Frank Miller and Eva Mendes (photo by UGO.com's Dr. Know)

He's one of the most influential comics creators of all time (and my personal favorite, might I add), but Frank Miller has kept a pretty low profile since the critical and box-office failure of his adaptation of Will Eisner's The Spirit last Christmas. He's reportedly continued to work on scripts for his Jim Lee collaboration All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder and the sequel to the Sin City film adaptation he co-directed with Robert Rodriguez; and of course there's his long-gestating graphic novel that may or may not be about Batman fighting al Qaeda and may or may not be called Holy Terror, Batman! But whatever he's been up to, he's been up to it incommunicado, turning down requests for interviews.

That's why you may be surprised to discover where he has been publicly speaking, albeit in brief snippets: the blog of neoconservative pundit and military historian Victor Davis Hanson. Hanson and Miller have been friendly for years, with Miller using Hanson's work on ancient Greece as a reference for his Eisner-winning comic 300 and Hanson returning the favor by providing an introduction for 300: The Art of the Film.

Miller's comments at Hanson's online hangout were first widely noticed this week, when the cartoonist and director responded to a Hanson post complaining that pervasive liberal influence and cultural decadence had driven him away from the bulk of American popular entertainment. Miller's comment-thread response encouraged Hanson to take heart, noting the talents of several Sin City, 300, and The Spirit stars, as well as action-franchise leads like Matt Damon, Daniel Craig, and Harrison Ford. Miller went on to invite Hanson to a get-together with the Friends of Abe, a group founded by actor Gary Sinise as a sort of support system for conservatively inclined Hollywood talent.

Doing a little detective work, Comics Commentary's Rodrigo Baeza dug up several more comments from Miller at Hanson's blog. The topics range from the casting of Gabriel Macht in The Spirit's lead role to how "horrible for my country [the then-pending election of Barack Obama] will be" to later asking that people at least give Obama a chance before freaking out to railing against anonymous commenters. (Click over to Baeza's blog for a best-of collection.)

Agree or disagree, Miller's comments (and indeed his very choice of venue) provide an interesting insight into the current state of mind of a comics giant who's been working at more and more of a remove from the ebb and flow of comics culture.

"Truth: Red, White & Black" star Isaiah Bradley, by Joe Quesada

With its unique blend of Marvel-minutiae mastery and near-total frankness, Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort's Blah Blah Blog on Marvel.com tends to be an extraordinary document even on days when it's not touching the third rail of fanboy politics. But in his most recent post, Brevoort does exactly that, addressing the question of why, despite having a great big universe at its disposal, Marvel's comics tend to star white dudes from the U.S. of A.

Responding to a reader question regarding the difficulty of sustaining books with international leads, like Captain Britain & MI:13 or Alpha Flight, Brevoort expands the issue, likening the situation to the plight faced by "series with female leads, or African-American leads, or leads of any other particular cultural bent":

Because we're an American company whose primary distribution is centered around America, the great majority of our existing audience seems to be white American males. So while within that demographic you'll find people who are interested in a wide assortment of characters of diverse ethnicities and backgrounds, whenever your leads are white American males, you've got a better chance of reaching more people overall.

Interestingly, Brevoort seems to view "American" as a far more key component for a book's success than "white" or "male": He goes on to speculate that books whose leads are black or female and American will have an easier go of it than books whose leads are white and male but foreign.

There's an awful lot to chew on in there, from the assessment of Marvel's audience to the characterization of their interests to the comparison of international characters with women or minority characters to the whole chicken-egg question of which came first, the demographic or the subject matter. Is Brevoort's analysis a common-sense observation, a self-fulfilling prophecy, or something else entirely? What do you think?

Political Power: Ted Kennedy

In what likely will be viewed as either extremely poor timing or a crass grab for cash, Bluewater Productions yesterday announced its biography of long-ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy mere hours before his death.

The 77-year-old Massachusetts senator was diagnosed with a brain tumor in May 2008, and lived longer than his doctors expected.

