A while back, I recommended a stylish new webcomic called The Sisters Grimm, noting that creators Dave Pauwels and Nicolas R. Giacondino seemed to be starting off on solid ground. Indeed, the webcomic, now retitled Free Mars, has been proceeding at the stately pace of one page a week for the past year and a half, and Pawels and Giacondino have done a nice job of building up their vision of a rebel girl band in 2339 (although they use some odd slang—the meanings are usually self-evident, but a glossary would be helpful).

Yesterday, Ape Entertainment announced that they have become “ownership partners” in Free Mars and will be publishing the graphic novel edition in July. The graphic novel will also be available via iVerse’s Comics + iOS app, which raises the question of whether Free Mars will continue to be available as a free webcomic. I checked in with Pauwels, and he cleared that up, saying, “The free webcomic will definitely continue with weekly updates and that content will be the lion’s share of the print graphic novel.  But for the loyal webcomic readers, we’ll have additional material in the print version, including a mini-prequel story and some other original material.” That’s a great idea, adding some value to the print comic, and it will be interesting to see if the audience they built up with the webcomic will flock to the print version as well.

Legal

Legal | The judge in the trial of former retailer Michael George banned note-taking in the courtroom on Friday out of concern that two women were sharing information with George’s wife Renee. George is on trial for the 1990 murder of his first wife Barbara, and Renee George has been barred from hearing the testimony of other witnesses because she may be called to the stand herself. Also, on Friday a witness testified he had called George’s store at around 5:30 on the day of the murder to ask why an Amazing Spider-Man comic had jumped in value from $5 to $40. Michael Renaud said he spoke to George for about five minutes and that George seemed to be in a hurry to get off the phone; the testimony places him at the crime scene rather than at his mother’s house, where he claimed to be at the time of Barbara’s murder. [The Detroit Free Press]

Conventions | Nearly 5,000 people turned out over the weekend for the second annual Detroit Fanfare, held at the Cobb Center. That’s slightly more than the number who attended the first event at the Dearborn Hyatt Regency, but half what organizer Dennis Barger Jr. had hoped for this year. [The Detroit News]

Habibi

Creators | Craig Thompson, the most interviewed man in comics right now, shows off his work space, which includes a drawing of God telling him not to screw it up, and discusses his work on Habibi. [OregonLive.com]

Creators | Jesse Pearson has a wide-ranging interview with alt-comics artist Johnny Ryan, who started with Angry Youth Comics and just published Prison Pit 3. (Warning: NSFW!) [The Comics Journal]

Creators | Italian comics critic Andrea Queriolo interviews Joe Matt, creator of Spent: “My next book is about my move out of Toronto, my experiences in Hollywood, and the two major relationships that I’ve had since moving here in 2003. It’s all fraught with pain and hence, I barely ever feel like working on it. But … I am going slowly broke and for me, that’s the best motivation in the world.” [The Panelists]

Americus

Comics | As Banned Books week opens, Gavin Lees reviews Americus, First Second’s YA graphic novel about a book challenge in a small town in Oklahoma. [Graphic Eye]

Comics | In the wake of the political changes in Egypt, two entrepreneurs are starting a graphic novel imprint, Division Comics, focusing on sophisticated work for adult readers. “I think it would still have been possible to have done [this] before, but certainly after the revolution it’s a lot better; we wouldn’t have had any creative freedom,” said co-founder Marwan Imam. Their debut release is Autostrade, an anthology containing six stories in English and six in Arabic. [The National]

Comics | Tracey Sinclair provides an overview of gay and lesbian characters in American superhero comics, but makes a misstep with Miles Morales. [So So Gay]

Tuk Tuk

Comics | Richard Bruton reviews Will Kirby’s fantasy comic Tuk Tuk, with copious samples of Kirby’s gorgeous artwork. [The Forbidden Planet blog]

Comics | Alan David Doane takes on the question, “What are my comics worth?” Sadly, the answer is often “12 cents,” but he explains the factors that determine price and how you can get the best deal. [Trouble with Comics]

Comics | Sean Kleefeld reads Lynd Ward’s wordless novel-in-woodcuts God’s Man, which was first published in 1929, making it one of the earliest graphic novels. [Kleefeld on Comics]

Digital comics | Here are three digital comics for the iPhone and iPad that won’t cost you a cent. [The Mac Observer]

Digital Manga has been aggressive about expanding its business in several different directions, but I didn’t see this one coming: This week, their eManga website is carrying a number of IDW titles, including Doctor Who, Locke & Key, and Silent Hill. Oh, and Astro Boy, of course—the movie adaptation, not Osamu Tezuka’s original.

IDW and Digital Manga couldn’t be more different, except for one thing: They were both early adopters of digital media. Both put their wares on the iPhone back in the days when every issue of a comic was a single app, and both have experimented with different formats and platforms. IDW isn’t the first outside publisher that Digital has invited over to the eManga site: They also host manga from two potential rivals, Yaoi Press and BLU.

eManga is a Flash-based site, so it won’t work on the iPad, although it should be OK with Android devices. I use it to read manga on my computer, and it works quite well, although the default image size is a bit too small for me (there’s a zoom button). It’s streaming, so you have to have an internet connection to read your comics; there is no way to download from the site.

The eManga site works on a point system: You purchase points with a credit card for about a penny a point, with a volume discount, and redeem them for books, so I can’t give exact prices here, but a rough comparison is possible. If you’re paying a penny a point, the Doctor Who graphic novels are $9.99, half the original retail price. Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft is a downright bargain at $4.99, although you’d do better buying those Astro Boy comics in dead-tree format via Amazon. One nice thing about the eManga site is that it offers samples of each comic, so you can try before you buy.

