iTunes is now carrying episodes of several of DC’s past cartoons, including Batman: The Animated Series, Super Friends, Batman Beyond and even Aquaman. Click here to check them out in iTunes.

It doesn’t look like they have all of Batman: The Animated Series or Superman: The Animated Series quite yet … I never saw the end of the Superman series, for instance, and would like to download it. But hopefully they’ll get them eventually.

I thought this was a pretty good wrap-up issue. Plotlines are starting to converge, and pieces are fitting together — although some not as neatly as others. Thanks as always to those who comment, including those who actually produce this fun series. Here’s Kurt Busiek’s Newsarama debriefing for issue #4, which reassured me that Troy Brownfield didn’t recognize those guys either….

SPOILERS FOLLOW

3

2

1

LEAD STORY

“Great. Now He’s Holding His Breath.” Written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Elisabeth V. Gehrlein, assistant editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Teamwork beats Konvikt!

Page 1

– Black Canary, Flash, Black Lightning (behind the credits), Hawkgirl, Firestorm, and Green Lantern are all down, following the Justice League’s attempt to subdue Konvikt in the little town of Thayer’s Notch (our fair city) MA.

Page 2

– “Diana’s lasso”: now’s as good a time as any for some notes. More properly called the “Lasso of Truth,” traditionally it could compel the truth out of anyone bound with it. (Not surprising, considering that Wonder Woman’s creator William Moulton Marston also contributed to the development of the lie detector.) This ability was tweaked somewhat by the 1986 revamp, when the lasso got a firmer mythological grounding. Now made from a Golden Girdle of Gaea once given to Diana’s aunt Antiope, and powered by the Fires of Hestia, the lasso could show its captive his or her inner truth. For example, in Wonder Woman vol. 2 #6 (July 1987), Diana used the lasso to show the war-god Ares the apocalyptic consequences of his actions. Accordingly, if Diana had ensnared Konvikt with the lasso, she might have gotten a deeper insight into him than a beating might have accomplished.

– Of course, the lasso is also considered unbreakable, which is always helpful.

Page 3

– Last week I thought Batman’s comm channel to Superman might be on a special his-ears-only frequency. Score one for me, apparently.

Page 4

– No annotations.

Page 5

– Last issue we left Graak ready to get the jump on Batman. It goes without saying that Graak has never read a Batman comic.

– This means, however, that between the end of last issue and the start of this scene, Batman has a) subdued Graak and b) found some way of restraining him. Either those metal bands pinning Graak to the bulkhead were there all along (maybe, if it was a prison-ship’s escape pod), Batman improvised with what was at hand, or they’re a more versatile form of Bat-Cuffs. (Coming soon from DC Direct, of course!)

– “Him no sciencelizard”: Graak could be referring to the Psions, a reptilian race descended from small green lizards found on the planet Maltus. These lizards were experimented upon by certain Maltusian scientists who later migrated to the planet Oa and eventually became the Guardians of the Universe. Millions of years later, the Psions similarly dedicated themselves to scientific experimentation, and took up residence in the Vegan star system. The Psions were created by Marv Wolfman for The Witching Hour #13 (February-March 1971), but their first official appearance was in Tales of the New Teen Titans #4 (September 1982), written by Wolfman and pencilled by George Pérez.

Page 6

– No annotations.

Page 7

– Teamwork! Batman builds the gizmo, Superman fires it, and Wonder Woman seals the deal. Just like Star Trek II, where Spock gives Kirk A Tale of Two Cities and Bones gives him the glasses he needs to read it!

– (What … too geeky?)

Page 8

– With the gas taking effect, Konvikt’s “armor” turns back into fur.

Page 9

– Oh, I’m paying for not investing in back issues of The Demon…. Obviously Mr. Hairy looked blue last issue not because of some secondary mutation, but because he was mystically shielded by Morgaine. I’m guessing further that the Omega-like “brand” is Morgaine’s mark.

Page 10

– There’s Vixen flying in panel 2, so all the Justice Leaguers except Red Arrow have been accounted for.

– The D.E.O. is the federal Department of Extranormal Operations. It was created by D. Curtis Johnson and J.H. Williams III for the short-lived series Chase (February 1998-November 1998), and first appeared in Batman #550 (January 1998). Since then it has become ubiquitous in the DC universe as a catch-all agency dealing with super-people.  EDIT:  As noted in the comments, the Department of Metahuman Affairs, which employs Diana Prince, is a separate federal agency.  I’m not sure where one’s jurisdiction ends and the other’s begins.

– “The Slab,” short for the Slabside Island Maximum Security Prison, is DC’s supervillain jail, located in Antarctica. It first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 3 #51 (May 1994) and played a major role in 2001’s Joker: The Last Laugh miniseries.

Page 11

– I read Diana’s teasing as her having fun with her friends, and not so much a revelatory insight into “Patriarch’s World.”

– “Reddy” is the Red Tornado, the wind-controlling android who is a perennial member of the Justice League. Since his android bodies are destroyed and rebuilt fairly frequently, he spends a lot of time using his software to control the Justice League’s computers.

– “Door to the Hall”: remember, the JLA uses Authority-style gateways now; and its current Earthbound headquarters is the D.C.-based Hall of Justice.

Page 12

– This appears to be the same page of art which appeared as page 22/7 of issue #1. However, Rita’s dialogue is slightly different. Here’s her dialogue in panel 2 of this issue:

A reading. A reading will tell me what to do.

The cards are acting funny — showing me stuff I shouldn’t be able to see. But they’re reading true, too. So they’ll tell me …

Past: the Devil. Negative thinking. Self-imposed limitations. Okay, whatever.

Present: Justice. Arbitration. Neutrality. Being judged? Why am I being…

Here’s her dialogue in panels 1 and 2 of the corresponding page in issue #1:

A reading. A reading will tell me what to do.

The gangs … that dream … that — whatever that monster was — there has to be a way out, a way back to normal. I can’t just hide.

Past: the Devil. Negative thinking. Self-imposed limitations. Okay, whatever.

Present: Justice. Arbitration. Neutrality. Being judged? Why am I being…

Obviously the dialogue in this issue reflects Rita’s vision of Despero from last week, as well as her insights into the villains she encounters this issue. Additionally, since we saw this art originally as part of Morgaine’s visions, there’s “room for interpretation,” the possibility that this is an alternate version of Rita, or Morgaine somehow suppressing Rita’s memories of the monstrous minion. Still, for now it looks like a clue! A clue! (Gesundheit!)

SECOND STORY

“Knight In Shiny Armor”; plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Mike Norton, inked by Mark Farmer, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brousseau; Elisabeth V. Gehrlein, assistant editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

In Brief: Gangbuster protects Rita from a trio of Z-list villains.

Page 13 (story page 1)

– I take it “don’t be afraid of the light” is also a subtle plea for Rita to see some sunlight after days spent cooped up.

Page 14/2

– “Book of Toth”: Rita probably means the “Book of Thoth,” the name given to a particular deck of Tarot cards painted by Lady Frieda Harris under the direction of occultist Aleister Crowley. It was also the name of a book Crowley wrote on the use of this deck. (As it happens, in the Thoth Tarot “Strength” becomes “Lust,” and “Justice” becomes “Adjustment.”) Thoth was the Egyptian god of the Moon, magic, and writing. (Note Rita’s crescent pendant.) Of course, Rita could just be a big Alex Toth fan, which would speak to an excellent taste in classic comics and animation art.

