Truth, Justice and the Death To America Way: Guys, I honestly cannot tell you how glad I am that Graeme has been blogging about Superman renouncing his citizenship or whatever in Action Comics #900 (here and here). When I first heard the news, I gasped “Oh no!” Not because I particularly care about imaginary character Superman’s imaginary citizenship—dude’s not even “real” within the fictive DC Universe, where Clark Kent and Kal-El are his “real” identities, and spent about a year exiled from Earth on New Krypton at the request of planet Earth—but because the last thing I wanted to do was sift through mainstream media coverage of another ginned-up comic book “controversy” like Batman hanging out with a Muslim or Captain America comic book featuring signs taken from a real world protest of a black man being president. Heidi MacDonald of The Beat has a stronger stomach than I, and is paying attention to the mainstream reaction, so check her out for more. I think Mike Sterling  sums it up pretty well in this post at his Progressive Ruin blog (you’ll have to scroll past the really important news of the day, regarding Swamp Thing action figures), noting that the subplot is “causing people who’ve never read Superman comics to threaten to never read Superman comics.” Political satire blog Wonkette has a similar take about the importance of threats to “boycott” Superman, expressed in their own particular style and vitriolic viewpoint:

So here’s mythical metrosexual King of America and lamestream media reporter Clark “Superman” Kent pledging to join the U.N. or something. Teabaggers will be very upset! Even though the only comics they read are “Mallard Filmore” and those emailed pictures of the Obama Chimp Family picking watermelons outside the White House.

Will that stop teabaggers and Palin slobs from “boycotting” something they don’t read and would never purchase. Of course not, c’mon, are you new around here?

Hard to argue with the conclusion of their post either, of which I’ve taken out a swear because we try not to use those particular swears here: “You know what’s going to be…awesome? Never looking at the Internet again.” Oh, if only it were that easy…

Steven Weissman draws Harry Potter: Check it out here.

Oh, maybe that’s why his Batman comics have been coming out late: Grant Morrison has a lot going on these days, like his prose book Supergods. DC’s Source blog has a first look at the cover.

R. Sikoryak’s Jerry Robinson’s Joker (And Jerry Robinson, too): The artist has a nice illustration of Robinson and Robinson’s most famous creation in The New Yorker, accompanying an article on Jerry Robinson. You can see it here. And, of course, in The New Yorker.

Oops, I’m not done with politics just yet after all: What’s the difference between depicting a white president with big ears as a chimpanzee and a black president with big ears as a chimpanzee? Alan Gardner of The Daily Cartoonist links to an NPR piece on potentially offensive political cartooning, in which Tell Me More host Michel Martin interviews American Political Cartoons author Stephen Hess and political cartoonist Mike Luckovich. I’m linking to Gardner’s post instead of just straight to NPR, as Gardner provides a bit of background. Do give the interview a listen, or read the transcript here. Luckovich is a hell of a cartoonist, and there’s some interesting stuff in there about political cartooning in general and a bit about his thought process, and Hess has some funny stories, like one about a 1902 conflict between a cartoonist and a governor.

More Toth imminent: Yesterday I mentioned the release of Genius, Isolated, the first part of a biography of Alex Toth by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell. Well, there’s another handsome-looking volume coming on the subject of Toth set for summer release, Setting The Standard: Comics By Alex Toth 1952-1954, edited by Greg Sadowski. Fantagraphics shows off the cover here.

Please give Ross Campbell a call, IDW!: I know I discussed artist Ross Campbell’s sketches and in-depth thoughts about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on my personal blog already, but I’m not sure if I have here or not yet. Well, I’m going to do so today, because Campbell’s still posting sketches and thoughts, including a story he apparently started for Mirage starring Shadow, Casey Jones’ now-teenaged daughter. If you’ve any affecton for those characters, I’d highly reccomend you spend some time with Campbell looking at his art. And if you happen to have the license to publish new ninja turtle comics—IDW—I’d highly reccomend you hire the hell out of Ross Campbell. He’s the ideal artist for 21st century ninja turtle comics.

Rick Veitch draws Dr. Strange: Here.

“The Adventures of Alfred”: Those Fabulous Fifties shares some comics featuring everyone’s favorite comic book butler, in some extraordinary extra-buttling adventures.

