It’s almost time to go buy comics, but in the meantime I bring you linkage from across the Internets on a variety of different things.

From Splash Page, Grant Morrison talks comics with Percy Carey, otherwise known as MF Grimm, the writer of Sentences.

Comics Worth Reading has a nice review of Patsy Walker: Hellcat that makes me want to read it.

Also from Splash Page, Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming are confirmed as part of the cast of “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark,” the upcoming Broadway musical directed by Julie Taymor. I don’t know about you, but between the casting, the subject matter, and the direction, this is shaping up to be a must-see for me.

Laura Hudson at Comics Alliance puts together the top 5 Michael Jackson moments in comics.

Laura Lee Gulledge answers some questions for The Big Feminist BUT.

While we at Newsarama are proud of our Best Shots feature, the Hero Initiative has created some best shots of a different kind…

That’s right. Shot glasses based on the Brian Azzarello series 100 Bullets.

These shot glasses can be yours if you purchase your tickets to the Hero Initiative’s 100 Bullets: Last Shot party on July 11th, at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles.

This party will be to celebrate the 100th and final issue of the acclaimed crime series, which explores a shadowy organization and its offer of giving anyone 100 untraceable bullets to fix their lives.

While Iran is still wrapped in turmoil and the world watches more and more via the Internet, sometimes green Twitter avatars don’t seem like enough. It’s hard to figure out what you can do that might actually help.

Via Becky Cloonan, Marjane Satrapi has reached out to the comics community and asked that people sign a petition to the secretary general of the United Nations, asking for support for the Iranian people and an end to the violence.

Dear Friends

To all who beleive in freedom and dememocracy
Please sign this petition to United Nation to stop the violence, arrestations and torture in Iran.
The situation is really really bad.

Please forward it to whoever you know
Best and lots of love
Marjane Satrapi

The petition is here if you’re interested.

Following the success of the “Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels” academic conference, Boston University doctoral student, comics scholar and comic creator A. David Lewis has been granted a Library Acquisitions Award to create a new “Religion and Graphica” collection at the university.

The collection, which will contain works like MAUS, Persepolis, and Sandman (and one assumes, Preacher and Testament, two of my personal favorites), will be part of the School of Theology Library (OK, maybe Preacher won’t be appropriate).

According to the press release, this will be the first library collection devoted exclusively to the study of comics, and it comes in a religion department. This might seem odd, though I’ve had conversations before about the similarity of comics to religion, particularly superhero comics. They’re fables, archetypal stories that give us advice on how to live our lives, as well as part of a weekly routine–the Wednesday trip to the comic shop. Comics are reassuring, and fans often are very resistant to change in their books or their routine.

Of course, there are many brilliant graphic works that deal very directly with religion. Which ones would you suggest the library, which has already started purchasing, not miss?

Don’t worry, it’s not another variant cover, I swear!

John Hodgman, writer, voice actor and professional nerd, gave a great speech over the weekend at the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner, in which he grills President Obama over Superman, Conan and Dune.

Whether or not you agree with the man’s politics, it’s a very funny look over the 100 Year War between Jocks and Nerds, and how we nerds have struck back from the icy planet of Hoth. (I won’t lie, though, Hodgman totally schooled me in Dune trivia — and I read that series cover to cover!)

[Via Entertainment Weekly]

Dear Internet,

I bought not one, but TWO superhero books this week. That’s right, two. One from DC and one from Marvel, all balanced-like. Streets of Gotham (which I really bought for the Manhunter backup) and the Gambit Origins book. I read ‘em, and I’m going to write about ‘em, but not right now. I’m too tired. Instead, I will give you linkage to pretty and interesting things. I promise to write about them soon, though.

In the meantime!

At Comics Worth Reading, the welcome news that Thom Zahler is giving away free comics to the first 75 women who visit his booth at Heroes Con this weekend.

Also there, Ed Sizemore reviews things he picked up at MoCCA, and they’re mostly books I didn’t already talk about. (I do think he’s crazy to not have liked The Unwritten, but I realize not everyone gets as geeked for metafiction as I do.)

Via The Hathor Legacy, a rant about “Strong Female Characters” that I can totally get behind. I also find this wording problematic because it implies that female characters are normally not strong, so strong must be pointed out when it does occur. But read her post. It’s better than what I said.

