Shigeru Mizuki
Translated by Jocelyne Allen
Published by Drawn & Quarterly

This book is excellent. It is, according to the interview with its author Shigeru Mizuki printed within, the first of his books to be published in English – I can only hope we’re soon flooded by Mizuki translations. I’d like to drown in them.

A veteran of World War II, Mizuki based Onward Towards Our Nobles Deaths on his experiences in the Pacific theatre. Now, there are two types of war stories: tales of noble men (and women) accomplishing amazing things in horrifying circumstances, and sagas showing the ugly futility of it all. I enjoy the former, but my peacenik sensibilities are far more in line with the latter. And Mizuki appeals to my side of the equation very strongly.

With upwards of thirty named characters, Onward doesn’t spend much time getting to know the cast outside of their military roles, but Mizuki spends plenty of time sympathizing with each man within the extreme expectations placed upon them by the military. The ongoing theme of the book deals with the men being ordered into a pointless suicide charge, contrasted against the high-level brass who fret they’ll be made fools when they report the squad killed only to find out that not everyone participated in the charge.

Mizuki threads a little comedy, absurdism, theatrical speeches about the honor of death, through Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, preventing it from becoming a moribund book. It’s still quite dark, and tragic, but mostly, it’s a reminder that for every hero found in war, there are thousands of senseless losses.

How will this affect Frank Miller’s Holy Terror graphic novel?: I don’t know. Or care that much. But I feel weird linking to any comics-related “news” this morning and not at least mentioning the thing most folks are going to be talking about/thinking about. It’s a slow news day today, other than, you know, that news.

So long, Sluggo Saturdays: At his Progressive Ruin blog, Mike Sterling talks at length about his two year-long Sluggo Saturdays feature, pointing out some of his favorites and the awesome panel that first drew his interest to Sluggo in the first place.

“One of the best by one of the best”: The Moment of Moore tumble-thingee spotlights a 1998 drawing of Alan Moore by Gilbert Hernandez. I love the fact that as great a comic writer as Moore is, he’s also a great comics character. (Via Flog)

Everybody interview Chester Brown: Here are two new mainstream media pieces on the Paying For It cartoonist, from The National Post and The Star.

Last week, we checked out the fashion evolution of Luthor in the comic book medium. But Luthor is a villain who has been interpreted across the board in other forums. And there’s also been a few heroic interpretations of the character. Let’s take a gander now, eh?

BUSINESSMAN OR ATOM MAN?

In Atom Man Vs. Superman, Luthor was depicted by Lyle Talbot as a corrupt private businessman who was also quite the scientist in his spare time. Depending on the scene, he either sported a black suit or had thrown a lab coat over it. It was simple but let you know both aspects of the character pretty quickly.

Ah, and here is the famous titular villain of the movie serial, the Atom Man himself. My God, that’s a ridiculous helmet. So big. So sinister. So bald. Hey, you don’t suppose… Yup. That’s Lex Luthor in a big honking mask and robe, masquerading as a villain called Atom Man. Because what better disguise is there than a mask that looks like a cartoon version of yourself?

Now some of you might be thinking, “Wait, I thought the Atom Man was a super-villain with cool powers that fought Superman.” Well, in the radio show, you are correct. But in this movie serial adaptation, it was just Luthor playing dress up.

Lex Luthor did not appear in the live-action series that starred George Reeves and it would be decades before he showed up in television media again. (more…)