It’s Thursday. I have had too much caffeine and haven’t bought my comics for the week yet. Have some links.

Boondock Saints comics? Hell yes.

Becky Cloonan’s ongoing webcomic-saga of her “feud” with Amy Reeder Hadley just keeps getting funnier.

Warren Ellis thinks you should buy this print from Laurenn McCubbin. I think you should buy it for me.

One of my favorite political bloggers, Spencer Ackerman, is now the star of a comic book. Where the heck is MY comic book, people?

Jonathan Lethem on the “Squandered promise of science fiction.”

No, my linkblogging posts don’t come on any particular day, they just tend to appear when I’ve gathered enough links that I like but don’t really have enough to say about to warrant their own posts. In case you were wondering. Now, onward!

At The Nation (full disclosure: I’m currently a Nation intern), Melissa Harris-Lacewell talks about the conservative campaign to paint President Obama as the Joker, and does an excellent job teasing out some interesting political parallels with The Dark Knight film.

Via When Fangirls Attack, a post on close female friendships in comics. How many female “buddy” or “bromance” pairings can you think of?

A comparison of Marvel Divas and Gotham City Sirens, also via When Fangirls Attack.

Johanna Draper Carlson looks at Huntress: Year One.

From Splash Page, Charlyne Yi of Paper Heart and Knocked Up is doing a comic with Oni Press. Insert random blather about how Yi is actually a geek here, right? Well, because she’s not Megan Fox (read, sexy girl everyone slobbers over) this hasn’t gotten that much attention, but it makes me happy: Charlyne Yi is funny, and from what I’ve seen of Paper Heart, is actually creative as well.

Jezebel looks at my favorite superheroine from childhood: She-Ra.

Finally, Defamer wants to know how gay Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes is going to be. Apparently word leaked out that there was going to be some sexual tension between the leads (Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr.), which was enough to send Michael Medved into a panic. Apparently there’s nothing to offend Medved in the screenplay, at least, and so he can go back to doing what he does best–which certainly isn’t knowing what women would like to see in a film. Or at least, this woman.

Neil Gaiman is continuing to sweep just about every possible award he can get nominated for, as he earned himself not one, but two nominations for this year’s World Fantasy Awards!

The mastermind behind Coraline and the Sandman was nominated for best novel with the Newberry-winner, the Graveyard Book, as well as best novella for Odd and the Frost Giants.

You can check out the rest of the nominees here.

Superpouvoir has posted some concept images from You Have Killed Me’s Joelle Jones, for the upcoming Dark Horse one-shot of Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible:

The book will be written by Zach Whedon, Joss’ brother, and according to Superpouvoir, is due out in November. You can check out some other concepts of Penny and Captain Hammer by clicking here.

Regular readers here know I love Joelle Jones’ art. You’ll also probably know I love Joss Whedon. So Joelle Jones character sketches for Dr. Horrible comics? WIN.

You can get Phonogram vs. The Fans, the limited-edition Phonogram fanzine that I wrote about here, on Etsy for the low, low price of $5. You want this.

Gail Simone, good and pissed about the EA Games “booth babes” debacle.

Racialicious has a review from the first Asian American Comic Con.

Johanna Draper Carlson talks Girlamatic, which I’d somehow missed out on, so read what she has to say.

One of my favorite bloggers, Renegade Evolution, talks about girls and gaming: “Hey baby, why all the aggro?”

Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan have a cool Op-Ed in the New York Times about “why we need vampires.” Lately I’ve been doing a good bit of thinking about why vampire stories seem to appeal to a teen girl demographic in particular, so this fit right in.

And via BUST, Johnny Depp is set to play a vampire in yet another Tim Burton-helmed picture, Dark Shadows.

Stephenie Meyer, author of Twilight, is set to test the theory that fans are really just out for the hot boys at Comic-Con–she’s going to star in her own Female Force comic. (Can I mention yet again that the name “female force” creeps me out? Referring to women as “females” sounds so animalistic to me…)

Finally, on that note, an interview with Francesca Lia Block on her new vampire young adult novel, Pretty Dead. Since one of the things I’m interested in is why the vampire romance always seems to be older male vampire and young mortal girl (Angel/Buffy, Edward/Bella, etc.) I’m especially intrigued with Block’s book since it reverses that dynamic.

If you’ll excuse me, I think I’m off to watch Angel…

First off, this Saturday I’ll be headed for this:

If you’re in New York, you too should check it out.

You don’t have to be in NY to read NYC Graphic Novelists’ profile on A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge creator Josh Neufeld. And if you haven’t read A.D. yet, um, it’s free and on the Web. Read it.