Mark Millar tells the truth: The Mindless Ones on Kapow!

I like the name Sugar Ninjas: If you like the concept, and are a female artist, they’d like your submissions.

Everyone should always be doing this: Zak from Playing D&D With Porn Stars draws his way through the Fiend Folio.

When Dr. Voodoo was a white guy: Found in the The Comic Book Catacombs, a previous Dr. Voodoo who wasn’t Brother Voodoo promoted to Sorcerer Supreme.

Is Scott Adams maybe moving into performance art?: That would certainly explain the Dilbert cartoonist’s activities of late. Here’s the latest “Say, that’s a strange place for Scott Adams’ name to appear” story.

No, not the ones your wear on your face, the kind you drink out of. Once a week I sift through the millions of Etsy listings to find the best in geek chic for Blog@ readers. Last week I did a special extended edition of the column to celebrate the Season 6 premiere of Doctor Who and emptied your wallets in the process. I’ll try to go a little easier on this week. Sort of. Not really. There’s been lots of neat promotional glasses through the years (the Star Wars Burger King ones come to mind) but I’ve found some really cool, handmade geek glassware on Etsy I think you’d enjoy drinking your favorite beverage out of.

No matter which seat you sit in on the bridge, I’ve got a Star Trek Wine Glass for you. For $60 user ImpulsiveCreativity will give you a set of handpainted glasses. You’re choice of either these wine glasses shown or red or white wine, martini, champagne, pilsner, stemless, shot, tumbler or juice glasses. Also check out this Frosted Trekkie hiball glass from user JackGlass for something more subdued, $17.99.

What orc, troll or tauren wouldn’t want to drink out of a World of WarCraft Horde Mug? The famous political symbol from the MMORPG is etched on the 20 oz. glass by user harleyquinn86, $15.

Sure, they weren’t made to be geeky but these Vintage Zombie Glasses would be perfect for your Walking Dead premiere party this fall, don’t you think? Especially if you serve, as user beautifulandhorrible suggests, actual zombie drink recipes in them. The set of 5 for $45.

What could be more appropriate than this Iron Man Tumbler? If it had Tony Stark passed out on the other side perhaps? Either way, user aradiadiane says, “You can show your love for Iron Man by using one of these 16 oz. glasses instead of drinking straight from the bottle.” $15

Such a cool idea! A set of 4 Piranha Plant Short Champagne Glasses. User CrossP has handpainted this set for $35 and promises they don’t bite. S/he also has several other Mario themed glasses. Another favorite of mine? The Mario Mega, Bee, Boo, and Mini Mushroom Glasses for $55.

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!

I feel somewhat conflicted by Blog@’s image-importing ability being felled by e-goblins for weeks now (For the record, we can still put up images, but not in a way that would do any favors for my already questionable drawings; controlling the sizes is a dicey proposition). On the one hand, I like having cartoons at the top of these columns to differentiate them from all the other columns about new releases each week and because it spared me writing any kind of introduction and because it gave me a legitimate reason to Google Image search, say, Godzilla or Jack Kirby Thor drawings for an hour and then scribble on index cards for an afternoon.

On the other hand, just writing a column and not illustrating it as well is so goddam easy, and it leaves me with plenty of free time to pursue my hobbies—like Google Image searching Godzilla and Jack Kirby Thor drawings and then scribbling away an afternoon.

Anyway! Here are some things that you should be able to find at your comic shop this week, things that look like they might be good, or might be bad or that I might just want to talk about…

Action Comics #900: To celebrate the 900th issue of the longest-running serial comic book, DC comics has called in…a bunch of dudes from outside of comics? Okay, I’m just being a jerk—television and prose writer Paul Cornell, director Richard Donner, TV producer Damon Lindelof and screenwriter David Goyer all have comics work on their resumes, ranging from Donner’s co-scripting of a few Superman arcs with Geoff Johns and  Lindelof’s single miniseries Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk to Cornell’s current run on Action and Goyer’s run on JSA.

They’re all among the many creators contributing to this $6, just shy of 100-pages anniverarys issue. The main event is Cornell and artist Pete Woods’ conclusion to their Lex Luthor-starring story arc that’s been running through the book while Superman’s been…unavailable, a story also containing art by Dan Jurgens, Rags Morales, Ardian Syaf, Jamal Igle and Gary Frank. The book will also feature work from Ryan Sook, Miguel Sepulveda, RB Silva, Geoff Johns, Paul Dini and Brian Stelfreeze. Regardless of the source, that’s a lot of talent for a single purchase.

