Less than 24 hours after its launch, a Kickstarter campaign by Jeremy Kirby to fund a coffee table book devoted to his legendary grandfather Jack Kirby has already exceeded its $7,500 goal.

Titled The Life and Times of Jack Kirby, the hardcover will feature hundreds of personal photographs and artwork, and a never-before-seen play written by Jack Kirby called Frog Prince.

“Years ago (1997 to be exact) I wrote a screenplay and shared it with my grandmother,” Jeremy writes. “She did what every grandmother would do after reading her grandson’s story and told me how wonderful it was. But then she stopped for a moment as if pausing to think. She had me wait where I was and I saw her go into her closet. She reached into a box that was on a shelf and pulled out a dusty old folder. She handed it to me and said ‘your grandfather would have wanted you to have this.’ It was a play that he had written.  I have since showed the play to friends of the family and not one had ever heard of its existence.”

The higher-priced pledge incentives offering signed Fourth World comics and original Kirby art are, not surprisingly, already gone. However, there are still other goodies to be had. The campaign ends June 20.

Part of the “superman workout,” apparently

An Australian federal court has ruled a Melbourne fitness service cannot register the trademark “Superman Workout,” finding the company made the application in bad faith.

DC Comics had appealed a July decision by the registrar of trademarks that Cheqout Pty’s use of “Superman Workout” was unlikely to deceive or confuse consumers, or lead a significant number of people to presume there’s a connection between the fitness classes and the publisher.However, an attorney for DC argued the registrar erred on several grounds, including finding that the dictionary definitions of Superman are “a muscularly powerful athletic superman” and “an ideal superior being conceived by (19th century German philosopher) Nietzsche as the product of human evolution.” The publisher insisted, however, that its comic-book superhero is so widely known that the Man of Steel has become the first connotation of “Superman.”According to Stuff.co.nz, Justice Annabelle Bennett agreed, ruling today that, “‘‘Indeed, the superhero  and his ‘get-up’ are so famous that they could be said to be  instantly recognizable, as is, by name, Superman’s alter ego, Clark  Kent.’’She determined that, while there was no real danger of confusion by the normal and fair use of the word Superman in relation to the fitness workout, Cheqout Pty went too far in using a shield logo similar to the Man of Steel’s ‘”in order to strengthen the allusion to Superman.”

A week that began with Yahoo’s $1.1 billion deal for Tumblr got even stranger this morning with Amazon Publishing’s announcement of Kindle Worlds, billed as the first commercial publishing platform for fan fiction. In short, fanfic writers can now earn royalties for certain corporate-sanctioned stories.

For the launch, Amazon Publishing has secured licenses from Alloy Entertainment, the book-packaging division of Warner Bros. Television, for Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl, Sara Shepard’s Pretty Little Liars and L.J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries — all bestselling young-adult series that have spawned hit television shows. More licenses are expected to be announced soon.

While that initial offering is limited in scope, Amazon clearly has big plans for Kindle Worlds, which it touts as “a place for you to publish fan fiction inspired by popular books, shows, movies, comics, music, and games.” If Warner Bros. is willing to open the door to “official” fanfic for its YA cash cows, how long before writers are encouraged to tackle DC Comics’ superheroes (or at least TV properties like Smallville and Arrow)?

Plenty of creators, publishers and studios have embraced fan fiction — The CW’s Supernatural has based episodes around it, and in Japan it’s practically its own industry — but this may be the first time rights-holders have attempted to profit from it, at least on a large scale.

As Amazon Publishing breaks it down in today’s announcement, for works of at least 10,000 words, authors will receive 35 percent of net revenue (based on sales price rather than the standard, but lower, wholesale), paid monthly. There will also be an experimental program for shorter works, between 5,000 and 10,000 words, which will be typically priced under $1; the author will receive a digital royalty of 20 percent.

Licensors will provide content guidelines for each “World,” which must be followed; in addition, Amazon won’t allow pornography, offensive content (including racial slurs and excessive foul language), “poor customer experience” (including poorly formatted stories and misleading titles), excessive use of brand names, or crossovers.