Shakesville has a good rundown of the sexism in the geek world lately. Seriously, people? It’s really not that hard to figure out that girls like all the same kinds of things that guys do.

This is just kind of a short, sublime post by, well, Neil Gaiman, who does short and sublime rather well.

Since I didn’t have a lot of money at MoCCA, I picked up a lot of cards and free things that people were giving out. To make up for not being able to buy things from all these people, I’m sharing them with you. They certainly deserve your attention.

Carissa Halston was kind of fabulous, and kind of fascinating, and she writes plays, books, and graphic novels.

Sara Antoinette Martin draws the kind of stuff I want tattooed on me: skulls and graphic girls and puppies. Her prints are only $35! Buy me one. (Or if you must, buy yourself one.)

Evan Palmer is from Lafayette, Louisiana. I love Louisiana. He is also doing some work with Peter Gross, which is how my favoritest comic artist ever, Ryan Kelly, got his start, so you know you’re going to hear great things from this guy.

Sho Murase’s art is completely, insanely gorgeous. I really wanted one of her mini art books, but I’m just too broke.

I got a couple of preview minicomics of a book called Squirrel Machine, due out from Fantagraphics in the fall. Seriously, how do you refuse something called Squirrel Machine? It looks macabre and fascinating, sort of like a Nick Cave song set to pictures.

Bagger43 was the name on the back of this postcard with a couple of girls and a dog on the front, looking like postapocalyptic street angels ready for a brawl. Not much of a bio on the site, but the art is stellar.

Uncle Envelope is a cool art project that will send you an piece of paper art once a month for twelve months. A bunch of different artists are involved, and they gave out a little activity book at MoCCA to tease people. I like art, I love media supported by subscription…it’s a win-win.

Finally, Becky Cloonan and Hwan Cho should need no introduction to readers of this blog, but even if you don’t know who they are, you should go forth and read about their upcoming webcomic, KGB.

I noted that now would be an excellent time to re-read Persepolis, with the crisis in Iran, and today artist-writer-filmmaker Marjane Satrapi is in the news:

Two Iranian filmmakers on Tuesday presented a document to Green Party MPs in the European parliament claiming to show that defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi had received over 19 million votes in the weekend election.

Marjane Satrapi, Iranian author and director and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, an Iranian filmmaker and Mousavi spokesman, presented a document that they claimed had come from the Iranian electoral commission.

The document said liberal cleric and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi came second in the election with a total of 13.3 million votes, while president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came third with only 5.49 million votes.

Whether or not the document Satrapi presented was legitimate, this speaks to her commitment to her country and her willingness to speak out on her beliefs–characteristics that Persepolis readers will immediately recognize from the not-always-flattering self-portrait she drew in that book.

There’s something less self-indulgent about autobiography in comics–it’s often done in a defiantly unglamorous style, the writer-artist refusing to make her or himself prettier than they are, instead exaggerating their flaws, physical and emotional, with a cartoonist’s unflinching eye. Satrapi is willing to turn an equally unflinching eye on the countries she calls home, scrutinizing their flaws but retaining the love and loyalty.

People often complain about artists and other creative types getting too political, but it’s nearly impossible to be an artist and not deal in some way with the issues of the world, which often require a political stand. I don’t think it necessarily takes away from the work to know that the artist has views quite different from your own–I enjoy comics by several creators whom I know support ideals rather odious to me. More importantly, I think that the point of art is to comment on society, and if that means that artists occasionally feel compelled to speak out publicly about politics, that is not only their right, but perhaps even their responsibility.

TONIGHT: Kevin O’Neill at Forbidden Planet New York at 6:00. The artist behind The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, among many other books, will be appearing and signing books. Get in line!

Joelle Jones has some more of her gorgeous Endless drawings on her blog. Someone hire this girl to do a Delirium comic, stat. She also has a Blankets tribute and a gorgeous bit of Craig Thompson’s art as well.

Splash Page has more on Ryan Reynolds’ work on the upcoming Deadpool movie. Alas, no pictures…

You’ll probably want to skip straight to this one, because Warren Ellis has a color page from Planetary #27. Yes, it’s really going to happen.

Finally, I bring you a thought-provoking essay on the lack of black supervillains, at Comics Waiting Room. (via When Fangirls Attack)

Amber Benson, best known for her portrayal of Tara in Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, will be signing copies of her new book “Death’s Daughter,” over at Challenger Comics + Conversation.

