Comic Book Resources

Straight for the art | Tim Burton exhibit at MoMA

Tim Burton's Joker

MTV.com has pictures from the Tim Burton Museum Of Modern Art Exhibition going on in New York, which includes artwork the director created for his Batman movies and his never-made take on Superman. You can also read their related article here.

A picture's worth a thousand words ...

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.

Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

It's Wednesday, and you know what that means. Other than New Comics Day I mean.

That's right, it's time for Send Us Your Shelf Porn, where collectors get to spill their guts, figuratively, at least. Our guest this week is Karl Heitmueller, a cartoonist/artist/writer and bartender who currently resides in Jersey City, NJ, though he originally used to manage a record store in my neck of the woods and I'd bug the heck out of him by frequently browsing in the place and not buying anything. I'll make it up to him today by recommending you check out some of the comics on his Web site and pick up a copy of the delightful The Retail Adventures of Kalli and Rex.

And with that I'll let Karl take over now. Click on the link to get started on the tour.

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Just say no Kal-el: A review of 'Superman/Batman: Public Enemies'

Seriously, look at those necks

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is a new direct-to-DVD film set in an alternate DC universe where everybody takes ungodly amounts of steroids.

Seriously, that's the only conclusion I can come to as to why every single character in this movie, even the civilians, has a neck -- when they have a neck at all -- that's wider than their goddamned skull. Seriously, their heads look like they've been bolted on. And that's to say nothing of the endless oceans of muscles that ripple across everyone's bodies. The entire planet is obviously juiced to the max.

But the display of over the top physiques really shouldn't surprise me. At it's heart, Public Enemies is your typical uber-macho buddy action movie, and just as dumb and sexist as most of them to boot. It's the comic nerd's version of Tango and Cash.

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Robot reviews: Superman: Secret Origins #1

Superman: Secret Origins

Superman: Secret Origins #1
Written by Geoff Johns. Art by Gary Frank and Jon Siball
DC Comics, 48 pages, $3.99

This is what, the third or fourth time that DC has attempted to update or revamp the Man of Steel's origin? Is it just me or does that smell like a bit of desperation on DC's part, like they really don't know how to get more people to read the Superman books and are madly flinging stuff to the walls in the hopes of getting as wide a readership (within the comics-reading public of course) as possible. "Maybe it will work this time!" Either that, or they just really don't care and wanted to throw Geoff Johns a bone seeing how he's a fan favorite and all these days.

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Proving once again who the real superheroes are

A firefighter pays homage to Superman

From Time's "Pictures of the Week" feature for last week comes this picture, which has the feel of a Superman cover. Even better is the fact that the copy editor who wrote the caption made the connection.

(Thanks, Tom!)

What Are You Reading?

Love and Rockets New Stories #2

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another round of What Are You Reading. I am very pleased this week to say that our guest is Jeet Heer, the peerless critic and historian who, when not writing introductions for Little Orphan Annie or Krazy Kat collections, can be found at the Sans Everything or the Comics Comics blogs.

Jeet and the rest of the crew have been reading a lot this week and are eager to share, so get clicking on that link pardners.

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Arby's unleashes JLA paper toys on humanity

JLA bobbleheads

And the papercraft kits just keep on comin'. This time it's a set of JLA-themed bobblehead dolls, created by Matt Hawkings of Custom Paper Toys. Better yet, these will be available in Arby's restaurants this week for a limited time with the purchase of a kid's meal. The dolls include Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl and Bizarro (not pictured). You can see more detailed pictures of the figures on Matt's Flickr page.

(found via the Ephemerist)

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Krypton explodes

Legal | Marc Graser breaks down what aspects of Superman are now controlled by the heirs of co-creator Jerry Siegel after Wednesday's court ruling: depictions of "Superman's origins from the planet Krypton, his parents Jor-El and Lora, Superman as the infant Kal-El, the launching of the infant Superman into space by his parents as Krypton explodes and his landing on Earth in a fiery crash." In 2013, the estate of Joe Shuster will become co-owners of the copyright to Action Comics #1 and the newly recaptured early works.

Warner Bros. and DC Comics, which still own later additions to Superman's mythos -- flight and other superpowers, kryptonite, Lex Luthor, Jimmy Olsen, etc. -- issued a statement characterizing the decision as affirmation that "the vast majority of key elements" developed after Action Comics #1 remain the property of DC. [Variety]

The Muppet Show #1

Publishing | Wired.com's Andrew Kardon profiles BOOM! Studios' kids' imprint, which features Disney/Pixar comics and, soon, the Disney Standards line. [GeekDad]

Creators | Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Matt Davies talks about being laid off by the Westchester, N.Y., Journal-News after 17 years with the newspaper: "I was told a few months back by my editor that my position was valued, so I didn’t expect this. I’m not stupid, the business model is in dire straits for all newspapers, we all know that. It’s weird. Before there was a focus on the content; management was cognizant of the need for content, but this time it was all about the numbers, so my position was cut." [The Daily Cartoonist]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Superman #1

