Throwing our lot in with “graphic novels” as the focus of the store years ago as opposed to “pop culture,” “superheroes” and associated merchandise seems to have been a winning strategy for this past decade. I don’t know if it was motivated by market insight so much as the fact I am passionate about comics as a medium but have limited personal interest in contemporary pop culture or toys, etc. With an e-book future ahead, I’m not sure if this will continue to pay off.

—Peter Birkemoe, owner of Toronto’s much-beloved comics shop The Beguiling (which is also a thriving original art dealership and co-sponsor of the Toronto Comic Art Festival), on the pros and cons of his store’s approach to the comics medium. I like the way Birkemoe frames his store’s business model as a matter of personal preference rather than a declaration that it’s the One True Path; I like the concise way he describes it, because when the decision was made it wasn’t so much brilliantly simple as riskily simple; and I’m a bit dismayed by his concerns about the digital future, which I’d never really considered as an obstacle for excellent stores like The Beguiling in quite that way before.

The quote comes from Tom Spurgeon’s holiday interview with Birkemoe, which is well worth your time in its entirety, even if only for the image of store manager and longtime blogosphere fixture Christopher Butcher being sent out into the world on various missions like the funnybook James Bond to Birkemoe’s M.

As I continue to wait patiently for word that I can put a Snoopy license plate on my car out here in California, Andy Khouri at ComicsAlliance brings word that Australians in the state of Victoria will soon be able to sport DC Comics heroes on theirs.

The character plates include Superman, Supergirl, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Green Lantern, and for all but the Flash, you can choose a plate that either features the hero or their associated logo. Or, in the case of Supergirl, a pink license plate. As Khouri points out, the plates will sport images taken directly from the DC Comics Style Guide circa 1982, drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Dick Giordano, rather than the recently redesigned “New 52″ versions of the characters. They’ll become available on Nov. 30, along with several Looney Tunes plates.

Check out the plate after the jump, and for more information, visit the Vic Road Custom Plates website.

*****

Free Comic Book Day

Retailing | More than 1 million customers visited participating stores on Free Comic Book Day, according to a survey conducted by Diamond Comic Distributors. More than 2.4 million of the record 2.7 million comics ordered by retailers were handed out. What’s more, nearly 54 percent of stores saw higher profits than usual for a Saturday, while more than 37 percent reported higher profits than on a typical Wednesday. [ICv2.com]

Awards | Bob Haney and Del Connell will receive the 2011 Bill Finger Award for Achievement in Comic Book Writing, established in honor of the late writer, considered the “unsung hero” of Batman. Haney, who passed away, in 2004, is best remembered as co-creator of the Doom Patrol and Metamorpho and for his work on DC titles like The Brave and the Bold, Teen Titans and Aquaman. Connell, who began his career at Disney Studios working on such animated projects as Alice in Wonderland and The Three Caballeros, became a prolific writer and, eventually, editor-in-chief at Western Publishing. He also wrote the Mickey Mouse comic strips for more than 20 years. Connell, 94, will accept his award July 22 during the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International. [Comic-Con]

Comic-Con International

Comic-Con | Organizers of Comic-Con International met the June 2 deadline to submit an application for a business license in La Mesa, Calif., where the nonprofit group has operated for the past five years. However, a local writer seems bothered that the organization, which lists assets of more than $7 million, isn’t required to pay a fee — $35, plus $3 per employee — for its business license. [Patch.com]

Retailing | A water main next to Mostly Comics in St. Catharines, Ontario, burst last week, damaging an estimated 250,000 back issues stored in the basement. [The Standard]

Conventions | Local newspapers preview the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, which kicks off this afternoon in Alberta, Canada. Comic guests include Neal Adams, Kate Beaton, Amanda Conner, Danielle Corsetto, Geof Darrow, Kathryn Immonen, Stuart Immonen, Scott Kurtz, Jeff Lemire, Francis Manapul, Mike Mignola, Dustin Nguyen, Ethan Nicolle, Cary Nord, Tim Sale, Gail Simone, Fiona Staples and Cameron Stewart. [Calgary Sun, Calgary Herald]

