Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.

Thief of Thieves #1

Chris Arrant

If I had $15, I’d start with Thief of Thieves #1 (Image/Skybound, $2.99). The gang at Skybound gave me an advance PDF of this issue, and I like it so much I want to hold the physical thing in my hands. Shawn Martinbrough really nails this first issue, and Nick Spencer really puts his Marvel work to shame with this story. Next up I’d get my favorite DC Book – Batwoman #6 (DC, $2.99) – and favorite Marvel book – Wolverine and The X-Men #5 ($3.99). I’d finish it all up with Northlanders #48 ($2.99). I’m not the biggest fan of Danijel Zezelj’s work, but I can’t let up now to see my long-running commitment to Northlanders falter at this point.

If I had $30, I’d dig into Richard Corben’s Murky World one-shot (Dark Horse, $3.50). Corben’s one of those “will-buy-no-matter-what” artists for me that Tom Spurgeon recently focused on, and this looks right up my alley. Next up I’d get Secret Avengers #22 (Marvel, $3.99) because Remender’s idea of robot descendents intrigues me, and then Wolverine and The X-Men: Alpha and Omega (Marvel, $3.99). I didn’t know what to expect from the first issue, and after reading it I still don’t know where this series is heading – but I like it so far. Finally, I’d get Haunt #21 (Image, $2.99). The combination of Joe Casey & Nathan Fox is like a secret code to open my wallet.

If I could splurge, I’d take the graphic novel Jinchalo (D+Q, $17.95) by Matthew Forsythe. I loved his previous book Ojingogo, and this looks to continue in that hit parade.

Berlin #18

JK Parkin

There’s a brand new issue of Jason Lutes’ Berlin ($4.95) hitting comic shops this week, which seems like a good way to spend the first third of my $15. According to Drawn & Quarterly, there are only about four issues of this excellent series left, which will give me a great reason to go back and read all the issues again in one sitting. Next on my list would be Thief of Thieves #1 ($2.99), the new Nick Spencer/Shawn Martinbrough/Robert Kirkman joint from Skybound. I’d also grab the new Conan series ($3.50), featuring the work of two of my favs, Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. How cool is it to see the Demo team reuniting on something like Conan? Their Northlanders story rocked, so I’m looking forward to this. And speaking of which, Northlanders is coming to a close soon, so this is one of the last times I’ll be able to put it on my list here … so I’d spend my last few dollars on issue #48 ($2.99).

Based on the review Brigid gave it a few weeks ago, I’d spend all of my next $15 on Dotter of her Father’s Eyes by Mary and Bryan Talbot ($14.99)

For my splurge item this week, I dunno … The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde ($14.99) looks interesting, and there’s also the Fantastic Four Season One graphic novel that looks nice, but do I really need to spend $25 to yet again see how the FF become the FF? Probably not. No, instead I’d probably go with One Model Nation, by Dandy Warhols lead singer Courtney Taylor and artist Jim Rugg. Although I’m really hesitant to spend $25 on a graphic novel by a singer–Gerard Way notwithstanding, singers trying to write comics doesn’t always end well–the fact that Jim Rugg did the art is a great selling point for me. I missed it the first time it was published by Image, but I’d be willing to check out the new edition by Titan if, indeed, I had some splurge money to spend.

Memorial #3

Graeme McMillan

If I had $15 this week, I’d start with a book I’ve been curious about since its announcement: Conan The Barbarian #1 (Dark Horse, $3.50). I’ve never really been the biggest fan of Robert E. Howard’s fantasy hero, but the idea of Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan handling the character gets me very interested indeed. I’d also grab the first issue of the Robert Kirkman/Nick Spencer collaboration Thief of Thieves #1 (Image, $2.99), about which I’ve heard a lot of good things, and Memorial #3 (IDW, $3.99), the latest of this apparently-underrated book that I am completely in love with currently.

If I had $30, I’d also grab Kevin Keller #1 (Archie, $2.99), Batman and Robin #6 (DC, $2.99 and the best of the Batbooks from my point of view; sorry, Scott Snyder and everyone else) and Wolverine and The X-Men #5 (Marvel, $3.99), easily the best X-Book that’s been around since the first Chris Claremont run. It’s all about the creature comforts, sometimes.

When it comes to splurging, though, it’s all about the new takes on old stories: I’d go for Fantastic Four: Season One Premiere HC (Marvel, $24.99), to see how Marvel’s new line pans out; I’m unconvinced by the core concept of “retelling the origins all over again,” but the creative line-ups and OGN format makes me want this to work out for the House of Ideas.

Dotter of Her Fathers Eyes

Brigid Alverson

If I had $15, I’d spend it all on floppies, and I’m skewing young this week. Kevin Keller #1 ($2.99) from Archie is a must, of course. Up till now Kevin has been a bit too good to be true, and I’m hoping Dan Parent will at least get him into some scrapes now that he has his own series. Then I’ll take Princeless #4 ($3.99); I caught up with this series on Graphicly over the weekend because it was getting good buzz, and I like it a lot. The feisty-princess thing isn’t exactly new these days, but the creators get in some clever digs. Adventure Time #1 ($3.99) is another must-have, with the creative combo of Ryan North and artists Braden Lamb and Shelli Paroline. It’s based on some Nick show–yeah, whatever. This team can do no wrong in my book. That leaves just enough for the first issue of Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan’s Conan the Barbarian ($3.50) from Dark Horse, with change left over for some penny candy to munch on while I read.

If I had $30, I would add in Mary and Bryan Talbot’s Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, from Dark Horse. The price looks like a typo: $14.99 for the hardcover? It’s a great story (I have already read it), layering Mary Talbot’s childhood as the daughter of an eminent Joyce scholar with the story of Joyce’s daughters and her own struggles against her family and the mores of the time. Mary’s voice is pitch-perfect, and Talbot’s illustrations really capture the era. I know it’s only February, but I’m already putting this on my top ten list for 2012.

Splurge: There’s no huge $50 collection of vintage comics calling out to me this week, but the regular comics are so good I want more. I would like to see IDW’s Archie Treasury: The Best of Dan DeCarlo ($9.99), and the first volume of Vertical’s GTO: 14 Days in Shonan ($10.95) (the prequel to the classic manga series GTO) are both calling to me. And for some stylish girls’ comics, I’ll take issue 4 of PC Cast’s House of Night ($2.99) just for Joelle Jones’s illustrations, and vol. 6 of The Story of Saiunkoku ($9.99) because it’s an elegantly drawn, charmingly written shoujo manga, and I’m really enjoying reading it.

Jinchalo

Chris Mautner

If I had $15, the new volume of Bakuman is calling out to me. I just finished Vol. 8 and am eager for more breathless treatises on how the manga industry operates. On top of that I’d also grab the latest issue of Berlin, Jason Lutes’ ongoing historical saga. Part of me feels a bit foolish for not trade-waiting on these — I tend to think the story reads better in solid chunks than piecemeal — but I’m such an impatient soul.

If I had $30; I’ll read just about anything Bryan Talbot does, so I’m definitely interested in picking up Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes. I might put it all back, however, and pick up Jinchalo, the latest wordless comic from Matthew Forsythe, a sequel of sorts to his rather charming Ojingogo.

Splurge: Casual Robert Crumb fans might be interested in The Life and death of Fritz the Cat. Jack Kirby fans will definitely be interested in Young Romance, a collection of heartthrob tales from Simon and Kirby (see my review). Myself, I might well go for the fourth volume of Torpedo, Jordi Bernet’s grim and gritty (and blackly humorous) gangster series.

Batwoman #6

Michael May

If I had $15, I’d start with the two, female Bat-heroes, Batgirl #6 ($2.99) and Batwoman #6 ($3.99) and the tangential Bat-heroine, Huntress #5 ($2.99). Rounding out my must-reads is Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE #6 ($2.99), but I’d also pick up Demon Knights #6 ($2.99), a comic that stays good enough to keep me interested if not overwhelmingly excited. The pin’s awfully close to the bubble on that one for me, but I’m still on board for now.

If I had $30, I’d add some more expensive comics starting with Conan the Barbarian #1 ($3.50). I switched to trade-waiting Dark Horse’s Conan comics a long time ago, but I’m as curious as everyone else about the Wood/Cloonan team on this. I’m also fascinated enough by Richard Corben’s work to want to try out his fantasy one-shot, Murky World ($3.50). I also have it on good authority (Diamond shipping list be damned) that the delayed Atomic Robo and the Ghost of Station X #5 ($3.50) is also coming out this week, so that’s good news. And finally, I’ve enjoyed the few episodes of Adventure Time I’ve seen, so I’d also like to pick up Adventure Time #1 ($3.99) from Boom!.