Page 15/3

– The cards in panel 4 are The Emperor, The Magician, and The High Priestess. From Tarotpedia.com:

The Emperor signifies power and authority, strategies and long-term thinking. He emphasizes structure and stability, and may urge you to take control of a situation and to act responsibly. He stands for the concrete and the tangible, and is often associated with the element of Earth.

The Bateleur or Magician is the active principle…. He is often interpreted as being dynamic, agile and sharp-witted, a true “magician” of his own life. He may therefore also denote willpower and creativity.

The Popess or High Priestess is usually interpreted as denoting intuition and the inner voice of wisdom. She represents spirituality as opposed to the religious conformity of the Pope or Hierophant. As Carole Sédillot writes in Ombres et Lumières du Tarot: “Spirituality isn’t defined by the enclosure of the spirit in a dogma - whether religious or otherwise - but by opening the spirit to vast and new horizons that offer it evolution and elevation.”

Because of the depiction of the two pillars and mosaic pavement on some decks, ‘initiation’ is also at times suggested.

The Emperor sounds like Superman and the High Priestess is Wonder Woman, but the Magician’s reference to “willpower and creativity” puts me in mind of a Green Lantern. Yeah, yeah, Batman’s willful and creative too….

– The card partially obscured in the corner of panel 4 looks a lot like Rita in her Panel 3 pose.

Page 16/4

– “A cranberry scone and coffee to go”: you know, I’m a little surprised this wasn’t the story title. “Who knows what crullers might strike,” indeed!

– Rita is channeling old issues of Green Lantern for the skinny on Blindside, Throttle, and Whiteout.

– I should probably point out that these three chuckleheads do comprise a “trinity” of sorts, although I’m reluctant to match them up with our Trinitarians.

Page 17/5

– After two issues of teasing, José’s back in costume.

Page 18/6

– Whiteout’s abilities aren’t quite explained, either here or in those old Green Lanterns, but I presume he’s shifting whatever he “erases” into another dimension so it can’t quite interact with this one.

Page 19/7

– No annotations.

Page 20/8

– No annotations.

Page 21/9

– I don’t remember Gangbuster using a gun, but again, it’s been a while.

– “Throttle’s head will grow back soon”: I’m not sure how José knows this, considering how obscure these guys are. Still, it could just be a general rule of super-powers: if the super-guy is unconscious, the effects of his powers will fade after a while. Like José said, he’s seen a lot in Metropolis.

Page 22/10

– Thanks to the main story, we know that these are Morgaine’s minions, and we can probably connect them to Rita’s furry savior.

* * *

Well, that’s all I have for this week. Have a safe and happy Independence Day, for those who celebrate it, and I’ll be back next Thursday!

Vertical has a nice preview of the soon-to-be-released first volume of Black Jack by the never less than awesome Osamu Tezuka over on their site.

As the anti-Robin movement marshals its forces against the character’s possible inclusion in the Batman movies, Jeph Loeb — writer of The Long Halloween and Dark Victory – speaks up for the Boy Wonder.

Robin can work in the film universe, Loeb tells MTV News: “Take the time to tell the story properly. There is a story of Dick Grayson and how he becomes Robin that is extremely moving and very helpful.”

The key, he says, is to build the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. And don’t put Grayson in costume too soon.

“I wouldn’t let him become Robin until the third act, if that,” Loeb says. “I think that’s the other problem when you tell that story is that there’s this rush to put him in a costume by the end of the first 20 minutes and in that case I think it’s a disaster.”

Here’s the second installment of my look at the prevalence of DCU miniseries in the Dan DiDio era. Part 1 of this little exercise covered the years 2001, 2002, and 2003.

Today those look like transitory years, at least in terms of miniseries. In 2001 the publisher produced 75 issues’ worth of miniseries, compared with 379 issues’ worth of regular series and 21 one-shot/special issues. Thus, miniseries were about 16% of the year’s total DCU output. With just 51 issues of miniseries in 2002 (compared to 400 ongoing-series issues), that percentage decreased to 11%. The difference may be attributed largely to the absence of 2001’s crossover events: Our Worlds At War included 11 special issues (a de facto miniseries) and Joker: The Last Laugh involved 6 issues and a Secret Files.

Nevertheless, in 2003 the situation reversed dramatically, with the miniseries number shooting to 164 issues and the regular-series number pulling back to 356. That made miniseries some 30% of the year’s total DCU output. While over half the miniseries (90 issues across 19 titles) were tied to Batman, Superman, or the Justice League, there was nary a big crossover event in sight. Instead, a mix of superhero and non-superhero miniseries provided the balance.

So, with that in mind, let’s cruise on.  Thanks again to Mike’s Amazing World of DC Comics for the raw data!

* * *

At the end of 2003, DC’s main line of comic books — basically, the “DCU”/superhero titles — consisted of 29 ongoing series. Of course, nine of these were the “foundational” titles (Detective Comics, Action Comics, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, JLA, and The Legion). Of the 20 remaining series, the extended Batman and Superman lines accounted for nine:

The Adventures of Superman, Batgirl, Batman: Gotham Knights, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Catwoman, Gotham Central, Nightwing, Robin, and Superman/Batman.

The balance of the line was 11 titles:

Aquaman, Birds of Prey, Fallen Angel, Green Arrow, Hawkman, H-E-R-O, JSA, Outsiders, Plastic Man, Reign of the Zodiac, and Teen Titans.

Accordingly, there wasn’t a lot of new blood. Except for four titles (Fallen Angel, H-E-R-O, Kyle Baker’s Plastic Man, and Keith Giffen’s Zodiac), everything was either foundational, connected to the Superman or Batman lines, or revamps of longstanding characters. (I didn’t really see Plastic Man as a revamp.)

Anyway, in 2004 DC added several new series, including the original characters Monolith and Bloodhound and the creator-based anthology Solo. It also offered new versions of Firestorm and Manhunter; and brought back kung-fu fighter Richard Dragon (by Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel) and (under John Byrne) the Doom Patrol. Here’s the in-and-out breakdown:

New in ‘04: Monolith (Feb), Firestorm and Richard Dragon (May), Doom Patrol (June), Bloodhound (July), Manhunter (August), Solo (October), JLA Classified (Nov), Legion of Super-Heroes (Dec)

Cancelled in ‘04: Reign of the Zodiac (March), The Legion (August), H-E-R-O (Nov)

Counting the bimonthly Solo, this expansion left the DCU line with 35 ongoing series at the end of 2004. Moreover, the monthly tallies were further enhanced as DC went nuts with biweekly schedules. Six series had at least one extra issue in 2004, with Birds Of Prey going biweekly for three straight months (July-September) and JLA having two three-month biweekly runs (March-May, July-September). In 2004, the publisher produced 400 issues’ worth of ongoing series, up 44 issues from the previous year and returning to the 2002 total.

However, 2005 saw a lot of volatility in the ongoing series. Although the DCU line ended the year in positive territory with 37 ongoing series (415 total issues), that number included the bimonthly All Star Batman & Robin and All Star Superman. Plastic Man also went bimonthly in 2005, and Fallen Angel only published two issues before being cancelled in May. The worst ongoing-series offender was Superman/Batman, which missed a total of four months. Still, while seven series were cancelled, nine were added, including the anthologies JLA Classified and JSA Classified. Further offsetting these losses were biweekly runs (3 months each for Nightwing and JLA, a month each for Wonder Woman and JLA Classified).