These prices are comparable to prices on the iPad via Comics+ or the IDW app. Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft is sold on the app as a six-issue miniseries at 99 cents per issue; Doctor Who: Agent Provocateur is six issues at $1.99 each. In both cases, eManga is a bit cheaper. IDW experimented with putting some of its graphic novels on the iPad as single apps, and those prices are the same as eManga—$7.99 for Tribes: The Dog Years and $9.99 for the Star Trek movie adaptation. Most of the books on the eManga site aren’t available as graphic novel apps, though.

Every comics system has its pluses and minuses. If you choose eManga, you can only read your comics on the internet—you can’t download them to read on the subway—but you don’t have to spend $600 on an iPad. With Comics+, you can download them but you pay a bit more. Print is completely portable, but it’s also the most expensive option.

A two-for today. Here is our introduction to Delphi, a very important character in the world of ICARUS, probably the most important. Page 10 was unique and a lot of fun to do. I knew early on in the scripting phase that I wanted her dream/vision to look like something a young child may imagine so I enlisted my three boys to help me out. I roughly laid out the page, taking about 10 minutes, then I turned panels 1 & 2 over to my 7 year-old who inked it and colored it. Panel 3 my 10-year old inked and colored and panels 4 & 5 my 12-year old did. I then scanned the page in and adjusted the colors so they would print better. I get a lot of feedback on this page at conventions, people seem to dig it and it really helped me tell the story I wanted to.

Ryan Cody is the creator, artist, writer, & colorist of ICARUS, a bi-monthly super-powered adventure/espionage book published through Super 75 Comics. Ryan’s past projects include illustrating the graphic novel VILLAINS for Viper Comics as well as contributing to the Eisner-Award winning anthology, Popgun Vol.3, from Image comics. ICARUS #1 is currently available as both a .99 digital download and in print. For more information or to order a print copy of ICARUS, please visit www.super75comics.com

To wrap up our Halloween treats today, our own Sean T. Collins and artist Isaac Moylan share a comic called “I Remember When the Monsters Started Coming for the Cars.” Check out the complete story after the jump.

*****

This is the future: Writer Molly McIsaac reads Hellboy on Women Read Comics in Public Day

Web comics creator and manga editor Shaenon Garrity has penned a ten-point manifesto on comics at comiXology that is well worth a read. I’ll summarize her ten points here for brevity, but you should really go over and read Shaenon’s explanations, as she expands on every point:

1. Newspaper comics are dead: I don’t think this comes as a surprise to anyone. Most of their creators are dead as well.
2. Monthly comic books are dead: Shaenon chalks this up to the deficiencies in the direct market.
3. Format is infinitely mutable: It’s all comics, and people will read it in the format that suits them.
4. The audience is infinitely fragmented: When you take the wider view, lots of people are reading different types of comics, and they no longer fit the standard stereotypes. ” Open the discussion to webcomics, and the audience fragments all the way down to the tip of the long tail; on the Internet, everyone is famous for fifteen people.”

5. But there is a canon: Go check this out—it’s not what you might think.
6. Superheroes are not comic-book characters: They are movie and TV characters. See this comment at The Beat for the reason why.
7. Manga has changed the game: That’s because it has changed the way the new generation of comics creators tells their stories.
8. The line between fans and creators is razor-thin: Webcomics, DeviantArt, whatever. You don’t have to go work for Marvel or DC any more; anyone with a scanner and an internet connection can make comics.
9. They are mostly girls: I’m not sure whether she is talking about fans or creators here, but I think both are correct.
10. They are very good at making comics: Actually, most of those people mentioned in number 8 are probably terrible, but the cream that floats to the top is awesome.

Reaction has been mixed. The original post drew a troll who basically told the girls to go home and stay out of the comics shop, ‘cos they don’t understand real comics, thus neatly demonstrating the validity of point #2. There’s a lively debate going on at The Beat, while at Scott McCloud’s blog, the commenters were mostly in agreement. At The Webcomic Overlook, Larry Cruz comes up with his own ten-point webcomics manifesto, which directly engages some of Shaenon’s points and adds some new thoughts.

(Photo from the Women Read Comics in Public Tumblr.)

They also looked at the numbers for the first half of 2010 and came to an interesting conclusion: Periodical comics are doing better than graphic novels. In comics shops, sales of graphic novels showed a double-digit drop every month except February, and in bookstores (where the numbers are harder to calculate) they seem to be down as well. Twilight: The Graphic Novel is the best-seller, but ICv2 notes grimly that

The other bestselling movie-driven graphic novel in the first half of 2010, Marvel’s Kick-Ass Hardcover posted sales that were less than 10% of what Watchmen achieved during the same period in 2009.

Projected bright spots include The Walking Dead, Janet Evanovich’s Troublemaker (80,000 pre-ordered), and IDW’s two James Patterson graphic novels.

Joe Suitor's cover for Freakshow #1

The Ape Entertainment folks announced this week that they will have special issues of Freakshow #1 available for purchase at their booth at SDCC, and creators David Server and Jackson Lanzing will be participating in panel on Thursday at 1 p.m. With art by Joe Suitor (Spider-Man: Fear Itself, GI Joe: Helix) and a postapocalyptic premise that is interesting if not entirely novel, it looks like it might have promise.

It certainly is a slow gestation, though. If their production blog is to be trusted, they were hyping the comic at SDCC in 2008 (planning a 2009 release) and 2009. The series is currently scheduled for “early 2011,” and there has been a pre-con flurry of activity at the Freakshow production blog and Facebook, so perhaps this will be the year…

Full press release after the cut.

July 15, 2010: Ape Entertainment announced today that it will provide attendees at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con with an advance look at FREAKSHOW, a new title co-created by David Server & Jackson Lanzing with art by rising star Joe Suitor (Spider-Man: Fear Itself, GI Joe: Helix).

