Comics retailer Michael George, who was convicted in March of killing his first wife in 1990, will get a new trial.

In a decision handed down earlier today, Macomb County (Mich.) Circuit Judge James Biernat Sr. cited prosecutorial misconduct and the release of new evidence that could lead the jury to believe another person was responsible for the murder of Barbara George.

The misconduct apparently is related to the assistant prosecutor’s use of Michael George’s mug shot during closing arguments.

Barbara George was shot in the head on July 13, 1990, in the Georges’ Clinton Township comic-book store. Prosecutors contended that Michael George staged the killing to look like a robbery so he could collect money from an insurance policy and a shared estate, and start over with another woman.

George was sentenced in June 20 life in prison.

The new trial is set to begin on Dec. 2.

Related: The Detroit Free Press has more details on the new evidence

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

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.

Retailer and comics creator Kirsten Baldock dropped us a note to let us know that Isotope Comics is accepting submissions for the 2008 Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics. This is the sixth year they’ve given out the award; previous award winners include Rob Osborne, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey and Josh Cotter, among others. You can find complete details on how to submit your mini-comic for consideration after the jump.

The awards will be given out in conjunction with the Alternative Press Expo, a really great event held in San Francisco the first weekend in November. This year’s guest list includes Jessica Abel, Paige Braddock, Megan Kelso, Matt Madden, Ethan Nicolle and Chris Ware. If you’re in the Bay Area that weekend, definitely check it out.

The art up top, by the way, is from Max Riffner’s Quick Step, which won the award last year.

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Over at The Beat, Heidi notes that Diamond asked comic shops this week to destroy copies of All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #10:

Dear Diamond Customer:

Please be advised that copies of DC Comics’ ALL-STAR BATMAN & ROBIN THE BOY WONDER #10 (FEB080203-4D) may be included in your September 10 shipment.

At DC’s request, please do not place this book out for sale to your customers. Instead, please destroy any copies that you receive. You will be credited for these copies on your September 17 invoice.

Diamond apologizes for any inconvenience this creates for you or your customers. If you have additional questions, please contact your Diamond Customer Service Representative. Thank you.

So, why the call to shred copies of a book customers have been anticipating for months? Apparently there was a printing problem, as Funnybook Babylon points out:

The reason behind All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder’s recall revealed! The censor bars didn’t print properly a whole bunch of times! Cusswords are visible! Look out!

You can see pictures of black censor bars inadequately covering up all sorts of dirty words over at their site. So what caused the bars to malfunction? Back to The Beat, where Heidi reprints an email from Nat Gertler saying it looks like the black bars were a different shade of black than the letters, and while it probably looked fine on a computer screen during the proofing stage, once it was printed, well … not so much.

So, mystery solved; now we just need someone to come up with a clever name for the uncensored versions so people can start listing them on eBay.

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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Isotope Comics will host Achewood creator Chris Onstad next Saturday to help celebrate the release of The Great Outdoor Fight collection by Dark Horse. Come for an autograph, stay for the cookies.

More details after the jump …

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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).

How many of you went to the comics shop at lunchtime only to realize — too late! — that the new books don’t hit the shelves until Thursday?

Pesky Labor Day.

But when you return tomorrow you should find another issue of Buffy Season 8 — complete with centaur-Dawn! — a new Love & Rockets series, the first volume of Takehiko Inoue’s popular Slam Dunk, and a things-will-never-be-the-same 75th issue of Fables.

Oh, and strangely enough, a pair of miniseries about missing or sunken submarines — one each from Marvel and BOOM!

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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Earlier this month Action Philosophers/Marvel Adventures writer Fred Van Lente contributed one of our I ♥ Comics features, taking fans inside Rocketship Comics as he worked there for a day. Now Rocketship co-owner Alex Cox turns things around on Lente and interviews him for the Rocketship blog:

ALEX: We’ve spoken in the past about writers using themes throughout their work, and having more to say than just the details of a plot. If you had to pick one overall thematic point that pops up when you write, what would it be?

FRED VAN LENTE: I’m interested in people the most, like most writers, and what informs their decisions. I strongly believe that the most interesting dramatic struggle is the one you have with yourself: The battle between what you want to do versus what you should do; when you should act versus when it would be better to do nothing at all.