Fables, Vol. 14

Creators | Bill Willingham talks Fables and fairy tales: “With my Elementals series, I was one of the lesser known pioneers (at the same time as Frank Miller with Daredevil and then Dark Knight, and Alan Moore with Marvelman and then Watchmen) of serious, realistic takes on superheroes. As much as I like some of what I did back then, I’ve come to a complete turnaround on my philosophy of what makes a good superhero story. The more we tried to explain how this seemingly impossible thing works, to ground it more in reality, the more power we leached out of the concept. I now feel that superheroes should be treated more like fairy tales and less like science fiction. In fairy tales, someone can do an amazing thing, because the storyteller just said so. In superhero comics Superman can pull a planet through space because the writer and artist just said he could and showed him doing it. Period. Once you try to explain how that’s possible, you rob the storyteller of his authority.” [io9.com]

Creators | A preview of a store signing in Norfolk, Virginia, by FF writer Jonathan Hickman wins for headline of the week: “Human Torch’s killer stops in Norfolk.” [Virginian-Pilot]

Creators | Paul Hornschemeier chats briefly about his new graphic novel Life with Mr. Dangerous. [Speakeasy]

Creators | Peter Hogan discusses Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom. [Omnivoracious]

Creators | Alan Moore discusses his long-discussed 750,000-word second novel Jerusalem: “Any editor worth their salt would tell me to cut two-thirds of this book but that’s not going to happen. I doubt that Herman Melville had an editor — if he had, that editor would have told him to get rid of all that boring stuff about whaling: ‘Cut to the chase, Herman.’” [New Statesman]

Comics | A. David Lewis, a comics writer and doctoral student in religion and literature, discusses his dissertation — it’s about depictions of the afterlife in comics and other pop culture — the rise of Islamic superheroes in Western comic books. [BU Today]

Dark Horse assistant editor Brendan Wright noticed that Mario’s, a designer clothing store in Portland, Oregon, is using art from Paul Levitz’s 75 Years of DC Comics in its window displays. It’s an interesting juxtaposition of comics and fashion, made more fascinating by Wright’s uncertainty about the message Mario’s intended to convey.

“On the one hand,” he writes, “I suppose it casts comics as a generic pop-culture backdrop, a colorful splash of nostalgia against which gray suits can stand out, your mileage may vary. On the other hand, it does posit this $200 book as an upscale item for sophisticated people who drop lots of money on clothes.”

Wright wonders “if Mario’s is using comics as ironic kitsch or cool bits of culture.” Which do you think it is? Check out his photo-filled post then sound off below.

Free Comic Book Day

Retailing | Free Comic Book Day founder Joe Field reports that this year’s event drew between 300,000 and 500,000 people to participating retailers, and generated an estimated $1.5 million in publicity for comics and comics stores. “Free Comic Book Day may have been my idea ten years ago,  but seeing the remarkable things this event has done for the entire comics world is really encouraging,” he writes on his store’s blog. “Many of my comics retailer colleagues in the U.S., Canada and 40 other countries bring energy, creativity and enthusiasm to FCBD, making it a very special community event that is now the world’s largest annual comics’ event. All of this shows just how current the comics’ medium is — and how vital comic book specialty stores are to our local communities.” [Flying Colors, via The Beat]

Legal | In the wake of the latest confiscation of comics by Canadian customs agents, Laura Hudson looks at how creators and fans can protect themselves when crossing the border. [Comics Alliance]

Comic strips | Tundra marketing director Bill Kellogg has launched Ink Bottle Syndicate, which represents eight comic strips: That Monkey Tune, by Mike Kandalaft; Holy Molé, by Rick Hotton; Sunshine State, by Graham Nolan; Half Baked, by Rick Ellis; Future Shock, by Jim and Pat McGreal; 15 Minutes, by Robert Duckett; Biz, by Dave Blazek; and, of course, Tundra, Chad Carpenter. [The Daily Cartoonist]

