Money matters: In a feature titled "They Pay You To Do What?," Black Enterprise spotlights cartoonist Kyle Baker, who estimates he earned $150,000 in 2003:

"Now living in Woodstock, New York, Baker recently launched his own publishing company, Kyle Baker Publishing. Technology has lowered production costs so much, he says, that it's much easier for artists to publish their own material, distribute it, and retain the rights. 'I reached a point in my career where I realized that if I hadn't sold away the 20 years of work I did, I would own thousands and thousands of cartoons,' he said. 'Now, when I'm old, I'll own thousands of Kyle Baker cartoons.'"

Dress for excess: The Baltimore Sun (registration required) reports on this weekend's 11th annual Otakon:

"Our convention is a lot of people getting together to celebrate a lot of different aspects of a culture they admire. For me, I actually got drawn into [anime] because it's something so different from what a lot of our cultural artistic preferences can provide. ... It's something people haven't had exposure to."

California dreamin': The La Jolla (Calif.) Light talks with Jim Lee, John Nee and Scott Dunbier about the history of locally based WildStorm:

"'I'm really proud of what we do at Wildstorm,' said Dunbier. 'We're really a boutique of D.C. Comics.'

"Nee explained that the purchase of Wildstorm was certainly something of a catch for D.C. Comics, the conglomerate of comic book companies who were themselves acquired by Warner Communications, now AOL Time Warner, in 1976.

"'Wildstorm was making comics that D.C. wasn't,' said Nee. 'They were reaching an audience of readers that D.C. hadn't reached at the time. The big companies really had the branded companies and the smaller companies had the new characters. So, we reached a lot of the teen fans that D.C. comics weren't getting at the time.'"

Review revue: The Washington Times reviews Batman: Hush Vol. 1, Teen Titans: A Kid's Game, Last Train to Deadsville #1-2, and The Pulse #1-3.

Amazon's name game: Publishers Weekly (subscription required) reports that Amazon.com has begun encouraging its customers to use their real names on reviews, replacing a much-criticized system that nurtured flame wars and allowed authors to anonymously praise their own books. The online retailer began the initiative, called "Real Names," late last month:

"'Real' in this case is relative. There's still a loophole for people not quite ready to fully stand by their opinions -- they can choose to use a pen name. Either way, the reviewer must be registered with Amazon with a credit card or through a record of their purchase history. The change should cut down on reviewers posting opinions under multiple names.

"For years it's been widely believed that the anonymity of Amazon's reviews have led to such abuses as authors lauding their own books, or rival authors trashing another writer's work. Those suspicions turned out to be founded last year when Amazon's Canadian site accidentally revealed the real names of some reviewers who'd posted their opinions anonymously -- including several well-known authors."

Weapon X: The End? At Newsarama, writer Frank Tieri makes Marvel an offer it can't refuse. Okay, well maybe it can refuse, but he's making the offer anyway:

"... [W]hat I’m going to do right now is sweeten the deal -- because I believe so strongly in this project and that the Weapon X fans should get their ending, I’m willing to make Marvel this offer … I will do the first issue for free.

"That’s right, Marvel! You give me six issues and you will get the first issue … absolutely free. Act now, act fast — supplies are limited!"

"Mortal" Marvel: Motley Fool turns a skeptical eye to the second-quarter report of one of its stock-market darlings, Marvel Enterprises:

"After a lengthy period of thumping the market and contemporaries, Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick Marvel Enterprises (NYSE: MVL) is starting to look, well, mortal. ... As with its many comic book heroes, Marvel now appears to be entering a period where it will be tested repeatedly, and the company will likely have to squeeze pennies to make investors happy. Yet there's reason to be hopeful. In a post to our Marvel discussion board Fool contributor Rich Smith points out that Marvel's stock may be vastly undervalued on a cash flow basis."

Street cred: Newsarama sits down with Street Angel creators Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca:

"I hated the superhero comics that I saw every week at the comics shop and decided to make a book that would depict how wretched superhero comics are. But after giving this some thought, we realized that if done right, it would be indistinguishable from any bad superhero comic. So instead, we started discussing what we liked -- and especially what we remembered liking but couldn’t find any more -- about superhero comics. The book developed out of that. It went from being a hate filled rant against the genre to being a bit of an over-the-top love letter. The stuff in the book is either there because I hate its opposite or because I like it a lot -- surprising how often these things coincide.

"Jesse is a 13 year-old, homeless, malnourished tomboy, because I hate every T & A book that is a T & A book for no reason relative to the story. Of course, without a story, it’s hard to create story-related artwork I suppose and certainly there’s a fair share of T & A books without a story or any developed characters.

"Another influence on the book is pop culture’s current obsession with reality -- reality tv shows, street authenticity of celebs like Justin Timberlake, and movies like The Matrix. We created a character and setting that is the absolute opposite of our experiences and who we are in life. Oddly enough, some early reviews and emails actually commend us on the authentic street feel of the book."

Wagner's reign: UnderGroundOnline talks with Matt Wagner about the 20th anniversary of Mage, the approaching 25th anniversary of Grendel, and his DC cover work:

"It's fun. I just ended my run doing Green Arrow. I came on when Kevin Smith launched the book; I only intended to stay on until Kevin was done. He finished up with number 15 and Bob Schreck decided to reach outside of comics for the next writer, Brad Meltzer. Brad happened to be coming through town promoting his latest novel, The Millionaires. We went to dinner and he gave me a very impassioned plea that I stay on as the cover artist. He gave me some ideas and I was intrigued to do those so that was six issues. Then I knew Judd Winick was taking over after that. We've been buddies for years so he gave me the puppy dog look like, 'You're not going to do my covers?' So I told him I would do his first storyline, and then I felt like I had my fill of Green Arrow. His personality is interesting, but as a superhero he's basically got one trick and for a designer and painter it's even worse because he's got one color. So I figured I had done all I could with that and I told Schreck that I wouldn't mind doing some more high-profile cover gigs, and he asked me about Batman."

Cartoon Network more profitable than CNN: Via ICv2.com comes word from Variety that Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network is actually more profitable than the CNN group, accounting for 17 percent of Turner's revenues -- versus 14 percent for news:

"Turner also revealed some of the reasons for Cartoon Network's profitability, which go beyond the prices advertisers are willing to pay for CN's attractive audience.  They include licensing of its characters through Warner Bros. consumer products division and the equity stakes of 2-4% that CN takes in ancillary revenues of shows it purchases from outside suppliers."

Review revue: Nashville City Paper reviews Pantheon's Writers On Comics: Give Our Regards to the Atomsmashers!

Comic targets alcohol abuse: Australia's Port Pirie Recorder reports the Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Council and Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation has produced a comic called Risky Business in an effort to curb alcohol abuse among Aboriginal youth. More than 25,000 copies of the comic have been distributed throughout the country.

War stories: The Japan Times profiles sociologist and activitst Joel Andreas, creator of a 77-page comic called Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism:
 
"I think (my comic) in some ways presents an inside perspective about the U.S. relationship with foreign wars. It shows how it hurts American people and how their resistance was waged. I think my book gave a more hopeful perspective for the Japanese people to read."

Alessi digs into his pockets: ICv2.com reports that CrossGen founder Mark Alessi has been granted permission by the bankruptcy court to lend the company $75,000 "as a partial advance against $150,000 in proposed debtor-in-possession financing."

Identity secrets: New York's Forward talks with Brad Meltzer about Identity Crisis:

"'Identity Crisis is about the cost of being a hero. That is something we forget. After 9/11, we realized how much our own heroes risk their lives every single day. So I applied that to comic heroes.' In so doing, Meltzer said, he came to see that while many heroes make their names by scaring the so-called 'bad guys,' the people who need to be scared the most are the heroes themselves.

"'The only thing that protects them and their families is that people do not know who they are,' Meltzer suggested. 'It's easy to have Superman beat the villain and go home to Lois Lane, but I am far more interested in the moment when he goes home to Lois and reminds her that if he had been followed, she would be killed.'"

Marvel's quarterly report: Marvel Enterprises -- you know, that "global entertainment licensing company" -- released its second-quarter financial results today. Net sales were $155.5 million, a growth of $65.5 million over the second quarter of 2003, spurred largely by the toy segment. The report also provides a review of Marvel's Plublishing Segment:

"... net sales rose due to increased strength in the direct and mass markets primarily driven by a higher title count and greater overall demand for Marvel brand products. Approximately 65 comic titles per month were published in Q2 2004 with an average circulation of over 53,800 units versus 50 titles per month at an average circulation of 64,000 units in the 2003 period. In total, there was an approximate 10% increase in circulation to 3.5 million units compared to the prior year period, reflecting success in the Company's title management strategy. Operating margins in the segment increased to 41.6% in Q2 2004 compared to operating margins of 31.6% in the prior-year period. The year-over-year margin increase reflects higher gross margins in the core comic business due to operating efficiencies, coupled with a lower cost structure due to reductions achieved in distribution costs compared to the prior-year period. Publishing segment margins also benefited from a one-time gain of $1.0 million in other income related to settlements of old bankruptcy claims."

For those tracking Marvel's film lineups, there's a chart with studio/distributor and status information for "2006 and beyond." There's even a slot for Ant-Man. Yes, Ant-Man.

Making "geek" chic: The Minneapolis Star-Tribune spotlights local retailer Michael Drivas, who just moved his Big Brain Comics to a more spacious location:

"It's a comic-book store for people who would normally be embarrassed to go to a comic store. "It's not so sterile and weird and dark. It's a place where you know like-minded people are going to be. It's actually more like a culture shop. There's always some CD playing that I've never heard, or Michael will loan me a DVD. I would go to other stores, but it wouldn't be as much of an experience."

Comic-Con letdown: In UC-Berkeley's Daily Californian, critic Jake Mix complains that Comic-Con International only reinforces comic-book stereotypes:

"Walking through the dozens and dozens of packed aisles, the vast majority of Comic-Con’s content strongly reinforces the image of comics as being for kids and socially underdeveloped middle-aged men. One of the notorious methods of luring wallets into booths is through scantily clad women—and sadly, the technique works. Perhaps even stranger are the booths unloading Renaissance Faire weapons and clothing, Alien props, Star Wars gear, G.I. Joes, and exceptionally bad fantasy art.

"Then, of course, there were the thick patches of body odor. The experience on the exhibition floor was irritating at best. Walking around randomly is not to be encouraged.

"Despite the inclusion of 'International' in the title, the Con is decidedly focused on American comics and trends. Franco-Belgian comics were utterly absent, and manga (Japanese comics) was mostly being sold by American distributors. The self-publishing grid of booths, a more hopeful arena for finding some nugget of quality, were sadly filled with tiresome stories of ninja cows and pirate chickens."

Review revue: The Boston Globe reviews Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen's It's a Bird:

"Seagle's contemplation of Superman, however, is uneven, honestly insightful at times but too often heavy-handed. When he looks at the very impossibility of Superman, or when he contemplates the colors in Superman's costume, Seagle fares well. But when he presents a dark history of humans' relationship to power or examines the Nietzschean concept of the ubermensch (misleadingly translated as superman), he leaves the reader feeling betrayed, forced to wonder why he would opt for the obvious when he has demonstrated an ability to engage in interesting, original thought."

Morrison's Soldiers of fortune: Grant Morrison talks with Newsarama about the concepts behind his 30-issue Seven Soldiers project, and the first arc of JLA: Classified:

The fun really starts when you combine all the books like a 30 piece jigsaw to reveal the epic story behind it all, with a cast of hundreds, criss-crossing and affecting one another's lives. I think it adds up to the most intricate and ambitious single superhero story anyone's attempted.

My hope is that each of the books has a different enough flavor for all of the seven to find their own special audience - there's hip hop psychedelia, full-on fantasy adventure in modern day Los Angeles, a gritty, hard luck heroine book, a rollercoaster techno-thriller, a sci-fi western, vampire knights from hell riding giant spiders and more fresh new superheroes than anyone has a right to expect. This is a huge mega-novel, cape fiction's own Lord of the Rings. It could just as easily fall flat on its face but I’m hoping there are enough people out there who want new kinds of thrills.

The current vogue in superhero comics, post-“Hush” is for the 'definitive' take, which tends to manifest itself as creators playing it safe by cherry-picking and re-packaging all the best and most popular elements of an already successful feature. It's a commercial strip-mining kind of approach to a given property that seems to make a lot of sense until you realize it can really only work once before you find yourself in the awful position of having to make up stuff again. Seven Soldiers is an attempt to clear some new ground and make stories for people who want something a little different from 'greatest hits' reworkings of books they've already read.

Obviously these days it's a lot harder to sell comics with new ideas and untested characters and it's clear why it would be easier just do a 12-part Batman or JLA book but someone has to be willing to take chances with original material and sometimes it has to be me.

As for his JLA: Classified run, well: "Aquaman has no beard and John Stewart is Green Lantern so it's pretty much set in some kind of current continuity but I’m afraid it's not the gloomy 'adult' world of Sue Dibny's shredded lycra pants so keep well away if it's attempted rape you crave. Cannibalism, yes, rape, no. My DCU is a day-glo, non-stop funhouse, where the world is threatened every five minutes and godlike beings clash in the skies like fireworks."

Crisis central: At Newsarama, Troy Brownfield devotes "Your Manga Minute" to an examination of the controversy surrounding the murder -- and revealed rape -- of Sue Dibny in Identity Crisis:

"There seems to be a persistent categorization of Brad Meltzer as some kind of misogynist because of the death (and revealed rape) of Sub Dibny. I find that to be a strange categorization. A little research would let you know that Meltzer is married to a woman that has worked with women who have gone through similar experiences. Even if you didn’t know that, characterizing a writer as something out of hand just because something happens in one of his stories is suspect at best, and troubling at worst.

"It also flies in the face of detective and/or mystery fiction. I’m a fan of the stuff. In fact, I’m a noir nut. For there to be a murder mystery, you’ve got to start with a body. It’s kind of a given. Invariably, there have been several times throughout the canon where the victim is a woman. Some writers (like Edgar Allan Poe, himself a father of the genre) felt that the death of a beautiful, beloved woman was the worst kind of tragedy, and that it immediately engendered a different level of support. I would say that there exists some real world resonance in that idea; look how readily the cable news battens onto stories of missing women, with the ones that are highlighted inevitably being more attractive (I’m not saying that’s right; I’m saying that happens).

"Perhaps the argument is being made that Meltzer’s move is anti-woman because of the level of brutalization involved. While I agree that Sue Dibny’s death was horrific, I challenge that it’s no more or less horrific than any number of other deaths in fiction. Consider the victims of Patrick Bateman in Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho; car batteries, coat hangers, and the introduction of rats into orifices all play a part in that. Is that level of depravity necessary to depict? Maybe or maybe not; regardless, brutalization of that level does occur in real life, and it may be intellectually dishonest of the writer to ignore that."

San Diego afterthoughts: At Comic Book Resources, Steven Grant returns from Comic-Con in a surprisingly upbeat and optimistic mood:

For a long time factionalization has torn and weakened the comics industry. This is natural enough, and it's been going on pretty much ever since fandom was founded. DC vs Marvel. Independents vs mainstream. Black'n'whites vs color comics. Superhero comics vs. autobiographical comics or funny animal comics or whatever other genre. A little over a decade ago, a number of writer-artists got together and issued "the Creator's Bill Of Rights," a manifesto with the unintended effect of alienating many of those – the comics talent pool – it sought to win over, by implying comics written and drawn by the same person were inherently superior to those with the disciplines performed by different people. I still hear that argument, heard it this weekend as a matter of fact, and it's specious nonsense. The person I talked to cited Will Eisner as the exemplar, going back 60 years to THE SPIRIT and earlier works, but THE SPIRIT, one of the most influential strips in history, was a gang bang if there ever was one.

There are economic reasons for freelancers pursuing creator-owned work, and economic reasons why most companies prefer company-owned comics, but nothing makes creator- or company- comics inherently superior to the other creatively. As a group, I mean. Specific comics, sure. But PLANETARY isn't inherently superior to most other superhero comics because it's a creator-owned comic (or is it company-owned? I forget...) but because it's usually a better comic book. Likewise, other comics from other genres or publishers aren't inherently superior to PLANETARY because they're not superhero comics or not published by DC. There's no criterion that makes any group or type of comic inherently superior to any other group or type. French comics aren't inherently superior to American comics because they're French. Manga aren't inherently superior to X-MEN just because they're manga.

I mean, come on. There are crappy superhero comics, crappy French comics, crappy manga, and great superhero comics, great French comics, great manga. There are great company-owned comics and creator-owned comics that wouldn't qualify as toilet paper. Fantagraphics is one of the great publishers out there, but even Fantagraphics has published its share of crap; you can't expect a comic to be good just because Fantagraphics puts it out any more than you can expect any comic with the Marvel name to be good. Because genres, publishers, designer labels, modes of creation, target audiences, characters, nations of origin, title affiliations, size, print style and even talent names don't matter.

The only thing that makes a comic book good or bad – the only thing that matters, that really matters – is the work.

Everything else is marketing.

He also discusses the integration of Comic-Con, responds to emails about the debt DC owes to Marv Wolfman and George Perez, and asks for some financial help.

Runoff takes off: Newsarama talks with Runoff creator Tom Manning:

"... I like challenges and I wanted to write a book that wasn’t exactly a genre. A book that would be really hard to explain to someone else. Something without a catchphrase. In 1999, I was coming out of college and I was frustrated because I read Marvel Comics as a kid but now I didn’t know what to read but I didn’t see anyone taking comics to the levels they should be going to. I’m not trying to say that Runoff takes comics to a new level but to look at comics as a medium and not just entertainment. It’s not Frankenstein versus Wolverine."

Manga's fanbase: The Boston Globe looks at the driving force behind manga's rapidly growing popularity -- young women:

"Think of manga as literary soaps for teens and 20-somethings. They're The O.C. in graphic-novel form. Consider the upcoming release My Love, which has a tag line that places its heroine at the intersection of sweet and dangerous: 'She's feisty, cute, 15 . . . and a loan shark!' X-Day tells the story of five high schoolers who plot to blow up their school. Princess Ai, which boasts Courtney Love as a coauthor, features an occasionally topless Love doppelganger who's both a singer and a winged superhero. A ratings system steers young readers away from overtly sexual or violent content."

Korean comics on the rise: The Korea Times reports that last weekend's Comic-Con International resulted in more than $1 million worth of North American licensing agreements and copyright purchases for Korean cartoons and comics. That will translate into 40 new manhwa entering the North American market:

"Now I see how popular Korean comics are in the global market. The local comic market should be in good shape for more Korean comic characters to be loved by an overseas market."

Self-promotion time: Yes, it's that time again already. I have more work to promote. October's Digital Webbing Presents #19 (AUG04 2670) is a full-color issue with a 20-page science-fiction feature by Steve Niles and Kody Chamberlain (30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales). As if that weren't enough, the issue also boasts a little experiment co-written by Ian Ascher and me, and beautifully illustrated by Scott LeMien (Moonstone Monsters).

The three-page story, called "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight," throws together characters from Ian's "Sleight of Hand" stories and my "Bad Elements" series in a case of two hitmen after the same target. It's short, but as I said, it's an experiment -- one spurred by an online conversation with the publisher, who challenged the three of us to tell a complete story in just three pages using members of both casts ... and an explosion. I think we met the challenge pretty well. 

