Who is responsible for this crazy-looking Spanish-language know-off of Batman and Robin ?: I suspect Robin, who gets top-billing. (Via Comics Reporter)

How do you know you’ve been reading too many comics?: Here’s one sign.

Okay, I guess you can miss a few deadlines if you have an excuse this good: So if Grant Morrison hasn’t been finishing up all his Batman and Joe The Barbarian scripts bang on time, what has he been doing?

“The State of the Graphic Novel”: That’s not really the best headline, given that Jared Keller’s piece bearing it for The Atlantic is simply a Q-and-A with Robert Kirkman, but it’s an interesing enough interview nonetheless.

“Zap! Pow! Wham! Now, you’re learning!”: I guess I’m just going to have to learn to accept the fact that these sorts of headlines will literally never go away. Nor will headlines like this.

If I were a powerful Hollywood producer, you know what I’d do?: Cast Ian McKellan as the lead in a movie about the pope, just to annoy the pope…and allow McKellan to make another provocative t shirt.

Wait, raising money for charity doesn’t seem all that menacing…: Did you notice a couple of weeks ago when a Dennis The Menace cartoon featured two little girl characters that looked more like likenesses of real little kids than all the more cartoony, stylized tots that usually populate the world of Dennis The Menace? (I know Comics Curmudgeon Josh Fruhlinger did). Well, The Comics Journal’s R.C. Harvey did, and he asked current strip artist Marcus Hamilton what was up with that.

“…I have a few suggestions for more or less common varieties of comics that I would be happy to see quietly disappear”: Writing for the Techland blog, Douglas Wolk has made a list for certain sorts of comic books he wouldn’t mind not being around any more. Part of me is tempted to try and find examples of great comis from each category to offer as counterarguments, if only to be a jerk, but that seems like an awful lot of work, given how rare comics in categories like “Thinly disguised movie proposals” or “Licensed titles based on TV shows in which the characters are obviously drawn from photographs and video freeze-frames of the actors” are any good at all, let alone great.

“Children create sketches for Gandhi comic book”: This sounds like a cute idea.  The aritcle doesn’t include any examples, so maybe I’m imaging cooler results than actually, um, resulted, but I’m a big fan of little kid art, and I bet something like a bio comic would be a lot more visually interesting if a buch of little kids drew parts of it than the more standard sort of art you see in certain sorts of bio comics.

What wouldn’t Batman say?: As Albert Ching shared on the main page yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter has an article of great interest to the comics world regarding Warner Bros.’ relationship with DC Comics, with CEO Barry Meyer characterizing it as changing from “custodial” to “entrepeneurial” and promising a big organizational announcement next week. What could it be? Heidi “The Beat” MacDonald suspects that it’s the long-rumored move of DC HQ from NYC to LA (Or somewhere else on the West Coast…I just got caught up withe acronyms there for a second). But let’s not lose focus on the really intersting part of the Hollywood Reporter story: It includes an anecdote in which Meyer was told by someone at DC in a meeting “But Batman wouldn’t say that.” What wouldn’t Batman say? I know we all think we know Batman pretty well, and he does have a pretty distinct voice for a comics character, but once I started thinking about things Batman would never, ever say, I couldn’t really think of anything. “Does this make me look fat?” or “Are you going to finish that sandwich?” were among the first two that came to mind, but I could totally hear Diedrich Bader’s Brave and the Bold Batman voice saying both of those…and anything similarly silly. Is there any thing so cheesy Batman could say that you couldn’t imagine Adam West’s Bat-voice repeating it? Is there anything so harsh and vulgar that Batman might say that you couldn’t imagine appearing in a dialogue bubble of Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder, with a thick black bar over it? The next place I went was pop culture references and catch phrases, but then I realized the old Bob Haney Batman would certainly say such things. Man, I can not think of anything that no Batman would ever say. Maybe—maybe—”Make mine Marvel,” but I imagine there are circumstances in which even that phrase could be uttered by a Batman…

Librarians are surprisingly easy to knock down: Exhibit A.

