The latest episode of The Variants, the humorous web series set at Zeus Comics in Dallas, features the yearly visit of Richard’s brother Will. Will has a secret he’s been keeping from his brother–he’s actually comics writer Mark Waid. And who better to play him than the actual Mark Waid? The Daredevil and Irredeemable writer shows off his acting chops not only in the store, but also in a flashback sequence that shows the two brothers playing with action figures at a young age. I can’t wait to see the episode that introduces their sister …

from Attract Mode

The fourth issue of the humor anthology The Devastator arrives Nov. 9, and the theme for this issue is video games, It includes contributions from James Kochalka, Danny Hellman, Corey Lewis and many more. Above is a brief taste of Kochalka’s contribution; if you’d like to see the whole thing, you can find a preview of a few pages from the book on their site. And hey, if you pre-order it before Nov. 9, you’ll get a mystery prize!

A trailer for the book is available after the jump.

Are you just hitting your teen years and realizing that your body’s going through some weird changes? Then chances are…you’re a mutant!

Charles Xavier is here to help with The “What’s Happening to My Body?” Book for Mutants. The four-page pamphlet is full of useful advice, Frequently Asked Questions, and even helpful tips for parents who are dealing with a mutant child. Head over to College Humor to check it out. You don’t have to be alone anymore.

In a month that’s seen an official commercial and assorted other trailers for DC Comics’ heavily promoted line-wide relaunch, this video from filmmaker Patrick Willems may be the best so far. Oh, who am I kidding? It is the best so far. DC even acknowledged the humorous short, tweeting, “Excitement for DC Comics The New 52? Fantastic. Sharing too much on a first date? Not so much.”

Although Marvel is heavily focused right now on the various Avengers movies hitting this summer and next, no doubt they’re looking for a big franchise to kick off in 2013. Using a green-screen suit, Patrick Willems may just have come up with the answer — The Spot. And he already has a catchy theme song to boot.

Really, it was always just a matter of time before these two great products of the 1980s, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen and Hasbro’s My Little Pony, met. Even if it is The Hub’s strange new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon — seriously, that’s the name — mashed up with Zack Snyder’s 2009 comic-book adaptation.  “From the visionary director of 300 Ponies,” it’s … Ponymen. Stay gold, Ponymen. Stay gold.

(via Colleen Doran)

Threadless revisits the age-old question of how Wolverine gets through airport security (which, IIRC, Chris Claremont once addressed by providing Logan the proper papers), which seems to have a bit more topical relevance nowadays. The T-shirt costs $20 on the site; I’d suggest wearing it locally vs. on your next trip, as some TSA agents might not find it funny.

Comic Sans Pro

Although it’s still early, I’m going to go ahead and declare Monotype Imaging a contender for April Fools’ Day 2011 champion for its timely introduction of the Comics Sans Pro typeface family.

“Every day, millions of people rely on Comic Sans for countless applications ranging from scrapbooking to school projects,” Allan Haley, Monotype’s director of words and letters, said in the announcement. “Comic Sans is also a favorite in professional environments, used in medical information, instructions, ambulance signage, college exams, corporate mission statements and executive reprimands – even public letters from sports team owners to their fans. Breaking up with your spouse? Why not write a letter in Comic Sans Pro, embellished with a typographic whack!, pow! or bam! Comic Sans is everywhere, and now it’s even better.”

Because the only thing better than plain ol’ Comic Sans is bold and italic Comic Sans, the family pack includes two new italic and bold italic fonts designed by Terrance Weinzierl. “Our aim is to put the ‘fun’ back in ‘functional’,” the designer said. “We can’t wait to see Comic Sans Pro used in everything from second wedding announcements to warning labels. Long live Comic Sans!”

Just remember he doesn't like small talk, girls

Oh my … as if Charlie Sheen’s troubles couldn’t get any worse, artist Fernando Ruiz details Archie’s worst nightmare. Keep him away from underage girls! Archie Comics sent this over, and I can only assume it’s a joke, rather than an upcoming storyline. Hopefully.

In any event, if you haven’t gotten enough of Sheen’s rantings, The Sheen Family Circus has mashed them up with Family Circus cartoons. Jeffy’s got quite the mouth on him.

Anthony Konechny as Archie Andrews in the "Riverdale" parody trailer

I can think of few better ways to start off the morning than with this beautifully filmed and delightfully over-the-top parody fan trailer for Riverdale, a “gritty” remake of the ageless Archie Comics franchise.

