Returning creators like Jo Chen, Dave Johnson, Paolo Rivera and J.H. Williams III are joined on the list by such “newcomers” as Francesco Francavilla, Viktor Kalvachev, Tradd Moore and Steve Morris.

As with previous installments, I’ve attempted to explain the appeal of each entry; some covers get just a sentence, while others receive entire paragraphs. That doesn’t reflect the quality of the image, but merely what I have to say about it.

For those interested in the lists from previous years, they can be found here: the best covers of 2010; the best covers of 2009; and the best covers of 2008.

With that out of the way, I present, in alphabetical order, the 50 best covers of 2011:

Abe Sapien: The Devil Does Not Jest #1, by Francesco Francavilla
Perhaps best known for his recent work on Detective Comics and Black Panther, Francesco Francavilla has a pulp-influenced style that lends itself well to the world of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. Reminiscent of some of the old Gold Key comics, this cover wonderfully relates what’s in store for Abe Sapien as he investigates the “deep, dark family secret” buried in the basement of a demonologist’s home.

Action Comics #2, by Rags Morales
While Rags Morales’ style is contemporary, the concept is a throwback to the heyday of the newsstand or maybe the movie serial: It’s a classic cliffhanger image, leading the reader to wonder how Superman ended up in this predicament — the shadowy yet easily identifiable face of Lex Luthor provides a clue — and how he might escape.

Angel & Faith #4, by Steve Morris
Using a limited color palette and symbols of death and immortality (the skeletons and the peacock), Steve Morris creates an image that’s eerie, beautiful and sinister. I love how the haunting “eyes” of the feathers are echoed in those of the people, and on the woman’s bracelet, and how the two figures are themselves sinewy and skeletal.

The Amazing Spider-Man #665, by Paolo Rivera
I’m a sucker for logos that interact with the cover illustration, rather than simply rest on top of it. So I have to give Paolo Rivera and his editors credit for not only swapping the trademark Amazing Spider-Man font for marquee letters — and then dropping four of those letters as the wall-crawler takes a spill. It’s a nice touch, too, that the M, A and N stick to Spidey’s feet and hand.

The Amazing Spider-Man #666, by Mike Del Mundo
For the start of the “Spider-Island” storyline, in which hundreds of New Yorkers manifest spider-powers, Mike Del Mundo could’ve opted for another landmark — I don’t know, maybe a web-encased Brooklyn Bridge or Chrysler Building — or gone in another direction completely. Instead, he chose the Statue of Liberty, adding a “human” if slightly alien element, and he absolutely nailed it (so well that the webbed skyline isn’t even necessary to convey the Spider-Island idea).

Baltimore: The Curse Bells #5, by Mike Mignola
Mike Mignola is a master at relating mood — eldritch, haunting mood — using a heavy dose of black and minimal detail. Here that ability shines with the blood-dripping bells, the creepy trio of undead nuns and flaming cross.

Batman Beyond #6, by Dustin Nguyen
DC Comics and Warner Bros. did the August-dated covers no favor by slapping a banner for the Green Lantern movie across the top. Still, Dustin Nguyen manages to stand out with his nearly DayGlo image of the irradiated Blight’s translucent hand crushing a batarang in front of a radiation sign.

Batwoman #1, by J.H. Williams III
For Kate Kane’s solo series, J.H. Williams has replaced the Art Deco touches of the acclaimed Detective Comics arc with water and death elements for the “Hydrology” story arc, which sends Batwoman up against the Weeping Woman.

Blue Estate #1, by Viktor Kalvachev
For an Elmore Leonard-style crime story, I can think of few better covers than this: whiskey poured from a gun barrel into a glass containing the ghostly, caramel-colored image of a woman. The comic’s logo is even modeled after the label of a whiskey bottle.

B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Russia #2, by Dave Johnson
For the latest B.P.R.D. series, which sends Kate and Johann across the Atlantic to meet their Russian counterparts, Dave Johnson turns to the bold graphic imagery of classic Soviet posters for inspiration.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 9 #1, by Jo Chen
With the world cut off from all supernatural influences, Buffy Summers makes a fresh start in a new city, San Francisco — beautifully established by Jo Chen with this cover for the first issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 9. I like, too, how the title of the story arc, “Freefall,” seems to in with Buffy’s dizzying perch atop the Golden Gate Bridge.

Butcher Baker the Righteous Maker #4, by Mike Huddleston
Mike Huddleston’s smoking star-spangled semi roars through the air like an impossible stunt from a cocaine- and diesel-fueled 1970s road movie. You can almost smell the fumes.

Casanova: Avaritia #2, by Gabriel Bá
Honestly, how can you not love this beautifully illustrated and colored Kung Fu Panda-inspired image that pits Casanova Quinn against two Ailuropoda melanoleuca?

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser #8, by Timothy Bradstreet
Humor isn’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the Hellraiser franchise, but Timothy Bradstreet delivers the subtle laughs as Pinhead falls victim to his own pins.

Criminal: The Last of the Innocent #1, by Sean Phillips
Sean Phillips so wonderfully captures That Moment, fleeting as it often is, at a party or a club where someone (in this case a young woman) loses herself in the music, seemingly oblivious to everyone else — making it virtually impossible to take your eyes off of her.

Daredevil #1, by Paolo Rivera
Setting the tone for the relaunch, Paolo Rivera depicts a smiling Matt Murdock against an imaginative cityscape that offers a glimpse of how Daredevil perceives the world around him — already a visual hallmark of the new series. (You can see a time-lapse video of the cover’s creation here.)

Daredevil #4, by Marcos Martin
Gargantuan gun barrels stand in for skyscrapers in this Marcos Martin image, in which smoke rises from the two gun muzzles like steam from exhaust vents.

Daredevil #7, by Paolo Rivera
Last year The Amazing Spider-Man landed three covers on the list, and this year it’s Daredevil, a testament perhaps to how well the team of Mark Waid, Marcos Martin and Paolo Rivera, under the editorial guidance of Stephen Wacker, gels (Comic Book Resources chose Daredevil as the top comic of the year). Rivera’s depiction of Matt Murdock, who hasn’t had a reason to be cheery in years, grinning as he makes a snow angel atop a water tower is surprising and heartwarming. If this cover doesn’t bring a little smile to your face, I don’t know what will.

Daredevil Reborn #1, by Jock
Of course the Man Without Fear wasn’t all about wide grins and snow angels last year. Before the relaunch there was Daredevil Reborn, which debuted with this arresting image by Jock of the cable of Murdock’s broken batons stretched into an enormous body outline across what I presume is Marvel’s gritty, time-trapped version of Hell’s Kitchen.

Detective Comics #880, by Jock
Jock’s stint on the pre-launch Detective Comics produced some of the strongest work of his career, and this cover is undoubtedly the best of that run. This image of the Clown Prince of Crime is so frenetic, his rapturous gaze unnerving by even Joker standards as his broad smile reveals cracking teeth. That the upper part of his head is composed of countless bats taking flight, as if spooked, gives a sense of schizophrenia, as if the Joker is about to break away from this reality.

DMZ #61, by John Paul Leon
The massive amount of white space and the muted palette — I love the single punch of color with the flag — combine to give this J.P. Leon cover a sense of solemnity as DMZ enters its final year. I also like that series protagonist Matty Roth is made insignificant, dwarfed by the sky and nearly lost amid the clutter outside the Holland Tunnel.

DMZ, Vol. 10, by Brian Wood
I rarely select trade paperbacks as, more often than not, the covers are merely recycled from issues published the previously year. But for the 10th volume of DMZ, “Collective Punishment,” writer Brian Wood brings his bold sense of graphic design to blend photography and illustration to convey the brutal “shock and awe” bombing of Manhattan that marks this storyline.

Drums #2, by Raul Allen
The 2010 list featured two chickens — both from Chew — so it’s only fitting that this year’s installment has at least one, right? I’ve not read this Image Comics horror series, about an FBI agent assigned to investigate sudden, unexplained deaths during a Santeria ceremony, but Raul Allen’s brutal and beautiful cover makes me want to give it a try.

Fables #106, Joao Ruas
For the penultimate issue of the “Super Team” arc, Joao Ruas seems to give a nod to John Romita Sr.’s classic “Spider-Man No More” page as Ozma and Pinocchio casually walk away from what’s presumably a battlefield.

Fear Agent #31, by Tony Moore
Virtually everything about this cover — the colors, the scale, the hovercraft-riding creatures with their leaf-like tentacles — is so perfectly over the top and … well, alien.

Feeding Ground #4, by Michael Lapinski
One of my favorite cover artists to emerge in the past couple of years, Michael Lapinski has a distinctive style that, for Feeding Ground, manifests itself in bright colors — purple, magenta, orange — and woodcut-like lines. I love when humor meets horror, such as in this image, which at first glance appears to be merely the head of a rabbit piñata. But when you notice that the paper “entrails” of the bunny are being swarmed by flies, a much darker element surfaces.

Flashpoint: Deadman and the Flying Graysons #1, by Cliff Chiang and Jared K. Fletcher
That Green Lantern banner rears its ugly head again, distracting from the otherwise terrific take on a classic circus poster by artist Cliff Chiang and letterer Jared K. Fletcher.

