Justice League #1

Publishing | Four months in, the DC Comics relaunch seems to be a success. The most recent sales figures show Justice League #1 selling more than 360,000 copies since August, and Batman #1 and Action Comics #1 selling more than 250,000. By contrast, Marvel’s strongest seller was Ultimate Spider-Man #160, which was in the 160,000-copy neighborhood. These figures seem to reflect sales in the direct market only; it would be interesting to see how many digital copies have been sold. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Awards | Nominations are open for this year’s Eagle Awards. [Eagle Awards]

Retailing | San Francisco retailer Brian Hibbs shares the top-selling graphic novels in his store for 2011, by units and by dollars. [Savage Critics]

Retailing | Christopher Butcher looks back on the events of the past year in the comics store he manages, Toronto’s The Beguiling. [The Beguiling blog]

Commentary | Mike Gold explains why the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a terrible idea. [ComicMix]

Comics | Enough with the best-of lists: Ron Richards presents his lovingly compiled list of the worst things in comics in 2011. His No. 1 point stands in stark contrast to The Hollywood Reporter piece: Overall, sales are dropping. [iFanboy]

Gingerbread Girl

Comics | Tom Spurgeon continues his holiday interview series, talking to Rina Piccolo, Steve Bissette, Colleen Coover, Todd DePastino and Robot 6′s own Chris Mautner. [The Comics Reporter]

Comics | The Houston Chronicle covers the arrival of its own local superhero, the Scarlet Spider. [Houston Chronicle]

Publishing | Jim Shooter recounts his time at Broadway Comics, as well as dealings he had with the World Wrestling Federation when Valiant had the rights to produce wrestling comics: “VALIANT, as you may know, was forced into a license to do WWF comics by my corrupt partner Steve Massarsky, who represented both Leisure Concepts International (the WWF’s licensing agency) and VALIANT. Can you say ‘conflict of interest?’ Massarsky made a ton of money personally by making a deal with himself with utter disregard for what made sense for VALIANT, and I was stuck with actually producing WWF comics.” [Jim Shooter]

Creators | Christopher Irving and Seth Kushner profile Legion of Super-Heroes writer and former DC Comics president and publisher Paul Levitz. [Graphic NYC]

Brilliant #1

Creators | This profile of Mark Bagley covers his entry into comics and his collaborations with Brian Michael Bendis on Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers Assemble and their own Brilliant. [Creative Loafing]

Creators | Ron Marz reports he raised $500 last month for Toys for Tots by selling signed comics to fans. [Messages from Marz]

Creators | Guest-blogging for Whitney Matheson, Grace Bello interviews Tony Millionaire. [Pop Candy]

Creators | Kurtis Wiebe discusses Green Wake, The Intrepids and his new series Peter Panzerfaust. [The Outhouse]

Craft | Colorist Matt Wilson explains how he went about coloring a page of Wonder Woman #4 that presented some challenges. [SeeEmWhyKay, via Blog@Newsarama]

Commentary | Filmmaker and blogger Becki Burrows interviews Paul Gravett, author of many books on comics and graphic novels, most recently, 1001 Comics to Read Before You Die. [Paul Gravett]

Commentary | David Uzumeri makes the case for why The Flash is “the most visually inventive book of the [DC Comics] relaunch”: “The first hint of this came when DC began promoting the first issue’s title page the promotional rounds, an absolutely gorgeous piece of work that integrated the design sense of the logo into not only the artwork but the actual storytelling. Manapul drew Barry Allen disarming an army of mysterious sci-fi marines in a breathtaking clockwise sequence that was immediately readable despite its complexity, guiding the eye in a circle across a sequence where the Flash basically hands all of these dudes their butts in a series of small panels within the letters of his own name. Then it kept getting better.” [ComicsAlliance]

Commentary | Sean Kleefeld examines the world view of One Piece and wonders if some of the folks at the Occupy protests were there because of Luffy and the Straw Hats. [Kleefeld on Comics]

Review | Rob Clough reads Seth’s The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists. [The Comics Journal]

Avengers Assemble

Saturday at the New York Comic Con brought news for the Avengers, Superman, Legendary Comics and … Disney’s Prep & Landing? Here’s a round-up of announcements from the show today.

• With a big, blockbuster Avengers movie scheduled for next May, Marvel announced a new ongoing series, Avengers Assemble, by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley. The book will launch next March and will feature most of the Avengers featured in the movie — Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye and the Hulk. The first arc will feature the villainous group the Zodiac.

• Speaking of that big, blockbuster Avengers movie, fans were treated to new footage from it featuring Bruce Banner and the Black Widow. Tom Hiddleston spoke to CBR about his work on the film.

