More than nine months after an original splash page from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns sold for a record $448,125, Heritage Auctions is offering two more original pieces of Frank Miller art, expected to bring in more than $50,000 each.

Consigned by Miller himself, the pieces are the cover to 2006′s Absolute Dark Knight and the frontispiece from the 1997 10th-anniversary edition of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

“It took me years to define, in my own mind, Batman as less a creature of vengeance than of vigor,” Miller said of the Absolute Dark Knight cover. “This piece is one of my personal favorites. To me, it sums the man up.” And on the Batman and Robin splash: “Like any hero, Batman is complex. Here we see him as a father figure, instructing one of my favorite creations, dear Carrie Kelly.”

The two pieces will be auctioned Feb. 23 by Heritage, which notes that while Miller worked with inker Klaus Janson and colorist Lynn Varley on The Dark Knight Returns, “these images are rare examples of 100 percent Frank Miller pencils and inks on his most popular character.”

With so much being reported about Alan Moore’s connections to the Occupy movement — through his endorsement of its ideals, his contribution to Occupy Comics, and protesters’ co-opting of the David Lloyd-designed Guy Fawkes masks — U.K.’s Channel 4 News coaxed the V for Vendetta writer from his home in Northampton to London to meet some of the demonstrators for the first time.

“It’s a bit surprising when some of the characters you thought you made up suddenly seem to escape into ordinary reality,” Moore told some disguised protesters. “I mean, what is it about the mask — is it just useful, or what?”

The report also delves into Frank Miller’s criticism of the Occupy movement, Moore’s displeasure with film adaptations of his works and, yes, the irony that each Guy Fawkes mask that protesters buy puts more money into the coffers of Time Warner, one of the world’s largest media conglomerates.

Perhaps the most disturbing scene in Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again (also known as DK2; Miller and Varley 2001-2002) is where Batman attacks the corporate leaders of the United States government, giving the word “terrorism” a new meaning. The Anarcho-terrorist superhero’s assault is directed against “the real monsters” (page 53, panel 1), the corrupt powers-that-be that rule behind a virtual president….In “late capitalism”, the virtual transactions of financial speculators determine the entire economy of countries, the “democratic” political system of their governments and, of course, the real life of their citizens. We should ask ourselves if the world we inhabit now is so different from the virtual United States ruled by the computer-generated president Miller imagined.

—The Comics Grid’s Pepo Pérez wonders if Frank Miller and Lynn Varley’s The Dark Knight Strikes Again was prophetic (in a way Miller himself probably wouldn’t approve of today). Personally, I think it’s a stretch to compare the real America to Batman’s America. I mean, one has a glossy, shiny surface built on human suffering, as citizens participate in a sham democracy treated like a sporting event by blathering talking-head news-media figures, while corporations engaged in criminal conspiracies for which they suffer no lasting legal consequences loot the world with impunity behind the scenes. The other has Batman in it.

Alan Moore

Creators | Watchmen writer Alan Moore responds to recent comments made by The Dark Knight Returns creator Frank Miller: “I think that the Occupy movement is, in one sense, the public saying that they should be the ones to decide who’s too big to fail. It’s a completely justified howl of moral outrage and it seems to be handled in a very intelligent, non-violent way, which is probably another reason why Frank Miller would be less than pleased with it. I’m sure if it had been a bunch of young, sociopathic vigilantes with Batman make-up on their faces, he’d be more in favour of it. We would definitely have to agree to differ on that one.”  [Honest Publishing]

Conventions | Tom Spurgeon files a lengthy report from the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, held Saturday in New York City. [The Comics Reporter]

Ashes

Creators | Uncanny X-Men writer Kieron Gillen comments on the use of sites like Kickstarter to fund comics projects through the lens of Alex de Campi and Jimmy Broxton’s Ashes: “I think that Kickstarter or – if you’re not a yank – Indie Go Go is the single biggest new thing to be considered by a working creative this year. And not just comic creatives. Digital is something people have been chewing over for years now – and I suspect it’s going to be next year when we see some more movement there – but this has surprised a lot of people, and lead to a cheerily wild-west vibe to it all. People running Kickstarters are still trying to work out how to do this thing, and balance all sorts of questions of personal moral integrity. And this is important to do, just because when you don’t, things go bad quickly and you’re risking tarring the very concept of kickstarter-esque funded projects.” [Kieron Gillen]

Creators | CNN profiles legendary MAD cartoonist Al Jaffee. [CNN]

Creators | Gerry Alanguilan talks about his graphic novel Elmer. [Philippine Daily Inquirer]

The Last Dragon

Creators | Rebecca Guay discusses her Dark Horse adaptation of Jane Yolen’s short story “The Last Dragon.” [Sequential Tart]

Creators | Box Brown discusses his career and approach to making comics, among other topics. [The Comics Reporter]

Comics | Deb Aoki previews some of the manga we can expect to see in the coming year. [About.com]

Marketing | Johanna Draper Carlson, always quick to call out bad marketing tactics, takes a Kickstarter creator to task for not responding well to criticism. The creator responds in the comments; you be the judge. [Comics Worth Reading]

Commentary | Chris Murphy looks back at “four incredible years” with Marvel’s Hercules. [ComicsAlliance]

Commentary | David Anderson looks at the first issue of John Byrne’s Cold War. [Spandexless]

Occupy Miami

Creators | Sarah Glidden, creator of How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, chronicles her time at Occupy Miami Nov. 15-21 in a sketchbook. [Cartoon Movement]

Creators | Corey Blake follows up on the Bill Mantlo story published by LIfeHealthPro, including some clarifications of issues raised in the story and additional details on various fundraisers over the years to help pay for Mantlo’s care. [Corey Blake]

Creators | Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society Podcast interviews Skullkickers writer Jim Zubkavich about piracy and the Stop Online Piracy Act. [Berkman Center for Internet & Society Podcast]

Creators | Christopher Irving interviews and Seth Kushner photographs creator Alex Ross. [Graphic NYC]