My splurge this week is another item that hasn’t been verified by Diamond, but it’s shown up on my LCS’ invoice, so I expect Jason’s Athos in America ($24.99) to be on the shelf tomorrow. Jason’s stuff is always awesome and this sort-of prequel to The Last Musketeer should be no exception.

The ‘emo’ thing is both really funny and really annoying. All my books have been called ‘emo’ at one point or another, since Demo in 2003. Even Northlanders was called ‘emo’. Clearly its a meaningless insult, issued by lazy people who don’t have the proper words to describe something that is even a little bit less than 100% macho and straightforward. So Becky draws a sketch of Conan with a smile on his face, and only reaction available is to call it ‘emo’. It’s absurd. The funny part of it is these same people don’t even know what ‘emo’ is, what the word really means. A fun variation on this, something I spotted on some forum, was “Conan looks like a barista!”. I almost emailed Becky to ask her to sketch Conan working at Starbucks for the fun of it.

Brian Wood, talking to MTV Geek about his new Conan series, which launches this week, and the critique on some message boards that his character was too “emo.”

As funny as it is to imagine an emo Conan (paging Kate Beaton!), what I like about this quote in particular is Wood’s healthy attitude about criticism of his work. It’s not easy to put things out there and have them critiqued by the world at large, but dealing with it is a part of the job. Wood talks a little later about the passion of serious Conan fans and remarks that creators really should stay away from forums that discuss their work, saying, “I think readers should have the privacy and feel free to talk openly about a book without the writer or artist lurking over their shoulder, ready to jump in at a moment’s notice. It’s a little creepy, really.”

Conan #1

Dark Horse starts a new Conan series next month with Conan #1, by Channel Zero and Demo collaborators Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. Based on Robert E. Howard’s “Queen of the Black Coast,” the comic will weave new adventures into Conan’s two-year journey with the notorious female pirate Bêlit, a period barely touched on in the original short story. Comic Book Resources has a preview of the first issue.

I spoke with Wood and Cloonan about their plans for the series, using the classic Howard tale as their framework, and the dynamic between the young Conan and Bêlit.

ROBOT 6: How did each of you first encounter Conan — in the novels, the movie, or the older comics?

Wood: I’m sure it was the Arnold movie that was my first exposure, but not in a really meaningful way. I was 10 when it came out, so I wouldn’t have seen it, but we all played it at recess anyway. Later on, as I started to become more aware of comics, I became aware of Conan as he was drawn by masters like BWS and Frazetta.  Funnily enough, the novels came last.

How has writing about him and drawing him forced you to reexamine your initial impressions?

Wood: Well, it was more of an education than a reexamination. I knew, rationally, what Conan was as he appeared in the novels, and I knew that had nothing to do with the 1982 film. When I got this job, I read a few of the novels — not just the one I’m adapting but some others as well. In a way I think all this is helping me. … I don’t have this powerful preconception of the character getting in the way of my writing.

Brian, I’m astonished that you will be building a 25-issue series about a period that is barely touched on in the original story. How did you come up with ideas, and what guidelines did you set for yourself?

Wood: Yeah, it’s simultaneously a great thing and a really difficult challenge. Looking at the original story and breaking it into three parts, I have Conan and Bêlit meeting up in the first three issues of my 25-issue run, and the end of the story will likely take up the last six issues. So that leaves me 16 issues of adventures to basically invent. Five story arcs.  

In coming up with the stories, I had two things helping me out:  mining the original story for any clues I could find, anything I could extrapolate out, any character quirks that might suggest a story or at the very least a scene I could build a story around. And then there’s Northlanders, my Viking series that was, in part, an incredible exercise in constantly generating new ideas out of thin air.  In the space of 50 issues, I created 14 discreet, unconnected stories.  I became good at it, so I used that for Conan.  I have my characters, my world, a few concepts and rules guiding me … but beyond that the sky’s the limit.

From Conan #1

Becky, your visualization of Conan is a bit different from what has gone before. How much comes from the original source material, and how much did you draw on secondary sources (the comics and the movie) for this new version?

Cloonan: One of the biggest things I try to keep in mind while drawing Conan is the world-building! We are doing something completely new so none of it is informed by the film adaptations — I’m going by descriptions in Howard’s original stories, and filling in most of the blanks by looking back at historical costumes and settings that correspond to the maps of Hyboria!

How much did the two of you collaborate on the visual details of the characters and the setting?

Wood: I have to leave most of that up to Becky, for the most part.  She and I are both reading the same original story for reference.  I think I did send over some notes, basic stuff, on ships and weapons and maps and architecture, holdovers from my time on Northlanders, but beyond that its all been Becky.  And its a tough task … the world of Conan is fully realized and established, and I’m determined to make the environments and cities be as detailed and real as possible in this series.

Cloonan: Brian gives me some notes on stuff like setting and costumes, ships and and weapons — it’s really helpful! Through the design process he pretty much let me run wild with them. We’ve worked together so many times in the past that I’d guess by now if Brian asks me to draw something, he probably has a good idea of how it’s gonna turn out!

Conan is usually a strong protagonist, but in Bêlit he seems to meet his match, or maybe his complement. Do you see the balance of power shifting in this story, compared to the previous incarnations — will it be more of a team story?

Cloonan: Bêlit is a lot of fun to draw — from the books she basically spends her time running around topless, which could easily become just more cheesecake to add on to the dessert cart. I try hard to make her not just sexy, but dangerous, calculating and enigmatic — Bêlit is very much a character that has a lot of layers, and I try to bring as much of that as I can to her.

Wood: Conan is young here, so while he has strength, he is not the seasoned man he will later become. He’s a guy in his early 20s who is, in some significant ways, in way over his head with Bêlit.  She is his match, and he’s totally in love with her. Maybe she has the advantage? We’ll see. But with them its not about power, or teaming up or anything like that. They are lovers, partners in crime … compliments like you said.

 One of the great things about writing a young Conan is this chance to show him acting unsure, making mistakes, losing fights, acting dumb at times. It’s all part and parcel of coming of age, and can only make him more likable, more real, more relatable. An infallible Conan who gets every girl and wins every fight is a boring Conan.

From Conan #1

Will there be any continuity with the previous Conan comics?

Wood: My story picks up literally seconds after the arc that’s currently being published, so readers of that will be able to seamlessly transition, but one of the points of bringing me and Becky onto the book, starting with a #1, and adapting this classic story is to create a jumping on point for anyone, so new readers will not needs to know anything.  I made sure of that.

But as far as continuity in the superhero universe sense … only in that the novel is a chapter in the overall life of Conan, and so this series will be as well. It’s really an amazingly well crafted timeline, what Robert E. Howard created.

Brian, back when the big digital discussion was going on, a few weeks ago, you mentioned trying to add some features to the print comics to make them “luxury items” that are worth the higher price. Do you have any plans to do this with Conan, or to put extras in the single issues that won’t be in the eventual trade?

Wood: I honestly couldn’t say … that would be Dark Horse’s call. My comments were more for my creator-owned projects, where I have more leeway to make decisions like that.

Finally, just from looking at forums, I would say that you will be bringing in new readers who are fans of your work but may not be familiar with the world of Conan. What will you be doing to make this comic friendly to new readers?

Cloonan: I have no idea what percentage of Conan readers are women, but I can say that I think girls will really like this series. Not only because it’s a great point to jump on, but the story is romantic, exciting and character-driven — and it doesn’t hurt that I try to draw Conan really cute!

Judge Bao and the Jade Phoenix

It’s time once again for our monthly trip through Previews looking for cool, new comics. As usual, we’re focusing on graphic novels, collected volumes and first issues so that I don’t have to come up with a new way to say, “ Wonder Woman is still awesome!” every month. And I’ll continue letting Tom and Carla do the heavy lifting in regards to DC and Marvel’s solicitations.

Also, please feel free to play along in the comments. Tell me what I missed that you’re looking forward to or – if you’re a comics creator – mention your own stuff.

Archaia

Judge Bao and the Jade Phoenix - A detective story set in ancient China. Plus: cool name.

Avatar

Dicks #1 – Garth Ennis and John McCrea’s humor makes my top hat explode and my monocle fly off my face, but I remember this being pretty popular back in the day and I imagine that it’s new presentation in color and leading into a new storyline could make it popular again.

Bongo

Ralph Wiggum Comics #1 – This, on the other hand, is exactly my kind of funny. Kind of like 30 Days of Night, I’m astonished no one’s thought of it before. Too bad it’s just a one-shot, but hearing that Sergio Aragones is one of the contributors makes me want to poke myself with my Viking helmet to see if I’m dreaming.

Terror on the Planet of the Apes #1

Boom!

Terror on the Planet of the Apes #1 – Boom continues its domination of the Planet of the Apes by reprinting classic stories from Marvel’s time with the concept. Between Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Boom’s other PotA comics, I’ve been itching to read these stories.