Here are the specifics:

New in ‘05: Breach (Jan), Blood of the Demon (Mar), All Star Batman & Robin and JSA Classified (July), Jack Cross and Supergirl (Aug), All Star Superman and Jonah Hex (Nov), and Hard Time Season Two (Dec)

Cancelled in ‘05: Monolith (Jan), Bloodhound and Richard Dragon (Apr), Fallen Angel (May), Breach, Jack Cross, and Doom Patrol (Nov)

The churning continued in 2006. Mostly as a result of Infinite Crisis, DC put Flash, JLA, JSA, Manhunter, and Wonder Woman on hiatus for upwards of four months. Other regular series experienced delays: Superman/Batman missed five months and Supergirl missed three. Although Infinite Crisis spun off three titles (Blue Beetle, Checkmate, Shadowpact), it cancelled Plastic Man and The Adventures of Superman (sort of) and pruned the Batman line.

New in ‘06: Warlord (Feb), Blue Beetle (Mar), Checkmate (Apr), Shadowpact (May), Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, Green Lantern Corps, Wonder Woman (June), Justice League of America and The All-New Atom (July), The Spirit and Superman Confidential (Nov), Batman Confidential, Justice Society of America, Manhunter (Dec)

Cancelled in ‘06: The Flash, Plastic Man (Jan), The Adventures of Superman, Batman: Gotham Knights, Batgirl, Gotham Central, JLA, Wonder Woman (Feb), Hard Time Season Two (June), JSA, Blood of the Demon (July), Manhunter and Solo (Aug), Warlord (Nov)

The DCU line ended 2006 with 37 ongoing titles, the same as 2005. However, each month’s total number of ongoing-series issues never rose above 34 (January, February, July) and spent most of the year around 31. Therefore, even accounting for some books’ bimonthly schedules, and adding back biweekly issues and Annuals, each month saw at least a couple of missing books. December was particularly bad, missing Action Comics, Aquaman, Superman, Superman/Batman, and Wonder Woman. August was a close second, with Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Teen Titans failing to appear.

* * *

Meanwhile, the miniseries numbers took a step back in 2004, but not for long. In 2003 the DCU line included 164 issues’ worth of miniseries spread over 36 titles. This represented 30% of the DCU output. In 2004, miniseries made up 130 issues of 31 titles, or some 24% of the DCU output.

Of course, this included the 7 issues of Identity Crisis, the year’s can’t-miss-it Big Event. Also of note for the superhero fans were DC: The New Frontier (6 issues), the DC Comics Presents… Julius Schwartz tribute books (8 issues), Superman: Secret Identity (4 issues), the first half of Justice League Elite (6 issues), and the bulk of Superman: Birthright (7 issues). Non-super titles included Enginehead (6 issues), Light Brigade (4 issues), the starts of Elric: The Making Of A Sorceror (2 issues) and Toe Tags Featuring George Romero (3 issues), and the conclusion of Caper (9 issues). Howard Chaykin straddled the superhero boundary with an in-name-only revival of Challengers of the Unknown (6 issues). The rest of the miniseries included familar second- and third-stringers: Adam Strange (4 issues), Lobo Unbound (2 issues), The Question (2 issues), and Rose and Thorn (5 issues).

Therefore, although DC was still publishing a lot more miniseries than it had in 2001 or 2002, they didn’t fit into a recognizable marketing strategy. Naturally, that was about to change.

Not only did the DCU spend much of 2005 gearing up for Infinite Crisis, it also launched Grant Morrison’s mega-project Seven Soldiers. This pushed the miniseries numbers to 148 issues across 39 titles, with Seven Soldiers’ 22 issues exceeding the increase. The start of Infinite Crisis, its DC Countdown one-shot prologue, and its five lead-in miniseries combined for 32 more issues. There were 26 issues’ worth of the usual Batman miniseries (including the six-issue Engelhart/Rogers reunion Dark Detective), 10 issues’ worth of Superman miniseries; and 12 issues’ worth of JLA miniseries. Thus, about a third of 2005’s miniseries issues came from the two big events, with another third coming from reliable franchises.

The remaining 46 issues included the start of the backdoor WildStorm revamp Captain Atom: Armageddon (3 issues), the Green Lantern Corps miniseries Recharge (4 issues), the wannabe-superteam The Human Race (7 issues), revamps of Son Of Vulcan (6 issues) and Vigilante (4 issues), and the bulk of Space Ghost (4 issues). The only non-superhero issues came from the balance of Toe Tags (3 issues).

The miniseries numbers really took off in 2006, though, with 187 issues spread across 37 titles, representing about a third of the total DCU output. Naturally, most of the increase came from 34 issues’ worth of 52. The balance of Infinite Crisis accounted for 9 issues (including 5 related specials), and the balance of Seven Soldiers likewise accounted for 8 issues. However, that still left 136 issues’ worth of miniseries.

Many of these sought to bridge the gap between Infinite Crisis and whatever Big Event was coming next. The Battle For Bludhaven (6 issues) and The Spectre (3 issues) were “Crisis Aftermath” titles. More general spin-offs included Ion (9 issues), Mystery In Space (4 issues), Secret Six (6 issues), Tales of the Unexpected (3 issues), and Omega Men (3 issues). 2006 also saw the bulk (6 issues) of Captain Atom: Armageddon. Finally, the Brave New World sampler launched a handful of miniseries: The Creeper (5 issues), Martian Manhunter (5 issues), Trials of Shazam! (4 issues), OMAC (6 issues), and Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters (6 issues). That’s a total of 66 issues to attract the crossover-minded.

By way of comparison, the Batman line got 30 issues’ worth of miniseries (including 4 issues of Paul Pope’s Year 100). Apparently this didn’t leave much room for the usual Superman or JLA miniseries. The former got only the 4 issues of Superman Returns prequels; and the JLA saw only six issues’ worth of Alex Ross’ Justice, plus the concluding issue of the Cold Steel two-parter.

2006 did see 4 issues of an Elfquest miniseries (The Discovery) and 2 issues of the Elric miniseries which started in 2004. It also had a 6-issue Sgt. Rock miniseries (The Prophecy) and the 4-issue car ad Rush City (featuring a guest appearance by Black Canary). The miniseries numbers were rounded out by stories featuring Connor Hawke (2 issues), Guy Gardner (2 issues), the last issue of Green Lantern Corps: Recharge, the last two issues of Vigilante, and the fringes-of-the-DCU tale The Next (6 issues). Those 29 issues’ worth of 9 titles were comparable to the year’s Batman-miniseries output, but were fewer than half of the issues spun out of Infinite Crisis. Perhaps more significantly, they were fewer than 52’s output for the year.

* * *

In 2006, the DCU line produced 384 ongoing-series issues, 187 miniseries issues, and 4 one-shot/special issues, for a total of 575 issues. While that number is in line with previous years (543 in ‘03, 545 in ‘04, 575 in ‘05), it’s an increase of about 100 issues from the 2001 and 2002 totals (475 and 468, respectively); and it all pretty much comes from miniseries. My first thought is that 2003’s miniseries expansion tested the capacity of the DCU’s readership, so that subsequent years could use that capacity for more specific goals. Certainly, once everything got going in 2005, the various miniseries tended to fall into recognizable categories, even without considering how interconnected everything was supposed to become.

We’ll pick up next week with 2007, when the “branding” and the interconnections really took off. See you then!