Creators | At the Miami Book Fair, Underwire creator Jennifer Hayden triumphed over an impressive array of novelists and poets to take top honors in the Literary Death Match, a sort of biathlon in which the two events were live readings and a spelling bee. [Knight Arts, via Comics Worth Reading]

Aquaman

Creators | Geoff Johns talks about writing the new Aquaman series, potential appearances by other “aqua” characters and the use of humor in his writing: “I mean, I wanted to make it all about the characters first. When you focus more on character interactions, a character’s humor comes out. I just wanted to make the books a little bit different. If I was just going to write the same books, then it wasn’t going to be a challenge or something new to me. I wanted to look at every book and approach it differently than I would have prior to the relaunch. I think humor is definitely something that there is a time and a place for, and I think humor really grows out of characters. Especially in Justice League when you have all these alpha personalities interacting with one another.” [IGN]

Creators | Hayley Campbell talks to Anders Nilsen about his latest opus, Big Questions, after a comics reading in London that was part of his staggeringly long book tour. [The Comics Journal]

Manga | Jason Thompson has an imaginary dialogue with Shaenon Garrity in order to explain the classic Viz title Midori Days, about a teenage boy whose right arm is mysteriously transformed into a girl who has a crush on him. [Anime News Network]

Commentary | Former Tokyopop editor Tim Beedle revisits the advice he gave aspiring global manga creators back in the day. It’s still pretty solid guidance for anyone who wants to create graphic novels in any style. [Words That Stay]

Zatanna

Comics | As the shine begins to wear off DC’s New 52, Jeff Reid is providing refresher courses on the history of various characters. This week: Zatanna. [iFanboy]

Comics | After hearing about the destruction of the People’s Library at Occupy Wall Street, Sean Kleefeld sent over some of his own books to replenish their collection. Only after he sent off the package did he realize that most of the books were by Frank Miller. [Kleefeld on Comics]

Conventions | John Hogan moderated a panel on graphic novels at the Miami Book Fair, and he came away with an impressive list of recommended reading. [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Conventions | Michael Buntag has a report and some reflections on the seventh annual Philippine Komics Convention (Komikon). [Nonsensical Words]

Humor | Dorian Wright presents the Grant Morrison Bingo Card. [(postmodernbarney.com)]

Reuters/Eduardo Munoz

No one tell Frank Miller, but Occupy Wall Street has donned the mantle of the Bat. During last Thursday’s “Day of Action” march across the Brooklyn Bridge by New York City-based protesters, a powerful light projector bathed the monolithic side of the nearby Verizon Building with OWS slogans, in a move directly inspired by the Gotham City Police Department’s preferred method of contacting Batman.

In an interview with Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing, project coordinator Mark Read had this to say:

It came up at an action coordination meeting. We were talking about what to do on the 17th. We had a sense that the morning on Wall Street would be forceful and confrontational, and we wanted to not do the same kind of thing in the afternoon. Initial talks focused on having a thousand people taking the bridge in the afternoon, and continuing in a militant mode of activism. But we started thinking about creating a more unifying moment. A celebration of the birthday of Occupy Wall Street. Maybe taking the roadway and having lots of arrests might not be best thing. What if we took the pedestrian walkway, and gave out LED candles? We would give out 10,000 LED tea candles, a river of light streaming over the walkway.

And a guy named Hero, who has been central to a lot of facets of the occupation since the beginning, turns to me and says, “We need a bat signal. The 99%.”

I said, I think I can do that. I know just enough about how the technology works that I think I can pull that off. And for the past two weeks, I’ve worked full time on figuring that out.

It’s hard to say what my favorite part of this story is. Batman inspiring a real-life fight for social justice? The low-income housing resident who bravely donated her apartment as a base of operations? The choice of positive, uplifting slogans projected in light, against the metaphorical backdrop of a pretty ugly week for the country? The use of the face of a big building as the canvas for the OWS-signal, a la Gotham Cathedral in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns? The fact that the dude who came up with the idea is named “Hero”?

Read the message in full and watch a video of the signal in action (both via Boing Boing) after the jump.

“99% / MIC CHECK! / LOOK AROUND / YOU ARE A PART / OF A GLOBAL UPRISING / WE ARE A CRY / FROM THE HEART / OF THE WORLD / WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE / ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE / HAPPY BIRTHDAY / #OCCUPY MOVEMENT / OCCUPY WALL STREET / list of cities, states and countries / OCCUPY EARTH / WE ARE WINNING / IT IS THE BEGINNING OF THE BEGINNING / DO NOT BE AFRAID / LOVE.”

From "The Dick Knight," by Richard Pace

Richard Pace sends up Batman: The Dark Knight Returns in his response to Frank Miller’s recent tirade against Occupy protestors, writing, “I’d prefer to remember Frank Miller as the sometimes brilliant, long-haired nerd glaring from his back-cover photo on The Dark Knight Returns trade rather than the fedora-wearing, incoherent lightweight hack he’s become.”

Read the full comic strip, titled “The Dick Knight,” on Pace’s blog.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Frank Miller, whose tirade against the Occupy movement was met with a largely negative, and frequently heated, response, has found an unlikely defender: left-leaning writer Mark Millar.

In a post on his Millarworld forum, the writer of Kick-Ass and The Ultimates says, “It’s strange to watch your favourite writer getting strips torn off him for a couple of days.”

“Politically, I disagree with his analysis, but that’s besides the point,” Millar continues. “I wasn’t shocked by his comments because they’re no different from a lot of commentators I’ve seen discussing the subject. What shocked me was the vitriol against him, the big bucket of shit poured over the head by even fellow comic-book creators for saying what was on his mind.”

As one commenter points out, it probably shouldn’t be shocking that Miller’s no-holds-barred screed, which characterizes Occupy protesters as “a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists” who “can do nothing but harm America,” was answered with a degree of vitriol. Or, in the commenter’s words, “if you throw the first bucket of shit [...] then you should be prepared for some splashback.” Perhaps if Miller’s commentary had been more reasoned and less inflammatory — “decorous,” as Miller himself would say — the reaction might’ve reflected that.

