• Ben Templesmith is working on a book about the Presidents of the United States … the actual presidents, not the 1990s novelty band of the same name. (My apologies to anyone who has “Lump” stuck in their head as a result of the previous sentence).

“A portrait each, plus some facts,” Templesmith says about the format of the book. “Especially about some of the lesser known ones. Damn some were sick/quirky/weird bastards.” Yep, those are our presidents, God bless’em.

• Tickets for the 2009 New York Comic Con are now available.

• Peter David has been banned from prisons. Which I guess sounds a lot better than it is.

• Dean Haspiel provided the cover art for novelist Tim Hall’s Full of It.

• You can read Paul Cornell’s entire short story “Catherine Drewe” here.

• Robert Kirkman vs. Brian Bendis, the video.

• And finally, Jeffrey Brown predicts the future.

A couple of weeks ago, we were chatting about Star Trek comic books. As noted earlier, I am awfully fond of certain DC and Marvel journeys through the Trek universe. It occurred to me that I had not read any of the more recent IDW stuff. To correct that glaring oversight, I picked up IDW’s trade paperback Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between.

This TPB collects all six issues of the The Space Between miniseries.

When evaluating Trek comics, I look for three primary elements to guide me:

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• USA Today’s Whitney Matheson has the first look inside IDW’s comic-book biographies of John McCain and Barack Obama.

• A new comic from a U.K. sexual-health group teaches kids about the birds and the bees, but not everyone is happy about it.

• Den of Geek talks with artist Frank Quitely about All-Star Superman, We3, and his involvement with Alan Grant and Jamie Grant in the adult-humor comic Wasted.

• Comics are literature, which means that what I have always suspected is true: The Hulk is Shakespeare. I knew it!

• Invincible Iron Man writer Matt Fraction chats with MTV’s Splash Page about meeting with director Jon Favreau and screenwriter Justin Theroux about Iron Man 2.

• Who’s more powerful, Spider-Man or Spider-Woman? How about Hulk or She-Hulk? Nisha Gopalan of io9.com looks at the super-powered battle of the sexes.

Compiled by Aron Head and Kevin Melrose

– Van Jensen examines IDW’s plans for the G.I. Joe franchise.

– The Comics Journal has a quick rundown of what some publishers will be debuting at SPX.

– Kai-Ming Cha looks at the new Afro Samurai manga.

– Our own Tim O’Shea talks with Dean Haspiel about his new graphic novel, The Alcoholic, among other things.

– Johanna Draper Carlson tells you how to make a career writing comics.

– Same Hat! has some nice photos and videos from a recent Lynda Barry talk.

– Wil Moss talks to the Apocalipstix team.

– Good news: IDW is going to alter the format of the Dick Tracy books in order to allow the Sunday pages to be printed at a larger size.

– Brigid Alverson talks to Templar, Arizona creator Charlie Trotman.

– The Daily Cross Hatch chats up Cory Doctorow.

– Frank Santoro on Kyle Baker’s How to Draw Stupid.

– Franklin Harris recounts the history of EC Comics for Reason.

– James Kochalka takes a stab at recreating a classic Fantastic Four page.

– Yen Press is hopping on the four-panel manga bandwagon.

Over on his blog, comics creator Bob Fingerman announces a new project he’s doing that IDW will publish next May:

It’s official: IDW Publishing will be releasing my satirical post-apocalyptic saga From the Ashes next spring. It will be a six-issue series and stars Michele (my wife) and I in the radioactive wastelands of New York City. I’m dubbing it a “speculative memoir” (can I trademark that?). Consider it the antidote to the seriousness of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (which I haven’t read, but it’s on my list; suffice it to say, though, I’m sure there’s nary a chuckle to be found between its covers).

