The latest online episode of Naruto Shippuden has hit the web!

You can see the latest from Japan here. Viz is now offering the latest episodes of the sequel series featuring a slightly-older Naruto on their site in partnership with Hulu.com.

Currently, episodes 1 through 16 and the 3 most recent (80-91) are available to watch. In addition to putting up the newest episodes, they’ll be filling in the backmatter 8 episodes each week.

This is an interesting move, likely being done specifically to combat piracy and the “fansub” crowd, which features high quality rips of anime shown in Japan, complete with English (and many other languages) translations as little as 24 hours after it first airs. It will be interesting to see how well this attempt to instantly monetize their show internationally works.

Asylum Press has released its first trailer for its Tuesday Trailer series! This trailer is for their series The Bomb, illustrated by the inimitable Steve Mannion!

If the above link doesn’t work, you can check out the trailer here.

Lurid Media’s PCR TV has launched a new web series discussing graphic storytelling with illustrator P. Craig Russell! In this first installment, Russell goes through his comics adaptation of Pelleas & Melisande.

This is really cool for anyone who wants to learn the nuts and bolts of pacing sequential art. Giant freaking embedded video window after the jump.

[Via Lurid Media.]

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SCI FI Wire, SCI FI’s news division, has created an expanded expanded news site outside of SCI Fi’s main page called scifiwire.com. Here’s what the SCI FI Wire staff has said about the new site:

SCI FI Wire is hot news about movies, TV, games, books, top celebrities and more. Red-carpet photos. The newest movie trailers. Sneak peeks at upcoming TV shows and seasons. Exclusive on-set interviews. And with the team behind SCI FI Weekly, we’re about to add all sorts of new content: Top 10 lists, exclusive Q&As, satire, dispatches from the front lines of science fiction, fantasy and the supernatural, funny stuff and a lot more.

I found this via a tweet from Felicia Day, and Im just sad that I’m coming into it so late. Essentially, at Paul and Storm they have a March Madness NCAA Basketball style tournament going for the great and geeky. The end result will name a champion the Secretary of Geek Affairs. Sometimes, you see something of sheer genius that you just wish you could’ve thought up yourself.

Some of the contenders are a bit obscure, but most are simply inspired. Personally, I’m cheering for Felicia Day herself, MC Frontalot, Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade, and Steve Jobs as my final four. The 2nd Round match up of Wil Wheaton vs. Wesley Crusher is pretty great, though. Check out the full bracket, make your predictions here, and vote in the current round.

As the year comes to a close, it’s become clear that in the Marvel Universe, there has been major upheaval from within the company’s heroic pantheon. With a new Captain America leading a band of Secret Avengers, what’s old is new again, with the concept of the legacy hero getting a set of legs at the House of Ideas.

But what is a legacy hero, you might ask? For those needing a refresher in comic book geekspeak, a legacy hero is typically an associate, lover, or sidekick of a fallen hero who assumes their friend’s mantle if he has retired or fallen in battle. DC Comics has made this concept into one of the company’s key pillars, beginning all the way with Barry Allen as the Flash in 1961. The idea of the legacy hero is that it gives a franchise an epic, generational feel, while allowing each generation of readers to adopt their “own” hero to match their own values and storytelling standards. But as 2008 and 2009 — as well as several earlier attempts — show us, Marvel isn’t above adopting a good idea when it sees one.

As if I needed to warn you, there be spoilers up ahead…

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So I’ve been thinking about doing a weekly webcomic column here, but it occurred to me that I’m not actually that up on the webcomic scene. That said, I’ve got a few thoughts on the whole concept, as well as a couple of favorites.

I wrote below that print is dying, and I’m sticking by that assertion. However, to clarify, I would like to note that newspapers will be the first to go, and that magazines and books will be sticking around far longer. It just isn’t pleasant to read long articles or books on a computer screen, and I’ve only met one person who owned a Kindle–and that guy also had three cell phones and two laptops just in his bag.

Comics, I think, will maintain a print following for quite a while. The art looks better on paper, and comics fans tend to be the type of people who like the tangible items to collect. We’re pack rats. We see nothing wrong with buying all the single issues of a book, the trades, and then the fancy reissues when those come out, too.

Still, the Web has a place in the comics community, and not just as a place for talking about comics.