++++++++++++++++

Appendix:  The TItles

2004 DCU miniseries

Adam Strange (4 issues, Sep-Dec)
Batman/Catwoman: Trail of the Gun (2, Aug-Sep)
Batman: City of Light (5, Jan-May)
Batman: Death and the Maidens (4, Jan-Apr)
Batman: Harley and Ivy (3, Apr-June)
Caper (9, Jan-Sep)
Catwoman: When in Rome (4, Sep-Dec)
Challengers of the Unknown (6, Jun-Nov)
DC Comics Presents … (8, July-Aug)
DC: The New Frontier (6, Jan-Mar, May, July, Sep)
Deadshot (1, Dec)
Demon: Driven Out (2, Jan-Feb)
Enginehead (6, Apr-Sep)
iCandy (2, Jan-Feb)
Identity Crisis (7, Jun-Sep, Oct-Dec)
JSA: Strange Adventures (5, Aug-Dec)
Justice League Elite (6, Jul-Dec)
Justice League of America: Another Nail (3, May-July)
Light Brigade (4, Feb-May)
Lobo Unbound (2, Jan, Mar)
Majestic (4, Aug-Nov)
Michael Moorcock’s Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer (2, Sep, Dec)
The Question (2, Nov-Dec)
Rose and Thorn (5, Jan-May)
Scratch (5, Aug-Dec)
Smallville (5, bimonthly Jan-Nov)
Space Ghost (2, Nov-Dec)
Superman: Birthright (7, Jan-July)
Superman: Metropolis (1, Jan)
Superman: Secret Identity (4, Jan-Apr)
Toe Tags Featuring George Romero (3, Oct-Dec)

2005 DCU miniseries

Adam Strange (4, Jan-Apr)
Batman and the Monster Men (2, Nov-Dec)
Batman: Dark Detective (6 biweekly, May-July)
Batman: Gotham County Line (3, Oct-Dec)
Batman: Jekyll and Hyde (6, Apr-Sept)
Batman: Journey Into Knight (5, Aug-Dec)
Captain Atom: Armageddon (3, Oct-Dec)
Catwoman: When in Rome (2, Feb, June)
Day of Vengeance (6, Apr-Sept)
DC Countdown [counted here as an Infinite Crisis tie-in] (1, Mar)
DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy (4, June-Aug)
Deadshot (4, Jan-Apr)
Green Lantern Corps: Recharge (4, Sept-Dec)
Human Race (7, Mar-Sept)
Infinite Crisis (3, Oct-Dec)
JLA Classified: Cold Steel (1, Dec)
JSA: Strange Adventures (1, Jan)
Justice (3 bimonthly, Aug-Dec)
Justice League Elite (6, Jan-June)
Lex Luthor: Man of Steel (5, Mar-July)
The OMAC Project (6, Apr-Sept)
The Question (4, Jan-Apr)
Rann/Thanagar War (6, May-Oct)
Seven Soldiers (1, Feb)
Seven Soldiers: Bulleteer (2, Nov-Dec)
Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein (1, Nov)
Seven Soldiers: Guardian (4 bimonthly, Mar-Sept)
Seven Soldiers: Klarion the Witch Boy (4 bimonthly, Apr-Oct)
Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle (2, Sept, Dec)
Seven Soldiers: Shining Knight (4 bimonthly, Mar-Aug)
Seven Soldiers: Zatanna (4 bimonthly, Apr-Oct)
Son of Vulcan (6, Jun-Nov)
Space Ghost (4, Jan-Apr)
Superman/Shazam: First Thunder (4, Sept-Dec)
Superman: Strength (3, Jan-Mar)
Toe Tags Featuring George Romero (3, Jan-Mar)
Vigilante (4, Sept-Dec)
Villains United (6, May-Oct)
Year One: Batman/Ra’s Al Ghul (2, June-July)
Year One: Batman/Scarecrow (2, May-June)

2006 DCU miniseries

52 (34 weekly, May-Dec)
Batman and the Mad Monk (5, Aug-Dec)
Batman and the Monster Men (4, Jan-Apr)
Batman: Journey into Knight (7, Jan-Jun, Sept)
Batman: Secrets (5, Mar-July)
Batman: Year 100 (4, Feb-May)
Captain Atom: Armageddon (6, Jan-June)
Connor Hawke: Dragon’s Blood (2, Nov-Dec)
Creeper (5, Aug-Dec)
Crisis Aftermath: The Battle for Bludhaven (6, Apr-July)
Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre (3, May-July)
Day of Vengeance: Infinite Crisis Special (1, Jan)
Elfquest: The Discovery (4 bimonthly, Jan-July)
Green Lantern Corps: Recharge (1, Jan)
Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage (2, Nov-Dec)
Infinite Crisis (4, Jan-Mar, May)
Ion (9, Apr-Dec)
JLA Classified: Cold Steel (1, Jan)
Justice (6 bimonthly, Feb-Dec)
Man-Bat (5, Apr-Aug)
Martian Manhunter (5, Aug-Dec)
Michael Moorcock’s Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer (2, June-July)
Mystery in Space (4, Sept-Dec)
The Next (6, July-Dec)
OMAC (6, July-Dec)
The OMAC Project: Infinite Crisis Special (1, Mar)
Omega Men (3, Oct-Dec)
Rann/Thanagar War: Infinite Crisis Special (1, Feb)
Rush City (4, July-Oct)
Secret Six (6, May-Nov)
Seven Soldiers (1, Oct)
Seven Soldiers: Bulleteer (2, Feb-Mar)
Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein (3, Jan-Mar)
Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle (2 bimonthly, Jan-Mar)
Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy (6, Jan-June)
Superman Returns Prequel (4 weekly, June)
Tales of the Unexpected (3, Oct-Dec)
Trials of Shazam! (4, Aug-Nov)
Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters (6, July-Dec)
Vigilante (2, Jan-Feb)

2004 DCU special issues/one-shots

Batman/Danger Girl
Batman/Poison Ivy:Cast Shadows
Batman: Roomful of Strangers
Batman: The 12-Cent Adventure
Batman: The Order of Beasts
Catwoman: The Movie
DC 100-Page Super Spectacular Replica Edition
Elfquest: The Searcher and the Sword
Mighty Love
Superman: True Brit
Teen Titans/Legion Special
Weird Secret Origins
World’s Best Comics: Silver Age DC Archives Sampler

2005 DCU special issues/one-shots

All Star Batman and Robin Special Edition
Batman Allies Secret Files 2005
Batman Begins Movie Adaptation
Batman Villains Secret Files 2005
Batman: The Man Who Laughs
JLA/Cyberforce
Superman: Infinite City
Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files 2005

2006 DCU special issues/one-shots

Amazing Adventures of the JLA
DCU Infinite Holiday Special
DCU: Brave New World
Superman Returns: The Movie Adaptation

Catching up on Frank Cho’s funny forum recently I read his Hulk cover was rejected entirely. Something about his rendition of the Hulk and She-Hulk, doing something or producing something decent people have decided we shouldn’t see. I haven’t seen the art in question, but now that it’s banned in all English speaking countries, I am, of course, dying to see it. Naturally, Frank’s cover would have sold for thousands. Sober estimates (much more trustworthy than the alternative) run at $8,000. It’s a shame. That’s a lot of money for a charity to lose.

On his message board, Cho comments on why it was rejected:

C’mon. It’s me. It can only mean one thing - too risque.

Americans fear female nudity.

In his latest column over at Comic Bulletin, comics writer Beau Smith shares a long list of opinions … stuff like “Bruce Wayne could be a more interesting a character if the Batman didn’t pick out his clothes for him” and “In the 1980’s, Pacific Comics, Eclipse Comics and First Comics were way ahead of their time creatively. Their books still measure up today and more.” (I agree with that second one).

