That’s the question Chris Butcher poses. Looking over this week’s releases, he wonders if his wallet can handle the strain:

I’m just looking at all the books I wanted to buy from this week and last, and it’s well over 200 bucks, and that’s kinda crazy? A little? Maybe I’m just over-reacting because I’m trying to find space from all of this stuff on the racks and there ain’t space, maybe not. But you guys tell me; does your budget for comics and graphic novels allow you to buy everything you’d like? Do you suppliment purchasing with visits to the library or being a filthy stinking internet thief? Is there a larger the-economy-is-shit worry you have when deciding that the hideously underpriced $30 Local hardcover needs to go home with you today or not?

I think it’s a good question, especially considering that as the economy keeps slipping, more and more of us may have to make tough choices about our respective comics budgets. I know I’ve had to cut mine back severely, though I’ve gone over the proscribed amount already for this month. Sigh.

This week, we say good-bye to Morrison and Quitely’s All-Star Superman, give a passing nod to another installment of Secret Invasion, and take a second look at a handful of popular manga, conveniently repackaged for our enjoyment.

Wednesday also sees the return of Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting, the second issue of Millar and Harris’ destined-to-be-a-movie War Heroes, a hefty hardcover collection for Wood and Kelly’s Local, and an outsider’s view of Burma in the form of Guy Delisle’s new graphic novel.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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Junot Diaz, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was interviewed recently by the San Jose Mercury News:

Love and Rockets was not only a revolution in comics, it was a revolution in Latino letters. It was the first time that people were writing about the kind of Latinos that I grew up with where being a Latino was a given. What we really drew or what compelled us in our lives was who we were dating, the music we were listening to, the problems we were getting into.

Do you think some day somebody will say “Final Crisis changed my life”?

Yeah. I thought not.

The day I thought would never come has, at last, arrived. Okay, it will arrive … in December. Probably.

DC Comics’ solicitations for December contain a listing for Winter Men Winter Special #1, a 40-page issue that finally wraps up the absolutely fantastic Wildstorm miniseries by Brett Lewis and John Paul Leon.

Doesn’t ring a bell? I can understand. It’s been a while since we saw the previous issue — just about two years ago. That was Issue 5 of what was, I believe, planned as an eight-issue miniseries. But it went MIA just as we became utterly absorbed in the world of Kris Kalenov, Soviet super-soldier turned soldier of fortune as he eeked out a life in a post-Cold War world filled with criminals and bureaucrats (often one and the same) and ex-KGB agents.

Jog reflected wonderfully on the series here. Now I need to remember where I stashed those first five issues. Two years ago.

Retailer and commentator Chris Butcher returns from vacation, and revisits a pair of heavily discussed Comic-Con-related issues from earlier in the summer.

The first is John DiBello’s widely circulated call for Comic-Con organizers to create and enforce a policy addressing harassment — sexual and otherwise. It’s a reasonable and, apparently, necessary suggestion. Still, some argued that efforts to curtail verbal abuse would infringe on their First Amendment rights. (They wouldn’t.)

But Butcher, who attended the recent Penny Arcade Expo, comes back with the gaming convention’s seven simple rules, which are written with humor and, it seems, posted without protest. He notes that they appear at all of the entrances to the exhibit hall, and in the convention booklet.

“Why is this so hard for comics?” Butcher writes. “Why all the hand-wringing and endless debate about nothing?”

He also links to a San Diego Union-Tribune article about the other big Comic-Con issue. No, not the 900th incarnation of “Is SDCC Still About Comics?” I mean the pre-convention debate about whether to boycott the Manchester Grand Hyatt because hotelier Doug Manchester donated $125,000 to support an anti-gay marriage initiative.

The newspaper reports that, despite assurances by the hotel that boycotts by various groups haven’t affected business, the company’s chief financial officer warned Manchester in July that he could lose millions of dollars and alienate the gay community. Manchester asserts that the hotel has actually picked up business since the boycott began.

Just about everyone, from creators to readers to online pundits, has weighed in on the production error that led DC Comics to recall All-Star Batman & Robin #10. Everyone, that is, except writer Frank Miller.

But, thankfully, the LA Times’ Geoff Boucher gets Miller on the phone, only to discover he was unaware of the printing mistake that allowed some R-rated language to show through black bars designed to blot them out.