The Goon, Vol. 5 (second edition), by Eric Powell
To be honest, I’m not sure what I can say about Eric Powell’s new cover for the second edition of The Goon: Wicked Inclinations. It’s just beautiful.

Green Wake #7, by Riley Rossmo
I find myself drawn into this haunting Riley Rossmo cover for Green Wake, the supernatural murder mystery from Image’s Shadowline imprint. The white silhouettes give the children a ghostly appearance, marred by the blood dripping from their mouths — or where there mouths would be — and down their shirts. Are they all being led to the gallows, or are they executing their sibling or classmate? And what about the man with the creepy white spectacles and impossibly long scarf? There are just so many questions …

Heart #1, by Kevin Mellon
For the first issue of a miniseries set in the world of Mixed Martial Arts, Kevin Mellon zeroes in on the perfect detail, capturing the bloody hand, the “Unbroken” wrist tattoo, the hurricane fence and the flash of lights from the arena crowd.

House of Mystery #38, by Esao Andrews
If the dripping (oozing?) blood that forms the conveniently placed image of rooftops and windows weren’t creepy enough, there’s the orchid in the woman’s hair, with a child-like sleeping skull at its center.

Iron Man Legacy #10, by Juan Doe
Last seen on the 2009 list, Juan Doe returns with this well-designed cover that places Iron Man at the center of the clock. I particularly like the retro-style dot pattern applied to Tony’s head.

iZombie #20, by Michael Allred
With all of its type and floating heads, this cover would be a disaster in the hands of a lesser artist. But Mike Allred pulls it off, delivering a terrific ode to old-school teen magazines.

Morning Glories #15, by Rodin Esquejo
As I noted last year, early into the series, Rodin Esquejo has found a way to perfectly translate to the covers the feelings of paranoia and claustrophobia the permeate Morning Glories. Here the branches and shadows are perfectly placed, drawing us to the watchful, and slightly menacing, eyes at the heart of the image.

Northlanders #45, by Massimo Carnevale
Ah, how I’ll miss Massimo Carnevale’s beautifully painted covers for Brian Wood’s Viking-era epic. For the cover of Part 4 of “The Icelandic Trilogy,” subtitled “Conversion,” Carnevale cleverly contrasts the cross in the Norseman’s hand with the symbol of the old religion on his helmet.

Ozma of Oz #5, by Skottie Young
There’s an almost-infectious sense of whimsy to Skottie Young’s Oz work, perhaps no more so than in this illustration of pint-sized blue gnomes climbing the book’s logo for the cover of Ozma of Oz #5.

Power Girl #26, by Sami Basri
I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw this cover, which depicts Kara trying to push her way through a throng of cosplayers at the first Power Girl Convention. It’s one of those rare times we get to see “superheroines” of varying shapes and sizes.

PunisherMAX #12, by Dave Johnson
For my money, Dave Johnson’s covers for PunisherMAX have been every bit as good as his epic, celebrated run on Vertigo’s 100 Bullets. With this cover, everything works — the white space, the shadows, the dripping blood, the skeleton key (har!).

Red Skull: Incarnate #2, by David Aja
A talented artist with an eye for design, David Aja stretched his muscles with this miniseries, approaching the five covers as if they were Nazi newspapers and propaganda posters of the pre-war era. His research paid off, resulting in slick, eye-catching images that look as if they could be found in the dusty archives of a library (at least if you ignore the guy with the rather obvious red skull).

Robert Bloch’s That Hellbound Train #1, by Dave Wachter
For the adaptation of the 1958 deal-with-the-Devil short story, Dave Wachter goes with a looming sinister locomotive — it’s black in the original version but red here — billowing otherwordly steam that takes the form of an ominous skull (unfortunately mostly obscured by the logo).

Rocketeer Adventures #1, by Alex Ross
If you’re looking to have your hero portrayed, well, heroically, you really can’t do much better than Alex Ross. That combination of photorealism, noble pose and Hollywood lighting pushes all the right nostalgia buttons, making him ideal to tackle Dave Stevens’ beloved homage to classic matinee heroes.

Secret Avengers #18, by David Aja
David Aja delivers an atypical cover that displays a surprising feeling of motion as the dual image and purposely out-of-register color evokes an old film reel. We’re seeing a moment in time, rather than a posed snapshot, as Shang Chi’s blurred fist seemingly disappears into his opponent’s face,  like two frames from a Bruce Lee movie.

Spaceman #3, by Dave Johnson
Dave Johnson is nothing if not versatile, recalling 1950s science fiction novels in his covers for Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s series about a hulking man genetically engineered by NASA to live and work on Mars.

Spider-Island: I Love New York City #1, by Mike Del Mundo
While Mike Del Mundo’s cover for The Amazing Spider-Man #666, the start of the “Spider-Island” storyline, was much more somber, for this tie-in he plays up the lighthearted aspect, with New Yorkers enjoying their new-found spider-powers. A cat even gets in on the act.

The Strange Talent of Luther Strode #2, by Tradd Moore
There’s just enough humor in the faces of the onlookers to diffuse the horror of the students’ see-through skins, exposing the musculature beneath. But the neatest aspect of the cover may be in the coloring: amid all the reds, Luther, basked in cool blue, remains the center of attention.

The Unwritten #29, by Yuko Shimizu
Yuko Shimizu’s entire run on Vertigo’s The Unwritten has been stellar; I can’t think of a single one of her covers that didn’t fire on all cylinders. For the third part of the “On to Genesis” storyline, which takes Tom Taylor to the 1930s, Shimizu channels the pulps of the era. The cover blurbs really clinch the deal.

Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes, by Carl Barks and Jacob Covey
Fantagraphics Books’ lead designer Jacob Covey carries over the color palette from the interior pages — lots of cyans and yellows in those old strips, recolored for the collection by Rich Tommaso — for this sophisticated but playful cover to a volume that includes Carl Barks’ favorite Donald Duck story.

Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse, Vol. 2: Trapped on Treasure Island, by Floyd Gottfredson and Jacob Covey
I could’ve just as easily used the cover of Vol. 1, “Race to Death Valley,” to represent designer Jacob Covey’s refreshing and modern-yet-somehow-still-classic packaging for Floyd Gottfredson’s nearly 80-year-old comic strips, but an elated Horace Horsecollar trumps an anguished Mickey Mouse any day.

Wonder Woman #3, by Cliff Chiang
For the issue that demolishes Diana’s decades-old origin — the one in which she was molded from clay by her mother Hippolyta and given life by the gods — Cliff Chiang shatters a statue of the Amazonian princess.

Zatanna #13, by Adam Hughes
Adam Hughes had done his homework, transforming the imagery of early 20th-century magic posters — the Devil, laughing skeleton, numbers, child-like demons — into something thoroughly modern and, given Zatanna’s stage career, apropos.

Comics Code Authority Seal of Approval

Publishing | Thursday’s news that DC Comics will replace the nearly 60-year-old Comics Code Authority Seal of Approval with its own rating system was followed on Friday by an announcement by Archie Comics that it, too, will drop the Code. The two were the last publishers to abandon the CCA — Marvel withdrew in 2001, Bongo just last year — which means that as of next month, the once-influential self-regulatory body created by the comics industry in the wake of the 1954 Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency will cease to exist.  Before a series of revisions in 1971, the Code prohibited even the depictions of political corruption, or vampires and werewolves, and the use of the words “horror” or “terror” in titles.

Christopher Butcher wonders whether DC’s decision to drop the Code was made with an eye toward the bottom line, while Johanna Draper Carlson offers an overview of the CCA’s history. Elsewhere, Mike Sterling asks whether any retailers ever “experienced any kind of real-world impact of the Comics Code Authority?” And Tom Mason makes some tongue-in-cheek recommendations for DC’s new rating system, including “G – GREYING MAN-BOYS” and “R – REFRIGERATOR.” [Newsarama]

Publishing | Calvin Reid spotlights Tor Books’ graphic-novel joint venture with manga publisher Seven Seas Entertainment. [Publishers Weekly]

Dark Horse

Publishing | Dark Horse has promoted Sierra Hahn and Dave Marshall to full-time editors. [press release]

Retailing | Murfreesboro, Tenn., comics store Outer Limits lost all of its contents Saturday morning in a fire. Owner Chuck Cagle, who had insurance, said he plans to reopen in another location. [The Daily News Journal]

Creators | Collaborators Phil Hotsenpiller and Rob Liefeld discuss their apocalyptic graphic novel Armageddon Now: World War 3. [CNN Belief Blog]

Best of the year | Shawn Huston wraps up his two-part look at the best comics of 2010. [PopMatters]

Chew #12 (Comic-Con exclusive cover), by Rob Guillory

The third annual rundown of the best covers of the year features 50 images — oh, okay, 51 — representing the work of some 46 different artists (plus inkers, colorists and designers) from nine publishers.

Returning artists like Chris Bachalo, Dave Johnson, Sean Phillips and Yuko Shimizu are joined on this year’s list by “new” names like Kody Chamberlain, Camilla D’Errico, Amy Reeder and Drew Weing. (You can peruse the previous years’ lists here and here.)

As in the past, I’ve tried to explain the appeal of each entry; some covers get just a sentence, while others receive entire paragraphs. That doesn’t reflect the quality of the image, but merely what I have to say about it.