One opinion, though, was a head scratcher: “J Torres, Sean McKeever, Tony Bedard, and Terry Moore shouldn’t be typecast as the guy writers that you hire when you can’t find a chick. They can do any gender.”

Blogger and Friends of Lulu president Valerie D’Orazio had some questions about that one:

Is there some sort of “shame” attached to being a male writer who writes stories starring women? Where does that leave the Hernandez Brothers? Are they just pussies? Are they just toiling away in Chickland until they land their big break on The Avengers?

Much more from Val at the link.

I’ve been meaning to link to cartoonist J. Bone’s “Guy A Day” illustrations for the past month, but I have a memory like a sieve. He doesn’t post every day, but he usually makes up for that with multiple drawings in a single entry.

(Note: Although there’s nothing remotely pornographic about the illustrations, the occasional bare butt may make the posts not entirely safe for work — depending where you work.)

At Comixology, Tucker Stone considers what the estimated sales figures for Marvel and DC’s summer-event comics may actually tell us:

… the reaction seems to be that, since Marvel’s big event cross-over beat DC’s big event cross-over, there is somehow a connection between those pre-sale numbers and whether or not A) big corporate people should lose their jobs, B) Marvel speaks to the people in a way that DC doesn’t, or C) any of this really matters, at all. There’s something else that occasionally pops up, though — I’m assuming it isn’t as interesting to read or write about, but it’s what I’m more interested in this week. And that is that neither of those numbers — the estimated 200,344 copies of Secret Invasion # 2 versus the 159,036 of Final Crisis — are anything to be really impressed by. Sure, there’s a big discrepancy between those two books — but even at the top end of the scale, it’s only in comic books that 200,000 of anything is worth getting excited about.

Illustrator Christopher Niemann meditates on his sons’ love for the New York City subway system over at The New York Times.

Best rant I’ve read all month:

It’s not just Ross, it’s this culture of photo-referencing in comics that grinds my gears. It’s true, I hate Ross’s work. He’s got great technical ability, but big deal. Why is copying the nuances of a photograph such an achievement? That’s not drawing! He’s the worst example for a young artist to have, the worst role model. No one has done more harm to the form than Ross. It’s not comics he makes. It’s fumetti. There are no real panel-to-panel transitions as there are in “pure cartooning”; he’s just putting photograph next to photograph in way that some find pleasing. But it’s not comics.

This being a comic book blog, I haven’t had much opportunity or cause to link to any of Yahtzee’s hilariously insightful videos. Now I finally do, as he takes to task the “plague” of gaming Webcomics that currently sprawl across the Internet. Merriment at the expense of others ensues.

Starting the Monday after Comic Con, because you demanded it, Mattel will be launching a brand new Collector Website with the latest news, updates, previews and – the big one – EXCLUSIVE action figures from your favorite Mattel toy lines like CARS, DCU and more! Wait – you want more? – this new site will also be the EXCLUSIVE home of Masters of the Universe Classic action figures with a new character available EACH MONTH starting this fall!

Of course we’ll have more details including the URL name at San Diego Comic Con, but we wanted to make sure to give online toy fans the scoop first. Oh – and to kick off the new online store, we’ll be putting aside a very limited number of each of this year’s SDCC exclusives which will go on sale on the new collector web site at 8:00 am Eastern Standard Time on July 28th.

What would be nice is if the site would offer all the hard-to-find JLU figures that have come out over the last nine months or so. You can read the whole announcement over at Action Figure Insider.

The new Umbrella Academy short story that JK mentioned last the weekend — “Anywhere But Here” — is now at MySpace Dark Horse Presents. The comic, by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba, takes us back 13 years to Vanya and The Kraken’s rebellious teen-age years. (You also can read: the comic tie-in to Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, “Captain Hammer: Be Like Me,” by Zack Whedon and Eric Canete; “A Going Concern,” by John Arcudi and Steve Young; and “How To Heal A Broken Heart: Method 37,” by Tara McPherson.)

If that’s not enough Umbrella Academy for you, New York magazine’s Vulture blog has an excerpt from the Apocalypse Suite trade paperback. Oh, and Tom McLean kicks off a two-part interview with Way.

Acclaimed director David Fincher is teaming with Blur Studio and Dark Horse to turn Eric Powell’s pulpy paranormal series The Goon into a CG-animated feature film.

The announcement, which is a light on details, was made on Powell’s official website. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Powell will write the screenplay.

No studio is attached. However, the trade paper says that Dark Horse, which has a first-look deal with Universal, is hoping to develop the movie in-house before shopping it to a studio.

Created in 1999, The Goon centers on the muscle-bound title character and his sidekick Franky, who fight the Zombie Priest and his minions, cannibal hobos, and countless other supernatural creatures.

DCUO Concept Art - First Look DCUO Concept Art

As reported Monday, the Japanese publisher Kodansha is planning to set up a U.S. subsidiary to sell manga directly on these shores.

Reaction to the announcement, as expected, was swift. MangaBlog and Simon Jones over at Icarus Publishing have the best roundups.

There are a few items worth noting, however, the most significant being that Dallas Middaugh, Del Rey Manga Associate Publisher, has declared that this will not affect their publishing schedule (Del Rey having served as Kodansha’s principal licensor for awhile now):

Well, it’s business as usual at Del Rey Manga. We’re continuing to license manga from Kodansha, and as has been stated elsewhere, we’ve just about wrapped up our licenses for 2009 and are now starting to work on 2010. In a few weeks at the San Diego Comic-Con we’ll be announcing some of those new licenses, and we’ve got some really exciting new manga series planned. Then we’ll have a few more announcements at the New York Anime Festival in September… pretty much like we’ve always done. Also, we will continue to publish all of our manga. Kodansha has not pulled any licenses back from us.

Writing for The Comics Reporter, David Welsh received back-up confirmation of this from other sources.

Chris Butcher, however, says that Dark Horse no longer has the license for Akira and that Tokyopop has cancelled Volumes 13 and 14 of Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, thought the latter could be due to TP’s recent troubles.

Lots of people, meanwhile, are speculating on what this could mean for American manga fans or setting up their own wish lists. Better get started on yours.

In the month of June possibly to celebrate the release of the new Incredible Hulk film, possibly to fill the late gap of Loeb’s Hulk, we got a bunch of big heafty issues with some backup stories and reprints.  Mind you, Iron Man got two new books that turned out to be pretty good jumping on points for those intreigued by the movie or so it worked over at our store.  Two titles, an ongoing to ease readers into the current comic events and a glossy prestigue mini-series and all the Hulk got was a rock.  It’s like the Marvel offices had the same prejudices of the movie going public had;  “Well, the last movie was lame so let’s just hope people don’t hate the new one and hope for the best’.  And before you say it, I know: Skaar, Son of Hulk new on the stands as well and they did get a comic with familiar Green Hulk in it under the wire for June, but neither of these are great intro comics for those who thought Edward Norton was keen.  In fact, I’d probably cozy up to the book a bit more if it was just called ‘Skaar, Conan in Space’ or ‘Grek Pak’s Interglatactic Tales of Skaar’ because the honest truth is if the Hulk ain’t in the book, it is not a Hulk book.   ‘Red’ Hulk doesn’t count because I have NO IDEA what’s going on with that story outside sort of an ‘All Star Batman’ feel of taking on the tropes of Hulkness:  smashing and gamma monsters.  Ehn.

Mind you, Marvel did the same thing with Ang Lee’s movie as their 25-cent issue released at the time of the movie  didn’t really have the Hulk in it either, but that’s another story.