“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” Miller says. “I have no idea how this awful thing happened. It’s just one of those terrible and glorious things that happen time to time in publishing.”

Yes, just awful. However, Miller continues, “my first reaction is simple: I want at least three copies.”

Miller goes on to explain the practical reason behind including the actual curse words under the black bars, instead of, say, just leaving the space blank:

“I wrote the actual words in the script and had them put on the page so the black bars would be the right size on the page,” Miller explained. In this latest issue, the bars are there but on a few you can read right through them; they’re more gray than black. “It’s a simple printing error,” Miller said. “That’s what it is.”

Despite DC Comics’ request that retailers destroy copies of All-Star Batman & Robin #10, many readers here and elsewhere report they were able to purchase the issue at cover price.

They made out like bandits, apparently, as bidding on eBay for the offending issue has climbed as high as $102.50. A package of the regular cover and the variant is going for as much as $152.50 (another has a “Buy It Now” price of $199.99). They’re among about 160 auctions, many of which hover in the $15 range.

Heidi MacDonald notes that some retailers are selling the book using their personal eBay accounts “to avoid whatever steps DC or Diamond may take to shut down the sales.”

Retailer-oriented website ICv2.com, meanwhile, considers the expense to DC of the destruction of a print run and the presumed reprinting. The previous issue sold more than 93,000 copies in the direct market.

Update: Newsarama has more

Blogger John Jakala counts down the ways that Yamanaka Akira’s Spider-Man J is better than his friendly neighborhood American counterpart:

9. Telepathic spider-sense! If I remember correctly, the OHOTMU characterized Spider-Man’s spider-sense as a mild form of clairvoyance, so why not add limited telepathy to the mix? Finally, Spidey will be able to tell just how much J. Jonah Jameson J hates him without having to endure endless awkward hostess bar outings with his boss.

As Watchmen continues its leisurely drift down the USA Today bestseller list, the 31st volume of Naruto arrives at No. 24, which Anime News Network says is the highest-ever debut for a manga.

It’s also the third-highest spot held by Masashi Kishimoto’s popular fantasy-adventure series.

In its eighth week on the chart, the collection of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ 1986 miniseries slipped six places to No. 26. The trade paperback peaked at No. 13 last month.

But Naruto and Watchmen aren’t alone on this week’s chart. Matsuri Hino’s Vampire Knight, Vol. 5, debuts at No. 100, Tite Kubo’s Bleach, Vol. 22, at No. 105, and Warriors: Into the Woods at No. 135. Jeff Kinney’s hybrid Diary of a Wimpy Kid holds to No. 74 in its 59th week on the list.

USA Today’s chart tracks all genres and formats of books sold in some 4,700 brick-and-mortar and online stores.

The Wife and I moved this summer. For the first time in my entire married life, my clothes get to live in a closet in our bedroom, and all my comics get to reside in one location, my ManCave.

Collecting since 1975 and with the exception of a few small sell-offs along the way, I still have every comic.

It is a shameful amount of comic books. Putting them all together after the move I just felt decadent. There are illiterate kids in China with nothing to read, right? It would be one thing if I ever planned on reading most of them again, but I don’t. Thus, I have resolved to liquidate a large portion of my collection.

But how do you determine what stays and what goes? Whattya’ keep?

I really enjoy the trades. I like that they are readily accessible on my bookshelf. I dig their sturdiness. So, an early decision for me was that if I could get it in the trades - it’d go. For instance, I have all of the Tomb of Dracula Essentials books. My ToD floppies - a complete collection, BTW - can go.

I’ll keep those things that I know I want to read again but will most likely never be released in trade.

I’ll keep the very first supers comic I ever read.

All my Elseworlds books are staying. The What Ifs are on their way out.

Some have sentimental value like the annual sized $1 comic Superman Family and Batman Family books my Dad would buy me at the newsstand on Sunday mornings. Those stay.

But all those danged 2099 books go.

Justice League Task Force stays.

I’m just scratching the surface. It’s a lot of books. I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts - particularly if you’ve done something similar.

Ain’t it great how I can turn the blog into my own self-help forum?

If you prefer your comics in hardcover form, this is the week for you.

DC Comics collects Batman #667-669 and 672-675 in The Black Glove, as well as the first three arcs of Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka and Michael Lark’s celebrated Gotham Central.