The October issue also contains "How I Spent My 21st Birthday," by Troy Wall and Nick Postic and Nick Marinkovich (IDW's Underworld), "Spook'd" by Jeffery Stevenson and Seth Damoose (Movie Poop Shoot's Brat-halla), and "Just Another Wednesday" by Ev Jameson and Justin Peterson.

Anime Network goes live: Anime Network goes live today, moving from a video-on-demand format to 24/7 national network (well, "national" in the loosest sense of the word).

"Basement" dwellers: At Comic Book Resources, Matt Fraction and Joe Casey launch "The Basement Tapes" with a discussion of "comics journalism," among other topics:

FRACTION: The mainstream press is near exclusively PR-driven and its cycles are artificially birthed and manipulated -- I mean, how much "news" has been broken concurrent with a new issue of WIZARD that's been in the production pipeline for three months? You'll see PR hyping Marvel's 50% dominance of the direct market in January, but no analysis that, yeah, but that stunt was born of Marvel double-shipping 75% of their books that month.

So you've got a press that's been forcibly co-opted by the comics mainstream, a mainstream very largely co-opted by a singular genre, and the development of the DM over the last couple years is definitive proof that the trickle-down taste theory (that the success of the mainstream finances the existence of alternatives) is wrong. Now the mainstream has reached the end of some kind of cycle where it's running head-on into the last comfort zone it knew. You could argue any number of reasons for this, but the majors are playing it same as it ever was-- Marvel and DC have built a bridge back to the twentieth century and neutering progressive work while artificially inflating the sales charts and squeezing anyone not in a cape further and further down the charts, off the racks, whatever. The super-hero mainstream is the only game in most comic shops (the manga & shojo issue is a whole 'nother thing), and it's a bloated, unchecked pig.

Where else, then, is there a venue for thoughtful commentary and critique of the mainstream necessary at least in part to elevate it, if not the Internet? Beyond the unchecked, fawning pedantry or pissing that's marked the web's early development (and still clogs most un-moderated forums), there's a developing node of extraordinarily thoughtful analysis starting to blossom on several blogs and from several writers here and there-- and with the mainstream's choke-hold on the DM, where else but the web can such a thing exist? The mainstream is the only game in town, a system existing to perpetuate a system-you know, "Why bother thinking when we can all just be happy that Chris Claremont is coming back to X-MEN again?"

CASEY: Well, hell, it all comes back to the goddamned X-MEN, doesn't it...?

FRACTION: You're never going to escape, Joe.

Viz to adapt Wolf's Rain: ICv2.com also reports that Viz will release a two-volume adaptation of the popular Wolf's Rain anime series, as well as a soccer manga called Whistle. Both are scheduled for a fall release.

Dark Horse roundup: ICv2.com has a summary of announcements made by Dark Horse at Comic-Con, including a comic-book adaptation of The Incredibles, Katsuya Terada's The Monkey King manga series, Katsuhiro (Akira) Otomo and Shinji Kamura's Hipira: The Little Vampire, and Peter Bagge's Apocalypse Nerd.

The Hibbs experience: Retailer Brian Hibbs has launched his own blog, called Savage Critic.

Clothes make the fan: TechTV.com looks at cosplayers as a barometer of what's popular in the "geek community," and surveys Comic-Con International for this year's "hot list" -- and a glimpse into 2005:

"If two horrible prequel movies haven't been able to kill people's love of Star Wars, we don't think anything will. That puppy's here to stay for the forseeable future, even if Revenge of the Sith is a steaming pile like its predecessors. And The Lord of The Rings has been around forever in the hearts and minds of geekdom -- that ain't gonna change, tho it will probably decline a bit with the general public as the movies get further and further into the past. Either way, those two properties have a lot of history around them that are almost like armor against receding from the popular culture landscape."

Review revue: Time magazine reviews Birth of a Nation, written by Aaron McGruder and Reginald Hudlin, and illustrated by Kyle Baker.

Bandai vs. the pirates: Wired News checks in on efforts by Bandai Entertainment to crack down on anime piracy, which is churning out unauthorized products worth an estimated $300 million a year:

"We've tried some gentler approaches prior to filing the lawsuits, but the piracy has just been growing exponentially. It's time to take more formal action."

The madding crowd: Although official numbers haven't been announced, the Associated Press reports an estimated 80,000 people attended Comic-Con International. That's an increase of about 5,000 over last year. Over at The Beat, Heidi MacDonald contends attendance was more than 100,000. Semi-exact, official-type numbers should make the rounds later this week.

GN line debuts in November: Publishers Weekly (subscription required) reports that Dan (Legion) Abnett's Titan: God-Machine will be the first title in BL Publishing's new line of "pocket-sized" graphic novels. The line's 200-page black-and-white books are based on the science fiction and fantasy worlds created by parent company Games Workshop. Titan will debut in November, followed by The Call of Chaos in January, The Complete Tales from the Ten-Tailed Cat and Bloodquest: The Eye of Terror trilogy in March, and Darkblade: Reign of Blood in May.

HarperCollins to publish SiP: Terry Moore tells ICv2.com that HarperCollins will publish a Strangers in Paradise Treasury Edition 240-page hardcover in October:

"Roughly 60% of the content will never have been published before, including the original 'rough draft' 30-page first issue of SiP (in black & white), behind the scenes information, how Moore got started and how SiP came to be, director's notes and even nude preliminary sketches."

More from Bandai: ICv2.com also has more details on Bandai's announcement that it will launch a manga line next year: "We want to publish a limited line of books based on high profile properties. We're commissioning original stories based on established properties."

Dates floated for FCBD: ICv2.com reports the Free Comic Book Day steering committee will present two possible dates in 2005 to retailers: May 7 (the first weekend in May), and June 18 (the opening of Batman Begins). 

Something wicked this way comes: At Ninth Art, Greg McElhatton combs through August Previews for an entertaining look at "Things to Come" in October.

Review revue: The Orlando Sentinel reviews Derek Kirk Kim's Same Difference and Other Stories.

Sister act: The Seattle Times spotlights sisters Danielle and Nicole Pelham, who have self-published a manga called Guiding Light. In a sidebar, the newspaper summarizes the history of anime and manga.

Move over, Harry Potter: Dark Horizons passes along news from Variety that Regency Enterprises and Fox 2000 Pictures have optioned Ted Naifeh's Courtney Crumrin to develop as a potential film franchise. (Link via Franklin Harris.)

Teaching the art of comics: The India Express reports on World Comics India's three-day workshop on the art of making comics.

"Nerdtopia": The San Diego Union-Tribune wraps up Comic-Con International with news of a Simpsons movie, and chats with Larry Young and Chip Zdarsky.

Young: "The demographic for this stuff is same as the demographic for television. ... Whatever your favorite movie is, we have a comic book or graphic novel that is similar."

Zdarsky: "This is nerdtopia. Everything you could ever want as a nerd is here."

Korea to honor Old Boy: The Korea Herald reports the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will honor the director, lead actor and producer of Old Boy, which received runner-up Grand Prize of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival. The film is a tale of revenge based on a Japanese manga of the same name.

Little heroes, big screen: Meanwhile, The New York Times wonders whether lesser-known comic properties, such as Hellblazer and Sin City, can be transformed into big-screen blockbusters. Here's Frank Miller:

"People who love comic books are traumatized by the way things have been turned upside down. Hollywood tends to take the work as a springboard and nothing else and that is not the best thing."

The players: USA Today also attends Comic-Con, examining the influence of comic fans on Hollywood, and the rise of the comic-book movie.

Time for your close-up: The Associated Press reports from Comic-Con International with a look at Hollywood's courtship of comic book fans. Here's actor Lance Henriksen:

"There are 80,000 people who are going to pass through here, and there are only 35,000 at the Democratic convention. What does that tell you?"

"Cup o' Joe" roundup: Newsarama reports from Joe Quesada's "Cup o' Joe" session, where the usual flurry of exclusive agreements and project plans were announced. Some of the highlights include:
* Warren Ellis' two-year exclusive agreement, initially mentioned on Friday, was confirmed. As also reported on Friday, Ellis will take over Iron Man. According to The Pulse, it was hinted that Ellis could have an ICON book. In his "Bad Signal" email newsletter, Ellis assured his fans the new contract won't affect Planetary: "Planetary is exempt from the deal, as are two other small WFH jobs I'd begun at DC. And, to reiterate, it affects my creator-owned work not at all -- I'm free to continue generating new work in that field and placing it anywhere I like."
* Robert Kirkman also has signed a two-year exclusive contract. He tells Comic Book Resources the agreement won't interfere with The Walking Dead or Invincible, and he won't be bringing the titles under the ICON banner: "They mentioned it, but I didn't give them time to make the actual offer. They mentioned it as a possibility and I told them I wasn't really interested. I'm completely happy at Image and I want to support Image Comics. I think Image is a vital part of this industry and it just wasn't an option."
* Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, writer on Marvel Knights 4 and the new Nightcrawler series, rounded out the writer exclusives.
* The Pulse also notes that artists Steve Epting and Greg Land have signed exclusive contracts with Marvel, but no duration was given.
* Marvel announced an agreement with Dreamwave, which kicks off in December with a Fantastic Four/X-Men limited series by Pat Lee.
* Runaways will return in January for "Season Two."
* Quesada said plans have changed for Thor, and asked that fans be patient. (Could it be that Neil Gaiman's schedule derailed those plans?)
* Talent Caldwell will be the new artist on Spectacular Spider-Man.

Good-bye, Austen; hello, Milligan: Newsarama reports from the "X-Men Reload" panel at Comic-Con that Peter Milligan will replace Chuck Austen on X-Men.

Marvel in October, revisited: Although they were leaked at Millarworld on July 15, Marvel officially released its October solicitations today, with cover images. For the trade paperback solicitations, go here. It just occurred to me: Why is there no issue of Mary Jane solicited? (The first trade digest is offered, but no monthly issue.)

Bandai to tackle manga: The Pulse has word, but sketchy details, from the Bandai panel at Comic-Con, where it was announced the international entertainment giant will enter the manga field in March 2005. Rob Napton, producer of Macross 2, Gunbuster and Appleseed, is editing the new line.

Review revue: UK's Guardian Unlimited reviews the much-celebrated McSweeney's 13: The Comics Issue, edited by Chris Ware:

"This book should be bought by anyone with any interest in comics, modern art, in fact, in modern popular culture, full stop. And if you haven't read a comic in years, it can take you back to your childhood. You remember the joy of receiving an annual for Christmas? There always seemed to be just so much stuff in it. You'd flick through it, dip in and out of it, reading the odd page; and then you'd go back and read it all properly over the next few weeks. Well, you can relive that experience with this book. You won't like everything, and, as with those old annuals, there are some boring bits that aren't comics at all. Writing - words on a page with no pictures. Most of the written stuff seems pale and uninteresting next to the comics, though there is quite an interesting piece by John Updike, who apparently started life as a cartoonist, but eventually gave it up to write novels. "

Kerry the vampire slayer: The Boston Herald takes notice of Sen. John Kerry's cameo in Sword of Dracula #5:

"A spokesman for the Kerry camp could not be reached for comment, so it is unclear whether Kerry is aware of his fictional counterpart -- or if he thinks the comic will put a stake in his chances of capturing the undead vote."

Size does matter: Wired News checks in from Comic-Con with a look at comics delivered via cell phones:

"Already, cell-phone users can pay to download wallpaper, greetings, animation and daily strips featuring well-known characters (Ziggy, the For Better or for Worse family) and lesser-known ones (Captain RibMan and Anoki). Later this summer, an aggregation site called GoComics will expand to include offerings of strips like Doonesbury and La Cucaracha, all available to mobile-phone users willing to shell out $2 or $3 a month for access.

"GoComics, which works with a number of comic-strip distributors and hopes to strike deals with comic-book makers like DC and Marvel, reports making 1 million sales in 2003. Nearly two-thirds of the customers are women, perhaps because they like the ability to personalize greetings, said co-managing director Chris Pizey."

Glimmer man: Comic Book Resources talks with Courtney Crumrin's Ted Naifeh about his just-announced project for Oni Press, Glimmer:
 
"I love sword and sorcery epics. I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan. Glimmer is sort of my attempt at a sword and sorcery epic with a goth flavor, a little tongue in cheek, a little style over substance, a little angst. There's no ship date yet. We just want to whet folks' appetites. Probably next summer, in time for Comic-Con."

Get your awards here: The Pulse has the complete list of winners of the 2004 Eisner Awards and other honors, handed out last night at Comic-Con. Eisner winners were:

Best Short Story: "Death," by Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell, in The Sandman: Endless Nights (Vertigo/DC)
Best Single Issue (or One-Shot): (tie) Conan The Legend #0, by Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord (Dark Horse), and The Goon #1, by Eric Powell (Dark Horse)
Best Serialized Story: Gotham Central #6-10: "Half a Life," by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark (DC)
Best Continuing Series: 100 Bullets, by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso (Vertigo/DC)
Best Limited Series: Unstable Molecules, by James Sturm and Guy Davis (Marvel)
Best New Series: Plastic Man, by Kyle Baker (DC)
Best Title for a Younger Audience: Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge, by various (Gemstone)
Best Humor Publication: Formerly Known as the Justice League, by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, and Joe Rubinstein (DC)
Best Anthology: The Sandman: Endless Nights, by Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, P. Craig Russell, Miguelanxo Prado, Barron Storey, Frank Quitely, Glenn Fabry, Milo Manara, and Bill Sienkiewicz; co-edited by Karen Berger and Shelly Bond (Vertigo/DC)
Best Graphic Album—New: Blankets, by Craig Thompson (Top Shelf)
Best Graphic Album—Reprint: Batman Adventures: Dangerous Dames and Demons, by Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, and others (DC)
Best Archival Collection/Project: Krazy and Ignatz, 1929–1930, by George Herriman, edited by Bill Blackbeard (Fantagraphics)
Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material: Buddha, vols. 1 and 2, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
Best Writer: Alan Moore, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Promethea, Smax, Tom Strong, Tom Strong's Terrific Tales (ABC)
Best Writer/Artist: Craig Thompson, Blankets (Top Shelf)
Best Writer/Artist—Humor: Kyle Baker, Plastic Man (DC); The New Baker (Kyle Baker Publishing)
Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team: John Cassaday, Planetary, Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth (WildStorm/DC); Hellboy Weird Tales (Dark Horse)
Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art): Jill Thompson, "Stray," in The Dark Horse Book of Hauntings (Dark Horse)
Best Coloring: Patricia Mulvihill, Batman, Wonder Woman (DC), 100 Bullets (Vertigo/DC)Best Lettering: Todd Klein, Detective Comics ( DC); Fables, The Sandman: Endless Nights (Vertigo/DC); Tom Strong, Promethea (ABC); 1602 (Marvel)
Best Cover Artist: James Jean, Batgirl (DC), Fables (Vertigo/DC)
Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition: Derek Kirk Kim, Same Difference and Other Stories
Best Comics-Related Periodical: Comic Book Artist, edited by Jon B. Cooke (Top Shelf)
Best Comics-Related Book: The Art of Hellboy, by Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)
Best Publication Design: Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross, designed by Chip Kidd (Pantheon)
Hall of Fame (judges' choices): Otto Binder, John Stanley, Kasuo Koike and Goseki Kojima
Hall of Fame (voters' selection): Al Capp, Jules Feiffer, Don Martin and Jerry Robinson

Inkpot Awards were given to Jack Adler, Tom Gill, Harry Harrison, Bruce Jones, Batton Lash, Mike Mignola, Bill Plympton, Frank Springer and John Totleben. Jim Lee received the CBLDF Liberty Award.

Avengers panel, and more: Comic Book Resources reports from the Avengers panel at Comic-Con, at which several announcements were made:

* Although CBR's front-page summary teases that Warren Ellis is now Marvel-exclusive, there's no mention of that in the article itself; I presume it's an accidental omission. Rumors that Ellis will take over Iron Man were confirmed, with Adi Granov stepping in as the series' regular artist.
* Another rumor was put to rest as Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting were named as the new creative team on Captain America beginning in November. Brubaker talks about his plans here.
* Alan Heinberg, a writer for Fox Television's The O.C., will launch a Young Avengers series with Marvel-exclusive artist Jimmy Cheung early next year. "It's not what you think," EIC Joe Quesada assured the audience. "It's nothing like you're thinking, it's one of the most inventive series we've come along in a long time ..."
* CBR also talks with John Romita Jr. about his 12-issue run on Wolverine with Mark Millar, which begins in October.
* The Pulse notes a new Marvel Team-Up series, by Robert Kirkman and Scott Kolins, will kick off in November.

Attention Kmart readers: Publishers Weekly (subscription required) also reports that Kmart will add a young-adult section in September as part of the chain's growing focus on children's books:

"Kmart, whose 1,500 stores each carry about 475 children's titles, has been increasing its commitment to the market in recent years. Last fall, it added 'value tables' in high-traffic areas of the store with children's books making up 85% of the merchandise displayed. At the same time, 538 stores added sections stocked by titles from Paragon Publishing, with children's titles making up 85% of the books carried."

Learning from Tokyopop: Publishers Weekly (subscription required) checks in on licensing trends, and finds that many publishers are watching Tokyopop's successful Cine-Manga line and taking notes. Here's Margaret Milnes, senior director of publishing for Nickelodeon: ""It's a brand-new format that appeals to a traditionally underserved market in terms of age, and is a perfect match for our properties." And there's more:

"Tokyopop helped us find a way to make comics work in the U.S. again," agreed Jeanne Mosure, v-p of global retail books for Disney Publishing Worldwide, which recently expanded its licensing deal with Tokyopop. "They created a format that works at retail, and it speaks to how ready kids were for that."

Warner Bros. is getting into the TV-based manga business with its sister company DC Comics, which is introducing two Warner titles that, like Cine-Manga, feature frame-grabs of TV shows with word balloons. The two books are bind-ups tied to Cartoon Network and Kids WB, each highlighting five shows that appear on the networks.

I don't recall seeing anything previously about the Warner Bros./DC take on Cine-Manga. Could that be part of DC's new CMX line?

Marvel panel summary: The Pulse also covered the Marvel Universe panel, where ... nothing much was announced. (To be fair, Joe Quesada's "Cup o' Joe" panel is on Saturday, so any big news probably is being saved until then.) Still, didn't we already know most of this? The one bit of new information was Daredevil: Golden Age:

"One of the newest projects announced was the anniversary special for Daredevil called Daredevil: Golden Age. The story takes readers through the Daredevil's early years and features the yellow costume. ON the panel it was described as 'a little like Once Upon a Time In America.' When that series comes out Bendis will be scribing Daredevil's adventures in the Golden Age, Silver Age and Modern age. Creating the art for the D:GA is Alex Maleev."

Peter David was on the panel, but The Pulse doesn't report any announcement from him.

Update: Newsarama's coverage of the Marvel panel includes more details.

Vertigo panel roundup: The Pulse has news from the second Vertigo panel, including preview art from Jill Thompson's upcoming Deadboy Detectives (above). Other panel highlights include:

* Brian Azzarello has signed a three-year exclusive deal with DC, and is working with Marcelo Fusin on a Western called Loveless.
* Mike Carey and Leonardo Manco will produce a Hellblazer original graphic novel called Hellblazer: All His Engines, which will try to bridge the gap between the movie and the comic series. (Carey talks more about the project at Comic Book Resources.)
* It appears that 2005 will be the year of the OGN at Vertigo, as Pride by Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon also was announced. According to The Pulse, "the story concerns a zoo in the middle of a war zone whose occupants suddenly find themselves free in war-torn Iraq."
* A Fables original graphic novel, called 1001 Nights of Snowfall, also is planned, with Charles Vess and other artists tapped to draw.
* Gary Phillips and Shawn Martinbrough are working on a five-part miniseries called Angeltown. (For more, visit Comic Book Resources.)
* Gilbert Hernandez will release an original graphic novel called Sloth, about a teen-ager "who wills himself into a coma, wakes up a year later, and is physically slower than everyone around him."
* Newsarama reports that Mike Carey and Glenn Fabry will adapt Neil Gaiman's novel, Neverwhere, as a miniseries.

