• Colleen Doran sent this one over to me — check out some really nice preview pages from an as-yet-unpublished book called Elf~Fin: Hyfus and Tilaweed. They’re looking for a publisher, by the way.

• High Moon creator David Gallaher has a new column over at ComicMix called Mixing It Up, where he “experiences the world beyond comics to discuss the influences, hobbies, and thoughts of your favorite artists and writers.” In the first column, he joins his fellow Zuda compatriots Johnny Zito and Tony Trov for Zombie Prom in Philadelphia.

• If you crave some additional reports from SPX beyond what Chris Mautner has shared so far, you can check out reports from The Beat, Ben Towle, The Daily Cross Hatch, Zack Smith and the Cool Kids Table, a new blog by Marvel’s Ben Morse, DC’s Rickey Purdin and freelancer Kiel Phegley.

• Laura Hudson, meanwhile, returns from SPX wanting to break up with mainstream superhero comics. “Coming directly off of my weekend at SPX, as well as recently reading a string of excellent, engrossing non-superhero graphic novels like Skim, Swallow Me Whole, and Alan’s War, picking up a comic book like Nightwing #149 feels a lot like shutting my hand in a car door,” she says. “And I’m thinking — I’m thinking I should stop doing that.”

• Wayne Alan Harold has pictures from the Mid-Ohio Con.

• Fortress of Fortitude remembers Ann Nocenti’s awesome run on Daredevil.

• SLG is now accepting digital submissions. SLG chief Jennifer de Guzman also has some tips for what she looks for in a submission.

• The Exterminape cometh.

• Todd Dezago, writer of Perhapanauts, is holding a scary story contest on his blog.

• “I remember going from $20 dollars a page, pencil and ink, to $40 a page, pencil and ink. And then, the next two years, every time I took a job in, I got a cut and I ended up at $20 a page again. We were flying without a parachute. I used to be afraid of getting a mortgage.” — John Romita Sr.

• And finally, blogger Sean Kleefeld looks at online comics that are eventually published in print form and the “extras” that they add to print version.

Today the judge in the Siegel case is holding a status conference to set the “FINAL and DEFINITIVE schedule” for the trial. The judge’s all-caps emphasis may seem a bit unusual for a routine scheduling order, but it’s a visceral reaction to the twists and turns the case has taken since the calendar was originally set back in April.

A lot of it is legal wrangling that we’ll set aside for another time, but one issue is particularly relevant to readers of this site — because that issue arose from one of our most recent posts.

The post in question was from late August, and it revealed previously unknown artwork and scripts from the 1934 collaboration between Jerry Siegel and Russell Keaton. As Siegel lawyer Marc Toberoff explains in a court filing:

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Smallville executive producers Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders say that The Graysons, the recently announced show about a pre-Robin “D.J.” Grayson, isn’t meant to replace Smallville, according to a letter they sent to KryptonSite.com.

“Never have we been so committed to the continuing success of Smallville as we are to seasons 8 and 9,” they said in a letter posted last week. “While we are extremely excited to be working hand-in-hand with Wonderland, Warner Bros. and the CW to create the origin story of Dick Grayson, it has never been intended as a replacement for Smallville, as is speculated in some media.”

A few weeks back I mentioned the Endless Reflections art show at Nucleus in Alhambra, Calif., an exhibit featuring artwork inspired by Neil Gaiman’s classic Sandman series running this October.

Well, if you aren’t close enough to Alhambra to check out the exhibit, you can now view and buy the artwork online, by creators like Jill Thompson, Colleen Doran, Barron Storey, Bryan Talbot, Dave McKean, John Watkiss, Marc Hempel, Mike Dringenberg, Mike Allred (who did the really cool Beatles homage at the top of this post) and many more. Many of the pieces have already sold.

If anyone’s looking for a belated birthday present for me, that Allred piece would like nice over my mantle (if it hasn’t sold yet).

After much back and forth in the online rumor mill, it’s now confirmed that Punisher: War Zone has received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America.

According to CHUD, the rating is for “pervasive strong brutal violence, language and some drug use,” which should please fans hoping to see Frank Castle strew Marvel MAX-style carnage across the big screen.

It also may satisfy director Lexi Alexander, who was the subject of another long-running rumor. When Alexander didn’t attend Comic-Con, word circulated that conflict with Lionsgate over the movie’s rating — the studio supposedly had wanted a toned-down PG-13 — had led to her departure from War Zone.

Punisher: War Zone opens on Dec. 5.