That’s why I like superheroes so much — their powers and identities allow you to take internal battles and make them literal, they let you dramatize those conflicts. Hercules is the strongest guy in the world, but bears the weight of every foolish thing he’s ever done — and in 3,000 years, he’s done a lot of them. Amadeus Cho’s mega-smarts make him his own worst enemy. Wolverine is at constant war with his own bestial nature. And so on.

In its sixth week on USA Today’s bestseller list, the Watchmen trade paperback slips just one spot to No. 14 as the “trailer effect” continues to fuel interest in the 1986 miniseries.

Here’s the real surprise, though: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley, leaps onto the chart at No. 107.

I might’ve understood if the collection of the 1986 miniseries had appeared on the USA Today list last month, after the release of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight; the movie spurred increased sales of several Batman trade paperbacks.

But six weeks removed, this seems to come out of nowhere. We can’t even point to that Cher casting rumor as the cause, as the book chart is based on sales through Aug. 24.

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

If this week’s shipping list is any indication, we may have reached the Dog Days.

For those with extra cash in your pocket — hey, gas has dropped 15 cents a gallon, right? — Marvel is releasing the hardcover Daredevil By Brian Michael Bendis Omnibus for $100. If you’re looking for something a little less expensive, Wednesday also sees the premiere of the third volume of Runaways, by Terry Moore and Humberto Ramos.

DC says good-bye to Catwoman and hello to two more Final Crisis tie-ins: DC Universe: Last Will and Testament and Superman Beyond.

Elsewhere, Dark Horse collects Chris Onstad’s popular Achewood comic, Abrams spotlights Al Jaffee’s Tall Tales strips, and Image debuts Guerillas.

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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– Big Shiny Robot has a preview up of SLG’s Pirate Club.

– C.B. Cebulski and the Immonens shares pictures from this past weekend’s Fan Expo Toronto.

– G. Willow Wilson begins her own guerrilla marketing campaign for the recently released Air.

– Congrats to our friend Rick Marshall, who is the new co-editor of MTV’s Splash Page blog.

– A Distant Soil creator Colleen Doran shares a tale about how not to make friends in the comics industry … it ranges from annoying to creepy. And apparently one of the folks involved really doesn’t have a clue.

–BusinessWeek takes a look at Marvel and DC’s recent online comics ventures, and in the process asks retailer James Sime what he thinks. I’m going to guess that this isn’t the answer they were expecting:

But James Sime, owner of the Isotope comic book store in San Francisco, isn’t too worried about the impact of digital comics on his business. He says he believes there’s a great opportunity for comics retailers and publishers to learn from the mistakes of the ailing music industry.

According to ICV2, a trade publisher that monitors the business of comics and pop culture, trade paperbacks (collections of single issues in one book) generated $375 million in 2007 and single issues did $330 million that same year. Although Sime doesn’t think single-issue sales will go away, he envisions a scenario in which they are moved from print to online as promotion for the trade paperback. “I’m all about it,” said Sime. “People are excited about comics. The more people get them into their hands, the more they read them—the Internet is a great facilitator for that.”

This summer I ♥ Comics returns to Blog@Newsarama. Each week comics creators, bloggers and fans discuss the things they love about the medium.

Fred Van Lente writes comic books for a living, including the irreverent-but-indispensible history of our medium, COMIC BOOK COMICS, INCREDIBLE HERCULES (with Greg Pak), and the October-debuting MARVEL ZOMBIES 3. He coordinates his various insidious plans for global domination through his web site.

by Fred Van Lente

The comics retailer has to put up with a lot of crap from the funnybook intelligensia – they’re not doing enough to bring women and kids into their stores, they’re not supporting independent books, they’re not nice to customers and puppies, blah, blah, blah – but I love my local comics shop, Rocketship, which is a few short blocks from my house in beautiful Brooklyn, New York (“Where The Weak Are Killed And Eaten”). Clearly I’m not alone, since Rocketship was named “Best Comic Book Store in New York City” by New York magazine and the Village Voice, and was a finalist for the “Spirit of Retailing” Eisner this year.