• Marvel also announced that writer Rick Remender and artist Gabriel Hardman will take over Secret Avengers with issue #21.1, adding new members and pitting them against a new Masters of Evil.

• At the Cup O’ Joe panel today, Marvel also announced a Disney/Marvel crossover — Prep & Landing: Mansion: Impossible. It features the elves from the Disney television special who prepare homes for the arrival of Santa Claus every Christmas eve — only this time they’re trying to break into Avengers Mansion to get it ready for Santa. Written by director Kevin Deters and drawn by story artist Joe Mateo, the story will run in the back of the Marvel Adventures books as well as Avengers #19 in November.

• Marvel CCO Joe Quesada also announced that Marvel will publish a comic based on the Showtime television show Dexter. Novelist Jeff Lindsay will bring the popular character to comics with an all-new ongoing series with new stories set in the world of the Dexter novels

• During their All Access: Superman panel, DC Comics plans to release a second Superman: Earth One graphic novel next fall, by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Shane Davis. They showed off the book’s cover, and Davis revealed the Parasite will appear in it.

• It was confirmed that Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens will take over Superman from George Perez beginning with issue #7.

• DC’s CCO Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank have been tapped for “The Curse of Shazam,” a back-up story that will appear in Justice League starting with issue #5.

• Fans were treated to the first episode of Warner Bros. upcoming Green Lantern animated series. The first scene is available to view online.

• Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi will bring back Sabretooth, the character they decapitated some years back.

• Harold Parrineau will voice Blade in the upcoming Blade Anime from Marvel.

• Top Cow announced that David Hine will take over as writer of The Darkness, and a second volume of his comic with Shaky Kane, Bulletproof Coffin, is in the works.

Dragon Age

• Dark Horse Comics, who already have the license for Bioware’s Mass Effect video game, will publish digital comics based on the video game series Dragon Age. The comics will feature characters from the first and second game — Isabela, Alistair and Varric. (As a huge Dragon Age fan, I can’t help but wonder, which Alistair will appear in the comics? I have three different saved games on my Playstation 3 — one where Alistair became king, one where he became a drunk and one where the new queen of Ferelden had him killed. It’s likely not the third Alistair).

• Famed creator Mike Kaluta is working on a “big, meaty graphic novel” based on the John Milton poem Paradise Lost. Legendary Comics will publish it.

• Legendary will also publish a collection of Paul Pope’s The One Trick Rip-Off, an early work first published by Dark Horse.

• Viz Media will replace its Shonen Jump magazine with a weekly digital magazine called Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha.

• Steve Jackson Game will introduce a card game based on Image’s Skullkickers.

• Lucasfilm debuted a poster for the upcoming film Red Tails, drawn by Joe Kubert.

• And finally, ABC showed a sneak preview of their hey-isn’t-that-kinda-like-Fables TV show Once Upon a Time. A fan asked about the similarities between Once Upon a Time, Fables and NBC’s Grimm. “I haven’t seen what the movies are doing and I haven’t read those scripts,” said creator Edward Kitsis. “For us, this is our interpretation of this world. Fairy tales have become a genre the way science fiction is a genre, and I am always up for watching someone in a spaceship heading somewhere on a mission, and this is our version of that.”

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.

October will see the debut of The Fearless, “an event that shows readers what’s in store for their favorite characters in the wake of the Fear Itself event. Anyone that enjoyed Fear Itself should be interested in finding out how Captain America, the Avengers, and other characters from all across the Marvel Universe deal with the aftermath.”

Although further details haven’t been publicly released by Marvel or Diamond Comic Distributors, Newsarama reports that the twice-monthly series will be written by Matt Fracion, Cullen Bunn and Chris Yost, and illustrated by Mark Bagley and Paul Pelletier. The website also confirms the October launch of Incredible Hulk, by Jason Aaron and Marc Silvestri.

Stay tuned to Comic Book Resources for more information as details surface from Comic-Con.

X-Men: Schism

Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy at our local comic shop based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a “Splurge” item. We’re coming a little late today due to a power outage in my neck of the woods — due to a blackout, not because I spent the money for the electric bill on Flashpoint or Fear Itself tie-ins.

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

Chris Arrant

If I had $15, I’d make a mad grab for American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #2 (DC/Vertigo, $2.99); I love what Snyder and Murphy are doing here, and anyone who knows me knows how big a fan I am of Murphy’s work. Next up would be the debut of Jonathan Hickman’s Redwing #1 (Image, $3.50); after seeing Hickman blossom at Marvel, it’s great to see him re-invest in creator-owned comics. Third would be Jason Aaron and Carlos Pacheco’s X-Men Schism #1 (Marvel, $4.99); I have a sense Aaron’s the kind of writer to bring his “A” game when it comes to special stories (he did it recently in Scalped #50), so I’m interested to see what he does here. Last up would be Northlanders #42 (DC, $2.99).