DC breaks down who’s doing what here and shows off a few pages here.

Brightest Day #24: It’s a big week for big DC books. This double-sized, $5 issue is the conclusion of the biweekly, year-long series that spun out of Blackest Night. As someone who read the first 23 issues with interest, I’m hoping we get a satisfying conclusion, but the existence of a miniseries titled Brightest Day Aftermath and concerning itself with a major plot point not introduced until the twenty-third issue doesn’t give me a lot of hope. The publisher’s other biweekly, year-long series Justice League: Generation Lost, which shipped on the weeks Brightest Day didn’t, also sees release this week (wait, how did that happen?), in another 48-page, $5 special.

Bulletproof Coffin: I haven’t heard a single bad thing about David Hine and Shaky Kane’s miniseries from anyone who’s read it and talked about it yet, so I’m assuming it’s pretty good. Trade-waiters like myself can find out this week, when the $18, 200-page collection arrives in comics shops.

Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth: Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell’s eagerly-awaited image-filled, $50, 330-page hardcover biography of the highly influential and greatly admired artist will focus on Toth’s life through the early 1960s, while a second volume will pick up from there. This is no dobut going to be at the top of a lot of comics fans’ shopping lists this week.
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“Robin in the Rye”: Andrew Lorenei has Robin perform scenes from J.D. Salinger’s most-read novel. Nice Penguin cameo. Check out Lorenei’s archives while you’re there; lots of good stuff. (Via Comics Cavern)

“So you tell me… is the following image OK for a 12-year-old?”: At Eye on Comics, Don MacPherson notes a weird panel from a recent issue of Thunderbolts, and points out that Marvel rated the comics okay for ages 12 and over. It often seems to me that folks at DC and Marvel spent a lot of time coming up with their ratings systems, appy them to some books once, and then never, ever thnk about them again.

Lois Lanes are fun to draw: So says super cartoonists Kate Beaton at the bottom of this series of Lois vs. Superman strips. I don’t know about drawing them, but Lois Lanes are certainly fun to look at, at least when Beaton’s drawing them. I hope someone at DC is already on the phone trying ot get a hole of Beaton to offer her a sack of money to do a Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane revival special.

“We’ve been well received. We’re told there’s nothing quite like it in the city”: That’s Drawn & Quarterly publisher Chris Oliveros in this Montreal Gazette feature on the D+Q  brick-and-mortar bookstore.

“I never would have imagined that the American popularity of anime would have given birth to such an involved, complex and constructive culture”: I really enjoyed this column on Sakura-Con by Timothy Siegel of Forbes. It’s kind of charming in its outsider speaking to an audience of outsiders tone, but ir really sounds like Siegel went from knowing nothing about any of this goldanged anime stuff to being completely won over by it. I wonder if he’ll be cosplaying at the next Sakura-Con?

Please enjoy some Easter leftovers: Yet Another Comics Blog shares a Walt Kelly-drawn Easter cover, Polite Dissent continues its Peeps cosplaying super-teams tradition, Sunday Comics Debt looks at an older B.C. Easter tradition (Wait, if the comic is literally set Before Christ, then how can they acknowledge a holiday founded on the death of Christ…?), Todd Klein tells us about his easter egg coloring, Ty Templeton presents some rabbit-on-rabbit violence and shares a picture of Superman hanging out with a Joker-creepy Easter bunny, Law and the Multiverse examines a few legal issues regarding the Easter rabbit and Daryl Cagle rounds up some Easter-themed political cartoons.

Alexander Joseph Luthor is a self-made man. His father was an abusive alcoholic who often took out his anger on young Lex and his sister Lena. Unlike his father who had trouble holding down a job, Lex was cunning, with a natural talent for manipulation and a scientific mind years ahead of his age. Lex felt stifled by those around him, angry that they were unable to keep up with his science or understand his desperate desire to leave Smallville and be part of a larger world. Only Clark Kent, a boy who was a few years younger, seemed to ever understand Lex and occasionally offer him any kind of friendship.