Conventions | Eva Volin posts a video interview with Toronto Comic Arts Festival organizer Christopher Butcher. Meanwhile, Squidface & The Meddler posts a terrific TCAF photo diary by Sam Javanrouh. [Good Comics for Kids]

Batman: Gates of Gotham #1

Creators | Scott Snyder briefly talks about his upcoming DC Comics miniseries Batman: Gates of Gotham: “I feel like every time I write the Batcave, I’m going into the Batcave. It’s so much fun — it feels like being a kid in a candy store. Batman has always been my favorite superhero since I was a kid. There’s nothing better than getting the reins to your favorite superhero and getting to put on paper what interests you the most and tell your own favorite story.” [am New York]

Comics | Don MacPherson kicks off a survey of this year’s Eisner Awards nominees with a look at Joe Kubert’s Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965. [Eye on Comics]

Pop culture | The fate of Dogpatch USA, the abandoned Arkansas theme park based on Al Capp’s Li’l Abner comic strip, is in the hands of 23-year-old Pruett Nance and his family. Six years ago, Nance was riding an ATV on the grounds of the park, which closed in 1993, when he struck a throat-high cable stretched between two trees. A lawsuit resulted in a $650,000 judgment against the park’s owners, who couldn’t pay. So this month a judge ordered the deed be signed over to Nance. [KUAR]

Green Lantern: Rebirth

In what has to be the strangest government press release in a while, the Ohio Department of Transportation announced this morning it’s turning to Green Lantern to protect its snowplows. Well, a Green Lantern.

“Taking a cue from the comic book superhero who uses green light to protect the people of Earth,” the release begins, “the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is hoping a Green Lantern will protect its snowplows from a dangerous spike in crashes this season.”

Citing 63 instances of drivers crashing into snowplows in just the first month of winter weather — that’s up from 57 for all of last winter — ODOT has proposed in its 2012-2013 budget request for the use of green lanterns (flashing LED lights) atop snow-removal equipment: “Research indicates that green lights have a better visibility in snowy, wintery conditions.”

Too bad the proposal isn’t for this year; ODOT might’ve been able to strike a deal with Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment for a movie cross-promotion — complete with a ready-made slogan: “In snowiest day, in blackest night, no snowplow shall escape your sight.”

(via The Plain Dealer)

Return of the Dapper Men

Every year USA Today blogger, and comic-book fan, Whitney Matheson releases her list of the 100 most interesting people in television, movies, music, literature and, yes, comics. The 2010 edition (the 11th annual!), which concluded this morning, features a diverse mix that includes five comics creators:

• No. 74 — Jim McCann, writer of Hawkeye and Mockinbird, and co-creator of Return of the Dapper Men
• No. 59 — cartoonist Lynda Barry, whose book Picture This was released in November
• No. 41 — Jeff Lemire, creator of Sweet Tooth and the celebrated Essex County Trilogy
• No. 39 — Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley
• No. 15 — Robert Kirkman, co-creator of The Walking Dead and executive producer of the AMC television series

Check out Pop Candy’s full list of 100 People of 2010, and watch CBR TV interviews with three of the names on the list — McCann, O’Malley and Kirkman — after the break.

Spider-Man: Hero or Menace?

Taking a cue from J. Jonah Jameson, the commander of Iran’s 400,000-member volunteer militia has blasted Spider-Man as a “false” cartoon character that may be part of a “soft war” against the Islamic republic.

According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naghdi made the remarks last week when he announced the creation of a body called the Organization of Basij and the Media designed to increase the activities of the militia within the media.

Naghdi argued that characters that promote the authority of the government should be used in television programming rather than Spider-Man and other figures, which he seemed to suggest are part of a deliberate attempt to transform the cultural values of Iran.

“Today, we are engaged in a unique and historical war with the enemy in the frame of a soft war,” he said, expressing concern that more wasn’t being done to confront the threat.

Rod Blagojevich

Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor who awaits a second corruption trial, has been announced as a last-minute guest at Wizard World Chicago Comic Con in Rosemont, Illinois. He’ll appear Saturday to pose for photos and sign autographs, which sell for a whopping $80 and $50 each, respectively.