Motor City Comic Con

Conventions | Motor City Comic Con founder Michael Goldman has apologized to fans for the long lines they had to endure to get into the event on Saturday, writing in a message on Facebook, “We never expected 18,000+ people to attend that day, which was the same amount of people we had over the entire three days last year. We were literally hit with a ‘Humanity Bomb’ and were not prepared for the sheer number of people attending, even with a large increase in our staff.” More than 30,000 people attended over the course of three days, with attendees reportedly waiting for up to two hours on Saturday just to get into the parking lot, and then another one to four hours to get in the doors. Golden said he is already working on avoiding the same problem next year. [Facebook]

Retailing | Brian Berlin of New World Comics in Oklahoma City is offering free comics and appearances by costumed characters for children left hospitalized or homeless by the tornadoes that struck Oklahoma this week. [Nerdage]

Comic-Con International

Conventions | Comic-Con International organizers have announced a badge resale will be held sometime next month. To participate, you must sign up for a Comic-Con Member ID. [Comic-Con International]

Conventions | Bobbi Booker files a report on the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (EBACC), which took place over the weekend in Philadelphia; the Glyph Awards were presented the evening before the con. [Publishers Weekly]

Comics | With Marvel Studios’ Captain America: The Winter Soldier filming in Cleveland, Michael Sangiacamo offers a brief historical overview of the Sentinel of Liberty and Bucky Barnes. [The Plain Dealer]

Fandom | Nine-year-old Cora Eder, a finalist in an essay contest sponsored by DC Entertainment and Capstone Publishers, is profiled by her hometown newspaper. Challenged to write about the real superhero in her life, Eder chose her father, a police officer who served two tours in the Army in Iraq. The winner will be announced May 30 during Book Expo America in New York City. [News & Record]

Manga | In a column from 2011 that still makes for good reading, Joe McCulloch looks at Mitsuru Adachi’s work (Cross Game) and how the studio system of apprentices may have shaped the art. [The Hooded Utilitarian]

Doug Mahnke’s interlocking “Trinity War” covers

More than three months after teasing that he and his Green Lantern collaborator would reteam on “a new project later this year,” this morning Geoff Johns made it official: Artist Doug Mahnke will join him on Justice League of America.

The announcement arrives in a farewell message from the writer in today’s Green Lantern #20, which marks the end of a nine-year run that began with 2004′s Green Lantern: Rebirth. After praising artists Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis and Joe Prado, Johns continues, “And Doug Mahnke … he’s the current superstar I work with every month on Green Lantern and have for years now. Doug, you’re one of the most amazing and unique artists in the business. Your power, grit and sense of wonder can be seen at its very best in Green Lantern #20. I’m fortunate to continue working with Doug as we head over to Justice League of America.”

The news may not come has a complete surprise, as Mahnke was already scheduled to pencil Justice League of America #6-7, part of DC Comics’ “Trinity War” crossover. Now, however, it appears the assignment may be more permanent.

Mahnke, who’s worked with Johns on Green Lantern since 2009, has tackled the Justice League franchise before, with stints on JLA and Justice League Elite.

Mahnke recently looked back on his time with Johns on Green Lantern, while hinting at what was in his future in a CBR TV interview.

Green Lantern #20

“The run started with Hal and Sinestro and kind of continued that relationship, which only got stronger when Sinestro became a Green Lantern again and he and Hal were forced to team up. As I was building towards this next confrontation involving the land of the dead, Hal returning from the dead again and Sinestro and him having another change in their relationship, it just felt like the right time to go. Once I got through this next phase of Hal and Sinestro’s relationship and how it went all the way back to ‘Rebirth’ and then to this point, to me, that was the right time to move on. The story decided it. I think the last issue has a lot of stuff in it that puts an exclamation point on everything we did on the run. [...] [Hal has] sacrificed his life, and now he has to find his way back again. It started with a ‘Rebirth,’ it ends with a rebirth. It just felt right. Hal is a character who lives for the day and he’s so full of life, death can’t stop him. It was exactly the right storyline to go out on with him.”