In a statement issued this morning, Bluewater President Darren G. Davis said the biography's announcement "was in no way tied to the Senator's declining health and ultimate passing."

"When Bluewater planned out the first year of biographies, Kennedy's name was always at the top of the list," Davis said. "In fact, this issue has been in production since March and was solicited to retail shops through our national distributor in June. We will, of course, pay final respects to this American icon by adding a page to the completed issue to close the last chapter of his remarkable life."

Set for release in November, the biography is part of the publisher's Political Power series that has showcased such figures as President Obama, Vice President Biden, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and President Reagan.

In June, Bluewater announced a "special collector's edition" biography of Michael Jackson just four days after the pop star's death -- a move that drew more than a few negative comments.

Who says comics can't help change the world? Here's a 25-page manual designed to help teach the Afghan people about the recent election process, the candidates and the issues at hand. Why doesn't someone do something like this for the health care debate? (found via Boing Boing)

Weird Fishes

Publishing | The cover story of this week's Metro Silicon Valley focuses on San Jose-based SLG Publishing, the state of the comics market and the company's upcoming lineup, including Winchester, Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer and Weird Fishes.

"The sale of a couple of thousand copies of an independent comic book is a great success now," says publisher Dan Vado. "There are fewer comic-book stores around since Amazon; indie comic-book shops are closing everywhere. The Chinese publishers, who used to turn up their noses at a small order of a couple of thousand books, are accepting them now. Comic-book publishers are having the same problem trying to find a digital business model as any other publishers, book or newspaper. Digital advertising doesn't pay like print advertising, and customers are installing ad-blocking software." [Metro Active]

Politics | Two Shanghai-based Iranians continue to defy government authorities with Persepolis 2.0, a webcomic that "remixes" and updates Marjane Satrapi's award-winning graphic novel with captions referring to this year's disputed election. Satrapi isn't involved with the project, but has given her blessing. [AFP]

Publishing | Jacq Cohen, publicity coordinator for Dark Horse, has been hired as a publicist by Fantagraphics Books. [The Comics Reporter]

D23 Expo

Conventions | BOOM! Studios, which holds several Disney comics licenses, apparently will have a presence at the big D23 Expo -- "the ultimate Disney fan experience" -- set for Sept. 10-13 in Anaheim, Calif. [press release]

Conventions | This is a pretty good Comiket 101 piece for those why the twice-yearly Tokyo convention is such a big deal. [Akibanana, via Journalista]

Creators | I was happy to see this nice, but brief, profile of cartoonist Kate Beaton in her local newspaper. [The Coast]

Creators | Laura Hudson speaks at length with writer Greg Rucka about his new Oni Press graphic novel Stumptown: "Stumptown is -- I suppose the bluntest way to put it is, if Queen and Country was me using a childhood love of espionage and things like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and James Bond and Ian Mackintosh's Sandbaggers, then Stumptown comes out of the childhood love of The Hardy Boys and The Rockford Files, Simon and Simon and Magnum, P.I. That's what this is." [Comics Alliance]

Creators | Brian Heater wraps up his three-part interview with cartoonist Seth. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

FVZA #1

Creators | Writer David Hine talks about his new Radical Comics series FVZA: Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency. [Fangoria]

Creators | Cartoonist John Allison officially pins down Sept. 11 for the end of his popular webcomic Scary Go Round. A new, still-secret series will launch in its place on Sept. 14. [Scary Go Round]

Creators | Cartoonist and editor Shaenon K. Garrity offers self-publishing advice. [Comixology]

Manga | David Welsh lists a handful of DC Comics properties that he'd like to see receive the manga treatment, a la X-Men: Misfits. I'd be all over a Blue Devil book. [Precocious Curmudgeon]