Webcomics seem to come in a couple of varieties (bear in mind that, as I noted above, I’m not really up on the webcomics world, and I’d love your input). There’s the comic strip, which seems to be taking over for newspaper comic strips the way Web sites are taking over for newspapers. Most of you are probably familiar with them, and some of your favorite print comic creators do webcomic strips too–I happen to love Becky Cloonan’s Comic Attacks.

These are bite-size comics that don’t tie into a longer narrative, and can be consumed quickly, like an mp3 or a blog post. Many media critics, Warren Ellis among them, have noted that the Web is a place for short bits of information. Ellis called it “burst culture.” Webcomics like this fit perfectly into that picture. (more…)

Yahoo.com just released a list of its 10 most popular superheroes of the year. The rankings are based on the number of hits through their search engine. You can probably guess most of the names on the list:

1. Batman

2. Iron Man

3. Spider-Man

4. Hulk

5. Superman

6. X-Men

7. Hellboy

8. Wolverine

9. Wonder Woman

10. Ghost Rider

If anyone has any credible theories as to why Ghost Rider made the list, I’d love to hear them. That just seems like a totally random name.

iPhones — the Final Frontier.

It’s been an interesting few years for comics, with the digitial revolution being mined by Marvel (with its exclusive online content, as well as the DVD archives of many of its comics) and DC (with its Zuda web comic contest). Even web sites with previews like Newsarama have done their part in changing the field of comics through the World Wide Web with four to eight-page previews (which, when you consider most issues are 22 pages, that’s a lot).

But what about the iPhone?

Smartphones are becoming far more than just cellular devices — they’re making the move to becoming mobile computers. So how will comics adapt?

Slowly but surely, comics are hitting the iPhone. It was announced today by Appstore that publisher IDW is issuing reprints for the iPhone of Peter David’s Star Trek series. The first of the five issues will be a rerelease of issue #13, the story known as “Return of the Worthy.” Trekmovie reports that after this run is completed, IDW will move on with other properties such as “Best of the Borg” and “Best of Deep Space 9.”

But the real kicker?

They only cost 99 cents each.

IDW is far from the only comic taking this route. Jeff Smith, long known as a guy ahead of the curve, has already released the first issue of Bone on the iPhone in October — also for 99 cents. And perhaps its no surprise that that app made Apple’s Pick of the Week.

With prices rising from many of the big companies, one question seems to be obvious: will this be a new method of distribution for comics retailers? If they can successfully work out the iPhone’s bugs — and those of you who have worked on just about any high-memory application can relate to the freezing and weird shutdowns that occassionally occur — maybe. With Apple’s stringent policies for the App Store, it’s the first technology that both promotes commerce and deters piracy… at least for now.

While I know I am particularly attached to the paper-and-staple format, if the economy keeps declining and the culture continues to move on-the-go, maybe your ubiquitous iPhone will start to become your ubiquitous comic book reader.

After a lengthly hiatus, the sci-fi comedy show Galacticast came blazing back with this catchy and hilarious little commercial for artist Tony Moore. Here is Tony’s reaction from his blog:

So Casey and Rudy from Galacticast (and A ComicBook Orange) have taken it upon themselves to put together a commercial to promote my work. Probably one of the coolest things anyone’s ever done for me. Thanks a trillion, guys. I’m glad you enjoy my stuff enough to spread the word!

Apart they’ve been content to merely make fun of Nightwing and Eduardo Risso (sorry, I mean Dave Johnson) … but what happens when they join forces?! That’s the stirring question that will be answered this week as Tucker Stone and Noah Berlatsky have joined forces to take on the black and white phonebook collection known as Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-Ups 2.

The pair will trade off reviewing three issues (or chapters if you prefer) at a time. Stone covered #88-90 yesterday, Berlatsky will examine issues #91-93 today and so on. It should make for some fun reading. Here, for example, is what Tucker had to say about issue #89:

Look, you either ride this bull because you fucking like this bull or you don’t.  It’s a metaphor!  It’s an allegory!  It’s all rife with the meaning of the Heroic Saga, as written by Joseph Campbell “The Dumbest Literary Philosopher In The Bargain Bin Of Literary Philosophy” and popularized by George Lucas, the patron saint of “If something has a double meaning, it’s clearly, oh so clearly, better then Tolstoy.”  No.  Don’t get your pretension in here.  Take it and shove it up your ass, and take Mallard Fillmore with you: those are your comics.  Not for us, for us, it’s Bob Fucking Haney, and Haney understands you, 1970.  Haney is going to teach you that when it wears spandex, and when it punches shit, that it is to scream like a housewife, worry about Dick Grayson, and entertain.  This is entertainment, it’s pure.  If Stan Lee knew that a bunch of people with way more time on their hands then they had sense were going to write terrible books about how Spider-man defined a culture, he would’ve jumped out a window and shot up the floors he passed on the way down.  And we would be a better race of knuckle-draggers for it.