Meant to mention this last week … I want to throw a big congrats out to Take That! author Neil Kleid, who had a good week last week. Not only did his Rorschach’s SDCC Journal column receive praise from one of the folks working on the film, but the IDW panel in San Diego included the announcement of a new series from IDW called POP! Darlings of America that he’s co-writing with Dan Taylor. Congrats to Neil!

– Deadpool smooching Bea Arthur is just kind of wrong. (Thanks, Rich!)

– Oh, for heaven’s sake.

– Ooo, I hope Miles Edgeworth puts in an appearance.

– Here’s a virtual symposium on Doug Wolk’s Reading Comics.

– Du9 talks with Dave Cooper.

– Sean Collins did a great interview with the Hernandez brothers for CBR.

– Remember, not every librarian is pro-comics.

– John Byrne shares some starship designs from his IDW Star Trek work.

– The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are celebrating 25 years with a contest.

– Barbie goes to Comic-Con.

– Jamie Coville conducted an in-depth interview with Mark Waid on BOOM! and his Spider-Man work. It’s also available as an MP3.

– The Forbidden Planet blog talks to La Muse creator Adi Tantimedh.

Compiled by JK and Chris.

Last week Tom Spurgeon interviewed IDW president Ted Adams, who said IDW is thinking about not exhibiting at the San Diego Comic-Con next year. To quote Adams:

I think we’re likely not to be at San Diego next year. There are people that work for me that think that’s not the right decision. I’m trying to weigh what they’re telling me, think hard about what they’re telling me. Certainly for the freelance community that works for us, it’s important to them that they have a place at this show. I’m trying to think about how can I accomplish those goals with drastically reduced cost to us. Not so much the financial cost, but the opportunity cost. How can I have a place where Ash Wood can meet his fans at San Diego Comic-Con without it requiring all this time?

Tom also posts comments from fans, media and other publishers on the IDW interview, which you can find here.

Tom also asked IDW about their press conference with Darwyn Cooke, which I attended Wednesday night. Hopefully even if they do elect not to have a booth, they’ll still look for opportunities like this to get the word out on their announcements, because I thought the press conference went over really well. Which is kind of funny, if you think about it … the idea of a good old-fashioned press conference is old hat, but use the concept to publicize comics, and it’s something unique and different.

Artwork for this post, BTW, is the press envelope and what was inside … three pieces of Darwyn Cooke art and a CD that contained more artwork and background info on the project. You can get a better look at the three pieces after the jump …

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I’m exhausted, and I’m not even in San Diego.

Saturday’s “DCU: A Guide to Your Universe” panel at last put an end to relentless questions about the status of the Milestone Media characters: They’re being incorporated into the DC Comics universe, initially in the pages of Justice League of America and Teen Titans.

The same panel also revealed that the Archie Comics line of superheroes — The Fly, The Shield, The Black Hood and others — have been acquired by DC. The characters, licensed by DC in the early ’90s and published under the Impact imprint, will be reintroduced during J. Michael Straczynski’s run on The Brave and the Bold.

Marvel, meanwhile, announced that Mark Millar, original writer of Ultimate X-Men and The Ultimates, is returning to help reshape the Ultimate line.

“The Marvel Universe has basically been turned into the Ultimate Universe, right down to the military super-teams,” Millar told Newsarama, “so now it’s time to go back and take things to the next level. I have a very big pad filled with notes here and am blazing on this stuff. I just want to take things to the next level.”

The publisher also revealed its followup to Secret Invasion: a cosmic event called War of Kings.

Other convention-related announcements:

• ComiPress has a good rundown of the manga acquisitions and new releases announced at Comic-Con.

• Devil’s Due Publishing has entered into a parntership with Humanoids to release some of the French publisher’s titles in the United States.

• Mike Grell will helm a new Warlord series from DC, debuting next spring.

• IDW Publishing announced that Joe Hill’s Locke & Key will return in December as an ongoing series, and Steve Niles is revisiting vampires with Epilogue.