Note:  While last year’s list included five manga covers, this year features none. I’m not sure whether that’s a byproduct of the contraction of the manga market, a sign of a shift in cover quality — among manga or Western comics — or a shortcoming on my part (if it’s the latter, I’ll own up to it; however, after several excursions in search of manga candidates, I found none that I felt qualified as among the 50 best.)

With that out of the way, I present, in alphabetical order, the 50 best covers of 2010:

Absolute All-Star Superman, by Frank Quitely

Frank Quitely already created one iconic cover for this acclaimed series — the image of Superman sitting on a cloud was parodied just last year — and now he’s done it again for the oversized hardcover collection. Some have asserted the halo effect overplays the Superman-as-Christ-figure card, but I think Quitely pulls it off masterfully.

Afrodisiac, by Jim Rugg

Everything about this tightly cropped image says “attitude,” perfect for the collected adventures of Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca’s blaxploitation-styled hero.

American Vampire #2, by Rafael Albuquerque

Rafael Albuquerque came up with a great design solution for the covers for the first arc of the Vertigo vampire series, which told two stories set in different eras: the Old West and 1920s Hollywood. Here both eras are represented by the outlaw Skinner Sweet and a blood-smeared door to a dressing room.

The Amazing Spider-Man #618, by Marcos Martin

One of the industry’s underrated talents, Marcos Martin somehow balances a Silver Age flair and a very modern sensibility in his work. For this image he takes a quintessential 1960s supervillain — Mysterio’s essentially a guy in a cape with a fishbowl on his head — and transforms him into a truly menacing figure.

The Amazing Spider-Man #633, by Chris Bachalo

I love all of Chris Bachalo’s covers for the four-part “Shed” arc, but this one, which essentially puts the reader inside the Lizard’s mouth, is the strongest. I always like it when artists can convey emotion with the eyes of Spider-Man’s costume; here the wall-crawler’s panic seems real as he struggles in the grip of the reptilian tail.

The Amazing Spider-Man #641, by Paolo Rivera

Let’s ignore the controversies surrounding the “One More Day” and “One Moment in Time” storylines and just focus on the beauty of Paolo Rivera’s painting, in which Mary Jane and Spider-Man hold on to each other even as they bleed into the background.

Astro City: The Dark Age Book 4 #4, by Alex Ross

There’s no denying the grandeur of this Alex Ross image, even as it evokes sad memories of the 1986 Challenger disaster.

Avengers Academy #7, by Ed McGuinness

The severe angle and tight crop combine to make it appear as if Giant-Man is growing before our eyes, becoming too large for the cover. Note the sidewalk cracking beneath his weight.

Baltimore: The Plague Ships #1, by Mike Mignola

Mike Mignola shares much of the credit with colorist Dave Stewart for this arresting image of the Captain Ahab-esque Lord Henry Baltimore, who finds Europe infested with vampires in the wake of a plague that ended World War I.

Batwoman #0, by J.H. Williams III

J.H. Williams III continues some of the Art Deco elements from his Detective Comics run, providing Kate Kane with her own graphic identity.

Batman Beyond #2, by Dustin Nguyen

The dramatic angle, the color palette and the title — “Death at Three Million Feet” — combine for a stunning image.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #31, by Jo Chen

Willow Rosenberg faces a Tibetan goddess of war who’s both fantastic and terrifying in this Jo Chen image.

Chew #12 (Comic-Con exclusive cover), by Rob Guillory

I have no idea where Rob Guillory drew his inspiration for this vibrant, five-color image of Poyo, the cockfighting champion, but I’m reminded of a Renaissance portrait. Only, y’know, in Technicolor. This may be my favorite cover of 2010.

Chew #16, by Rob Guillory

Two Chew covers, both featuring chickens? Who’d have guessed. This one is a stained and worn menu for Mother Clucker’s, the former fried-chicken chain whose hilarious and demented mascot is a bespectacled hen serving her own leg. The use of Brush Script for the restaurant’s logo is a nice touch.

Criminal: The Sinners #4, by Sean Phillips

Sean Phillips has established himself as a master at capturing the visual style of film noir, with its silhouetted figures, low-key light and dark alleyways. Here Tracy Lawless is bathed in shadow and the surreal red glow of the rain-soaked streets of Chinatown, the perfect noir setting.

Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story, by Nessim Higson

Designer Nessim Higson uses mixed media to depict a submerged New Orleans — literally, as a city map serves as the background — for a thriller set during the days following Hurricane Katrina.

Daytripper #2, by Gabriel Ba

Gabriel Bá’s cover for the second issue of Daytripper, his Vertigo collaboration with brother Fábio Moon, is beautifully surreal, blurring the boundaries between reality and fantasy.

Demo 2 #5, by Becky Cloonan

There’s something beautiful and understated about the play of light and shadow across the girl’s face. Plus there are the minor details, like the bandage on her arm, and the shoes hanging from the power lines.

Detective Comics #864, by Cliff Chiang

Cliff Chiang transforms the Dark Knight into a monstrous creature of the night — note the obscured face and claw-like fingers — beneath a full moon that sports the Black Mask’s unsettling image.

DMZ #54, by J.P. Leon

There’s a solemn beauty in the repetition of the flag-draped coffins.

Elephantmen #29, by Camilla D'Errico

I won’t deny that the adorable baby hippo is a big selling point here, but I particularly like the pink hue cast by the umbrella over part of the crowd. And don’t overlook the incorporation of the Image “I” into the comic’s title.

Feeding Ground #2, by Michael Lapinski

For this horror series set on the Mexico-Arizona border, Michael Lapinski takes the familiar religious symbol of a flaming heart to another, more visceral level by using the actual organ rather than the stylized icon.

iZombie #5, by Michael Allred

Michael Allred makes terrific use of space, burying a terrified Gwen beneath two-thirds of the cover image. The pink lining provides a nice balance to the massive field of black, too.

King City #9, by Brandon Graham

Although I doubt many readers followed Brandon Graham’s instructions to cut up the cover, I love the playfulness and ingenuity behind the King City game pieces. That the entire image looks like a package you’d find in the toy aisle at the corner market — complete with price sticker — makes it that much better.

Locke & Key: Keys to the Kingdom #1, by Gabriel Rodriguez

The fourth Locke & Key series debuts with a bloody yet strangely beautiful cover that hints at some of the savagery to be found inside. It’s a little disturbing that I’m drawn by the way the blood pools in the animal track.

The Marvelous Land of Oz #3, by Skottie Young

Skottie Young turns to Soviet propaganda imagery for this issue, in which General Jinjur and her army of amazonian milkmaids storm the gates of Emerald City in an effort to end the reign of the Scarecrow.

The Mice Templar: Destiny #6, by Michael Avon Oeming

In a bit of a departure for the series, Michael Avon Oeming uses just two colors — grays and red — for this ghostly watercolor image of the cryptic Bats of Meave.

Morning Glories #4, by Rodin Esquejo

With a handful of covers for Morning Glories — I’m thinking of the second, fourth and fifth issues — Rodin Esquejo hit upon an approach that near-perfectly conveys the sense of paranoia that runs through the series. Here, as with those other two issues, he transforms the cover into an enclosed, claustrophobic space, an effect aided by the limited lighting and heavy shadows. I also appreciate the subtle morning glory pattern on the walls.

The New Avengers: Luke Cage #2, by Eric Canete

Eric Canete’s illustration is just rippling with tension and energy — I mean, it’s Luke Cage fighting three tigers! Plus, the colors are lovely.

Northlanders #35, by Massimo Carnevale

Massimo Carnevale and Brian Wood are an incredible pairing, delivering gorgeously painted and smartly designed covers for issue after issue of the celebrated Viking drama. Their collaboration has produced distinctive looks, and logo treatments, for each arc. Such is the case with the cover for Northlanders #35, the first issue of the two-part “Girl in the Ice” story, with its subdued, even washed-out colors — in stark contrast to the intense hues of the previous “Metal” arc — and the haunting image of the woman beneath the ice.

Parker: The Outfit, by Darwyn Cooke

Darwyn Cooke’s stylish cover for his adaptation of the third novel in Donald Westlake’s Parker series conveys both a sense of menace and, appropriately enough, ’60s-era flair.

Popgun, Vol. 4, by Ben Templesmith

Ben Templesmith works so often in bloody horror, with titles like 30 Days of Night and Welcome to Hoxford, and gritty crime, with Fell and Choker, that it’s easy to overlook his occasional foray into the … well, sensual. Sure, it’s outlandishly sensual — it’s a robot with a glowing heart in its breast! — but still. The best part of the image, though, is the dragon tattoo that snakes up her leg and arm before winding its way off her body.

Punisher MAX #6, by Dave Johnson

Dave Johnson demonstrated why he’s a perennial favorite with the covers for the six-issue “Bullseye” arc, which sported a unifying graphic element — the bullseye, naturally — that never felt repetitious. The cover for the first part of the storyline, which imaginatively positions a minuscule, and seemingly unsuspecting, Frank Castle between the target and Bullseye’s oversized blade, is easily my favorite.

Scalped #38, by Jock

Jock pays homage to Philip Castle’s poster for the 1987 war film Full Metal Jacket for this one-off issue centering on a Vietnam War veteran turned heroin smuggler.