Adventure Time #1 – As much a welcome no-brainer as Ralph Wiggums Comics. Oh, man. Now I want a crossover!

Dark Horse

Conan the Barbarian #1 – Not only does this have Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan; it also features one of my favorite Conan characters, Bêlit the pirate queen.

BPRD Hell on Earth: The Long Death #1 – The Mignola-verse is managing to come out with some kind of first issue or collected volume just about every month now. That’s amazing. In this mini-series, the team returns to the spooky woods from New World.

Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi #1 – If this had come out fifteen years ago when I was still voraciously devouring all the Star Wars EU history I could get my hands on, I would’ve been dancing like a Twi’lek slave girl over finally getting the story of how the Jedi came to be. It’s one of the few events in Star Wars history that haven’t yet been explored.

Dark Horse Presents #9 – Featuring Tarzan, Lobster Johnson, and the world’s largest pirate ship. Not in the same story, unfortunately, but still pretty cool.

DC Universe Presents #6

DC

DC Universe Presents #6 – The Challengers of the Unknown take over the title with a beautiful, fantastic cover by Ryan Sook.

Legends of the Dark Knight: Jim Aparo - This isn’t even out yet and I’m already impatient for Volume 2.

Northlanders, Volume 6: Thor’s Daughter - I’ve been looking forward to finally trying out Northlanders with this volume. Telling the story of the Siege of Paris through the eyes of a Viking woman is a great hook.

Dynamite

Warriors of Mars #1 – Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter stories couldn’t be more different in tone from Edwin Lester Arnold’s goofy Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation, but the similarities in concepts (Southern soldiers transported to Mars where they fall in love with princesses) has had fans and writers making connections between them for decades, including Alan Moore in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Now Dynamite’s taking a turn with Carter’s princess (or her people, anyway) kidnapping Gullivar’s.

First Second

Friends With Boys - I’m all for three things: First Second publications, Faith Erin Hicks comics, and stories about people learning to communicate with people unlike themselves. No, wait: four things. Ghost stories.

The Big Town

Fantagraphics

The Big Town - Charles Schulz’ son wrote this novel (the last in his jazz-age trilogy) about the end of the Roaring Twenties and “the role of business, crime, morality, and love in our lives.” It’s not comics, but it sounds ambitious and transporting.

Humanoids

Celestial Bibendum – New York is now on the Seine and there’s a lonely seal named Diego living in it. That’s weird enough that I’d like to know more.

IDW

Road Rage #1 – You might think that the short story “Trucks” was Stephen King’s ultimate homage to the Richard Matheson novella Duel. After all, “Trucks” was collected in Night Shift and King himself directed the movie adaptation of it, Maximum Overdrive featuring Emilio Estevez, AC/DC, and a giant Green Goblin mask. What you might not know is that King also collaborated with his son Joe Hill on a biker-gang novella called Throttle that’s more directly inspired by Duel (which you probably remember was also adapted to film as Stephen Spielberg’s first feature-length project). IDW is now adapting both Duel and Throttle to comics with this four-issue mini-series.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Volume 1: Change is Constant – The first issues of the new, ongoing series are collected.

Jack Avarice is the Courier - I love the way IDW released this mini-series: weekly over the course of a single month, then the entire collection the month after that. I’d love to know how it sold for them, but for me as a consumer, that’s a perfect system.

Thief of Thieves

Image

Thief of Thieves #1 – Some new guys named Robert Kirkman and Nick Spencer team up to write one of those crime comics the kids love these days.

Glory #23 – Rob Liefeld’s Extreme relaunch continues to impress me with the talent it’s choosing. In this case, Joe Keatinge (Popgun) and Ross Campbell (Shadoweyes) offer a very different take on the Wonder Woman archetype.

King City - Brandon Graham’s masterwork is finally collected.

Marvel

Winter Soldier #1 – The closest thing we’re going to get to a Black Widow comic right now.

Ka-Zar by Mark Waid and Andy Kubert, Volume 2 - Ka-Zar vs. Thanos. ‘Nuff said.

Metropolitan

Journalism - A collection of short comics by cartoonist/war-reporter Joe Sacco.

Moonstone

The Lone Ranger: Vendetta - The concealed cowpoke and Tonto investigate a serial killer with possible connections to the Ranger’s dead nemesis, Butch Cavendish.

Rohan at the Louvre (French edition)

NBM

Rohan at the Louvre - A newly famous mangaka meddles with a cursed painting deep in the bowels of the famous museum. This will not end well.

Oni

Sixth Gun, Volume 3 – Trade-waiters have reason to whoop it up now that the next installment of the awesome Weird Western is on its way.

Courtney Crumrin, Volume 1: The Night Things Special Edition – The comic that put Ted Naifeh on so many radars gets color and a hardcover.

SLG

Malleus Maleficarum: A Guide to Catching Witches - Everyone’s favorite Inquisitorial treatise on How to Hunt and Torture Pagans, the Homeless, and Other People You Don’t Like is adapted to comics.

Top Shelf

Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland – One of the last projects Pekar worked on before his death is also – according to Alan Moore’s intro – “one of [his] very greatest works.”

That’s it for me. What are you looking forward to?

'It's all going to hell in 2012'

Following the teaser they sent out last week, Dark Horse Comics has announced five new B.P.R.D. titles that’ll be released next year and will “shake the organization to its very core.”

Here’s the line-up:

• First up, in February comes B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Long Death, written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi, with art by James Harren (Abe Sapien: The Devil Does Not Jest, Heralds). A team is sent to the deadly woods from New World to investigate a new series of disappearances, but they discover more than just the monster responsible, as loyalties are questioned and tensions mount!
• March will see the release of B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Pickens County Horror, written by Mike Mignola and Scott Allie, with art by Jason Latour (Wolverine, Scalped) and an all-new cover by Becky Cloonan. This chilling two-issue series brings a B.P.R.D. crew into the grips of a backwoods vampire clan hiding out in a Gothic southern home.
• Next, in May comes B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth­: The Transformation of J. H. O’Donnell, pairing Mike Mignola with Scott Allie again for the discovery of what drove the Bureau’s expert on ancient foes to near madness after a mission with Hellboy 24 years earlier. This supernatural thrill ride features art by B.P.R.D. newcomer Max Fiumara (Amazing Spider-Man) and a cover by Becky Cloonan.
• That same month features the return of the regular B.P.R.D. team of Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, and Tyler Crook, with B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Devil’s Engine. The Zinco Corporation again rears its ugly head after a devastating earthquake, pitting Devon and Fenix in an uneasy alliance against bat-faced monsters and the evil empire’s other mad-science experiments! Additionally, this new series will feature covers by former Hellboy artist Duncan Fegredo.
• Finally, Cameron Stewart returns to the B.P.R.D. universe in June with B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth­: Exorcism. In this story we learn more about Ashley Strode’s evolution as an agent after she meets up with a familiar face for a series of exorcisms in a rural Indiana town. Mike Mignola and Cameron Stewart team up to share writing duties, with pencils by Cameron and covers by Viktor Kalvachev.

“Let’s break some stuff that can’t be fixed. Let’s turn some corners where there’s no going back,” said Mike Mignola in a press release. “In both Hellboy and B.P.R.D., we’re saying, ‘Well, once we do this—once we round this corner—that’s it!’ It’s not like, ‘Oh, Batman, different costume.’ We’re doing stuff where there’s no way to fix it. That is the new reality in our world. You’re REALLY going to see that in 2012.”

“I see word is out about Victor Von Doom,” writer Nick Spencer tweeted this morning, referring to a post at Kabooooom. “Trust me, no one is more bummed about this than I am.”

Announced in August, the four-issue miniseries teamed Spencer with Demo artist Becky Cloonan for what was supposed to be a tale of a teenaged Doom as he journeyed into Hell to save the spirit of his mother.

“Really proud of the scripts and hope to get to work with @beckycloonan sooner rather than later,” Spencer wrote on Twitter.

The news follows a round of layoffs at Marvel last month that included the project’s editor Alejandro Arbona, as well as the cancellations of Alpha Flight, All-Winners Squad and Iron Man 2.0 (the latter also written by Spencer).

"Making Friends is Easy"

The T-shirt site Threadless has released a third round of “Comics on Tees” on their website, featuring the work of Becky Cloonan, Ethan Nicolle, J.R. Goldberg and Jhonen Vasquez, who wrote the four “issues” this time around.

This is the third “volume” of comic shirts from Threadless. The first volume featured artwork by Jill Thompson, Cliff Chiang, Tony Moore and Art Baltazar, while volume two featured Eduardo Risso, Lee Bermejo, Matheus Lopes and Dave Johnson, with a story by Brian Azzarello.