• The sequel to Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s Eisner Award-winning miniseries The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite now has a title and a release date: The Umbrella Academy: Dallas will debut in November.

• Dark Horse is revisiting the Aliens and Predator franchises.

• Writer Andy Diggle (The Losers, Hellblazer) will take over Marvel’s Thunderbolts beginning with Issue 126.

• Top Cow is releasing Art of Wanted, an oversized art book containing images from the comics, stills from the movie, and concepts from the upcoming video game.

You can follow our complete Comic-Con coverage here.

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards capped off a busy second day of Comic-Con, one that included big announcements from Marvel, Viz Media and Image, plus a slew of new titles and creator exclusives.

The meaning behind the much-teased “Marvel to the Nth Degree” panel came to light Friday morning in The Wall Street Journal with word that Marvel is reteaming with Stephen King for a “motion comics”-style digital adaptation of his forthcoming short story “N.”

Image Comics revealed a team-up of its own: Six of the company’s founders — Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Rob Liefeld, Whilce Portacio and Todd McFarlane — and new partner Robert Kirkman will release Image United, a miniseries starring some of their best-known creations, plus “side characters.”

And after a lengthy delay at the creator’s request, Viz Media finally will release Naoki Urasawa’s science fiction/mystery series 20th Century Boys. The publisher also has licensed his latest work, Pluto. Both will debut in February.

The Vertigo panel unveiled new titles from Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá, and Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel, and offered details on the Vertigo Crime imprint, Seaguy sequels, and a hardcover collection of Death miniseries called, naturally, The Complete Death.

Other convention-related announcements:

• Del Rey has acquired several titles, including Shaenon Garrity’s CLAMP in America, Harvey Pekar’s Huntington, W.V On The Fly, Paul Hornschemier’s Life With Dr. Dangerous, and Brenden Burford’s Syncopated.

• Farscape creator Rockne O’Bannon will write BOOM! Studios’ previously announced adaptation of the sci-fi TV show.

• IDW Publishing will release a prequel to next summer’s Transformers movie.

• Dabel Bros. Publishing is adapting The Warriors, just in time for the cult film’s 30th anniversary.

• Artists Khoi Pham and Paolo Rivera have signed exclusive agreements with Marvel.

You can follow our complete Comic-Con coverage here.

Although Wednesday morning began with a flurry of movie options, the big news from Comic-Con International’s “Day 0″ came from comics publishers. And curiously, two of the announcements involved crime fiction.

DC Comics teased next summer’s launch of Vertigo Crime, a “subimprint” devoted to mystery and crime stories. The line, headed by Will Dennis, will debut with titles from 100 Bullets writer Brian Azzarello and Scottish crime novelist Ian Rankin. More details are expected today.

Not to be outdone, IDW Publishing opened Preview Night with a press conference announcing that Darwyn Cooke (DC: The New Frontier) will adapt Richard Stark’s first four Parker novels as a series of graphic novels. The first title is expected in late 2009.

Going in a decidedly different direction, BOOM! Studios announced a deal for it to produce a line of comics and graphic novels based on Disney/Pixar and Muppet properties. The first title, a four-issue Incredibles series, will be written by Editor-in-Chief Mark Waid and debut next year. Cooke will provide the cover art.

Other convention-related announcements:

• Wildstorm has acquired the comics rights to Summit Entertainment’s upcoming action-thriller Push. The DC imprint will release a six-issue prequel, by Marc Bernardin, Adam Freeman and Bruno Redondo, with covers by Jock.

• Cartoon Network will produce animated movies based on Phil Hester’s Firebreather and Mike Avon Oeming and Bryan Glass’ The Mice Templar, both from Image. The cable network also is adapting Chuck Dixon’s IDW title The Vanishers as a live-action film.

• Writer Ed Brubaker (Captain America, Criminal) has teamed with White Rock Lake Productions to produce Angel of Death, a live-action series for Crackle.com, Sony Picture Entertainment’s online-video network. The weekly crime/revenge series will debut next year.