Secret Six #21, by Daniel Luvisi

For such a dark story, that’s an awfully adorable Catman “Voodoo doll.” Plus, just look at that little tree frog!

Sense & Sensibility #4, by Skottie Young

Skottie Young has had a dynamite couple of years with covers for the Marvel Adventures line, several Oz books and now this one, for the fourth issue of Marvel’s adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. The entire image is gorgeous — the composition, the color — but I could stare endlessly at the wheat field.

Set to Sea, by Drew Weing

The limited palette and gold highlights on the waves help to lend the cover to Drew Weing’s debut graphic novel a gorgeous dream-like quality.

The Spirit #1, by Ladronn

José Ladrönn channels the spirit (pardon the pun) of Will Eisner without resorting to mimicry. Additionally, the water and drainpipe are beautifully rendered.

Strange Tales II #1, by Rafael Grampa

Rafael Grampa’s superheroes are as savage and full of fury as the brutal truckers of his celebrated Mesmo Delivery. And how incredible is it that Wolverine wears shorts and elbow pads while Thor sports Spandex shorts and high-top sneakers?

Superboy #1, by Rafael Albuquerque

Rafael Albuquerque captures a mischievous (even devilish) and confident side of Conner Kent in this unusual, and unusually colored, cover for the first issue of Superboy’s new series.

Supergirl #55, by Amy Reeder and Richard Friend

I love the depiction of Bizzarogirl as the fractured-mirror image of Supergirl. (Or is it the other way around?) It’s wonderfully conceived and executed.

Sweet Tooth #12, by Jeff Lemire

I confess that I haven’t been following Jeff Lemire’s Vertigo series, so I have no idea how the paint-by-number effect relates to this issue. But it’s a pretty ingenious idea that evokes a sense of nostalgia — paint-by-number kits were wildly popular for several decades — while opening up the image to a range of interpretations.

Sweets #2, by Kody Chamberlain

Kody Chamberlain’s logo for this crime miniseries is among my recent favorites — too many books rely on standard, if slightly tweaked, fonts — but here it takes a backseat to coloring and composition. The blood-soaked hand in the foreground leads the eye to the approaching detectives and draws the reader into the story. It makes me want to pick up the comic, to find out what happens — exactly what a cover should do.

S.W.O.R.D. #3, by John Cassaday

John Cassaday produced covers in 2010 for such titles as DC’s Superman, Marvel’s Shadowland and Dynamite Entertainment’s Green Hornet, but this one for the late, lamented S.W.O.R.D. stands out the most. The image of Lockheed, Marvel’s purple-skinned alien dragon and Kitty Pryde’s frequent companion, menacingly brandishing a pair of guns is as unexpected as it is delightfully absurd.

Syndrome, by Michael Dahan

Michael Dahan crafts a suitably disturbing image for this dark graphic novel about a rogue neuropathologist who isolates the root of evil in the recesses of the human brain.

Toy Story #5, by Nate Watson

Nate Watson cleverly references classic Western cinematography, simulating the pan of the camera from Woody’s face to the glistening badge and then back again.

Unknown Soldier #22, by Dave Johnson

The majority of Dave Johnson’s covers for the Unknown Soldier were bloody and violent, but Issue 22 stands out for its beauty — even with the skulls in the center of the flowers.

The Unwritten #13, by Yuko Shimizu

Yuko Shimizu’s covers for the acclaimed Vertigo series are among the most consistent, and consistently good, being published today. For this issue, involving the launch of the new Tommy Taylor book in London, Shimizu toys with scale to create an appropriately unreal cityscape with an enormous Tom Taylor at its center.

Viking: The Long Cold Fire (hardcover), by Nic Klein and Tom Muller

Viking: The Long Cold Fire (softcover), by Nic Klein and Tom Muller

I “cheated” two years ago by including two issues in one entry, and now I’m doing it again with the stunning hardcover and softcover collections for Viking: The Long Cold Fire. It’s to their credit that artist Nic Klein and design Tom Muller opted for an extremely modern look for what’s essentially a ninth-century crime story. It’s an unconventional approach that grabs even those readers with an aversion to period drama.

We Will Bury You #2, by Nate Powell

For a miniseries about a zombie outbreak in the late 1920s, Nate Powell creates a dynamic cover that captures both the horror elements of the situation and the energy of the Golden Age of Radio.

The Avengers #1

Publishing | Sales of comics, graphic novels and magazines to comic stores declined slightly in 2010, slipping 3.5 percent from 2009, according to a year-end report released Thursday by Diamond Comic Distributors. John Jackson Miller’s estimate places the North American market at between $410 million and $420 million, down from the 2008 peak of $437 million.

Marvel again emerged as the top publisher, leading the market in both dollar and unit sales. May’s Avengers #1 was the top-selling periodical, followed by X-Men #1, Blackest Night #8, Siege #1 and Blackest Night #7. As expected, The Walking Dead and Scott Pilgrim dominated the graphic novel and trade paperback list, taking eight of the Top 10 spots (the remaining two went to the Kick-Ass premium hardcover and Superman: Earth One). [Diamond Comic Distributors]

San Diego Convention Center

Comic-Con | San Diego City Council president, and avowed comic fan, Tony Young wants to add a parade to the 2012 Comic-Con International schedule, one similar to what organizers of Atlanta’s Dragon Con began in 2002 (that parade now draws more than 2,000 participants): “The bottom line is San Diego needs to let its hair down a little. We can get so tied up in some of these major issues, which of course are important, but to be a big city you have to have great events and you have to let down your hair some. I want to see the mayor in his Batman costume that I know he has tucked in the back of his closet somewhere and I want to see him leading the parade.” [The San Diego Union-Tribune]

Publishing | Stephen Totillo insists that publishers are taking the wrong approach to selling comics on the iPad: “Shopping for comics on the iPad should feel risk-free. I can type in Keith Giffen’s name and see if the great super-hero comics writer has some old classic I didn’t know existed and buy all the issues. I don’t want to hesitate. But when I start developing a taste for the writing of a guy named Nick Spencer and can only find some half-finished mini-series that cost $2 and bear no indication in the app shop if the rest of the issues will ever come out, all I see is risk. It’s easy to stay away.” [Kotaku]

Retailing | Mary Schmich reports on the closing of the Borders location on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, which means “the city’s premier shopping street will be without any bookstore for the first time in decades.” [Chicago Tribune]

Dark Horse

Publishing | Dark Horse and DC Comics both have retooled their websites, the former more dramatically than the latter. [Dark Horse, DC Comics]

Blogosphere | Tom Spurgeon’s holiday interview series marches on with BOOM! Studios Editor-in-Chief Matt Gagnon, longtime comics blogger Dirk Deppey, and cartoonist and educator James Sturm. [The Comics Reporter]

Creators | Eric Buckler talks with Stan Sakai about Usagi Yojimbo, the new two-volume commemorative edition, his career and more. [FLOG!]

Creators | Elizabeth Tai profiles James Sturm, focusing largely on Market Day. [The Star]

Creators | Alex Deuben chats with Felicia Day about bringing her webseries The Guild to comics. [Suicide Girls]

Creators | Todd Allen discusses his webcomic Division and Rush. [Chicago Now]

Best of the year | Journalist and retailer Matthew Price selects the 10 best comic books of 2010. [The Oklahoman]

Borders

Retailing | As the financially troubled Borders Group met Tuesday with publishers in hopes of converting delayed payments into interest-bearing debt, the bookseller’s larger rival Barnes & Noble expressed concerns that could complicate negotiations. “We think the playing field should be even,” B&N spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said in a statement. “We expect publishers to offer same terms to all other booksellers, including Barnes & Noble and independent booksellers.  We fully expect publisher’s will require Borders to pay their bills on the same basis upon which all other booksellers pay theirs.  Any changes in publishers terms should be made available to all.” Meanwhile, Reuters considers what the closing of Borders’ 600 stores would mean to the book industry. [The New York Times, Publishers Weekly]

Stan Lee

Creators | Jevon Phillips and Geoff Boucher profile Stan Lee and cover the Tuesday ceremony unveiling his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “He is that American dream that we all look for,” Todd McFarlane said during the dedication. “He comes up with the ideas that we all look for to move us forward.” [Hero Complex]

Best of the year | Acme Novelty Library #20 tops PW Comics Week’s fifth annual critics’ poll. [Publishers Weekly]

Best of the year | Kai-Ming Cha selects the best manga of 2010. [Publishers Weekly]

Internet | Retailer, critic and convention organizer Christopher Butcher considers “the comics journalism conundrum” — specifically, why so many comics sites devote so much attention to superhero comics. [Comics212]

Metro Times

Creators | Detroit’s weekly Metro Times devotes its cover to the area’s comic-book ties, from James O’Barr and Jim Starlin to Geoff Johns and Katie Cook. The Detroit-era Justice League even gets a shoutout. [Metro Times]

Creators | Newly minted Superman writer Chris Roberson is the subject of a lengthy profile in his local newspaper: “I believe in Superman the way some people believe in Jesus. I believe that he is real and that he matters. The fact that he’s fictional doesn’t really enter into it.” [Austin American-Statesman]

Conventions | The first Indian Comic Con will be held Feb. 19-20 in New Delhi. [Hindustan Times]