After arranging for his father to die, he used the man’s life insurance policy to leave Smallville and travel. Luthor’s life led him to many vile teachers. He studied under the centuries old terrorist Ra’s al Ghul, the same man who would become one of the Batman’s arch-enemies. For a time, he worked under Bruno Manheim, the mobster in charge of Intergang. Briefly, Lex worked on the planet Apokolips, studying the advanced technology of the New Gods before attempting to kill his “master”, the demonic and nearly-immortal Darkseid. After being thrown off of Apokolips and returned to Earth, the alien technology he copied, added with his own ingenious inventions, gave Lex a small fortune and he began a company in Metropolis that would become LexCorp.

As an adult, Lex was hailed as one of the richest men in the world and the most powerful man in Metropolis. And then “the alien” came. Superman’s appearance caused people to be inspired by someone else. What’s worse, Superman disrupted many of Luthor’s criminal operations and refused to be threatened, defeated or bought off. Envy and hatred mixed in Luthor and he convinced himself that he needed to destroy the Last Son of Krypton, that people needed to be inspired by a self-made man whose greatest power was his intellect and that hero-worshiping an alien actually hindered human progress. Over the years, he’s dedicated many operations to try and destroy Superman, while also making sure to acquire greater power by any means necessary.

For a time, Luthor served as the President of the United States. But newspaper articles by Clark Kent and Lois Lane proved to the world that he was a criminal not to be trusted and a hostile takeover by Wayne Enterprises took away much of his fortune and influence. After attempts to win back public trust, Luthor dropped the facade and now openly operates as a would-be world conqueror. Whether he’s fighting superheroes directly with his high-tech “warsuit” or whether he’s manipulating people and events from behind the scenes, Lex Luthor is one of the most dangerous people alive.

So that’s the basics. Here are the different styles he’s employed over the years. As usual, we’re sticking with mainstream DC Comics continuity for the most part here. No Earth-3, Anti-Matter Earth, Elseworlds or “imaginary stories.” Those can get their own theme columns later.

GOLDEN AGE LUTHOR

When our villain first appeared in Action Comics #23 in April, 1940, he called himself simply “Luthor” but whether this was his first name or last was not revealed. He was clearly a brilliant man, adept at manipulating people on a large scale and also at creating incredibly advanced technology. In this first adventure, his initial goal was to manipulate major countries of the world to war with each other and then pick up the pieces. Since World War II had just started, this didn’t seem like too far out an idea, making our boy much scarier.

When they first met, Superman found Luthor dressed in robes and seated on a throne, surrounded by loyal followers and agents. This definitely let us know his intentions, while also associating him with the image of someone who commands a cult or secret society. It’s simple but effective. Luthor wasn’t married to one outfit, though. He quickly ditched the robes and strutted about in a purple jumpsuit. (more…)

New season, old story for the DC Bullets in the 2011 season opener. On a cold, blustering afternoon, the top of the first inning, always a thorn in the comic book makers’ sides, got the better of the team again, as the Bullets fell behind early and couldn’t rally back to make up the difference in a 6-5 loss against The Nation.

The Nation came out aggressive against DC’s pitcher Jeff Boison, driving a series of hard line singles over the infield to take a quick lead. DC had a chance to minimize the damage to one run when Mike Lorah fumbled a routine grounder at third base with two outs registered. Four successive hits followed, and the Nation tallied five runs for the early lead.

In the bottom of the first, second baseman Brian Walters flared a single into right field, but the momentum quickly turned when shortstop Nel Yomtov scorched one of the hardest hit balls of the evening – right to The Nation’s third baseman. Brian, moving on contact, was easily doubled off first base. Mike, looking to make up for his error, launched a solo home run into right center field to get the Bullets on the board, but right centerfielder Vince Letterio flew out to left, ending the first.

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So basically Thing doesn’t need to wear his XXXL raincoat and Carmen Sandiego hat get-up anymore, right?: I enjoyed this really smart piece by Colin Smith about how Ben Grimm’s transformation into The Thing and the tragic nature of his appearance as originally conceived no longer means the same thing that it once did, in the Marvel Universe or our universe. (Via Comics Reporter)

“It’s all fiction. None of this happened”: That’s Gary Groth vs. Jim Shooter’s recent blog posts on one of the more important/touchy issues in the last few decades of the American comic book industry—Marvel vs. Jack Kirby over Jack Kirby’s art. It’s a great read. Plus, I learned two new words while reading it.