Just three days ago a federal jury found Blagojevich guilty of lying to the FBI, but deadlocked on 23 other counts, ranging from racketeering to attempted extortion and bribery, tied to accusations that he attempted to sell the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. A hearing will be held on Aug. 26 to discuss a new trial date.

Although Blagojevich, who served as governor from 2003 until his removal from office last year, came to national attention because of the corruption scandal, he has remained in the spotlight through his brief stint on the reality series The Celebrity Apprentice and through numerous television appearances.

“Wizard World Chicago Comic Con is all about pop culture, and Rod Blagojevich is as relevant to today’s news as it gets,” Wizard Entertainment CEO Gareb Shamus said in a statement. “We think the court of public opinion will show him to be a popular figure at the show.”

A 13-year-old boy in Cambridge, England, has transformed two vacuum cleaners into a device that enables him to climb walls like Spider-Man — okay, almost like Spider-Man — earning him the admiration of classmates and the scorn of J. Jonah Jameson.

Hibiki Kono, a Spider-Man fan, spent five months designing and assembling the gadget, made from two dirt-cheap vacuum cleaners (about $22.40 each) and square wooden pads.

“My mum thinks it’s brilliant,” he said, “but she won’t let me us it in my bedroom as she is worried I may pull down the ceiling.”

Stephen Perry

Crime | Florida authorities are trying to determine whether human remains discovered Wednesday in Pasco County are those of Stephen Perry, the 56-year-old ThunderCats writer who’s been missing for more than three weeks and presumed murdered. Zephyrhills police are still awaiting the results of DNA testing on the severed arm found in a trash bin on May 16 near Perry’s abandoned van.

Tampa Tribune reporter Howard Altman, who’s been covering the Perry case from the beginning, notes police revealed the latest discovery on the same day that Warner Bros. Animation announced it is producing a new version of ThunderCats. [The Tampa Tribune]

Anaheim Convention Center

Conventions | A coalition of Anaheim business and community leaders has launched a website to counter a local labor union’s recent efforts to “intimidate” Comic-Con International organizers to discourage them from moving the event to the city. Unite Here Local 11, which represents about 2,100 workers at Disneyland resort hotels, is embroiled in a bitter two-year dispute over a contract proposal that could increase healthcare costs for some employees. Union representatives dressed as Marvel superheroes delivered a letter last month to the Comic-Con offices warning that a move to Anaheim could jeopardize the success of the convention.

A letter on the Anaheim coalition’s website, signed by the city’s mayor and more than two dozen others, states the individuals were “shocked and deeply disappointed” by the union’s actions. “As a community, we have respected Local 11’s right to protest,” the letter reads. “However, when their actions adversely impact the livelihood of workers, sustainability of local businesses and funding for city services, we must speak out.” [The San Diego Union-Tribune, Los Angeles Times]

NewsToons

Digital comics | Wired.com’s Ryan Singel isn’t buying Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ “bit of revisionist history” concerning the iPhone store’s rejection of cartoonist Mark Fiore’s NewsToons app: “… Jobs says the real story is that in the interval between the rejection and Fiore’s award, Apple had changed its policy because it realized that blocking Fiore was dumb. But despite that supposed change, the company never contacted Fiore and asked him to try again.” [Epicenter]

Business | The purchase of Peanuts and United Media Licensing by Iconix Brand Group and the heirs of Charles M. Schulz became official on Thursday. [press release]

Creators | John Martz chats with Graham Annable about The Book of Grickle, animation, process and more. [Drawn!]

