To those wondering if the New 52 would mean that DC was likely to start placing less emphasis on collecting pre-relaunch material… This doesn’t look too hopeful:

DC Comics has cancelled orders for SUPERGIRL: GOOD LOOKING CORPSE TP (SEP110193). This title will not be resolicited.

For those without exceptionally good memories for the titles of Supergirl collections, Good Looking Corpse was going to collect #60-67 of the last run, AKA the Nick Spencer/James Peaty/Kelly Sue DeConnick-written issues. The collection was supposed to ship next week, making this cancellation particularly last-minute.

This news follows other recent trade cancellations from DC, including final volumes of JSA All-Stars and REBELS. Also recently canceled, a second collection of the most recent Spirit title, and Thunder Agents Chronicles volume 1. Clearly, this isn’t a good time to want some lesser-known titles from DC’s collection department.

There has been unconfirmed rumblings of DC producing Watchmen prequels — without Alan Moore’s involvement — for a while now. Bleeding Cool today added more fuel to the speculative fire by reporting that Andy Kubert, most recently seen as the artist of DC event Flashpoint, will be illustrating one of four prequel miniseries. This information comes “quite conclusively from a reliable source at DC Comics,” Rich Johnston says.

Other creators cited by Johnston as involved: Darwyn Cooke, J. Michael Straczynski, J.G. Jones, original Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons and Watchmen colorist, John Higgins. Furthermore, Bleeding Cool hints that Andy might not be the only Kubert involved — keep in mind that brother Adam has been a strictly Marvel guy as of late, so that either means a change in his status or Joe Kubert’s in the mix.

Before this can happen — if it does indeed happen —  Kubert’s drawing Action Comics #5 and #6, starting this coming January.

Seeing this tweet from Brian Michael Bendis yesterday -

- made me think about how the landscape of comics has really changed over the last few years. Timeliness of books, with the one-two punch of digital release dates and greater competition for marketshare, has become far much more important than it used to be, to the point where high-profile launches like Uncanny X-Men, Incredible Hulk and Action Comics have multiple artists working on the book as early as the second issue to ensure ship dates, and the idea of a “regular” artist who draws every page of every issue in a series (Hell, in a particular story-arc) seems to be becoming more and more of a thing of the past; look at the artistic musical chairs going on in the New 52 books from DC, for example. (more…)

After seeing that more than 5,000 people voted in a poll about whether or not Spider-Man should have stayed married – a retcon that happened four years ago now – I started wondering: Why don’t people care about Superman’s marriage?

I mean, Superman got forcibly divorced from Lois just a few months ago with nary a peep, or not the kind of reaction that would have 5,000 people voicing their opinions four years later, at least. Is it that no-one cares about Superman, period? Not that many people liked his marriage to Lois in the first place? Or is there something particularly objectionable about the way that the Spider-Man marriage was undone that keeps the fires burning for that particular subject?

(For my part, while I think that the idea that Peter Parker being married limits interest or potential in the character is ridiculous, I also think that Amazing Spider-Man has been so much more enjoyable since Brand New Day, with the book’s renewed focus on its supporting cast and a tone more similar to “classic” Spidey stories than what the book had featured for almost a decade up to that point, that I find myself not that bothered by the undoing of the marriage; the book’s better – to me – as a result of all of the changes that happened at that time, so I’m happy.)

DC is continuing to sell lots and lots of copies of Geoff Johns and Jim Lee’s Justice League #1, the Aug. 31-released comic that kicked off their “The New 52″ relaunch. The publisher announced today via The Source that the issue is getting a fifth printing (a first for The New 52 and a relatively rare feat in general these days), showing up at comic book shops just a bit after the new year — Jan. 4, 2012.

Justice League #1 netted a reported 186,000 units in first-day Diamond sales, and is now well over the 200k mark in combined sales. The next issue, Justice League #4, is scheduled for release on Dec. 21.

James Robinson tweets the truly depressing news that The Shade may end before its time, if sales on the mini don’t improve:

If sales don’t improve it may be cancelled before the 12 issues are done.

Truly depressing, of course, for two reasons:

1. It means that DC is joining Marvel in the “finishing mini-series before their limited run is done” school of thought (Mind you, DC have a history of this; The Great Ten and, years ago, Slash Maraud were canceled early).
2. The Shade is a great book with a fantastic art line-up. Future issues are slated to have work by Jill Thompson, Darwyn Cooke, Javier Pulido and Frazer Irving, and when you factor in current artist Cully Hamner, that’s pretty much an unbeatable line-up of talent right there.