The three-issue limited series follows the story of five mutated survivors after a devastating chemical explosion, which has left the world’s only superhero dead and his city trapped in a dangerous and mysterious quarantine. In the wake of the disaster, these five refugees must decide whether to use their powerful but defective new abilities to save the remains of the city or extract their revenge on those responsible.

“As readers, we’ve always gravitated towards the creatures and outsiders in comics, and this story comes from wanting to deconstruct those archetypes,” says Server. “When you’re born out of the most nightmarish origin you can imagine, where does that leave you? If your identity is ripped away and you’re left a monster, what might anyone be capable of?”

“While we’re playing with the iconography of superheroes, our characters aren’t traditionally ‘super-heroic,’” adds Lanzing. “They’re freaks, survivors of literally apocalyptic trauma. What we’re trying to do is let the reader into the mind of these damaged characters and challenge their expectations. FREAKSHOW is about finding heroism in yourself, even when it seems like there’s nothing left to save.”

Though the series won’t arrive in stores until early 2011, advance copies of FREAKSHOW #1 will be available for purchase at the Ape Entertainment booth (#2104) on the convention floor. The issue features a cover by Suitor, as well as a special variant cover by comic industry legend Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan, The Boys).

Hellboy: Start at the beginning for just a buck

Dark Horse’s dollar comics, debuting in August, are a wallet-friendly way to kill some time while you wait for the recession to end. The comics are first issues of established series (or story arcs within series), including Hellboy, Usagi Yojimbo, Umbrella Academy and The Goon.

The idea piqued my curiosity, so I fired off some questions to editor Dave Land about the new/old line. Here’s our mini-chat:

Brigid: Is this the first time you have tried something like this — low-priced introductory issues?

Dave: We’ve done low-priced first issues before, but we’ve never done a whole line of low-priced reprints before.

Brigid: How did you select the comics to be reprinted?

Dave: Mainly it was based on finding popular titles that played an important part in helping to define Dark Horse. There’s a good mix of different types of material covered by the 1 for 1 program — from creator owned titles like Sin City to licensed properties like Star Wars and even to classic reprint comics like Magnus, Robot Fighter.

Brigid: Are the subsequent issues still available, or are these gateways to the trades?

Dave: All the books featured in the program have supporting trades that are available.

Brigid: In this digital era, it seems almost quaint to be using print comics like this. Why did you choose to do this in print rather than, say, through comiXology or Dark Horse Presents?

Dave: At this point, print is our main avenue for reaching readers. Not everyone has or can afford digital reader of some sort or other. So this is a low cost way to give people a taste of what Dark Horse does.

Brigid: Will there be digital editions?

Dave: At this time there aren’t plans to make these titles available digitally.

Brigid: It looks like some of these are the first issues of the series while others are the beginnings of more recent story arcs. How did you decide on a good jumping-in point for each story?

Dave: First issues generally serve as good entry points for any story. On properties like Star Wars we wanted to keep things more contemporary to show where we’ve taken the property, so we didn’t go all the way back to the very first issue. Hopefully those issues will still pique reader’s curiosity and they’ll check out the other story arcs we’ve published.

No, she doesn't!

The Heroic Age is here, every one! Hoorah! Siege is over, the great event Seven Years in the Making has reached its last chapter and we stand in May on the crossroads. Behind us, we can see a different Marvel Universe, full of doubt and fears. Heroes were in hiding, the Avengers were villains, it was madness, my friends. But now, ahead of us is this all new age (a Heroic one, you could say) and as prices average to $3.99 a comic, the iPad gives you access to digital content, movie studios and comic company walking hand and hand… a new age is indeed upon us.

So let’s think to the future without forgetting where we came from; from darkness, the True Believer will emerge unscathed and approach the future facing front, chin held high, excel-

Wait. The Women of Marvel alternate cover for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #640 features the Black Cat and MJ in a cute T-shirt? Mary Jane doesn’t love Spider-Man anymore. I thought we were through with this, Marvel? You can’t sweep the marriage under the rug and then use her to promote a man you untied her to!! No! This is an outrage! This is just rubbing our noses in the Mephisto deal and I won’t stand for it! Angry letters at the ready! Open weeping in the streets on standby! BAAAW-

*achem* My apologies. Excelsior.

So August is all part of the big change into the Heroic Age as by now, most of the settling in is done, new books are getting into the groove and yes, some small event books are getting their big kick off just in time for the end of summer. And as the dying of the Summer Sun fades into the chill of Fall, I just gotta say it’s a good time to be Blade. Marvel’s vampire-hunting Daywalker is coming back as you might imagine, the Curse of the Mutants bringing vampires and mutants together. Blade’s going to have his own one-shot for that, X-MEN: CURSE OF THE MUTANTS – BLADE #1, but the smart bet is that he might hang out for a bit through the storyline. I mean, he’s a great resource when fighting vampires, you’re not going to let him just come in, swings some swords and walk away until the vampire threat is no more.

Blade will also be appearing in SPITFIRE #1 as Paul Cornell brings back a Captain Britain and MI:13 character to celebrate Women in Marvel. A spectacular choice (though a Faiza Hussain/Excalibur one-shot would have been a bit more daring), she fits in with the vampire chic and can provide another big promotion of her old book. Captain Britain and MI:13 was a fantastic title I hated to see go and as some smart cookies in the blogosphere have noted, you can cameo your characters in other books and see if that leads to a new title. It worked for Agents of Atlas!

And on that positive note, it’s time to address a problem. At first it was funny, then it was kind of snide and then it got to be too much. Now we seriously have to stop it. DEADPOOL #1000 is eight shades of ridiculous.   Now, it’s an anthology with some amazing creators (Dave Lapham, Peter Bagge, Howard Chaykin, Fred Van Lente, the list goes on), a cover by Dave Johnson and it’s a 104-pages of Deadpool fighting stupid and ridiculous things for $4.99. But come on! How many times do we have to do this? How many games and festivals can Caligula have before we realize he’s a terrible Caesar? How many of these books are going to come out until Deadpool just isn’t cool anymore?