You can buy all four of the volume three shirts as a set for $79 or individually for $20 each. You can find artwork for all four shirts after the jump.

*****

J.R. Goldberg shirt:

J.R. Goldberg shirt (front)

J.R. Goldberg shirt (back)

Becky Cloonan shirt:

Becky Cloonan shirt (front)

Becky Cloonan shirt (back)

Ethan Nicolle shirt:

Ethan Nicolle shirt (front)

Ethan Nicolle shirt (back)

Jhonen Vasquez shirt:

Jhonen Vasquez shirt (front)

Jhonen Vasquez shirt (back)

• Following in the footsteps of DC Comics: The New 52, most of Vertigo’s titles will be available digitally the same day as print.

• Geoff Johns announced that work is about to get under way on a Robot Chicken DC Comics special that will skewer the company’s superheroes in the same way that the show tackled Star Wars. The episode, written by Johns and MAD‘s Kevin Shinick, is set to air next summer.

• Confirming last-minute speculation, Ed Brubaker announced that he and frequent collaborator Sean Phillips (Sleeper, Criminal, Incognito) will release their next project through Image Comics. Called Fatale, the series blends noir elements with the supernatural world. “I’ve been wanting for a while to do something with a more supernatural element to it,” Brubaker told Comic Book Resources. “So Fatale mixes what we do and all the ways we’ve poked fun at the noir genre. If Incognito was us doing ‘What if Doc Savage, Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler had all existed in the same universe?’ then this is a weird combo of James M. Cain and Lovecraft. It’s got a real horror element to it — the first time I’ve really tried to do anything with horror — but it’s also got this really epic story to it.”

• Dark Horse confirmed that Demo creators Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan will reunite in February for an adaptation of the Robert E. Howard Conan short story “Queen of the Black Coast.” Wood, whose upcoming Dark Horse project The Massive has been extended to an ongoing series, told Comic Book Resources that he’s signed on for 25 issues of Conan the Barbarian, “to start.”

• Vertigo announced Saucer Country, a new ongoing series from Paul Cornell (Stormwatch, Demon Knights) and Ryan Kelly (Local, New York Five) that the writer describes as “The West Wing does The X-Files.”

• Beginning in April, Return of the Dapper Men writer Jim McCann will team with Morning Glories cover artist Rodin Esquejo and colorist Sonia Oback for Mind The Gap, an ongoing series from Image Comics that combines elements of science fiction, thrillers and police procedurals. “This book is my X-Files meets Twin Peaks whodunit,” McCann told Comic Book Resources, “where everyone is suspect, and no one is innocent!”

• During its Amazing Spider-Man panel, Marvel announced a Scarlet Spider ongoing series will debut in January from writer Christopher Yost and artist Ryan Stegman.

• Ape Entertainment revealed it’s in talks with Sesame Workshop to publish comics featuring the beloved characters from Sesame Street.

• IDW Publishing will release a graphic-novel adaptation of Sergei Eisenstein’s 1938 film Alexander Nevsky, by Ben McCool and Mario Guevara.

• Expanding their partnership, Stan Lee and 1821 Comics announced they’ll launch a line of children’s comics called Stan Lee’s Kids Universe.

Pointing to the “Comic TBA — Brian Wood (DMZ, Demo, Northlanders) and Becky Cloonan (Demo, Pixu)” entry on the publisher’s Oct. 15 signing schedule, Wood simply wrote “Huh?” on his blog and posted the graphic at right.

The duo first partnered on Channel Zero: Jennie One, the 2003 sequel to Wood’s first series Channel Zero. But the 12-issue Demo, published from November 2003 to November 2004, by AiT/Planet Lar, was the breakout book for both collaborators, earning Eisner Award nominations for best limited series and best single issue. Wood and Cloonan revisted their milestone work in 2010 with the six-issue Demo: Volume 2 from Vertigo. They also reteamed last year for “The Girl in the Ice,” a two-issue story for Wood’s Viking saga Northlanders.

Wood, whose Vertigo series DMZ and Northlanders end next year, is already working with his Supermarket collaborator Kristian Donaldson on The Massive for Dark Horse. He also has a Marvel project in the works. Cloonan’s Victor Von Doom miniseries, with writer Nick Spencer, debuts from Marvel in November.

New York Comic Con will be held Oct. 13-16 at the Javits Center in New York City.

The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths

It’s time once again for our monthly trip through Previews looking for cool, new comics. As usual, we’re focusing on graphic novels, collected volumes, and first issues so that I don’t have to come up with a new way to say, “ Dark Horse Presents is still awesome!” every month. And I’ll continue letting Tom and Carla do the heavy lifting in regards to DC and Marvel’s solicitations.

Also, please feel free to play along in the comments. Tell me what I missed that you’re looking forward to or – if you’re a comics creator – mention your own stuff.

Ape

Puss in Boots Movie Prequel – I don’t care for movie prequel comics as a rule, but swashbuckling cats are awesome in any incarnation. As long as these are fresh gags and not just ones warmed up from Shrek, I expect to enjoy this.

Archaia

Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths, Book 1 - I just introduced my son to The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth a couple of weeks ago, so this is great timing. He had the same questions about The Dark Crystal‘s world that I always do, so I’m looking forward to seeing Archaia’s take on answering those. Totally feel like the world’s in good hands with this publisher and these creators.

The Sigh - If Archaia’s snagging Marjane Satrapi’s (Persepolis, Chicken With Plums) new book has been reported already, I missed it. I’m surprised that wasn’t bigger news.

Siegfried, Volume 1 – I’ve been meaning to read P Craig Russell’s Ring of the Nibelung adaptation for years, so I think this might be what pushes me to finally do it. It would be fun to read Russell’s and compare it to this version by Alex Alice.

Bone: One-Volume Color Edition

Boom!

Seven Warriors #1 – Francis Manapul draws this story of seven warrior-women who fight to save the king of 6th-century Libya from the armies of the Persian and Byzantine empires.

Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #1 – I’m absolutely loving Boom’s ongoing Planet of the Apes series, so I expect to also like this mini-series set during the events of the ’68 film and featuring Dr Zaius.

Operation: Iron Cross #1 – Boom’s already got my attention this month, so this WWII spy thriller also stands out.

The first volumes of Stan Lee’s Soldier Zero, Stan Lee’s Starborn, and Stan Lee’s The Traveler - After Graeme’s warm recommendation of Boom’s Stan Lee line, I want to check them out. And at $10 each, these are made for checking.

Peanuts #0 – I’m still curious to know who the creators on this are, but the idea of new Peanuts material is exciting and Boom has a good record for getting this kind of thing right.

Cartoon Books

Bone: The One-Volume 20th Anniversary Slipcased Color Edition - The affordable version I’ve been waiting for. It’s still $150, but that’s money well spent on a book this good-looking.

Dark Horse

House of Night #1 – Ordinarily I wouldn’t be excited by yet another vampire story set at yet another school for supernatural teens. And indeed, I haven’t paid any attention to the series of YA novellas this is based on. It’s Joëlle Jones and Karl Kerschl on the art that sells it.

Uncharted

Avatar: The Last Airbender, Volume 1 – The Promise, Part 1 – Aang’s adventures continue as written by Gene Yang (American Born Chinese).

Brothers of the Spear Archives, Volume 1 - Collecting the back-up stories to Dell’s Tarzan series featuring art by Jesse Marsh and Russ Manning. I haven’t read this stuff, but it’s ’50s jungle adventure, so I imagine that the standard warnings about racist characterizations apply.

Disney Comics and Stories Classic Characters #5: The Phantom Blot – We usually stick to comics in this column, but a Phantom Blot statue warrants an exception.

DC

Uncharted #1 – The treasure-hunting game that most makes me want to buy a PS3 becomes a comic with a Hollow Earth story.

Dynamite

Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist #1 – Dynamite puts their spin on the universe’s greatest space pulp hero.

EC

EC Archives - I know that EC’s been reprinting archive editions of Weird Science and Two-Fisted Tales for a little while now, but this is the first time I’ve noticed their getting a whole Previews page to themselves to advertise it.  Very eye-catching.

Mr Twee Deedle

Fantagraphics

Mr. Twee Diddle: Raggedy Ann’s Sprightly Cousin – The Forgotten Fantasy Masterpieces of Johnny Gruelle – I almost drowned in the amount of praise Fantagraphics poured on Gruelle’s work in the ad, but simply looking at the cover, it appears to be justified.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, Volume 2: The Mad Scientist/Mummies on Parade – Even if I wasn’t already turned on to the awesomeness of Jacques Tardi’s Belle-Époquian heroine, “Mummies on Parade” would be enough to necessitate this purchase.