Barney & Clyde

Creators | Michael Cavna interviews writer Gene Weingarten, whose syndicated comic strip Barney & Clyde (with co-writer Dan Weingarten and artist David Clark) debuts Monday from The Washington Post Writers Group. [Comic Riffs]

Creators | Taylor Maurand profiles cartoonist Kristen Caven, creator of the recently released memoir Perfectly Revolting: My ‘Glamorous’ Cartooning Career. [San Jose Mercury News]

Comics | Frank Santoro points to the $1 reprint of Jonah Hex #1 as an example of “how photo-referencing has taken all the fun, gesture and action out of comics.” [Comics Comics]

Comics | Ethan Kaye counts down “The 10 Most Ridiculous Comic Book Nazis.” I protest the inclusion of the indisputably awesome War Wheel from Blackhawk. [Topless Robot]

Pop culture | It turns out that Patrick Boivin, the guy behind that Iron Baby parody video, started out as a horror-comic artist. [Guelph Mercury]

The Snoopy license plate

The California Association of Museums has launched a campaign to have a Snoopy drawing by Charles Schulz appear on a special California license plate. Proceeds from sales of the plates would establish a sustainable grant program to support state museums.

But for that to happen, at least 7,500 California drivers have to register interest in a Snoopy plate. Once there are enough interested Peanuts fans, the state will begin collecting a $50 fee from those who want the plate (more if you want it personalized). Curiously, The Snoopy Plate website doesn’t seem to list a deadline for registration.

The Snoopy plate is being made possible by Jean Schulz, the Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates and United Media Licensing, who are granting royalty-free rights to the California Association of Museums.

High Evolutionary

In a sign of escalation in a brewing war with the High Evolutionary, the Arizona state Senate has passed legislation targeting human-animal hybrids.

Politico reports the bill would prohibit anyone in the state from “creating or attempting to create an in vitro human embryo by any means other than fertilization of a human egg by a human sperm.”

It also would outlaw attempting to transfer a human embryo into a nonhuman womb, and vice versa, as well as transporting or receiving “for any purpose a human-animal hybrid.” The latter provision presumably aims to prevent Bova from immigrating to Yuma.

Louisiana passed a similar law in 2009. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has not voiced her opinion about the bill, which also passed a state House committee.

Neither the Transian embassy nor a spokes-animal for Herbert Edgar Wyndham responded to requests for comment.

Holkins and Krahulik, in Time magazine

Writer Neil Gaiman and DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson may not have made the final cut, but Penny Arcade creators Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins earned a spot on “The 2010 Time 100,” the news magazine’s list of the world’s most influential people.

Just how influential is the duo? The 12-year-old webcomic draws some 3.5 million readers, and has led to the establishment of Child’s Play, a charity that provides video games to sick kids in hospitals, and the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), a gaming convention that last year drew 60,000 attendees to Seattle. An East Coast convention, PAX East, debuted last month in Boston.

“Krahulik and Holkins have become the tastemakers, and conscience, of an industry the size of Hollywood,” Lev Grossman writes in his brief profile. “But for all their success, they are almost compulsively self-deprecating, and they give all the credit to their fans. You can’t put a label on them. Labels smack of hype, and Penny Arcade doesn’t do hype.”

Editorial cartoon by Jerry Holbert

Whether or not Kick-Ass tops the weekend box office — it probably will — its marketing campaign has ensured the movie’s infiltration of popular culture. Nikki Finke points out that this morning’s Boston Herald features this political cartoon by Jerry Holbert.

From Wikipedia's lolicon entry

Legal | In what some have already dubbed “the next Christopher Handley case,” Wikipedia co-founder Lawrence Sanger has reported Wikimedia Commons to the FBI for “knowingly distributing child pornography” in violation of Section 1466A of the U.S. PROTECT Act. Sanger, who left Wikipedia in 2002 and four years later launched the rival Citizendium, specifically points to entries on pedophilia and lolicon.