On the other hand… DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #890 makes a pretty convincing argument in the other direction. It, too, is an anthology with a different writer and artist team each time and has Deadpool fighting stupid and ridiculous things. But it’s only $2.99 and has the benefit of a guest-star. This month it’s Machine Man, so it’ll be irreverent assassin and irreverent robot fighting each other most likely until they do as it says on the cover of the book. And to think, if they has split up that #1000 issue into four Deadpool Team-Up issues…

In other not-Deadpool news, ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS 2 #6 ends one storyline while ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS 3 #1 will be starting a new one. I don’t know about you, but it’s hard to explain this new numbering system to some customers. This looks like structuring for the trade, so each six-issue storyline can be easily collected and, perhaps read on its own? But from what I’ve read, I’m sure someone picking it up for the first time might have a bunch of questions as to who these people are. In fact, a longer running series encourages people to pick up more comics; Mark Millar’s a popular guy and needs to have more comics on the market. If someone reads #6 in a 6-issue mini-series, they can be done. If they read the last part of a story arc and then are offered #7 that starts a new story, I think we can get behind that.

So while i complain about Ultimate Comics Avengers being a little gun shy when it comes to continually numbering their comics, ULTIMATE COMICS MYSTERY #2 (of 4) is coming out and I’m OK with that. Sure, it’s the dead center of three, four issue mini-series that tell a larger story afoot in the Ultimate Universe, but it seems to make more sense: it’s a overarcing story that pulls in a lot of characters who don’t have their own books or have one but want to continue their own narrative. So this can exist in orbit around the Ultimate Universe without throwing off the groove of their main titles. Or, main title.

And speaking of Spider-Man under our breath, back in the ol’ 616 universe he’s about to have his life changed … FOREVER!! The solicitation for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #640 & #641 reads:

How did the world REALLY forget Peter Parker was Spider-Man? And what does the future hold for Peter & Mary Jane? Every question is answered, the past laid to rest, and Spider-Man swings into a new direction for the future!

NEW DIRECTION? How? Why? Is the direction we’re going in the wrong way? Were the fanboy tears too much? And honestly, this is comics: the past WILL NEVER be laid to rest. All I hope is that enough questions will be answered that no one will pester Joe Q again and we can just Superman Red/Blue this one under the rug. The deal is done, you either live with it or you don’t. I think the Spidey Trust has done some fun work in their time since Brand New Day, as much as any writer could have. Where in Aunt May’s name could we be going now?

If the four extra covers per issue have anything to say about it, I’d say that Spidey was going to marry Deadpool.

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-GIRL #4 comes to an end… as much as Spider-Girl book can ever end. Which is ironic because SPIDER-GIRL: THE END! #1 is coming out in the same month! Much like the The End series of yore, Spider-Girl is really truly going to try and wrap up her stories once and for all. Or at least in a What If?, Uatu’s-watching style because I really can’t believe anything can stop Mayday Parker from getting her own book now and again. And that’s okay.

Secret Avengers #4

and Avengers #4: Men With Hats

Before we go further, I just wanted to take a moment and totally apologise for thinking that “Avengers Prime” was a nickname for the ‘main’ Avengers book. Avengers Prime is another book. So let’s recap: Avengers (the ‘Adjectiveless’ or ‘A-Vengers’ title), Secret Avengers, New Avengers, Avengers Academy, Avengers Prime. This month Avengers: the Origin ends and Avengers: Children’s Crusade will be bi-monthly. That’s a lot of Avenging.

Oh and hey, Camel? See if you can’t fit one more straw on that back: AVENGERS & THE INFINITY GAUNTLET #1 (of 4). It’s a mini, outside of continuity and by Atomic Robo’s Brian Clevenger, so I can’t complain too much. Let’s just hope that all the X-Men teams don’t get Avengers membership as well….

YOW! Five new mini-series for Shadowland! Let’s hope they don’t all come out in the same week. For the full story of Daredevil’s dark descent you’ll be getting the Shadowland title, Daredevil (obviously), then Bullseye, Moon Knight, Power Man, Blood on the Streets (with a new team of Silver Sable, Paladin, Misty Knight and the Shroud?) and Colleen Wing’s Daughters of the Shadow. I’m sad that Misty and Colleen won’t be NightWing Investigations, but it’s interesting how Marvel wants to stop the Event Comic tredmill and then BOOM. Shadowland. I guess if you’re not into Daredevil, you could ignore it but that’s the same as the X-Men, so … is Daredevil his own franchise? More importantly, is he an Avenger?

In more general Daredevil news, he’ll be getting his own black and white ‘magazine’-style comic with DAREDEVIL: BLACK & WHITE #1. Personally, I’m a big fan of these; the Mystic Hands of Doctor Strange, the Savage Axe of Ares, these are very cool and a nice taste of the character through some quick shorts.

You know who’s make a great magazine? The Punisher. A bunch of short stories in gritty black and white, 32 pages in different styles and stories for around $3.99. Sounds reasonable, right? We should have something to read besides Punisher MAX and … Franken-Castle. But, instead, we’ll be getting MARVEL UNIVERSE VS. THE PUNISHER #1 & 2 (of 4) in August. Don’t worry, it’s going to be nothing like the definitive Garth Ennis tale! From the solicitation:

A terrible plague has swept the Earth, turning everyone – human, hero, villain, god and monster — into sadistic cannibal predators. As Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Thing and other infected start a feeding frenzy, the world falls in a wave of insatiable violence. Now, five years later, one man hunts the wasteland that was New York City. One man stands against the hordes of monsters who hunt the night. He is the Punisher, the Last Gun on Earth. And he has an endless supply of ammunition.

See? Nothing like Ennis! Much more Marvel Zombies.