If I had $30, I’d double-up on two indie series; Jeff Smith’s RASL#11 ($3.50) and Loose Ends #1 (12 Gauge, $3.99). Then I’d go back to Marvel and get FF #6 (Marvel, $2.99) and Wolverine #12 (Marvel, $3.99).

If I had some money to splurge, I’d get the great Twisted Savage Dragon Funnies trade paperback (Image, $18.99). It has two things I like — weird variations on a long-running character, and an eclectic line-up of creators. It’s almost as if the Popgun crew had a go at Larsen’s Dragon.

Graeme McMillan

Captain America #1

I admit: Thanks to traveling, work overload and just plain busyness, I’ve completely failed to make it to a comic store in the last few weeks, so if/when I hit the store this week, I’ll be less interested in the new releases than I will be just seeing what I’ve missed since mid-June. But if someone were to insist that I spend $15 on books from this week, chances are I’d spend it on Captain America #1 (Marvel, $3.99)–I’m curious to see what Ed Brubaker does with the idea of a new beginning for the character, especially considering the fact that he’s essentially been doing one 70+ issue storyline since the last time he relaunched the series –as well as Superman #713 (DC, $2.99), because I’m curious to see where the Man of Steel goes in my neck of the woods (presuming, of course, he gets there and someone at DC hasn’t taken offense at something else Chris Roberson has written this issue) and, completing an unconscious cycle, DC Comics Presents Gotham Noir (DC, $7.99), reprinting an early collaboration between Brubaker and Sean Philips that promises to be grim yet enjoyable reading.

If I had $30, I’d make a point of adding Ultimate Comics Fallout #1 (Marvel, $3.99), because I hope it’ll include something to make the “Death of Spider-Man” storyline so amazingly emotionally vapid, Green Lantern #67 (DC, $2.99) because I’m curious to see how that whole “War of The Green Lanterns” ended up–My bet? Hal is shown the box office take of the GL movie and has to face real fear for the first time–and X-Men: Schism #1 (Marvel, $4.99) because I am masochistic enough to be curious about how this particular Cyclops/Wolverine clash will differ from the seventy-nine similar clashes in their past.

Splurging this week for me will probably take the form of just buying all the books I’d meant to get for the last three weeks or so, but if I were to look at something from this week’s list, I’d probably take a look at the Bloom County To Mars: The Imagination of Berkeley Breathed catalog from the Cartoon Art Museum’s recent exhibit that IDW is making available in the direct market ($20)…

Chris Mautner

It’s a pretty quiet week for me, so if I had $15, I’d probably just stick with the 11th issue of Jeff Smith’s RASL.

If I had $30, I’d pick up the trade for Incognito: Bad Influences. There’s something about Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ work together that just really accentuates their particular strengths.

As far as Splurge items go, that Bloom County book that Graeme mentioned sounds rather intriguing, so let’s go with that.

Brigid Alverson

If I had $15, I’d spend the whole thing on the fourth volume of Cross Game ($14.99), Misturi Adachi’s charming story of boys and girls and baseball, packaged by Viz in a double-sized volume of almost 400 pages.

If I had $30, I’d take a chance on The Homeland Directive ($14.95), a new thriller out from Top Shelf that looks like it would make good summer reading.

My splurge is pretty modest this week: The third issue of Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors, which would be my first choice if the other books weren’t 15 bucks each. Nothing other than that is calling out to me, so I’ll save the rest of my splurge money for next week.

Michael May

Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown #2

If I had $15, I’d load up first on three different series I’m following: Flashpoint: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown #2 ($2.99), Alpha Flight #2 ($2.99), and Mystery Men #3 ($2.99). I’ve written about Alpha Flight and Mystery Men here before, so I’ll spare you, but Frankenstein has a great concept and Jeff Lemire did an excellent job on the first issue by drawing me in without making me feel like I needed to buy any other Flashpoint titles to follow his story. Next I’d add Defenders: From the Marvel Vault #1 ($2.99), because I’m curious and excited to see Kurt Busiek write a story over Mark Bagley’s art that was already produced from a Fabian Niceza script. That’s a crazy experiment that I wouldn’t pay money to see many people do, but Busiek…you bet. Finally, if I just had 50 cents more I’d grab the new RASL or BPRD, but I don’t, so I’ll buy All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold #9 ($2.99) instead. I’m not a big Hawkman fan, but B:tBatB has consistently been strong enough that it doesn’t have to rely on my affection for its guest-stars.