MTV comic book movie news: Blake Lively won’t be Star Sapphire in the first Green Lantern movie, but there are plenty of hints that she will be in a future one. So if you want to see Lively in a front-less fuschia latex sheathe, be sure to see the GL movie repeatedly opening weekend, I guess. Meanwhile, The Avengers‘ Jeremy Renner says movie Hawkeye won’t be wearing his familiar purple get-up, but will instaed wear a costume that’s “a little more reality-based” and “not a big, puple comics sort of thing.” Will he still wear a hat with a giant H on it and a loin cloth over his pants?  Will he use unsettling slang?

“Cuba as Seen Through Cartoons”: The Wall Street Journal has a Q-and-A interview with Inverna Lockpez and Dean Haspiel about their new original grpahic novel, Cuba: My Revolution, “a ficitonal tale inspired by” Lockpez’ real life. For more on the book, publisher Vertigo’s blog has a couple of substantial posts, including this one on Haspiel’s cover process.

 ”So Many Books About 9/11; So Few About Katrina”: This CBS News/New Republic story mentions Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge comics work as a relatively rare literary reaction to Hurricane Katrina, and includes a quote from Neufeld. Somewhat remarkable, Kanye West and his statement about George Bush not caring abou black people is never mentioned, despite a sub-head practically begging for comparison: “Why Don’t Novelists Care about Hurricane Katrina?”

Who’s that guy with his hands all over Uncle Gabby?: Tony Millionaire has a brand-new website at maakies.com, and in addition to containing Maakies strips and a detailed explanation about how to read comic books, it also contains a few mysterious, suggestive photos that seem to hint at a live action Sock Monkey project. (Via Flog)

Either this show wasn’t really hitting with its potential target audience, or I’m just super-oblivious: Because I could have sworn Heroes was canceled like three years ago. 

Guess which list Northstar and Extrano are on: Ty Templeton follows up his post on The Seven Most Misguided Attempts at Gay Characters in Comics with The Seven Best Gay Characters in Comics. Refreshingly, Templeton defines “comics” as “comics,” and not simply “superhero comics published by DC and Marvel,” which is way too often the case when this very subject gets discussed. 

Today’s superhero decadence commentary: Writing at 4thletter.net, Esther Inglis-Arkell sums up my own feelings about DC and Marvel attempts to be mature that tend to just end up seeming gross and/or half-assed and juvenile: 

In many ways, this seems like the worst of two worlds.  Mainstream continuity and art are hijacked by the need to make things as violent, suggestive, and sexually explicit as possible.  Meanwhile, those sexually explicit stories are constrained due to a need for the One Established Character not to push certain boundaries.

I know I’ve tried to say something similar a half-dozen times on my own blog before, but it usually takes me several thousand words and I never quite get there. Inglis-Arkell does it in about seven paragraphs.

“The opposite of the superhero is the Amish not just because the superhero is violent and the Amish are not, but because the superhero doesn’t exist, and the Amish do”: Noah Berlatsky talks violence, pacifism, religion and superheroics after reading The War of The Lamb by pacifist theologian John Howard Yoder and JLA: The Nail by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer. It’s been over a decade since I read the latter, and Elseworld’s story about a the DC Universe evolving with Superman off the board until the climax, but all I really remember about it was a ton of great artwork, and what a kick it was to see Davis drawing pretty much every character DC owns. That, and the Jimmy Olsen/Amish Superman climax coming out of nowhere.

Tucker Stone does something completely insane, as is his wont: Specifically, he reads as many new comic book and graphic novel releases in a given week that he can possibly find, and then reviews them all in one giant, epic post. I think that makes Stone the David Blaine of online comics criticism. Which probably doesn’t sound like the compliment I mean it to be.

I still like his comics better, but Brandon Graham’s a hell of a blogger: In this post, he shares drawings of a Terminator skull, Madame Xanadu, Marian Churchland going muffin-power mad and an all-new Vertigo logo, plus points out a bunch of cool artwork. (Via Jounralista!)