You might remember my squeal of girlish glee at the June ’10 solicitation proclaiming that Matt Fraction and Pasqual Ferry would be the all new creative team as of THOR #611. Well, last month Kieron Gillen was listed as the writer on the new “Thor in Hell” storyline and I thought, hmm. Must be typo. Must be fill-in. There’s a reason for this. In August, we’ll be getting two Thor issues, THOR #613 & #614 both written by Kieron Gillen. No offense to the man, he’s had a pretty awesome job with Siege right in his back yard but what happened to June? I hit the twitter and @mattfraction told me that “the whole run starts with 615 in september”. So the new creative team has been pushed back to give Mr. Gillen some room to do his book justice?  Personally, I just need to know when to release the doves for Fraction and Perry’s arrival to Asgard.

I'm melting, melllllt-innnng....

Back in Midgard, San Fransisco way, the Curse of the Mutants will have more than just Blade. I know, I’m shocked too. But no, Gambit and Storm are going to re-team-up in their own one-shot appropriately titled X-MEN: CURSE OF THE MUTANTS – STORM & GAMBIT #1. They’ll be stealing something to stop the great vampire threat, which seems a little above the Queen of Wakanda. Still, she’s an X-Men and the books really do get better with her around. Plus, Gambit! Wonder if he worked through that whole “Death as Alter Ego” issue or will this heist be some character growth for both of them?

He’s had plenty of titles before, but this is the first time he’s not mixed in with the general MU populace.  Yep, NAMOR: THE FIRST MUTANT #1 hits stores this August, from Stuart Moore and Ariel Olivetti.  As much as I love Jae Lee’s artwork and Joe Quesada was practically inspirational when I first saw his art so many years ago (can’t say I’m impressed with his variant cover here), it’s a disservice to the interior artist when he can’t display his own art work on the front of the book.  Olivetti’s done great work on his Cable and Punisher War Journal covers, why not let him introduce his new #1 issue?

X-FACTOR #208 is going to bring back Wolfsbane for some drama, now that she’s pregnant and Rictor and Shatterstar are a couple. It’s kind of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, if Willow was the werewolf and Oz had been dating Spike. Meanwhile, Logan will be paying some respects to Kurt’s last wishes in WOLVERINE WEAPON X #16, proving that death in comics can lead to not only better stories once the character is reborn, but give some soul-searching stories to those they left behind.

Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu say goodbye to Logan’s mohawked son in DARK WOLVERINE #90, bringing the series to a conclusion. Daken will be looking for truth, desire and empires. Maybe some ellipses. Will Daken fade into the background of Wolverine support characters? Will Way and Liu make me care enough to feel like that’s not the best idea? I don’t think the X-Men can handle two Wolvie-kids in their ranks and X-23 got here first.

So what else caught your fancy? Was it the $125.00 omnibus collecting the best of the Women of Marvel? Chris Claremont turning back time with New Mutants Forever? The oh-so-titillating title of X-Force: Sex and Violence which promises both this month? The ‘Scared Straight’ program running through Thunderbolts and Avengers Academy? Take a scroll through Marvel in August 2010 and tell me what you think!

Star Wars Legacy #50

The Dark Horse folks used their Facebook yesterday to explain why they are bringing Star Wars: Legacy to a close. Actually, “explain” is kind of a strong term, as they never say exactly why the series is ending, other than that for some reason they didn’t think they could keep producing it at their usual high standards, but it sounds like they just might have run out of stories to tell:

Unlike other publishers, Dark Horse has never been one for prolonging a series simply to do so. Our comics come from a place of creativity and artistic expression, and this applies to all of our titles, whether creator owned or licensed property.

One of our promises to ourselves, our fans, and George Lucas himself was that we would treat our line of Star Wars books with the highest level of respect. We hope that you’ll agree that we’ve achieved this goal, and trust you’ll take our word when we say that we’ll continue to strive for such high standards.

Their other Star Wars comics will continue, and they are launching a new series, Star Wars: Knight Errant, due out in the fall.

(Via the Sci-Fi Block, where Robert Ring adds some commentary.)

The cover of Lose #2, by Michael Deforge

The winners of this year’s Doug Wright Awards for best Canadian comics and creators working in English were announced at the Toronto Comics Art Festival last weekend. The Best Book award went to George Sprott, by Seth; the Best Emerging Talent award to Michael Deforge; and the Pigskin Peters award to Hot Potatoe, by Marc Bell. (That last is for “experimental and non-narrative efforts of Canadian cartoonists,” in case you were wondering. Pigskin Peters was a character created by cartoonist Jimmy Frise.)

The National Post provides a bit of context and notes that Martin Vaughn-James was also honored at the award ceremonies.

Crossword Comics

Now this is pretty clever … Halo & Sprocket creator Kerry Callen shares a comic configured like a crossword puzzle, which he created with his son Martin. Callen said it came to him in a dream — how cool is that? I’m impressed with how he used the same panels to tell different stories.

“Like Scrabble, the tough areas were where something had to work when two squares inconveniently touched, such as the ‘Love is the solution.’ touching ‘What about overpopulation?’ There’s a joke there, but it doesn’t jump out at you,” he wrote on his blog. “I’m thinking this has the potential to be a fun challenge for cartoonists, much in the same way a ’24 hour comic’ is!”

By the mid-1980s, the battle over increasingly adult and sales-worthy content in the wake of the mega-success of The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, among other successes both blockbuster and modest, was creating real problems for some retailers. While it was obvious to the indoctrinated that Frank Miller’s Batman was light years from the comfy all-ages Bob Kane/Bill Finger/Dick Sprang era of Batman, it wasn’t so obvious to the American public.

In the wake of Frank’s Daredevil, Alan and John and Rick and my Saga of the Swamp Thing, Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg, among other various ‘breaking out’ titles, it was becoming a problem.