Conventions | Organizers of the Middle East Film and Comic Con have released preliminary details of the April 29-30 event, billed as the first of its kind in the region. Held in Dubai, the convention will reportedly feature creators from Marvel, DC Comics, Top Cow Producions, Udon, Tokyopop and IDW Publishing. [press release]

New Teen Titans

Comics | Ben Morse writes about his fondness for teen superheroes: “For me, I think it’s that I’m an unabashed fan of the soap opera element of comic books just like I am of television or movies, so I’ll naturally gravitate to stuff starring teens or young adults where that is dialed up to 11 (I love Gossip Girl, but my parents have been on me for months and I still haven’t given The Good Wife a shot). If I’m going to get lost in a world of pathos, angst, romance and heroics, I want my escapism writ large and to the extreme, the way teenagers tend to view life (and the way me and most of my friends do too, since we’re largely in a collective state of arrested development). There’s something about every new crush being the love of your life, every test you face (written or super villainous) being the most devastating ever, and this group of friends being the one you’ll keep forever that appeals greatly to me.” [The Cool Kids Table]

Blogosphere | The Comics Journal has launched The Panelists, a comics criticism blog featuring contributions by Derik Badman, Alex Boney, Isaac Cates, Craig Fischer, Jared Gardner and Charles Hatfield. [The Panelists]

Comiket 79 catalog

Conventions | Comiket 79, the winter installment of the self-published comic book fair held twice a year in Tokyo, set a turnstile attendance record last week with 520,000 people over three days. That’s just 20,000 less than the summer record — and the equivalent of about four Comic-Cons. [Anime News Network]

Legal | Archie Comics reportedly has threatened legal action against the in-production Indian film Boys Toh Boys Hain, which, according to this description, is “based on the lines of the celebrated [Archie] comic book but set in Delhi instead of Riverdale.” However, the director now claims that, “We never made any statement which suggested that the film is inspired from Archie comics. One of my actors may have said in an interview that the film has a feel similar to Archie, but never that the film is based on it.” The publisher was dealt a blow in an unrelated legal matter in September when India’s Delhi High Court refused to hear a complaint challenging the use of the name “Archies” by a Mumbai company. The court said it had no jurisdiction in the matter because Archie Comics doesn’t have an office in India. [Hindustan Times]

From "Troop 142"

Publishing | Secret Acres will publish a collected edition of Mike Dawson’s award-winning webcomic Troop 142 next fall. [press release, via The Beat]

Media | The Philadelphia Daily News has ended Jerome Maida’s weekly “Comics Guy” column after nearly five years. [Philadelphia Daily News]

Retailing | Carolyn Kellogg spotlights Secret Headquarters in Los Angeles. [Jacket Copy]

Blogosphere | Tom Spurgeon continues his excellent holiday interview series with blogger David Brothers and Cartoon Art Museum curator Andrew Farago. [The Comics Reporter]

Al Jaffee

Creators | Dan Lybarger talks to the legendary Al Jaffee about the new biography Al Jaffee’s Mad Life, the cartoonist’s childhood, working with Stan Lee, Fold-Ins and more. [The Huffington Post]

Best of the year | Ain’t It Cool News contributors look back at the year in Marvel and in DC Comics. [Ain't It Cool News]

Best of the year | David Harper considers the best, and the worst, of 2010. [Multiversity Comics]

Best of the year | Iann Robinson counts down the 20 biggest comic book moments of 2010. [Crave Online]

Best of the year | Brett Williams hands out awards for categories like “Best Unexpected Source of Enjoyment” and “Best Creator to Watch in 2011.” [PING!]

Acme Novelty Library #20

On this, the final day of 2010, we have one more roundup of best-of — and one worst-of — list from across the comics Internet:

• Comic Book Resources rolls out the 10 best comics of 2010, concluding its countdown of the Top 100.

• Johanna Draper Carlson names the 10 best graphic novels of 2010 — Raina Telgemeier’s Smile, and Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson’s Beasts of Burden, among them — plus eight runners-up.

• Robot 6 contributor Sean T. Collins’ list of the 20 best comics of the year includes Jacques Tardi’s It Was the War of the Trenches, Grant Morrison’s Batman comics, and Chris Wares’ Acme Novelty Library #20.

• Darwyn Cooke’s Parker: The Outfit and Jason’s Werewolves of Montpellier make The Casual Optimist’s list of favorite new books of 2010.

• Jim Rugg and Brian Marcua’s Afrodisiac and Neal Adams’ Batman: Odyssey are among Matt Seneca’s Top 10 comics.

• Dave Ferraro picks the Top 20 comics of the year, including Kou Yaginuma’s Twin Spica, Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber’s Underground, and Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting, Vol. 2.

• Derek A. Badman selects the best webcomics and the best print comics of 2010.

• Comics Alliance names the five worst comics of 2010.

• At Inside Pulse, Grey Scherl looks at the Top 10 things DC Comics did right in 2010.

Batwoman: Elegy

Another day closer to 2011, another volley of best-of-2010 lists:

• Entertainment Weekly‘s Ken Tucker includes Darwyn Cooke’s Parker: The Outfit, Joyce Farmer’s Special Exits and Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams’ Batwoman: Elegy on his list of the 10 best graphic novels and comics of 2010.

• MTV Geek rounds up a cross-section of comics creators, from Camilla d’Errico and Michel Fiffe to Paul Grist and Joe Eisma, to name their top three comics of the year.

• Comic Book Resources approaches the Top 25 in its rundown of the Top 100 comics of the year: #100-#76, #75-#51, #50-#26.

• Comics Alliance concludes its countdown of the best comics of 2010 with Adam Hines’ Duncan the Wonder Dog.

• In The Oklahoman, writer and retailer Matt Price names the 10 best graphic novels of the year, a list topped by Darwyn Cooke’s Parker: The Oufit and Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 6.

• Writing for Las Vegas Weekly, J. Caleb Mozzocco selects his top five comics of 2010: Lynda Barry’s Picture This, Pablo Holmberg’s Eden, Cathy Malkasian’s Temperance, Julia Gfrörer’s Flesh and Bone, and Jason’s Werewolves of Montpellier.

• At Savage Critics, Graeme McMillan names Justice League of America as his 2010 guilty pleasure.

• At Inside Pulse, Grey Scherl lists the Top 10 this Marvel did right in 2010.

Set to Sea

With just a few days remaining in 2010, the best-of-the-year lists are springing up like mushrooms after the rain. Here’s just a selection of what’s appeared this week:

• NPR’s Glen Weldon recalls the comics “that got their hooks into me this year,” including James Sturm’s Market Day, Drew Weing’s Set to Sea, Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee’s Thor: The Mighty Avenger, and Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream.

• Deb Aoki surveys more than two dozen year-end lists to arrive at the critics’ choice for the best manga of 2010.

• At comiXology, Tucker Stone names the 20 best comics of the year, including Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca’s Afrodisiac, Grant Morrison and Frazier Irving’s Batman and Robin #13, and Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto, Vol. 7.

• Johanna Draper Carlson selects the best manga of 2010, divided into categories like best new manga, best continuing manga and best completed manga.

• Writing for Wired’s Underwire blog, Lore Sjöberg spotlights the year’s best new webcomics.

• Writing for Jezebel, Kelly Thompson concludes her countdown of the 20 best female creators of 2010, with the Top 10 occupied by the likes of Amanda Conner, Faith Erin Hicks, Becky Cloonan and Kate Beaton.

• At Topless Robot, Jay Barish names the five best and five worst comics of the year.

Comic-Con International

Legal | Two Los Angeles men accused of selling counterfeit passes to this year’s Comic-Con International have pleaded guilty to theft and were placed on probation for three years. Farhad Lame and Navid Vatankhahan, both 24, were each ordered to pay a $750 fine, complete 10 days of community service and pay restitution to the victims.

Prosecutors say the two photocopied Comic-Con badges and sold them on Craigslist to people looking for last-minute memberships. They were arrested in July after two of their victims attempted to enter the convention using the counterfeit badges, which the women bought for $120 each. [The San Diego Union-Tribune]

Technology | Tech blog Chip Chick names DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson as one of its “Top 13 Women Who Impacted Technology in 2010.” [Chip Chick]

Archie Comics

Publishing | A woman who attended the junior prom with Archie creator Bob Montana contends recent Archie Comics developments — the introduction of gay Riverdale resident Kevin Keller, the death of Geraldine Grundy — wouldn’t have taken place if the cartoonist were still writing the stories. “It wouldn’t be what he would have written,” Jane Murphy says. [Eagle-Tribune]

Education | Manga and anime programs at Japanese universities are drawing more interest from foreign students. [The New York Times]

Retailing | Nathan Solis profiles Los Angeles store Comics vs. Toys, which last month changed its name from Mini Melt Too. [Eagle Rock Patch]

Best of the year | Johanna Draper Carlson and Manga Xanadu select the best manga of 2010. [Comics Worth Reading, Manga Xanadu]

Comic strips | R.C. Harvey concludes a two-part essay on the end of Brenda Starr. [TCJ.com]

Kiel Phegley

Blogosphere | I’ve somehow fallen way behind on linking to Tom Spurgeon’s wonderful holiday interview series, so I’m going to slap a catch-all “blogosphere” label on this and play catch-up: cartoonist and longtime retail/convention employee Dustin Harbin; Drawn and Quarterly Associate Publisher Peggy Burns; Malaysian editorial cartoonist Zulkiflee Anawar Ulhaque (aka Zunar); and Comic Book Resources News Editor Kiel Phegley. [The Comics Reporter]