Right, so the ’specials’:  King Size Hulk and Hulk: Raging Thunder.  You can technically count Giant-Sized Incredible Hulk, with the Gary Frank cover, but that’s semantics.  This is what Marvel brought to the table and, having read each of them, I can’t say I’m impressed.  But yet, I can’t <i>not</i> like them (well, except for the Giant Size, because it was a snooze fest) and let me tell you why.

Both the King Size Hulk and Hulk: Raging Thunder have really light new content.  The stories are short and sweet (in Raging Thunder’s case maybe a little too short?) and both of them seem really out of place.  Did we really need to know what the Wendigo have been up to?  How much ass does Frank Cho need to draw on a regular basis?  (Answer: a LOT.  The man cashes a lot of checks on his finesse with female curves!)  These stories from King-Size Hulk, while interesting, are interludes to a larger story at work that was delayed for one reason or another.  If these were written to fill in the ‘gaps’ of the main book… again, Wendigo?  How much time as the red Hulk had between the end of World War Hulk and now to go pick a fight with a pack of cannibal beasts?  Why is She-Hulk still over here instead of getting disbarred and turning disillusioned bounty hunter in her own book?  Mind you, if the stories were set to entice people into the main story of ‘Red’ Hulk, then it’s actually pretty good.  The Wendigo story felt dangerous enough and hinted a bit at some of the storyline going on right now and the Red Hulk vs. She-Hulk fight was full of pulp and action; the two combined are pretty much what’s going on in the main title.

So we get the two short tales and then… THREE REPRINTS.  First off, King Size Hulk came with the first appearance of Wolverine which is actually kind of cool.  If you don’t have it, never read it, it’s a neat thing to get for your enjoyment, a little history for your money, plus it had the Hulk in it, which sort of qualifies it for a piggyback in the special.  Sure, you could put a reprint of Hulk #181 in a Wolverine special (of which he has a truckload this summer), but this is a way to give a little showtime to the Hulk while getting in that ‘Wolverine Bump’, kind of ‘cool by association’.  Believe it or not, there are some people on this Earth that didn’t know that Wolverine first appeared in a non-mutant title and fought the Hulk right out of the bat, so history lessons for everyone.

And then… there was the other reprint: Avengers #83.  Is the Hulk in this book?  NO.  Is She-Hulk maybe in this book?  NO.  Does this book have anything to do with anything Hulk related or what’s going on in any current comic continuity?  NO.  So why is it in this King Size Hulk?  Because Carla loves the Lady Liberators.  Really, that’s all I could think of because I really really love this issue.  I should be mad at such a waste of a reprint in a Hulk special but it’s like finding a really cute kitten in a three car pile up.  Sure, there’s damage and wreckage and someone should get the licence of the driver that caused it all but ohhhhh, lookit de kitty!  Seriously guys, I feel like apologising for having this third nipple of a reprint thrown into King-Size Hulk because even though I have the actual issue, I have the Avengers DVD-ROM with this issue, I have the Essential Avengers volume with this issue, I was so happy to have yet ANOTHER COPY to show to customers and friends alike.  Oh Valykrie and the Enchantress!

The second special actually has similar problem to a lesser extent.  It’s a rather left-field little tale about Thundra, warrior woman of a female-dominated planet, coming to Earth to fight the Hulk and get some DNA from him so that they could have a baby that would be strong enough to lead when Thundra has to step down from being the Warrior Princess.  Or something.  Yeah, and there’s a lot of fighting and metaphorical juxtapositon between Thundra and the Hulk and yes, there’s a Femizon/Gamma hybrid girl being all awesome and cool at the end of it all, but… really?  Who’s been crying out for a Thundra vs. Hulk face off?  I mean, did Marvel finally get all my letters?!

Again, this is another issue I should be really mad at.  A weak story that will be forgotten to the annuls of time with the creation of a useless character that some poor fool will dredge back up when his own plots are failing in order to gain a cookie from the Fanboy Faction for his citation of this lost issue and, yes, a reprint of Thundra’s first appearance in the Fantastic Four, the Hulkless Fantastic Four #129.  Really, this should have been called Thundra: Gamma Rage or something because it’s not a Hulk story.  The Hulk is a means to an end for the Femizons who lead the story with their goal of getting preggers (by the way, it’s through a kiss so everyone look disappointed).  The reprint has nothing to do with the Hulk and once again, he gets the shaft in his own $3.99 special released when his movie hits theaters.

Setting aside my love of Thundra (and her mistaken counterpart from those Deadpool issues, Titania), what’s the real story of Jeph Loeb’s Hulk?  It’s about the Red Hulk which we all know isn’t Banner now.  Skaar, Son of Hulk showed the Green Goliath in the recap but that’s it.  For a movie that did so much to make you like Bruce Banner thanks to the fantastic performance of Edward Norton and that really hit the core of the old and VERY POPULAR TV show, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like it in comic book form outside of back issues and reprint trades.  It’s a lament I’ve had for a long time but hey.  At least I have reprints.

Before jumping in, though, a quick public service announcement: if you’re driving to the con or plan to rent a car, California’s hands-free cell phone law went into effect earlier this week. This means you can get a ticket for talking and driving, unless you’re using a hands free device. The law doesn’t address texting or personal hygiene, as evidenced by the lady I saw brushing her teeth while driving yesterday. So brush your teeth, shave, put on make-up, send a text or read a comic — just don’t talk on the phone. End of PSA.

Artist Cliff Chiang sent me a note about the booth he’s sharing with Jill Thompson and Brian Wood, along with an image of the banners they’ll be displaying (which looks very cool!). Here’s what Cliff said:

For the first time, I’ll have my own table at SDCC, sharing a booth with Jill Thompson and Brian Wood. Located at Booth #1322, you can find us listed as the three-headed beast “Jill Thompson, Brian Wood, Cliff Chiang” in the program book. We’ll have books, prints, original art, and Jill and I will be doing commissioned sketches.

Comics writer Steve Seagle sent over a press release that detailed the plans of Man of Action Studios:

Man of Action Studios, the creative development company formed in 2002 by comic book iconoclasts Joe Casey (Godland), Joe Kelly (Spider-Man), Duncan Rouleau (Metal Men), and Steven T. Seagle (American Virgin) will be in full force at the 2008 Comicon International. Fans are welcome to come by booth 2007 for autographs and exclusive advance looks at upcoming Man of Action comic and media projects.

Man of Action are the creators of the record-shattering BEN 10 series for Cartoon Network, and have created for diverse clients such as Activision, NBC/Universal, Animal Planet, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, SAMG Animation, Warner Brothers Feature Films, Paramount Feature Films, FOX television, Mainframe Animation, 4Kids Entertainment, and Speak Theater Arts.

Man Of Action launches its own line of original comics and graphic novels under the Image Comics banner this year including Krash Bastards, Charlatan Ball, Four Eyes, I Kill Giants, Soul Kiss, and The Great Unknown. Copies and preview copies will be at the booth. Man of Action will also have Ben 10 DVDs available as well as the full library of Man Of Action trade paperbacks.

Man of Action is represented by William Morris Agency

Joe Eisma has a new book from Devil’s Due that’ll premiere at the show:

My graphic novel, Serpo, is debuting at the show from Devil’s Due Publishing. I’m the artist, and writer Jason Burns and I will be signing at their booth from 1-2 pm Friday 7/25 and tentatively Saturday from 10-11 am. I’ll be doing sketches as well while I’m at the booth. Also, my other series, A Dummy’s Guide to Danger: Lost at Sea, will be on hand at the Viper Comics booth.