– Geoff Johns, talking with Comic Book Resources about his nine-year run onGreen Lantern, which comes to an end Wednesday

Man of Steel

Once more, it appears, Fredric Wertham may have been right.

For the latest evidence, look no further than a Philadelphia preschool, which has purportedly banned “wrestling, Super Hero play, and Monster games,” because they’re resulting in injury.

Reddit user Oremar posted a May 17 letter (below) brought home by his son that states, “Recently it has come to our attention that the imaginations of our preschool children are becoming dangerously overactive causing injuries within our pre-k community. Although we encourage creative thinking and imaginary play, we do not promote out [sic] children hurting one another. Wrestling, Super Hero play, and Monster games will not be permitted here at [name redacted]. In addition, please monitor the different media that your children may view. The re-enactment of televisions [sic] shows/movies are being done during active paly [sic] times in school.”

Or, in the words of the parent, “So my son came home and told me make-believe was not allowed at school anymore.”

When ROBOT 6 contacted the preschool this afternoon, an employee said she was unable to verify the letter, referring us instead to the facility’s director, who was unavailable.

AND THIS:

Those are just two images ganked from the manga Swan by Kyoko Ayoshi. The series was one of the initial launches in DC Comics’ CMX line and ran for about 15 volumes until the company pulled the plug on the imprint in 2010.

One of the original plans for CMX was to focus on older, more renowned (at least in Japan) manga, so as to not compete for licenses against the one-two powerhouses of Viz Media and Tokyopop. Thus, the release of Swan and other, older titles like From Eroica With Love.

Ayoshi is often lumped in as one of the Magnificent Forty-Niners, also known as The Year 24 Group. It’s a loosely affiliated group of female cartoonists that transformed and radicalized the shojo manga industry. “Members” includes such luminary talents as Moto Hagio and Keiko Takemiya.

Originally serialized in the 1970s, Swan isn’t as emotionally wrenching as Hagio’s Hanshin or as head-spinningly philosophical as Takemiya’s To Terra, at least not at first glance. At its heart it’s a boiler-plate soap opera. The key is the backdrop, the world of professional ballet.

The manga’s central character is Masumi, a young, flighty thing that loves to dance more than anything. After impressing a bunch of important people with her passion, she enters a dance competition and from there ends up traveling across the globe in order to make her dream of becoming a real, honest-to-goodness ballerina come true. Along the way she encounters a seemingly endless succession of dance rivals and potential suitors.

But it’s not the story that’s the real draw here. What makes Swan so charming, emotional and utterly captivating is its dance sequences. Ayoshi pulls out every trick in the book – and even invents some new ones – in order not just to convey the motion of the human body, but to help the reader fully appreciate the emotion and drama involved in each and every scene.

So, athletic dancers leaping across double-page spreads as inset panels of onlookers gape in wonder? Check. Overlapped forms of characters performing successive, intricate dance moves in true  Edweard Muybridge fashion? Check. Panels that seam to bend and twist to fit the rhythm of the dancers and (perhaps) the music itself? Double-check. The result is a comic that completely transformed the way I thought about how motion should be depicted in comics. I’ve often said that many Western artists could be using Swan as a bible, learning from it without once ever having to ape any of the more obvious characteristics of shojo manga (assuming most superhero artists don’t want their protagonists to have big, dewy eyes).

As I said, CMX released 15 volumes of Swan. The problem is that the series ran to 21 volumes in Japan. That’s six volumes in bad need of translation. Hopefully someone will come to the fore in the near future and release a definitive version of this wonderful series. I’d even re-buy the volumes I have if they use better paper stock this time around.

Warner Bros. Television and the co-creators of Smallville have settled a multimillion-dollar dispute concerning profits from the long-running television series. The agreement was announced Monday during a status hearing, but Hollywood Esq. reports no paperwork has been signed.

Series creators and executive producers Miles Millar and Alfred Gough and series producers Tollin/Robbins Productions sued WBTV in 2010, accusing the company of licensing Smallville to its co-owned WB and CW networks “for unreasonably low” fees, thereby cutting the plaintiffs out of tens of millions of dollars.