But it was the major blockbuster success, sales and press attention The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen rightfully scored that really set off alarm bells. There had been skirmishes of sorts over now long-forgotten singular eruptions — the orgy page in a single chapter of Wendy and Richard Pini’s Elfquest, Warren’s notorious 1984/1994, Eclipse Comics‘ Saber ‘birth’ issue, various Love & Rockets and Fantagraphics issues, Frank Thorne’s increasingly adventurous fusions of female barbarian fantasy and sex, the Miracleman ‘birth’ issue (penciled by Rick Veitch), etc. — and yet to come were Fantagraphics’ Eros line, and much, much more.

Go check the whole thing out, it’s a great walk down history lane. For easy linking purposes, here’s part one, two, three and four. (link via Coleen Doran, who does a little bit of reminiscing herself.)

Footnotes in Gaza

• Tom Spurgeon once again beats everyone to the punch with a review of Joe Sacco’s new book, Footnotes in Gaza: The first good news to report … is that the cartoonist is in top form throughout.” He also has good things to say about Prison Pit.

• Christopher Allen offers 60 ways of looking at Watchmen.

• Critics critique critics — Robert Boyd reviews Bart Beaty’s Unpopular Culture: “This is a thought-provoking book, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in comics-as-art.”

• David Welsh gets schooled in college manga.

• Rob Clough calls MK Reed’s new book, Cross Country “the most complex, ambitious and visually interesting of her comics.”

• Perhaps if I link to Sean Collins’ review of Refresh, Refresh, he’ll forgive me for accidentally (I swear) stealing the title of his review feature.

• Nina Stone enjoyed the first issue of Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love: “All the pieces of the story just started to fit together perfectly.”

• Grant Goggans declares The Art of Osamu Tezuka “very highly recommended.”

• Finally, Kristy Valenti looks at a 1999 graphic novel drawn by Mia Wolff and written by acclaimed sci-fi author Samuel Delany.

Love Punishes the Guilty by Tim Hensley

My Generation by Vanessa Davis

Rick Veitch and Peter Money’s poetry comics

Pete the Pooch by Milt Gross

Stumbo in “Giant Removal Project”

The Record of Doom by Bill Ely

Inbad the Tailor by H.B. Martin

Water on the Brain by Virgil Partch

Welcome once again to Send Us Your Shelf Porn, the only place where on the Internet where the term “porn” suggests something non-sexual and PG-rated. We think. For now.

Poor planning on my part meant I almost resorted to linkblogging (brrr) instead of highlighting some brave soul’s collection. Thankfully, mighty comics scholar and critic Michael Rhode came to save the day. For those who don’t know, Rhode runs the ComicsDC blog, which covers comic-related events in and around our nation’s capital. He’s also co-author of the Comics Research Bibliography, the exhibition and media reviews editor for the International Journal of Comic Art, and the editor of the book Harvey Pekar: Conversations, among other accolades.

But as nice as Mike’s collection is, he can’t keep Shelf Porn going on his lonesome. It takes the help of all of brave individuals like perhaps yourself, who aren’t afraid to flaunt their comics collection in front of all who have Internet access and know about this site. Simply send me pics of your shelves to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet and you, too, can be one of the proud and few.

And now, let’s move on to Mike and his shelves:

Chris asked me to fill in with pretty short notice, so I’m just touching on three bookcases in my collection — there are a lot more and perhaps I’ll be another fill-in for him in the future. I grew up with Marvel’s 1970s-era Dreaded Deadline Doom in which, all of a sudden, the story you were expecting wasn’t there, and you were looking at some out-of-continuity comic, so I’m fine with that idea. I’ve got a pretty wide range of interests in comic art and have been collecting for a few years.

This is a bookshelf that was formerly sacrosanct as far as not having comics, but we all know how that goes…

The top shelf still has remnants of its former life — some books I meant to read, some that have particular meaning (a great-uncle’s union-forming activities in In Transit, my grandfather’s copy of Lynd Ward’s Frankenstein, a leather bound Louis L’Amour from my father) while others are books that either I or my wife wrote parts of. On this shelf I’ve got a ‘complete edition’ set of the Harvey Pekar: Conversations book I edited – a proof copy, a paperback and a hardcover. I had to trade with a reviewer to get the proof. Some Jim Ottaviani snuck in up there too. The Robin Hood is illustrated by Frank Godwin, who also did comic strips like Connie.

The second shelf has what went on it when I moved the previous books on dinosaurs into the garage. Of interest might be the Richard Thompson cards of an Obama caricature (available on Cafe Press). The book on the far left, with a black dustjacket is Bryant’s Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Cartoonists and Caricaturists. This has basic biographical information on them — we really need a similar work for the US. Next to that is Roger Langridge and Jason so this shelf dates from an Small Press Expo when I got some of these signed by them. The yellow spine is Michaelis’ Schulz biography which anyone reading this column should have. Dark Horses’ reprinting of Harvey Comics has been popular with my daughter so I made some space so she could return to these — the Richie Rich volume seems to be missing though. The Schulz book, and Tomine’s Shortcomings, and Diffee’s The Rejection Collection point out a highlight in living in a city — these were all signed when the authors came to the Politics and Prose Bookstore.

Postcards is done by Jason Rodriguez, a local comics writer, as is Mr. Big by Matt Dembicki a slim volume next to it. Barefoot Gen, the story of surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima never appeared completely in English until recently — this is part of the set of eight books, I think. The Power of Angels is Herb Trimpe’s story of being a minister in New York after 9-11, and the Chris Ware book was bought and signed when he spoke at the local Jewish center with Alison Bechdel and Lynda Barry. I love the fact that you can now get so many comics I only dreamed of as a kid, so that explains Jim Aparo’s Phantom Stranger and the Marvel Masterworks Ant-Man/Giant Man. I’ve bought 98% of DC Archives and Marvel Masterworks because I never expected these to stay available for so long.