The Ticker

• Tom Rothman, co-chairman of 20th Century Fox, says the studio is “thinking very seriously about” about a reboot of 2003’s Daredevil: “… I think that the thing the Hulk showed although, it did what it did, is that it is possible, that if you really do it right the audience will give you a second chance. That it is possible. And I think that you see that when they did Batman Begins, the first Nolan movie, that you can have made some mistakes along the way or movies that the audience wasn’t that crazy about and then given the proper amount of time and the right creative vision behind it, you can, to use your word, reboot.” [IESB]

• Warner Bros. is investing heavily in marketing LEGO Batman: The Videogame, which hit stores last week. TV spots, print ads, McDonald’s Happy Meals, and a toy line are all supporting the game. [Variety]

Midway has released more screenshots and the box art for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, the big crossover fighting game due out next month.

Kotaku has more images, but you can see Captain Marvel taking on Raiden after the break.

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• Invincible Iron Man writer Matt Fraction contrasts the love lives of Tony Stark and … Captain America? “… I would love to write a story about Tony Stark’s complicated love life. It’s an aspect of his character, that’s for sure. [It's like] in the movie, when he goes to bed with the angry reporter from Berkeley; you can imagine that same reporter with a similar line of questioning with Captain America, but you can’t imagine Captain America seducing her later. But with Tony, you can, so we should absolutely take advantage of it.” [The Washington Post]

• Cartoonist Bill Griffith discusses Zippy the Pinhead as a cottage industry, and the financial impact of his website: “Over the years, income from the Zippy website has gone from about a third of my annual income to about a half — in other words, the website has doubled my income. Most of my Web income is from sales of Zippy originals — the original artwork of the daily strips — as well as signed prints of strips and original art from my underground days.” [The Hartford Courant]

• Ignatz nominee MK Reed talks about the collaboration process: “It’s been very different from working on my own, and there was definitely a learning curve figuring out how Jonathan [Hill] was most likely to work out different parts. I’ve been working with him for over a year now, so we’ve kind of gotten things together by this point, and there’s a lot less arguing about how certain things should look or what needs to be corrected. Jonathan is insanely talented and I know he car handle pretty much anything I throw at him. Because he’s a more talented artist than I am, I can actually make up completely crazy detailed things like crowd scenes in a supermarket, and know they’ll look awesome.” [New York Daily News]

• Alex Irvine, author of The Vertigo Encyclopedia, considers the influence of the DC Comics imprint: “… I think it’s probably safe to say that the success of Vertigo had a lot to do with DC and Marvel being willing to take their regular universe books in more mature directions. Also, the Sandman phenomenon brought so much attention to comics in general that it created a huge new appetite for comics with a certain kind of attitude. This in turn meant that people who had worked primarily in indie and underground comics — David Lapham comes to mind, or Paul Pope — had a chance to put their work in front of new audiences.” [Omnivoracious]

The start of Act Two means a target-rich environment for research-happy nerds. Let’s get going, shall we?

SPOILERS FOLLOW

* * *

LEAD STORY

“Brave Men And Women” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: “A whole new world/ A new fantastic point of view/ No one to tell us no/ Or where to go/ Or say we’re only dreaming…”

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[Warning:  In this post I will probably misuse horribly the word "metatextual" at least once.]

If you’re reading this, odds are you have a favorite superhero team. More than likely, that superhero team has a high-concept hook, like “teenagers in the future,” “hated and feared by the world they’ve sworn to protect,” or “creating heroic legacies since the 1940s.”

Now think about the Justice League.

There is nothing like that at the heart of the Justice League.

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Warner Bros. screened nearly 30 minutes of previously unreleased Watchmen footage for journalists last night in West Hollywood and, perhaps not surprisingly, it received a largely positive response.

Alex Billington of FirstShowing said it looked “absolutely phenomenal.” Patrick Lee of Sci Fi Wire dubbed the opening-title montage as “impressive.” And Michael Cieply of The New York Times said the three clips “spared nothing when it comes to the messy side of the super life.”

Similar screenings are planned in London and New York City.

Expectant fans may be pleased to learn that Watchmen will have a run time of 2 hours and 43 minutes, which director Zack Snyder felt was necessary to tell the story and showcase the action sequences.

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The Dark Knight swings onto DVD Dec. 9

This year’s No. 1 movie and the second-highest grossing film in the United States ever will be released on DVD just in time for the holiday season, as The Dark Knight will be released on DVD Dec. 9. Per the Hollywood Reporter, it will include the six IMAX-filmed sequences, a production documentary and no doubt a lot of other special features that we’ll hear about between now and then.