They amended their claims of breach of contract and breach of good faith and fair dealing in April 2012 to include the allegation that WBTV’s sister company DC Comics was brought into the profit pool without the contractually required approval, greatly reducing the plaintiffs’ profit participation.

Warner Bros. settled with Tollin/Robbins in early January, but Millar and Gough’s portion of the lawsuit had been headed for a June jury trial. The plaintiffs were seeking more than $100 million in damages. The terms of the settlement haven’t been made public.

Smallville aired for 10 seasons, from 2001 to 2011. Gough and Millar left the series in 2008 after seven seasons.

Jack Chick is best known as the creator of Chick Tracts, the little religious comics that predict dire fates for those who celebrate Halloween, read Harry Potter books, or adhere to any religion not approved by Chick. But how did he get his artistic chops?

At the Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum & Library Blog, Caitlin McGuirk posts a fascinating selection of Chick’s pre-tract comics, a caveman series from the 1950s titled Times Have Changed? Like The Flintstones and BC, both of which came later, the comics use modern-day gags in a caveman setting. The writer was P.F. Clayton, and Chick handled the art.

The vintage-comics blog Strippers Guide has more samples of Times Have Changed?, although when the post first went up, in 2008, they didn’t realize that the artist was that Chick. The official biography of Chick on his website says that he had liked to draw since he was a child, but there is no mention of his pre-tract comics: “He had always longed to be a professional cartoonist, but now as a Christian, he desired to use his artistic talents for the Lord.”

Looking at his early single-panel work, it’s hard to imagine that Chick would become the creator of a line of comics that would achieve such notoriety. Times Have Changed? looks like pretty much every single-panel cartoon published in the 1950s, with a fairly generic style and bland subject matter. The leap from that to the madness of Chick tracts such as Somebody Goofed shows considerable evolution, although not so much in skill as imagination — or maybe Chick was just bottling it up all along.

The odds of a Justice League movie ever making it to theaters are probably about even at the moment and, if rumors are to be believed, largely dependent on the box-office performance of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. Thankfully, however, we won’t have to wait until 2015 or beyond to see Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Green Lantern together in live-action form.

Director/producer Andrew List has released a low-budget fan trailer for Kingdom Come, based on the acclaimed 1996 miniseries by Alex Ross and Mark Waid. (How low-budget? The project’s indiegogo campaign generated $5,617.) Sure, some of the acting and green-screen work — to say nothing of Superman’s Southern accent — are a bit suspect, but there are a few moments that look as if they were taken right out of the comic. Considering the budget, it’s kind of impressive.

(via io9.com)

In anticipation of the June 14 release of the new Superman movie, DC Entertainment has declared Wednesday, June 12, Man of Steel Day.

Sponsored by Sears, the event will see comic shops and bookstores give away copies of All-Star Superman Special Edition #1 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Not so coincidentally, June 12 also marks the debut of Superman Unchained, the new DC Comics series by Scott Snyder and Jim Lee launched to coincide with director Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. That first issue you’ll have to pay $4.99 for (it comes with a two-sided poster).

All-Star Superman #1 also will be available for free download that day, with hundreds of other Superman digital titles offered for 99 cents each as part of a “Superman 201” sale on the DC online storefront, the DC Comics app and across all digital platforms.

In addition, DC has teamed with Random House to bring Man of Steel to more than 1,000 libraries on June 15, with visitors receiving buttons, bookmarks and Superman comics.