DC told CBR that there were no plans to pull the series earlier, but it’d be nice to see numbers rise on this series to ensure that doesn’t come up as a hypothetical again anytime soon.

Congratulations to DC Comics, which has been named as one of America’s Hottest Brands by Advertising Age:

In a move fraught with risk, Time Warner’s DC Comics reworked nearly every character under its supervision in an effort to make popular heroes and heroines more appealing to a broader audience. This fall, DC canceled all its continuing series — including decades-old titles “Action Comics” and “Detective Comics” — and restarted them from a new “Issue No. 1″ or launched something different altogether. DC has also made certain that a digital comic is available the same day its print counterpart hits the retail racks.

The piece is shorter on accolades than you may expect, noting that the DC relaunch was likely prompted by Marvel’s success, and ending by asking whether the initial sales success is sustainable in the long term. But nonetheless, this is another PR coup for the publisher, topping off what’s been an impressive second half of 2011. It’s all downhill from here, probably…

Looking over Marc Olivier Frisch’s comments on the second month sales of DC’s New 52, I noticed that sales increased on Wonder Woman, Batwoman, Catwoman and Supergirl, all of which are in the top 40 (Wonder Woman and Batwoman are both in the top 20, in fact), and it made me think about the fact that Marvel’s only two female-led solo books have just been canceled for low sales. The success of these DC female-led books stands in sharp contrast to the fates of their Marvel equivalent, which made me wonder: Why? (more…)

Really, who saw this coming? The Syfy channel has ordered a pilot script based on DC Comics’ Booster Gold, according to a report in the Hollywood Reporter. The script will be written by Andrew Kreisberg, a screenwriter who’s previously worked for DC writing both Batman Confidential and Green Arrow/Black Canary, as well as episodes of the Justice League animated series, and will “center on Booster Gold, a washed-up athlete from the future who travels back to the present in hopes of becoming the greatest super hero of all time,” according to the Reporter.

This won’t be Booster’s live-action debut; he appeared in an episode of the final season of Smallville written by Geoff Johns, although that will be unlikely to connect with this new version. Somewhere, Dan Jurgens is smiling to himself at the prospect of the word “boosterrific” breaking into mainstream geek usage.

Dear Friends,

The Batman: The Brave and the Bold series finale airs at 7 p.m. tonight on Cartoon Network. I’ve seen the episode. It’s awesome.

Without spoiling too much, here are some reasons why:

1) Henry Winkler as Ambush Bug (pictured)
2) Paul Reubens as Bat-Mite
2) It’s written by Paul Dini!
4) More fourth wall-breaking “meta” commentary than a typical episode of Community (or, well, an Ambush Bug comic)
5) It guest stars Aquaman, and science has proven that The Brave and the Bold Aquaman is the best Aquaman.
6) Ted McGinley (yes)

So, yeah. Even if you haven’t watched the series thus far, make a point to watch tonight.

Peace,

Albert

I don’t know if you’ve seen Cartoon Network’s DC Nation trailer yet, but amongst all of the clips of upcoming shows – including Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series -  it keeps showing sequences from the Blue Beetle live-action test footage released in June 2010.

Unless I’ve missed something, there’s been no announcement of any live-action Beetle series at all, never mind one for next year. Has Warners/DC Entertainment been working on something on the downlow, or is this just a trailer being recut from as much DC footage as possible (Note that the Stephen DeStefano Plastic Man shows up, as well…)?

As has been known for a while, Darkseid is the bad guy in the first arc of The New 52′s Justice League, though he hasn’t been seen yet in the first two issues. That changes with Justice League #4, scheduled for release on Dec. 21 — which The Source reminds us is the first comic book appearance since early 2009 for the ruler of Apokolips.

DC’s publicity blog also has the first image of Darkseid as redesigned by Justice League series artist and DC Entertainment co-publisher Jim Lee, and, well, here it is. (Click to enlarge.)

Over at Millarworld, Tony Harris is sharing the original inkwash and finished painting for an upcoming cover to DC’s The Shade miniseries:

Click through for the finished painting. Spoilers: It’s lovely. (more…)

Remember when certain parties tried to argue that Superman #712 wasn’t pulled at the last minute because of concerns over its portrayal of a Muslim American superhero, but instead because DC editorial just couldn’t handle the idea that any modern Superman would rescue a cat from a tree?