• Warner Bros. will release a pair of downloadable Watchmen video games, with more installments possible.

• And that flurry of movie news? Warner Bros. snapped up the rights to Rob Liefeld’s forthcoming Capeshooters, for Bryan Singer to produce. Hancock director Peter Berg will develop Hercules: The Thracian Wars, based on the Radical Publishing miniseries. Jenna Dewan and Luke Goss will star in an adaptation of Top Cow’s The Magdalena. And Summit grabbed Virgin Comics’ one-shot The Leaves.

You can follow our complete Comic-Con coverage here.

So once the doors opened to the exhibit hall tonight, I made a beeline to the IDW booth for a press conference they were holding to announce Darwyn Cooke’s new series of Parker graphic novels, which are adaptations of the crime fiction novels by Richard Stark (a.k.a. Donald Westlake). Newsarama chief Matt Brady was there and covered the announcement already, so I won’t repeat the details of it. But as you can see from the picture above, we all stood in front of Cooke as he spoke, holding out our tape recorders and scratching down notes … I think Maggie Thompson from Comic Buyer’s Guide even filmed it. Afterwards, when talking to Heidi MacDonald of The Beat, she commented that with all the big movie, TV, video game, etc. press conferences going on in San Diego this week, it was pretty cool to have a comic company doing a press conference about a comic book at Comic-Con. Sure, there are panels to cover and one-on-one interviews set up and stuff like that, but a good old fashioned press conference really seemed to work here. And IDW did a nice job with the collateral material as well, handing out Cooke artwork with a disc, as well as Parker T-shirts to the press. Well done, guys.

One more note, this one a bit more on the personal side … afterwards, I got to chat with Heidi, Maggie and blogger/retailer Chris Butcher, all of whom I’d never had a chance to meet in person before. CBG introduced me to the concept of fandom and comics journalism well before the internet was around, and of course Heidi is one of the pioneers of the whole comics news blog idea, so it was awesome (and maybe even a bit overwhelming) to get to meet them. Chris took a picture of us, which is up on his Flickr account.

Cartoon Network announced today that they’re working on animated movies of Phil Hester’s Firebreather and Mike Avon Oeming and Bryan Glass’ Mice Templar, both of which are published by Image. In addition, they’re also adapting Chuck Dixon’s The Vanishers, published by IDW, into a live-action film. No air dates have been announced yet.

Check out the complete press release after the jump.

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The New York Times’ politics blog spotlights Presidential Material, IDW Publishing’s “graphic biographies” of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama.

The two 28-page comics will be released on Oct. 8. The Obama book is by Jeff Mariotte and Tom Morgan, and the McCain book by Andrew Helfer and Stephen Thompson. J. Scott Campbell drew both covers.

“There have been comic book biographies before, that’s not new,” IDW’s Scott Dunbier tells The Times. “But we’re talking about a story that isn’t finished: two views of the candidates, two men who are both vying for what is arguably the most important job in the world.”

IDW’s press release can be found after the break:

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FEARnet has debuted its second 30 Days of Night web series, Dust to Dust, co-produced by Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures. The series revolves around events that follow FEARnet’s movie prequel, Blood Trails.

• Viz Media sends word that Marc Weidenbaum, vice president of original publishing, and Eric Searleman, senior editor, will perform the publisher’s first Comic-Con portfolio reviews from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, July 27.