Manga collector Christopher Handley was sentenced in February under the same federal statute for possessing “obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and mailing obscene material.” [The Register, Icarus Publishing, Geekosystem]

Business | This profile of Walt Disney Company CEO Robert Iger suggests there’s already friction between Marvel’s Isaac Perlmutter and Disney’s consumer productions division: “Hollywood, familiar with Mr. Perlmutter’s penchant for ruling his roost, has started to whisper: Will he turn into Mr. Iger’s version of Harvey Weinstein, the hard-charging Miramax co-founder who caused Mr. Eisner so many headaches after Disney acquired the little studio?” [The New York Times]

"Flashlight," by Megan Baehr

Conventions | Gil Roth and Frank Santoro post brief reports from the MoCCA Festival, while the New York Daily News runs down the best comics from the show. [MoCCA Festival]

Awards | More commentary on this year’s Eisner nominees from David Welsh, Chris Allen and Alan David Doane, and David Harper and Walter Richardson. [2010 Eisner nominations]

Awards | Nominations are being accepted for the 2010 Eagle Awards. [The Eagle Awards]

Retailing | Kendall Swafford thinks comics retailers could learn a lot from the Apple stores: “With Apple stores, less is more. Clean, uncluttered, simple. Most comic book stores I visit are … very full. And then some. I realize we’re all aware of our cost per square foot, and we want to make every square inch count, but most comic stores have too much stuff. Maybe we’re afraid we’ll miss a sale, or we over-ordered (again) or we’re slow in marking down merchandise that’s been around too long, but whatever the reason, too many stores try to cram too much stuff into every nook and cranny of their stores, and it’s overwhelming. Once humans reach that level of visual over-stimulation, our brains only see a sea of stuff.” [ICv2.com]

Publishing | Matt Blind checks in on manga publisher Kodansha’s U.S. division and finds. [Rocket Bomber]

IDW's Library of American Comics

Publishing | IDW Publishing has launched a website for its Library of American Comics. [The Library of American Comics]

Publishing | Heidi MacDonald interviews Sparkplug Comics Books founder Dylan Williams. [The Beat]

Creators | Mark Waid discusses Irredeemable, 52 and BOOM! Studios. [Multiversity Comics]

Creators | Jeffery Klaehn talks with Ty Templeton. [POP]

Creators | Writers Anthony Del Col and Connor McCreery discuss their new IDW Publishing series Kill Shakespeare. [MONDOmagazine]

From "The Unwritten" #12

Creators | Vertigo spotlights artists Kurt Huggins and Zelda Devon, who illustrate The Unwritten #12. [Graphic Content]

Manga | Yonago Airport in Sakaiminato, Japan, will receive the nickname “Yonago Kitaro Airport” after the character created by Sakaiminato native and manga artist Shigeru Mizuki. [The Mainichi Daily News]

Manhwa | Katherine Dacey names 10 must-read Korean comics. [The Manga Critic]

Pop culture | How Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle influenced Marvel’s Mighty Thor. [Los Angeles Times]

WonderCon

Conventions | Although WonderCon organizers are still tabulating attendance from last weekend’s convention, they say that “by all accounts the numbers for 2010 met or exceeded those for 2009.” Last year’s event drew about 34,000, a significant increase from the 20,000 that attended in 2008. They also set the dates for the 2011 convention: April 1-3, which undoubtedly means we’ll have to endure numerous April Fool’s announcements of titles and creative teams. [press release]

Awards | Deb Aoki, Lauren Davis, Tom Spurgeon and David Welsh provide commentary on the 2010 Eisner Award nominees. In case you missed it, I also offered my reactions. [Eisner Awards]

Creators | In an oddly worded post, Clifford Meth reports that 83-year-old comic artist Gene Colan was injured last week, and his being cared for by his children: “In addition, it appears that some of Gene’s artwork has disappeared, including pages from Nathanial Dusk and a Star Wars-related piece. The police are involved in the matter.” [Clifford Meth]

Business | Lorraine Mirabella has a follow-up on Thursday’s foreclosure auction of a Baltimore County, Maryland, mansion owned by Diamond Comic Distributors CEO Steve Geppi. The mortgage lender bought back the nine-acre property for $2.8 million. Geppi and his wife Melinda bought the 19th-century home in 2004 for $4.8 million, and defaulted on the loan in February 2009. [The Baltimore Sun]

Batman: Gotham After Midnight

Awards | Batman: Gotham After Midnight, by Steve Niles and Kelley Jones, was named Best Horror Comic in the eighth annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards. [Rondo Hatton Awards]