From this week’s Action Comics #3:

On the plus side, you could always read this sequence as the ultimate meta-commentary, with the angry mob representing DC editors upset that Grant Morrison and Rags Morales have ruined the reputation of the New 52 Superman only three months into his very existence.

There’re a couple of fascinating snippets of information in Vaneta’s latest conversation with DC’s John Rood and Bob Wayne for those of us wondering just what the digital comics market is shaping up to be, in these new day-and-date days (And I’m not talking about the snarky implication that Marvel is offering a “Trojan Horse” to retailers with their Avenging Spider-Man combo-pack promotion). (more…)

Thinking about Kieron Gillen leaving Generation Hope with #13 yesterday made me realize something: X-Men: Regenesis is coming just about a year after the end of Second Coming, which itself was just about a year after Utopia, which was just about a year after Manifest Destiny, which was the offshoot of events in Messiah Complex, and I realized: The X-Men franchise resets itself every twelve months or so. Sometimes it’s not a massive reset – Messiah Complex through Second Coming is pretty much a straight line – but over the last few years, there seems to be a status quo-defining event in the books every twelve-to-eighteen months, which seems… exhausting, really. (more…)

Okay, internet. It’s time to start your speculating: If Gail Simone is going to write a new team book for DC, who is it going to feature? We already have both Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes titles, the two classic “teen teams” for DC, so it’s more than likely going to be a new title – or, perhaps, a new usage for an old title – unless Gail’s going to use something from out of left-field (Newsboy Legion? Young Heroes In Love? The Ravers? Hey, there isn’t an actual Young Justice book running in the DCU these days…). We’re still lacking an Outsiders title in the new 52iverse, and we have all manner of characters who could fill it these days (Wally West! Donna Troy! Stephanie Brown! And so on!).

But there’s a really, really obvious possibility for a teen team for Gail to write in the New 52 that might not spring immediately to mind… One, in fact, that she’s written before: Gen 13. We know, after all, Caitlin Fairchild is a supporting character in Superboy and Teen Titans, with those books hinting that there’s more to her than meets the eye, so what’s to stop there being a spin-off title with her discovering her powers and running off to form her own superhero team?

Despite Gail’s con appearance tease, there’s been no official confirmation from DC, nor scheduling information. So, in other words, don’t expect a final answer on this anytime soon.

So, Jim Shooter has been sharing some of John Byrne’s ideas about how to revamp Superman from before the 1986 Man of Steel reboot – These come from the never-happened-but-almost-did Marvel buyout of DC in the early ’80s, apparently – over on his blog:

At the perfect moment, Jor-El waves to Lara in the little ship and launches the rocket. Lara looks back at dying Krypton—which explodes, sending forth a burst of “searing radiation”—the mysterious, additional factor, maybe? John doesn’t say. Lara feels the radiation affecting her just before the rocket enters hyper space.

Over on John Byrne’s forum, he’s not so happy about this – complaining that he was never paid for the work, and that what was shared was more “spitballing” than an actual pitch. He also throws this odd comment into the mix of whether or not Shooter’s recollection of DC almost being bought out by Marvel is even true:

It didn’t [happen]. Shooter was convinced, during his later years as EiC, that Marvel was on the verge of buying DC.

Take from that what you will.

The whole idea that DC was almost licensed out prior to its mid-80s renaissance has been surprising from the start; it’d be interesting to hear someone who was at DC or Warners at the time having some input into whether or not it’s true or not.

From Gerry Conway’s Twitter feed:

Some months ago, Marvel sent me a contract offering to acknowledge my creation of a character called Mindworm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindworm

Really, Marvel? This http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindworm is the character you want to acknowledge I created for you? No other characters come to mind?

For those who may not understand what Gerry’s getting at, Kurt Busiek offers a clue:

@gerryconway I particularly liked the MINDWORM WAR JOURNAL series.

Conway – who added “I’m not bitter, honestly, just bemused” – then went on to ask Marvel why they don’t send him comps of statues based on his creations, the same way that DC does, and then offers examples of both. In the process, he reminds you of all the characters he’s created that are still in use today: Firestorm and the Punisher, obviously, but also Vixen, Killer Croc, Power Girl and Marvel’s Jackal. It’s a pretty impressive resume, really. More impressive, at least, that having the legacy of the man who created Mindworm…

Courtesy of Geoff Johns’ Twitter, here’s a NSFW look at next year’s Robot Chicken DC Comics Summer Special:

Remember: Geoff Johns is involved, so this is canon*.

(* – Okay, maybe not.)