The San Diego Beat: At The Beat, Heidi MacDonald has some interesting tidbits from Comic-Con, including observations on the major publishers' booths, and reports from last night's Friends of Lulu Awards.

Kanji? Can-do! Manga otaku take heart. Engadget reports that Omronsoft has developed a Java application that allows you to send and receive email in Japanese from your Western cell phone.

"This is huge": The San Diego Union-Tribune sizes up this year's Comic-Con:

"'This,' said Danny Fingeroth, standing on the crowded floor of the San Diego Convention Center, 'is the premier pop culture festival in the United States.'

"Fingeroth is a former editor of Marvel's Spider-Man comics and, thus, a biased source. But only a superdolt would argue with him. From yesterday's opening ceremonies through Sunday's closing festivities, this weekend belongs to the Con.

"Stand next to Fingeroth and here's what you see: more. More people (ticket sales indicate that last year's record crowd of 75,000 will be easily surpassed). More vendors, peddling everything from $800 original Pogo strips to $40,000 Art Nouveau paintings. More stars plugging more movies, from Jude Law (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow) to Keanu Reeves (Constantine). More Klingons, Sailor Moons, Imperial Storm Troopers and other costumed adults indulging their inner 12-year-olds."

Review revue (Part 2): PopMatters updates its comics section with reviews of Artesia Afire, Peops: Portraits and Stories of People, and Bone, Vol. 8: Treasure Hunters.

Meanwhile, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reviews Scott Morse's The Barefoot Serpent.

His master's voice? Jeff Parker files the first of his audio-blog reports from Comic-Con here and here.

One of the world's finest: At Silver Bullet Comic Books, Jim Kingman looks at a few of the contributions of writer Bob Haney, who is in a convalescent hospital after suffering a massive stroke several months ago.

The buzz from Comic-Con: At Newsarama, Jonah Weiland and Matt Brady activate their Wonder Twin powers to file a joint report from the convention floor, with items about Activision's X-Men: Legends, interest in Lady Death and other former Chaos properties, worn-out Complete Bone jokes, and more.

San Diego Digest, Part 1: Comic-Con International is barely into Day 2, and there's already a boatload of news:

* Comic Book Resources has news that Grant Morrison will return to the JLA for at least one arc in Justice League Classified, a new series that will allow writers and artists to tell stories from any era in the team's history. Mike Carlin said Gail Simone's planned JLA arc with Jose Garcia-Lopez may end up in the new book, along with the I Can't Believe It's Not Justice League miniseries.
* CBR reports from Thursday's DC's "Batman: War Games" panel, where it was announced that Judd Winick will be the permanent writer on Batman, returning to the title with November's Issue 634.
* Newsarama reports the Disney panel demonstrates the increasing importance of comics to the House of Mouse. Disney showcased WITCH, which has sold more than 20 million copies in 71 countries, and Kylion, a futuristic space opera.
* Speaking of the "War Games" panel, group editor Bob Schreck gave a broad overview of the publisher's big cross-over.
* In its "War Games" coverage, The Pulse notes the announcement of Matt Wagner's 12-issue series, Batman: Dark Moon Rising,  and Dave Lapham's yearlong Detective arc, called "City of Crime."
* Newsarama has more on yesterday's Vertigo panel, including indication that the success of It's a Bird could lead to more original graphic novels from the imprint.
* IDW Publishing officially announced another Steve Niles series. This one's called Lurkers.
* Newsarama also covers DC's efforts to raise Dustin Nguyen's profile through the "Spotlight" panel (hosted by Jim Lee).
* CBR talks with B. Clay Moore about another new series, Battle Hymn, with art by Jeremy Haun and Ande Parks.
* The Pulse  has the winners of the eighth annual Friends of Lulu Awards, which were presented Thursday night.
* Variety's Bags and Boards checks in from the convention center floor.

Return of the teen detectives: ICv2.com also reports that NBM Publishing is launching a new line of comics and graphic novels featuring updated adventures of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew -- who now sport cell phones and laptop computers. The new Hardy Boys adventure, which debuts in November, will be written by Scott Lobdell and illustrated by Lea Hernandez.

In an interesting move, the 32-page, full-color comic will be a direct market exclusive. In February, the comics will be collected in a 96-page, digest-sized trade with a $7.95 cover price. Nancy Drew only will appear as trade paperbacks. Both titles are edited by Jim Salicrup.

Electric Girl, the TV series? At Comic-Con, ICv2.com learns from AiT/Planet Lar that Michael Brennan's Electric Girl is being developed as an animated series by Cartoon Network. Larry Young pointed out that Electric Girl is his company's best-selling book, and sells 10 times as many copies in the book market as in the direct market:

"He also informed ICv2 that there are six Ait/Planet Lar titles currently in active development  for live action feature films.  The six are Astronauts in Trouble, Demo, The Couriers, Last of the Independents, Channel Zero and Codeflesh."

Death gets her Day: Superhero Hype passes along word from Variety that New Line Cinema has secured the rights to Neil Gaiman's Death: The High Cost of Living. Gaiman, who wrote the screen adaptation, is in talks to direct. The film's current title is Death's Day.

Changing syndicates: The Associated Press reports that For Better of For Worse cartoonist Lynn Johnston is bringing her comic strip back to Universal Press Syndicate after seven years with United Feature Syndicate.

Leading ladies: The Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader puts together a list of the 10 most important female comic-book characters: Wonder Woman, Gwen Stacy, Lois Lane, Mary Jane Watson, Catwoman, Jane Grey, Storm, Rogue, Supergirl and Elektra. There's also a handful of "honorable mentions."

Pounding the pavement: California's North County Times looks at local creators Adam Rosko and J.M. Hunter's efforts to get their book in the hands of publishers at Comic-Con International:

"Hunter and Rosko will join about 70,000 other fans this week in attending the annual ComicCon -- the gigantic comic book convention which started Thursday and runs through Sunday at the San Diego Convention Center -- but instead of buying books and memorabilia, they will be trying to interest publishers in picking up their books.

"It's not easy breaking into the comic book industry, but they like to think they have improved their chances by publishing their own books. With or without a lucrative contract, though, they are doing what they love."

Review revue: Colorado's Rocky Mountain News reviews Give Our Regards to the Atom Smashers!: Writers on Comics.

Catwoman's nine lives: The Alameda (Calif.) Times Star traces the history of Catwoman, from her first appearance as "The Cat" in Batman #1 to her latest screen incarnation:

"Instead of Selina Kyle, Berry plays Patience Philips, a sensitive artist and graphic designer for a cosmetics company. An accident again transforms her into Catwoman, but this time she straddles the law and the lam. A cop (Benjamin Bratt) is torn between his tenderness for Patience and his fascination with Catwoman, not knowing they're the same person."

For a sampling of reviews of the Catwoman movie, go here, here and here.

The Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader also provides a Catwoman timeline, highlighting the character's high -- and low -- points.

Day One's DC Panels: The Pulse reports from Comic-Con International with confirmation that Kurt Busiek will take over DC's JLA with Issue 107; Ron Garney will continue as artist. Also, we should expect more JLA-JSA team-ups.

At the first of the Vertigo panels, it was revealed that Bruce Jones is working on a Deadman project,  while Josh Dysart (Violent Messiahs, The Demon: Driven Out) will take over Swamp Thing with Issue 9. (For more on Dysart's take on the title, skip over to Newsarama.) It also was announced that John Watkiss, who worked in comics in the '90s before fleeing to Disney, will team with Jason Hall on a continuing series called Trigger.

A fistful of comics: Newsarama talks with B. Clay Moore about Five Dead Men, a Western miniseries debuting in January from Image, with art by Tony Moore:

"It's a straight-ahead Western. It's both a revenge story and something of a coming-of-age story. And, obviously from the title, people die. From gunshots. I don't know ... The Searchers meets Lone Wolf and Cub? The story takes us through the upper Western States and into Canada."

June sales numbers: ICv2.com notes that comics sales through Diamond were up in June for the fourth month in a row, a 15-percent rise over this time last year. The retailer site also has the estimated sales figures for the Top 300 comics and Top 100 graphic novels.

Blogger, interrupted: I have errands to run this morning, so blogging will resume early this afternoon.

Hitting the mainstream? In an article about military-recruitment policies at local high schools, the Brattleboro (Vt.) Reformer makes a reference to Demo #7:

"The tactics used by military recruiters has been a focus of attention in the media lately, notably in Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 and a fiction graphic novel by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan called, Demo: One Shot, Don't Miss."

Cultural tsunami: Business Week wonders whether Japanese culture is taking over the world, and turns to Tokyopop's Stuart Levy, among others, for the answer:

"High-school girls in Japan are the key to any trend. They are the center of pop culture today."

In a sidebar, the magazine also looks at how online communities are helping the spread of manga- and anime-related products:

"With the Internet and e-mail, there's way more of a global culture now. When we started out, we were telling kids in the U.S. what was cool in Japan. Now it's a global dialogue. Stuff is just bouncing around the world really quickly."

Manga artist must pay up: Japan's Daily Mainichi reports that Candy Candy artist Yumiko Igarashi and others have been ordered by a Tokyo high court to pay 1.75 million yen to toymaker Apple One, which lost millions when Igarashi gave the company permission to merchandise the manga's characters -- despite not having the right to do so.

Move over, boys: The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel asks young Latinas what they think about Marvel's latest superheroine, Amazing Fantasy's Anya Corazon:

"It's girl power."

"And she dresses like a normal teenager. She's not all seductive."

"And I like the fact that it doesn't have any bad words. It's not about killing. It has a good moral."

Phil Boyle, co-owner of Central Florida's six Coliseum of Comics stores, also offers his opinion: "Anything that comes along that's a little outside the pasty-white norm is interesting and gets some attention. We find that our customer base is made up of black, white, Latino. We've got an incredibly diverse customer clientele. But the superheroes, themselves, are about as diverse as a hockey team."

Who watches the politicians? Alan Moore: Salon.com (click-through ad required) talks politics with Alan Moore:

"... V for Vendetta has had an annoying way of coming true ever since I wrote it in the early '80s. Back then, I wanted something to communicate the idea of a police state quickly and efficiently, so I thought of the novel fascist idea of monitor cameras on every street corner. And the book was, of course, set in the future of 1997. But by that year -- and I don't know if Tony Blair and Jack Straw were big fans, but evidently they thought its design for future Britain was a really good one -- we had cameras on every street corner along the length and breadth of the country. My general thought is that yes, it's depressing, but not unexpected, when this stuff happens. And I do tend to think that, given the upsurge of the religious right over the last couple of decades, these are the last spasms of those dinosaur organisms."

"... I suppose it's too early to go into my rant on Ronald Reagan? That would be tasteless. ... You've got Ronald Reagan -- the much eulogized, recently deceased former president -- who everyone seems to have forgotten was regarded as one of the most low and treacherous individuals by those in Hollywood that he sold out to the McCarthy hearings. This is someone whose response to the AIDS epidemic was probably responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide. This is someone who created Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, or at least set in motion the policies that would create these creatures. This was the architect of much of the world's present misery. Why did we elect him? Because he had been in a lot of films that some quite liked. We thought him an honorable man because in his films he played a lot of honorable men. I believe there are some who believed he had an outstanding war record. Even Ronald Reagan himself talked with misty eyes about the time he liberated concentration camps, which he may have done in a movie. But Ronald Reagan was out of World War II, fortunately for him, because of ill health. So all of his memories of military service came from movies. I've got to say that there are probably better people to elect than film stars."

"Well, the body is one of our first sources of metaphor. One of the ways in which we create our language is to talk about things that are unfamiliar to us in terms of things that are familiar to us. Most of the metaphors that we use come from our own bodies. Of course, in magic, such as that I'm interested in, every part of the body has its own symbolic significance. We were talking earlier about the cult of the head. Various parts of the body, such as the sexual organs, have profound meanings in most systems and cultures. The eyes, the hands -- these are all very rich in symbolism because they are so immediate to us. We all know our bodies intimately; it's all we have and all we are. It tends to provide the easiest sort of metaphor. We talk about the face of a clock, or the foot of the stairs. The limbs of a corporation. In the case of Jack the Ripper, they tend to get our attention; same with the beheadings of those unfortunate hostages we talked about earlier. Although, with regard to those hostages -- and I've got enormous sympathies for their families -- but you don't really hear the word 'mercenaries' much these days, do you?"

(If the political conversation doesn't interest you, skip to the last few questions, where Moore discusses, among other things, his lack of concern for "mainstream appreciation" of his work.)

Small wonder: The University of Iowa's Daily Iowan (registration required) profiles Small Favors creator Colleen Coover:

"I wanted it to be female-friendly without excluding men. Sometimes, there's a misperception that in order to write for women, you have to write down [to their level]. For example, [the notion] that all the female characters have to go to the mall or talk about how dreamy some guy is. It's forgotten that a female character is a character, not a version of a character who does girly stuff."

30 Days, and then some: In other Comic-Con-related news, Comic Book Resources chats with Steve Niles about Bloodsucker Tales, the 30 Days of Night ongoing series that debuts in October:

"The only thing I don't want to do is milk the concept of 30 Days of Night. I don't want to kill it. I don't want to tell vampires attacking every town in the Arctic circle stories, like 'Now they're attacking Finland!' (laughs) Now I feel like the characters themselves are more interesting than the concept and not every story needs to take place in Alaska."

Each issue will contain two stories, one by Niles and Digital Webbing Presents alumnus Kody Chamberlain, and a second by Matt Fraction and Ben Templesmith.

Come for Keanu, stay for the D&D: The San Diego Union-Tribune spotlights Comic-Con International, noting the long list of celebrities -- and mix of subcultures -- who will makes the rounds at the convention center:

"Comic-Con also will play host to several subcultures that barely overlap, with a series of film festivals, anime screenings, lectures, tabletop and role-playing gaming sessions and costume contests. There will also be shopping aplenty in the main exhibit hall, with hundreds of booths offering not just comic books, but everything from the latest Japanese manga and toys to more Lord of the Rings merchandise than you can shake a wizard's staff at.

"As the hard-core crowd runs out of energy on Sunday, the con turns its attention to future geeks with Kids' Day, when many of the panels and events focus on cartoons and children's TV and activities."

Faster than a speeding bullet? Not so much: The New York Times examines Warner Bros.' attempts to revive the Superman film franchise:

"Executives at Warner Brothers are unapologetic about the turmoil, saying they would rather wait for the right script and director and, as important, the perfect Clark Kent, than rush a poorly conceived movie into theaters.

"'We haven't got it right yet; it's that simple,' said Jeff Robinov, president of production at Warner Brothers. 'We have to believe in what we are doing and make it for the right price.'"

Mary Jane's market (and some shipping news): Previews Review sifts through some of the books hitting the shelves this week, and ponders Marvel's Mary Jane:

"It's interesting; I really enjoyed the first issue of MARY JANE but none of the ladies I talked to who read this issue seemed to have liked it at all. I'm pre-disposed to 'girly' comics and to the awesome art of Takeshi Miyazawa, maybe I'm not the best judge of that sort of thing, but yeah. None of the female employees or any of the customers I talked to at the store seemed to like it as much as I did, which is, well, it's interesting. I'm waiting to get some younger impressions, maybe the already-solicited collection of 1 through 4 will find a more appreciative audience...?"

I also enjoyed Mary Jane #1, but have yet to pass it along to any women to get their take. However, I think Alexander Danner might've hit the nail on the head last week with his evaluation of the first issue:

"... [Mary Jane is] an adrenaline junkie with bizarre taste. So bizarre, in fact, that I have to wonder who this book is really for. Let’s think about what she’s after here. What is Spider-Man?

"He’s the archetypal adolescent male power fantasy.

"And Mary Jane is, of course, the archetypal adolescent male sex fantasy. She’s the hot girl who desperately wants to date the 'empowered' dork that all us un-datable dorks so desperately wished we could be.

"This book is clearly NOT female romantic fantasy — it’s male romantic fantasy, but told from the point of view of the fantasy’s object. I submit as evidence the fact that while I thought the book was decent, if not my thing, my wife openly hated it. What we have here is a dating comic for adolescent guys. I don’t know if there’s a market for that. But I kinda want there to be."

Platinum, Top Cow team up: Platinum Studios and Top Cow Productions have announced an exclusive deal in which Platinum will develop the publisher's properties for film and television.

But I'm puzzled by this sentence: "Marc Silvestri’s Top Cow Productions, Inc., is the #1 independent comics publisher." What does that mean? I realize it's typical hyperbole, but how did they arrive at that conclusion?

Conversations with Crumb: ICv2.com notes that University of Mississippi Press has published R. Crumb: Conversations, a 240-page collection of interviews with Robert Crumb.

Review revue: New York Press reviews Seth's Clyde Fans: Book One.

Drawing from experience: The Salem (Ore.) Statesman Journal covers a cartooning workshop for kids held by Steve Lieber at the Woodburn Public Library:

"The most rewarding thing for me (now) is telling my own stories. I'm lucky enough that I get to do that."

Girl power? The Kansas City Star looks at the increasing number of female heroes in comics, television and movies:

"In the past, women were often created as counterpoints, love interests or foes for stronger, leading male characters, says Maggie Thompson, editor of The Comics Buyer’s Guide, the longest-running publication about comic books."

Here's Marvel's Joe Quesada: "I don’t think this new movement of leading female heroines will phase out. The characters have to reflect the world we live in, not just here at Marvel, but everywhere."

The article also contains a chronology of "boundary breakers," highlighting the first appearances of Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Sailor Moon, Buffy and others.

Comics, in focus: Canada's Vancouver Sun highlights an unusual exhibit at the Presentation House Gallery devoted to the depiction of cameras in comic books.

India's original superheroes: Who needs Spider-Man and Superman? The Bombay Times says India already has its own superhero culture -- a rich mythology:

"It would appear that the reason why Americans thrive on modern day comic book heroes is they have no mythology to dip into, for tales about people performing fantastic feats.

"But we can draw parallels between the two cultures in a vague comic book sort of way. How? Well, Action Comics launched Superman, who was rescued from a doomed planet and brought up by foster parents. Amar Chitra Katha brought out Krishna, who too as a child was rescued from an evil uncle and brought up by foster parents. Both wowed the elders with their extraordinary abilities.

"On the other hand, if Spiderman had to fight Doc Ock with his eight tentacles, Rama fought a ten-headed Ravana. But there ends the similarities. For, unlike the Supermans and Batmans of the world, our superheroes don't have to wear their underwears on the outside."

But how much for a cot in the hall? The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the city's hotel-room rates for this weekend have skyrocketed because of a "Super Bowl-like demand for lodging" triggered by Comic-Con International, the Acura Tennis Classic and the opening weekend at Del Mar Race Track.

The Super 8 Motel and the Holiday Inn Express in Mission Valley are going for $667 a night. The Empress Hotel of La Jolla is a hefty $1,000. But a room at the Ramada Inn & Conference Center on Kearny Mesa Road can be yours for just $503 a night.