In addition to her signing this book, a limited edition “Death’s Daughter” art print will be available for purchase. Furthermore, 20 lucky readers who buy the book from Challengers before the event will be selected to meet with Benson after the signing!

The book, according to Amazon, follows Calliope Reaper-Jones, a mostly ordinary girl except for the fact her father is Death himself. When good old Pops gets kidnapped, its up to Calliope to take over the family business and thwart the hostile takeover of the Devil’s Protege.

The event will take place June 22 at 4:30 pm, and you can find out more about Challengers by clicking here.

Via Comics Worth Reading, apparently IGN is running a contest to win a trip to San Diego Comic Con to participate in an “Assignment.” Cool, right?

Unless you, like me, are a female over the age of 24. Though we too might like to meet District 9 director (and, um, Lord of the Rings director) Peter Jackson, we are apparently excluded. As Johanna notes, the rules of the contest state:

This sweepstakes is open only to males who are both legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and Washington D.C. and who are at least between 18-24 years of age as of July 23, 2009

I can almost understand trying to restrict the contest to younger people–almost. But why on earth would this contest be restricted only to “males”?

Like there aren’t enough men in the comics/film/sci-fi fields already, we need to make sure that only boys get to participate in these type of contests? Like comic conventions don’t have enough guys at them, you need to import extras?

You still have one more day to hit the coolest comics party out there.

I spent most of yesterday walking in circles til my feet hurt, trying to decide which fabulous people to give my few spare dollars to. Luckily, plenty of people had minicomics, postcards, and other fun bits and bobs so that I could fill my bag with swag from a good chunk of the people present instead of dropping a big pile of cash on one thing–not that I wasn’t tempted by a Becky Cloonan screenprint or any number of thick hardcover books.

This year I noted what seemed like a bigger webcomics presence, and spent some time chatting with the boys at the Zuda booth about formatting and process for comics on the Web. Still, nothing beats ink on paper handouts for getting immediate attention–I might mean to go check out webcomics, grab a business card, write down a link, but if you hand me something tangible, I’m going to read it.

My favorite thing about MoCCA is and continues to be the amount of women exhibitors and fans. I love regular comic cons, don’t get me wrong, but the vibe here is more girl-friendly, with plenty of women who are self-publishing or published by small presses and don’t get nearly the attention they deserve.

I grabbed some very interesting stuff, so over the next few days I’m going to devote some time to individual creators and the work that struck me.

If you went or are going today, share your thoughts. What did you love? What would you like to see more of? Did you discover something new that blew your mind?

My timing on moving to New York couldn’t be better: this week is the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival. I hit MoCCA last year and was overwhelmed with the amount of fabulous indie talent that I’d never heard of. Of course, there were also some recognizable names there, and according to this year’s roster, there will be plenty of cool people this time around as well.

Check out the program and the exhibitor list and order your tickets if you’re in the area–or keep an eye out here for some blogging from the fest.

Congratulations to all the winners of the 2009 Glyph Comics awards.

From the press release: The Glyph Comics Awards recognize the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year. While it is not exclusive to black creators, it does strive to honor those who have made the greatest contributions to the comics medium in terms of both critical and commercial impact. By doing so, the goal is to encourage more diverse and high quality work across the board and to inspire new creators to add their voices to the field.

As Johanna noted, it is both a good and a bad thing for one comic, in this case Zuda’s Bayou, to sweep these awards. It’s great for a webcomic about to be released in print to be so acclaimed, but does it just point to a dearth of comics about nonwhite people?

G. Willow Wilson’s Vixen took Fan Favorite, Black Lightning from Final Crisis was chosen best male character, and Unknown Soldier #1 (which I just read this week and which will get its own post soon, I promise) won best cover. The Rising Star and Best Reprint were The Hole: Consumer Culture and Me and the Devil Blues V1, respectively, but Bayou took as many awards as the other books put together, winning Story of the Year, Best Writer, Best Artist, Best Female Character, and Best Comic Strip.

Clearly, I’ve been missing an excellent comic, so I’ll be sure to make up for it by picking up the print book when it comes out.

Caleb mentioned this before, but I thought I’d give it its own post. Floating World Comics held its Full of Pryde art exhibit on May 7, and now a bunch of the art is up on eBay. All proceeds go to the Oregon Hemophilia Treatment Center.