If I had $30, I’d add Casanova: Gula ($14.99) to see how it’s improved since I read it in single-issues from Image.

My splurge item this week wouldn’t be actual comics. Instead, I’d buy the Triton and Black Manta figurines from Eaglemoss ($14 each) and make them fight each other.

Brilliant #2

Over on his Facebook page, writer Brian Michael Bendis shares the cover to issue #2 of Brilliant, the new series he co-created with artist Mark Bagley for Marvel’s Icon line.

The comic, about a group of students who “invent” super powers, kicks off in July.

Marvel’s solicitations for July revealed a new/old project yesterday — Defenders: From the Marvel Vault #1 by Fabian Nicieza, Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley. Fans might remember that Busiek once worked with Erik Larsen on a Defenders title circa 2001. Busiek explains on his blog that the book’s editor, Tom Brevoort, had commissioned Nicieza and Bagley to do a fill-in issue just in case the regular team fell behind, and after Bagley drew it based on Nicieza’s plot, it went into a drawer, unscripted, and wasn’t used.

And when Marvel decided recently they wanted to publish it, Nicieza was unavailable to do it because he’s exclusive to DC. So they recruited Busiek, who wrote the script based on the art without a copy of Nicieza’s original plot (which Nicieza lost in a hard drive crash years ago):

So I have to come up with a story to fit the art. A new story. One that might bear some resemblance to what Fabian intended, at least at the big structural moments, but other than that, it’s wide open.

And as I keep looking through the art, I get an idea. A pretty demented idea, really, based on one cryptic panel late in the book (You’ll know it when you see it. The script for that panel is “HTNN–!”). But it’s an idea that, demented as it is, won’t go away. And actually, I’m thinking, it could be kinda fun…

I tell Fabian the idea, mostly as a joke. But he laughs, and says that it sounds like a hoot, and it might even be better than whatever his original story was.

And I tell Rachel Pinnelas, who’s editing it, and she cracks up, and says “Do it, do it.”

So I do it.

It’s not what Fabian plotted, not by any means. It’s very strange. It has a very old, very dumb joke about a hot dog vendor in it. It has the Hulk building sandcastles. A near-pointless cameo by Empress Lilandra. And I had a blast writing it.

It sounds like it oughta be fun to read for no other reason than to see what Busiek came up with.

C2E2

The second C2E2 convention, hosted by ReedPOP in Chicago, wrapped up yesterday. Here’s an attempt to round up all the comic-related news that was announced at various panels during the show. I’d be surprised if I didn’t miss something.

While Marvel and DC Comics were both in attendance and held multiple panels, Marvel dominated in terms of the number of announcements, which is no surprise — DC tends to favor announcing new projects and creative teams on their Source blog rather than at conventions these days. I only point this out after seeing the long list of Marvel announcements and the far fewer DC ones in my summary below.

• Marvel confirmed earlier reports by officially announcing the creative teams for the two “Big Shots” titles they’ve been teasing, Daredevil and The Punisher. Irredeemable/Amazing Spider-Man writer Mark Waid will pen Daredevil, with Amazing Spider-Man artists Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin illustrating.

“Tonally, it’s still very much a crime series, but we’re toning down the noir a bit and playing up the high adventure a bit more,” Waid told Comic Book Resources. “He’s the Man Without Fear. I want to see that constantly. I want to see him diving face-first into perils that would make Green Lantern shriek like a little girl.”

• Detective Comics/Whiteout writer Greg Rucka and Amazing Spider-Man/Daredevil artist Mark Checchetto, meanwhile, are the creative team for the new Punisher series, which is set in the Marvel Universe.

“At the start I’m less interested in dealing with the Punisher’s gallery of established rogues than I am with establishing a status quo,” Rucka told CBR. “Where I’m coming from will allow us to bring a couple of new organizations into New York and to set up some other criminal enterprises and adversarial forces that he could be facing, because frankly if you’re in the mob and you’re in New York you’re terribly dumb. At this point you really do know how that ends.”

• With Daredevil returning, what does that mean for the Black Panther, who took over his book after Shadowland? Fans of T’Challa have nothing to fear, as the Black Panther: The Man Without Fear series by David Liss and Francisco Francavilla will continue. The next story arc will feature Kraven the Hunter and Storm.

• Liss is also working on a new miniseries called Mystery Men for Marvel, which debuts in June. Drawn by Patrick Zircher, it features the Marvel Universe of 1932.

• Marvel also announced that writer Rob Williams and artist Matthew Clark are working on a new Ghost Rider series, which launches in June.