Creators | Using the three-year-old controversy about the Mary Jane “washerwoman” statue as a sort of touchstone, Shannon Donnelly spotlights “the New Wonder Women of Comics” — female readership, and creators and editors like Karen Berger, Rebekkah Isaacs, Jeanine Schaefer, Gail Simone and G. Willow Wilson (most of whom have been working in comics for years). [The Daily Beast]

Creators | Cartoonist Dash Shaw discusses BodyWorld. [io9.com]

From "The Sixth Gun"

Creators | The Sixth Gun collaborators Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt talk about their upcoming supernatural Western. “There’s an interesting alchemy that happens when you take two genres, each with their own language and rules, and then smash them together,” Hurtt says. “It’s great fuel for the imagination – it keeps us, as creators, from falling too easily into genre conventions, and it keeps the reader from knowing exactly what to expect. With Westerns, there are many tropes and iconic imagery that are so embedded in our cultural consciousness that it’s fun to take those things and play off them or against the reader’s expectations. And the same can be said of the imagery and ideas of fantasy. This isn’t a fantasy dressed as a Western, or vice versa, but instead an amalgamation of the two.” [Free Comic Book Day]

Creators | Alex Dueben talks to artist Robert Williams about underground comics, the Zap Comix collective and contributing to this year’s Whitney Biennial. [Suicide Girls]

Creators | MediaGlobal profiles writer Joshua Dysart, focusing on his work on Vertigo’s Unknown Soldier. [MediaGlobal]

Manga | The story that keeps going, and going and going: Kami no Shizuku (Drops of God), the manga that sparks a wine craze in virtually every country in which it’s released. [CNNGo.com]

Pop culture | Is Marvel’s Ryan Penagos (aka Agent M) one of the 10 hottest geek guys? [GeekWeek]

Neil Gaiman and Diane Nelson

As Brigid pointed out on Monday, Penny Arcade creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik are among the finalists on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world (they’ve slipped two spots to No. 11 since yesterday). However, they’re not the only comics-industry figures in the poll: Just six spots behind the duo is writer Neil Gaiman, followed way down the list is DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson (No. 156, as of this post).

It’s an online poll, so it probably shouldn’t be surprising that the creators of a popular webcomic and a comics writer-turned-bestselling author, both with a substantial web presence, rank high on the list, rubbing virtual elbows with the likes of actors Neil Patrick Harris and Robert Pattinson, and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul. They all have dedicated, and plugged-in, fan bases, after all (though none can touch Lady Gaga, who sits comfortably at No. 1).

But the inclusion of Nelson, who now hovers toward the bottom of the list just behind legendary singer-songwriter Patti Smith, is (pleasantly) unexpected.

“As comic books have rapidly emerged as the most bankable mainstream movie properties,” Time‘s description for Nelson reads, “a vast gulf has grown between the big-screen Marvel universe (Iron Man, Hulk) and that of DC Comics. Besides Christopher Nolan’s Batman chapters, DC has faced a drought at the multiplex. Nelson is charged with altering that course. As the head of the newly-created DC Entertainment, she’s been handed a sprawling comic book universe and tasked with adapting it for the mainstream. Millions of fans — and plenty of movie studio execs — are hoping she’s up to the task.”

To the best of my knowledge, there’s no Diane Nelson Fan Site, so it’s unlikely she’ll rocket into the upper echelons currently inhabited by Beyonce, Apolo Ohno, Stephen Colbert and President Obama. We’ll know for sure on April 29. Until then, the voting is open.

by Ryan Savas

Hey You Guys! is a charity movie screening and silent art auction benefiting DonorsChoose.org, a website that allows teachers to post donation requests for school projects. They’ve posted several pieces of art that they plan to start auctioning off online on Monday; go check them out and see if there’s something you like.

(Hat Tip)

Superhero Changing Station

Posterchild at Blade Diary has photos of a conveniently labeled superhero changing station in New York … (Thanks David!)

Spider-Man's walk of shame

While The L.A. Times’ Mel Melcon snaps some shots of Spider-Man’s big arrest in Hollywood … J. Jonah must be really proud right now.