One Piece, Vol. 69

Manga | Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump has announced that One Piece will go on hiatus for the magazine’s next two issues because creator Eiichiro Oda has been hospitalized for a peritonsillar abscess, a complication of tonsillitis. The popular series is expected to return June 10. One Piece, which has been serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump since 1997, has sold more than 280 million volumes in Japan alone. [Anime News Network]

Creators | Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly share their thoughts (and sometimes disagree) on their own world, the comics world in general, and digital media. [National Post]

Creators | Lisa Hanawalt discusses her new book My Dirty Dumb Eyes, which comes out next Monday but is already creating a stir. [The L Magazine]

Brigade

Creators | Rob Liefeld talks about his Kickstarter campaign to help fund the revival of Brigade; the first issue will be distributed for free. [The Beat]

Creators | The Unwritten creators Mike Carey and Peter Gross talk about how they develop their story, how it has evolved over the years, and what’s next. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Creators | Editorial cartoonist Dick Locher has announced he’s retiring after 40 years at the Chicago Tribune. [The Daily Cartoonist]

Publishing | Ryan Sands discusses his just-launched publishing endeavor, Youth in Decline, which will gather Sands’ different projects under a single umbrella. [The Chemical Box]

Comics | Students at York University are making comics about sexual violence in order to help change social norms; one is a single-panel cartoon showing Superman, head in hands, saying “I shouldn’t have worn such tight clothing! I was asking for it. . . . It’s all my fault” as a sympathetic Batman looks on. [Toronto Star]

Little Orphan Annie

Comic strips | R.C. Harvey takes a long look back at Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie. [The Comics Journal]

Comics | Nicole Menard, co-owner of the French-language bookstore Top Titles in Melbourne, Australia, talks about her childhood love of Tintin and the French attitude toward comics in general. [The Courier Mail]

Conventions | Mike Lauterborn reports in on the first-ever Westport (Connecticut) Comic Con, sponsored by the Westport Public Library. Featured guests included how-to-draw author Christopher Hart and Archie Comics writer Paul Kupperberg. [Westport News]

Activision has at last revealed the cover for Deadpool, the upcoming video game developed by High Moon Studios and written by Daniel Way.

Arriving June 25 for or PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, Deadpool is a third-person shooter in which the character — like his comic-book counterpart — breaks the fourth wall to interact with players, in between combat focusing on guns, twin swords and an expanded arsenal that includes lasers and giant hammers.

Paolo Rivera and David Petersen received gold and silver honors, respectively, in the comics category of the 20th Spectrum Fantastic Art Awards, presented Saturday during Spectrum Live in Kansas City. The awards recognize the best in fantasy, science fiction and horror art.

Rivera won for this cover for Daredevil #10, while Petersen won for Mouse Guard: The Black Axe #4, Page 19.

Tor.com has the complete list of winners, which includes a number of names familiar to comics readers: Dan Dos Santos, Charles Vess, Sam Weber and Brom.

Daredevil #10, by Paolo Rivera

Mouse Guard: The Black Axe #4, Page 19, by David Petersen

DC Collectibles has unveiled four convention-exclusive products that will be offered only to those attending Comic-Con International, held July 18-21 in San Diego.

Fans of Cartoon Network’s DC Nation programming block may want to grab the three-pack of Super Best Friends Forever action figures (above), designed by Lauren Faust and sculpted by Irene Matar. Supergirl, Batgirl and Wonder Girl each stand 6.5 inches, 5.45 inches and 6.8 inches, respectively. The three-pack is priced at $49.95. Or, there’s the Aardman: Superman action figure, designed by Rich Webber and sculpted by Phil Ramirez. Standing at about 6.5 inches, it’s prices at $24.95.

For Green Lantern comic-book enthusiasts, there’s the DC Comics’ Superheroes of Green Lantern four-pack, featuring Sinestro, Arkillo, the Black Hand and Dex-Starr. It, too, is priced at $49.95.

And then there’s Batman: Arkham City Hugo Strange, sculpted by Sam Greenwell and based on the character as he appears in the bestselling video game. It’ s$29.95.All four will be available at the Graphitti Designs booth.

Patton Oswalt’s hilarious eight-minute Star Wars filibuster for Parks and Recreation is already legendary, earning the adoration of nerds everywhere, and even spawning a movie poster. But if you have trouble comprehending his his frenetic vision for a Star Wars/Marvel Universe crossover, don’t worry: animator Isaac Moore has you covered.

Using Oswalt’s own words, and Amy Poehler’s occasional interruptions, Moore brings the pitch to life in appropriately quirky fashion, with a blend of movie stills, comic art, stock photography and lord only knows what else.