• The Venture Bros. creator Jackson Publick reveals that production has begun on the show’s fourth season. [Publick's blog]

• Apple profiles Dark Horse Comics, with a focus on the company’s network of 145 Macs. The feature includes a sidebar that details the production process for an issue of Hellboy – from initial discussions between Mike Mignola and editor Scott Allie to lettering to press — and a publisher timeline. [Apple.com]

• Speaking of Hellboy, Mignola talks about his collaboration with Guillermo del Toro on Hellboy II: The Golden Army: “It’s my job to take del Toro’s idea, which nobody else can make heads or tails of unless he’s drawn it in his sketchbook, and decipher it. Even though I don’t speak Spanish, we speak the language of monsters and we have very similar tastes in artists so I can usually understand what he’s going for.” [Underwire]

• The talented artist Kristian Donaldson updates his blog with news that the second edition of the Supermarket trade paperback from IDW will get a new format — 6″ x 9″ — and a new cover (above). Also, he’ll be reteaming with Supermarket writer Brian Wood for Issues 35 and 36 of DMZ, which sport covers by John Paul Leon. [Donaldson's blog]

• I’m enjoying Kyle Latino’s illustrated summaries of the comics he reads each week. [This Week in Comics, via Super Punch]

I was going to wait and include this in one of my round-ups, but in the words of James Sime, “Perhaps I’m just a big nerdy nerd, but this made me giddy with excitement!”

So what are we excited about? This part of IDW’s big San Diego Comic-Con press release:

Eisner award-winning creator Darwyn Cooke (DC’s The New Frontier) will be announcing an all-new project through IDW and signing an exclusive signature card when he speaks at IDW’s panel on Saturday July 26.

I covered the Darwyn Cooke spotlight panel at last year’s SDCC, when he announced he was leaving The Spirit and would be working on two new creator-owned books. Specifically, from that write-up:

Cooke revealed that he has two graphic novels planned over the next two years - one an all ages fairy tale, and the second, more in the vein of his Catwoman work, centering on a man who’s life is unraveling as he deals with modern life. Bone will be working on his own graphic novel, called Jett Vector. “You want to take your own shot and see what you can come up with yourself,” Cooke said. “A lot of the focus is on that right now.”

Now maybe we’ll learn what at least one of those projects is …

The complete press release, which includes a list of all the cool stuff IDW will be selling at the show, can be found after the jump …

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– The Chicago Tribune’s Red Eye blog is hosting one of those “Which hero is better?” tournaments you’ve probably seen on message boards. Not that there’s anything wrong with pondering if Iron Man is better than Elektra or if Thor can beat Buffy, mind you; I’ve done it many times. But I’m looking forward more to the New York Times’ “Who should be in the JLA?” quiz or the Wall Street Journal’s “Which super heroine is hottest?” poll.

– Can Swamp Thing fill the Martian Manhunter’s shoes in the JLA?

– “Make some comic books like you fucking mean it.”

– Calvin Reid profiles Keith Knight.

– Grant Morrison has updated his Web site.

– Here’s some good news: IDW is going to reprint Bill Messner-Loebs’ Journey.

– Yet another New Yorker caption contest cartoon is being accused of plagiarism.

– Viz has acquired four new manga.

– Mike Sterling collects stories about the fates of the Peanuts characters.

Compiled by JK and Chris

Since Rich Johnston, or possibly Wizard, let the cat out of the bag — too soon, apparently — about veteran writer Larry Hama’s return to G.I. Joe for IDW’s reboot, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall started a message-board thread to answer the first 10 questions about the new title.

Topics range from the inclusion of specific characters and where the team will be headquartered to how much “free rein” IDW has with the license and confirmation that, yes, this series is a reboot:

Are we doing a reboot? The answer is, we’re starting at the beginning. A New Beginning. But we’re doing it in a way akin to what they did with James Bond last year. The movie stripped away a lot of the things that had made the franchise feel bloated and ridiculous and started over. Not necessarily scrapping what was to come in the characters’ future movies, but resetting things, losing the bloat, making the character stand out again, and reminding people why it was once great.

That’s what we’re doing. And doing it with Larry, where he’s a two-decades-better storyteller than he was, and with the wisdom of years to think about what worked and what didn’t, is immensely exciting to me. Before, he was essentially making it up as he went. Now, he know what he wants to do, and is being given the freedom to do it.