Creators | Brian Heater begins a four-part interview with cartoonist Sarah Glidden, creator of How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Comics | Douglas Wolk rattles off the comics he’s most looking forward to in the new year. [Techland]

DC Comics

Publishing | DC Comics will roll out a marketing campaign next month in support of its new $2.99 price initiative. The campaign, apparently revealed in a communique to retailers, will include online banners, ads in January issues of Comics Buyer’s Guide, Comic Shop News and Wizard, in-book ads, and in-store posters, shelf talkers and cards. [Crimson Monkey]

Libraries | The Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation has pledged $250,000 over five years to the new Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum facility, part of the Sullivant Hall renovation at The Ohio State University. [The Daily Cartoonist]

Broadway | The father of Christopher Tierney, the 31-year-old aerialist who fell a week ago during a performance of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, offers a full account of his son’s injuries: a hairline fracture in his skull, a broken scapula, a broken bone close to his elbow, four broken ribs, a bruised lung and three fractured vertebrae. Timothy Tierney said his son underwent back surgery on Wednesday, and took his first steps on Friday with the aid of a brace and walker. Doctors are “cautiously optimistic” that Christopher Tierney will eventually resume his performing career. [Arts Beat]

Captain America #602

Politics | Salon includes last February’s Captain America-tea party controversy in its rundown of “the year in trumped-up pseudo-scandals.” [Salon.com]

Best of the year | Dave Ferraro selects the 10 best manga of 2010. [Comics and More]

Best of the year | Lore Sjöberg names the best new webcomics of 2010, from Axe Cop to Bad Machinery to Scenes From a Multiverse. [Underwire]

Best of the year | Chantaal and Dee at Girls Read Comics Too choose the best comics of the year, divided into categories. [Girls Read Comics Too]

Retailing | Kris Turner briefly spotlights Comic Relief in Flint, Mich. [The Flint Journal]

Brenda Starr

Comic strips | R.C. Harvey begins a two-part essay on Brenda Starr, which ends its 70-year run on Sunday. [TCJ.com]

Creators | Steve Niles talks about his collaborations with horror legend Bernie Wrightson: “Every Friday night Bernie and I have a Scrabble night at my house with his wife Liz and my girlfriend Monica. Really, these books came out of those nights with us talking plot points between Scrabble turns and pizza and beer. If we laughed, it went in the book. I know this sounds a little to simple, but the friendship plays so much into the collaboration now it’s almost too fun to call work.” [Hero Complex]

Creators | Robert Kirkman chats briefly about the success of The Walking Dead television series, and his plans for 2011. [The Courier-Journal]

Gerard Way

Creators | My Chemical Romance frontman and comics writer Gerard Way talks about his favorite music, comics, prose and more. [The New York Times]

Comics | Douglas Wolk recounts what he’s grateful for in comics: “The general shift toward the rights of individual creators is a very good long-term sign. The most talked-about comics-inspired projects in other media this year were Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim and The Walking Dead–all of which are properties owned by the particular people who created them. That’s a huge change.” [Techland]

Comics | Ben Morse assembles a Jewish Justice League. [The Cool Kids Table]

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Broadway | The Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark canceled both Wednesday performances to test new safety measures following the Monday-night fall that left a stuntman hospitalized with broken ribs and internal bleeding. The cancellation of the sold-out evening show was announced just three hours before showtime at the Foxwoods Theatre. Tonight’s performance is expected to go on as planned.

Producers and creators met privately on Tuesday with the entire company to address safety concerns about the $65-million musical, the most expensive and technically complex in Broadway history. Although accidents in theater productions aren’t uncommon, it’s unusual for there to be four injuries before a show has officially opened. MTV offers some context. [The New York Times, The Associated Press]

Eiichiro Oda

Creators | According to calculations by Weekly Bunshun magazine, One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda makes about $24 million a year. Nearly $15.5 million of that comes just from sales of the insanely popular pirate manga. Oda turns 36 years old on Jan. 1. [Anime News Network]

Publishing | Michael Kavanagh reports on declining profits at Scottish media company DC Thomson, publisher of The Beano and The Dandy. [Financial Times]

Retailing | Robert Wilonsky uses the announcement of ComicsPRO‘s February annual meeting in Dallas as a chance to take the temperature of direct-market retailers and the trade organization. [Dallas Observer]

Publishing | The mainstream media pick up on the Marvel’s decision to bump off a member of the Fantastic Four in the January issue. [CNN.com]

Paul Cornell

Digital piracy | Writer Paul Cornell wades into the often-heated piracy discussion: “I think, and have had many conversations to support this view, that a large majority of creators in all media loathe illegal downloading. But few of them are willing to say anything in public. Reasons range from a desire to be seen to be cutting edge, to a fear of alienating one’s audience, to fear of a denial of service attack on one’s website. I’ve been on a lot of panels where, asked that question, everyone answers an entirely different one, about how ‘e-books are the future’. I feel that the one thing we can do, as creators, to affect illegal downloaders is to make it clear that we withold our approval. You can’t be an enthusiastic and beloved fan of a great writer and at the same time steal their stuff.” [PaulCornell.com]

Blogosphere | Tom Spurgeon continues his series of holiday interviews with a discussion with critic, writer and artist Matt Seneca. [The Comics Reporter]

Best of the year | Douglas Wolk selects the 10 best comics of 2010. [Techland]

Superboy #1

Best of the year | Dave Ferraro names to the 10 best superhero comics of the year. [Comics and More]

Best of the year | January Magazine names Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon’s Tumor among the best crime fiction of 2010. [January Magazine]

Gift guides | Brian Truitt, John Geddes and David Colton choose “essential 2010 graphic novels for comics gift-giving.” [USA Today]

Music | There’s a Michigan punk band named Cain Marko, after Marvel’s Juggernaut. “Juggernaut is just kind of a great character with an interesting past and kind of a tortured soul,” guitarist Jeremy Verwys says. “He’s just going to run through walls, and that’s what we kind of feel like … be uncompromising.” [The Grand Rapids Press]

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Broadway | The fall that seriously injured an actor Monday night in the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark was the result of human error, the Actors’ Equity Association said. Christopher Tierney, the 31-year-old aerialist who doubles for Spider-Man and two villains, remains in serious but stable condition after the cable to his safety harnesses snapped, sending him tumbling as far as 30 feet into the orchestra pit. As we reported on Tuesday, today’s matinee has been canceled while the show enacts additional safety measures. However, tonight’s performance will go on as scheduled.

Amid criticism from Broadway actors and calls for the plug to be pulled on the $65-million production — Tierney is the fourth Spider-Man performer to be injured — director Julie Taymor issued a statement, calling the accident “heartbreaking”: “I am so thankful that Chris is going to be alright and is in great spirits. Nothing is more important than the safety of our Spider-Man family and we’ll continue to do everything in our power to protect the cast and crew.” Meanwhile, the New York Post — home to theater columnist Michael Riedel, who’s gleefully chronicled the musical’s many setbacks — quotes one unnamed investor as saying, “We should cut our losses and just get out,” while another worries about potential lawsuits. The Daily Beast provides a timeline of the delay-plagued production, while Mark Evanier offers commentary. [Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark]

Digital piracy | Mike Masnick casts a critical eye over the evidence presented by the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to obtain a warrant for the domain seizures for several hip-hop blogs and the torrent search engine Torrent-Finder. Curiously — and, Masnick argues misleadingly — part of the support for the Torrent-Finder seizure is a TorrentFreak article about Underground co-creator Steve Lieber’s embrace of 4Chan. [Techdirt]

Red 5 Comics

Publishing | Red 5 Comics has announced a line of “digital-first” comics whose titles will debut on digital platforms before being collected in print. The first title, Michael Mayne and Tyler Fluharty’s Bonnie Lass: The Legend, premieres today on comiXology and iVerse. [press release]

Publishing | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson talks with Kids Can Press editors Karen Li and Tara Walker about the publisher’s graphic-novel line. [Publishers Weekly]

Retailing | Andrew Farago reports that 21-year-old San Francisco retailer Al’s Comics needs immediate help in the form of sales and outside investment to get through a rough patch. [The Comics Reporter]

Blogosphere | Tom Spurgeon rounds up tributes/farewells to comics-blogging pioneer Dirk Deppey, who signs off this morning at Journalista! after being laid off by Fantagraphics. [The Comics Reporter]

Northlanders #36

Creators | Brian Wood is interviewed by a Greek comics site (scroll down for the English text). [Comicdom, via Journalista]

Creators | Tom Spurgeon talks at length with Karl Stevens. [The Comics Reporter]

Digital comics | Charlie Sorrel looks at the MyComics comic reader for the iPad. [Gadget Lab]

Manga | While everyone else is busy with their best of 2010 lists, Deb Aoki looks toward the new year with a rundown of the 25 most-anticipated manga of 2011. [About.com]

Best of the year | While Douglas Walk names the best graphic novels of 2010, Comics Alliance begins its countdown of the 10 best comics. [Techland, Comics Alliance]