We cross the living room away from this shelf and go to the one that has the starting core of my collection, although it’s now largely hidden by accretions.

Back before the current explosion of reprints and graphic novels, one collection came out a year. You can see the Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee poking out — that was the reprint book for the year. The others next to it — Son of Origins, Superhero Women, Mysteries in Space (that one from DC) – are all similar collections. Also on this shelf are proto- or early graphic novels like Lee and Kirby’s Silver Surfer or the ‘computer-generated’ Shatter. Comics that I really liked back in the day (and still do) such as V for Vendetta, O’Neil/Adams’ Green Lantern, Claremont/Byrne’s X-Men, Gaiman’s Sandman and Moore’s Swamp Thing fill the back row. Also on this shelf are signed copies of Don Rosa’s excellent Scrooge McDuck collections, a few of my self-published projects, books by my friend Cul de Sac cartoonist Richard Thompson, a few knickknacks and a large collection of Rob Ullman’s art, which he sells at cons. He used to illustrate Savage Love for the Washington City Paper, but there’s a relatively tame coffee drinker showing (with a recent Chris Schweizer image tucked in front of it and behind the Iron Giant). Before we leave this shelf, on the top note All in Color for a Dime by Thompson and Lupoff and The Comic-Stripped American by Berger. Once upon a time, this was a significant part of the written history of comics.

I’m an editor of the International Journal of Comic Art, and these have largely taken over this shelf, blocking a set of Marvel Masterworks and some DC reprints especially of Gaiman’s Sandman. The jewel cases are recordings of talks by cartoonists from Politics and Prose that they’ll sell you. The mug is by the great Keith Knight.

This shelf takes us way back in time. Some of the earlier collections of comics are here – the 4-volume Disney set and Blackbeard’s Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics in particular. Great stuff, as is the Monster Society of Evil collection of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel on the far right. The Trigan Empire is a collection of a British strip — you used to have to work to avoid tripping on it, but it’s gotten rarer now, I guess. Empire next to it is an early Howard Chaykin / Samuel R. Delaney graphic novel. Asterix and Tintin are Franco-Belgian comics that everyone should read. There’s some great strip reprints like McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland, Popeye and Tarzan. I’m glad to see all the current strip reprint projects because I couldn’t afford to buy sets in the past, but I can now.

There’s a British history book, 4th in from the left — Denis Gifford was a great collector who did a lot of the early work on cataloguing British comics. This is more wide- ranging The International Book of Comics. When Gifford died a few years ago, his collection was dispersed at auction. The Pink Panther toy is from my grandmother’s house — I used to hide it around the living room on her whenever I visited. On the next shelf, you’ll see a few things that won’t appear in the next image as I cleaned them out of the way including the Bone stuffed toy, a Tom and Jerry Big Little Book and a bunch of DVDs of comics movies like Trudeau’s Tanner on Tanner and the Italian Danger Diabolik.

Here’s that shelf cleaned off — lots of older material here too. On the left, behind a Gaston LeGaffe toy wrapped in a mattress that was made by a French friend, is Batman (that’s an odd sentence). Batman always had a lot of books about him due to his mass media appearances. The Batman, Superman and Shazam collections came out in the 1970s and were great reading from the library. The three encyclopedias next to them for Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were the source of a lot of amazement to a 10-year old. Some classic comic books, comic strips and cartoonists come next. Of note are The Incredible Hulk, one of those ‘once a year’ books but 3″ taller just so it wouldn’t fit with the others, Michael Kaluta’s adaptation of Metropolis (with the stripes), Bernie Wrightson’s Frankenstein, the famed collector Art Wood’s Great Cartoonists and their Art, and photocopies of hard to find stuff like Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent. You can see part of the bottom shelf although most of it is obscured with recent purchases waiting to be put away. There’s Trudeau’s fantastic Doonesbury, P. Craig Russell’s adaptations, the pulp hero The Shadow, and a bunch of works by comics historian Maurice Horn including a volume of his World Encyclopedia of Comics.

It’s a small house, and this bookcase is tucked at the end of the basement stairs. Of note on the top is a set of ‘finger puppets’ from Richard Thompson’s Saturday feature ‘Richards Poor Almanack‘ which only runs in the Washington Post. Some more signed books are Stephanie McMillan’s As The World Burns, Ted Rall’s 2024 and John Kovaleski’s Bo Nanas – Monkey Meets World as well as some other books from SPX 2008. You’ll notice a lot of toys and the like on shelves too – I love the creativity of merchandising. One of the first articles on comics I wrote was ‘The Commercialization of Comics’ (IJOCA 1:2, Fall 1999). In spite of the opinion of Bill Watterson, comics spun off all kinds of licensing since the 1890s – Geppi’s Entertainment Museum in Baltimore is a great place to see that type of thing. There’s a couple of toys from Ratatouille here too – I love about half of Pixar’s output. And be sure to check out the New Yorker cover artist Bruce McCall’s Marveltown.

I’ve fallen behind on my Complete Peanuts again, but here’s the start of the set as well as Walt and Skeezix (aka Gasoline Alley) and Dick Tracy. Shannon Wheeler’s lamented Postage Stamp Funnies from the Onion lurks under a gift Super Hero Kit. Above that we can see a mixture — More Washingtoons by Mark Alan Stamaty, Jen Sorenson’s Slowpoke, Ward Sutton, the Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig, Mutts’ Patrick McDonell, political cartoonist Joel Pett, and as we move across the top piles, Edward Gorey and S. Gross, followed by a fantasy novel with a cover by Charles Vess, the Indian cartoonist RK Laxman, a Walt Kelly book, and under them, Mo Willem’s travel cartoons, Alison Bechdel’s awesome Fun Home, more Winsor McCay, more DC Archives, Lynn Johnston’s For Better or For Worse, and some manga novels.