Finally, for iGoogle users, you can now get a constantly-updated iGoogle theme with the best of Oni Press’s creators’ work. Currently, it includes the work of Chris Mitten (Wasteland), Chynna Clugston (Blue Monday), Chris Schweizer (The Crogan Adventures), Lars Brown (North World), & Brandon Graham (Multiple Warheads). You know you want it.

For those of you who didn’t watch Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night, you missed out on some comicky goodness!

In last night’s episode, the comedian went to the San Diego Comic Con met up with industry figures like Stan Lee, Dan Didio, Geoff Johns, and Jon Favreau to discuss his comic book character, which I will refer to as “Rechargo Boy.” He’s solar-powered, and looks suspiciously like a late-night host.

While Johns kind of made me chuckle with his response, it’s Stan Lee that (as always) steals the show. You can see the full episode, which this is in the first segment of, by clicking here.

Marvel writer Jeff Parker has announced on his blog that while Agents of Atlas is safe for now, his other new series — Exiles — will be ending with Issue #6.

As for EXILES… well, as they say, you can’t save every patient. The best we did was a momentary blip with issue one of the relaunch, and sales went right back to where they were previously. In hindsight, maybe we should have waited a year or two before trying it. It was a blow to me, I was having a great time working with Salva Espin and Casey Jones, and felt I was getting into a good groove with issues that you’ll never see. At least Marvel did me a solid and gave me a double sized issue in 6 to wrap things up. Curious to see what you think of how it… choke… ends.

Parker also discusses in this blog post that the upcoming X-Men vs. Atlas is not a death knell for the series, but that Marvel is trying different ways to convert its critical acclaim into sales. “I can’t give too much away right now,” he wrote, “but you’ll see that you’re going to have quite a bit of Atlas action coming up.”

As a fan of the original Judd Winick run of the series, it’s a shame that this iteration of Exiles is ending. The series followed an ever-changing cast of characters from the Marvel multiverse, as they were guided from one parallel universe to the next, righting wrongs and generally having fun with “What If?” continuity — and you could tell Parker was having a lot of fun with it. What say you, Rama readers?

Would the sequel to Frank Miller’s 300 be called 301? 302? 600? 300 II? 3,000? 300: Three Harder?

Either which way, the Hollywood Reporter has stated that Frank Miller has recently polished off the first draft of his comic book sequel to 300, which smashed through audience expectations in a live-action film adaptation directed by Zack Snyder.

This follow-up will be published by Dark Horse, who printed the initial book. THR also asks some interesting questions regarding casting: Miller and company would be doubly hard-pressed to recruit original star Gerard Butler, considering (A) this role made him really famous, and (B) well, if you’ve read the book (or know anything about how the Battle of Thermopylae ended) he’s not in a position to do sequels.

Either which way, while the comics portion of the project is chugging along, the Hollywood Reporter has also stated that neither director Zack Snyder or writer Kurt Johnstad have been hired yet for work on the film.

Good morning, ‘rama readers. For those of you, like me, stuck at home while your friends and colleagues get into trouble at enjoy Comic-Con, I bring you a whole bunch of linkage that has nothing to do with Comic-Con! Well, mostly.

From the New York Times, a piece on India’s sliding comics industry, and its turn to animation to save its fortunes.

Inside Out, at Girl-Wonder.org, wants Marvel to can the lip gloss and make real products for women.

Via Comics Worth Reading, Classics Rock!, a blog about songs based on books, is focusing on comics this week. So far we have Green Lantern, Ghost Rider, Magneto, and more.

Blog@’s own David Pepose sent me this to giggle at, and I’m sharing it with you: Twilight-themed tattoos. Actually, some of them aren’t bad, but I feel for the person living their life with a portrait of Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen inked on their arm. But hey, some people I’m sure think my tattoos are ridiculous too…

NPR’s Marketplace interviews Joshua Dysart about comics.

Finally, in case you are going to SDCC, Racialicious has some recommendations for panels to hit, and will no doubt have some thoughtful coverage of the whole shebang once it’s over.

In a surprising move just days before the San Diego Comic Con, David Elliot, the former editor in chief of Radical Comics, has sued parent company Blatant Entertainment.

The co-founder of the Radical Comics, Elliot said that he was terminated in April, and alleges he was not given his full salary from Blatant.

Elliot also claims that he was not credited some Radical Comics finds such as Aladdin, City of Dust, Caliber, and Hercules; that he was not compensated for acquiring Hotwire, Cholly & Flytrap, and Lords of Misture; and that other projects that he owns part of the copyrights have been exploited by the company without his consent. You can read the complaint in full here.