• That’s not the only new project announced for Williams — he’s also working on an Iron Man project called The Iron Age with artist Rebekah Isaacs.

• The Ultimate Spider-Man team of Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley are teaming up for a creator-owned series that will be published through Marvel’s Icon imprint. The book, called Brilliant, is about science students trying to create superpowers in a lab. It begins in July.

• At the Dynamite Entertainment panel, writer Garth Ennis revealed he’s working on a new Marvel book starring Nick Fury for their more adult-oriented MAX line.

Supreme POwer #1

• In other MAX news, Kyle Higgins and Manuel Garcia are working on a four-issue miniseries Supreme Power series that continues the stories began in J. Michael Straczysnki’s series of the same name.

• The Sixth Gun writer Cullen Bunn and Batgirl artist Lee Garbett are working on a Fear Itself tie-in called The Deep. It sort of stars the Defenders, as Namor calls on Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer and She-Hulk to help him out against some secret villains. “Suffice it to say, there is a villain Namor has faced before, a powerful group of villains with ties to the Defenders and some new threats who will be harrowing our heroes,” Bunn told CBR.

• Fred Van Lente will write another Fear Itself tie-in that hasn’t been officially announced yet. It will star Amadeus Cho and the new Power Man.

• Greg Pak will end his very long run on The Incredible Hulk with a storyline called “Heart of the Monster.”

• DC Comics revealed that as a result of the upcoming Flashpoint event, The Flash will end with issue #12.

• Dark Horse announced a new Star Wars: Dark Times miniseries, by Mick Harrison and Doug Wheatley. Like the previous one, it’s set in the time between Episodes III and IV of the movie franchise.

• Dynamite announced that Jesse Blaze Snyder will write a new series starring the Chaos Universe character Evil Ernie. Publisher Nick Barrucci said Evil Ernie will be the lynchpin of the new Chaos Universe, with other writers following Snyder’s lead.

• Dynamite also teased a possible Bionic Man comic book.

• DC Comics, Image, BOOM!, Dynamite and a number of other publishers have signed on with comiXology’s Digital Storefront Affiliate program.

• Dark Horse will publish another Mass Effect comic later this year.

• IDW announced that their Doctor Who comics are now available digitally.

• Avatar’s Boundless imprint will publish War Goddess by Mike Wolfer and Pao Rodrix, which stars Avatar heroines Pandora, Widow and Hellina.

• Oni Press announced a new graphic novel, One Soul, by Possessions creator Ray Fawkes.

And these of course are just the news bits … to find out who said what at which panel, check out CBR’s complete coverage of the con.

–Artist Pete Woods, offering a helpful suggestion on how to get the upcoming Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark Broadway musical back on track, now that artist Mark Bagley is once again working on Spider-Man.

Mark Bagley's Justice League

DC Comics announced on their Source blog today that James Robinson and Mark Bagley will take over the flagship Justice League title in October.

Robinson, of course, is no stranger to the franchise, having written the upcoming Cry for Justice mini-series that features a spin-off team led by Hal Jordan and Green Arrow. And Bagley just wrapped up a 52-issue stint on Trinity, which featured, well, just about everybody in the DC universe.

“It’s a thrill to be given the reins of DC’s flagship team book and to know that my partner in crime(fighting) will be the esteemed Mark Bagley who’s dynamic storytelling skills I intend to make full use of,” Robinson said. “It’s further exciting/gratifying for me that I can dove-tail the events of Cry For Justice into the main book where post-Blackest Night will emerge a new team and a new exciting direction as they get caught up in the next wave of events building throughout the DCU.”

Robinson replaces regular writer Dwayne McDuffie, whose last issue was #33. As we noted at the end of May, McDuffie was fired from the series. A story by Len Wein is currently running in the title.

Grumpy Old Fan

Although I wrote quite a lot over the past year about DC’s weekly series Trinity, I kept coming up with questions that went outside the scope of my weekly notes. Fortunately, writer Kurt Busiek was nice enough to participate in the following e-mail interview, conducted after Trinity concluded (and after he returned from a well- deserved vacation).

We discussed the nuts and bolts of producing Trinity, its connections to a couple of Busiek’s other DC projects, a few nitpicky items, and what the year-long series leaves behind.

* * *

TCB: How did the weekly format affect your approach? Did you feel obliged to pace the book so as to satisfy both the weekly audience and the “wait-for-traders?”

kdb: I always feel obligated to make a project satisfying in whatever formats it’s planned for. So yes, we wanted each individual issue to be an enjoyable read, and we wanted each trade paperback volume to be an enjoyable read. Which was a little tricky, since we didn’t know, going into it, whether it would be collected as 4 TPBs (meaning the volumes would end at #13, 26, 39, and 52) or 3 TPBs (meaning #17, #34 or 35, and #52).*

That said, we were aware that with a weekly schedule, it’s only 7 days to the next chapter, so if one week is light on action (or virtually all action), that would likely be balanced out by the next installment. Or maybe even by the story in the co-feature.

