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.

Sure, you can dig out your DVDs of Great Pumpkin and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, but what if you’re jonesing for some Peanuts on the bus ride to work? Well, the Schulz family and Warner Bros. Motion Comics has anticipated the problem and produced 20 new three-to-four minute cartoons featuring Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the gang, and made specifically for the Web, cell phones and iPods. The Associated Press has the details:

The videos are all new, made with Flash animation and new voices. Even though it’s new technology, attention has been paid to maintaining the integrity of the strip and its beloved animation specials.

“You’re not trying to change it,” said Jeannie Schulz, widow of the Peanuts creator. “You’re trying to keep it the same and freshen it.”

For a limited time, you can download two episodes for free, but only at iTunes. Otherwise, individual episodes will be priced at 99 cents each, or you can buy the full season for $7.99.

NPR, meanwhile, has an interview with the late Charles Schulz’s son Craig, where he talks about how they found the voices for the new animated shorts and the strip’s legacy. He also talks about how he can see his childhood reflected in the strip, in the way that his father drew certain backgrounds and objects that mimiced their own home, a fact I found more fascinating than anything else in the interview.

Marvel gets behind the get-out-the-vote efforts with “Be a Hero, Vote!” button-like reminders featuring an odd array of characters. How odd? Try a Canadian mutant, a Norse god and a feathered alien.

Somehow, I just know ACORN will be blamed.

– The final Opus strip ran yesterday.

– Who would like to see some of John Romita Jr’s cover drafts? Now let’s not see the same hands.

– Why does Mort of Bazooka Joe fame constantly cover the lower half of his face? The Onion has the answer and it’s not pretty.

– Kick Ass’ protagonist and Chester Brown: Separated at birth?

– Alan David Doane talks to Ivan Brunetti, podcast-style, about the new Anthology of Graphic Fiction collection.

– Ladies and gentlemen, the top 10 immortal characters of pop fiction.

– Same Hat has some excerpts from their interview with author and manga translator Frederik Schodt, the full text of which will appear in their zine, Electric Ant.

– Charles Brubaker talks with Kevin McCormack, creator of the late-lamented strip Arnold.

– Eric Reynolds provides what will likely be the last 2008 SPX report.

– The Comics Comics blog is all love, flowers and rainbows now.

Earlier this week Chris Mautner linked an article about a prefecture in Japan flagging woman’s manga magazines (out of 9 on the list) as “harmful”. This prompted a post on Melissa’s personal blog about the reaction to fanfiction on the Internet, and how the same mindset might be on display:

I always wondered what the PROBLEM was. (more…)

David Heatley took time to respond to the recent Comics Comics critical roundtable of his new book, My Brain Is Hanging Upside-Down:

I used to do this a lot, but I no longer spend time wishing works of art were something they’re not. I don’t wish Stan Brakhage made commercial Hollywood films. Or that Kanye West would do something more stripped down, personal and emotionally revealing. I try to accept art for what it is and decide if it has anything of value to offer me. If I take a stance against it, especially if it’s accompanied by a righteous feeling of being sure of my opinion, I’ve found that I’m using someone’s work to further my own unhappiness, discontent and irritability and ultimately it has nothing to do with the artist on whom I’ve fixed my angry gaze.

I admire Heatley for attempting to rebut some of the criticisms hurled at him in a polite, respectable manner, though I think he comes off as just a wee bit defensive and passive-aggressive, though perhaps that’s inevitable given that people are attacking his baby.

Anyway, Tom Spurgeon, Frank Santoro and Noah Berlatsky take him to task on a few points in the comments section before it all gets ugly and the thread gets shut down, so be sure and read those as well.

– Artist Shepard Fairey, who designed the “Hope” Obama poster, tells Boing Boing he’s pleased as punch to have his work parodied by Mad Magazine: “I consider a high point in my career for pop culture recognition.”

– Laura Hudson talks to James Kochalka about the 10th anniversary of his diary strip, American Elf.

– Hudson also interviews librarian and comics advocate Karen Green, who has a column over at Comixology.

– Doug Wolk looks at Bill Willingham’s upcoming plans for Fables, which include a prose novel.

– Bookslut talks to Phoebe Gloeckner.

– I hadn’t heard about this — cartoonist Carol Lay has a book coming out entitled The Big Skinny, about her lifelong battle with her weight. Wendy Werris has more details.

– Geeknerd’s annual Halloween Costume Bingo is up.

– Frank Santoro takes a look at the new Bat-Manga! collection and declares it good.

– Kristy Valenti takes time to remember the 1986 graphic novel Greenberg the Vampire, one of Marvel’s early entries into the graphic novel market.

– Noah Berlatsky thinks superhero comics are at their best when they don’t take themselves too seriously.

– Everyone and their uncle seems to be talking about Inio Asano’s Solanin, now in stores courtesy of Viz.

* (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Watoomb)

Last week’s talk of a possible big-screen future for Doctor Strange has triggered a groundswell of support for the Master of the Mystic Arts.

The Marvel-infatuated Motley Fool went so far as to suggest the company could become “the next Disney.” Because of a Doctor Strange movie?

“Just as Iron Man updated the comic book mythos for an audience all-too-familiar with human frailty, technological prowess, and Middle Eastern conflicts,” Tim Beyers writes, “a Dr. Strange movie could tap into our collective fascination with inner and outer demons. And Harry Potter, of course.”

Writing for AMC’s SciFi Scanner, Nick Nadel doesn’t go so far as to drop the D-word, but he does like how Doctor Strange “could expand Marvel’s ever growing bag of movie tricks.”

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