Directed by Andrew de Villiers and written by Michael Cope and Rhys Finnick, the trailer was created with the help of about 100 Craigslist volunteers from the Vancouver film industry: “We produced this and the 10 other comedic videos on a budget of $3, 500 over a weekend. The Craigslist inspired and random nature of this production brought the director and his girlfriend together. It also united the executive producer’s wife with her long lost friend/boyfriend when she recognized him playing the character of Moose.”

It’s a terrific parody that heaps on amounts of melodrama usually reserved for a Lifetime Original Movie (alas, Nancy McKeon is nowhere to be seen). Watch Riverdale after the break.

The Spidey Project (logo by Gregg Rafuse)

A day before the much-publicized, and widely lampooned, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark opens on Broadway — well, a day before it’s supposed to open — another, smaller Spider-musical will premiere at the Peoples Improv Theater in New York City: a parody called The Spidey Project: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.

The brainchild of comedian and composer Justin Moran, the goal of the project is to put together a “fully realized” musical based on Spider-Man in under 30 days with no budget, and do it before Julie Taymor’s repeatedly delayed, and poorly reviewed, $65-million production officially opens. “Our goal isn’t to tear down Julie Taymor or parody her production,” Moran tells The New York Times. “Our goal is to do what she should have done in the first place, and that’s just make a really good musical.”

To help, Moran has enlisted writer Jon Roufaeal to collaborate on the story and book — it’s “100 percent” based on the comic-book origin, so no spider-legged Arachne here! — and composers Adam Podd and Doug Katsaros to write and arrange the score. (There’s no Mary Jane in The Spidey Project, either. “This story pre-dates her a bit,” Moran notes in an FAQ.)

Tickets for the musical will be available as the March 14 opening draws closer. No ticket price has been set, but Moran hopes it will be nominal: “Ideally tickets will be free, but I understand it costs money to keep a theater opened so if they absolutely need to charge a small cost, like $5 a ticket, just to pay their insurance fees or internal staff so we can have our show, I think that’s pretty fair.”

Possessions, Book Two

Let’s get started with the first of many exclusive previews we’ll have for you today. Courtesy of our friends at Oni Press, we’re pleased to bring you a 15-page preview of the second volume of Possessions by Ray Fawkes. You might know Fawkes from such works as Spookshow, The Apocalipstix, Mnemovore and, of course, the first volume of Possessions.

The second Possessions features the return of Gurgazon the Unclean, a pit demon who looks like a five-year-old girl and is trapped in the Llewellyn-Vane House for Captured Spirits and Ghostly Curiosities. In this second volume, subtitled “The Ghost Table,” Ms. Llewellyn-Vane hosts a rival spirit collector and her collection of ghosts for dinner, and Gurgazon’s the main attraction.

You can find the preview and more information on the book after the jump; please note that the preview is an uncorrected proof. It’s scheduled to come out in March.

*****

Here’s the solicitation info from the publisher:

Possessions Vol. 2
IN PREVIEWS, ORDER TODAY AT YOUR LCS! – DEC10 1022

Writer / Artist: Ray Fawkes
Format: 2-Color, 5.5 X 8
Page Count: 72
Price: $5.99
Genre: Spooky Humor
Age Rating: Y – All Audiences
Comparison Titles: Cartoons like Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, and comics like Courtney Crumrin.
Description: Ms. Llewellyn-Vane is throwing a party and all the spectres are invited! Her House for Captured Spirits and Ghostly Curiosities is host to a rival collector’s gang of ghoulish guests, and Gurgazon’s the main attraction. But is the pit demon seriously expected to refrain from eating the visitors? DINNER!

Many thank to Cory at Oni for hooking us up!

The Devastator #2

After running a successful Kickstarter campaign, Geoffrey Golden and Amanda Meadows launched The Devastator earlier this year, a humor anthology that features a mix of prose and comics by a variety of contributors. Each issue focuses on a particular subject; the first issue lampooned cartoons like Fat Albert, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Inspector Gadget, while the second issue will take aim at science fiction when it comes out later this week.