Evan Dorkin reports on last weekend’s National Convention in NYC:

I mean, wow. Wow. WOW. What an absolutely terrible show. Having nothing to do with how we did at the table, because we didn’t expect much, just to cover costs ($40 parking, tolls, lost brain cells) and maybe low-rent dinner out for the family, which we barely eked out. And we seemed to do better than a lot of  those around us. And not a knock on old — very old — school bargain bin/back wall o’ expensive headlights comics, hucksteriffic cons based around want lists and sweaty palms, which can be fun in a way if, like me, you like old comics, looking at original art, and eyeballing tables heaped with flea market junk that some poor schmuck still deems worth lugging all up and down the coast hoping some other poor dumb schmuck will buy. I can stand, and enjoy, these buck-bin, desperation extravaganzas, but this one tested even my Eltingville limits. This was Eltingville writ large, bulky, real, and stinktacular. I wasn’t expecting MOCCA or SPX, nor the NYCC or even a slice of the dealer’s area of the congenial, enjoyable and cool Heroes World, but I wasn’t expecting this freakshow trainwreck.

Heidi McDonald, meanwhile, provides some perspective while Valerie D’Orazio offers a pointed rejoinder:

Have a heart. I know I’m going to be laughed to oblivion for saying that, that it sounds ridiculous. But have a fucking heart. Some of these older collectors are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I grew up around these people. I’m not ashamed of it. Some have used comics as one of their only bright spots in a life that in every other respect might have been awful. If it makes them happy, let them do it. If they aren’t bothering you (other than by the fact of their very existence, offending your delicate sensibilities), stop fucking ragging on them. I can’t fucking stand this anymore.

The seminal and highly influential (Dave McKean for one) Barron Storey has been posting his work online. Via.

Our post last Friday on the controversy surrounding Chip Kidd’s Bat-Manga! and the question of whether or not manga-ka Jiro Kuwata should have gotten received a lot of attention over the weekend. I think the horse has been beaten pretty heavily into the ground by this point, but I thought a final run-down of who said what in response to Kidd’s statement might be in order.  Tom Spurgeon’s post was by far the most amusing response if you’re keeping score, but assuming you’re not, here’s a look at what the rest of the blogosphere had to say:

Laura Hudson:

I do understand Kidd’s argument and the distinction he’s making, but to me, the issue of how to classify the book has more to do with content than intent. As a reader, I didn’t experience Bat-Manga as a book of material about Batman in Japan; Kuwata wasn’t just example C in the context of a broader theme. His work is the book, the heart and meat and soul and sun of it, and everything else is just supplementary gravy. Maybe that wasn’t Kidd’s intention, but that’s how it turned out.

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– Over at his blog, Scott Saavedra notes that he is rather ill and could use financial help, either via donations or by purchasing his some of his art work. (hat tip: Tom Spurgeon)

– Bloggers Paul O’Brian and Alistair Kennedy have started a new podcast, titled House to Astonish. It’s going to be an every-other-week affair, and focus on comics news and reviews. The premiere episode looks at recent Batman books, Dark Horse’s Gigantic and other books.

– Chris Butcher has more to say on the Bat-Manga! controversy.

– Tom Spurgeon tells us what comics he’s reading online these days.

– David Baille emailed us to let us know what a busy beaver he is these days. He’s got his first ever story in 2000AD this week, animator David Hailwood has animated a couple of his Zombies Interviews strips, and, perhaps most significantly, he’s started a new Webcomic, the Belly Button Bubble Chronicles.