Okay, Swamp Thing can return to the DC Universe: But Josh Bayer gets to do the covers. Deal?

The tradition of casting black folks in viking movies: Writing for Salon, Bob Calhoun examines the tempest in a teapot that was casting Idris Elba as a pseudo-Norse space-god in the upcoming Thor movie, and notes its hardly the first time a black guy has appeared in a viking movie.

Someday someone will mount a full production (I hope): This sounds kind of neat. Apparently a theater company that does Shakespeare is performing a reading of Anthony del Col and Conor McCreery’s Secret Wars-starring-Shakespeare’s characters comic Kill Shakespeare. That’s obviously a comic with a lot of dramatic potential, and I figure it’s only a matter of time before it gets full-on adapted. I wonder if it will make it to the stage or to the silver screen first though…?

Is there a font called “Spirit Title” yet?: Imprint magazine has a downright astonishing article on Will Eisner’s usage of three-dimensional looking, “stone type” in his Spirit features, and some of the comics covers his signature technique inspired over the years (Via The Source). Comics Alliance has a similarly-themed post, which includes a swell Gotham Adventures cover.

Oh yeah, Wizard was good for something: Bully posts Ben Grimm’s Passover adventure from Twisted Toyfare Theater.

“Surprise Penis!”: Ty Templeton carefully defines and explains Surprise Penis, and counts down the top-ten best examples from toys, cartoons and comics. Probably NSFW.

Because you worry about really weird things…?: “Why Wonder Woman’s Costume Really Worries Me”

He’s not writing Detective Comics for nothing: Scott Snyder unravels an extremely pervasive mystery plaguing superhero comics, and takes to Twitter to reveal it; iFanboy captured the results.

Bad news for fans of lame jokes and lamer colored pencil-on-index card art fans. I haven’t been able to connect to the place on the Internet where my computer sends scanned images into Blog@, either because something’s wrong with my computer, or something’s wrong with Blog@, or my computer and Blog@ are fighting, so this week’s installment is nothing but words, words and more words.  On the plus side, there’s a lot more words devoted to more books.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Astro City: Shining Stars: Here’s the latest chunk of Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson’s superhero comics, including miniseries Astra, Silver Agent and one-shot Beautie. It’s a $25, 210-page hardcover.

Dark Horse Presents #1: After a stint online, the venerable Dark Horse anthology returns to print, now in the form of an $8, 80-page, full-color, ad-free, bound format. This first issue will include work from (deep breath) Frank Miller, Harlan Ellison, Howard Chaykin, Neal Adams, Richard Corben, Carla Speed McNeil, Michael T. Gilbert, Paul Chadwick, Randy Stradley, David Chelsea and others. In other words, not something you wouldn’t want to take a look at. Preview here.

DC Comics Presents: Ninja Boy #1: DC’s line of $8, almost-trades saves another property from the back-issue bins. This was a one-time WildStorm property, written and drawn by Ale Garza, with co-writer Allen Warner and co-artist Dan Norton. The 2001, six-issue miniseries was remarkably manga-inspired,not simply in the accents of Garza’s art-work, but in the premise and characters as well. That premise? Cheeky ninja kid has action-comedy adventures. I remember trying and not really liking the book much, but it’s certainly interesting in it’s attempt to process familiar elements from Japanese pop culture into something American, regardless of how successful it was. This book will include the first four issues. For a more traditional offering from DC in the same format, this week also sees the release of DC Comics Presents: Legion of Super Heroes—Legion of the Damned.That was a millennial storyline by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, who have since gone on to become fairly synonymous with space-faring superhero adventures, and Olivier Coipel. The solicitation on dccomics.com is rather forthcoming about why this one’s being published like this now: “With the hardcover collection of LEGION LOST coming in June, DC Comics collects the tale that led into that space-spanning epic”