I love seeing a bunch of different artists reimagining the same character, and I can’t think of a better way to raise money for a good cause. Plus, I’ve loved Kitty Pryde since the X-Men animated series back in my childhood, and comic shop art shows are great fun. All the images are up on the blog and more photos from the exhibit available here.

(Art above, and h/t for the story Joelle Jones.)

(No relation. See the second e?)

From my inbox:

Award-winning cartoonist Al Jaffee is known for his innovative work in MAD Magazine. But before he created Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions and the Fold-In, he gave us “Tall Tales,” originally syndicated daily throughout the world by the New York Herald Tribune from 1957-63.  Come hear him discuss his book!

Sunday, May 3rd, 7:30
Congregation Beth Elohim
274 Garfield Place
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718)768-3814

What are you waiting for?

This Friday, April 17, Miss Lasko-Gross will be signing her new graphic novel, A Mess of Everything at the Rocketship store in Brooklyn. Kevin Colden will also be there, signing his Eisner-award nominated graphic novel, Fishtown.

Rocketship is located at 208 Smith Street, Brooklyn, NY, and their parties are always excellent. Go forth and check it out.

So over on the main site we’ve got the Eisner award nominations, and my first thought was: wow, everyone else been reading totally different comics than I have.

On closer inspection, there’s plenty of stuff I’m reading–Fables, of course, in Best Continuing Series, and Hellboy. I was really thrilled to see Air get a nomination for Best New Series, as I think it’s excellent and underrated, and hope this will bring some new eyes to what G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker are doing with that book.

I loved Comic Book Tattoo, and was happy for that truly gorgeous book (whatever you think of Tori Amos–I love her, but you don’t have to to enjoy the comics), and Kevin Colden’s Fishtown (Best Reality-Based work) takes place in my Philly neighborhood, so I have to pull for it. Swallow Me Whole is a lovely, heartfelt little book that you all should read if you haven’t already, and Nate Powell richly deserves his nominations. I was also pleased to see Amy Reeder Hadley get an art nod (as well as Madame Xanadu’s Best New Series nom) because while the story in that book has yet to grab me, her art is breathtaking.

There’s plenty in here that was already on my list to check out, and now I have another reminder that I wanted to read Mariko and Jillian Tamaki’s Skim, Tamara Drew (by Posy Simmonds) and Alan’s War (by Emmanuel Guibert), and I’m totally checking out the “best digital comics” list.

BUT. (You knew that was coming, didn’t you?) There are two of the biggest glaring omissions I’ve ever seen. And if you’ve been reading my contributions to this site over the past year and a half, you know what they are. Yes, I’m talking about Local and Scalped.

I first learned the Eisners were out because Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly both mentioned on Twitter that they’d never win an Eisner if Local wasn’t good enough. While I heartily disagree with that point (both of them will go on to blow our minds even more in the coming years), I was shocked and went looking for the nomination list. I find it very hard to believe that there are five books better than Local. I’ve spilled so much metaphorical ink trying to tell all of you how wonderful this book is that I don’t know how many new ways to say “This is the best thing I’ve read since Sandman,” but, well, it is. Maybe it got shafted since it’s been around for a while? I seriously can’t figure it out. Maybe I can see passing up writer and artist nominations for Wood and Kelly (though really, I can’t), but this book means so much to me and to most everyone I’ve spoken to who’s read it, I can’t believe it isn’t at least on the list.

And Scalped? Um. Seriously. Once again, it’s hard to find new and better words for “Every month, I wait for Scalped week and then my friend and I excitedly text each other about how Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera have once again taken the series on a twist that we couldn’t possibly have predicted and yet now seems like the only thing that could’ve happened.”  Just yesterday I wrote:

Since I mentioned Scalped, how good was last week’s issue? Jason Aaron simply will not allow me to hate his characters. Each time I think I’ve found one I can despise, he cracks open their skull and lets me see inside and I find pieces of me staring me in the eye.

I’m sure there are other great books that didn’t make the list, or wholehearted defenses of the ones that did. I’m not saying the other books on the list aren’t great–the ones I’ve read certainly are, and I’m definitely looking forward to reading the ones that I haven’t already. But Local and Scalped are the kinds of books that are not only standouts in whatever year they came along, they’re standouts in my entire 14 years of comics-reading.