TCB: What sorts of decisions went into breaking the series into individual two-story issues? Were there any labor considerations, for example to give the artists time to rest up for the next crowd scene? Did you and Fabian Nicieza write particular second stories for particular art teams?

kdb: We did try to juggle things for the strengths of the various co-feature artists, yes. But we had flexibility there, because we had enough lead time so that we didn’t have to have them in strict rotation. If we needed two chapters in a row from Scott [McDaniel], for instance, we’d just have to make sure we were plotted far enough ahead that while he was working on chapter one of two, Tom [Derenick] and Mike [Norton] had their own chapters to work on. As a result, the co-feature chapters didn’t come in in order, but we had enough time that we didn’t need them to; we could juggle talent and material and match them up right.

As a rough rule of thumb, we started out giving Scott spooky stuff or crime stuff, Tom big superhero action and Mike “people” stories, but varied that around as we got more of a sense of what they could do. Tom turned out to be very good at space stuff, for instance, and Scott far better at “cosmic/trippy” stuff than anyone might have imagined, possibly even him. By the end of it, we were making sure he got the psychedelic stuff, because we knew he’d knock it out of the park, while at the start we were thinking of him for shadows and mood…

TCB: Especially considering the artists’ deadline pressures, I thought Trinity‘s art was consistently good. Among other things, I feel like I’ve been to Thayer’s Notch now that I’ve seen it drawn by Mark Bagley and Art Thibert; and I was very impressed by Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens’ psychedelic Worldsoul/Krona story. Not that you had low expectations for the art, but were there any scenes or sequences which looked better than you’d written them?

kdb: I agree with you on the art being consistently good — credit the artists, of course, but also credit Mike Carlin, for lining up such a good squad of guys and making sure to manage their schedules right.

As for which scenes looked better than I imagined, I’m tempted to say “All of them.” Getting pages in was a treat, because everyone found ways to go a little further, make it a bit bigger, or funnier, or more affecting. From giant battles to big mystery to chapters like that great Norton/Kesel chapter about the Riddler, which was just perfectly paced, it was a pleasure all the way through.

TCB: Mike Carlin edited most of Countdown, and worked on the “weekly” Superman titles of the ’90s. Was he more helpful with regard to the logistics of the book or the creative aspects?

kdb: Mike weighed in on the big-picture stuff, going over the outlines, the big ideas and so on, but when it came to the chapter-by-chapter stuff, Fabian and I had a pretty good sense of how to play it out, and Mike rarely asked for changes. So I’d say that after the big story decisions had been made, he was very supportive creatively, and had to be the scheduling logistics taskmaster more often than anything else. And his experience juggling a large creative team helped out a lot.

TCB: What was it like collaborating with Fabian? How much input did he have into those scripts, and/or the book’s overall direction?

kdb: Fabian was insanely helpful. On the one hand, Fabian and I have worked together in a lot of different situations, going back to when he was a promotions manager at Marvel and I was a sales manager. We get along, we have a similar enough sensibility that we can pretty easily pull in the same direction, and he’s an inventive and professional writer. One of the reasons Mike didn’t need to involve himself all that much in the chapter-by-chapter plotting was that we pretty much had it covered — Fabian was kind of an extra story editor, where I could call him up and bounce ideas off him, and get feedback and suggestions from someone deeply involved in the story, who wasn’t pulled in a million directions at once by other emergencies.

At the same time, Fabian brought tons of creativity and no ego to the process — he knew going in that I’d be basically driving the bus, and his job was to help. I probably trampled all over his stuff dozens of times, replotting co-features, tweaking the dialogue so much that at points it amounted to rewriting rather than co-writing — but it was all in the service of keeping the two pieces of the issue together and working at speed; it’s simply easier, sometimes, to rewrite rather than talk all the details through.

So in the end, the credits are a bit misleading. Fabian’s name doesn’t appear on the lead chapters, but he was essentially a contributing writer on those, a sounding board, a suggestion guy and more. And my name is only listed as co-plotter on the co-features, but I had a lot more input than that. It was very organic — we were on the phone a lot and figured things out together. So I was driving the bus, but Fabian was co-pilot, or something. He had a number of very good suggestions, pushing me to think harder about Gangbuster and Enigma and others, and making sure I didn’t set something up and then let it fade away when it should play a larger role. He’s had a lot more experience with gang-written books than I do, so he saw pitfalls and structural issues sooner than I did, and kept us from falling prey to them.