Instead, the writer of Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: Year One and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns delivered an unfocused, angry rant sprinkled with name-calling, weird putdowns — “Go back to your mommas’ basements and play with your Lords Of Warcraft“? — and an incongruous reference to al-Qaeda and “Islamicism” (it’s difficult not to be reminded of then-Sen. Biden’s criticism of Rudy Giuliani, that “there’s only three things he mentions in a sentence — a noun and a verb and 9/11″). There’s a strange, impotent fury to Miller’s words that makes him an inviting target for derision and dismissal as a paranoid crank, and leaves many readers wondering when precisely the disconnect occurred … and what he has against iPhones.

Millar (with an “a”), who faced criticism himself for comments made before the invasion of Iraq, bristles at what he sees as a “distasteful” “cyber-mob mentality” that’s rallied in response to Miller’s remarks.

“It’s not just that I like the guy, that his body of work is among the best the industry has ever seen,” Millar writes. “It’s the GLEE I’m seeing from some people and, worse, the calls I’ve seen to boycott his work because his perspective on a point differs from yours and mine. [...] Liberalism doesn’t mean throwing guys in jail who DISAGREE with your liberalism. It means accepting that society is richer when everybody has a voice. Starting economic sanctions against a writer until they shut up and agree with you is horrific.”

Although I’ve not seen the calls for boycotts, I’m sure they’re out there; the Internet is a greenhouse for boycotts and petitions. However, like so many other online protests, a movement against Miller’s body of work will fizzle, if it even gets off the ground. Readers outraged by the writer’s views about the Occupy movement likely weren’t ordering Holy Terror, tracking down 300 or counting the days until Xerxes. And few, if any, are going to stop reading or buying such seminal works as Batman: Year One or The Dark Knight Returns because, after a quarter-century, they conclude Miller is a crackpot whose views differ radically from their own. Odds are, both collections are already on their shelves anyway.

Chris Claremont

Creators | Longtime Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont is donating his archives to Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The collection includes materials for all of his major writing projects over the past 40 years, notebooks with story ideas, drafts of short stories, plays, novels and comic books, and materials from his early training in the theater and his career as an actor. “We hope this is the first of more comics papers to come to the University,” said Karen Green, Columbia University’s ancient/medieval studies librarian and graphic novel librarian. “We want it to be a magnet for these kinds of archives in New York City, where the comics medium was born.” [Publishers Weekly]

Awards | USA Network and DC Comics’ Burn Notice webcomic has won a Media Vanguard Award from Advertising Age. [Advertising Age]

Creators | Michael Cavna talks to two comics creators with very different takes on Occupy Wall Street, sequential journalist Susie Cagle, who was arrested as part of the Occupy Oakland protests, and conservative editorial cartoonist Nate Beeler, who walks past the Occupy D.C. site every day and regards it as “quaint,” smelly, and out of step with the rest of the country.” [Comic Riffs]

Bleach, Vol. 49

Publishing | Viz Media prepares for its digital relaunch of Shonen Jump, which will feature near-simultaneous releases of Naruto, Bleach and four other series with their Japanese counterparts, by speeding up its digital releases of Bleach — and skipping ahead to the next story arc. [About.com]

Creators | Eight veteran MAD Magazine creators, including Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragones and Jack Davis (whose work appeared in the very first issue) got together in Georgia recently to talk over old times. Jaffee and Aragones are still going strong, but Davis quit the magazine 20 years ago. He explained, “I like all the guys up there a lot, but I felt like it kind of got a little raunchy.” [The Associated Press]
Retailers | Ralph Gardner Jr., revisits St. Marks Comics after 20 years away and finds it still going strong. [The Wall Street Journal]

Habibi

Commentary | Jonathan Liu looks at Craig Thompson’s Habibi. [GeekDad]

Commentary | Just call them comics, says Dave Scheidt, who decries the blurring of the distinction between comics and graphic novels: “A graphic novel in the purest definition is a front to back story in which told in a single volume most usually self-contained, and not a collected edition of numerous single issues, even if they are apart of an ongoing story. If it were just released as volumes and never single issues, ding ding! Graphic novel.” [The Huffington Post]

No stranger to controversy with such works as 300 and, most recently, Holy Terror, Frank Miller has waded into the political fray with a tirade against the “Occupy” movement that blasts the protesters as “a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists” that “can do nothing but harm America.”

In a blog post that blew up over the weekend, garnering the attention of everyone from the comics community to Entertainment Weekly to the New York Daily News, the creator who nearly 25 years ago wrote the influential Batman: Year One — “You have eaten well. You’ve eaten Gotham’s wealth. Its spirit. Your feast is nearly over.” — unleashed on the “pond scum” engaged in nationwide protests aimed primarily at perceived economic and social inequality.

“’Occupy’ is nothing short of a clumsy, poorly-expressed attempt at anarchy, to the extent that the ‘movement’ – HAH! Some ‘movement,’ except if the word ‘bowel’ is attached — is anything more than an ugly fashion statement by a bunch of iPhone, iPad wielding spoiled brats who should stop getting in the way of working people and find jobs for themselves,” Miller wrote. “[...] In the name of decency, go home to your parents, you losers. Go back to your mommas’ basements and play with your Lords Of Warcraft. Or better yet, enlist for the real thing. Maybe our military could whip some of you into shape.”

Yes, Lords of Warcraft. Miller’s rant somehow dovetails into a favorite subject of his, the War on Terror, with the 54-year-old artist advising the aforementioned “losers” to come to their senses and fight the real enemy.

“Wake up, pond scum. America is at war against a ruthless enemy,” he continued. “Maybe, between bouts of self-pity and all the other tasty tidbits of narcissism you’ve been served up in your sheltered, comfy little worlds, you’ve heard terms like al-Qaeda and Islamicism. And this enemy of mine — not of yours, apparently — must be getting a dark chuckle, if not an outright horselaugh — out of your vain, childish, self-destructive spectacle.”