Pooling their resources: Comic Book Resources and Newsarama have announced they'll join forces in their coverage of Comic-Con International:

"During the convention, visitors to either Comic Book Resources or Newsarama will be able to easily navigate to coverage both on the target or complimentary site through links. Also, for the duration of the show, [Jonah] Weiland and [Matt] Brady will contribute to each others’ site."

Comic-Con coverage begins today.

Crunching numbers: Newsarama talks with publisher Dan Buckley about Marvel's May numbers, variant covers and areas for improvement:
 
"First and foremost, we need to improve on keeping the sales momentum we generate from these events like X-Men Reload. Second, is figuring out the best way to make sure that the perceived lower tier books that are getting rave reviews -- like District X and She-Hulk -- find a home in this marketplace."

WWE and Marvel get ready to rumble: Pro Wrestling Insider passes along word that World Wrestling Entertainment has sued Marvel in an attempt to maintain the rights to the name "Hulk Hogan," which the WWE originally licensed in 1985 after the publisher claimed Terry Bollea's ring pseudonym infringed on the Incredible Hulk. Marvel contends the agreement expired this month, but the WWE claims it owns the rights until March 2005.
 
(The Los Angeles Times' Calendar Live section also contains a story on this, but it's viewable by pay subscribers only. Anyone have a Calendar Live subscription?)

From the Top: Comic Book Resources chats with Top Shelf Productions' Chris Staros about the eight projects the publisher will debut at Comic-Con International:
 
"Well, so many great projects came to fruition this year that the summer ended up being our biggest release season ever. With our printing bills between April and July alone topping $200,000 -- yee-gads! -- this summer is definitely our biggest gamble yet. But these eight books, combined with the three recent Alan Moore/Top Shelf editions of From Hell, Voice Of The Fire and The Mirror Of Love, were so strong, that it was definitely a gamble worth taking. Of course, the fans and retailers will ultimately let us know whether we'll be paying off these printing bills in a timely manner … ahem."
 
Staros also addresses the financial crisis Top Shelf faced just over two years ago:
 
"To tell the truth, I'm not exactly sure how we've survived. I guess getting up every morning and working 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week, helps. Setting up at eighteen conventions a year to meet all the fans personally doesn't hurt either. Simultaneously working several fronts: the direct market, the book trade, and convention/website sales is also a key factor. And, of course, being lucky enough to publish a few really successful books, like From Hell and Blankets -- which have helped improve our brand recognition -- is all a part of it, too.

"Almost all of the publishers I know have invested every penny they could save and borrow to get their operations off the ground and sustain them. And even after years of publishing, they'd all be hard pressed to say that they've recouped any of those financial investments. This is an industry propped up by love, and love alone. It's something you throw yourself into because you want it to be your life, not because you think a paycheck is there. And so, no matter what hardships there are, these people and this industry will survive, because the love of comics is not something that's going to go away."

Hitting the market: Drawn & Quarterly has announced that Farrar, Straus & Giroux will distribute its titles in the U.S. book market beginning in January. Here's Drawn & Quarterly's Chris Oliveros:
 
"We are extremely pleased that a company as venerable as FSG recognizes the literary merit of our titles and the potential in representing our graphic novels to the US book trade. As we publish the best in literary graphic novels and FSG publishes the best of literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children¹s books, retailers as well readers will benefit from the alliance."
 
UPDATE: Publishers Weekly (subscription required) also chimes in on the story.

Retailer rampage: At ICv2.com, retailers are all abuzz over Free Comic Book Day, Marvel subscription ads, and translating movie success into actual comics sales.
 
Joe Krolik of Comics America, on FCBD: "... The most popular item: The Tokyopop Sampler.  Most folks couldn't believe that a book of that size was free.
 
"My comment to publishers, if Tokyopop is willing to make such a great book-sized sampler completely free to retailers, why shouldn't the other publishers make their offerings completely free?  Tokyopop got it right.  Since the event, we have seen return business from fully two thirds of those from the 'never-befores,' as well as several new customers who got word-of-mouth.  That's the idea of the program.  Who cares about regular collectors getting full sets of the books?  We want NEW READERS.  New readers mean new customers... potentially REGULAR customers, and the younger the better because that's the future of our marketplace."
 
Anthony Furfferi of Empire Comics, on subscription ads: "I never understood why retailers complain about Marvel Comics doing this and that; where was it ever etched in stone that Marvel Comics owed comics book specialty shops anything?  Did you all forget that you choose to sell the products in your stores?  You're not 'Marvel Comics Stores' so stop thinking you are and stop acting like they owe you anything.
 
"The single copy issues of Marvel Comics are theirs to insert ANYTHING they choose to and that includes subscription inserts and any forms of ads they want.  It makes total sense to me why Marvel Comics does what they do at times, but I must admit some of their moves in recent years leave me scratching my head.  BUT, if anyone thinks griping and whining is going to make Marvel comics change good luck.  It's as simple as this: it's a big monster that gives us milk and eggs and yes, we all would like to slay them at some time or another."
 
Tim Davis of Alternate Reality, on the movies: "As of this writing Spider-Man 2 has made somewhere in the neighborhood of a quarter of a billion dollars in two weeks of release.  So far my take has been approximately $10.00 to $15.00 in guaranteed trickle down money from the film.  ... If every independent comic book store in the country (9,000 last I heard) made an average of  $15.00 extra income due to this film, that would be a whopping average of $135,000 dollars nation-wide we raked in from our Spider-Man 2 trickle down.  ...
 
"... Next summer Marvel's Distinguished Competition will have a movie in theaters that could be as big as Spider-Man 2 is this year -- Batman Begins is less than a year away. ... DC has always been good at long form multi-part Batman stories.  'No-Man's Land', 'Knightfall', 'Hush', 'Contagion' are just a few DC's done over the last decade.  "Bruce Wayne Murderer" and the upcoming 'War Games' were/are both kicked off with a 10/12 cent prologue story.  In the case of 'Bruce Wayne Murder' it was a cliffhanger that set up readers with a storyline that began the next week.
 
"What if DC did a multi-part 'Batman Event' storyline that began with a FREE giveaway comic available only at movie theaters when a patron bought a ticket to the film.  The giveaway ends with a cliffhanger that would continue in the Batman comic that shipped that opening week of the film.  DC or Warner's could negotiate with theater chains (bypassing the filmmakers) to carry the book and stores that wanted to participate in this promotion could pay for part of the book's production (just like we do for FCBD).  Since we would pick up part of the freight for this promotion, participating stores in that theater's zip code could have their names and address printed somewhere on the comic pointing them to where readers could get the 'Next Thrilling Chapter' of this story."

Reality bites: The Philippines' Manila Times profiles creators Elbert Or and Jamie Bautista, who conducted an informal survey of students that revealed young readers want realistic storylines about conflicts and struggles common among teen-agers:
 
"And from this objective, Cast was born.  It is a full-color comic book series, available next month, that has none of the fantasy-based and sci-fi plots that comics in Filbars or Book Sale have. The story is weaved through the lives of teen-age high school boys and girls who, through a tie-up between their exclusive schools, come together to put up a school play on King Arthur. During the course of the production, the characters discover world-changing ideas, develop relationships, and encounter personal problems, which might just affect the school  production all together."

From Tokyo with Love: Canada's Chart Attack discovers Courtney Love's Princess Ai manga: 
 
"Before Hole, before Kurt, Love had Tokyo. She spent several years in Tokyo, living and performing, while immersing herself in Japanese pop culture, including manga comics, where characters show how nervous they are with a giant bead of sweat, or how happy they are with rainbow shaped eyes. Love approached Tokyopop with her idea, which is, like, the Marvel comics of manga. Her idea, in a nutshell, is that this: like, an alien chick is being hunted by demons or something, but, like, all she wants to do is rock! And then some dude named D.J. Milky stepped in to be a co-creator, gave this alien chick super powers along with the task of saving her home planet."

On display: The San Diego Union-Tribune continues its countdown to Comic-Con International with a spotlight on an exhibit at the Cassius King Gallery celebrating comic book artists.

Super-collector: The Arizona Republic looks at Paul Koines' collection of some 10,000 comic books, which began in the '60s with his passion for Dr. Strange:
 
"What got me as a kid was that these superheroes had real problems to deal with. They had issues that made them come to life. People could identify with some of these characters, because they had human frailties."

Graphix details: Newsarama talks with Scholastic's creative director, David Saylor, about the genesis of the company's new graphic novel imprint called Graphix. The line will launch next year with Bone, which will set the tone for future offerings:
 
"We're looking for are stories and artwork that have a point-of-view, that are 'creator-driven'-meaning that in the same way we publish Newbery-winning author, Karen Hesse, who has deeply-felt emotional content in all her work, we want to publish talented artists and writers that bring something exciting to children. We're not interested in creating generic or blandly obvious comics.”
 
The article also lists  the imprint's upcoming titles -- some of which were mentioned last week by Publishers Weekly: Queen Bee, by Chynna Clugston-Major (Blue Monday, Scooter Girl); The Babysitters Club, adapted by Raina Telgemeier from Ann M. Martin's best-selling series; the tentatively titled High School Confidential, by Aimee Friedman and Christine Norrie (Hopeless Savages); an adaptation of the Goosebumps series; and a science fiction graphic-novel adaptation by Jon J. Muth.

Another hat in the ring: Publishers Weekly (subscription required) reports that children's book publisher Roaring Brook Press plans to launch a comics and graphic novel imprint aimed at children and teen-agers. Mark Siegal, a former senior designer at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, has been hired to run the imprint, which will release 12 to 15 books a year beginning in 2006.
 
Here's Roaring Brook publisher Simon Boughton: "Bookstores are paying attention. This generation of teens loves visual storytelling of all kinds, and the sensibility of comics artists like Chris Ware and Dan Clowes seems to speak directly to teenagers' concerns."

Maladjusted, again: I know it's difficult to believe, but the shipping dates for NYX #5 and Daredevil: Father #2 have been changed. Again. Now we should expect them on Aug. 11. Really. As Paul O'Brien pointed out, this issue of NYX originally was set for a Feb. 11 release. If my fingers don't deceive me, that means it'll be exactly six months late -- if it ships then.

The shipping news: One final stop at Ninth Art, for a rundown of the notable books on the shelves -- including, yes, Eightball #23 -- and a list of the titles shipping this week.

Alternative, and the mainstream: Also at Ninth Art, Chris Ekman joins the push to help out Alternative Comics by offering a list of some of his favorite titles. He also responds to Charles McGrath's New York Times Magazine article about comics:
 
"I don't mean to criticize McGrath just for writing as a layman for other laymen. It's true that there's much in his introductory section to make the well-versed comics reader's eyes roll. He breezily dismisses comic strips, manga, and anything put out by DC or Marvel; he pointedly includes the traditional objection of 'highbrows' that comics are intrinsically sub-literate; and he appropriates Topffer and Hogarth as 'lofty antecedents' of modern comics, in the mighty McCloudian manner.
 
"One could quibble, a lot, with all of the above – by pointing out, for instance, that highbrows nowadays seem to be much less bothered by the pulpy roots of comics than middlebrows are – but there would be no point. These introductory gestures are present just to assuage the scepticism of the audience, and to reassure them that 'graphic novel' doesn't just mean the same old junk in a fancier package."

The Crisis crisis: At Ninth Art, Paul O'Brien looks at the rape and murder of Sue Dibny in Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis:
 
"Still, that rape scene -- it really does have problems. To be fair, it certainly isn't gratuitous. On the contrary, it's clearly a central motivation for the heroes' actions, and therefore key to the plot. But it seems ridiculously out of place for these characters. It's the Elongated Man and his wife, for heaven's sake. Even by DC standards, these are nice, shiny happy characters. There are a few second-tier characters where it would be vaguely believable to insert something like this into their back story, but this just seems absurdly out of place."

Common man: At Silver Bullet Comic Books, Tim O'Shea chats with Troy Hickman about a decade of the Common Grounds "universe":
 
"... Holey Crullers, and now Common Grounds, is one of the things I've always wanted to do in comics: tell a superhero story that focuses on the humanity of the characters. Given the format of the book, I can tell just about any kind of story I choose. Because it tends to be all characterization and dialogue, I can do comedy, drama, suspense, pathos, just about anything. So it never gets boring. And because I have to keep the book interesting within that ostensibly static format, it remains fun, and a challenge, for me."
 
(Where's Tim been hiding, anyway?)

Phoenix saga: The New York Times charts Marvel's rise from bankrupt comics publisher to Hollywood powerhouse:
 
"Begun 65 years ago, Marvel produces 60 comic book titles a month and maintains a loyal fan base and dominance in the market. But comic publishing contributes just 15 percent of the company's operating profits. Licensing revenue from films and related merchandise contributes 83 percent.

"'Somebody once joked to me that Marvel is nothing more than a bunch of lawyers and accountants,' said [CEO Allen] Lipson, who is himself a lawyer and joined Marvel in 1999 as its general counsel."
 
Interestingly, no mention is made of Bill Jemas' role in Marvel's reconstruction (or Joe Quesada's, for that matter).

Comic-Con guide: The San Diego Union-Tribune provides an overview of Comic-Con International. 

Avengers, assembled at home: Slightly behind the curve,  Marvel and Lions Gate now officially announce plans for an animated Avengers DVD based on The Ultimates. Here's David Maisel, president and COO (hehe) of Marvel Studios:
 
"The Avengers are a super hero team for the ages which combines many of Marvel's most popular and enduring characters into one cohesive unit. They are a natural choice to launch Marvel into the fast growing made-for-DVD marketplace."

Under the influence: Utusan Malaysia Online reports on efforts by Chinese comics artists to break free of Western and Japanese influences and develop their own style:
 
"Many Chinese comics have no real soul, and just imitate comics from other countries, but people like me, we really think that our own Chinese heritage is the most precious."
 
"A lot of Chinese culture is now being used in Japanese comics. It's like a mirror being held up to us. But actually, Chinese culture should be expressed by the Chinese themselves."

Dhoti and Spandex: Newsweek discovers Marvel's plans for an Indian Spider-Man:
 
"It's a blending of cultures that Marvel Comics sees as natural — and profitable. 'India is very rich in graphical mythology, and that plays well to the superhero ethos,' says Marvel Comics president Gui Karyo. At the same time, India — with a population of 1 billion — has a rapidly growing middle class and a burgeoning interest in Western culture. In 2002, 32-year-old Sharad Devarajan launched Bangalore-based Gotham Entertainment to publish Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Warner Brothers comic books on the Indian Subcontinent. Since then, the company has ramped up circulation to about half a million copies each month of such titles as Superman, Batman and, of course, Spider-Man."

Comic-book science: The St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press talks with University of Minnesota physics professor James Kakalios, who has taught a seminar called "The Physics of Superheroes," about how Spider-Man's powers might really work:
 
"I'm not so sure how real spiders do it, but geckos can climb up walls and climb across ceilings. They have literally millions of tiny little filaments on the ends of their paws, their hands. These filaments use electrostatic fluctuations, basically static cling, to adhere."

Kitty lit: Writing for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Michael Sangiacomo chats with DC Comics' Dan DiDio about Catwoman, and her relationship with Batman:
 
"There is a definite sexual tension there. At least there is a mutual respect between the Bat and the Cat. He lets her get away with a lot more. She's the only person who can defeat Batman without lifting a finger. It makes her a very important character."
 
The Plain Dealer also prices nine of Catwoman's milestone comic-book appearances, while Iowa's Quad City Times charts the character's six-decade history.

Review revue: The Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger reviews Marvel Age Spider-Man #8.

Going mainstream: The Boulder, Colo., Daily Camera looks at the comic book industry's latest foray into mainstream popularity, focusing on its comeback from near-extinction in the mid-'90s, and the attention being paid by the mainstream media:
 
"Publishers Weekly and the New York Times started looking at the comics and taking them seriously, and at the same time, TV and the movie studios started taking them seriously. Wherever you looked, there was more attention being paid to comics. Now sales are up, and things are going better."

"A sea change": Florida's Sun-Sentinel covers Nova Southeastern University's Comic Book Mania event, where featured speaker Will Eisner had words of encouragement for those wanting to enter the comics field:
 
"They should realize that we are present in a sea change in American popular literature, a tremendous revolution and evolution. Even in this computerized world, print will always remain, though it won't dominate."The combination of imagery and text is a very powerful one. The works that become the most popular are those of artists who have something to say, a message. In print you can say something in a much more detailed and deep way than if you were just speaking it."
 
The Miami Herald also covered the event.

Fanboy chronicles: Southwest Florida's News-Press profiles local artist Justin Peterson, co-creator of the Just Another Wednesday strip that appears online and in Digital Webbing Presents:
 
"The comic shop environment is similar to the New York City subways. If you sit there long enough, you’ll see just about every type of person imaginable. The situations our shop clerks get into are often based on real events that we’ve been lucky enough to bear witness to. We change the names to protect the innocent.”

Review revue: The New York Times (registration required) reviews Megatokyo, 100 Bullets: Samurai, Clyde Fans: Book 1 and The Complete Peanuts: 1950 to 1952, and skims over Al Capp's L'il Abner: The Frazetta Years: Volume 4, 1960-1961, Amy & Jordan and Winsor McCay's Early Works III.

 
Tricks and treats: Newsarama chats with Tokyopop editor Mark Paniccia about I Luv Halloween, a definitely-not-manga trade paperback created and illustrated by Benjamin Roman and written by Keith Giffen. The book, which Paniccia describes as "Charlie Brown on absinthe," signals a bit of an expansion for the manga publisher:
 
"I Luv Halloween is basically an early glimpse into the diversity you’ll see in Tokyopop’s publishing plan for 2005 and beyond. When I show this to people they’re like, ‘This is a Tokyopop book?’ And I’m like, ‘Why not?’ It’s not what anyone expects, but I think this will show people that they’ll never know what to expect from this company.
 
"I Luv Halloween represents an absolute commitment to put cool stuff into readers’ hands. And there’s so much more coming. This project shows how powerful the manga movement really is. I get pitches all the time from people who have something in their heads that they need to get out. They’re not restricted by an established character’s canon or continuity. Manga allows the creator — no matter how new or established — to do something straight from their hearts."

Alternative's plight: Comic World News talks with Jeff Mason about Alternative Comics' financial problems:
 
"I had been talking with the cartoonists that publish with Alternative Comics, our distributors, and dozens of comic book retailers about my financial predicament since the middle of June about various plans to try to ameliorate the situation. A number of other independent publishers that were also hurt by bankrupt distributors leaving them in the lurch had been successful at reinvigorating their cash reserves by making public calls for help. My cash flow problems finally got to the point that I absolutely and immediately needed to ask for help. I am very keen on the idea of not bypassing comic book retailers in this call for help. I wanted do this in a way that could possibly strengthen the process of readers buying Alternative Comics from their local comic book stores and comic book stores buying Alternative Comics from their favorite distributors. Asking readers to purchase books directly from Alternative Comics would have had a much more dramatic and immediate effect, but I’m really looking for a long term solution rather than a quick short term fix. I truly believe in the strength of the direct market, with Alternative Comics working together with retailers and distributors."

Marvel sues Sony Fox Disney: Via The Beat comes word from Variety (pesky subscription required, and I don't have one) that Marvel has filed a $16 million lawsuit against Disney over profits from the Spider-Man, X-Men and Incredible Hulk animated series that aired on the Fox Family Network -- which Disney purchased in 2001 and transformed into ABC Family.
 