Athos in America – Jason returns to The Last Musketeer and includes other Jasony stories like “The Brain That Wouldn’t Virginia Woolf.”

Gumby Comics

Gumby’s Spring Specials Collection – I haven’t read these, but if they’re anything like the Gumby Summer Specials by the same creative team (Bob Burden, Steve Purcell, and Art Adams), they’ll be worth having.

IDW

Jack Avarice is The Courier #1-5 – I like the idea of a mini-series told in weekly installments over a month. That sounds cool and exciting, especially when it’s a spy/voodoo action-adventure thriller thingy.

Rocketeer Adventures, Volume 1 - The anthology about everyone’s favorite jetpack-wearing hero by everyone’s favorite creators is finally collected. I say “finally” like it’s been a huge wait only because it’s felt that way.

Hawken

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Micro-Series #1: Raphael - IDW’s determined to get me back into TMNT again. It’s working.

Godzilla: Goliaths and Gangsters – The Monster Island crime story is collected.

Godzilla: Legends #1 – TMNT isn’t the only IDW license getting a series of spotlight issues. In this one: Anguirus vs Destoroyah.

30 Days of Night: Night Again - The Joe Lansdale/Sam Kieth mini-series gets a collection.

Hawken #1 – IDW’s not going to let Oni and Image have all the Western weirdness with The Sixth Gun and Deadlands. And I can’t think of many artists I’d rather see do this kind of story than Tim Truman.

Shaman’s Tears - It’s been more than a decade since I read this story by Mike Grell, but my memory is that it was one of my favorite of Image’s second wave of creator-owned series. The other being Jerry Ordway’s WildStar, in case anyone wants to reprint that.

Image

Guns and Dinos #1 – I’m rooting for the dinos.

Mudman #1 – Paul Grist has a new superhero comic. That’s all fans of Jack Staff need to know.

Giant-Size Elephantmen #1 – I’ve got some catching up to do on Elephantmen and this inexpensive collection (three issues for $6) looks like a good place to jump back in.

Super Dinosaur

Girls: The Complete Collection – I got into the Luna Brothers’ creepy series late and always meant to go back and read the earlier issues, because it was really very good. It was underrated (the title and the abundance of naked women understandably leading many readers to think it was just about gratuitous nudity), but it’s a serious horror story with an unsettling vibe similar to something by Charles Burns.

Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors, Volume 1 – This collection was difficult to wait for, so I’m glad it’s here.

Reed Gunther, Volume 1 – Same with this one.

Super Dinosaur, Volume 1 – And this one too. Especially this one, ’cause I read the first issue and was immediately anxious to read the next. Fantastic, all-ages fun. Image is going to kill my wallet in November, but I’ll be smiling as I bury its poor, leather corpse.

Marvel

Northanger Abby #1 – Jane Austen’s parody of a gothic romance novel is as sensational as any actual gothic romance novel. I love Janet Lee’s work and am looking forward to this adaptation, but there’s a part of me that wishes Marvel had gone for a Haunted Love/House of Secrets vibe with it.

Six Guns #1 and 2 – It’s too soon to say that Western comics have made a comeback, but I’m really excited that we’re seeing so many of them lately. Even modern ones like this. Andy Diggle seems perfect for it too.

Victor Von Doom #1 – Doom’s early days as illustrated by Becky Cloonan. Thank you, Marvel.

Skaar: King of the Savage Land

Skaar: King of the Savage Land – Ka-Zar vs Son of Hulk, dinosaurs, and some giant robots.

Oni

Salt Water Taffy, Volume 5: Caldera’s Revenge, Part 2 – Jack and Benny continue trying to survive ghost ships and evil whale hunters.

Papercutz

The Smurfs, Volume 9: Gargamel and the Smurfs – I recently read one of Papercutz’ Smurf volumes to see what the fuss is about. I never really enjoyed the cartoon as a kid and I stayed far, far away from the movie, but Peyo’s comics are so well-liked that I got curious. And they’re really good. They remind me of what I loved about Casper when I was a kid: fantastic creatures having adventures in a forest fantasy world and occasionally learning some nice lessons about how to get along with other people. I’m looking forward to reading more.

That’s it for me. What are you looking forward to?

Green Lantern

Movies | National Public Radio commentator John Ridley critiques Hollywood for being even less diverse than the Big Two when it comes to diversity in lead characters, and demolishes their blame-the-audience theory that white people won’t go to see a movie with a black lead by pointing to a study by Indiana University professor Andrew Weaver: “Weaver found that white audiences tended to be racially selective with regard to romantic movies, but not necessarily when it came to other genres. So, sorry, Hollywood. You can’t blame it on the ticket buyers.” [NPR]

Piracy | Comic-book torrent tracker Z-Cult FM, which was threatened with legal action by Marvel in 2007 and eventually shut down in 2009, has re-opened its virtual doors. [Facebook]

Creators | Becky Cloonan talks about the joys and the hardships of being a full-time comics creator: “Comics are hard work. Comics are relentless. Comics will break your heart. Comics are monetarily unsatisfying. Comics don’t offer much in terms of fortune and glory, but comics will give you complete freedom to tell the stories you want to tell, in ways unlike any other medium. Comics will pick you up after it knocks you down. Comics will dust you off and tell you it loves you. And you will look into its eyes and know it’s true, that you love comics back.” [Becky Cloonan: Comics or STFU]

Creators | The Sixth Gun writer Cullen Bunn has returned to writing a column for Broken Frontier. [Broken Frontier]

Creators | Vera Brosgol, whose first graphic novel, Anya’s Ghost, was just published by First Second, talks about being that funny immigrant kid… who knew how to draw comics. [Speakeasy]

Creators | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson interviews artist Ramon Perez about his work on A Tale of Sand, a graphic novel based on a recently discovered script written by Muppets creator Jim Henson. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | James Romberger talks to Anders Nilsen about his ambitious new work, aptly titled Big Questions. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Vaneta Rogers talks to Scott Lobdell and Ron Marz about their Twitterfight of last week, which started when Lobdell criticized Marz for Tweeting “‘Worst. Week. Ever.’ — Racists.” If you’re expecting more snark, go elsewhere; everyone has calmed down and is being all nice now. [Newsarama]

Creators | Sean Kleefeld links us up with a beautiful piece of animation by Little Nemo creator Winsor McCay. It’s all hand drawn and amazingly fluid — like watching one of McCay’s cartoons come to life. [Kleefeld on Comics]

Infographics | Freestyle Interactive compares popular social media sites to superheroes, noting Facebook is “big, ugly, powerful, but not very friendly” like the Hulk and flickr is “Very impressive to look at but you wouldn’t miss it if it was extinguished” like the Human Torch. Burn. [Freestyle Interactive]

Retailing | Todd Allen looks at a little-understood phenomenon, the placement of comics in big-box retail stores — sometimes priced at less than the wholesale cost. [Publishers Weekly]

Retailing | Damage to the Birmingham, England, Nostalgia & Comics store during the recent riots was limited to some broken windows; there was no looting, and no one was hurt. [Forbidden Planet]

Jobs | Want to get into digital comics from the inside? Dark Horse is looking for an Application/Web Developer. [Dark Horse Comics]

The Massive

Friday was a busy day in San Diego, with a full slate of announcements capped by the Eisner Awards in the evening.

• Image Comics will resurrect the classic television show MacGyver as a five-issue miniseries written by MacGyver creator Lee David Zlotoff and Doctor Who writer Tony Lee, and illustrated by Becky Cloonan.

• Brian Wood’s newest project was announced — The Massive, about environmentalists who survive the last environmental collapse. The comic will start its run in Dark Horse Presents #8 in January.

• Vertigo Executive Editor Karen Berger confirmed that Scalped will end with issue #60.

• Marvel teased the return of the Scarlet Spider.

• DC Comics released more interior art for several of their “New 52″ titles, including Aquaman, Mister Terrific and more.

Rascal Raccoon's Raging Revenge

• Oni Press announced a new book by Robot Chicken writer Brendan Hay and artist Justin Wagner called Rascal Raccoon’s Raging Revenge.

• Dark Horse’s Star Wars comics are being added to their digital app.

• Aspen Comics announced several new projects, including volume two of Shrugged; a new volume of Fathom: Kiani; Dead Man’s Run, a brand new series written by Greg Pak with art by Tony Parker; and Homecoming, a new project from Aspen designed by Michael Turner.

• Viz Media announced three new manga licenses: A Devil and Her Love Song, a romance; The Earl and the Fairy, a fantasy; and Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamoroll, which is based on a cute mascot dog from Hello Kitty parent company Sanrio.

• Yen Press also had three manga licenses to announce: Durara!!, Kore wa Zombie desu ka? and Olimpos, as well as an iPhone/iPod Touch app that will sync with their iPad app. And yes, they are working on an Android version.