Welcome to “Cheat Sheet,” ROBOT 6′s guide to the week ahead. While some of you will be taking full advantage of the three-day Memorial Day Weekend by enjoying a summer blockbuster, a barbecue or the first dip of the year in the outdoor pool, others will be heading to the Phoenix Convention Center for the 13th annual Phoenix Comicon.

But while everyone else is packing their bags, and stocking up on sunscreen, ROBOT 6′s contributors are busy spotlighting some of the best books going on sale Wednesday.

This weekend, it’s Phoenix Comicon

Although it’s difficult to believe, we’re already charging in to Memorial Day Weekend, and that can only mean one thing. OK, it means many things — the traditional start of summer, the opening of public swimming pools, the premiere of a couple of blockbuster movies. But somewhere on that list is the annual Phoenix Comicon, held Thursday through Sunday at the Phoenix Convention Center and Hyatt Regency.

The convention boasts an impressive list of comics guests, including Aaron Lopresti, Andy Runton, Ann Nocenti, Ben Templesmith, Brandon Peterson, Bret Blevins, Brett Booth, Christopher Mitten, Christos Gage, Christy Marx, Colleen Doran, Cory Walker, Dan Jurgens, Don Rosa, Ethan Van Sciver, Frank Cho, Geof Darrow, Greg Capullo, Greg Horn, J. Michael Straczynski, J.T. Krull, Jamie S. Rich, Jim Cheung, Jim Rugg, Jim Valentino, Joelle Jones, Joshua Dysart, Katie Cook, Kevin Eastman, Kevin Maguire, Kieron Gillen, Marat Mychaels, Matt Wagner, Laura Allred, Michael Allred, Mike Mignola, Neal Adams, Peter David, Scott Kolina, Si Spurrier, Terry Moore, Tom Scioli, Richard Pini, Wendy Pini and Whilce Portacio.

ROBOT 6 contributors name their top choices from among the comic books, and comics-related books, scheduled to arrive in stores this week. We welcome readers to highlight their picks in the comments below.

Solid State Tank Girl #1

I’ve been writing about my love for the art of Warwick Johnson-Cadwell since 2006, so it feels genuinely thrilling to see him finally bag such a high-profile gig. And it’s a great first issue, with Alan Martin is on top form writing his signature character with his trademark combination of juvenile humor, beatnik jive and ultra-violence; WJC draws like no one else in comics, which can’t be said too often, and he also colors this issue like no one else in the medium, in gorgeous bubblegum and pastel hues that really pop. There’s a crazy energy coming off this comic that makes this hardy perennial feel brand new. Buy it! – Mark Kardwell

The Green Team: Teen Trillionaires #1

It’s long overdue that Art Baltazar and Franco get the chance to play in the DC Universe. After making the really fun Tiny Titans and Superman Family Adventures for DC’s kids’ line, they’re teaming up with Ig Guara for The Green Team: Teen Trillionaire, about a team of incredibly rich people and their adventures in the DC Universe. “They have a lot of [money], more than you or I could ever imagine in a lifetime — and they use it in new and interesting ways,” Franco told CBR. This should be fun. – JK Parkin

Star Trek: John Byrne Collection

IDW Publishing’s Star Trek: John Byrne Collection is unusual in that none of the miniseries it collects is a conventional Trek tale. One stars Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln, one focuses on a character from the earliest days of the Original Series, one follows Dr. McCoy’s career after the end of the five-year mission, and one’s about the Romulans. It might sound like exercises in obscurity, but John Byrne makes them accessible, expanding the reader’s knowledge of the Trek-verse. You might say he’s going boldly where no miniseries have g– OK, I’ll stop now. – Tom Bondurant

Lobster Johnson: Satan Smells a Rat

Lobster Johnson: Satan Smells a Rat is a perfect combination of elements: First off, what a great title for this one-shot. Most importantly, however, I think this marks the first time Kevin Nowlan has drawn a Lobster Johnson solo adventure. I appreciate Dark Horse giving this supporting character his own spotlight periodically. Clearly it is not a character who could support its own standalone title, but these infrequent appearances on the Dark Horse schedule are always a pleasant surprise — particularly when it is the writing team of Mike Mignola and John Arcudi. – Tim O’Shea