David Gallaher, the writer of the Zuda contest-winning High Moon, will be signing at the show and appearing on the Zuda panel:

Steve Ellis and I will be selling original artwork for our webcomic series HIGH MOON, signing free Zuda samplers at the DC Comics booth, and appearing at the Zuda Comics Panel on Sunday discussing the conclusion of HIGH MOON. Seriously, if you follow HIGH MOON or any of the Zuda comics, you’ll want to be at that panel!

Ted Mathot will debut a new book, Cora, at the show:

Derek Thompson and I will be listed under the name E-Ville Press again this year, located at Booth #1534. The first installment of CORA will make its debut this year, and Rose and Isabel parts 1 and 2 will be available as well. Derek will have an ALL NEW Monster Annual chock full of his awesome designs (365 of them!) as well as original art. We’ll also have the AFTERWORKS 2 anthology for sale, which contains short stories by Derek, myself and many others.

Fantagraphics has a new Love & Rockets book debuting at the show:

Join us July 24-27 in San Diego, CA for the 2008 Comic Con International! We’re pleased to be hosting special convention guests Kim Deitch and Jim Woodring, as well as the Hernandez brothers (debuting Love and Rockets: New Stories #1!) and over a dozen more artists at our booth (#1716, same as last year)! We’ll have lots of exciting debuts, free goodies, and of course tons and tons of incredible books and comics for sale. Stay tuned to FLOG! The Fantagraphics Blog for upcoming details and announcements!

Shout Factory will have multiple panels and signings at their booth with folks like Len Wein and Steve Purcell, among others:

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 (MST3K): 20th ANNIVERSARY

Multiple Emmy®-nominated and Peabody Award-winning Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) is a true cult classic. Its high-camp rendition of B-movies from every genre to the small screen makes it one of the most memorable pop culture shows of our time. Brimming with laugh-out-loud commentaries from caustically hilarious space travelers Joel Robinson, Mike Nelson and their robot pals Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, MST3K was a genuine phenomenon. Its popularity spawned an MST3K fan following that numbers over hundreds of thousands of fans world-wide.

Celebrating 20 years after MST3K’s premiere on television, the entire creative team reunites for the first time when Shout! Factory proudly presents its MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000: 20th Anniversary Edition DVD box set this October 2008. A sumptuous ode to this cult-classic series, the 20th Anniversary Edition DVD box set features four of the show’s most requested unreleased film episodes (the exact 4 titles will be revealed at Comic-Con) and boasts exclusive DVD bonus content that explore the genesis, life and afterlife of MST3K. More in-depth info will be revealed at the 20th Anniversary Reunion Panel (see below).

Talents at Comic Con: entire MST3K family

Comic Con Panel

Friday, July 25 (7:15 PM – 8:15 PM) Room 6B – MST3K 20Th Anniversary Reunion Panel

Moderated by Patton Oswalt, an historic reunion of cast and crew, including creator Joel Hodgson, producer Jim Mallon and fellow MST3K family: Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy, Mike Nelson, Bridget Nelson Mary Jo Pehl, Paul Chaplin, J. Elvis Weinstein and the MST3K robots Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot!!!

JANE AND THE DRAGON: A DRAGON’S TALE

In the 9th-Century English kingdom of Kippernium , adolescent girls are typically raised to be Ladies-in-Waiting. But Jane isn’t exactly the kingdom’s typical 12-year old girl. No, she has much higher aspirations — life as a brave knight! So, when Jane rescues Prince Cuthbert from a not-so-ferocious dragon, she’s granted special permission to begin training as a knight’s apprentice with the gentle, wisecracking dragon by her side. And thus begins the fun-filled, flammable and memorable tales of the fair maiden, Jane Turnkey, and her best-friend, Dragon. And, on August 19, Shout! Factory catapults JANE AND THE DRAGON: A DRAGON’S TALE onto DVD for the very first time in a single disc release featuring the first five episodes from this groundbreaking animated series adapted from Martin Baynton’s popular children’s books.

Talent at Comic Con: Creator Martin Baynton

FRIDAY, July 25 (11:30 AM -12:30 PM) Martin Baynton at Hey Kids The First One’s in the Library Panel followed by a signing at Table AA4 (12:30 PM – 1:30 PM)

TALENTS at SHOUT! FACTORY BOOTH:

Friday, July 25 (11 AM) Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell will be at Shout! Factory’s booth (#3749)

Friday, July 25 – TBD – MST3K talent at Shout! Factory’s booth (#3749)

Saturday, July 26 (1 PM) Swamp Thing star Dick Durock and co-creator Len Wein at Shout! Factory’s booth (#3749)

Saturday, July 26 (3:00 PM) Dan Milano, co-creator and voice talent) of Greg The Bunny will be at Shout! Factory’s booth (#3749)

And finally, Murphy Designs has “all kinds of goodness in store” for Comic-Con:

The 2008 Comic-Con will be here before you know it, and Murphy Design has all kinds of goodness in store. Stop by Murphy Art Books, Booth No. 4833, July 24 - 28 and say hello to Jeff Soto, Kathie Olivas and Brandt Peters, details below:

+++ Jeff Soto at ComicCon Booth No. 4833 : July 24 - July 27
Jeff Soto and Murphy Art Books will be featuring new prints, mini zines and originals at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con and convention. Jeff has created a new 20 page mini zine and will be on hand to sign his new book, “Storm Clouds,” featuring 148 pages. Jeff’s new hard-bound edition features : “Supernova,” “Cold Ice Age,” “Storm Clouds” and everything in between. This will be a great opportunity to say hello to Jeff, as he will be working hard on his upcoming museum exhibition held at the Riverside Art Museum in December. Online book orders will be accepted, July 21, 2008

+++ SuperHero Exhibition and Party : Thursday, July 24, 7 pm - Midnight
“SuperHero,” featuring the art works of Jeff Soto, Luke Chueh, Lola, Joel Nakamura, Anthony Lister, Christopher Ryniak, Marco Wagner, Lola, Kathie Olivas, Mark Todd, Esther Pearl Watson and many other great artists will be on display for an evening of goodness. The party will be held near this year’s Comic-Con Convention and will be hosted by Ninthlink, Murphy Art Books, Hi-Fructose and great folks from coast to coast. More information will be offered soon, so save the date and join in the fun.

+++ Kathie Olivas and Brandt Peters : “Ghosts and Martyrs” : ComicCon Release
Kathie Olivas and Brandt Peters has teamed up to create an all in one doubled up artist book.
Kathie Olivas features an impressive painting collection from her “Misery Children” characters, concept sketches, sculpts and customs. Flip the book over and discover Brandt Peters and his whimsical collection of drawings, character developments, toys and paintings. Two books in one–deliver 230 full color pages of self-published works and a massive collection of collaborative works shared between Kathie and Brandt. Kathie and Brandt will be signing their book on Friday and Sunday at Comic-Con. Online book orders will be accepted, July 21, 2008.

Smallville ended its last season with Lex and Clark locked in battle inside a crumbling Fortress of Solitude. When the new season starts this fall, Clark is missing — and his buddy Oliver Queen puts the band back together to find him.

According to TV Guide, Oliver Queen, played by Justin Hartley, will “start this new chapter by gathering Aquaman and Black Canary to rescue Clark. Alan Ritchson and Alaina Huffman will reprise their roles, as will Phil Morris, whose Martian Manhunter also appears in the opener, titled ‘Odyssey.’” It’s a slightly different line-up, as the last time we saw Queen’s League it included Cyborg and Impulse.