• Joshua Hale Fialkov and Rahsan Ekedal, who collaborated on Echoes, have another comic in the works for Top Cow’s Pilot Season, titled The Test. Writer Alan McElroy also talked to CBR about his Pilot Season entry, Anonymous.

• First Comics officially announced their return in San Diego and shared that their YA/submissions editor, Susannah Carson, is taking submissions.

• James O’Barr’s The Crow is returning at IDW, as is Popeye.

• IDW also announced another Artist’s Edition, this one featuring Will Eisner’s The Spirit.

• Abrams will publish The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist in the spring of 2012.

• Syfy will adapt Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s The Sixth Gun comic into a television show.

• AMC debuted a new trailer for the second season of The Walking Dead, which will premiere Oct. 16.

• Neil Gaiman will produce a movie based on Roman Dirge’s Lenore.

• A live-action Voltron feature film is in the works.

• Today’s strange-but-true announcement: Capcomm announced a Hello Kitty x Street Fighter crossover that will produce a line of merchandise bearing images of Kitty in various Street Fighter costumes.

• Conan O’Brien “crashed” Comic-Con to debut a new trailer starring his alter-ego, The Flaming C.

• Justice League action figures based on Jim Lee’s “New 52″ designs will debut next year.

Ultimate Spider-Man #160

Publishing | Arune Singh, Marvel’s director of communications, addresses how Marvel works with media outlets to break major storyline news and in many cases spoil the story, like Ultimate Spider-Man dying. Their goal is to hopefully bring lapsed or non-fans into stores: “When we line up this kind of mainstream media coverage, it’s offering the promise of breaking this big news to the outlet. It’s with the knowledge that they’ll be the ones making the headlines, being referenced by other sites and getting the attention. But if we wait till the story breaks or the Wednesday books go on-sale, someone else is going to buy the issue early in the morning and break the news. Is it possible that mainstream outlets will still pick up on the news then? Yes, it’s possible. But the only way to guarantee that big, sweeping placement worldwide — as you’ve seen with the Death of Spider-Man — is to break it before anyone has a chance. And that kind of placement is, as I mentioned above, what will get us attention from outside the industry.” [ComicsAlliance]

Retailing | Toronto retailer Chris Butcher worries about how well the two late Green Lantern movie prequel comics — one shipping this week, one shipping in August — will sell so long after the film’s release. He also discusses the lateness of the final issue of the War of the Green Lanterns crossover, which won’t come out until after the epilogue story in this week’s Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #11. [Comics212]

Business | David Maisel, the former chairman of Marvel Studios who stepped down after the Disney merger, will serve as a special adviser to Rovio, the company behind the hit game Angry Birds. He will also serve as executive producer of future Angry Birds films. Surely an Angry Birds comic is being worked on somewhere. [Business Wire]

from Mister Wonderful

Best of 2011 | Already? Yes, already. Amazon.com names its best graphic novels of the year so far. Topping the list is Daniel Clowes’ Mister Wonderful, followed by The Cardboard Valise, iZombie Vol. 1: Dead to the World, the Thor by Walter Simonson Omnibus and Anya’s Ghost. [Amazon.com]

Comics | PopGun editor Joe Keatinge shares his love for Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean “Moebius” Giraud’s The Incal: “Incal’s a comic which definitely deserved the prestigious format. Moebius’ linework always benefits from having a larger format, but the sheer scope of Incal warrants as large a presentation as possible. It’s not a small story – it begins with detective John Difool making a run-in with a giant monster who bestows him with the titular Incal, which eventually leads him to become something of a messianic figure. That all just barely scratches the first twenty-two pages. Throughout the entire saga, you’re faced with sprawling metropolises without an end, alien assassins, genetically spliced creatures, religious crusades and flying cars aplenty.” [Broken Frontier]

Batwing #1

Retailing | Retailer Ron Cacace from Fallout Shelter Comics in New Jersey discusses the DC relaunch: “From a retailer’s perspective, it’s easy to get excited about the possibilities that 52 #1 issues can bring. It’s also easy to get completely terrified. My initial reaction was that there would be no way to accurately order all of these comics and not risk taking a huge loss. I could easily assume that most of the people buying titles such as Green Lantern and Scott Snyder’s Detective Comics will stick around for the new issues as these books will remain relatively untouched. (Snyder will move over to Batman, but the creative team on Green Lantern remains the same.) But how should I order a title such as Blackhawks or Batwing? These aren’t characters with a built-in fan base or a previous title that I can judge my orders against.” [The Weekly Crisis]

Digital comics | David Brothers argues that digital comics should be sold as complete stories, not single issues. [ComicsAlliance]

Comics | Evan Hughes dives into the story of Harold von Braunhut, the man behind those sea monkey ads that used to run in the back of comics. [The Awl]

Creators | Becky Cloonan’s newest project isn’t a comic, apparently but an illustrated edition of Dracula. [Ink and Thunder]

Conventions | The artist site deviantART will sponsor the Artists Alley at Comic-Con International in San Diego this year, and they are offering two “scholarships” to pay all the expenses of the con for a webcomics artist and a traditional artist. [deviantART]

HeroesCon 2011

Not to mince words, HeroesCon is my San Diego. Scheduled for June 3-5 at the Charlotte Convention Center this year, I recently caught up with Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find Creative Director Rico Renzi, to discuss what to look forward to at HeroesCon 2011. Anyone that has read my past con reports knows how much I always enjoy this family friendly/comics focused con, and will not be surprised to learn I will be in attendance again this year. Thanks to Renzi for the interview and for giving us the scoop that  Farel Dalrymple is returning to the con this year. I was also enthused  to learn the con is trying a Friday night event this year, as well as introducing a new section of the convention floor devoted to comic strip creators.

Tim O’Shea: How are things shaping up with less than a month to go before the con, starting to panic? Planning-wise, how do you and Shelton Drum (con founder/organizer and owner of Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find) divvy up the heavy lifting of making this con happen?

Rico Renzi: HeroesCon is like breathing to Shelton so I’m pretty sure he’s not panicking. This is my first time doing anything like this so, yeah I think there’s some pressure on me. Maybe I get a pass since this is my first year though? Dustin Harbin has been a great help showing me the ropes on a few things, especially the floor plan. Deciding where everyone is going to sit seems like the hardest job to me right now. Aside from that we get great help from our warehouse manager, Seth Peagler. Whether I need someone to brainstorm with or edit my blog posts, Seth is my guy. Also, Andy Mansell has been instrumental in planning and coordinating our programming. These guys keep me sane!

O’Shea: Last year, when describing this con (based on others’ con reports), Robot 6′s Brigid Alverson likened HeroesCon as sounding “like the exact opposite of San Diego: Laid-back and all about the comics”. Would you say that’s a fair juxtaposition?

Renzi: Yeah, I think that’s pretty fair. We are almost exclusively a COMIC convention with a big focus on the great creators who make the comics we love. You won’t see a lot of big corporations pushing their latest movies or videogames at HeroesCon.

O’Shea: Can you tease folks with some of the fan favorite guests that are returning to the con, as well as creators attending for the first time?

Renzi: HeroesCon always has an incredible guest list. Lots of creators tell us this is their favorite show and fortunately for us, they also tell their friends! A few of this year’s first-time guests are attending because a friend told them what a fun show we run. Geof Darrow is coming because Mike Mignola, Adam Hughes and Allison Sohn told him about HeroesCon. Eric Canete told Becky Cloonan what a good time he had here so she’s coming down for the first time this year. I invited Ryan Sook out because he had never been to the show, he not only said yes but he also provided the art for our program cover! We also went through all our program books from HeroesCons past looking for creators we love who hadn’t been to the show in a few years. This led to getting Kevin Nowlan, Ed McGuinness, and Joe Quinones back to the show this year. Of course there are a bunch of fan fave comic creators who we consider family, folks like Adam Hughes, Brian Stelfreeze, Cully Hamner, Steve Niles, Matt Fraction, Phil Noto and many more. They go way back with Shelton and these guys rarely, if ever, miss HeroesCon.

O’Shea: How is Indie Island shaping up–that aspect of the con almost seems in a sense a con within the con, given the diversity of indie talent that always assembled there?

Renzi: I just moved to Charlotte from Maryland, home of the Small Press Expo, and I see a lot of that same spirit in Indie Island. We have some great guests there this year as always. Dustin Harbin did an amazing job building the Indie Island brand. I love the name, I love the idea but I’m wondering how much longer it will be necessary. The comic industry is so small and the lines between indie and mainstream are becoming really blurry.

I will give you a “you-heard-it-here-first” announcement though. One of my favorite “indie” creators just told me he’s going to make it down for our show this year, Farel Dalrymple! I’m very excited!