According to the lawsuit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Marvel claims Disney failed to account for profits from the cartoons, and failed to promote the series properly:
 
"Marvel further alleges that Disney so overpaid when it acquired Fox Family for an eye-popping $5.2 billion that it had no money left to develop the Marvel properties; that it improperly continued the sweetheart deals put in place by Fox; and that it has let Marvel properties languish while favoring its own programming."

Update: Newsarama has a little background on Marvel's history with Disney, dating back to a 2002 dispute with Buena Vista over artwork used to promote the repackaged Spider-Man animated series DVDs.

Comics-store primer: At Newsarama, Brian Hibbs thinks there's a "huge, untapped market for Direct Market comic book stores," and offers some advice for those thinking of opening their own:
 
"Discount (or margin) is your lifeblood in retail – every percentage point is desperately needed because it represents your profit. I know some fans will read this and think '50% off? Sweet!', but out of that you have to pay rent, utilities, employees, inventory, insurance, and, if you’re lucky, yourself.
 
"Because your margin is so precious, you are strongly advised to not discount comics for regulars. Go back to the top of this column and read that quote from Mel Thompson again. Two-thirds to three-quarters of your business will be people new or returning to comics – these people aren’t primarily concerned about discounts as much as they are about having a clean, well-lit well-stocked location with a friendly and gregarious staff. Discounting costs you much more than you can often see. If you are a 50% account, and you give a mere 10% discount, you’ve given up twenty percent of your profit. Don’t do it, no matter how tempting it seems – you’re not going to drive sales up enough to offset your loss of income."

Fantagraphics in November: Previews Review has Fantagraphics' solicitations for November, which include Hanging Out With the Dream King: Interviews with Neil Gaiman and His Collaborators. Proceeds of the limited-edition, signed hardcover benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Well, there goes $39.95 of my money ...

Hellsing tops bookstore charts: ICv2.com notes that the third volume of Hellsing from Dark Horse/Digital Manga topped BookScan's sales chart for graphic novels in bookstores for the week ending July 11. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 adaptation held the No. 6 spot, while three other volumes made the Top 50. Still, manga continues to dominate bookstore charts, taking 43 of the Top 50 spots.

Financial web: The World Game reports that Spain's Atletico de Madrid soccer club has sparked controversy by adopting a jersey with a big ad for Spider-Man 2 on its front. Atletico plans to wear the shirt for its away Intertoto Cup matches this summer as part of a reported $8.6 million publicity deal signed last year between the club's president and Columbia TriStar.

Summer reading: Daniel Clowes' Eightball #23 is the only graphic novel to make Time magazine's summer reading list ("If You Read Only 10 Trashy Novels This Summer"):
 
"If you think Peter Parker is alienated and nerdy, check out Andy, a feckless, aimless orphan whose father left him an unusual legacy: superstrength and a ray gun that instantly annihilates its victims. Eightball positively crackles with self-loathing and pop-culture smarts and crawls with the kind of weirdo loners Clowes portrayed so well in Ghost World. Every frame is like a melancholy miniature Daumier, rendered in pulpy primary colors. If you're wondering what all the fuss is about comic books — sorry, graphic novels — check out Clowes. Nobody does them better."
 
Time says "it's like Holden Caulfield with his phaser set on kill. Phonies beware."

Reading's decline: China Daily reports on a survey that found almost 20 percent of primary and secondary students in Hong Kong don't read at all, and another 50 percent read only comic books:
 
"Findings of our survey suggest a rising appeal of comic books among primary and secondary students, and we are concerned that this would lead to a gradual decline in their language skills and writing abilities."

From page to stage: The Durham, N.C., Herald-Sun previews KERPOW!, a play about superheroes staged by Chapel Hill's Open Door Theatre. The play makes direct references to some 50 superheroes, and indirectly covers 100 others, including Batman and Robin, Green Lantern, Hellboy and The League of Extaordinary Gentlemen:
 
"If you never wondered about the lives of superheroes before, you will after seeing this show. We cover them all ... from the most obscure comic books to the most well-known superheroes."

Ultimate DVD: USA Today notes that the first release in the made-for-video deal between Lions Gate and Marvel will be an animated version of The Avengers, based on The Ultimates series. It's apparently due on DVD in 2006. The Punisher is due out on video Sept. 7, while Black Widow is set as the partnership's next big-screen release:
 
"Part of the formula, says Lions Gate president Steve Beeks: 'Characters who tend not to be superheroes, who don't jump off buildings or blow things up.' So the films can be made cheaper than special-effects extravaganzas. 'It's a different model, but it's one that can be very enjoyable to watch.'"
 
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 66-minute Avengers is still in the script phase.

A love of comics: The Indian Express decides comic books aren't just for kids, and talks to a handful of twenty-somethings about their fondness for Asterix, Batman, He-Man and others:
 
"Theatre actor Vishal Patel says he has been addicted to superheroes since his childhood. 'I never really grew out of them,' says this 24-year-old, who reveres Superman ('He’s the main man. He has survived everything.') and He Man. Patel has been collecting comics and action figures since he was a kid (he has a collection of about 60 action figures, including the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). And he still hasn’t stopped. His next big buy is going to be the new range of He Man figures. 'They’re so much better than the old ones,' he grins, reminding you of a kid in a candy store."

Do films boost comics sales? In an article that can't resist the requisite "Kapow! Splat! Blam!!" lead, the Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger wonders whether the success of comic-book films helps the sales of actual comic books. While folks like Comic Buyer's Guide's John Jackson Miller and Marvel's Dan Buckley contend the movies will give the industry a shot in the arm, some local retailers aren't so sure:
 
"The Fantasy Factory has sold comic books in Lakeland for 18 years. Were it not for comic book alternatives, such as DVDs, video games and toys, manager John Hatfield says, the store wouldn't have survived.
 
"Unlike many comic book stores nationally, The Fantasy Fantasy hasn't benefited from Spider-Man casting his web on the big screen. The fan base remains the same, regardless of popular movies, Hatfield says."

Just imagine Stan Lee ... In an interview with Voice of America, Stan Lee talks about the creation of the Marvel Universe, and plans for developing new characters for film and television through his POW! Entertainment:
 
"... See, I have a funny situation. I'm still the chairman emeritus of Marvel, but that's more or less an honorary title. And I have a great contract that allows me still to do anything else I want. So I'm sort of tired of living on the past glory of Spider-Man and the X-Men and the Hulk and Daredevil and all the others that I created. ...
 
"... I'm working on superheroes. Actually what I'm doing, you might call it custom-tailoring characters. There are certain movie actors, stars that I'm working with, and I'm creating characters just for them. I can't mention who they are yet because, as you know, when these things come about, the studio likes to make the big announcement themselves. But I can say I'm working with three really big-name stars now on brand-new franchises, and it's very exciting."

 
Books-a-million: AiT/Planet Lar has announced its editorial schedule for 2004-2005, which includes a Tales From the Fish Camp prose book by Danielle Henderson, Proof of Concept by Larry Young & Co., a Scurvy Dogs trade, Smoke and Guns by Kirsten Baldock and Fabio Moon, book three of The Couriers, a Demo Scriptbook, three works by Joe Casey, and more.

Ripped from the pages of NYT Magazine! This week's Publishers Weekly features a snapshot from the Drawn & Quarterly panel and signing at the Barnes & Noble store at Union Square in Manhattan.

Strange tales: Comic Book Resources chats with Andy Diggle about his new Adam Strange miniseries:

"Of course, continuity is almost always self-contradictory and never seems to make much sense when you look at it too closely anyway, and I've found that even the most rabid continuity freaks can be a bit selective about what they consider 'canon'. Any bit of continuity they don't like -- such as the fact that Sardath found a way to make the Zeta-Beam effect permanent -- they sometimes prefer to ignore. Fortunately that's not a huge problem with Adam Strange, because he doesn't come with too much backstory baggage -- everything new readers need to know is explained in the first few pages of our first issue. It should please the old-school traditionalists and new readers alike. We'll see!"

Taming the night things: At Newsarama, one of my favorite creators, Ted Naifeh, talks about the upcoming Death Junior tie-in, his somewhat unexpected Emma Frost short for X-Men Unlimited, the success of Courtney Crumrin, and the future of How Loathsome:

"As a comic, Courtney has only a limited appeal, because it isn’t really aimed at the mainstream audience. I’m not going to go into the whole nonsense about comics needing superheroes to be successful, but your typical successful comic is colorful, high-energy, and sexy. Courtney is none of these things (although I think Uncle Aloysius is pretty hot for an old guy). But outside the comics world, the book’s appeal skyrockets. Most of my fan letters are from kids who picked it up in Borders while looking through the manga. And most of them are women. From the beginning of my career, I wanted to reach a multi-gendered audience out beyond the confines of the comics shop. But I certainly didn’t think I’d do so well with my very first written effort.

"Now, Oni is talking about expanding the merchandise. Plushies have been discussed. I dream of a scowling little Courtney wobble-head. It’s all been very exciting, and it’s only the beginning."

Supporting Alternative Comics: At ICv2.com, retailer Jerry Wall writes in to support Alternative Comics in its appeal for help:

"Jeff regularly uses the phrase 'Team Comics' and he is one of the few people who walk the walk. I know the larger publishers could definitely learn a lot from Jeff and his understanding of the retailer/publisher relationship. So I just want to give a large round of applause for Jeff, and to let him know that I will do everything I can to stock and sell as much of Alternative Comics' products as possible in my store in the coming weeks, months, and years."

The 'zine scene: Writing for Toronto's Eye Weekly, Guy Leshinski takes a look at Napalm: Book 1 and Max Douglas/Salgood Sam's Revolver One.

Kneel before Zod! For those concerned that Wizard doesn't pay enough attention to Hollywood, this is for you: The magazine has announced its next edition, which hits stands July 28, "will bow down before Tinseltown and highlight the industry's movers and shakers as they relate to the world of comic books." Yes, with "Wizard X," Shamus & Co. will "bow down before" Jerry Seinfeld, Ben Affleck, Howard Stern and, oh yes, Kevin Smith.

A history lesson: The Black Table looks at Free Comic Book Day as only The Black Table can -- and throws in a summary of the '90s crash:

"Clearly, Free Comic Book Day is all about a simple, self-serving purpose -- saving an industry that nearly killed itself trying to cash in.

"In the 1990's, comic book sales spiked after years of mediocrity, spurred by an ever-increasing interest in the collectables market and the promise of top resale dollars for your pop culture knickknacks. Caught up in the swell of what is sometimes called the Star Wars Syndrome, armchair speculators became convinced that ridiculous profits were to be made in the resale of first and alternate edition comics, just as comic books, toys, and other assorted bric-a-brac from the 1970's and 80's were becoming the cash cow of a generation.

"Hoping for the Dire Straits promise of money for nothing and chicks for free, these rabid shop hounds purchased multiple copies of books, artificially stimulating the market. The 'The Big Two' publishers, Marvel and DC, noted the increased demand and quickly began offering all kinds of multiple covers, crossover projects, and limited series, in hopes of making their own dollar off the phenomenon. It was the 1990's that gave rise to the concept of the limited edition, holographic foil, and variant cover concepts that still plague the industry to this day. Marvel Comics is easily listed as the main offender, as each of their new or special event issue 'X-title' lines featured as many as a half-dozen different covers."

Superheroes as barometers: The London Times examines the shift in tone of superhero films, from the sincerity of Superman to the nihilism of Batman to the sensitivity of Spider-Man:

"Superheroes make excellent barometers of the national psyche. They are walking/flying/climbing metaphors, hybrids that take the lowest or most inhuman element in man — mechanical powers, his animal nature — and pit them against his highest: a sense of sacrifice and duty. The result is a fertile one-man battleground of moral growth, enhanced by the demands of maintaining a secret identity.

"The modern superhero is a being with immense power, struggling to assert his better nature. It is not hard to see why this character holds so much appeal for American viewers as they grow increasingly uneasy at their country’s reputation around the world."

She's Miss World: USA Today discovers Princess Ai, the manga co-written by Courtney Love and DJ Milky:

"Courtney has proven herself as a flamboyant and talented individual, but has been personally hurt by the various attacks on her. In a similar fashion, Princess Ai is hounded by enemies in her world and even criticized by her own people, mainly because she is misunderstood. ...

"... She is, of course, a disillusioned and misunderstood celebrity just like Courtney, but her responsibility is to save her world and her people, and that's something for which, thankfully, Courtney's not on the hook in real life."

Fat cat: Writing for The San Francisco Chronicle, Edward Gomez examines how Sanrio turned the diminutive Hello Kitty into an international marketing juggernaut:

"Hello Kitty came out in 1974 when Japan's kawaii culture was first emerging. She is the original, and it is hard to replace her. She became the icon of cute for a whole generation. You can't buy that kind of lucky coincidence."

Maladjusted: Diamond has issued the latest shipping-adjustment list. Wow. Some of these books are so far behind that the idea of a shipping schedule is farcical.

For instance, 12 issues of Spawn make the list, with nine of them supposedly destined for ... a New Year's Eve release? Now they're just making stuff up. And here's a surprise: NYX #5 and Daredevil: Father #2 have been reshuffled again -- this time to an Aug. 4 release. Of course, NYX doesn't make Marvel's October solicitations, so does that mean they're waiting for it to get back on schedule, or that it's going to be canceled retroactively turned into a miniseries?

Marvel in October: Graeme uncovers Marvel's October solicitations at Millarworld. (Look fast, before Mark Millar is asked to delete them -- again. It's becoming a monthly ritual.) Of particular note:

* If it's one thing Marvel needs more of, it's Wolverine. And although it may not seem possible to shoe-horn everyone's favorite sideburned mutant into any more titles, Marvel's trying its damnedest with a monthlong celebration of Wolverine's 30th anniversary. So, we get two issues of his eponymous series, kicking off Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.'s run. As Graeme points out, Marvel seems to be learning from DC's success with Batman: Hush by putting two of their biggest talents on one of the company's most popular characters, then cramming the story arc with tons of cameos.

As part of the anniversary festivities, we also get two issues of Uncanny X-Men, two issues of the new Sabretooth miniseries (guest-starring Sasquatch?), a Wolverine: Weapon X prose hardcover, Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Wolverine, Wolverine: The End #6, an all-Wolverine issue of X-Men Unlimited, and the usual onslaught of other X-titles -- except Weapon X, which is nowhere to be seen. Is this another stealth cancellation by Marvel?

* Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano are brought in for a four-part, black and white Stoker's Dracula.

* Robert Rodi seems to have replaced Chuck Austen as the go-to guy. This month, he steps in to finish up for Bruce Jones on the Tomb of Dracula miniseries.

* The first Mary Jane story arc is collected as a digest-sized trade; 96 pages for $5.99.

* Likewise, the first arc of the miniseries-turned-ongoing Thor: Son of Asgard is collected as a 144-page digest. The price is $7.99.

* Brian Michael Bendis finishes disassembling The Avengers with Issue 503.

* Thor #85 appears to be the final issue. Of course, we all know the title will be resurrected in a few months by an all-star creative team who most likely will be hinted at during Comic-Con International.

* Supreme Power reappears with Issue 13. Didn't the series just drop off the map for a few months?

* Speaking of dropping off the map: There's no NYX solicited for October.

A chat with Jim Shooter: Silver Bullet Comic Books has the first installment of a two-part chat with former Marvel editor in chief Jim Shooter:

SBC: "Why do you think there's such a negative consensus of books that were written during the '70s?"

Shooter: "Most of them sucked. There was a lot of talent around, but precious few people had gotten any training besides having read 10,000 comic books. No one was doing much about it. A lot of the old guys who knew the craft had retired or died by the seventies. The industry was awash with relative beginners. The pay was terrible. People who had training, experience, and skill -- Archie Goodwin, Roy Thomas, Denny O'Neil, and survive to do much teaching, even if they were in a position one might think would require that.

"There is also an attitude endemic to the comics business that I've never seen anywhere else -- it often seems that the newer and less skilled a creator is, the more he or she resists being taught anything or told anything. There is a profoundly arrogant how-dare-anyone-tell-me-anything syndrome rife among the creators in comics. A feeling that any wisdom of the ancients passed on to them is somehow an attempt to control them, or deny them their "creative freedom." It's bizarre.

"Therefore, a lot of bad work is/was done due to ignorance. Three guys who come to mind who didn't have that attitude by the way, who eagerly soaked up every piece of information available then went on to be innovators are Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz and David Lapham. No surprise to me that they did so well."

Shooter also discusses creators' rights, licensed properties, The Legion of Super-Heroes, his dispute with Gene Colan, Jack Kirby's original artwork and more.

More on FCBD: Also at ICv2.com, retailers David Brawley and Robert Miller say the hard work they put into Free Comic Book Day paid off for their store. Still, things could have been better:

"The placement of FCBD in July this year was a mixed blessing. It is hard to compete with a national holiday and a 3-day weekend. While we had numerous people who don't live in this area come to the store, numerous people who do were away for the weekend long holiday. On one hand it is great to get new people in the store, but it's better to get new people who live around here and don't already have a local comic shop.

"The diversity of comics available was nice, from books for children to independent titles for adults. I would have liked to have some Vertigo and Ultimates titles available to show the breadth of DC's and Marvel's comic lines. It also would have been convenient to have some indication of which titles were being aimed at the older audience, and might be inappropriate for our younger customers. Another thing, where's Bongo? One of the most popular cultural icons of the last decade and a half, and for the third year in a row, it is MIA.

"The biggest disappointment of the event was the tardiness in the arrival of the books and of the shirts. While the books did trickle in over the past month, most arrived within two weeks of the event, and the shirts didn't even show up until that Wednesday. The tees need washing for a non-itch fit. Things like that make it difficult to build in-store enthusiasm for the day, but we persevered with smiles because it is what we do."

Credit report: ICv2.com notes that CrossGen's plan for reorganization is due to the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Tampa by Oct. 18.

Fledgling industry: The Hindustan Times looks at the new Indian version of Spider-Man, and the developing comics industry in India:

Batman and Superman, slightly askew: The Village Voice looks at Gotham Central: In the Line of Duty and It's a Bird:

"In a Voice interview, writer Greg Rucka speculates on the independence of fictional characters, asking, 'Are the villains in Gotham City there because Batman's there, or would they be there anyway?' Regardless, the costumed psychopaths live only to engineer Batman's demise. They taunt him, and the working stiffs of the GCPD get caught in the crossfire: Mr. Freeze snaps the ear off a detective he's just transformed into an ice sculpture, tosses the gruesome talisman to the cop's wounded partner, then gives a preening lecture: 'I just want to instruct our friend here in Gotham's more advanced curriculum . . . the tragedy of surviving loss.'"

Guiding Guardians: In The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Michael Sangiacomo talks to local writer Mark Sumerak about his new Marvel series, The Guardians, which debuts today:

"The story is that five neighborhood kids meet an alien named Dre'kk, an intergalactic good guy, and help him. They all promise that if he ever needs their help again, they will give it.

"'So, 15 years later, after everyone has almost convinced the kids they imagined the whole thing, Dre'kk returns and asks them to keep their promise,' Sumerak said. 'Five young adults, with no superpowers to rely on, fly into space and help their old friend try to save the galaxy from a race of marauders. They keep their word.'"

I keep thinking of Power Pack, for some reason ...

Con games: The San Diego Union-Tribune highlights the notable sci-fi guests scheduled to appear at Comic-Con International.