Miller characterized the Occupy movement as “anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment.” However, in a belated response to io9.com’s survey asking Batman writers how the Dark Knight would respond to Occupy Wall Street, Miller, through a representative, wrote, “Batman would respect the First Amendment,” which was later amended to “Batman believes in the First Amendment and decorous behavior.”

Criminals are a cowardly and indecorous lot, it appears.

While his screed burned up Twitter over the weekend, it probably didn’t come as a big surprise to those who’ve followed his work, the most recent of which is Holy Terror, is long-gestating revenge fantasy created in response to 9/11. Still, his comments generated plenty of response from creators and readers alike.

“Frankmillerink.com is a great link if you like absolute bullshit,” said Batgirl writer Gail Simone.

“I just don’t expect that from a guy who wrote Year One, the best cape comic ever: a work of careful thought, psychological nuance, beauty,” novelist Joe Hill, writer of Locke & Key, tweeted.

“Dear @FrankMillerInk what those on Occupy Wall Street want is simple — for the rich to pay their fare share of taxes,” Image Comics co-founder Erik Larsen wrote. “Is that so wrong?”

“I think Frank Miller saw them filming the giant fight scene for Dark Knight Rises in NY & confused it for [Occupy Wall Street],” Shade artist Cully Hamner tweeted. “No wonder he was pissed…!”

“Instead of yet another Republican debate I would pay money to see Frank Miller, Steve Ditko and Harlan Ellison debate the issues of the day,” writer Christos Gage said.

However, Ty Templeton had the most elaborate response, breaking out a special “Frank Miller Funnies” edition of his Bun Toons webcomic. See the full strip on Templeton’s website.

By Ty Templeton

Marvel

Publishing | Heidi MacDonald and Tom Spurgeon offer commentary and context regarding last week’s layoffs by Marvel. [The Beat, Comics Reporter]

Conventions | San Diego City Council President Tony Young and Comic-Con International staff are working together on a “marquee event” at Balboa Park that around the time of Comic Con. While convention organizers are interested in a Balboa Park event, they don’t support Yong’s original proposal, a nationally televised parade that would kick off or end the con, saying that the logistics, traffic and crowding would be problematic. [Sign On San Diego]

Conventions | Ohio State University’s student newspaper covers this past weekend’s Mid-Ohio Con. [The Lantern]

Conventions | Digital Manga Publishing will take over the yaoi manga fan convention Yaoi-Con beginning next year and move it from the San Francisco area to Los Angeles. This is a big change for Yaoi-Con, which has been fan-run until now. [Anime News Network]

Xenoholics #1

Creators | Writer Joshua Williamson discusses his new Image title Xenoholics. [Biff Bam Pop]

Creators | Sequential Tart profiles iZombie writer Chris Roberson. [Sequential Tart]

Creators | Graphic Eye interviews Josceline Fenton, creator of the webcomic Hemlock. Never heard of her? You will — check out her art and you’ll see why. [Graphic Eye]

Analysis | Kailyn Kent places Craig Thompson’s Habibi in the context of melodrama in the latest addition to The Hooded Utilitarian’s ongoing critique. [The Hooded Utilitarian]

Review | Bob Temuka goes on record as liking Frank Miller’s Holy Terror, and he explains why, with pictures. [The Tearoom of Despair]

Review | Kate Dacey reviews Gate 7, the latest manga by the Japanese collaborative CLAMP. Executive summary: Great art, weak story. [The Manga Critic]

Comics | Sean Kleefeld posts the Captain Marvel issue of Mighty Midget Comics, a series published by Fawcett in the early 1940s in which, for some reason, all issues were #11. [Kleefeld on Comics]

For all that Frank Miller deserves as much credit as any other American cartoonist for bringing Japanese comics to these shores, the intersections between his own comics and manga are somewhat surprisingly limited.  It’s obvious from a flip through a vintage Miller comic that he’s fascinated by the work of Goseki (Lone Wolf and Cub) Kojima and Katsuhiro (Akira) Otomo — but beyond that powerful one-two punch, and maybe a bit of Golgo 13‘s Takao Saito, the chain of Japanese influence on Miller’s prime-period work is either subtle or nonexistent.  Which doesn’t have to be any kind of problem; after all, the Miller of the early-mid 1980s was conducting a balancing act with the cartooning mannerisms of three continents, unifying the systems of visual codes used by comics from America, Europe, and Japan into a single style before anyone else even thought to do it.  But it’s nice to see Miller go for a more purely Japanese moment on this page, one that calls back a lot further into that artistic tradition than his usual action manga debt-paying goes.

The “problem” in this sequence, such as it is, is one that faced just about every artist who worked with Wolverine writer Chris Claremont in his formidable prime: that’s an awful lot of words for one page to handle, isn’t it?  More specifically as it faces the artist, it’s a lot of white space to deal with.  The fact of the matter is that text looks really boring compared to drawings, and putting that much of it into a panel tends to kill the pictorial content stone dead.  Rather than trying to compose around Claremont’s blocks of verbiage, Miller wisely takes them out of the equation, leaving them in the gutters with the rest of the white and turning a page with so much negative space into a showcase for minimalist composition.

Miller’s three wordless, fully packed panels recall Japanese picture scrolls as much as Kirbyist action comics, with Glynis Wein’s vibrant, perfectly restrained color job flourishing out against the empty white.  The drawing, too, draws inspiration from the busy (but never crowded) compositions of print artists like Hokusai and Hiroshige, with inker Josef Rubenstein throwing in plenty of classic Marvel-style rendering for a true trans-Pacific effect. Miller goes off the grid here, eschewing the edge-to-edge panel arrangements used by the vast majority of American comics for something that has more balance than symmetry, a clean and simple layout that proceeds with much less effort than the prose-derived back and forth rows of most pages.