O’Shea: We’ve already reported about Roger Langridge’s piece for the Art Auction. Who else is involved with contributing to the art auction?

Renzi: Isn’t Roger’s piece amazing? The Heroes Annual Art Auction has been my favorite part of the show since my first visit in ’97. I’ve seen a few more pieces that people have done at home for the auction. Jeremy Bastian, John Tyler Christopher, and Mateo Scalera have all shown us the art they are bringing for the auction. One of the most exciting things for attendees of the convention though, is getting to see some of their favorite comic artists creating these amazing paintings right before their eyes on our art stage. Then, shortly after that, they are able to bid on the art they just saw someone pour their heart into! I know the ComicTwart guys are going to do their contributions to the auction live at one of our panels.

O’Shea: Is it too early to discuss panels, I always look forward to seeing what Ben Towle and Craig Fischer have cooked up for their panels?

Renzi: Ben and Craig have a “megapanel” planned for HeroesCon called The Master of Screaming Metal: A Tribute to Moebius. They are showing Moebius Redux by Hasko Baumann and then interviewing friend and fan of Jean Giruad, Geof Darrow regarding the work of this legendary cartoonist. The rest of our programming should be up on the site later this week, God willing. We have some great stuff planned!

O’Shea: What do you most enjoy about HeroesCon? For folks who have never attended, why do you think they should consider visiting the con this year?

Renzi: The laid back atmosphere of HeroesCon is a big draw for creators and fans alike. Our guest list blows my mind. Something new we’re trying this year that should be fun is a Friday night event across the street from the convention center with the founders of the Drink and Draw Social Club, Dave Johnson, Dan Panosian, and Jeff Johnson. The event is open to everyone and if it goes well I’d love to see it become another annual tradition at the show. Also we’ll have a new section of the convention floor called The Comic Strip dedicated to creators of , wait for it…comic strips! There will also be a collection of gorgeous Sunday newspaper originals on display in this area called, One Fine Sunday, curated by John Read. We are also very proud to have some special programming featuring Richard Thompson and Team Cul de Sac. There really is something for everyone at the show, whether you are into indie comics, strips, superheroes, mini comics, or webcomics, we really cover a broad spectrum at HeroesCon.

Drink the Blood of the Dragon / Speak the Language of Birds

Demo artist Becky Cloonan posts a new print she and painter/tattoo artist Mike Moses teamed up to create:

“Drink the Blood of the Dragon / Speak the Language of Birds” depicts Sigurd and Fafnir from the Völsunga Saga. After Sigurd had slain Fafnir with the sword Gram, Odin came to him disguised as an old man and instructed him to bathe in the blood of the dragon, and eat it’s heart to grant him invulnerability and the ability to communicate with birds.

The print costs $30, and purchasing info can be found at the first link above.

The Rising Stars of Manga

There was a time, back in the mid-2000′s, when Tokyopop was a bubbling cauldron of talent. With its Rising Stars of Manga competition and global manga program, Tokyopop was a gateway into comics for many talented newcomers, and many of them continue to work in the industry, creating and editing manga and other types of comics. Tokyopop shut down its OEL (Original English Language) manga program and laid off much of its staff in June 2008. Some of the creators continued to work on Tokyopop’s licensed books, while others moved on to new endeavors, including BOOM! Studios’ Pixar comics and Archaia’s Fraggle Rock anthologies.

The news that Tokyopop will be shutting its doors on May 31 inspired many creators to post their thoughts about the Tokyopop experience, and we reached out to some others for their own memories.

Former editor Tim Beedle, who was on staff at the time, looked back with mixed feelings:

There were certainly times where working at Tokyopop could be a frustrating experience. Like most of the editorial team, I came to Tokyopop because I had a genuine interest in comics and manga and wanted to play a role in bringing some great titles to American graphic novel fans, whether they were licensed from Japan or produced in the United States. And I think we did just that while we were there. I’m proud of just about all of the titles I worked on, especially the OEL ones. However, as time went on, the company’s interests and priorities seemed to shift. All of a sudden, we weren’t simply manga editors—we were film developers, magazine contributors, social media website operators and reality TV producers. All of which are worthwhile career pursuits, but what’s wrong with being editors? I think Tokyopop was at its best when its focus remained on publishing, and for all the time I was there, that’s what I focused on.

However, despite all that, I look back on my years at Tokyopop with affection. It was a fun company to work for and the employees were some of the greatest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. It was one of those offices where you genuinely had fun each day you were at work, something that I haven’t experienced at any of the offices I’ve worked in since. I made some great friends while I was there, both within the office and without. I think we all did. I’m proud of the books we’ve published, and while the original manga program might not have been the financial success we wanted it to be, I believe it played a key role in shaping our current comic scene. In fact, in spite of all the things Tokyopop accomplished for manga in the US, I think its most important legacy may prove to be the talented men and women who rose through its ranks and are now occupying key positions at comic book publishers, game studios and production houses nationwide along with the extremely talented artists and writers who got their start drawing OEL titles for Tokyopop.

Queenie Chan, writer and artist of The Dreaming:

Looking back at The Dreaming, my experience with TOKYOPOP has been a comparatively happy one (compared to other creators who worked for them). I’m one of the few who got all 3 volumes of my work out with them, before moving onto my current work with a different publisher (Del Rey and Dean Koontz, and The Dreaming was directly responsible for that), and I got an Omnibus out of it as well, so I don’t really complain. Things haven’t been managed as well as I hoped (especially in publicising The Dreaming), but overall, I learned how to do one volume of graphic novel after another, and learned to pace myself in my work and all. Because I was able to complete all 3 volumes of The Dreaming before I moved onto other work, it gave me a solid piece of work to display on my resume, so at least for that, I gotta thank Tokyopop for the opportunity they gave me, and the doors that it opened. I also got a lot of fans in foreign countries—The Dreaming has a lot of fans all over the world, and I often get emails from them. I also got a chance to go to Turkey on a 10-day trip to do talks at Turkish schools, so at least Tokyopop helped in selling the rights to as many overseas companies as they can.

Jim Pascoe, writer of Undertown:

I will forever be grateful to Tokyopop, and specifically to my editor Paul Morrissey, for helping me bring Undertown into the world. There were many great things that came out of this—the book sold through over 58,000 copies (that’s AFTER returns), was serialized in about 50 newspapers world wide, and has attracted praise from numerous fans, including Coraline screenwriter/director Henry Selick, who called it “a dark, fun, bittersweet display of incredible imagination.”

Undertown is a deeply personal story, based in large part on my dad’s heart transplant. I signed the contract within a week of my dad’s operation, and it was one of the great joys of my life that my dad lived to see the first volume published. I’m also thrilled that he is still alive today, and while very little can take away from that gift, I’m sad that he has not been able to see all three volumes fully realized, even though the second volume is done and the third is completely written.

As for the future, I am looking at many different options for the best way to re-present Undertown to the fans, both old and new. I hope to have news to share soon.

Sho Murase, who illustrates the Nancy Drew graphic novels for Papercutz, would like to finish her series me2; Tokyopop published the first volume, dropped the series, and left her in limbo:

It has been sad to answer to the readers , whom after so many years , still ask me when the next volume is coming out. As a reader I feel entitled to have the option of buying the continuation of the first book I purchased.

As a writer /artist I wanted to oblige, but was unable to.

Post cancellation syndrome was no fun – and along with money spent on lawyers -(To attempt to negotiate rights to finish the series under a different publisher)-costly.
…

Coming from the animation industry , I have nothing against the use of comics and manga IP for other media, however, I often wondered if those cancelled books may have sold more if Tokyopop would have done a little marketing on them. There was next to none for ME2 .

There were great things about woking on Me2.
Working with Troy Lewter was great . He is an awesome editor , and a good writer.
I did learn a lot about writing working with him.

At her blog, Ink and Thunder, Becky Cloonan reflected on missed opportunities:

A lot of people blame TP’s downfall on Borders closing- though I want to talk about something different, about how they stopped being a publisher and started being an IP hoarder. To be a successful publisher I would have thought you’d have to make publishing a priority- and by canceling so many books and concentrating harder on their media developments over the promotion and production of the comics they published, they signed their own death warrant.

That’s not to say it’s bad to cultivate options for a property outside of comics, but it seemed, for my book and from my perspective at least, that they put zero effort into marketing East Coast Rising. I had issues with the design of the book that went unheard. I even heard that they didn’t stock my comic in many stores. I felt like they were more excited when my book garnered attention from animation and video game companies than when it got an Eisner nomination. To me, I don’t really care about media rights. Money is great and everything, but I’m in it to make a good book. And I think that’s where our interests were divided.