Thinking of the children: This weekend's second annual Los Angeles Times KidCity, a free, two-day children's educational fair at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, will feature a demonstration by Geoff Johns on how to put together a comic book.

More information on KidCity can be found here.

Politics unusual: Writing for Democratic Underground, Pab Sungenis suggests John Kerry is, um, Peter Parker and George Bush is ... Bruce Wayne:

"John Kerry was the quintessential product of the 1960's. A young (he was only 16 when John Kennedy was elected) idealist, dreaming of making the world a better place. Answering the call so many of his generation chose to ignore, John Kerry enlisted in the Navy and volunteered for service in Vietnam. He chose to follow in the footsteps of his father, a veteran of the Army Air Corps who had volunteered to fly in World War II, and defend American values overseas. Disillusioned by the lies that propelled American policy in Vietnam and by the conduct of the war, Kerry became an anti-war protestor after his return home, seeking to prevent other such travesties.

"Young Peter Parker had a similar experience. When "gifted" by a radioactive spider's bite, Peter used his new-found talents at first for self-aggrandizement, wealth, and fame. It was only after his failure to use his powers to help someone else resulted in the death of his Uncle Ben that Peter realized the error of his ways, and began to use his powers to prevent similar crimes. Thus was born the Amazing Spider-Man. ...

"... On the other side of the equation is Bruce Wayne, millionaire playboy. Bruce was born into a world of wealth and privilege, heir to a vast fortune. His early years saw every opportunity and luxury made available to him. When a criminal murdered his parents, Bruce swore revenge, and adopted a new persona, which he used to avenge the wrong done to him by fighting criminals... but never the person who had actually wronged him.

"Likewise, George W. Bush was born into wealth and privilege, a member of one of New England's wealthiest and most powerful political families. His early years also offered every opportunity imaginable; some even say that his family's power and influence helped keep Bush out of the Vietnam war that John Kerry volunteered for. When the time came for young George to enter business, his family's connections helped keep him afloat through one failure after another."

Review revue: PopMatters reviews Birth of a Nation, written by Aaron McGruder and Reginald Hudlin, with illustrations by Kyle Baker.

Comics culture, redux: On his blog, Jamie S. Rich has an interesting response to Sunday's The New York Times Magazine article on the evolution and current state of comics:

"[Writer Charles McGrath] works from the viewpoint that comics could possibly replace prose in a world where video games and TV are killing our attention spans and ability to absorb complex narratives, and then disimissing all comics books except for the ones he wants to focus on. This includes gettering rid of manga in one sentence, writing the whole of Japanese comics off as 'books that feature slender, wide-eyed teenage girls who seem to have a special fondness for sailor suits.' There is so much ignorance in those 17 words, I would have to go through each word one by one just to debunk it. He pushes Clowes, Ware, Sacco, Seth, Tomine, and Spiegelman to the forefront, not once acknowledging that this is a little like saying that no one knows how to read very well but Borges, Barthes, and Robbe-Grillet are going to change the course of illiteracy by making books accessible again.

"And that's even if you agree with his theory that comics are somehow for a new generation of mouth-breathers who find the intricacies of John Grisham too much to digest. It's ludicrous. So, shove that assertion aside, and then let's ask, are these really the guys who are going to fuel the new generation of comics and keep the medium alive? To a degree, but I've been saying for a while now that this old guard of alternative comics, as good as most of them are, represent a world that is just as closed off from the bulk of the population as superhero comic books--and like the raging fanboys that this side of comics often decries (a bit like the closeted jock picking on the effeminate kid), they like it that way. They want to horde the crumbs of success and recognition because, like capes and tights, the chronic masturbator cartoonist is just as outmoded as the kid who wants to be Superman and beat up the bullies that pick on him."

The shipping news: At the newly blog-tastic Previews Review, Christopher Butcher combs through the books hitting the shelves this week, highlighting Tommy Kovac's Autumn #1, Eightball #23, and a handful of other titles.

Pilgrim's progress: At Newsarama, Chris Arrant chats with Bryan Lee O'Malley about Scott Pilgrim: Scott's Precious Little Life, which looks terrific. Don't believe me? Just read the PDF preview.

"Scott is inspired by bits of many friends and bits of myself. He’s kind of an everyman for the 20-something dorks of my generation, I guess. There are things going on in his mind, and he has things in his past, most of which are only hinted at in the first volume. Anyway, he isn’t exactly as blank a slate as he might seem."

Alternative Comics asks for help: Alternative Comics Publisher Jeff Mason has issued a plea for help with "cash flow problems," asking readers to buy the company's books:

"Alternative Comics is suffering some very dire cash flow problems and I am turning to you for help. In the spring of 2002 our book trade distributor, LPC, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy owing Alternative Comics a lot of money. I had hoped that I could weather the storm by taking money from my savings and by borrowing on credit until receiving the agreed-upon 42% of what LPC owed us. Now over two years later, LPC is still in bankruptcy proceedings and I am completely out of savings and credit. ...

"... Lack of cash on hand has also caused me to have to shrink print runs on some books. This increases the cost per unit of each book, and speeds the looming reprint costs.

"I've been increasing my publishing schedule over the last two years, and in hindsight, I expanded too quickly. Alternative Comics is moving forward with a much more reasonable, much more foresighted publishing schedule, with some really amazing projects in the works!

"Alternative Comics’ cash flow problems have been the only reason for not yet reprinting Bipolar #1 and Humor Can Be Funny as well as having been the only reason a number of books have been arriving late or re-solicited.

"I am asking you to please buy Alternative Comics books from your local retailers. In my fanciful imagination, the best result would be for retailers to quickly sell out of all Alternative Comics books in inventory to customers and hurriedly place nice reorders with distributors.

"Alternative Comics has no staff other than myself, so I am unable to handle orders directly. I ask that readers buy from your local comic book retailers, and retailers to buy from your favorite distributors."

"Thanks again, Marvel": At ICv2.com, complaints continue about Marvel's discount subscription ads, with Andy Battaglia of Comics Etc. in Rochester, N.Y., forwarding this email he received from a customer:

"I took advantage of Marvel's 50% off subscription deal. As a result, I no longer need you to save comics for me. Thanks for the service!"

That leads Battaglia to take several unrelated jabs at Marvel:

"What can I say, other than thanks again, Marvel; I guess the bright side would be we would not have to worry about not getting reorders from Marvel. Powers switching to Marvel is another bone-headed maneuver... is selling less really your goal? I just continue to look for ways to keep my Marvel orders under budget. And with half their line sporting bad imitation manga artwork, that's becoming much easier."

Latin vibe: Hispanic Business talks with Marvel's Joe Quesada about the new Amazing Fantasy, which features Anya Corazon, a Latina superhero with Spider-Man-like abilities (don't call her Spider-Girl):

"I made a trip to Mexico City and I was really impressed with how crazy people are about Spider-Man there. ...

"We didn't conduct a market study like they do in the film industry, which spends a lot of money to target audiences for its productions, but we did see it in the faces of the people who buy comics in the stores. They are increasingly the faces of Hispanics, and many are women."

Campaign tackles online safety: The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reports that Spider-Man and other Marvel Comics characters will be part of a campaign for WiredSafety, a nonprofit group that provides safety resources and training for parents and children.

According to a press release, "the program will involve special comic books dedicated to all aspects of our programs, from cyber-bullying, privacy, stranger danger, online security, safe searching, where to report cybercrimes and abuse, how to handle online intellectual property responsibly (starting with movies and software piracy), balance between online and offline activities, safe e-commerce, identity theft, fraud and scams, malicious code, etc." The program will include appearances by Marvel characters and WiredSafety volunteers at schools nationwide.

WiredSafety also has launched Internet SuperHeroes, a website dedicated to promoting the program, and to providing free lesson plans and downloadable materials to schools.

Job search: ClickZ News reports that Grosse Pointe Girl author and former Dark Horse marketing director Sarah Grace McCandless has been hired as online brand manager of New Media Strategies.

DC in October: DC Comics has released its solicitations for October. Highlights include:

* Devlin Waugh: Swimming in Blood, from 2000AD, by John Smith, Sean Phillips, Siku and Michael Gaydos. The concept of a free-lance supernatural operative for the Vatican doesn't do much for me, but the art team is tough to beat.
* The CMX manga line kicks off with Madara, Land of the Blindfolded and From Eroica With Love. The first two clock in at 200 pages, black and white, while the third is 232 pages. Not bad for $9.95.
* DC continues its celebration of Grant Morrison's exclusive contract with the release of the Arkham Asylum 15th Anniversary Edition hardcover, which includes an annotated final script and thumbnail breakdowns.
* Considering Mark Millar's regular sniping, it's funny that DC is releasing Red Razors as part of its deal with 2000AD.
* Green Lantern: Rebirth kicks off, quieting militant Hal Jordan fans everywhere.
* Solo debuts, allowing top talent to take a crack at their favorite characters. This could either be great, or get really bad really quickly.
* Dave Gibbons' black and white hardcover, The Originals looks fun.
* At last, DC releases collections of Sandman Mystery Theatre, with Vol. 1, The Tarantula, and Vol. 2, The Face and the Brute.
* Have I mentioned lately how much I love James Jean? Just look at this cover for Fables #30.
* DC smartly collects Mike Carey's My Faith in Frankie in a 112-page black and white digest. The price? Just $6.95. The trade also previews Jill Thompson's upcoming The Dead Boy Detectives.
* In a similar vein, the first two collections of Teen Titans Go! -- Truth, Justice, Pizza! and Heroes on Patrol! -- are rolled out as digest-sized trades with a $6.95 pricetag.
* Can it be? Planetary #21 comes out?
* Ed Brubaker and Dustin Nguyen launch The Authority: Revolution, which means the series should, at long last, be readable again.
* The weirdest solicitation of the month has to be for Outsiders #17, which guest-stars ... John Walsh of America's Most Wanted?

Too much, too soon? Publishers Weekly (subscription required) files its report on the MoCCA Art Festival, focusing on concerns that the event might be expanding too quickly:

"This year the festival expanded to two days and while the general mood was upbeat, some exhibitors suggested that MoCCA might be growing too fast. Few of even the prominent indie presses could afford a table at the Harvey Awards banquet, and there was the usual grumbling about booth setups. More seriously, although sales were strong, some presses told PW they weren't that much higher than last year's one-day show, while booths were double the price. It's clear that finding the right balance among indie presses, corporate comic strip syndicates and so-called mainstream comics publishers remains an ongoing process."

The article also highlights Craig Thompson's unannounced appearance, long lines for signings at the Drawn & Quarterly and Alternative Comics booths, and the debut of Eric Shanower's Age of Bronze: Sacrifice.

American tale: The Boston Globe spotlights James Kochalka and his upcoming American Elf collection from Top Shelf:

"I felt the daily strip format was one that I could put to great use for autobiographical cartooning. The daily strip format is pretty moribund -- although strips like Peanuts, which at its height used simple drawings to get at the full range of human emotions, were excellent -- because syndication sucked the life out of it. Besides, I thought it would be a great way to learn more about myself.

(Link via Artblog)

Man of action: Never accuse Christopher Butcher of dragging his heels. On Friday, he floated the prospect of turning Previews Review into a blog. And this morning ... voila!

The shipping news: Ninth Art also runs down the books shipping this week, highlighting Sketchbook Diaries, Books of Magick: Life During Wartime, DC Comis Presents: Mystery In Space and She-Hulk.

Getting personal: Ninth Art chats with Greg Rucka about meeting his hero, lying, cooking and, well, most everything except comics.

Marvel's "slap in the face": At ICv2.com, retailer Mike Savage echoes Donald Riordan's displeasure about Marvel's discount subscription ads, calling them "a slap in the face to retailers":

"As well, Marvel.com now has a store where merchandise, including some hard-to-get action figures are for sale at competitive prices. Again, why do I have to compete with a publisher? This shows the large gap in communication between retailers and large publishing houses like Marvel. Medium size 'brick and mortar' stores are just left to deal with this. The only way you will ever be heard on issues like this is if you are in the 59% or higher discount bracket."

Noah Broessel of Pop Culture Paradise in Tempe, Ariz., also has a few choice words:

"Marvel is attempting to move customers from my store directly to them. Marvel could omit the ads for direct market books and keep them at the newsstands (which is what they will claim is the intended market for the ads), but then, when was the last time you saw a comics rack at Walgreen's, a grocery store etc.? They should cancel subscriptions altogether and just put a full-page ad for the comic book locator service."

Get Conley: The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post briefly profiles Darby Conley, creator of the Get Fuzzy comic strip.

Peanuts obsession: The St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press (registration required) reports on the Peanuts fans who flock to the Twin Cities to take photos of the more than 100 statues honoring Charles Schulz and his creations:

"People actually plan their vacations around this. We get panicky calls from people who need to get a photo of that one last statue to complete their album but can't find it."

John Kerry, action star? The Boston Globe discovers that presidential candidate John Kerry makes an appearance in the latest issue of Image Comics' Sword of Dracula, which features "a flashback sequence in which a government agent drifts up the Mekong Delta in a boat captained by a John Kerry look-alike." Here's series creator Jason Henderson:

"Kerry's record as a military man is so impressive to me, it just made sense to have him in there."

Review revue: Newsday reviews Clyde Fans Book One, Bannock, Beans and Black Tea: Memories of a Prince Edward Island Childhood in the Great Depression, and Jimbo in Purgatory.

Reading's fundamental decline: The St. Paul, Minn., Pioneer Press talks to exhibitors at the 14th annual Twin Cities Book Fair about the NEA's report on the widespread decline of reading:

"'I'm a little more sanguine than most of these people,' Rob Rulon-Miller, owner of a St. Paul bookstore bearing his name, said as he watched shoppers browse through the used and rare books at the fair. 'There's a new kind of literacy these days. It's largely online.

"'You have to be a reader to go online,' Rulon-Miller said. 'I think people read more than ever.'

"Thomas Stransky, owner of Midway Used & Rare Books in St. Paul, isn't so sure all those computer users are reading, however. He suspects a lot of potential young readers are playing computer games instead.

"Stransky sells comic books, and when he went into the business 24 years ago, a lot of kids who read comics went on to become serious readers.

"'Now we don't have that new generation of readers coming up,' he said."

Over-achiever: The Portland, Maine, Press Herald profiles 14-year-old Mitchell Murdock, who has written and drawn a 281-page graphic novel called Heroguy.

Rojek pleads guilty: The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee reports that former comic-book store magnate Ross Allen Rojek pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court to one count each of mail and securities fraud. Rojek, 36, admitted to bilking investors out of millions by convincing them to sink money into fictitious companies.

The crimes carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in federal prison, and up to a $500,000 fine. However, Rojek likely will be sentenced to seven to nine years.

Comics culture: The New York Times Magazine examines the evolution of comic books, focusing largely on graphic novels, and the work of Art Spiegelman, Alan Moore, Seth, Chris Ware, Joe Sacco and Daniel Clowes:

"Comic books are what novels used to be -- an accessible, vernacular form with mass appeal -- and if the highbrows are right, they're a form perfectly suited to our dumbed-down culture and collective attention deficit. Comics are also enjoying a renaissance and a newfound respectability right now. In fact, the fastest-growing section of your local bookstore these days is apt to be the one devoted to comics and so-called graphic novels. It is the overcrowded space way in the back -- next to sci-fi probably, or between New Age and hobbies -- and unless your store is staffed by someone unusually devoted, this section is likely to be a mess. Peanuts anthologies, and fat, catalog-size collections of Garfield and Broom Hilda. Shelf loads of manga -- those Japanese comic books that feature slender, wide-eyed teenage girls who seem to have a special fondness for sailor suits. Superheroes, of course, still churned out in installments by the busy factories at Marvel and D.C. Also, newer sci-fi and fantasy series like Y: The Last Man, about literally the last man on earth (the rest died in a plague), who is now pursued by a band of killer lesbians."

Twist awarded $15M in McFarlane lawsuit: The Associated Press reports that a jury on Friday awarded $15 million to former NHL player Tony Twist in his lawsuit against Todd McFarlane over the use of the ex-athlete's name in the Spawn comics. McFarlane had given the name Antonio "Tony Twist" Twistelli to a violent mob boss character.

Although McFarlane had claimed the use of the name was protected by the First Amendment, Twist's attorneys argued the comic infringed on the former hockey player's publicity rights. McFarlane is expected to appeal the verdict.

Letter perfect: Johanna Draper Carlson points out that DC Comics has launched its online letter column.

Anime to go: Active Anime has these images of am3's anime vending machines, which will allow GameBoy Advance users to download and view movies. The company plans to have 10,000 machines throughout Japan by next summer. Each movie will cost between 91 cents and $3.70.

Planet Larry: The July edition of Bookslut features an interview with Larry Young, in which he discusses publishing, diversity and the state of the industry:

"Comics are fine; the 'industry' and the 'art form' aren't separate, since comics are a commercial art. Too many publishers think the job's over when the book is printed and distributed, but that's only half the gig. The game isn't over when you suit up and trot out onto the field; you gotta play the game and keep score, too. And after you produce a comic book, you gotta get out there and make sure people know about it. Write, draw, print, sell. Lather, rinse, repeat, you know? Even the shampoo companies don't tell you when you should stop, and you shouldn't stop when you're doing comics, either."

Keeping up with Bruce Jones: Newsarama talks with Bruce Jones about leaving Marvel for an exclusive contract with DC:

"Something’s always changing at Marvel. It’s a changing kind of company, usually to their credit. No, my relationship with Marvel was great from the start and remained that way to the day I left. Everyone up there was always very good to me, very caring and behind my stuff. I made a lot of friends that I’ll miss a lot in day-to-day contact, but plan not to lose touch with -- though some have moved on to other endeavors entirely."

Devil's Due vs. DBPro, Round 3: Okay, let's see if we can keep up: First, Dabel Brothers Production announces it's splitting with Devil's Due Publishing. Then yesterday, Devil's Due responds, saying DBPro doesn't have the right to alter their agreement. Now today, DBPro (sort of) fires back, claiming it can terminate the contract.

Tomorrow: Devil's Due counters with, "My Dad can beat up your Dad."

Slash and burn: At ICv2.com, retailer Donald Riordan is incensed by Marvel's 50 percent discount-subscription ads:

"This is not a bold attempt to expand the comic book readership from outside markets. The ads have been placed inside the regular comic books distributed to the direct market, preaching to the faithful. The majority of any subscription sales will come from the Direct Market and out of our bottom line. This 50% Subscription Plan will remove customers from the Direct Market and from our stores. ...

"... This program is wrong. This program is poor marketing. This program is very short sighted. Marvel needs to stop these ads now. Marvel needs to offer an apology to the entire Direct Market for this transgression. Marvel needs to make it right."

The Ditko analysis: Winnipeg Sun columnist John Gleeson recounts a brief correspondence with reclusive artist Steve Ditko regarding Michael David Syrnyk, the so-called "Shotgun Bandit":

"Power doesn't corrupt. It's neutral. Someone always wants to corrupt power. It's the way a shotgun is not a deadly weapon until someone chooses to use it irrationally."

Bear necessities: The New York Times notes that Archie Comics is sponsoring Extreme Survivors Weekend at the Bronx Zoo on Saturday and Sunday, where children will meet grizzly bears Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica. Free comics featuring the bears and their keeper will be distributed, and the comic's creators will demonstrate cartooning.