In fact, the whole thing is a piece of comics with a wonderful balance to it — white gives way gracefully to color, word to image, and picture to picture with a much more methodical, delayed sense of timing than the usual hit-hit-hit rhythm of action comics.  These three panels, bridged by Claremont’s narration, which itself takes a good while to read, depict a great deal of time passing, with more implied than shown; not action comics’ default mode, but perfect for the agonized, lyrical staging Miller gives the scene.  This sequence is so airy it floats, which is a bold approach for a scene featuring a man being shot with like a billion arrows, but Miller pulls it off with aplomb.

Finally, the directionality of this page is like a thesis on effective flow.  There are two ways to read it, depending on whether your eye is immediately drawn to the first caption or the first picture: an S shape or a backward C.  Either way the eye never has to pick up and start again at the beginning of the next tier the way it does with most comics, instead following a single, smoothly curving through line from the beginning to the little exclamation point provided by the splash of color set over the final text box.  The arrows in panel one point the eye directly into panel two, where we’re led literally hand over hand along the shortest possible route into panel three.  Of course, it all feels so natural that it’s easy to overlook the directions Miller gives you, but the effect they have, subliminal or not, is impossible not to feel.  This may not be the most immediately impressive page Miller’s ever drawn, but it’s notable nonetheless for the lengths it requires its artist to go to in order to make it work, and the unique approach it produces from one of comics’ most iconic cartoonists.

Legal

Legal | Prosecutors in Macomb County, Michigan, rested their case Friday in the second trial of Michael George, a former retailer and convention organizer accused of the 1990 murder of his first wife Barbara in the back room of their Clinton Township comic store. The judge this morning will hear a defense motion for a directed verdict, seeking dismissal due to lack of evidence, before testimony resumes.

George, now 51, was arrested in August 2007, after a detective reopened the cold case, and convicted seven months later of first-degree murder and insurance fraud, among other counts, and sentenced to life in prison. However, the judge later set aside the verdict, citing prosecutorial misconduct — George’s mug shot was shown to the jury — and the release of new evidence that could lead the jury to believe another person was responsible for the murder. His retrial began Sept. 14, and should conclude this week. Prosecutors contend that George staged the killing to look like a robbery so he could collect money from an insurance policy and a shared estate, and start over with another woman. George insists he was asleep at the time of the shooting, and that his wife was the victim of a robbery gone wrong. [Daily Tribune]

Publishing | Chip Mosher, marketing and sales director for BOOM! Studios, left the publisher on Friday after four years. Marketing coordinator Emily McGuiness will take over his duties. [BOOM! Studios]

Publishing | Papercutz has acquired the license for the Three Stooges, allowing the company to reprint classic comics and adapt the 2012 Farrelly brothers movie. [ICv2.com]

Three #2

Awards | Prism Comics awarded its 2011 Queer Press Grant to veteran cartoonist and publisher Robert Kirby for his anthology Three. “I’m slightly overwhelmed, humbly grateful and excited, and full of renewed energy for proceeding with Three — which is now more than ever my magic number,” Kirby wrote on his blog. [Prism Comics]

Awards | Katie Longua has won the 2011 Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics, presented over the weekend by San Francisco’s Isotope: The Comic Book Lounge. Previous winners include Joshua M. Cotter, Danica Novgorodoff, Will Dinski, Max Riffner and Daniel Merlin Goodbrey. [Twitter]

Awards | The entries have been posted for the 2011 SPACE Prize, which will be presented April 21, 2012, at SPACE 2012 in Columbus, Ohio. [SPACE Prize]

Publishing | Geek Out looks at recent moves at Archie Comics, primarily the introduction of gay character Kevin Keller. [CNN.com]

Emma #1

Publishing | Geek Out also stumbles across comic-book adaptations of classic, and contemporary, novels, and seeks out artists Janet Lee and R. Sikoryak, and writer Nancy Butler. [CNN.com]

Creators | The New York Times spotlights the Sunday routine of Joe Quesada: “I am pretty much working all the time. I don’t have a set schedule, per se — it’s just a matter of what comes across my e-mail first. I’ll be reading an animation script, working on an animatic for one of our shows, or drawing covers for our books. I have an iPad that’s set to ping whenever I get an e-mail from work. On weekends, there’s very little pinging, so it’s a good time to sit and draw. I listen to music when I draw — a majority of it is the Beatles.” [The New York Times]

Creators | Dave Gibbons discusses the state of the comics industry, digital comics, and the long shadow of Watchmen. [The Huffington Post UK]

Grant Morrison

Creators | A profile of Grant Morrison is pegged to his Action Comics relaunch and an announced adaptation of his forthcoming graphic novel Dominion: Dinosaur vs. Aliens. [Daily Record]

Creators | J.H. Williams III is profiled by his local newspaper, which focuses, of course, on the newly launched Batwoman. [Merced Sun-Star]

Creators | Mike Carey talks about creating the story for the X-Men: Destiny video game, and touches upon his tenure on Vertigo’s Hellblazer. [God Is a Geek]

Comics | Darryl Ayo explains Frank Miller’s Holy Terror this way: It’s cartooning, using the full power of the medium and eschewing an “adult” subtlety: “What makes Frank Miller special isn’t that he’s a great writer (he’s not) or that he’s an expert draftsman (he is, though) … what makes Miller special is that he can make things look heavy and light at the same time. That he can have ‘Batman’ vault through the great expanse of the hazy, scratchy page and land roughly, awkwardly and gracefully at the same time.” [Comix Cube]

Craft | Kevin Czap admires the way that both James Kochalka and Ron Rege Jr. compose their comics with the whole page in mind, ensuring that all the elements are perfectly balanced. [Comix Cube]

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

Brilliant

Graeme McMillan

It is, thankfully, the last week of September which means that, if I had $15, I only have one more week of new launches from DC to pick out potential favorites, Sophie’s Choice-style. This week: Aquaman #1, Flash #1, Fury of Firestorm, The Nuclear Men #1, Justice League Dark #1 and Superman #1 make the cut (All DC, all $2.99 each).