Crime | An Australian man who spent 15 years in prison for handcuffing and torturing a married couple -- the judge said the crime had "shades of A Clockwork Orange" -- is now in trouble for allegedly selling collection of stolen Punisher and Phantom comics. In case we miss the connection, the newspaper poins out that, "The Punisher comics feature a gun-toting, knife-wielding vigilante who tortures and kills the criminals he encounters." [Adelaide Now]

Crime | A comics-themed hooded sweatshirt may hold the key to the identity of the masked man who robbed the (ahem) Ding Dong Dang Dairy outside of Auckland, New Zealand. The suspect discarded his knife, leather jacket and distinctive hoodie as he fled the scene. [North Shore Times]

Crime | Man, the intersection of comics and crime is out of control today. And weird. The investigation of the murder of a hotel heir in Florida has revealed "tales of kinky sex, catfights and Batman." Specifically, a collection of Batman comics and memorabilia. [ABC News]

Comiket 76

Conventions | Think Comic-Con International is crowded? Comiket 76, last weekend's installment of Tokyo's twice-yearly comics fair, drew a reported 560,000 attendees -- 10,000 more than last summer's event. Comiket is held for three days in August and December at Tokyo's Big Sight convention center. [Sankuka Complex, Anime News Network]

Publishing | Sales of comics in the direct market increased in July for the second month in a row -- up 3 percent from July 2008 -- while the Top 100 graphic novels dropped 11 percent for the same period.

Marvel and DC's summer events led the comics chart, with Captain America: Reborn #1 selling an estimated 193,142 copies, followed by Blackest Night #1 with 177,105. The 13th, and final, volume of 100 Bullets topped the graphic novels list with 8,700 copies. [ICv2.com]

"Obama Joker"

Politics | The Los Angeles Times has uncovered the identity of the person behind the "Obama Joker" image that made the rounds earlier this month: Twenty-year-old Chicagoan Firas Alkhateeb used an online tutorial to "Jokerize" the Time magazine cover, but someone else coopted his Photoshop experiment for those "socialism" posters. [Top of the Ticket]

Publishing | Vertigo announced that next year it will reissue Howard Cruse's 1995 graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby with an introduction by cartoonist Alison Bechdel. The award-winning tale about homosexuality and racism in the 1960s American South originally was published by DC Comics' Paradox Press imprint. [Graphic Content]

Comic strips | Amazon.com and Andrews McMeel Universal have launched "Comic Strip Superstar," an international competition to find "the next popular comic strip artist." The winner receives a $5,000 advance from Universal Uclick and a monthly stipend for the development of 20 strips to be considered for syndication. The deadline for entries is Sept. 12. [press release]

Steve Ditko

Publishing | Sean Collins weaves an oral history of Marvel Comics using quotes from such notables as Stan Lee, Joe Simon, Gary Groth, Louise Simonson, Jim Steranko, Jim Shooter and Len Wein. "Really, I’m not sure what the hell happened with Jack Steve [Ditko] quitting," Lee says. "I was the face of the company, and I’m guessing he felt, 'Jesus, we’re doing this together, and he’s getting so much credit.' Again, I’m guessing — he never said why he left. I asked him once, and he said, 'You should know!'" [Maxim.com]

Publishing | Archie Comics sure is getting a lot of promotional mileage out of the Archie-Veronica wedding storyline. [Edmonton Journal]

Conventions | Policing and traffic-control services by the San Diego Police Department cost Comic-Con International some $63,400. [Eye on Comics]

Retailing | Honolulu TV station KHNL looks at the state of direct-market outlets on Oahu, where just four comic stores remain. "It's been a rapid decline for like four years, our orders have been smaller compared to back in the early '90s," says Antonio Ramos, manager of Jelly's Comics. [KHNL]

Creators | Pádraig Ó Méalóid asks several comics-industry figures, from Neil Gaiman to Paul Cornell to Leah Moore, what they think of the term "graphic novel." [Livejournal, via Forbidden Planet International]

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge

Creators | Josh Neufeld discusses the making of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. [American-Statesman]