Dungeons & Dragons Classics Vol. 1: I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this on Blog@ before, although I know I’ve discussed it repeatedly on my own blog, Every Day Is Like Wednesday, but the old DC/TSR Advanced Dungons & Dragons comic book was the one that got me into comics, setting me on a slippery slope that—greased with Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Neil Gaiman and company’s Sandman and a few Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle Bat-comics— led me to become the well-adjusted, comic book-obsessed, destitute blogger and mini-comic maker I am today. IDW has repackaged and republished it, along with the previously released DC/TSR Forgotten Realms. This first volume of AD&D comics will collect the first eight issues of the series, all drawn by Jan Duursema (she drew every issue of the series, save two fill-ins from Tom Mandrake), and written by first Michael Fleisher and then Dan Mishkin. Fleisher’s arc, comprising the first four issues, is rather unremarkably straightforward, but starting with Mishkin’s first arc, the book improves greatly, moving away from strict adherence to sword and sorcery business into something a bit more interesting. The second half of this book, for example, is the story “The Spirit of Myrrth,” in which our heroes are hired by the ghost of a dead jester to secure a powerful magical joke scroll before the city’s Jester’s Guild gets it and creates a giant jester skeleton to—well, it’s pleasingly strange, is what I’m trying to say.  The trade is a $20, 200-page trade paperback.  For IDW’s original exploitation of the D&D license, you can check out the publisher’s Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Sun #4 and Dungeons and Dragons #6, also on sale this week. Those are both $4 books.

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Kenshin fanart by “Tsuyoshi13″

Anime News Network and others are reporting that this week’s issue of Jump Square magazine holds a special announcement for the 15th anniversary of Rurouni Kenshin – a new anime has been greenlit! No word yet whether this will be a new series, OVA, or film, but any new Kenshin will certainly be welcomed by fans.

In addition, if the older material is more your speed, you’ll have a new higher-quality way to watch it soon as well. With Japanese release dates of late August, September, and October (no official word on US release yet), the two Kenshin OVAs and the full length feature will be hitting blu-ray, watchable in high definition glory.

The Kenshin manga spanned 255 chapters, and the original anime series had 95 episodes.

The sixth season of the longest running sci-fi show on television is premiering Saturday on BBC America (concurrent with the UK!). I’m speaking of course about Doctor Who. Once a week I sift through the millions of Etsy listings to find the best in geek chic for Blog@ readers. And I’ve been waiting patiently to do this one. Last week I found some wacky Portal related objects on the crafting site but this time around, it’s all about the Doctor. And his companions. And his enemies. And the TARDIS. Yes, it’s a special extended edition of Etsy Made Me Do It. (I apologize to your wallets in advance.)

Without further ado…ALLONS-Y!

There’s been a lot of Doctor Who novelization over the last 47 years, not to mention a good number of DVD releases. Well how would you like to hold them up in style with these Doctor Who bookends? They’re pretty epic if you ask me. User TheophilusSaxe made them out of hard engineering-grade plaster with a resin TARDIS and felt bottom. Just $49.99. Or, if you’d prefer just to stare at something awesome that serves no other purpose, check out his Doctor Who dioramas: Ice Box, Knock knock who’s there, and Boxed Lunch, $19.99 each. (more…)

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?

The 2011 season stood out as the most successful summer in recent history for the DC Bullets. Despite a first round playoff loss against the eventual New York Media Softball League champions, Wall St. Journal (congrats to them on back-to-back championships!), the Bullets’ 8-2 mark in league play tied for the league’s best overall record. And the Bullets’ overall 16-5-1 mark is easily their best tally in memory.

Along the way, many highlights:

* Larry Ganem’s six innings of perfect pitching against Vanity Fair

* Allison Dugas’ two-out, game-tying hit in an extra-inning victory over Wall St. Journal

* a spectacular, Willie-Maysesque, over-the-shoulder catch by Nel Yomtov during a showdown with High Times

* an Independence Day-weekend showdown against the Daily Show that will go down in Bullet lore for the number of pounds every player sweated out during the game

* and a comeback-player-of-the-year performance by Joel Press, after surgery hobbled his previous summer.

But probably the biggest accomplishment was simply the team’s steady defense and offense, consistently limiting the opposition’s rallies while relentlessly keeping pressure on their defenses.

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The original series of Doctor Who lasted 26 seasons, from 1963 to 1989. Thanks to his ability to regenerate his body when he’s close to death (as long as it’s not damaged too greatly and death isn’t instantaneous), the Doctor displayed 7 different incarnations over those many adventures. With the exception of a TV movie in 1996 that introduced the 8th Doctor, the TV show did not return until 16 years later in 2005 when we met the Doctor’s new 9th incarnation.