Contributors to the anthology include a mix of humor writers, Hollywood folks and cartoonists — James Urbaniak of The Venture Bros. fame, Masterpiece Comics creator R. Sikoryak, Wondermark creator David Malki!, Antz co-writer Todd Alcott and Metalocalypse‘s Jon Schnepp, among many others. Per their site, “The Devastator publishes quarterly, which naturally means twice a year.”

I met Golden and Meadows at the Alternative Press Expo in October and caught back up with them this week to talk about the anthology.

JK: So to start off, introduce yourselves. What do you do in addition to the anthology?

Geoffrey: I’m Geoffrey Golden, co-founder and editor in chief of The Devastator. In addition, I’m a freelance writer/editor – I’ve written for Cracked, MadAtoms, National Lampoon and recently finished writing an animated movie for Lionsgate and Mondo Media (Happy Tree Friends).

Amanda: I’m Amanda Meadows, co-founder and managing editor of The Devastator. I too am a freelance writer/editor; I’ve written for College Humor, McSweeney’s, and worked at a publishing company for some time.

JK: What made you want to start publishing your own humor publication?

Geoffrey: Groupies.

Amanda: We both love the golden age of great magazine-driven parody and satire in the 60s-70s, and realized there isn’t much out there like that right now.

Geoffrey: Yes, and there are so many print humor groupies. We are swimming in tail.

Amanda: Doing the backstroke in tail.

Geoffrey: Dog paddling… in tail? That doesn’t work.

JK: What were some of the influences you guys bring to the project? I get a MAD/Cracked kind of vibe from some of the material.

Geoffrey: For Devastator, some of the influences we’re drawing upon are classic MAD, classic National Lampoon magazine, Bloom County, James Thurber, The Onion, Michael Kupperman, South Park and classic Steve Martin.

Amanda: Geoff and I were both big comedy geeks at an early age. I’m also a literary fiend, so sometimes you see some of that. In our most recent book, we spoofed those mash-up novels with “Mrs. Dalloway and the Reptillian Humanoids.”

JK: You’ve got an impressive group of creators who contributed to the first two issues. How do you go about finding material to publish and recruiting talent to work with? Do you mostly work with people you know, or is there a formal process?

Amanda: We happen to know a ton of uber-talented friends- like brilliant parody artist R. Sikoryak, screenwriter Todd Alcott, or James Urbaniak (The Venture Bros). Many times we simply approach people we love, like Metalocalypse’s Jon Schnepp, and they jump at the opportunity to do something fun and different.

Geoffrey: Fifferent.

JK: What’s the funniest thing you’ve gotten so far that you haven’t been able to publish?

Geoffrey: The Cartoons book has a piece called “A Knack For Knock-Offs,” which was a gallery of bootleg illustrations by a hack artist. The creator of the piece, Ryan Sandoval, gave us too many funny illustrations to choose from, so his “Calvin Peeing On Osama Bin Laden’s Decapitated Head T-Shirt” went cruelly unpublished.

Amanda: For the upcoming Devastator #2: Science Fiction, a hilarious comic script for “Blade Runner Bloopers” came across our desk a little too late.

JK: Is there anyone who hasn’t contributed to an issue yet who you’d like to see in a future one?

Amanda: Our wishlist is long, but we are hacking away at it… we’d love to see original work from Michael Kupperman, Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics, manga-ka Filipe Smith, and Kate Beaton would be a coup.

Geoffrey: We’d also kill to have Robert Smigel and Ben Edlund on board. Kiiiill…

JK: Some of the submissions were funny but a bit, um, disturbing? I’m particularly thinking of the Slash Fiction Throughout History feature in the first issue. Is there a line you won’t cross when selecting more risque material?

Amanda: By the way, Popeye and Bluto snuggling in bed together during WWII is easily one of our most popular images. People chuckle nervously when they first see it, then buy the print.

Geoffrey: I think we’re still figuring out the line. Our goal is to publish stuff that makes us laugh and not completely freak out our parents. So far, we’ve only just disgraced them a bit.

JK: You’ve tackled science fiction and cartoons in the two issues you’ve published so far. What themes can we expect to see in future issues?

Amanda: CBR is getting the first word! Our next book’s theme is cats! Cats in pop culture, cat-owner culture, the cat industrial complex… it’s all ripe for clawing.

Geoffrey: Cartoonist and award winning cat breeder Jeffrey Brown is contributing, among other awesome folk!

JK: Are there plans to make Devastator available online or digitally in some form? And why did you choose to publish it in print rather than, say, setting up a website?