Marvel, meanwhile, celebrates the 10th anniversary of Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada’s Daredevil: Guardian Devil storyline with a premiere hardcover, releases a collected edition of the recent Omega: The Unknown miniseries by Jonathan Lethem, Farel Dalrymple & Co.

Plus there’s another volume of Krazy & Ignatz from Fantagraphics, American Widow from First Second, Good Neighbors, Vol. 1, from Graphix, and Naruto: Collector’s Edition from Viz Media.

And those are just some of the hardcovers.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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The Podge Cast is a podcast that focuses heavily on the subject of tabletop role-playing games, such as Burning Wheel, Savage Worlds, and — yes — even Dungeons & Dragons. The Podge also covers movies, TV, books and comics. Essentially, whatever the hosts are geeking over today is what they’re going to be talking about.

This week’s episode, titled “Childish Things,” covers the topic of gamer shame, that bit of embarrassment some feel for playing “pretend” in our adult years. That’s a subject folks like you and me know a little bit about. I mean, how many times have you talked around the issue of your hobby?

You and your wife are at a dinner party with your spouse’s co-workers and somebody asks what you’re reading right now. How likely are you to answer truthfully? Something like, “Guardians of the Galaxy. I loves me some Rocket Raccoon, yo!”

Or do you punch it up with some flowery words to make it sound a little less geekish than it actually is? “I am studying an illustrated narrative exploring modern heroism in a nihilist society.”

That works real well until asked for the title and you have to reveal you’re reading Howard The Duck (the Gerber stuff, not that other crap).

This week’s Podge Cast also addresses growing out of comics. Or in their case, growing out of supers comics. Interesting discussion. They are fairly well unified on their dislike of the traditional Marvel and DC universes, but love books like Walking Dead and Preacher.

I am totally going to have to hook them up with the Guardians of the Galaxy trade.

Rocket Raccoon is the frakkin’ shizzle.

Kevin noted earlier that Star Trek celebrated its 42nd anniversary yesterday. That got me to thinking: What about all those Star Trek comic books?

I didn’t start reading comics until 1975. Starting in 1967, Gold Key had been publishing Star Trek comics for eight years. Classics. I missed out on Gold Key’s original run.

I came in on the Marvel line of Trek books, which hit the stands at the same time as Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. Those books were decidedly lame. Rather like the movie (tho the director’s edition DVD is pretty sweet).

DC got it right when they started printing the books after Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. These books were set in my favorite era of Trek, the original cast movie era. For the first time in the movies and in the comics, one truly felt that Starfleet was a military power. Capital ship combat! U.S.S. Reliant (the Star Trek starship Hallmark ornament this year) firing on Enterprise along the broadsides? Love that! Throw in the fact that many of these books were written by my favorite comic writer, Peter David? Boo-yah! Sop that stuff up with a biscuit, my friend.

There have been other publishers working the Trek universe since then, but DC’s run remains my favorite.

Although … I really got a kick out of Marvel’s short run in 1996. Star Trek: Early Voyages told the tales of Captain Christopher Pike and a U.S.S. Enterprise predating Kirk and his crew. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy told the story of a group of young cadets. These stories were fresh, bold, and a whole load of metaphasic fun.

Both the DC books and the latter Marvel run retain a cherished space in my long boxes.

In its seventh week on the USA Today bestseller list, the Watchmen slipped six places to No. 20. But the collection ruled the BookScan graphic novel chart for the second month in a row.

Buoyed by excitement over the trailer for Zack Snyder’s movie adaptation, the collection of the 21-year-old miniseries leaped onto the USA Today chart just days after the teaser’s July 17 debut with The Dark Knight. The trade paperback peaked at No. 13 on Aug. 21. USA Today’s chart tracks all genres and formats of books sold in some 4,700 brick-and-mortar and online stores.

To meet increased demand, DC Comics has printed an additional 900,000 copies of the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons collection. That means the book will have a print run of more than 1 million copies this year.

However, Watchmen isn’t the only comic to benefit from movie buzz. Last week Batman: The Dark Knight Returns debuted on the USA Today list at No. 107, some six weeks removed from the premiere of the Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight, and two decades removed from the miniseries’ initial release. The collection of 1988’s The Killing Joke also enjoyed a one-week stay on the chart.