Kung Fu Panda sequel due in 2011

Jack Black and Angelina Jolie have signed on for Pandamonium, the sequel to the summer hit Kung Fu Panda. Per Variety, the film will be released June 3, 2011.

The original film, which came out a few short months ago, made more than $626 million worldwide, “making it DreamWorks Animation’s most successful non-sequel film ever,” the trade reports. Kung Fu Panda comes out on DVD Nov. 9.

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The second episode of Warner Bros.’ Watchmen motion comic will debut next Tuesday on iTunes, followed by the third chapter on Oct. 20. The first installment launched in July.

Future episodes will debut every two weeks.

Announced during Comic-Con International, the motion comic is part of a larger initiative by Warner Bros. to deliver DC Comics properties via the Internet, mobile phones and video on demand. Of course releasing Watchmen, chapter by chapter, in hybrid comic-animation form also helps to create buzz for Zack Snyder’s movie adaptation, which is set to open in March.

Tucker Stone went to the Baltimore Comic Con and came back with the snark an unbiased perspective on the DC Nation panel:

Before they left the Final Crisis topic for Kryptonian waters, Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns was discussed, and although logic and sense long ago lost the battle with silly conceptual ideas as comic book storylines, it has still been hoped that the idea of a rainbow spectrum of Lantern corps is a joke. Not so! Because here come the Red Lanterns, and according to Johns, they are really hot to trot to ice Sinestro. (Red stands for rage!) There’s probably a reason why, maybe having to do with Sinestro laughing hysterically every time a new color of Lantern enters the room. “I’m a Blue Lantern. Stop laughing at me! I’m the embodiment of love. STOP LAUGHING.” When the subject of the Blue Lanterns came up again later, Johns mentioned that, while he and Peter Tomasi had discussed whether or not the concept of a love corps was “lame,” they had finally realized that “love can be scary as well.” Yes, it certainly can.

I’ve been told there’s more to come soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

For fans of DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes, 2008 started out promising.

It was the 50th anniversary of those teenagers from the future — they first appeared in April 1958’s Adventure Comics #247 — and classic writer Jim Shooter had returned to the title. On television, a Legion Saturday-morning cartoon was in its second season, and the all-ages comic adaptation seemed to be well-received.

What’s more, Legionnaires played prominent roles in the popular “Lightning Saga” crossover in Justice League of America and Justice Society of America, and in the “Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes” story arc in Action Comics. And then there was the promise of the Final Crisis tie-in, Legion of 3 Worlds (it kicked off just last month).

It all combined for one shiny anniversary present, topped with a futuristic-looking bow.

But then Warner Bros. Animation announced the end of the Legion TV series. DC followed that with the cancellation, in November, of the cartoon’s Johnny DC counterpart.

Finally, over the weekend, the publisher confirmed an earlier report that it will cancel the remaining Legion title — referred to as the “Threeboot” by fans — with January’s Issue 50.

“What fun! Sure makes me look forward to my 50th wedding anniversary,” said Matthew Elmslie, who operates the Legion Abstract blog.

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Despite my best efforts to trim my pull list to something approaching reasonable, new comics come out demanding my attention. Current titles and storylines such as Secret Invasion and “Old Man Logan” force their way into my hands. Looking ahead, the promise of even more great titles ensures that I’ll need to pick up another long box or two.

The five upcoming story arcs that have me the most jazzed …
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Someone with an incredibly high threshhold of pain has whittled 1997’s Batman & Robin down to 10 minutes of its absolutely worst moments. How they decided which was the wheat and which was the chaff, I’ll never know.

(Filmdrunk, via Topless Robot)

The T-shirt website Threadless has a new shirt up featuring the Man of Steel (or at least a close facsimile — note the un-logo’ed cape) heating up a TV dinner. Mmmm, heat vision’ed TV dinners …

Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern movie could begin shooting as soon as spring.

So says producer Donald De Line, who tells First Showing that a new draft of the script has been submitted, and the studio is “gearing up to start shooting early spring.”

While it’s not confirmed, he added that “it’s coming together and I’m excited about it. Hopefully we’ll make it to start gate. We’re really close - really close.”

The movie, directed by Greg Berlanti and written by Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green, will detail the origin of Hal Jordan, “with all the heroics and action inherent with that character.”

According to a script review — spoilers! — posted earlier this month at Latino Review, “The structure adheres closely to what I call — the ’superhero origin movie paradigm.’ Our hero, in this case Hal Jordan has a fear, limitation, block, or wound at the beginning of the story which he has to overcome (his character arc) or have some control by the midpoint of the script which is usually the time he becomes the superhero for the first time ie: Batman Begins.”