And then I’d rewrite all his stuff; what an ingrate!

TCB: Appropriately enough, Trinity itself seems to be the third part of a trilogy, wrapping up storylines from JLA/Avengers and JLA‘s “Syndicate Rules.” How much of what became Trinity did you have in mind when you were writing the earlier stories?

kdb: Almost none of it. We put Krona in the Egg at the end of JLA/Avengers because it seemed like a good place to leave him, somewhere that could lead to something rich, but we hadn’t figured out what, yet. And then in “Syndicate Rules,” we didn’t do a lot with the Egg itself, but built up ideas like the Void Hound, or the CSA’s favor- bank rules, knowing that they’d be paid off later, but again, not precisely how. So it’s more a case of putting things into places that feel like a satisfying resolution for the moment, but have a built-in springboard for further explanation. It’s more about knowing that there’s stuff you can do that’ll work than knowing exactly what stuff that’ll be.

TCB: Apart from simply being shorter, do you think Trinity would have been significantly different as, say, an arc in Superman or JLA?

kdb: Oh, it’d have to be. Keep in mind that the JLA doesn’t turn up until #3, and then is erased from reality for the middle third of the story. If it was a JLA story, we’d have gotten tons of complaints from people who thought we were using JLA as a vehicle to ram the Trinity down everyone’s throats, at the expense of the rest of the League, and then that we weren’t even letting the League be part of their own book. So it’d have had to have been a much, much different story.

Same for if it was in Superman – it’s not a straight Superman story; it’s a story that has Superman as one of the main characters. So to build it more fully around him would change a lot. It doesn’t really fit any existing DC book — to properly describe it, it’s either a book about the Trinity, with a whole bunch of guest stars, or a book about the DCU Universe, with a special focus on the Trinity. So if you don’t call it Trinity, you need to call it DCU or DC Nation or something like that. (It was originally pitched, by the way, as “DC Superstars: Starring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman….and The DC Universe!” Which would have fit pretty well, as it worked out.)

TCB: It seemed to me that Trinity shared some of its story structure, at least superficially, with JLA/Avengers. Both stories begin with a quest to gather certain powerful items, which are then used to create an alternate timeline. Although the two stories have their differences, are the similarities just coincidental?

kdb: I think they’re coincidence. The quest-for-power-objects part of JLA/Avengers was there to help make it a travelogue/showcase of the two universes, an excuse to have a lot of fun locations for the fights. In Trinity, it was the villains going after power-objects, and that was to set up the building mystery of the Tarot connections and the personal items that were used in the Trinity spell.

TCB: Another JLA/Avengers question. In JLA/Avengers, I got the feeling you were lamenting the heroes’ various personal tragedies, and saying that no matter how appealing it looked, the combined DC/ Marvel timeline was just a pipe dream. Here, though, the experience of the deified Trinitarians suggests that the characters’ tragedies are inevitable, and perhaps even necessary. What do these stories say about the usefulness of these events?

kdb: In JLA/Avengers, the “tragedies” you’re referring to were things like the Scarlet Witch losing her children, or Hal and Barry being dead — I’d call that the kind of upheaval and calamity that happened to the heroes over the course of their careers, but which they had to accept as their burden to bear to restore the world to what they should be. In Trinity, you mean the legends, with the death of Robin and the Max Lord thing and such, right? I don’t know that we’re saying those are necessary, merely that they were big events that sent the heroes off into directions that isolated them, and they had to overcome those and reconnect with their true missions, rather than obsessing about personal failures.

TCB: Apart from those tragedies, how important generally was it to tell a story about these particular versions of the characters? Was it simply a case of using what had been established and/or what was current? Could you have gotten the same points across with more “timeless” versions?

kdb: I think they were reasonably timeless versions. We didn’t dwell all that hard on minor details — we used recent history in the legend stuff, but we used it in the process of illustrating who the characters are at their core. In another era, with different histories, those legends would have been different, but I’m sure we’d have found ways to say what we needed to say.

TCB: Were there any characters who, for whatever reason, didn’t make the final cut? (Personally, I was a little surprised not to see the “Sword of Atlantis” Aquaman.)

kdb: DC didn’t seem to know what they were going to do with Aquaman, so even though I created that version, I didn’t want to force him into the story. The big loss, to my mind, was Metron — we’d set up that Metron was interested in what would happen to the Cosmic Egg, and then couldn’t use him as we saw it play out because the New Gods were off-limits due to Final Crisis.