Legal | A blog comment by publisher Denis Kitchen has led to another victory for the heirs of Jerry Siegel in their lengthy legal battle with Warner Bros. and DC Comics over the rights to Superman. A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Siegels co-own the rights to Action Comics #4, pages 3-6 of Superman #1, and the first two weeks worth of Superman comic strips. The same judge decided in March that the Siegels own half of Action Comics #1 and, therefore, half the rights to Superman. [Blog@Newsarama]

Publishing | Tokyopop has announced it will serialize several of its original series online for free. Titles include Psy-Comm, Undertown, Kat & Mouse, Pantheon High and Gyakushu. [press release]

Publishing | Marc Mason, editor of Comics Waiting Room, has been hired to handle public relations for NBM Publishing. [NBM Publishing]

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What are you reading?

Sequence from 'EmiTown'

Welcome to What Are You Reading, where we talk about all the wonderful comics and other stuff we're currently engaged with and hopefully point you toward some quality material. Our guest this week is Jamie S. Rich, author of the new graphic novel You Have Killed Me and, of course, our guest-blogger for the week.

A bad case of pinkeye kept me from doing to do much reading this week, but thankfully the rest of the Robot 6 team seems to have made up for my lapse. See what they've been reading by clicking on the link below ...

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SDCC '09 | Warner Bros. lends a hand with your room key

Red Son door key

Fans checking into their hotel rooms over the next couple of days in San Diego may be in for a fun surprise, as Hero Complex shows off the designs for five different room keys featuring Warner Bros. properties, including Superman: Red Son (above). In addition to giving you somewhere to sleep, the cards also will allow users to download a free episode of one of the shows that are spotlighted -- Chuck, Fringe, Supernatural or Smallville -- or the Superman: Red Son motion comic.

I hope my hotel is one of the lucky ones ...

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Batman and Robin #1

Publishing | Bolstered by Batman and Robin #1, Captain America #600 and the Dark Reign titles, direct-market sales rose 6 percent in June over the previous year. However, sales of the Top 100 graphic novels plummeted 35 percent.

According to the retailer-oriented website ICv2.com, comic sales were down 3 percent from the second quarter of 2008, and 4 percent for the first half. The reason? Higher cover prices, possibly: "It’s worth noting that the declines in comic sales come in the face of significant price hikes on the bestselling titles. Eleven titles out of the top 25 comics in June 2009 were over $2.99; only three were over $2.99 in June 2008."

Still, the debut of Batman and Robin sold an estimated 168,604 copies, making it the best-selling comic since January's Amazing Spider-Man #583, which featured President Obama. The Final Crisis hardcover was the top-selling graphic novel, with an estimated 8,219 copies. [ICv2.com]

Action Comics #1

Legal | Following last week's ruling in the prolonged legal battle over Superman, Michael Moran speaks with Siegel family attorney Marc Toberoff, who says it's "absolutely" possible his clients and the Joe Shuster estate could take Superman to another company in 2013.  That's when, under U.S. law, Shuster's executors will recover his share of the copyright.

"I was looking for an analogy to World War II: We won the war but they still want to fight the battle," Toberoff says. "The more we fight, the closer we get to 2013. Plus all the fighting just antagonises my clients. So it's almost like they are driving my clients into the arms of a competing studio."

Graeme McMillan, meanwhile, zeroes in on recent claims made by Warner Bros. that Superman is "damaged goods" and "uncool."

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Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Time once again for Send Us Your Shelf Porn, where visitors from across wide and wooly expanses of the Internet come to examine what the comic collecting hoi polloi have on their bookshelves.

Our contributor this week is Asoka Jayasinghe, who has a small but well stocked collection that he's eager to go through shelf by shelf. Let's not keep him waiting any longer, shall we? Click on the link and let him begin the tour ...

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USA Today debuts Superman strip from Wednesday Comics

USA Today's "Wednesday Comics" page

USA Today kicked off its serialization of the Superman strip from DC's Wednesday Comics this morning in its print and online editions.

As announced last month, the John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo story debuts in today's newspaper, with subsequent episodes appearing on the USA Today website, which boasts an audience of 3.6 million. Each weekly online installment will be promoted in the print edition.

USA Today's Wednesday Comics web page sports a DC Comics logo and head shots of Superman, Green Lantern, Batman, Sgt. Rock and Wonder Woman. The brief article below the Superman comic includes a link to Diamond Comic Distributors' Comic Shop Locator.

The New York Daily News also covers the launch of the 12-week miniseries, whose format and approach pay homage to the golden age of Sunday comics: The 16-page comic unfolds from 7 inches by 10 inches to 28 inches by 20 inches. Each of the 15 stories get its own 14-inch by 20-inch page.

"It's either old-fashioned or it's cutting edge, or it's a little bit of both," DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio tells the Daily News.