Another interesting quote, from THREsq.com: “Blatant’s management failed to have any of its employees sign work-for-hire agreements and/or assignments of copyrights, thereby clouding title to all of Blatant’s projects, and making it impossible for Blatant to provide proper chain of title documents and guarantees to investors, production companies, studios, and insurers, to the detriment of its shareholders.” If this is true, this a whole new can of worms for the comics-to-film venture company.

Radical Comics, which hit the scenes last year, has teamed up with figures ranging from Jim Steranko to Steve Niles to Nick Simmons.

Forget repulsor beams, flamethrowers, and sci-fi cluster bombs — the strongest weapon in Iron Man’s arsenal right now is Matt Fraction. And Marvel has just announced that Sega will be unleashing the Eisner-nominated comics writer on the upcoming Iron Man 2 video game.

“‘Iron Man 2′ presented me with the opportunity to work with both SEGA and Marvel on creating something wholly unique—a story that exists at the crossroads of the comics I write, the film universe I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute to, and a wholly immersive interactive experience like this game,” Fraction said in an interview at Marvel.com. “Writing a game presents an entirely new challenge, where the player engages with the world, with the big and small aspects of the place and characters. They’re a coconspirator in the narrative. I hope it’s as exciting and challenging to play as it was to write.”

Currently, in the comics storyline, Fraction has led Tony Stark down a desperate path as he becomes the “World’s Most Wanted,” as he escapes the clutches of Norman Osborn and the international military group known as H.A.M.M.E.R. With a list of all the world’s known superhero identites in his brain, Tony has been steadily erasing his mind, knowing full well the price he’ll pay: not just his unmatched genius, not just memories of his best friends, but even basic motor skills.

According to the Marvel interview, Sega apparently took fan comments on the first Iron Man game — a game which Metacritic gave an unfavorable 45 review — to heart, focusing more on hand-to-hand combat with a redesigned control scheme. “Iron Man has an undeniably huge fan base, and we really wanted to give them the game they have been waiting for,” said SEGA of America’s vice president of marketing, Sean Ratcliffe.

The game is due out in the spring of 2010 for the XBox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, PSP, and Nintendo DS.

A couple of weekends ago, a friend and I wandered down to the New York City Zine Fest in Brooklyn. Like me, my friend is a journalist and a product of the 90s punk-rock/riot grrl scene in which making zines was, in those dark pre-blog days, what you did with your angst and anger and more importantly, your sheer love of the music that kept you sane.

The zine fest featured a surprising number of comic creators–surprising to me at first, anyway, though when I thought about it, it made sense. Comics still work best in print, despite some good innovation in the digital forum. Zines, meanwhile, seem completely archaic–they were always artfully not-artful, badly photocopied, self-consciously printed in that same retro-obsessed typewriter font (Courier) even though few people made them on typewriters. Meanwhile, the Internet can assure faster distribution of and greater connection through ideas The zines we saw at this fest were no different than the ones we used to read in the 90s, which says something about the death of the medium. They seemed more an attempt to cling to a period in time that is past, an attempt to find a community that no longer exists. The point of the zine was the ideas, the community, not the medium itself.

So whither a zine about a comic?

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Via Warren Ellis, click for full size. By John Cassaday, natch.

Posy Simmonds’s critically-acclaimed, Eisner-nominated comic Tamara Drewe will be turned into a movie by director Stephen Frears, The Guardian reports.

The director of The Queen and The Grifters is reported to have cast former Bond girl and St Trinian’s graduate Gemma Arterton as the title character, a newspaper columnist whose recent nose job transforms her into a seductive flirt, to the chagrin of the quiet village’s womenfolk. Tamsin Greig and Roger Allam are also said to be attached to the project.

Simmonds’s strip ran in the Guardian’s Review section between September 2005 and October 2007 before being collected in a graphic novel. The tragicomic story was inspired by a piece of classic fiction – Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd; likewise her earlier serialised cartoon, Gemma Bovery, took Flaubert’s Madame Bovary as its template.

Frears’ most recent project was also based on a popular work of French literature: Colette’s Chéri novels, which he turned into a film starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend.

Frears was nominated for an Oscar for The Queen and The Grifters and has shown admirable range as a director. Just another indication, I suppose, that the words “comic book movie” don’t have to be synonymous with “big dumb blockbuster,” but can also be linked to “serious film with art-house creds.” If The Dark Knight didn’t completely kill those stereotypes, perhaps a Tamara Drewe movie will put another nail in their coffin.

From G4, Blair Butler has a look inside Warren Ellis’s new Avatar series, Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island. I’ve been a wee bit obsessed with this title–because I mean, the title! What’s an Electrical Pirate?