Because I happen to own a comic book publisher myself, I probably know more about the business of retailing than the average pro, but while thinking over what to write here it occurred to me it might be most illuminating to spend a whole day working at my L.C.S., to see what life is really like on the front lines of the Comics Crusade.

Try this High Concept on for size:

“Comics Pro Works One Day at Comics Shop“!

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Just when it looked like the Watchmen “trailer effect” was subsiding, the collection of the 1986 miniseries jumped five spots to No. 13 on USA Today’s bestseller list — which may be the highest-ever position held by a graphic novel.

Two weeks ago the trade paperback reached No. 15 on the book chart, the same spot held in April 2007 by the 16th volume of Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket. I can’t recall a comic performing better than that, but if anyone has a better memory for these things, please correct me.

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

Fueled by the release of the trailer for Zack Snyder’s adaptation, sales of the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons collection have skyrocketed. To meet increased demand, DC Comics has printed an additional 900,000 copies of Watchmen since the teaser’s debut on July 17. That means the book will have a print run of more than 1 million copies this year.

Related: Andrew Steven Harris takes a look at the legal fight between Fox and Warner Bros. over the Watchmen adaptation, and provides my favorite headline of the week: “The world will look up and say, ‘sue us.’ And I’ll look down and whisper, ‘okay’.”

Although the two big summer-event miniseries take a breather this week, Wednesday sees the debut of DC’s much-anticipated tie-in Legion of Three Worlds — which could end up faring better than Final Crisis itself.

For Marvel it’s all about collections: Mighty Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man, Punisher: War Journal Classic, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane and X-Men: Divided We Stand, for starters.

Elsewhere, Dark Horse releases the first volumes of Herbie Archives and MySpace Dark Horse Presents, IDW Publishing debuts Doctor Who: Forgotten and a Scorchy Smith hardcover, Viz reaches the home stretch with Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, and Dynamite rolls out the fifth issue of Project: Superpowers.

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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Comic retailer Joe Ferrara, owner of the awesome shop Atlantis Fantasyworld in Santa Cruz, Calif., will attempt to “set a world record for a solo performance by an individual in a club setting without repeating a song or using sheet music or lyric sheets.” He starts at 10 a.m. Sept. 14 and ends at 10 p.m. in the Rock Room Lounge at the Shadowbrook Restaurant in Capitola, Calif.

From the press release:

September is National Prostate Cancer awareness month. “The average woman has a working knowledge of the facts about breast cancer,” says Ferrara, a three-year survivor of prostate cancer. “The average man knows almost nothing about prostate cancer. I hope to change that.”

The event promises to be a challenge. “I know over 400 songs,” says fifty-nine year old Ferrara. “I play folk, standards, soft rock, show tunes and classic rock so material is not the problem. However, I’m only allowed a five-minute break every hour! I plan to save them up and only take four breaks but we’ll see if Mother Nature has other plans!” Ferrara hopes folks will take a few minutes out of their day to help him set the record. “Come for five minutes or five hours it doesn’t matter. Request a song and even sing a long”, he says. “Just come have a good time. I can’t set the record without an audience.”

Information about prostate cancer will be available during the event. Members of the Santa Cruz County Prostate Cancer Support Group will also be in attendance to answer any questions

More information can be found on the Atlantis Fantasyworld site. You might recognize the shop, as it was featured in the film Lost Boys.

The Watchmen “trailer effect” continues as the trade paperback slips just three places to No. 18 in its fourth week on USA Today’s bestseller list.

The trailer for Zack Snyder’s adaptation was released on July 17 with The Dark Knight, driving the collection of the 1986 miniseries to No. 83 in just three days. 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 for the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons trade paperback, DC Comics ordered an additional 300,000 copies. BookScan recorded Watchmen selling 10,000 copies in just one week; last year, it sold about 100,000 copies in total.

Watchmen, which topped BookScan’s July graphic novels chart, climbed as high as No. 2 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list. It now rests at No. 10.

Update: This morning’s New York Times reports that DC has printed an additional 900,000 copies of Watchmen since the trailer debuted. That means the book will have a print run of more than one million copies this year.

Historian/Uncle Scrooge writer Geoffrey Blum will be at Comic Relief in Berkeley Aug. 23. The complete press release can be found after the jump.

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