Gift guides | For those scrambling for last-minute gift ideas, here are two lists with comics suggestions. [GeekDad, Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Broadway | A fourth actor was injured Monday night during a performance of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the $65-million musical that’s been plagued by delays and technical mishaps. Aerialist Christopher Tierney, who serves as a stunt double for Spider-Man and the villains Meeks and Kraven, fell about 30 feet when the cable to his harness snapped during the closing minutes of the show. Some equipment reportedly dropped into the audience as well. The performance was put on hold and then canceled as an ambulance arrived at the Foxwoods Theatre to take Tierney to Bellevue Hospital. Tierney is in stable condition, but no further information has been released. [BroadwayWorld, The Associated Press, CNN]

Publishing | Fantagraphics has laid off Dirk Deppey,The Comics Journal‘s online editor, former managing editor, and longtime writer of the Journalista! blog. His final day is Wednesday: “No regrets: The last ten years have kicked ass. I’ve done great things and meet interesting people, and was paid it. How great is that?” [Twitter]

Mark Waid

Publishing | Mark Waid, departing chief creative officer of BOOM! Studios, talks at length about digital comics, the direct market, attracting new readers, piracy and more: “Boom is not set up as a company to do Creative Commons works. It doesn’t fit their business model. I can’t do something for Boom and then announce to the world that they’re free to download it all they want. As a corporate entity, they understandably cannot sanction that. But I really want to do the next round of things that I do digitally, and I have plans to experiment with a bunch of different things. I want to experiment with free. I want to experiment with Creative Commons. I want to experiment with limited copyright. I want to experiment with no copyright. It costs me virtually nothing as long as I’m writing it, except what I have to pay an artist or writer, which is the grand scheme of things is negligible, since I don’t have to pay for physical printing. It’s not that expensive to dabble in that stuff. Ultimately, what you do is follow Warren [Ellis's] Freakangels model, where you produce enough content you’ve given away for free that you have a trade paperback worth of stuff, and then you contact retailers and tell them you have something to sell. Because there will always be people who want a hard copy.” [Comics Alliance]

Pat Lee

Publishing | Rich Johnston talks with Pat Lee about the Dreamwave bankruptcy, the opening and closing of Dream Engine, unpaid creators, and his use of ghost artists. [Bleeding Cool]

Publishing | DC Comics is searching for an editor for its DC Universe line. [Comix 411]

Retailing | Chicago’s Brainstorm Movies, Comics & Gaming is up for sale. [Bleeding Cool]

Best of the year | Brian Heater rounds up more than two dozen artists, including Jeffrey Brown, Shaenon Garrity and Julia Wertz, to name their favorite comics of the year. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Best of the year | MTV’s Splash Page and The Weekly Crisis select the best of 2010. [Splash Page, The Weekly Crisis]

Crime | Three Japanese boys on the island of Izu Oshima who called themselves the “Phantom Thief Kids in Oshima” — named after the Phantom Thief character in the popular Detective Conan (aka Case Closed) manga and anime — have been arrested for committing about 20 thefts during the past year. The total damages from the crimes, which they’ve confessed to, come to about $8,000. [CNNGo]

Creators | Sergio Aragonés is briefly interviewed about his career and the new book  Sergio Aragonés: Five Decades of His Finest Work. [Afterword]

Thor: The Mighty Avenger #8

Creators | Artist Chris Samnee chats about Thor: The Mighty Avenger, and what’s on his “to-do” list: “There’s a list as long as my arm of characters I’d like to draw one day. At the top of my list is Batman or any of Batman’s supporting cast, like Commissioner Gordon and Alfred. I’d love to do a book starring Lois Lane and/or Jimmy Olsen. Apparently I have a thing for supporting characters. At the end of the day, though, as exciting as it is to draw characters that I grew up reading, I’d really like to do something creator owned. Something that I can call my own. That’s a big one for me.” [TFAW.com]

Creators | John Layman discusses Chew, his award-winning collaboration with Rob Guillory. [MTV Geek]

Blogosphere | John Schwartz spotlights the new blog Law and the Multiverse: Superheroes, Supervillains and the Law, and chats with its creators, lawyers James Daily and Ryan Davidson. [The New York Times]

Broadway | Peter David and Kathleen David review Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. [PeterDavid.net, No Strings Attached]

Adrienne Roy

Passings | Prolific colorist Adrienne Roy, who was a fixture of DC Comics for more than two decades, passed away on Dec. 14 following a year-long battle with cancer. She was 57. Although Roy’s work appeared in countless DC titles, from Green Lantern and Superman to Warlord and Wonder Woman, she’s best known for her extensive runs on Batman, Detective Comics and The New Teen Titans. Mark Evanier notes that “Her long tenure on Batman (more than 600 issues of various comics featuring the character) meant that her credit appeared on more tales of the Caped Crusader than anyone else except for Bob Kane.” CBGExtra posts an obituary written by her husband Anthony Tollin. [News from ME]

Publishing | Rich Johnston reports on rumored contract changes at DC Comics that would affect all new creator-owned titles in the DC Universe and Vertigo imprints. [Bleeding Cool]

Publishing | Storm Lion, the Singapore-based multimedia studio behind the 2008 Radical Publishing miniseries Freedom Formula, has closed on the heels the summer layoff of 30 employees in Singapore and Los Angeles. The closing leaves a planned movie adaptation, to be produced by Bryan Singer, “in limbo.” [The Straits Times]

Josh Blaylock

Publishing | Josh Blaylock, founder of Devil’s Due Publishing, frets that sudden cover-price cuts by DC and Marvel will lead to a “direct market massacre” in February: “Even in the best of times the holiday spending craze is over, everyone has spent their post-X-mas, January gift money, and the lull begins, and this will likely be one of the flattest X-Mas seasons in memory. This year, as our currency buys less and less essentials (I’m talking food and clothing, not your essential weekly publications), February is already poised to be tougher than ever, but it’s also running parallel with the forced 25% drop in sales from the majority of DC and Marvel titles. It’s an open wound plus salt.” [JoshBlaylock.com, via The Beat]

Retailing | Frances Dinkelspiel follows up on last week’s report about the imminent closing of legendary Berkeley, Calif., store Comic Relief. The article mentions that two employees have been laid off, but that the family of founder Rory Root is apparently talking to a potential buyer. Rich Johnston and Heidi MacDonald have commentary. [Berkeleyside]

Retailing | Drew Sullivan, owner of Ash Avenue Comics and Books in Tempe, Ariz., said his store had an exceptional November, thanks in large part to brisk sales of The Walking Dead, triggered by the popularity of the AMC television adaptation: “That comic book is one of our biggest sellers right now. We can’t keep it stocked. [...] It’s basically introducing new customers to the world of comics.” [East Valley Tribune]

Publishing | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson considers the pitfalls of comics age ratings. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Sleeper: Season One

Publishing | Tom Spurgeon pens a eulogy for WildStorm, complete with a list of favorite titles. [The Comics Reporter]

Conventions | Jayson Peters previews Amazing Arizona Comic Convention, which will hold is debut event Jan. 8-9 at the Mesa Convention Center in Mesa, Ariz. Guests will include Robert Kirkman, Rob Liefeld, Jeph Loeb, Joe Benitez, John Layman, Ryan Ottley, Cory Walker, and cast members from The Walking Dead. [East Valley Tribune]

Creators | Dean Haspiel posts his comic-strip tribute to Harvey Pekar that appears in the year-end issue of Entertainment Weekly. [LiveJournal]

Creators | Amy Mebberson talks about kids’ comics and BOOM! Studios’ Muppet Show titles. [TFAW.com]

Best of the year | David Allen Jones compiles his favorite comics of 2010, including Scalped, The Sixth Gun and Empowered. [Popdose]

Best of the year | Larry Cruz looks at the “Webcomic Moments of 2010.” [The Webcomic Overlook]

Return of the Dapper Men

Every year USA Today blogger, and comic-book fan, Whitney Matheson releases her list of the 100 most interesting people in television, movies, music, literature and, yes, comics. The 2010 edition (the 11th annual!), which concluded this morning, features a diverse mix that includes five comics creators:

• No. 74 — Jim McCann, writer of Hawkeye and Mockinbird, and co-creator of Return of the Dapper Men
• No. 59 — cartoonist Lynda Barry, whose book Picture This was released in November
• No. 41 — Jeff Lemire, creator of Sweet Tooth and the celebrated Essex County Trilogy
• No. 39 — Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley
• No. 15 — Robert Kirkman, co-creator of The Walking Dead and executive producer of the AMC television series

Check out Pop Candy’s full list of 100 People of 2010, and watch CBR TV interviews with three of the names on the list — McCann, O’Malley and Kirkman — after the break.

Wilson

As we burn through the final days of 2010, more and more websites and publications are unveiling their best-of lists — so many that keeping up is a challenge. Here’s just some of what’s been released in the past few days:

• Daniel Clowes’ Wilson is the sole comics entry on Time magazine’s rundown of the year’s Top 10 fiction books.

• The Village Voice selects the best comics and graphic novels of the year, including Steve Tatham and Pete Von Sholly’s Repuglicans, Charles Burns’ X’ed Out, Darwyn Cooke’s The Outfit, and Neal Adams and Denny O’Neil’s Superman vs. Muhammad Ali Deluxe Edition.