The Property

Rutu Modan’s new graphic novel is both a thing of beauty and an engrossing read. It’s the story of two women who travel from Israel to Poland, an older woman who wants to reclaim her family’s property, which was lost during the Holocaust, and her granddaughter, who is her travel companion. The story quickly gets complicated, though, with bits of the past coming through in surprising ways and a host of side characters, each with his or her own agenda, arriving on the scene. Modan’s pacing and storytelling are perfect, and she really uses the graphic novel medium to full advantage to bring her characters and the story to life. – Brigid Alverson

Half Past Danger #1

Stephen Mooney has spent most of his comics career drawing other people’s characters in IDW Publishing titles like CSI, Angel and The A-Team, but he’s doing his own thing now, writing Half Past Danger as well as drawing it. With its dinosaurs on a Pacific island in World War II, it sounds a lot like The War That Time Forgot, but Mooney’s including secret agents among his international cast of military characters (some of whom have secrets of their own) to add extra layers of intrigue and tension to the dinosaur-fighting. Sounds terrific. – Michael May

Occupy Comics #1

This is the result of a successful Kickstarter project to create a comics anthology in support of the Occupy Wall Street Movement and its “We are the 99%”-inspired philosophies and activism. While most press doesn’t cover the movement to the extent it did in 2011, the movement continues on albeit in an evolving form. Coincidentally coming out around the same time as DC Comics’ Occupy-reminiscent comics, the full Occupy Comics anthology has an all-star line-up that’s pretty tough to beat: Alan Moore, David Lloyd, Art Spiegelman, Charlie Adlard, Amanda Palmer, Molly Crabapple, Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith, Matt Bors, Mike Allred, Dean Haspiel, Susie Cagle, and many more. Susie Cagle was arrested during her coverage of the event, so her contribution in particular has me interested. The Kickstarter project ran in late 2011, and creators have been contributing stories from that time up to fairly recently, which should give the book a fascinating reflection of the evolution of the movement. Matt Miner will be contributing a more recent piece about how Occupy Sandy rescued his community. Where ever you stand on the issue, this should be an interesting documentation of recent history. – Corey Blake

Sometimes, artists who make the jump from comics to galleries have been out of the drawing-funny-books business for so long, it’s hard to tell what their current feelings are toward the medium that gave them their first push forward.

For example, it’s been a while since I heard an interview with David Choe, but when I did, they all focused on what his Facebook stock options were worth, rather than if he had any plans to bring Slow Jams back into print. We’ll give Choe the benefit of the doubt, though: He may have chanced of becoming the fourth- or fifth-richest living artist (depending on whose estimate you believe), but he still seems to be living the same productive bohemian life he’s always led. Just this week, two new projects of his have reached the internet: some street art he collaborated on in LA, and the release of a screen-print based on a mural painted on the former home of Pablo Escobar in Medellín. The print is called “Stockholm Syndrome,” presumably a comment on the madness that overtook Columbia during Escobar’s reign.

My personal favorite of the comicker-to-fine artist brigade remains Glenn Barr. His low-brow approach and subject matter just appeals to my inner SF-lovin’ rock’n'roller. His latest show, “Rooms,” began this week at the new Inner State Gallery in Detroit; there’s a sizable selection previewed at its website. Alongside longstanding Barr themes and motifs, there’s some pieces in this collection that remind me of a hipster Edward Hopper (a hipster Hopper? there’s a terrible pun in there somewhere, wanting to get out); but clearly there will always be a place in Barr’s heart for exotic females flying extremely un-aerodynamic looking machines.

Warren Ellis has a new ebook debuting June 15 called Dead Pig Collector, and Sunday, via his Machine Vision email list, he revealed the book’s cover, by his Fell collaborator Ben Templesmith.

Dead Pig Collector, Ellis says, is “a love story. It is also about killing people and effectively disposing of their bodies.” Check out the complete cover after the jump.