Wrong turn: At UnderGroundOnline, John Byrne tells us where the comics industry went wrong:

"One last mistake -- and one from which I have benefitted quite well myself. The shift from Product to Personality. The move toward selling who is doing the book instead of what the book is about. The Cult of Personality has long been the driving force in Hollywood, and the lesson of Hollywood must surely be that focusing on this Cult is a sure way to lose money, eventually. The Star who keeps his or her flames burning brightly throughout the whole arc of his or her career is the rare animal indeed. Hollywood is littered with hasbeens and neverweres, and the price for this is movies that bomb and production companies that fail. So too, do we see this in comics, as an increasingly fickle audience elects and abandons its superstars the way some people use kleenex. I do not speak of myself. I had my time in the sun, and it lasted ten or twelve years, so who can complain? But how many of the SuperStars of the past ten years can say the same? My 'generation' produced Frank Miller, George Perez, Walt Simonson, and, yes, even Todd McFarlane, all of whom had long stays in the spotlight. How many who rocketed to the top since have stayed at the pinnacle for as long?"

Where are they now? Scotland's Glasgow Daily Record wonders whatever happened to the actors who played superheroes on television: Lynda Carter, Adam West, George Reeves, Dean Cain, Lou Ferrigno and Nicholas Hammond.

Review revue: The Star of Malaysia reviews John Romita Jr.'s The Gray Area #1.

Keeping the faith: Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cathleen Falsani attends the inaugural Christian Comic Creators Summit, whose 14 participants included Bart Simpson writer Chris Yambar:

"People talk about Christian comics. I'd like to see more Christians in comics. You say, 'There aren't enough good comics out there.' You know why? Christians refuse to get involved in their industry. Everyone wants to work from an outside position. Let it go. Put on a new mind. Get involved in your culture. Get involved in your people, face first. Make it happen. Earn the right to be heard.

"Don't produce a book and say, 'Nobody's paying attention to my book!' Maybe your book stinks. Maybe you're not marketing it right. Maybe you're taking yourself out of the market before your book is even produced because you want to -- Oooh! -- be separate and be holier."

Bad break-up: Dabel Brothers Production's split with Devil's Due Publishing apparently wasn't as positive as the original press release would have us believe. Today, Devil's Due issued a response, alleging a breach of contract:

"Within the last month DBPro stated that it was interested in altering the legal and binding contract between Devil’s Due Publishing Inc. and DBPro. Unable to reach an agreement regarding renegotiated terms, Devil’s Due Publishing Inc. informed DBPro that it would not agree to alter the original contract. DBPro then chose to unilaterally issue a press release announcing the termination of the relationship between Devil’s Due Publishing Inc. and DBPro.

"Devil’s Due Publishing, Inc. has previously informed Dabel Brothers that under the Agreement executed last October, Dabel Brothers does not have the legal right to unilaterally terminate the existing Contract. Devil’s Due has lived up to its obligations, and trusts that the parties will be able to resolve this unfortunate misunderstanding. In the interim all joint projects with Dabel Brothers will be will be put on hold, while Dabel Brothers projects already produced will continue to be sold."

The man from Nantucket: Comic Book Resources chats with Jason Asala about his Nantucket Brown Roasters series, which feature a talking bluegill possessed by an Egyptian pharaoh, a living doll and an army of Aaron Burrs:

"NBR is my take on super heroes. I wanted this to be fantastic, to rely heavily on fantasy -- something worthy of being in a comic. There are other good stories out there, and you don't necessarily need to see them drawn -- they can be acted out by real people. I wanted to do something that you can only draw."

Why have I never heard of these books before now? I must have them.

CrossGen update: Newsarama checks in on CrossGen's Chapter 11 proceedings:

"The company saw income of $5,293,675.00 in 2002 (from sales and licensing); $5,453,221.00 in 2003 (from sales, licensing, and the sale of MegaCon); and $910,946.00 from the beginning of 2004 until the filing of Chapter 11.

"The statement also lists amounts paid to creditors within 90 days immediately proceeding the commencement of the case. Of these creditors, 580 industrial, the landlord of CrossGen’s space is still owed $130,000.00. Andy Smith, who sued for monies owed, was paid $1,960.00. Worldwide Express, CIT Group, and Zeno Office solutions are other creditors who were paid in the last 90 days, but to whom CrossGen still owes five figures or more."

In other news, The Beat reports that Mark Alessi, who's still owed more than $5 million, is selling his Odessa, Fla., mansion for $3.2 million.

Bandai vs. the pirates: Well, it was only a matter of time. ICv2.com reports that Bandai Entertainment has started cracking down on piracy, filing lawsuits against vendors at this year's Anime Expo who sold pirated merchandise:

"The time has come to take a stand against the flood of cheap knock-offs and blatant bootlegs. The vendors who sell pirated merchandise, CDs, and DVDs are causing huge economic losses for legitimate businesses and must be stopped."

Anime News Network has the full press release.

More FCBD reactions: ICv2.com also provides a handy index to retailer reactions to Free Comic Book Day. So far, 20 retailers have commented.

Digital Manga to broaden scope: ICv2.com has news that Digital Manga will launch a line of Edu-Manga titles in 2005, featuring the manga biographies of Helen Keller, Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa, Beethoven and Anne Frank. The publisher also plans to release books based on the Japanese TV series Project X:

"Project X is an inspirational series which follows the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurs with good ideas, who thanks to perseverance and good luck finally manage to break through and achieve financial and personal success. Typical subjects of this 'reality' manga series include the founders of the Japanese 7-11 convenience store chain, who eventually became so successful they were able to purchase their American parent company, or the inventor of the 'cup of noodles' convenience food, or the designer of the original Datsun 240 Z."

A modest proposal: Editor & Publisher notes that cartoonist John Kovaleski used the July 6 installment of his Bo Nanas comic strip to propose to his girlfriend, Jocelyn Swigger. She said yes:

"I woke Jocelyn in the morning and lied and said I got a phone message from [WPWG comics editor] Suzanne Whelton saying there was some grammatical problem with today's strip. I told her I might be able to change it for Comics.com to reload but it was too late to change it for the papers. I said I needed her to look at it -- she has an English degree and often proofs strips for me. ... I had her get online and open it up while I strategically knelt beside her. She said when she read it she was just trying to proofread so it took her a moment after reading the words 'will you marry me?' to realize that the two characters were the cartoon versions of us I always draw. She then put her head in her hands before she turned to me and hugged me and said, 'Of course.'"

Rooting for the greats: The San Francisco Chronicle looks beyond the special effects of Spider-Man 2 to salute the contributions of Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby:

"... I was thrilled when the credits rolled on the big screen and up came 'Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.' But I also felt a twinge of irony. Much like Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel, who created Superman, neither Ditko nor even Lee had, then or now, even a fractional ownership interest in Spider-Man the character. The industry standard was (and to a large degree still is) that artists and writers did 'work for hire,' essentially piece-work on characters that were owned by the comics houses, even if the artist dreamed them up. Hence it is Marvel Entertainment, Inc., and, of course, Sony Pictures that reap the financial windfall of Spider-Man, while the Steve Ditkos of the world, like the late, great Jack Kirby -- another comic artist giant and de facto creator of the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the X-Men and most of the rest of Marvel's pantheon -- resides on the periphery of pop-culture awareness, remembered mainly by the graying comics fans who are buying their kids tickets to Spider-Man 2."

Spider sense: The New York Daily News discovers Marvel's Amazing Fantasy #1 and the new don't-call-her-Spider-Girl, Anya Corazon. Here's Joe Quesada:

"She was created because we realized we haven't had a strong female character of Hispanic origin. ... We set out to make her a Latin American because a focus of mine has been to make sure the company stays true to its roots - Marvel has always been very good at creating characters of different colors and backgrounds. ... The fact that we have a large Hispanic fan base made this an easy call. ... I don't know how much 'marketing' went into this. We didn't sit around with demographic profiles. Like a lot of us at Marvel, many of our characters echo our lives and our worlds. But I did say that she had to be part Mexican."

Being Grant Morrison: At PopImage, Jonathan Ellis talks with Grant Morrison about the business of comics, superhero archetypes, his exclusive agreement with DC, The Filth, his run on New X-Men, and much more:

"The 'Planet X' story was partially intended as a comment on the exhausted, circular nature of the X-Men's ever-popular battle with Magneto and by extension, the equally cyclical nature of superhero franchise re-inventions. I ended the book exactly where I came on board, with Logan killing Magneto AGAIN, as he had done at the end of Scott Lobdell's run. Evil never dies in comic book universes. It just keeps coming back. Imagine Hitler back for the hundredth time to menace mankind. So, in the way that something like 'Marvel Boy' had that insistent 'teenage hard on' engine driving its rhythms, 'Planet X' is steeped in an exhausted, world-weary, 'middle-aged' ennui that spoke directly of both my own and Magneto's frustrations, disillusionment and disconnection, as well as the endless everything-is-not-enough frustrations of a certain segment of comics aging readership. In hindsight, I think I overdid the world weary a little but, you know, my loved ones were dying all around me while I was working on those issues, so I'm entitled to a little stumble into miseryland. Fantomex's line summed up my own cynicism at that moment, definitely and seems justified by subsequent plot developments. In my opinion, there really shouldn't have been an actual Xorn - he had to be fake, that was the cruel point of him - and it should have been the genuine Magneto, frayed to the bare, stupid nerve and schizoid-conflicted as he was in Planet X, not just some impostor. There's loads of good stuff in Planet X - it's just that miasma of bleakness and futility which hovers over the whole thing."

Also, don't miss Christopher Butcher's wonderful introduction to the interview.

MoCCA, revisited: At Comic World News, Rich Watson concludes his two-part roundup of the MoCCA Art Festival.

Doom-sayer: At Movie Poop Shoot, Scott Tipton traces the pre-Byrne history of Doom Patrol:

"Morrison’s work on DOOM PATROL is at times both sheer genius and totally baffling, with the team, anchored by Cliff and the resurrected Chief, taking on new members such as Rebis, a hermaphroditic merging of Larry Trainor and his physician, Eleanor Poole, Crazy Jane, who suffered from multiple-personality disorder and had a different superpower for each persona, Dorothy Spinner, a freakish apegirl with the power physically manifest images from her subconscious, and Danny the Street, a sentient transvestite street that served as the team’s mobile headquarters. The new DP faced such nontraditional threats as the Beard Hunter (who was, logically enough, after the Chief’s beard), Shadowy Mr. Evans, and the Men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E., as well as the reappearance of old foes like the Brain and Monsieur Mallah, who, surprisingly, declared their love for one another. Also, succeeding the Brotherhood of Evil was the Brotherhood of Dada, a new group of supervillains dedicating to celebrate the absurdity of life itself."

Slow news day: Wow. This is one of the most lackluster comics-news days in a long, long time. Please adjust your expectations accordingly.

From page to screen: UnderGroundOnline has a guide to the upcoming comic-book films.

Anime/manga guide: ICv2.com has released it latest Retailers Guide to Anime/Manga, with a focus on the rapid growth of sales through the bookstore market:

"In the manga market, one of the most important phenomena of the last few years is the rapid growth of the bookstore market, which has now passed comic stores as the primary sales channel for manga. The parallels between that channel shift and the shift from newsstand distributors to comic stores twenty years ago are strong. In both cases, the new channel serves a customer base under-served by the dominant channel, format and content shifts are tied to the new customers, and information systems and logistics fit the format and sales patterns better in the new channel than those in the dominant channel."

The guide also includes lists of the Top 50 manga for the second quarter of 2004, and the Top 50 anime for the first quarter. (It comes as little surprise that Rurouni Kenshin tops one list and Initial D the other.)

Family ties: The New York Times looks at the television death and unexpected resurrection of Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy:

"Family Guy was revived because of an unusual turn of events. While the show was on hiatus, reruns of it on Cartoon Network proved unexpectedly successful, especially among a prized television demographic group: men 18 to 34. The series drew more young men in its late-night Cartoon Network slot (it is usually on at 11 p.m. or later) than two of its broadcast competitors, CBS's Late Show With David Letterman and NBC's Tonight Show With Jay Leno. (At the end of this month Cartoon Network plans a special week of shows, including appearances by a costumed Mr. MacFarlane portraying several of his characters.)"

Turning to comics: Britain's Information Commissioner's Office is using a comic book to teach people how to protect their personal information:

"I hope that people will find the straightforward advice useful and that it encourages individuals to take more care and control of their personal information."

Jones goes exclusive with DC: DC Comics has announced that Bruce Jones has signed a two-year exclusive agreement. Jones will start his tenure with the Vigilante miniseries, previously set to be written by Micah Wright:

"I've been itching to come over and play in the DC sandbox for years now -- to reacquaint myself with old friends both inside the books and out, and to meet new faces. Some of my earliest work was for DC, and it's been too long since I roamed the New York editorial halls (and now the La Jolla editorial halls!) figuratively and literally. I honestly think VIGILANTE is shaping up to be one of my best efforts, and I'm looking forward to continued work with Alex Sinclair on the series. At the same time, I'm enjoying my work with Jonathan Vankin, Joey Cavalieri, Scott Dunbier, and others, as well as Karen Berger on several weird and way-out VERTIGO projects. All in all, I think this is going to be one of my most exciting times in comics!"

Review revue: Publishers Weekly (subscription required) isn't impressed with The Ultimates: Homeland Security:

"Millar’s story plunges onward, but the characterization is curiously flat, even with the quirks and frailties he’s given the cast. In the end, this new world of unyielding heroes is just as two-dimensional as the corny do-gooders of yore that they’re replacing. Every era needs its own stereotypes, however, and these certainly fit the bill."

However, the magazine was kinder to Elfquest: The Searcher and the Sword and Drawn and Quarterly Showcase: Book Two.

Scholastic's Bone: Although Publishers Weekly had the news on Friday, today Scholastic Press officially announced the January launch of its graphic-novel imprint, Graphix. As PW reported, the imprint will debut with Jeff Smith's Bone; however, the Graphix edition will be full color in a 6-inch by 9-inch format:

"Scholastic will launch Bone as the flagship title for Graphix with a six-figure marketing campaign. Bone will be officially announced at Comic-Con International 2004, and promotional items will include comic book teaser booklets, give-aways, and in-store display and merchandising materials. Scholastic will also mount a national advertising and publicity campaign including author appearances at conventions, book and comic book stores, and a dedicated Bone page on Scholastic.com in cross-promotion with Cartoon Books' existing 'boneville.com' website. Advance copies will be sent to a very wide range of key influencers in the children's and adult book worlds, and special attention will be paid to the library market where Bone has been consistently acclaimed for its role in promoting literacy."

Exit stage right: Heidi MacDonald reports that editors John Miesegaes and Teresa Focarile have left Marvel.

DC in May: At The Pulse, Marc-Oliver Frisch goes through DC Comics' month-to-month Diamond sales figures for May, and also checks in on a few Image, Dark Horse and CrossGen titles.

FCBD reactions: At ICv2.com, retailers check in with reactions to Free Comic Book Day.

Hafeez Amin of the Genesis Foundation for Literacy in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad: "This year we started FCBD3 early by distributing hundreds of comics to the children at the pediatric wards of the hospitals. I guess if they can't come to us then we'll go them. We plan to make this a regular event for them. We have also gone into the youth detention facilities for teenagers who have gone afoul of the law. Together with the local Rotary Club we've provided some appropriate titles to the inmates, together with building a small library for them of novels, encyclopedias etc."

Jim Crocker of Modern Myths in Northampton, Mass.: "We're in a predominantly college town. Though we certainly have plenty of customers who are locals as well, most of them fled to the beaches for this beautiful holiday weekend. As a result, traffic was down substantially from last year (probably about 1/4 what we saw in 2003), despite that being our first FCBD ever. As far as sales go, we ended the day at a total that equaled what we had done in the first hour of last year's event."

Rich Biedrzycki of Dreamland in Schaumburg, Ill.: "While looking through some of the books as we unpacked them last night, I noticed Gemstone felt the need to put a subscription card in all the Mickey Mouse Comics. The card read 'if you can't find a comic store,' which is totally stupid as anyone having that book obviously found a comic store. After all MY hard work and advertising dollars I spent to get these people in my store, I refuse to give them a subscription card soliciting them to buy direct from the publisher. I took every card out of the books and in the garbage they went.

"The worst offender by far was Arcana Comics who had a great looking preview book. We at Dreamland worked hard selling their new titles the past 6 months. The folks at Arcana, for some reason, felt the need to place a full-page advertisement at the back of the book for an on-line comic site offering discounts to MY customers. Well no one in my store got those books and the folks at Arcana can look forward to getting hundreds of copies of their FCBD book returned to them on Tuesday."

Ned Stacey of Cosmic Cat Comics & Games in Tallahassee, Fla.: "Free Comic Book Day at Cosmic Cat Comics, for the third year, was a huge success. Leading up to the event, the local paper ran a joint article concerning the opening of the Spider-Man movie and FCBD. We also were in the local calendar of events and there was a reminder for things to do on the weekend on the first page of the local section. Can't ask for more than that can we?"

Marsha Giroux of All About Books and Comics in Phoenix, Ariz.: "We have to say the naysayers were all wrong about the fear that moving FCBD to July was going to hurt. We were with the majority that felt it was a good sound plan to have it in on a holiday weekend after the opening of Spider-Man 2. With the huge success of the movie it did spill over into tremendous sales on Spider-Man comics and merchandise."

Chris Karch of Redrum Comics in Scottsdale, Ariz.: "Planning any kind of event in front of a national holiday is never a very good idea. With the 3-day weekend and 110-degree heat, most families left town for the weekend. We had maybe about 15 people come in for FCBD this year. Last year we had about 50 people."

Government acknowledges artists: Taiwan's Taipei Times reports the Government Information Organization presented nine graphic novel artists with prizes of $500,000 as part of the 2004 Comic Story Award:

"Like Taiwanese films, comics are a part of the culture industry and deserve the respect of the government. We've been lobbying the government to give us similar subsidies and organizational support."

Conan, the teen-ager: The Seattle Times highlights Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord's new Conan series:

"Issue 5 is on sale now, and No. 1 was such a big hit that it's already in its third printing. The mag has been 'flying off the shelves' at Wallingford's Comics Dungeon, where Chris Ureta Casos likens it to Marvel's 'Ultimates' line, retelling stories for new audiences."

Wee Pals' big message: The Oakland (Calif.) Tribune spotlights Wee Pals creator Morrie Turner.

Studying comics: The Times of India finds that the Amar Chitra Katha comics have become fodder for scholarly research, with several graduate students working on doctorates based on the books:

"I believe these comics provide a unique opportunity for studying the definition and negotiation of Indian identities."

Comic defense policy: UK's Sky News reports the Japanese government plans to issue a version of its annual defense white paper as a manga in the hope of making politics more appealing to young people:

""We'd like to be able to reach the younger generations, those in their 20s and 30s. We hope the public reads the report so that we gain their understanding. We must compile something that is easy to read."

MoCCA mentality: Also at Ninth Art, Frank Smith files a report from the MoCCA Art Festival:

"The spirit of MoCCA is similar to that which inspired the thirteenth edition of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. Like McSweeney's guest editor Chris Ware, MoCCA embraces the sum of comics history and gives it all a context.

"The ball started rolling with serious speed for MoCCA when Michael Chabon's THE ADVENTURES OF CAVALIER AND KLAY was released. The book succinctly brought the struggle and toil of comic book writers-for-hire into the minds of the mainstream literary community. Telling the story, albeit a fictional one, of what it was like for artists and writers to exist during the birth of the comics industry tore down the walls inside the minds of anyone who had marginalized comics in the past. The Comic Book Guy from THE SIMPSONS still exists as a stereotype for many, but with Chris Ware's publication of JIMMY CORRIGAN, it was impossible not to see that a revolution was in the making."