• The crew at Good Comics for Kids compiles an impressive list of the year’s best comics for kids, organized by age group.

• Jezebel lists its favorite female comic creators of 2010: Katie Cook, Colleen Cover, Sarah Glidden, Lucy Knisley, Hope Larson, Linda Medley, Nicola Scott, Fiona Staples, Raina Telegmeier and Jen Van Meter.

• U.S News & World Report names the first volume of The Unwritten, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, among “The Top Debate-Worthy Books of 2010.”

• Torontoist selects cartoonist Jason Kieffer as one of 2010′s “villains” for his book The Rabble of Downtown Toronto, described as “a collection of forty profiles of street people, many of whom are homeless, drug-addicted, or mentally disabled.”

• IGN.com rolls out its Best of 2010 awards.

• Multiversity Comics counts down the most overlooked titles of the year.

Chew #15

New York magazine’s Vulture blog has unveiled a diverse list of the best comics of the year that, while it doesn’t include any superhero selections, features just about everything else.

10. A Drunken Dream and Other Stories, by Moto Hagio (Fantagraphics)
9. Sweet Tooth, by Jeff Lemire (Vertigo)
8. Pang the Wandering Shaolin Monk, by Ben Costa
7. Chew, by John Layman and Rob Guillory (Image Comics)
6. Make Me a Woman, by Vanessa Davis (Drawn & Quarterly)
5. Set to Sea, by Drew Weing (Fantagraphics)
4. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, by Naoki Urasawa (Viz Media)
3. Denys Wortman’s New York, Edited by James Sturm and Brandon Elston (Drawn & Quarterly)
2. Duncan the Wonder Dog, Show One, by Adam Hines (AdHouse Books)
1. Wally Gropius, by Tim Hensley (Fantagraphics)

Brenda Starr

Comic strips | Tribune Media Services has announced it will cancel the 70-year-old comic strip Brenda Starr rather than find replacements for writer Mary Schmich and artist June Brigman, who have decided to end their lengthy run. The final installment will appear on Jan. 2. Created by Dale Messick, the flame-haired reporter debuted in The Chicago Tribune on June 30, 1940, and later appeared in comic books and movies, and on merchandise. Messick retired in 1980, and has been succeeded on the strip only by women, from Ramona Fradon to Linda Sutter to Schmich and Brigman.

Kiel Phegley offers commentary, and catches a series of tweets from writer Dan Slott, who relates that his great-grandfather’s sister championed Brenda Starr at The Chicago Tribune. In related news, Tribune Media Services is partnering with Hermes Press on a multi-volume hardcover series titled Brenda Starr, Reporter by Dale Messick: The Collected Daily and Sunday Newspaper Strip. The first volume will be released in June. [press release]

Retailing | Borders Group reported a third-quarter loss of $74.4 million, nearly double the loss incurred during the same period in 2009. ICv2.com provides analysis. [GalleyCat]

Amazon

Retailing | Amazon announced Thursday it will begin making current Nielsen BookScan sales data available to authors on its site, information that’s usually only shared six months or more later through royalty statements from publishers. John Jackson Miller, an Amazon author himself, explores what’s being shared. [Jacket Copy]

Awards | Submissions are being accepted through March 4 for the 2011 Eisner Awards. [Eisner Awards]

Publishing | Ten Japanese publishers, including Kadokawa Shoten as well as Shueisha, Shogakukan and Kodansha, have announced they will boycott next year’s Tokyo International Anime Fair because of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s latest efforts to further restrict sexual content in manga, anime and video games. [Anime News Network]

Publishing | Scott Thill spotlights Dark Horse’s new digital initiative, which launches in January. [Underwire]

Publishing | A recent quote from former DC Comics Publisher Paul Levitz — “I’m not sure that young women are as interested in reading about superheroes. The fundamental dynamic of the superhero story has historically been more appealing to boys than to girls.” — sparks an open letter from blogger Lisa Fortuner to newly appointed Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras: “I’ve heard it argued that women will not appreciate tightly woven multi-decade continuity or complex fantastical plots, but a mere hour viewing General Hospital should dispel that argument. The genre-loving book and television female audience are only kept from comic books by the industry’s reluctance to seek them out.” [Written World]

Publishing | Marvel is scouting for talent at the Singapore Toy, Games & Comic Convention, which kicks off today. It marks the publisher’s first appearance at the event. [Channel NewsAsia]

Batman Incorporated #1

Publishing | Matt Duarte crunches estimated sales numbers, and dubs DC’s Batman Incorporated “the $3-million franchise.” [The Weekly Crisis]

Best of the year | Sandy Bilus has begun collecting links to best-of-the-year lists. [I love Rob Liefeld]

Best of the year | Ian McGillis selects some of the year’s best graphic novels, including X’ed Out, Market Day and The Best American Comics 2010. [The Gazette]

Creators | Neil Gaiman talks about the changing audience for comics, and editing The Best American Comics 2010. [NPR]

Creators | Perry Bible Fellowship creator Nicholas Gurewitch discusses the Internet, stepping back from his webcomic, and working on Marvel’s Strange Tales. [Comics Alliance]

Internet | In response to this post by T. Hodler, The A.V. Club editor Keith Phipps has apologized for running a review Genius Isolated: The Life & Art Of Alex Toth by a writer who couldn’t have actually seen the book, as it hasn’t been finished: “I don’t want to speculate on the writer’s motivations, but I can say that in no way was the publisher of the book, IDW, involved. This sort of behavior is absolutely unacceptable, and we will not be working with the writer again in any capacity going forward.” [The A.V. Club]

Comics | Dorian Wright offers some gift-giving recommendations. [Postmodernbarney.com]

Batman: The Return

Publishing | Following its grim snapshot of year-to-date dollar sales in the direct market, ICv2.com has released a dreary analysis of the November charts: For the third time in 2010, the top-selling title failed to crack the 100,000-copy mark. Batman: The Return, priced at $4.99, sold about 99,500 copies, compared to the 144,000 sold by November 2009′s top title, Blackest Night #5. According to the retail news and analysis site, 20 of the Top 25 titles experienced a drop last month. As ICv2 noted last week in its initial report, dollar sales of comics were down 10.2 percent when compared with November 2009, while graphic novels jumped 14.84 percent, tied to the release of the 13th volume of The Walking Dead (it sold more than 19,000 copies). [ICv2.com]

Digital publishing | Google on Monday unveiled Google eBooks, a web-based e-book platform/digital storefront that boasts “the world’s largest selection of ebooks.” Dan Vado offers brief commentary. [TechCrunch]

Barnes & Noble

Retailing | Activist investor William Ackman has offered to finance a $960 million bid by Border Groups to buy its smaller larger rival Barnes & Noble. Both chains have been struggling amid competition from online stores like Amazon.com and the increasing popularity of e-book readers. [The Detroit News]

Passings | Steve Bates, longtime manager of Ohio’s Bookery Fantasy and later a writer in the marketing department of Diamond Comic Distributors, passed away Dec. 3 from cancer. He was 48. [ICv2.com]

Best of the year | Katherine Dacey selects the best manga of 2010, including AX: A Collection of Alternative Manga, Black Blizzard, and A Drunken Dream and Other Stories. [The Manga Critic]

Comics | S.I. Rosenbaum rolls out a graphic novel gift guide. [The Boston Phoenix]

Frank Miller

Creators | Christopher Irving continues his profile of Frank Miller, this time focusing on The Dark Knight Strikes Again, All-Star Batman and Robin, The Spirit movie and more. [Graphic NYC]

Creators | Nathan Wilson continues his discussion with Paul Levitz about 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking. [TCJ.com]

Creators | Sarah Glidden discusses her memoir/travelogue How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less: “I don’t even think I believe in objectivity anymore. No matter how hard you try to gather facts, there’s always a motivation behind the reasons we choose one source over another, and our sources have prejudices and biases too. That stuff can really drive you crazy if you start thinking about it. As soon as I started doing research into the history of the Levant region and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I realized this. I was suspicious of pretty much everything I read. This book is kind of about my search for objective truths in a situation where that’s nearly impossible to find, so I knew that if I wanted to write about that I would have to go the route of extreme subjectivity.” [Bookslut]

Creators | Paul Tobin talks about Spider-Girl, Marvel Adventures and what he likes best about writing kids’ comics: “The freedom of being able to completely world-build. The all-ages material isn’t as bound by the Code of Continuity, so if I feel like bringing in some disparate elements, it’s all up to me.” [TFAW]

Doctor Strange: From the Marvel Vault

Creators | Tom Mason chats with Neil Vokes about his upcoming collaboration with Roger Stern Doctor Strange: From the Marvel Vault, which tells the story of the Sorcerer Supreme’s first night at at 177-A Bleecker Street. [Comix 411]

Comics | Tucker Stone offers tips for jump-starting a career in comics: “Don’t be that guy. You know which guy I’m talking about, the guy who is a walking PR kit. He never talks with you, he talks at you. This one dimensional persona pollutes the comics industry. If you have an idea for a project and you’re pretty excited about it, congratulations, but here’s a little secret: no one cares. If you insist on giving us lip service then please, I urge you to take a step outside yourself and imagine listening to your spiel about your ‘secret project’ or how ‘people would kill to work on the deal’ you just ‘scored’.” [comiXology]