If I had the chance to add some more money to take that total to $30, I’d go for some Marvel books: Brian Michael Bendis gets well-represented with Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #2 ($3.99); New Avengers #16.1 ($2.99), his “new readers jump on” issue with art by Neal Adams; and Brilliant #1 ($3.99), his new creator-owned book with Mark Bagley. Here’s hoping I’m in a suitably Bendis-y mood when I read all of these ones.

Splurgewise, it has to be Habibi (Pantheon, $35), Craig Thompson’s new graphic novel. I know a few people who’ve had a chance to read it already, and everyone has made it sound like a large leap ahead from Blankets, and something almost worth the many-year wait it’s been since his breakthrough last book. I’m really looking forward to this one.

Habibi

Chris Mautner

If I had $15:

There’s a lot of good, big-name books out this week, starting with the fourth volume of Love and Rockets ($14.99). Rumor has it that Xaime Hernandez’s contributions to this issue are even more exemplary and emotionally devastating than in Vol. 3, which seems almost impossible, but I’m eager to find out either way.

If I had $30:

I’d at least take a look at Kinky and Cosey, a South Park-esque gag strip from NBM, authored by one Nix, about whom I know nothing, but the online samples intrigue me.

Splurge:

Graeme already mentioned Habibi – I’m only a third of the way through it now, so I can’t really comment on the book yet. Frank Miller’s Holy Terror is also out this week ($29.99), but David Brothers’ review has put me off on purchasing the book, at least for now. That leaves either Matthew Thurber’s delightfully surreal saga 1-800-MICE ($22.95), Marc Bell’s equally strange and charming Pure Pajamas (an odds and sods collection of various comic work) ($22.95) or Brian Ralph’s first-person zombie apocalypse tale, Daybreak ($24.95). All are really worth getting, it’s just a question of which to buy first.

Holy Terror

Chris Arrant

Fifteen dollars in my pocket, and I’d still only have room for one of this week’s New 52 from DC: Flash #1 (DC, $2.99). Francis Manapul is a big-time artist, and seeing DC giving him the reins as writer-and-artist is an interesting play that I want to see work. Next up would be another #1, but not from DC: Brilliant #1 (Marvel/Icon, $3.95). It’s good to see Bendis doing more creator-owned work, and bringing in Mark Bagley is a novel idea, especially considering Bagley’s style is synonymous with super-heroes; I think the only non-super-hero book he did was The Pulse back in the day. Next up would be two installments of ongoing Marvel epics: Wolverine #16 (Marvel, $3.99) and FF #9 (Marvel, $2.99). Aaron threw me for a loop revealing a new brood of kids for Logan, and meanwhile FF is turning into the book I’ve always wanted for Marvel: smart-ass kids in over their head. Somehow, I think Kirby would get a kick out of this, too.

If I had $30, I’d double back and bet it all on DC with five #1s: Superman #1 (DC, $2.99) for George Perez; Voodoo #1 (DC, $2.99) for Sam Basri’s art (despite Voodoo being my least favorite Wildcat); All-Star Western #1 (DC, $3.99) for, well, everything and everyone involved; Aquaman #1 (DC, $2.99) to see this Hail Mary pass of revitalizing this guy; and then Blackhawks #1 (DC, $2.99) because I’ve been pining for years they bring this team back in a meaningful way.

If I could splurge, I’d still be in a jam, as there’s two big graphic novels I want to get this week. I’d have to choose Frank Miller’s Holy Terror (Legendary, $29.99) over Habibi just because of how curious I am to see what Miller is doing here. For Habibi, I’d put it on my pull list and swing back next week.

Superman

Michael May

If I had $15, I’d split it between DC, Marvel and a smaller publisher. From DC I’m extremely curious about Superman #1 ($2.99) to see how Lois Lane is handled beyond the couple of pages we’ve already seen. I love the idea of team of magicians using the Justice League name, especially one where Zatanna and John Constantine get to interact on a regular basis, so I’m all in for Justice League Dark #1 ($2.99).  From Marvel, I’d grab Spider-Island: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #2 ($2.99) because Shang Chi, and X-Men Legacy #256 ($2.99), because I’m enjoying being reminded how good Mike Carey is for that book. Finally, I’d grab Moonstone’s That Man Flint #0 ($1.99) for some groovy super-spy action. Casanova‘s already scratching that itch too, but I’ve got room for more.

If I had $30, I’d quickly add the more expensive All-Star Western #1 ($3.99), which only got left off my $15 list because I couldn’t afford it. I’ve been wanting to jump on to Gray and Palmiotti’s Jonah Hex for a long time and that Moritat art looks very cool. Then I’d also get I, Vampire #1 ($2.99) because I like Josh Fialkov’s stuff. I wasn’t thrilled with Warren Ellis’ first issue on Secret Avengers, but I’m willing to give it another shot, so I’d also grab #17 ($3.99). I’d top off the pile with Abe Sapien: The Devil Does Not Jest #1 ($3.50) because Abe’s awesome.

There’s way too much to splurge on this week. I can’t not mention Habibi, but there’s also a new collection of All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold ($12.99), Archaia’s Weird Western The Grave Doug Freshley ($19.95), and that Kamandi Omnibus ($49.99). If I had to pick one thing though, I’d support Marvel’s reprinting John Byrne’s Alpha Flight by buying Alpha Flight Classic, Volume 2 ($29.99). Any effort to get those stories out of my closet and onto my bookshelf is extremely welcome.

Brutal

Publishing| Joe Keatinge and Frank Cho have signed a three-book deal with Delcourt, a comics publisher in France. The first book of theirs Delcourt will publish will be the first volume of Brutal, which will debut at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angouleme 2013. Delcourt publishes many American comics in France, including Walking Dead, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Invincible, Rocketeer, Hellboy, The Goon, Haunt and many more, as well as many manga titles.