And we couldn’t use Madame Xanadu, because of her Vertigo series, but that meant that Charity got to play a role, which spun the story a bit differently, and that was fun.

Overall, though, we got to use most everyone we wanted to.

TCB: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are each inspired by their parents in very different ways. However, Trinity didn’t really concern itself with those differences. Why not?

kdb: It didn’t really come up. We could have made that another aspect of their trinitarianity, if that’s even a word — Superman was raised by loving parents, Batman’s an orphan, Wonder Woman had a single Mom; Superman’s adopted, Batman’s a natural son, Wonder Woman was created…but after a while adding more details starts to feel like you’re just piling them on, not going deeper into the characters.

There certainly stuff there to explore, and maybe someone will do a story about it. But we had enough going on that we didn’t need to add that in, too.

TCB: Here are a couple of really nit-picky questions about the altered timeline. First, why did Hal Jordan become Sky-Knight if John Stewart was still Green Lantern? I take it Hal quit because he couldn’t operate as GL on Earth, leaving John to be the GL of Sector 2814 everywhere but Earth. Also, why did Interceptor wear those goggles?

kdb: Interceptor’s visor has hi-tech sensors in it — it allowed her military bosses to observe what she saw; to see and hear what she did. Part of her being an agent of the government rather than a solo act. Hal Jordan quit being Green Lantern at some point and then built a new identity to keep being a hero, and John became our sector’s GL. Neither of these really came up, but like you say, it’s nit-picky. Given the way comics work, we could see either character again and learn more about them, I suppose. I really got to like Interceptor, and would love to see Supergirl meet her, in a compare/contrast story. Each one would think the other’s life was unbearable; it could be a lot of fun.

TCB: He only popped up briefly here, so where might we see Khyber again?

kdb: Anywhere! He’s out there, but he’s very secretive, so he could pop up anywhere, or stay under the radar for years. He could make a good JLA villain, or get involved with some espionage/intrigue characters, or whatever. We hinted at him in “Syndicate Rules,” by the way, when I was planning him as a JLA villain. But I don’t think anyone noticed.

TCB: The Tarot plays a pretty significant part in the story, especially early on. I imagine that is the kind of thing you want to get right, because you’ll probably have some readers who will know if you got it wrong. Did you have to do a lot of research before you felt comfortable with it? Did you consult any experts?

kdb: Fabian and I got a number of reference books, and used those — I sort of delegated much of that to him, because, well, I was juggling so much stuff I didn’t have the time to be more than cursory about it, and he was willing….

TCB: Trinity works in a lot of Clark’s co-workers from his pre-Crisis days as a TV anchorman. That seemed to me to indicate a fondness for the Cary Bates/Elliott Maggin/Curt Swan era of Superman. Apart from your own work on the Trinitarians, and the ways they’re being handled currently, to whom do you look for inspiration for each of these characters?

kdb: Everyone. I’m not looking to recreate any particular era, and my Superman, for instance, is informed by what Weisinger and his crew did, what Julie [Schwartz]‘s creative staff did, what Byrne and Stern and Jurgens and Ordway and others did…. I like the Bronze Age Superman a lot, especially the Cary Bates issues, but when I write Superman it’s a synthesis of all the stuff I like about Superman over the years. I don’t try to hit particular notes, I simply have a sense of who the character is from reading all those comics, and that guy in my head is the guy I try to get on paper. Same for Batman and Wonder Woman … I’m a big fan of Englehart’s Batman, for instance, but I’m not specifically trying to capture that, it’s just one piece of the mosaic that makes up Batman to me. Wonder Woman’s history is a lot more fragmented, so I suppose I’m more guided by the stuff from what George [Perez] did to what Gail [Simone] is doing today, but there’s certainly parts of the Bronze and Silver Age Wonder Woman in there, stuff that resonates with me and feels appropriate to who she is today.

TCB: Any immediate plans for Trinity‘s supporting cast, including Konvikt, Tarot and Gangbuster, Enigma and Stephie/Void Hound, and Tomorrow Woman?

kdb: I can’t say, at present. I hope we’ll see a lot of them — including the Dreambound — but if there are plans I’m not at liberty to announce them, and if there aren’t I’m too sneaky to admit it.

TCB: Finally, can you share what’s next for the new Earth-Trinity? Should we call it “Earth One,” or was that just a wink to fans of the old Multiverse?

kdb: “Earth One” was a deliberate choice, and done in part at DC’s request. There’s definitely more than a wink going on there.

But again, I can’t say, at present, what it’s leading to…

kdb

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* [It turned out to be 3 volumes, with vol. 2 covering issues #18-35 -- TCB]