Two shelves, one of which has a bunch of comic book novels. I’m a sucker for these. Around 1977, Marvel came out with a set of them and I loved them (I was 12. What can I say?) so since then I’ve been collecting them. Walt Disney’s Comics Digest used to be a reliable place to find great Carl Barks reprints. In the middle, near the Hellboy movie cup is minicomics from Ryan Claytor who does good autobiographical work. The bottom shelf has the authorized spiral-bound photocopy reprint of David Kunzle’s amazing works on early comics, more Ted Rall, Charles Addams, a beer bottle labeled by Ralph Steadman, Brunetti’s Graphic Fiction anthology, Preston’s The Artist Within book of photographs, and the exhibit catalog of the arguable Masters of American Comics.

We wrap up with the reality of milk crates filled with con buys like Graphic Classics and Shakespeare comics … and hey, Richard Sala and Matt Madden. There’s Fantagraphics’ Crumb book which is too big to store easily, the National Lampoon on French Comics, and a bunch of mystery magazines (although the New Yorker is recognizable) in both crates. Faced with Warman’s Comic Book Field Guide (what is that?) and topped off with The Don Rosa Archives vol. II, Marvel Comics Guide to New York City and The Definitive Frazetta Reference because they all fit so well together.

Believe me, there’s more… but that’s it for today.

Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button

Sandy Bilus of I Love Rob Liefeld, the Comics Internet tips its collective hat to you. Picking up the torch from the sadly discontinued blog of Dick Hyancith, Bilus has compiled a “meta-list” of the 100 best comics of 2008, as tabulated from the personal best-of lists of dozens of critics and commentators. Behold the Top Ten:

1. Bottomless Belly Button, by Dash Shaw
2. Acme Novelty Library #19, by Chris Ware
3. All-Star Superman, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
4. Too Cool To Be Forgotten, by Alex Robinson
5. What It Is, by Lynda Barry
6. Ganges #2, by Kevin Huizenga
7. The Alcoholic, by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel
8. Skyscrapers of the Midwest, by Joshua Cotter
9. Kramers Ergot 7, by various
10. Capacity, by Theo Ellsworth

The point system used to tabulate the list makes it easy for books that made it onto a lot of individual lists but didn’t top them to put in a strong showing; perhaps that explains the blowout victory of Bottomless Belly Button, which I recall as being widely liked but few people’s #1 pick.

For you front-of-Previews types out there, DC’s All-Star Superman is the highest ranking superhero comic, coming in at a strong #3. DC/Vertigo’s The Alcoholic is the Big Two’s next-highest representative at #7, while its labelmate Scalped comes in at #12. The top Marvel book, and second-highest superhero comic, is Omega the Unknown at #13. Manga’s top-ranking title is Travel at #16. Click the link to see what else made the grade.

Me, I’ve got some quibbles here and there, as is to be expected. But overall, if you’re looking to do some shopping this holiday season and don’t mind being a year behind, you’d be hard pressed to top this for a wishlist.

Iron Man #18

George Tuska, the Golden/Silver/Bronze Age artist whose career in comics spanned six decades, has died at the age of 93. As noted by Tom Spurgeon, The Art of George Tuska author Dewey Cassell broke the news in a Yahoo group; Cassell had relayed word of Tuska’s retirement from drawing commissions just six days ago.

Tuska was perhaps best known for his nine and a half year stint as the artist for Marvel’s Iron Man series, from September 1968′s issue #5 through January 1978′s issue #106. This was preceded by a similarly lengthy stint drawing the Buck Rogers newspaper strip from 1959-1967 and succeeded by a 15-year run on the daily The World’s Greatest Superheroes Present Superman strip, which Tuska helped launch in 1978 and drew until 1993. Tuska tackled a slew of other well-known superhero titles for Marvel during the ’60s and ’70s and DC in the ’70s and ’80s, including such Bronze Age mainstays as Ghost Rider, Luke Cage, Power Man, and The Sub-Mariner.

George Tuska

Tuska’s career in comics dated back to 1939, when he got his start as an assistant on the adventure strip Scorchy Smith (to which he would return later as a writer/artist). He went on to spend time in the Eisner-Iger studio, and to illustrate such classic titles as Crime Does Not Pay and Captain Marvel Adventures.

Tuska’s speed, versatility, and good-natured ability to conform to house styles, most notably Marvel’s, led some to label him “The King Of The Fill-In Issue.” But his long, varied career straddled newspaper strips and comic books and included time with virtually every major comic book publisher since the dawn of the medium–essentially, George Tuska was the 20th-century comics industry, and his work was read and enjoyed by generation after generation of heroic-fantasy fans.

The son of Russian immigrants, Tuska lived in Manchester, New Jersey and is survived by his wife of 61 years, Dorothy. According to Cassell, the couple had three children, five grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren.

Classic Comics

Reading With Pictures is a new nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the use of comics in the classroom to aid in literacy and the visual arts:

Educators have begun to see the value of having graphic novels in the classroom — they just don’t know which books to use or how to best use them. To address those needs, Reading With Pictures plans to work with academics, educators, and publishers to provide schools with the best possible teaching methods and classroom materials in order to successfully integrate comics and graphic novels into their curriculum.

Among their goals are to create a database of lesson plans, provide consultation and launch a speakers’ bureau. It’s a project First Second’s Calista Brill finds worthy of merit:

There’s nothing fundamentally different about teaching comics literacy to kids than teaching them the basics of poetry, art, music, math, science, reading – even running. When we educate children, we are giving them the tools to educate themselves. To find the things they love. To experience the world more fully.

And as long as there are people making amazing comics in the world, anyone who lacks the basic tools to read them is missing out. Big time.

Brill puts it a lot better than I could have. If you have time or money available, consider donating to this worthy organization.