Creators | David Lloyd is briefly profiled during an appearance in Frankfort, Illinois. [The Frankfort Station]

Creators | Alan J. Porter talks about writing the Cars comics for BOOM! Studios' Disney/Pixar line: "The first challenge was to get past the fact that the stars were two-ton boxes of metal and get to know them as characters. To do that I often put the movie on, then lie down on the sofa with my eyes shut and just listen to the dialog and the interplay between them, that way they come alive as characters. Once I have the character voices and personalities in my mind the fact that they are cars and trucks becomes incidental from an overall story telling point of view." [Disney Comics Worldwide]

Pop culture | Retailer Christopher Butcher ponders the significance of the New People J-Pop complex, which opened over the weekend in San Francisco. [Comics 212]

Comics | Ryan Burton, who's penning the biography of Twilight author Stephenie Meyer for Bluewater Productions, all but confirms the comic will be narrated by Dracula: "I know there are lots and lots and lots (lots of lots) of fans who want it to be a certain vampire, but that’s Stephenie’s vampire, isn’t it? I can’t steal him. So we’re dealing with a worldly vampire in our story; someone much more menacing. Someone who’s been around for a bit longer. That might be the biggest hint I can give you..." [Twilight Treasury, via Good Comics For Kids]

Disturbing thing, innit?

As you've no doubt already seen, the above Obama/Joker mash-up has been making the rounds lately; it's been posted up on placards and utility poles in Los Angeles and gotten the attention of quite a few bloggers.

According to Politics Daily, it also got the attention of radio personality Rush Limbaugh, who found the comparison apt:

[The Joker] had a big damn chip on his shoulder about his childhood and about a bunch of other things. His goal was to undermine the whole system. . . . And to effect the change that the people of Gotham City didn't want, the Joker created chaos upon chaos. The whole city was focused on him and what he was going to do next. He viewed crisis as an opportunity. So the Joker orchestrated crisis after crisis after crisis. And the Joker wore a mask. I mean whoever put this poster together is pretty smart because there are some similarities here to what the Joker did in that movie and what Obama is doing to this country.

Well, actually that story about his childhood was probably a lie, but never mind. I bring this up, because, apparently Limbaugh found a similar caricature of Bush, done by Drew Friedman for Vanity Fair magazine to be not only sub-par, but an example of left-wing hypocrisy because it didn't prompt any outrage when it ran last year.

Outrage or not, one thing is clear. That make-up doesn't look good on anyone.

As you might remember from Wednesday, the New Organizing Institute is running a training course this week for organizers and campaigners on technologically-enabled organizing. This training includes a mock-election of eight Superhero candidates for mayor of Washington, D.C.

Well, today is election day in the country's fake capitol; you can cast your vote here for which candidate you think would make the best mayor.

I still stand behind my endorsement of Green Lantern, who I think made a lot of great points on his site, but in the interest of fairness here are the other candidates he's running against:

• Atom
• Batgirl
• Batwoman
• Cyborg
• Green Lantern
• Spider-Man
• Superman
• Wonder Woman

The polls close in about an hour and a half, so vote while you can!

Update: Via email, the New Organizing Institute announces that Wonder Woman is the winner. Congrats to her campaign team, and to the Green Lantern folks for putting up the good fight and coming in third after the Atom.

San Diego Convention Center

Conventions | San Diego and its convention center are fending off suitors for Comic-Con International, which generates some $16 million in direct spending for the city. Helen Kaiao Chang reports on some of the behind-the-scenes wrangling to keep the convention away from Los Angeles and Las Vegas, even as "the homegrown event ... [busts] at the seams" of the San Diego venue.

"We’re working hard to keep them in San Diego," says one convention center official. "The economic impact to San Diego is profound." [San Diego News Network]

Publishing | After round after round of firings, Wizard has announced two promotions and a new hire. Longtime staff member Mike Cotton has been promoted from managing editor to editor while Andy Serwin has moved from assistant managing editor to features editor.