For our jet-setting readers, as well as those across the pond:

The Bristol International Comic Expo has announced their guest list, as well as a special one-day event: Small Press Expo 2009. The main expo will take place in the Ramada Plaza Hotel on May 9-10, while the Small Press Expo will take place at the Mercure Holland House Hotel. You learn more (and order tickets) by clicking here.

And now — THE GUEST LIST!

Kevin O’Neill (in association with Top Shelf and Knockabout)
Alan Davis (with exclusive new DR & Quinch print only available at the Expo)
Dave Gibbons
Mark Buckingham
John Charles
Mike Collins
Rob Williams & John Higgins (in association with Com.X)
Gary Frank
Ian Gibson
David Hine
Lee Garbett
John M Burns
Lee Bradley
John Watson
Ian Culbard
Phil Winslade
Hunt Emerson & Gilbert Shelton (in association with Knockabout)
Simon Bisley & Mike Ploog (in association with Reed Comics)
Charlie Adlard
Sean Phillips
James A. Hodgkins
Duncan Fegredo
Neil Edwards
Gary Spencer Millidge
Dylan Teague
Tim Pilcher
Joel Meadows
Shaky Kane
Boo Cook
Al Davison
Laurence Campbell
John McCrea
Dave Shelton
Martin Hayes
Jock
Asia Alfasi
Ian Sharman
Tony Lee
Ferg Handley
Peter Hogan
Steve Cook
Robert Deas
Kris Justice
Kat Nicholson
Liam Sharp
Dan Boultwood
Andie Tong
Emma Vieceli
Ian Edginton
Paul Grist
Graham Bleathman
Henry Flint
Lew Stringer
Lee Townsend
Andy Diggle
Siku
Roger Langridge
Jim Boswell
Gary Erskine
Bambos!
Jon Davis-Hunt
Cy Dethan
David Baillie
Kirsty Swan
Paul Gravett
Ilya
Stephen Baskerville
Jason Cardy
Emily Hare
Mike Carey

Plus SP Expo comics from:
Steve Tanner (Time Bomb)
Howard Hardiman (Cute But Sad)
David Goodman (Zip Gun)
John Anderson (Soaring Penguin)
Paul Rainey (There’s No Time Like The Present)
Tom McNally (Semiotic Cohesion)
Willie Lengers (Itch Publishing)
Tom Meddings (Unedible)
Will Morris-julien (Butternut)
Michael Burness (Unico Comics)
Stephen Paul Coffey (Best of What’s Left)
Luke Paton (The Adventures Of Kez And Luke)
Andrew Cheverton (Angry Candy)
Dan Barritt (Ragadabah)
Nic Wilkinson (Insomnia Publications)
Isaac E C Lenkiewicz (Duh Brain Comics)
Amsel Von Speckelsen (Underfire Comics)
Chris Denton (Massacre For Boys)
Chin-Hsuen Lee (Tpcat Comic)
Steve Tillotson (Banal Pig)
Geoffrey Banyard (Fetishman)
Richard Scott Butler (Cherubs Comics)
Sally Jane Thompson (IndieManga)
Mathew J Pallett (Stir Fried)
Samantha Borras (Inspired)
Chris Lynch (Monkeys With Machineguns)

For our readers in the Los Angeles area: the Hero Initiative, which works with struggling creators including Josh Medors, who we reported a few days back, has announced their schedule for Free Comic Book Day!

Free Comic Book Day this year is on May 2nd, just one day after the upcoming film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The Hero Initiative will be teaming up with other charities for L.A.’s Big Sunday event. Here’s the schedule:

- BOOM! Studios Editor in Chief and Kingdom Come/52/Superman: Birthright* scribe Mark Waid will be hitting Collector’s Paradise in Winnetka, starting at noon and running until 3pm. Other luminaries in attendance will be Marc Guggenheim (Amazing Spider-Man), Mike Kunkel (Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam), Joe Benitez (Titans), Jim Mahfood (Clerks), and J.T. Krul (Fathom).

- Meanwhile, mighty Meltdown Comics will be having an event with Tim Sale, artist for Heroes and Batman: The Long Halloween! Timing is still pending based on the Hero Initiative and Meltdown’s web site.

- And finally, the Hero Initiative has hinted to a “smorgasboard of fun” that will be taking place at 4 Color Fantasies out at Rancho Cucamonga. More details hopefully to come.

*Can you tell which series of his I like?