– The work of cartoonists Josh Neufeld and David Rees can currently be seen at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library through January 10, 2009. From the press release: “Neufeld will show material from his true-life graphic novel A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, and Rees will exhibit a collection of his “Clip-Art Comics.” Neufeld will be showing original pages, oversized giclée prints, and an example of the creative process from script to final art.”

– The Windy City Times talks to Alison Bechdel about the release of the new Dykes to Watch Out For collection.

– A quick reminder: Quentin Blake is awesome.

– For your Monday enjoyment: Ten years of New Yorker covers.

You’re unlikely to find a more awesome video on YouTube this week ever. It’s an a capella medley of John Williams movie themes — Jurassic Park, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, et al — with lyrics devoted solely to Star Wars. Plus, it involves a mean Mark Hamill imitation.

I love the Internet.

(Bless you, Topless Robot)

I feel a little out of the loop: Apparently, the website Wonder-Who.com popped up last week announcing Transformers star Megan Fox as Wonder Woman in the long-planned Warner Bos. movie.

However, despite what some fans and online writers believe, or hope, the website is a fake.

Never mind that Wonder Woman has been in development hell for the past seven years and that, despite countless fits and starts, no significant progress has been made on the project. Never mind the pedestrian Photoshop work.

The definitive sign the website is fake, Graeme McMillan points out, is the inclusion of the logo for Legendary Pictures: Producer Joel Silver (Silver Pictures and Dark Castle Entertainment) has had an iron grip on the Wonder Woman rights since 2001.

Heidi MacDonald reports that news and commentary website ComicMix is scaling back, ending its editorial columns and leaving just online comics and pop-culture news.

Launched in February 2007, ComicMix was founded by former DC Comics editor Mike Gold, writer Glenn Hauman and Weblogs co-founder Brian Alvey. Eight months later, the site added webcomics.

In September, ComicMix announced it would offer print-on-demand collections of some those comics at Baltimore Comic-Con. However, Johanna Draper Carlson notes those volumes “didn’t come near to selling out at the one convention they were offered.”

In the comments section of his final column on Monday, Gold noted that, “the columns didn’t reach as big an audience as some of us had hoped for. Really, it’s that simple. We need to put our attention elsewhere.”

Other columnists included Denny O’Neil, Elayne Riggs, John Ostrander, Michael Davis, Martha Thomases, Michael H. Price, Ric Meyers.

Todd Allen, author of The Economics of Webcomics and a columnist for Comic Book Resources, questions the source of ComicMix’s revenue: “No ads, no merchandise, no collected edition. Those are standard revenue streams and without any of them (100 print copies in Baltimore doesn’t count), I cannot call ComicMix serious about monetizing their comics.”

If it’s November, it must be time for the best-of-the-year lists to begin, right? I’m convinced that Best-of Season eventually will start sometime around May.

Amazon.com and Publishers Weekly lead the charge, each with fairly diverse lists.

Amazon ranks its selections, and divides them into Editors’ Picks and Customer Favorites, with Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba’s The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1 (Dark Horse) topping the former, and Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (Amulet Books) leading the latter.

The unranked Publishers Weekly list includes Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie’s Aya of Yop City (Drawn & Quarterly), the Sammy Harkham-edited Kramers Ergot 7 (Buenaventura Press) and Takehiko Inoue’s Slam Dunk (Viz Media).

The full lists can be seen at the links.

– Van Jensen hangs out with Paul Pope to find out about the new reprint edition of Heavy Liquid, which Pope initiated when he discovered out of print copies selling on eBay for as much as $200: ” ‘That was disgusting to me,’ he said. ‘That was money those fans could’ve spent on other books.’ ”

– Kai-Ming Cha talks to Yen Press’ Kurt Hassler about the imprint’s absorption into Hachette’s Orbit imprint.

– Tom Richmond looks at how Mad Magazine has covered close elections in the past.

– Alan Gardner critiques the revamped Comics.com site.

– Erin Finnegan reports on the MangaNext show in Somerset, NJ.

– Apparently Famous Monsters of Filmland’s Forrest J. Ackerman is not doing well.

– Doug Wolk reports on last weekend’s APE convention.

– Noah Berlatsky doesn’t care for S. Clay Wilson’s work.

– Jen de Guzman wonders why Slave Labor isn’t getting that many submissions anymore and decides to blame the Internet.

– Because you don’t have enough to read: Here’s Graphic Novel Reporter.