Well, the preview doesn’t really answer that question, but it still looks cool.

I’m particularly happy that it’s Friday this week–I’ve got an exciting weekend planned. To kick things off right, though, here are some stories from around the web.

Splash Page is speculating about Twitter rumors that Nathan Fillion and Rainn Wilson had a meeting with DC Comics.

Daryl Cagle’s been posting videos from the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists Convention. This one’s an interview with Mikhaela Reid and Jen Sorenson, two female editorial cartoonists.

More dirt on the terrible idea know as The Crow remake, which maybe isn’t so much a remake? Um, what?

To celebrate the release of The Nobody, Jeff Lemire has some lovely art and linkage over at Standard Attrition.

Since Neil Gaiman is off to accept his Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book today, check out video of him reading from the book on his tour.

Finally, if you have a spare $20,000 or so, you can get a second-tier Twilight star at your party. No Robert Pattinson or Kristen Stewart, sadly.

Joss Whedon might not be directing a new Buffy movie, but he will be directing the season 2 premiere of Dollhouse.
From Chicago Now:

Fox is pushing back the second season premiere of Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” by one week this fall. The premiere now will air at 8 p.m. Sept. 25, the network announced Wednesday.

It’ll probably be worth the wait: series creator Joss Whedon will write and direct the episode.

You know you’re thrilled.

Also, there will be a Dollhouse panel at San Diego Comic Con where attendees can see the episode, and attend a Q&A with Whedon and series star and co-producer Eliza Dushku.

What do you call a story about grandfathers, comas, legacies, and mysteries?

Perhaps Sin Titulo is the only good name for it.

Though you might not have heard of it, Cameron Stewart, the artist behind Seaguy and the Apocalipstix, has been setting Twitter aflame with his neo-noir webcomic, as part of the ambitious Transmission X crew. With Sin Titulo, Stewart has charted out the course for Alex MacKay, a lowly fact-checker who begins to fall deeper and deeper into a mystery linked by his late grandfather and a mysterious woman in sunglasses. Cameron was kind enough to answer a few questions for Newsarama as a primer for his work.

David Pepose: Well, first and foremost, I have to ask — what inspired this story for you? It seems like such a hodge-podge of different genres, yet it all seems to work.

Cameron Stewart: When I first decided that I was going to do a comic of my own, I started with an entirely different premise - I was intending to write a pulpy action adventure series, and I attempted to sit down and script the entire story from beginning to end. I found this much more difficult than I’d anticipated, and I became crippled by the pressure of wanting every early scene to cleverly pay off later, every line of dialogue to have multiple layers of meaning, and so it became really unenjoyable to try to write this way. I shelved that idea (I’ll probably revisit it at some point in the future) and decided that I was instead going to try working on something that was more open, more stream-of-consciousness, something that allowed me to feel free to explore different plotlines as and when I thought of them.  I wanted to do something fluid and dreamlike and so the first page of the comic (which has since developed into a significant part of the story) is taken from an actual dream that I’d had.

Around this time I’d also found out that my grandfather had passed away, and had been dead for almost a month and I’d not known about it.   I felt terrible and guilty and so I thought it might be a form of self-therapy to incorporate that event into the story.  From there it’s developed naturally into a mystery story based on my interest in that genre. It’s been described by various sources as a stylistic mashup of Raymond Chandler, David Lynch, Haruki Murakami and “Lost,” all of whom I’m a fan.

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The return of Peter Milligan to Vertigo just keeps on getting better. His take on John Constantine is going to new and interesting places–not easy for a character as old as Constantine–and now with this first issue of a new ongoing series, Milligan’s teamed up with Davide Gianfelice for a nasty little tale rooted in Greek myths and stories.

Anyone familiar with the story of Oedipus will recognize the plot of this first issue, but there’s no need to bone up on your classics to enjoy this story. You do need a strong stomach and a taste for the perverse–but if you’re a Vertigo reader, you already knew that, right?

Eddie is just a kid looking for his mom, but that goes about as spectacularly wrong as it can possibly go, and he runs off to Greek Street, the part of town run by criminals and other lowlifes, and watched over by gorgeous strippers who know all the dirtiest secrets.

This first issue sets up a bunch of loose ends will probably only get more tangled before any of them get resolved, and just begins to set up its world and its rules. There’s magic here, but how much and of what kind and how it will be blended with the gritty, cruel criminal underworld we just don’t know.

What we do know is that it’s vintage Vertigo, with Gianfelice’s luscious art making even the most gruesome scenes beautiful and otherworldly and at the same time making the horror truly gripping, visceral. If this book lives up to this first issue, it’s going to be a hell of a ride.