Those Batman books continued to perform well on BookScan’s August graphic novel list. The Killing Joke Special Edition hardcover was just behind Watchmen, at No. 2, followed by The Dark Knight Returns. A little further down was The Long Halloween (No. 8), Year One (No. 9), and Arkham Asylum (No. 13).

Guess who won’t be playing Catwoman and Jonah Hex

It should come as no surprise that a Warner Bros. representative has shot down the rumor that Cher will play an aging Catwoman in the sequel to The Dark Knight.

I’m a little disappointed, though. Oh, not that it’s untrue — really, did anyone think it was for real? — but that it was shot down so quickly. Four days is an awfully short life span for a casting rumor.

But another, longer-lived rumor also has bitten the bullet: Thomas Jane won’t be playing Jonah Hex in Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s upcoming adaptation.

That’s despite Jane’s Sean Young-like effort to convince the filmmakers he’s right for the role.

“He’s a great guy,” the directors said in a video interview with The Movie Blog. “But we don’t see the guy as Jonah Hex, to be quite honest with you. But we like him.”

The Ticker

• Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea has grossed $109.6 million in Japan since its July 19 opening, setting it up to become one of the biggest box-office hits of all time in that country. The Dark Knight isn’t faring quite as well there. [Variety, Slashfilm]

• Sony Pictures is auctioning a Spider-Man 4 “VIP experience,” which includes a set visit, walk-on role, meet-and-greet with cast, and a trip to the premiere. Proceeds to benefit Stand Up to Cancer. Bidding started at $5,000. [Sci Fi Wire]

• Relative unknown Max Makowski reportedly will direct Relativity’s adaptation of Voltron. [Latino Review]

• Robert Downey Jr. is in negotiations to voice a character in DreamWorks Animation’s superhero send-up Master Mind, produced by Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films. Tina Fey also is expected to join the cast. [Hollywood Insider]

• Shots of a fully rendered CGI Astro Boy and concept art have leaked out from Imagi’s upcoming movie. [Astroboy Online, via First Showing]

Few topics stir up fans of superhero comics more than character deaths and reboots. So, in a curious coincidence, what subjects do you think the top editors at Marvel and DC tackled over the weekend?

In his weekly “MyCup O’ Joe” column, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada addressed his often-quoted — but, perhaps, out-of-context – “Dead is dead” statement from early in his tenure:

Eight years ago, my feeling on comic deaths was pretty specific — they were just being handled too willy-nilly, and thus were losing their impact. What I set out to do was challenge my editors and our creative teams to up the ante when it came to character deaths, because I felt that there was no longer any impact.

The rule of thumb I wanted to use was simple, discounting cliché deaths like the supervillain getting “washed away in the river” to his supposed death. This rule only pertained to significant deaths and significant characters. The rule was you had to have a plan. Way too often, I would see creators kill off a major character without a plan as to how to replace them or how to resurrect them in a way that would be as meaningful as the death. Too many characters were being killed for the sheer shock value of it, and without any story-driven motivations.

Phrases like “significant characters” and “significant deaths” leave me wondering about those B- or C-list characters who tend to serve as cannon fodder in “event” comics — to demonstrate how ruthless a villain is, or how high the stakes are. Or who get killed again and again. And again.

Meanwhile, at Fan Expo, DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio lamented his company’s eagerness to revamp characters:

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On Wednesday, Newsarama reported on fans organizing online to demand a three-hour-plus run time for Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Watchmen.

However, there’s another Watchmen-related petition — this one following up on threats of a boycott of 20th Century Fox because of the studio’s lawsuit against Warner Bros. over who owns the film rights to the property.

Buoyed by a judge’s refusal last week to dismiss the complaint, Fox is playing hardball — for the moment, at least — with sources claiming the studio isn’t looking for compensation. Instead, it apparently wants to prevent the release of Watchmen because Warner Bros. never bought the rights from Fox, which claims to have acquired them sometime between 1986 and 1990.

Hollywood Insider’s Jeff Jensen dubs the rights kerfuffle as “perhaps the priciest whoopsie! in Hollywood history.”

But that’s all “nit-picky legalistic crap,” according to the “Boycott FOX for Watchmen Litigation” petition, which has racked up 979 names since it was started on Wednesday morning:

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