Amanda: We sell our ebook versions through WOWIO for lulz, which you can find here. The book is the true experience, but if you’re unsure about us we suggest getting a $1.99 PDF. But really, why be unsure? We’re great.

Geoffrey: We wanted to create the kind of print humor publication we read and loved as kids. If Devastator lived solely online, it would be artistically disappointing. Sort of like shooting a movie and distributing it direct-to-DVD instead of in theaters first.

Amanda: Although we are working on some awesome video content in addition to the books. One of them is animated! Squee!

Geoffrey: Squee?

Amanda: Squee.

JK: You guys have been hitting the convention circuit and making appearances to publicize the book. What do you have coming up?

Geoffrey: At Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles this Thursday, Dec. 9, we’re signing Devastator #2 and hosting a comedy reading afterward! More details on our web-home-blog-site-page.

Amanda: Next year will be awesome. We just got word we’re exhibiting at both WonderCon and SDCC ‘11! COMIC-CON!

Geoffrey: Also, if you’re a SoCal local, we are regulars at the Rose Bowl Comics Show in Pasadena. Bring us your $2 bills!

Amanda: $2 bills are shockingly popular in Pasadena.

The Devastator #1

JK: How did the Kickstarter campaign work out? Any tips or tricks for others who might be considering it?

Geoffrey: I’m not sure it would have been possible to make The Devastator at the scale we managed to make it without Kickstarter. It’s an innovative way to organize the savage beast that is the fundraising process.

Amanda: Some tips we learned going through the process: make a realistic goal. No one wants to give you $15,000 so can quit your job to record your ironic Juggalo band. Make awesome rewards. “Special thanks” credits on a movie are not good enough – give them swag! Always update the donors, because including them in the process is more fun. Lastly, do your best to get your project out there on Facebook and the blogosphere- you never know who could be a potential backer!

JK: And finally, you guys were heavily promoting subscriptions at APE this year. How have they been doing? And how does that help your overall business plan?

Amanda: BTW- thank you JK for being a subscriber! *confetti*

Our base is growing with every show. We always recommend subscribing–you get 4 books for a price so low, it leads you to question our mental faculties and ability to perform simple arithmetic. Plus they get a piece of awesome merch. So much win.

Geoffrey: Like with any publication, subscribers are the livelihood of business. The beginning is the hardest, but thanks to the groundswell of support we got on Kickstarter, we had something substantial to build on. However, if anyone reading this is in Business Development, we’d love to talk to you!

Amanda: You will be wined and, quite possibly, dined.

by Kerry Callen

Comics creator Kerry Callen has posted the second of two fun posts that dare to ask the question: What if DC published Marvel characters in the 1960s? And the answers are pretty awesome: Monkey Ghost Rider! Composite Power Man/Iron First! Fat Spider-Man! And a Captain America who has to eat his shield. Fun stuff; go check’em out.

The Martian Confederacy

Coming this holiday season is the “worlds first child slave labor comedy” — The Martian Confederacy Volume 2: From Mars With Love by Jason McNamara (First Moon) and Paige Braddock (Jane’s World)

It’s the sequel to their 2008 graphic novel about a ragtag group of heroes on Mars in the year 3535. Here’s the description of the sequel: “Hearts will be broken, moons will be destroyed and hooch will flow in zero gravity in this sci-fi romantic action comedy set in the year 3535. When someone, or something, starts kidnapping the children of Mars, the planet’s most notorious outlaws band together to rescue them. Off world, out numbered and falling apart from within can the Martian Confederates discover the secret of Phobos before they destroy each other? And does what ‘happen in space, stay in space?’”

You can find it in Previews under order code 101040; the 150-page graphic novel costs $15. Check out a huge 25-page preview of it after the jump.

*****

BOOM! Studios’ marketing team, Chip Mosher and Ivan Salazar, visited several Los Angeles comic shops yesterday, supposedly to see how their newest comic, Stan Lee’s Soldier Zero, was doing at retail. I say “supposedly” because it looks like Mosher was really on a mission to find a copy of a certain Justin Bieber comic book that also hit shelves yesterday.