The picture that emerges, on and off the record, is startlingly consistent: Lots of talent, caring editors, not enough attention to follow-through, and a sense of loss over projects that now cannot be finished—although the remnant of Tokyopop has little to gain by hanging on to the rights at this point.

On the other hand, a lot of talented creators got off to some sort of a start, even if they learned a few lessons the hard way, and they will be shaping the comics world for a long time to come.

from the never-published East Coast Rising Vol. 2 by Becky Cloonan

Maybe [Tokyopop] just went around things wrong. If Stu Levy wanted to make a media company, I feel like he should have started it that way instead of trying to get into movies and other media through comics. That notion has always seemed backwards to me- if you want to make a movie, fucking just make a movie! It might not be easy, but it makes a lot more sense than making comics to make movies. That’s like making cookies and hoping they will turn into a cake in the oven!

–Demo artist Becky Cloonan, whose unfinished OEL graphic-novel series East Coast Rising has disappeared down Tokyopop’s publishing-rights rabbit hole, with an analogy for the ages on the trend of using comics as back door to Hollywood. The post contains a lot more insight into Cloonan’s ill-fated relationship with the now-defunct manga publisher — well worth a read.

Our Hero: Superman on Earth

Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? Our special guest today is Nate Cosby, co-writer of the upcoming Image series Pigs and editor of the upcoming Jim Henson’s The Storyteller anthology, which will feature stories by an impressive group of talented creators.

To see what Nate and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below.

*****

Michael May

Black Widow and the Marvel Girls

It’s a fun coincidence that our guest this week is Nate Cosby because one of the books I read, Black Widow and the Marvel Girls was edited by him. I’m on a Marvel catch-up kick lately, finally reading a bunch of trades that I’d been waiting for. BWatMG is a fun one, written by Paul Tobin, exploring four different time periods in Black Widow’s career. The first story is from her time as a Russian spy, the second features her as a brand-new Avenger; then there’s one with her as a SHIELD agent and one from current continuity in which she’s a freelancer. As the title suggests, she works with a different Marvel heroine in each: Enchantress, the Wasp, Ms. Marvel and Storm, respectively.

Except for the Enchantress story (in which the guest-star is more or less superfluous), Tobin finds some really interesting things to do with the Marvel Girls. The Wasp story is really an Avengers story in which the Wasp and Black Widow are separated from the rest of the team during a mission in Latveria. The Wasp personifies the entire group as they’re still trying to figure out if they can trust their new member. Widow’s coolness (in both meanings of the word) isn’t helping. It was this story that made me realize that the superpowerless, but extremely well-trained and always-prepared Widow, is sort of the Batman of the Marvel Universe, if Batman wasn’t so one-dimensionally misanthropic. That goes a long way in explaining why I like Black Widow so much.

The SHIELD story turns the situation around since Black Widow’s assignment is to check out another new superhero on the block, Ms. Marvel. The Storm story is interesting because she and Black Widow team up with Mole Man to fight some renegade Moloids. And you know how Storm does underground. There’s also a reprint of Amazing Spider-Man #86, in which Black Widow tries to find some direction for herself by becoming a costumed adventurer. It’s also the first appearance of her catsuit costume.

from Shadowland

Other Marvel trades I caught up on are Heralds and Shadowland. Heralds is a fun, girl-power comic written by Kathryn Immonen, but it’s mostly focused on Emma Frost, Hellcat and a young woman with mysterious ties to Frankie Raye/Nova. I enjoyed the Nova character back in the day when she was dating Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four, so I liked checking in on her, but She-Hulk and Valkyrie (the reasons I was interested in the book in the first place) aren’t given a lot to do. Still, Immonen’s got a fun sense of humor and a knack for banter, so I enjoyed the book, even though it wasn’t exactly what I wanted.

I liked Shadowland even more than I thought I would. I bought it to check in on Shang Chi (and because I like Andy Diggle), but I’m not terribly into Daredevil. I like him in small doses, but have never been able to stay with his ongoing series for long. Casting him as the villain for some interesting street-level heroes to fight though was a brilliant move, and I especially enjoyed Diggle’s going back to the roots of the Hand organization in order to explain Daredevil’s actions. He also figured out exactly the right amount of Ghost Rider and Punisher the story needed, which has always seemed extremely difficult for a lot of writers.

Chris Mautner

My busy schedule has kept me from contributing to WAYR in awhile, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading anything. Here are some books that crossed my paths in the past few weeks:

Dungeon Quest Book Two by Joe Daly (Fantagraphics) — More stoner/fantasy silliness from Daly. There seems to be more of a focus on plot and creating lengthy action sequences than in previous. The jokes don’t seem as frequent, or at least are more subtle this time around. Perhaps its simply that I’ve become familiar with the “D&D by way of Seth Rogan” style that’s going on here. That’s not necessarily a complaint. Dungeon Quest Book Two is still a fun romp, especially if you’re at all familiar with the fantasy genre or role-playing games in particular. It’s just that this felt like a bit of a placeholder at times for the next chapter, where, hopefully, a nice left curve will be thrown.

5 Very Good Reasons ...

5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (and Other Useful Guides) by “The Oatmeal” (Andrews McMeel) — This is a collection of what is allegedly a rather popular webcomic, The Oatmeal, written and drawn by Matthew Inman. Inman riffs on various things that annoy him, like other people, and things that he loves, like coffee. It’s basically a foul-mouthed version of a bad stand-up routine, right down to the jokes about the obnoxious people that sit next to you on a plane and dealing with bad tech support. It doesn’t help that Inman can’t draw for beans, and that his over-reliance on Adobe Illustrator (or whatever computer program he uses) gives the whole thing a “PowerPoint presentation gone horribly wrong” feel. But hey, maybe that’s what he’s shooting for. If so, mission accomplished.

Empire State by Jason Shiga (Abrams) — Basically I agree with Tucker Stone here: Shiga is a man of considerable talents but this book seems like the same warmed over sad-sack, semi-autobiography, unrequited love story I’ve read a dozen times over. Part of me wonders if this isn’t a really subtle parody of Adrian Tomine’s Shortcomings, but I think that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

Brigid Alverson

The Matter

Where to begin? I came back from MoCCA with a stack of interesting comics, and then had a crazy busy week and wasn’t able to get too far into it. I did start reading Farm 54, which is a trio of semi-autobiographical short stories about growing up in rural Israel (which, oddly, doesn’t look that different from rural Indiana). Gilad Seliktar’s art is spare but depicts its subject well—I could almost feel the dry grass crackle—and the story is told in a flat, almost distant voice. The first story seemed to sort of float along, and then it hit me with a twist so powerful I had to put the book down. I’ll pick it up again, but this is not an easy book to read. It’s sort of like one of those New Yorker short stories, where it seems like nothing happens but really everything happens.

I also got the first two issues of The Matter, an indie anthology that is probably the perfect MoCCA comic. It’s a mix of comics and illustrated prose fiction, and it’s all very literary, with lots of epiphanies and no car chases or kicks to the head. It is beautifully produced and printed, and the stories are short and tight (although each issue has one story in Somali, a language I can’t read). Overall, both issues have a hand-crafted feel but a high degree of polish, and I really felt they were as much objets d’art as comics.

Nathan Cosby

Leeeeeet’s see…Best thing I read this week was Wolves, a new mini-comic by the spectacular Becky Cloonan. I don’t think the book’s for sale yet, but Miss C hooked me up with an early copy. She took some old art she was using for something else, then switched it around, added pages, panels, and captions …but you’d never realize Wolves‘ patchwork history from reading it. Graphic, gritty, passionate and really interestingly paced, I thought I had a handle on what was going on, until I got to the last two pages, and the rug got pulled from under me. Becky’s an amazing artist, but she needs to write more if she’s capable of telling such a full, rich tale in 20 pages.

Also, making my way through Our Hero: Superman on Earth by Tom De Haven. Tom’s the author of the INCREDIBLE novel It’s Superman!, and this collection of essays covers all the nooks and crannies of how Superman was created, how he evolved, his effect on pop culture, etc. Strictly for Superman obsessives like myself…basically Krypto-Porn for me.

Lastly, there’s The Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck. I didn’t read it all the way through this week (I’ve read it hundreds of times by now), but I keep a copy by my bed when I want something to read before sleep. L&T is my Comic Bible…I can flip to any page and find a chapter that sucks me in and reminds how masterfully Don Rosa told the tale of a full life, totally respectful to the work of Carl Barks, but completely accessible to even the most stoic anti-Disney reader.

To celebrate yesterday’s release of the Thor By Walter Simonson Omnibus, the good folks at Deep6 and Hypothetical Island Studios decided to draw themselves some thunder god. Look at what Becky Cloonan did, then click through to see George O’Connor, Simon Fraser and Tim Hamilton’s versions.