“On a personal level, French comics have had a huge influence on me. Working within that industry is something I’ve wanted to do for as long as I wanted a career in comics at all. Being an author with a book debuting at Angouleme is a goal I thought was many a year away, so this has taken things to a whole new level much sooner than anticipated. While I do plan on going back in 2012, this still gives me a year to work on my awful command of the language before I have to do a signing. Being in the good hands of Delcourt makes me think it’s a good start,” Keatinge said. [Joe Keatinge]

Comics by comiXology

Digital | comiXology rolled out 100 online storefronts as a part of their affiliate program for online comics shops. Heidi MacDonald has commentary on the contract between retailers and comiXology, while retailer Brian Hibbs shows up in the comments section on her site: “…speaking only for myself, I could not possibly sign the offered contract. It is, in my personal opinion, a shit sandwich, embarrassingly one-sided and unreasonable in virtually every particular.” [press release]

Pricing | Von Allan looks at the costs of comics over the years as compared to minimum wage. John Jackson Miller offers commentary. [Von Allan Studios, The Comichron]

Publishing | James Sturm recounts his quest to get a cartoon published in The New Yorker and posts a number of his cartoons, along with the editor’s critiques. At least he had a nice lunch. [Slate]

Digital | Robot 6 contributor Graeme McMillan questions Marvel’s statement that it is the No. 1 digital publisher: Given that sales information is not shared widely within the industry, how would they know? [Blog@Newsarama]

Comics | David Brothers looks at how Frank Miller “built a better Batman” by, among other things, focusing on his mom: “Frank Miller and Jim Lee’s All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder is a shining spot in the catalog of Batman comics because Martha gets all the attention, barring a mention of The Mark of Zorro being Thomas’s favorite movie. For once, Thomas is on the sidelines. This a notable and surprising shift in focus in the discussion of Batman’s origins, and one that I missed on the first read. Thomas Wayne is the steel in Bruce Wayne’s spine, the will that lets him stand up tall when battling the Joker. Martha, however, is the hope inside the Batman, the little voice that elevates him above the Punisher (driven by anger) or Spider-Man (driven by guilt). Yes, his quest is one of revenge against the nebulous idea of crime, but at the same time, he’s genuinely trying to protect others from his bogeyman. He doesn’t want other children or people to go through what he went through. There’s an altruistic element there, wrapped in a seriously personal, and possibly even selfish, crusade.” [ComicsAlliance]

Conventions | Heidi MacDonald and Ed Sizemore report on their experiences at last weekend’s Baltimore Comic-Con. Heidi also shares pictures from the con. [The Beat, Comics Worth Reading]

Creators | Joshua Hale Fialkov discusses how he got involved in DC’s New 52, as well as his work on I, Vampire and Echoes. [TFAW]

Forming

Creators | Cartoonist and animator Jesse Moynihan discusses his webcomic Forming. [The Daily Texan]

Creators | Webcomics creator Kevin Church about the process of writing: “I hate plotting longer form things. With most projects that are finite, I just know how they end and I try to get to that point by any means necessary, winging it a bit, but I’ve found that I lose a bit of an edge if I’m not being panicky and trying to connect the dots. I recently came across the first plot synopsis of She Died In Terrebonne and it’s not nearly as engaging on any kind of emotional level. This thing I’m working on now with the new artist (who I won’t name until we’ve actually got something in the can) is more ambitious than anything I’ve done, so I’ve worked out a lot of character beats and motivations in advance.” [eat the funny pages]

Comics | Carol Burrell, editor of Lerner’s Graphic Universe series and creator of the SPQR Blues webcomic, discusses page composition, panel flow, and thumbnails, using examples from Jaime Hernandez’s “Flies on the Ceiling” and James Sturm and Rich Tommaso’s Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow. [Graphic Universe Blog]

DC Comics

Retailers | Web Behrens talks to several Chicago-area retailers about DC’s upcoming relaunch: “DC sales have been dwindling for years. There are enough new, potentially good books coming out that a lot of customers, angry or not, are still going to buy more DC titles than they do presently,” said Eric Thornton, manager of Chicago Comics. [Time Out Chicago]

Manga | Deb Aoki reviews five manga she found on the new JManga.com digital manga portal, including Star Protector Dog (out soon in print from NBM) and Ekiben Hitoritabi, a manga about a man who travels around the country in order to experience the bento lunches sold in train stations. [About.com]

Manga | Jason Thompson looks at a classic gender-bender series, After School Nightmare (which was nominated for an Eisner award). [Anime News Network]

Comics | Scholar Qiana Whitted looks at comics about blues singers. [The Hooded Utilitarian]

Comics | Sean recently posted the news that Sparkplug Comics publisher Dylan Williams is in poor health, and he and others are urging people to buy some Sparkplug books to help Williams out financially. To help you choose, Brian Heater polls some prominent editors and creators on their favorite Sparkplug comics and Craig Fischer links to some reviews. [The Daily Cross Hatch, The Panelists]

Legendary Entertainment has premiered the poster and print ad for Holy Terror, the long-awaited graphic novel by Frank Miller.

The revenge tale, set for release in September, follows The Fixer, a “Dirty Hairy”-style hero who takes the fight to al Qaeda after his city is target by terrorists. Initially, and famously, conceived as a Batman story, Holy Terror is described as “a no-holds-barred action thriller told in Miller’s trademark high-contrast, black-and-white visual style, which seizes the political zeitgeist by the throat and doesn’t let go until the last page.”

See the full poster below. And don’t miss the five-page preview of Holy Terror released last month.

The Tower Chronicles

Legendary Comics announced at its panel this afternoon at Comic-Con International that it will publish new projects from Paul Pope and Matt Wagner.

Set for release this holiday season, PulpHope is a more than 200-page retrospective of Pope’s career, featuring many pieces that haven’t been seen before. A previous edition was published in 2007 by AdHouse Books.