To see more of their L.A. comic shop tour, check out their YouTube channel.

by H. Caldwell Tanner

H. Caldwell Tanner, Caroline Martin and Michael Christatos imagine several superheroes as hipsters, from an Aquaman who relocated to Portland and a Pabst-drinking Iron Man to a Wonder Woman who drives an Invisible Subaru Outback and a Hulk who shops at American Apparel.

You know him as the Richards-hating, sorcery-wielding, armor-wearing despot who rules Latveria in the Marvel U. … but who knew he liked to cook? The blog Letters to Holly has nine recipes supplied by Victor Von Doom himself, including steak au pauvre (“When the steaks are finished, Doom commands you to remove steaks from skillet. Keep the drippings in the skillet, filthy cur”), chicken tetrazzini (“Doom forbids you from greasing the pan first. Heed Doom always”) and Doom’s Famous Faji-tortill-orittos (“Doom appreciates lime-flavored chips as a side item. Doom will never admit to licking the lime-dusted fingertips of his luxurious armor”). Who couldn’t go for some faji-tortill-orittos?

Via Isotope

How long have you been planning Incredible Change-Bots Two? Did you need to see how the first volume did, or were you full-steam-ahead from the jump?

I started thinking about it shortly after finishing the first on. The book was so much fun to write, and draw, and the characters were already kind of taking on their own life. Plus people really liked the first one, and I hope that someday I’ll make enough things that people like, that they’ll like me too.

What’s the basic scoop on the sequel, storywise? Any new ‘Bots to look forward to?

At the end of the first book, Shootertron was defeated and left in a pile of rubble on Earth while the other Change-Bots headed into space to find a new home. Shootertron wakes up, but has lost his memory, but the other Change-Bots end up back on Earth because of some miscalculations, and a run-in with Shootertron becomes inevitable. There’s lots of new ‘Bots, but they mostly get killed off right away, because there’s not enough room in the book. I liked how the old cartoons did that too, introduce a new character and then the character disappears at the end of the episode.

The thing that’s interesting to me about Incredible Change-Bots was that even though a lot of the people who both read and make superhero comics AND parodies of superhero comics also read/played with/watched Transformers, it’s a really under-parodied subgenre. Was that part of the attraction of it for you?

Maybe not consciously, but feeling like I wasn’t repeating something else definitely helped encourage me to work on it. It made it easier to build the Change-Bots from scratch when there wasn’t a significant parody that I would have to avoid repeating certain ideas.

Over the past few years a lot of alternative comics have come out that address ’80s action-figure-style action-adventure-fantasy franchises head-on, from the He-Man/D&D-isms of Prison Pit to the video-game tropes of Scott Pilgrim. Do you see Incredible Change-Bots in that light at all, or is it more the comedy that drives it?

To some extent it’s certainly still driven by the 80′s cartoon, but especially in the new book, there’s a lot of jokes that could probably be written without the robots, I’m just using them there instead of with this particular story and characters. I think the reason I was able to write a second book was due to the fact that I’m thinking less and less about addressing the past and more letting the characters and humor drive the story.

It seems like Michael Bay’s Transformers movies might be even more ripe for parody — or perhaps “deserving of satire” is the way to put it — than the originals. Will Change-Bots Two address the live-action movies in any way?

Not really… I almost slipped a joke in here and there, but they ended up not fitting. My love of the original Transformers cartoon is still the primary inspiration. I’ve watched the new films, but it’s almost like they’re trying to be self-conscious parodies of themselves at this point. I think even the IDW comics have less to do with the films than the original mythology. I’m content to let the films exist as a separate thing on their own.

What else have you got coming down the pike?

The new cat book, Cats Are Weird, is just coming out from Chronicle. Next I plan on working on the long planned autobiographical book dealing with religion and fatherhood, as well as a kid’s book about dinosaurs. I think, anyway, there’s a dozen projects I’d really like to be doing, so once Change-Bots Two is wrapped up I’ll figure out exactly what I’m doing.

Does San Diego allow you to indulge both the autobio and action-comedy sides of yourself? Like, will you be bouncing between the small-press area and the Hasbro booth?

I would bounce by the Hasbro booth, but it’s always so crowded! I definitely let my geek fan boy side have more fun here at Comic-Con, and one of the things I love is that you can go from small press to mainstream and see some toys along the way. This convention is always kind of inspiring to me, both in writing fun comics like Change-Bots and writing more ‘serious’ work like the autobiographical books. It’s also exhausting, but still worth it.

Most of them, anyway.