More details on the upcoming season can be found at the link.

It’s been a couple of months since the Internet was last gripped by “Robin Panic,” the fear that the Boy Wonder will appear in the rebooted Batman movie franchise.

The last outbreak was triggered by rumors that the third film will rely heavily on the miniseries The Long Halloween and Dark Victory for its source material. Now fast-forward two months to this current round of sidekickophobia, sparked by a writer at JoBlo.com … reading a two-month-old rumor.

But, hey, it’s an evergreen topic, right? Much like Sturdy’s ages-old arguments against the character’s inclusion: Robin isn’t cool, the presumption of pedophilia, homoeroticism, Joel Schumacher, etc. It must strike a chord, though, because the comments thread is up to six pages, and the discussion has moved on to other sites.

At Cinematical, Erik Davis responds to Sturdy’s assertion that, “if you got together all of today’s best writers and filmmakers and locked them in a room, they wouldn’t be able to come up with a Robin storyline that worked”:

Really? Is Robin a franchise killer or is Sturdy missing the importance of his character?

See, the one thing I always liked about Robin as a character, and not the version that popped up on TV or in Schumacher’s films, was that he revealed another layer of Bruce Wayne. What happens when you take a guy who’s lived his entire life as a loner, a rebel, and gave him a young, pesky teenager to look after. Essentially, what happens when this kickass superhero is forced to become a dad.

I like the idea of Robin, if not always the execution of the character in comics and elsewhere. And I wonder whether Batman’s tutelage of an orphaned Dick Grayson wouldn’t provide a nice thematic bookend to Bruce Wayne’s training in Batman Begins by Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Shadows.

Meanwhile, Gary Oldman hints to MovieWeb who one of the villains might be in the third movie: The Riddler.

Update: Christian Bale says no to Robin: “If Robin crops up in one of the new Batman films, I’ll be chaining myself up somewhere and refusing to go to work.”

It’s a question that comes up from time to time on message boards and blogs, and came up again yesterday when comics retailer James Sime asked folks on Twitter what comic got them “hooked for life.” Sime noted Daredevil #154 (above), and the responses he received created a list of comics that included everything from Star Wars and Spider-Man to Unknown Soldier and Kamandi. You can check all the responses out here.

For the record, mine was Uncanny X-Men #115, specifically the panel where Wolverine tore into Sauron, who had just proclaimed he was going to rule the Savage Land. Wolverine responds, “The only place you’re gonna rule is in hell!” the claws came out and I was done for.

Here’s something that may be news to Bryan Singer, Brandon Routh, Warner Bros. — and, well, most everybody else: Mark Millar is planning a Superman movie for 2011.

Sort of. Maybe.

In an interview last week with the Scottish Daily Record, the Wanted co-creator and unrepentant Superman fan said:

“Since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to reinvent Superman for the 21st century.

“I’ve been planning this my entire life. I’ve got my director and producer set up, and it’ll be 2011. This is how far ahead you have to think.

“The Superman brand is toxic after that last movie lost $200 million, but in 2011 we’re hoping to restart it.

“Sadly I can’t say who the director is, but we may make it official by Christmas.

“But fingers crossed it could work out, that would be my lifetime’s dream.”

Millar, as he’s wont to do, then clarified the item on his Millarworld message board:

“… In the interests of clarity (because I’m sure this will be picked up somewhere) a very well known American action director heard about my love of Superman, approached my and asked me to team up with he and his producer to make a pitch for this. We’ve been talking for several weeks now and, if this is going to happen, we’ll know by Christmas. He has huge pull at WB so fingers crossed. But this is nothing more than a huge US name pulling me into his fold and making me part of a package.”

The next day, Millar seems even less confident:

“Again, I can only stress that isn’t news, lads. It isn’t an offer from WB or anyone. It’s just a big name action director who got in touch and asked me to join he and a producer we both know well to pitch for it. This guy is a big deal at WB so there’s a little hope. But this ain’t a news item until it happens. And it’s not even close to happening yet.”

So, it moved from “I’ve got my director and producer set up, and it’ll be 2011″ to “it’s not even close to happening yet” in about a day.

Update: It appears as if the Millarworld thread has been deleted.

(Via FirstShowing)

EW.com has first-look video of two new characters from the highly anticipated LEGO Batman: The Video Game: Poison Ivy and … some really fast guy with a briefcase.

The game is set to debut in September.

Gerry Alanguilan goofs on the classic Ripley strip.

Warner Bros. has acquired the film rights to the Image Shadowline sci-fi series Hiding in Time for Dan Lin (Terminator Salvation) to produce.

Beau Thorne (Max Payne) will pen the adaptation.

The 2007 miniseries, written by Christopher Long and penciled by Ryan Winn, is set in the near-future, where the Witness Protection Program uses time travel to relocate people. But when an assassin begins finding and killing witnesses, a government technician must go back in time to help save them.

The For Better or For Worse creator has posted some of her student art work up on her site.

Ah, the trials and tribulations of being a boutique comics publisher. We recently had two articles that peered into that issue. First up, Doug Wolk offers a profile of relative newcomer Secret Acres, who had a strong buzz going on at MoCCA this year:

Secret Acres is still working out the details on how it’s going to distribute its books beyond the convention circuit and Web site—the publishers are still in the early stages of talking to Diamond and “trying to have a very concerted marketing effort,” according to Matthews. “We advertise, we send out press kits…. We’re also trying to figure out which shows make the most sense to attend. Obviously, we can’t go to all of them, but we’re trying to get a sense of which ones are the best fit for our books.”

Secret Acres also has an Avelino-designed Web site, secretacres.com, which sells it’s books and artists’ minicomics, and also includes critical theory about comics as well as serialized strips. “I liked what Tom was doing with the Highwater Web site, where he had small installments of the books he was selling,” Avelino said. “It’s such a cheap and good opportunity to get people looking forward to seeing things. And comics criticism is a big deal to me. It’s important to me for those conversations to happen.”

Then Brian Heater interviews Sparkplug publisher Dylan Williams about his ever-burgeoning line of books:

Was that sense of dismay that you expressed toward some of the larger indies based on their output?

Well, for me [laughs]—I’ll go on record with this. One of the bigger ones was Fantagraphics, and the problem there was that they weren’t taking any chances on smaller people when I started. They were basically just publishing their own people that they’d had experience with. Within a few years of that, they actually have started changing. They’re doing Mome now. The whole point of Mome is to give some exposure to smaller artists.

I think that, through all of us smaller publishers, we’ve actually shown the bigger publishers that there are a whole bunch of artists worth investigating who may not be well-known, but can be just as appealing to people. Drawn and Quarterly—I never really had problems with them, it was just that they never expanded because they had a really tight aesthetic. It was very much about their personal taste. I really admire Chris [Oliveros] and Tom Devlin. They’re just amazing, in my book.

– Take a gander at the cover to the next volume of Acme Novelty Library.

– Man, I hope this isn’t a true story.

– The first volume of Bizenghast is available for free online.

– Van Jensen looks at Gary Phillips’ new High Rollers series.

– Sean Collins has been posting the excellent interviews he did with folks like Nick Bertozzi for Wizard up onto his blog.

– Kai-Ming Cha looks at the ultra-violent Gantz series.

– Brian K. Vaughan talks about New York City and Ex Machina.

– Jennifer de Guzman looks at the issue of creators’ rights.

– Black Voices counts down their top 25 black superheroes