The first four incarnations had a strange dress style, a mixture of Edwardian and Victorian touches with a flair for the ridiculous. The 5th, 6th and 7th Doctors comprised what later came to be known as the “costume era”, wearing strangely stylized outfits decorated by question marks. The 8th went back to a more classic, slightly steampunk look before later (as we recently discovered) adopting a leather, Naval jacket.

The new series Doctors have gone for more modern looks but have each maintained a style that has made them stand out in many environments. So let’s take a look, shall we?

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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.

Once a week I sift through the millions of Etsy listings to find the best in geek chic for Blog@ readers. Last time, I welcomed our new robot overlords, this week…I can’t wait to play against them. I’m talking about the video game Portal. The sequel is just days away from jumping into my XBOX and I can’t wait to play it. It’s for this reason I found some of the best Aperture Science had to offer on Etsy.

Who are you? What is that? Oh, What’s that? What’s THAT? What is THAT? That, my friends, is a stuffed Talking Curiosity Sphere. One of the best parts of Portal was the insane voiceovers from these guys, now user Penguinotic can send you one for $45. No promises it will talk to you. Or, if you’d prefer something smaller, there’s the Portal Pendant Bundle from sweetgeek which includes 4 spheres, two turrets and a cake. $21.

The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak. Unlike the Curiosity Spheres, the Companion Cubes were your trusty companion throughout Portal. Even when you had to incinerate them. There are lots of Companion Cube products on Etsy but I found this Aperture Weighted Companion Cube keychain/zipper pull from user geekoutlet for $12 to be quite swell.

Aperture Science knows your safety is their first priority. Why else would they post these signs to warn you what’s ahead? The Aperture Lab Warning Signs are 3″ x 3″ and can be stuck on your laptop or just about anywhere else you need warning. From user lovesickrobotdesigns, $13 for the batch. Or, if you’d like just one, check out the Portal Safety Sign Laptop Decal from GlueJunkie for $9.

What would Portal be without portals? A person stuck in a room. So it’s a good thing Aperture Science invented them. Now, you can wear one around your neck with this Portal necklace from user AngelElements for $14.20. But wait! It’s reversible! Flip the necklace over and your exit portal is ready and waiting.

Cake, and grief counseling, will be available at the end of the testing period. I beat Portal and all I got was this lousy t-shirt? Well you may not have gotten any cake when you finally finished the game but you can warn others with this Cake Is A Lie t-shirt from user TheAardvark for $20. Bring your own snacks next time.

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!

Okay, I don’t know if it’s actually that heavy or not, but the new Thor By Walter Simonson Omnibus is a big one: It’s 7.8-inches by 11.2-inches, and just under 1200 pages long. For your $125 bucks, you get about 50 issues of Simonson’s Thor, widely regarded as the high point of the title and the character.

Captain America: Fighting Avenger #1: Marvel’s planned all-ages, Marvel Adventures-style series is now a over-sized, 48-page one-shot. Brian Clevinger is a pretty great comic book writer and Gurihiru is a really great comics art team, so why complain about portion size?

The Complete Wendel: Cartoonist Howard Cruse is best known for his 1995 graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby, which was reprinted by Vertigo last year, but he also produced a comic strip about a young gay man and for The Advocate through much of the 1980s. As the title indicates, this $25, 290-page trade collects the entire run of the comic.

Flash #10: Writer Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul introduce Hot Pursuit and his Cosmic Motorcycle in an issue leading into the upcoming Flashpoint event/story. I guess this book’s running a bit late, given that the cover is of the title-character-posing-before-his-icon-on-a-white-field variety, which the whole DCU line sported back in…January, was it?

G.I. Joe: Cobra Commander Tribute 100-Page Spectacular: This gigantic, $8 special reprints the recent G.I. Joe: Cobra #12, along with reflections and reactions from various characters and reprints of of past Cobra Commander comics. (Exssselent, as the late, great head snake might have said). If you like the sounds of that spectacular Spectacular format, publisher IDW also has an Angel 100-Page Spectacular scheduled, reprinting some of their best Angel comics before the character joins former flame Buffy at Dark Horse Comics.

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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?