The magazine also has hired Casey Seijas as managing editor. Seijas previously worked at Wizard as a writer and editor before moving on to Vertigo, where he edited Hellblazer and assisted on numerous other titles. He left the DC Comics imprint in summer 2008 to co-edit MTV's new Splash Page blog, but was let go a few months later in a round of Viacom layoffs. He stayed on as a free-lance writer. [Wizard]

Scary Go Round

Webcomics | Cartoonist John Allison has confirmed he'll end his long-running webcomic Scary Go Round in September, in part to begin a new project that will provide a fresh entry point for readers, but also over concerns that the webcomics "game" has become "more fierce."

"Four years ago, a webcomic with a readership in the tens of thousands, a couple of book collections and a few chippy tshirts would keep you in the hay most months of the year," Allison writes on his blog. "But now the market is oversaturated with 'product' in, arguably, all three of those categories and I have to take a risk and raise my game. I've said it before but I don't want to be knocking on 40 with only a long-in-the-tooth internet strip to keep my (as yet unborn) babies in school coats and shoes."

The paranormal comedy launched in 2002 in the wake of Bobbins, Allison's earlier comic that featured most of the same main characters. Seven print collections of Scary Go Round have been released since 2003. The upcoming eighth book will be the last. The Webcomic Overlook provides commentary. [John Allison's blog]

Naruto, Vol. 45

Sales charts | Final Crisis and Watchmen maintain the top spots in the hardcover and paperback categories of The New York Times Graphic Books Best Seller List, while the 45th volume of Naruto replaces Bleach, Vol. 27, as the No. 1 manga. [ArtsBeat]

Publishing | The Weekly Standard's Jonathan V. Last examines, with some disdain, how Obamamania has gripped the comics industry. He notes that while other presidents have appeared in comic books, none has received the Obama-style treatment: "What's different about Mr. Obama's triumphant march through comics is (1) the sheer volume of his appearances, month after month; and (2) the worshipful attitude toward him. The main characters gape and stutter in his presence, overwhelmed by his magnificence. He's even drawn iconically. Where other presidents have been penciled either realistically or satirically, Mr. Obama mostly gets the superhero treatment with bulging muscles and jutting jaw line." [The Wall Street Journal]

Events | Trevor Hunnicut previews Saturday's ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly restored Cleveland home where a teen-aged Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman. [Cleveland Plain Dealer]

Awards | The Joe Madureira-created video game Darksiders is the title sponsor of the 2009 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, which will be presented July 24 during Comic-Con International. [press release]

Creators | Writer David Gallaher chats briefly about his Zuda Comics Western High Moon: "The theme of ‘an unchanging man in a changing time’ sort of stuck with me, and the story came out of that. With few exceptions, I hate Westerns ... and with this project, I was able to write a Western that I enjoyed creating and enjoyed reading." [The Oklahoman]

Green Lantern for Mayor

This post on Ecocomics left me scratching my head over why Kyle Rayner was running for mayor of Washington, D.C., or why someone would set up a snazzy-looking website for him. I mean, sure; I'd pick Kyle over Hal or Guy (but not John Stewart) any day for mayor, and like I said, it's a snazzy-looking site, and he does have the endorsement of the Flash, but what's up with the site? Is it some kind of viral marketing thing for the upcoming Green Lantern movie, or maybe an ad for a sequel to DCU Decisions?

Then I find out Kyle's not running unopposed. It appears Spider-Man is also in the race. As is Superman. And the Atom. Even Batwoman, who is apparently for bird equality in D.C.

As it turns out, the sites are part of the New Organizing Institute's BootCamp, where attendees are tasked with running their own mayoral campaigns for fictional characters as part of their training. You can find a full list of the sites they've created here.

And while I was hoping I could throw my own endorsement out there for Batwoman, her stance on bird equality sounds just a little too crackpot for me. So Kyle it is -- Green Lantern gets my vote.