The Tower Chronicles, developed by Wagner with Legendary CEO Thomas Tull, is a supernatural action-adventure about a bounty hunter with a hidden past who, backed by a team of high-tech mercenaries, protects civilians from the things that go bump in the night.

“We are thrilled to be working with Pope and Wagner on these upcoming projects for Legendary Comics,” Editor-in-Chief Bob Schreck said in a statement. “Just as our film division works with the best-in-class talent and filmmakers to produce content for the fandom demographic, so too will Legendary Comics move forward on our mandate to publish works from the best in A the industry.”

Legendary also will release Frank Miller’s Holy Terror in September.

Update: The Hollywood Reporter reports that Simon Bisley will provide artwork for the Tower Chronicles. They also provide additional details on the PulpHope book, calling it “a revamped version of the artist’s out-of-print art book titled PulpHope, stripping away 100 pages and throwing in 100 new ones incorporating work Pope has done in the music, toy and clothing spheres, as well as other material.”

Legendary Comics, the comic-publishing arm of Legendary Pictures, has revealed a new trailer for Frank Miller’s upcoming graphic novel Holy Terror. The project began as a “Batman vs. al-Qaeda” book for DC Comics before Miller eliminated Batman from it in favor of a new character called The Fixer, who you can see in action in the trailer.

The book will be published this September to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The trailer was revealed by Legendary as the “first of four locks” being opened, and they ask fans to help open additional locks by sharing content on Facebook and Twitter. “This was the first of four locks that will reveal exclusive content throughout the weekend, so be sure to check back regularly. Remember, the more you spread the word, the faster each reveal will be released!”

Dan DiDio

Warming up for a grueling Comic-Con International schedule, DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio held a virtual convention panel last night on Facebook for fans who can’t make it to San Diego. Highlights from the Q&A include:

• DC no longer has the rights to Archie’s Red Circle superheroes.

• Stephanie Brown will remain part of the DC Universe following the September relaunch. However, DiDio won’t reveal where she is just yet. “Sorry, but we are keeping some secrets,” he wrote, “and one of them involves Stephanie.”

• He’s sticking by his earlier remarks about the status of the Justice Society, saying “the official answer on JSA is that ‘They’re resting’.”

• When can we expect the release of Dark Knight: Boy Wonder, the planned six-issue conclusion of Frank Miller and Jim Lee’s All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder? “Probably when he is The Teen Wonder.”

• Asked whether we’ll ever see the new version of Who’s Who in the DC Universe announced in December 2009, DiDio replied, “the question is not who’s who but when’s when.”

DiDio’s first actual Comic-Con panel, “DC Comics — The New 52,” kicks off at 2 p.m. Thursday in San Diego.

Our Love Is Real

As we noted a week ago, Sam Humphries and Steven Sanders self-published a science fiction comic called Our Love Is Real, which subsequently sold out in print in nine hours. A second print is on the way (that’s the cover you see to the right) and it’s still available digitally through their website or comiXology.

Humphries, a former Robot 6 guest contributor and my fellow panel member in San Diego next week, agreed to share a list of what he considers to be some of the great science fiction comics. Note that he chose not to use the words “best” or “favorite” to describe the list. “‘Favorite’ or ‘best’ implies more commitment than I’m ready to give,” he said.

So without further ado …

Six great science fiction comics, by Sam Humphries

1. AKIRA by Katsuhiro Otomo
A giant of science fiction, often imitated, never surpassed. At its heart is a tale of a bromance gone wrong, two best friends who carve their years of brotherhood and resentment across Tokyo, Japan, and the Moon. The anime adaptation is superlative, but the manga, sprawled across six thick volumes of meticulously drawn, hi-octane pages, is a true monumental achievement. I’ll be gunning for this No. 1 spot ’til I die. G.O.A.T.

The Filth, by Grant Morrison and Chris Weston

2. The Filth by Grant Morrison and Chris Weston
If you’re not sure you’re ready for The Filth, then you aren’t. It’s dirty, it’s beautiful, and once I pick it up I can’t look away. Weston’s artwork is spectacular. Protagonist Greg Feely travels through the trash and filth of human existence with a depraved organization called the Hand, and eventually finds redemption. All for the love of a cat. This is a grim tale, Morrison’s most twisted, most rewarding, and frankly, most hilarious.

3. Freakangels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield
Twelve Freakangels, embodied with supernormal abilities, struggle to protect a small neighborhood in post-apocalyptic London. Unfortunately, they can’t even decide what to do with themselves. The futurevision is compelling, but it’s the characters that keep me coming back…smart, benevolent, cranky, sexy, crazy, gloomy and murderous. Some prefer Transmetropolitan, but to me, this is the best of Ellis’ sci-fi jams.

4. Give Me Liberty by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons
This book is criminally under-appreciated. Martha Washington is a hero of the powerless in a country where power is just another devalued currency. Miller’s dark humor and wild ideas are perfectly paired with Gibbon’s sleek imagination and razor-sharp storytelling. It is a gold mine of world-building; nothing escapes their satirical scorn. As I’ve said elsewhere, I steal from Give Me Liberty relentlessly.

from "The Long Tomorrow" by Dan O'Bannon and Moebius

5. The Long Tomorrow by Dan O’Bannon and Moebius
The short story that started it all. The undisputed master Moebius illustrates the hell out of this tale, a mash-up of American noir and French science fiction, cramming in a futureshock metropolis, rocket ships, robocops, kidnapped brains and weird sex into a handful of pages. This is the one that influenced everything from Blade Runner to George Lucas…to Our Love Is Real.

6. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka by Naoki Urasawa
This is Urasawa’s reinterpretation of a classic Astro Boy tale by Osama “Godfather of Manga” Tezuka. It should have been a disaster, but it’s brilliant. Pluto is a gripping thriller and an atmospheric mystery, where the rain falls on human and robot alike. But it’s also a warm, emotional sci-fi story, where the elements of the future are pushed to the side, and the human drama of being alive takes center stage.