Stunt drivers: Ninth Art turns its attention to comic-book sales gimmicks, as Lee Barnett tackles cross-over events and all-star creative teams, and Paul O'Brien confronts the return of the variant cover:

"No doubt there are some perfectly legitimate sales gains to be made from variant covers. Presumably it increases the shelf space given to a particular title, and by having more than one piece of art on the shelves, it increases the chances of catching somebody's eye. But then, that rationale applies more sensibly to newsstands, where casual purchases are not entirely unknown. Variant covers are a direct market gimmick. It is hard to believe that many copies of ASTONISHING X-MEN #1 were sold to people who were unaware of its existence until they entered the shop."

Review revue: The Honolulu, Hawaii, Star-Bulletin reviews Confidential Confessions.

Teaching comics: The Arizona Republic spotlights a series of comics-creation workshops at Phoenix libraries, sponsored by Samurai Comics:

"I used to bang my head against the wall to the resistance from librarians and teachers to the idea that comic books can be a good way to get kids into reading."

A decade of Giant Robot: The New York Times reports on the 10th anniversary of Giant Robot, the small but influential magazine about Asian-American pop culture:

"Mr. Nakamura, 34, and Giant Robot's other founder, Martin Wong, 35, have spoken at Harvard and Stanford and are sought after by journalists and advertisers for their views on matters as varied as racism, comic books and Asian pornography. Their magazine has become required reading in several college classes and recently helped start the fad for Uglydolls, a set of homely stuffed toys sold at Barneys and the Design Museum of London. Los Angeles Magazine, in some ways a competitor, has called Giant Robot 'probably the best publication to come out of L.A. in the last decade.'"

Cosmic thing: The Houston Chronicle profiles cartoonist Tim Rickard, creator of the Rockit: Space Guy! comic strip:

"Winky and his fellow explorers are spacey parodies of characters from movies, television and comic books. They encounter planets of apes, attend 'Death in Space and You' seminars and call a washing machine 'the aqua-injection decontamination unit.'"

Getting out the vote: Time magazine looks at creative incentives being used to register voters, and mentions the event held last month at James Sime's Isotope for the debut of Ex Machina:

"Isotope, a San Francisco comic-book shop, netted 107 new voters at a book party and registration drive it held for the debut of Ex Machina, a political comic by California writer Brian K. Vaughan."

Artist spotlight: The Council Bluffs, Iowa, Daily Nonpareil profiles local comic book and RPG artist Fredd Gorham.

Astonishing tales: The San Francisco Chronicle reviews Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution:

"Kirby introduced black characters to comics, helped create the romance comic book and at least co-fashioned the image of the troubled superhero. He was profoundly influenced by his combat experience in World War II. His emphasis on action in such Marvel titles as Thor, Sgt. Fury and the Fantastic Four shifted the paradigm from the noble, one-dimensional superheroes of DC Comics' Superman and Batman to the conflicted, complex and collegial characters of today. His style found musical echo in the kinetic heavy metal of Glenn Danzig, who eulogized Kirby at his funeral in 1994. (Besides the cover art, Tales to Astonish doesn't feature examples of Kirby's style, which is unfortunate, because with Kirby, pictures speak far louder than words.)"

An outsider's view: The Associated Press looks at Ordinary Mr. Oh's 548-Day Travelogue in North Korea, a two-volume comic by Oh Young-jin about the time he spent working in North Korea:

"Oh's comic strips show the absurdity and poverty of North Korea. Newspapers report no crime. Hunger-stricken villagers awake to loudspeakers urging 'a full march toward building a strong nation.'"

Survival of the fittest: The Idaho Statesman looks at the comics industry's attempts to adapt to a changing market and a stagnant economy:

"A survey conducted by the largest comic book distributor, Diamond Comic Distributors, says the dedicated comic book fan is a 34-year-old male with a college degree. The survey was based on the readership demographics of Previews, the company's monthly catalog. It found that 87 percent of readers are male.

"Although this survey does not represent the typical comic book reader, marketing communications director Barry Lyga said he thinks it's an accurate picture of the dedicated fan."

But here's the really interesting statistic: Although a Diamond survey found that just 13 percent of comics readers are female, Marvel's Gui Karyo contends his company's readership is 30 percent female. (Note the Diamond survey covers just the direct market.)

Reaching out to teens: The Woonsocket (R.I.) Call spotlights Ed Fuqua, the Woonsocket Harris Public Library's young adult librarian, who is planning manga discussion groups and a role-playing game based on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen:

"Many young teens would consider the library as one of the last places to spend their summer vacation time. However, Ed hopes to change that. He plans to make the library more appealing to younger readers by giving them opportunities to express themselves through imagination and creativity."

FCBD follow-up: The Gloucester County (N.J.) Times covers Free Comic Book Day.

Marvel's money matters: The Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette carries a Wall Street Journal examination of Marvel's financial health, pausing on the stock sell-off in May by Avi Arad and Isaac Perlmutter:

"Executives often sell stock to pay for expenses, of course, but some say the executives already have a lucrative relationship with Marvel. In addition to the $625,000 Arad received last year in salary and bonus, he also is entitled to producer fees paid by various studio partners for 'each media project' for which he performs 'significant services.' These range to as much as $350,000 per movie project and from $7,500 per cartoon TV show episode, SEC filings show. Additionally, Marvel pays him royalties for toys he invents – totaling more than $2 million between 2001 and 2003, according to SEC filings."

John Cullen Murphy dies: The Hartford Courant (registration required) reports on the death of legendary artist John Cullen Murphy, who was best known for drawing the Prince Valiant comic strip for 34 years, until his retirement in March. Murphy died July 2 of natural causes; he was 85.

Murphy was tapped by Prince Valiant creator Harold Foster to take over the strip in 1970. Prince Valiant appears every Sunday in more than 300 newspapers nationwide.

Clyde fan: At Time.com, Andrew Arnold talks with cartoonist Seth about Clyde Fans Book One:

"Drawing in smooth, almost aerodynamic lines, Seth evokes the style New Yorker cartoonists of the 1930s. Combined with its palette of black, gray and pale blue, the very look of Clyde Fans exudes a melancholy nostalgia. A major part of Seth's attempt at moving away from traditional comicbook storytelling includes, as he says, 'giving a story as much length and breathing space as it needs to be told, which usually means slowing down the narrative, [including] a lot of silent space — panels that aren't necessary to move the story along but are necessary just to create the right mood for what you're doing.' Papers fly down empty streets. A typewriter sits on a desk. People go by; things go by. Seth creates the elegiac atmosphere of an apocryphal, slow-paced past. He does it like no other comix artist, and the effect feels akin to taking a warm bath."

On the D-L: The Toronto Star reports on the increasing popularity of downloading comics illegally via file-sharing programs. But Marvel's Joe Quesada isn't worried:

"Really, we're not that concerned about it. It's not really being done by that many people and it's not really affecting our business. The thing for us is that the majority of our fans like the feeling of reading a comic book. They want to touch it, to have it in their hands."

Competing for screen time: Canada's Globe and Mail looks at the impending big-screen rivalry between comic-book competitors Marvel and DC. Here's Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad:

"It's important that our competition makes good movies -- it validates our assumption that fantasy characters can drive films. I'm sure DC will be just as caring with their material as we are. ... They've been through a [period] of what I would call frivolous filmmaking and, God willing, they won't go through it again."

It's Free Comic Book Day, you say? Well, that's what everyone else is saying: Waukesha (Wis.) Freeman; Cleveland Plain Dealer; Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Citizens' Voice; Bloomington, Ill., Pantagraph; Lafayette, La., Daily Advertiser; Tampa (Fla.) Tribune; Cincinnati Enquirer; Hartford Courant (registration required); Winfield, Kan., Daily Courier; Centre (Pa.) Daily Times; Columbus, Neb., Telegram; and the Council Bluffs, Iowa, Daily Nonpareil.

As for me, I'll be going to Universe of Super-Heroes in Athens, Ohio.

Austen exits X-Men, Marvel: Newsarama has official word from Chuck Austen that he's leaving X-Men -- and Marvel -- with Issue 164:

"Obviously, no matter what the facts are, a lot of people are going to form their own opinions. Speculation is the lifeblood of the industry, in more ways than one [laughs]. And there will be room for speculation, since I don't want to get into any real details. Those specifics are between me and Marvel, really.

"But the simple answer is: I chose to leave, and it was a tough decision. I didn't 'finally realize' anything, I was clear on the situation from very early on, and had discussed it privately many times. I just don't talk about my employment situation publicly, so very few people knew. ...

"... I left because, as I and Joe Q. and others have said in recent interviews, Marvel has changed its internal policies about what is, and is not acceptable in their comics, and I was finding it very difficult to write that way."

Scholastic takes the plunge: Via Christopher Butcher comes word from Publishers Weekly that Scholastic Press will enter the graphic-novel market next spring with an imprint called Graphix. First up: Jeff Smith's Bone.

CrossGen diaspora: A new blog, The CrossGen Creator Watch, has been launched to keep track of the company's former creators:

"The CrossGen Creator Watch exists to provide timely information on what the various former CrossGen creators are doing in the comics industry. Information is compiled from various sources, including comics news websites, solicitations for upcoming comics, posts on blogs or message boards, convention reports, and the creators themselves.

"This isn't about transferring our love for the various series CrossGen used to publish to other books. It's also not about blindly following creators from one book to the next. And it's certainly not a vanity project. Rather, it's about supporting the creators and helping them get back on their feet financially, as many of them are owed money they may not ever get. It's about doing what we can to help repair the damage that's been done. (For the curious, a good summary of the whole situation can be found here.)

"But, most of all, it's about saying thanks to the creators for telling stories that were different from 80% of the comics out there, for putting 110% into their work, and for letting us be a part of the journey. This is for you, folks."

Hero worship: File this under "The Link That Got Away." Comic World News has a nice Q&A with Mike Kunkel about Herobear and the Kid, The Land of Sokmunster and kids' comics:

"I think it’s a shame to think anything good is not for kids. What silly notion to think that comics aren’t for kids. That’s like saying the only good movies are the ones for adults. Seems funny to think that, when most of the movies that come out and are huge hits are the ones that are for all ages. I think the big companies shouldn’t be afraid to tell good all-ages stories that are for kids. If you get the kids early on to like your products and stories and characters, then as they grow up, they will be loyal to you with your other offerings because they have a familiarity with your creations and sensibilities."

CBLDF on COPA: Newsarama talks with Charles Brownstein, executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, about the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the injunction against the Child Online Protection Act:

"... [I]t's a horrible idea for the government to mandate that speakers need to use credit cards or age verification technology to disseminate constitutionally protected work. The government is basically saying, 'even though it's within your First Amendment rights for adults to see what you're posting, you could go to jail and pay costly fines if you don't go through the expense of setting up accounts with credit card vendors or age verification companies.' It chills the speaker's First Amendment rights by requiring him or her to go through this step in order to disseminate protected speech. And to even go through this step requires an understanding of what is legally 'harmful to minors,' an issue that the courts are still defining. The Court explicitly acknowledged this when Justice Kennedy wrote, 'speakers may self-censor rather than risk the perils of trial. There is a potential for extraordinary harm and a serious chill upon protected speech.'"

She's got The Beat: Heidi MacDonald has relaunched The Beat as a daily blog.

Fighting back with comics: Knight Ridder reports that Mexico City's mayor is challenging allegations that his administration is corrupt and weak on crime by publishing a comic book about a righteous mayor besieged by "monsters and dark forces of evil":

"Called Stories of a City: The Dark Forces, the comic book features sharks with spiky teeth, men in hooded capes and other forces of evil out to destroy the 'courageous and hardworking' mayor of Mexico City. Printing 2 million copies, which will be distributed free, cost the mayor's office $80,000."

Economic juggernaut: Japan Today looks at how, during a national economic slump, animation became a growth industry, with domestic sales surging from 133 billion yen in 1992 to 214 billion in 2002:

"According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan supplies roughly 60% of the animation shown on television and in theaters around the world. Japan's 'anime' industry comprises more than 400 companies, over 60% of which are based in Tokyo. The largest concentration is in Suginami Ward on the west side of Tokyo, where more than 70 production firms have set up shop."

Marvel's man in Hollywood: The Star of Malaysia chats with Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad about the current popularity of superhero movies, and why The Punisher didn't do well:

"We have a lot of characters – some are more fun than others. Today it’s tougher to sell violent movies, especially something like The Punisher. It’s a story we wanted to tell, and for people who liked the genre it was a very good movie. We knew that it would make less money but it’s okay."

Canada must fund constitutional challenge: The Globe and Mail reports that a judge has ordered the federal government to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Vancouver gay bookstore to fund a constitutional challenge to the power of Canadian customs to seize and censore imported material. The challenge involves the seizure of two imported books and two Meatman comic books that featured "gay sado-masochistic themes." The judge's order is the first application of a law that allows government funding for those who could not otherwise afford to pursue constitutional litigation.

July in Tartsville: The July edition of Sequential Tart is posted, with the usual mix of interviews, reviews and commentary. Among the highlights:
* a look at the seven-year history of Oni Press
* interviews with the artists Michael Kaluta, Manny Bello, Jeffrey Catherine Jones and Harley Sparx, and writer Myatt Murphy
* "13 Questions" with Scott Mills of Seamonsters & Superheroes fame

They're just drawn that way: The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle runs a Baltimore Sun story about what makes a good supervillain:

"It's not like someone gets up in the morning and says, 'I'm going to conquer the world today.' A comic-book villain cannot be born as a villain, he must be a victim of circumstances, someone who's been given a curse, or some tragedy, or power. A hero is being given a gift and uses it for the good of mankind; a villain will take the same gift, or curse, and use it against mankind."

Screen gems: Colorado's Rocky Mountain News lists which superheroes it thinks should hit the big screen: Silver Surfer, starring Billy Zane; Black Panther, starring Morris Chestnut; Dr. Strange, starring Gary Oldman; Thor, starring Tyler Mane; Green Lantern, starring Freddie Prinze Jr. as Kyle Rayner; The Flash, starring Matt Damon; and The Question, starring Ewan McGregor.

Hits and misses: Canada's London Free Press looks at the box-office track records of comic-book movies:

"You can strike it rich with a Spider-Man, Batman or Superman, but fall flatter than flat with a Blankman, Meteor Man or Supergirl."

What condition my condition is in: The Philadelphia Inquirer (registration required) uses Spider-Man 2 as an opportunity to examine comic-book grading, focusing on The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.

So they're free, right? The Fort Worth, Texas, Star-Telegram (registration required), The Idaho Statesman and The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times preview tomorrow's Free Comic Book Day, when some 2 million comic books, with an estimated value of $6 million, will be distributed from 1,900 stores.

Marvel in May: At The Pulse, Paul O'Brien combs through Marvel's month-to-month Diamond sales figures for May, when the X-Men titles crowded out most of the competition at the top of the charts.

"A cultural embarrassment"? Writing for the National Review Online, John Podhoretz takes a broad swipe at superhero comics and their film adaptations:

"There's no question that superhero comic books offer pre-teen and teenage male a very potent fantasy outlet — the idea of a powerful man who is hidden inside a frightened, neurotic boy's body. Gerard Jones's terrific book Killing Monsters makes an unimpeachable case for the depictions of violence in these fantasies, arguing that they offer a comforting outlet for those who feel totally powerless.

"Comic books developed a bad reputation because of the violence they depicted, which was and is a silly reason to dislike them. Here's a better reason: They're a cultural embarrassment. They weren't when they were the province of powerless boys, but they have become a cultural embarrassment because the common culture has unthinkingly and stupidly accepted them as an art form. This was a natural outcome of the youth-worship that took over American culture in the 1960s, because if you're going to immature and illiterate energy in all its guises, why not go all the way into the most immature and illiterate of cultural forms?"

Get your free comics! If I were really well-organized and industrious, I'd weave all of these Free Comic Book Day stories into one entry. But I'm neither of those things, so you get them as I find them. Anyway, the Honolulu, Hawaii, Star-Bulletin sorts through the titles offered on Saturday.

Cause and effect? The Sarasota, Fla., Herald-Tribune wonders whether comic-book movies translate into increased sales of actual comic books. The answer, according to local retailers: It depends.

"We only see a minor bump. There will be a bump in merchandising, but not in the actual comic book. They put out extra little limited-run series around that time, and anybody who's already a fan of Spider-Man will probably pick it up. But very few people who hear about the movie come in to get the comics.

"Comics like Spider-Man and X-Men and Batman -- they're always popular. Movie or not, they're always going to be big sellers for our shop."

The Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel had the same idea.

They make comic books, don't they? As we tick down the hours to Free Comic Book Day, The Narragansett (R.I.) Times makes a shocking discovery:

"Some people have never seen a comic book store. Some people are surprised that they still make comics. To them I say, 'Superman has been published every month for the last 65 years.'"

Concerning McSweeney's: In Toronto's Eye Weekly, Guy Leshinski falls in love with McSweeney's Quarterly Concern Issue 13:

"As beautiful and thorough as this collection is, though, it represents a frustrating trend: alternative publishers printing their new releases as expensive objets d'art -- not just for reading, but for display. The preciousness of the McSweeney's book is both impressive and intimidating. It practically demands reverence; its goldleaf frail to the touch, its byzantine cover as mind-taxing as a roadmap. Had Ware thought to slip a pair of latex gloves between its pages, they would have seemed perfectly at home. It looks and feels more like an elaborate dictionary than a comic book, which puts the experience of reading it dangerously close to the numbing wholesomeness of schoolwork. (No kid is going to sneak this thing into homeroom.)"

Bad as they wanna be: The Star of Malaysia counts down the 10 best Spider-Man villains. The Vulture doesn't make the cut, but the Jackal clocks in at No. 8.

Name-dropping: The Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal offers a guide to the in-jokes and obscure references in Spider-Man 2, and includes background on The Lizard/Dr. Curt Conners, Alex Ross, Man-Wolf/John Jameson, Dr. Strange and the theme song to the original animated series.

Seen the movie? Now read the book! Nashville's City Paper provides a primer for Spider-Man 2 fans who want to check out the comic books. Marvel Knights Spider-Man is recommended for "the teenager who wants a little more violence and curvy women in their diet."

Retailer spotlight: Canada's London Free Press uses Free Comic Book Day as an opportunity to spotlight local retailer Brahm Wiseman, who owns Heroes:

"Wiseman sees trade paperbacks or graphic novels -- where a serial comic book story is reprinted in book form -- as the future of the industry. Wiseman says the book format may make comics more respectable by 'getting rid of the stigma of comic books as disposable, dime-store, kid stuff.'"

Not your average Joe: Florida Today previews this weekend's International GI Joe Convention, which marks the 40th anniversary of the doll action figure -- camouflaged star of comic books, lunchboxes and TV shows:

"It's an addiction, just like anything else you collect, you want more and more. My wife thinks I'm a little kid, and kind of clueless about it, but she doesn't mind. She'd rather see me doing that than something else I can be doing. It's an innocent hobby."

Focusing on FCBD's founder: California's Contra Costa Times (registration required) profiles Joe Field, founder of Free Comic Book Day:

"I really think there's a diversity in the medium that should appeal to readers of all ages, demographics and backgrounds. We just had to come up with a way to ask people in so they can see what's available. And this has been it."