Clint Eastwood as Superman? Namor?: MTV’s Splash Page has details about a superhero movie role Eastwood turned down (which turned out to be the superhero movie role, really). Eastwood would have made the ideal Jonah Hex. I wonder what superhero roles he could still play, now that he’s 80-years-old…? The Wizard Shazam? Alan Scott in a modern day JSA movie?

“Fantagraphics to Publish Lost William S. Burroughs Graphic Novel”: The headlines says it all, but this is probably the publishing news of the week.

DC button pushes blogger’s buttons: The DC Women Kicking Ass blog, dedicated to celebrating DC’s superheroines, was surprised to see a Wonder Woman-less 75th Anniversary button featuring Superman, Batman, Flash and Green Lantern. Was Wondy kicked out of “the Trinity”…? Well, if so, look at the bright side—it takes Flash and Green Lantern to replace her.

I hope the Avengers movie is exactly like this: Only for two hours.

I’ve never seen the term “foundation garment” used this many times before: R.C. Harvey may be a little late to the Wonder Woman costume discussion party, but he more than makes up for it by providing not only a smart discussion, but also some designs of his own. Please note this link is maybe not so safe for work.

Hopefully the final word on that Darwyn Cooke thing: Tom Spurgeon has the most level-headed response I’ve seen so far, and is worth a read not only for his characterization of how Cooke’s statement has been parsed in Internet nerd court, but also because of his point regarding a tension between formula and innovation in mainstream comics of the sort Cooke was discussing.

“The JLA’s unasked for answer to ALF“: That’s how Andrew Weiss characterizes his latest entry in to his “Nobody’s Favorite” series, the little blue dinosaur in an orange vest that worked with the version of the  Justice League that immediately preceded Grant Morrison and Howard Porter’s reboot. I can’t pretend to like The Yazz at all, but I was surprised at how decent those comics actually were once I’d recovered ‘em from discount back issue bins. At the very least, they were visually coherent, which is more than I can say for certain portions of the current volume of Justice League of America.

Every superhero visits there eventually right?: Writing for OC Weekly, Joe Vince lists his “Five Favorite Comic Book Visits to the Devil’s Playground,” occasioned by Wolverine’s visit in the recently released Wolverine #1.

Julian Fong is a one-man DC Direct: Check out this Comics Alliance gallery of Fong’s incredible custom-made Lego figures feature DC superheroes.

I hope this is what the younger, more inexperienced Batman of the Earth One graphic novels will be like: Carolyn Main draws a mildly NSFW five-panel Batman strip in which Alfred demonstrates his stoicism (Via Comics Alliance). This is probably a good opportunity to remind you that Carolyn Main is pretty awesome, and you can see much more of her work at her blog and on this here Twitter picture thingee.

I’ll second that: Writing for Techland, Douglas Wolk would like “More Weekly Comics, Please!” I’ve liked something about every one of DC’s weekly or weekly-ish comics (Well, except for Countdown, which was impossible to like), although I don’t think DC’s managed to perfect the formula again the way they did with 52. Maybe bi-weeklies are actually the way to go, or, a new go at the Action Comics Weekly format from the late eighties. Wolk has some pretty good advice for the big publishers:

The solution seems relatively straightforward: run multiple serials side-by-side, commission the work far enough in advance that creative snags don’t cause publication delays, and make sure the stories are targeted to both their audience (e.g. in continuity) and their format (a satisfying amount of plot that keeps readers in suspense).

”’Buffy’ still ignites controversy…”: I’m a little late to this link, as the LA Times TV blogger wrote this piece about Buffy fans’ reaction to the character’s most-loathed ex-boyfriend getting his own one-shot a few days ago.  I imagine the most hardcore Buffy fans among you have therefore already had a chance to read and digest this then, but for the rest of us I think it’s of some interest in that a mainstream media writer on a non-comics, non-books beat is still writing about the Buffy comic this late in its run. The thirty-sixth issue of the series just shipped this week, after all.

“Of all the big superhero franchises, none are quite so haunted by the specter of their creators as the Fantastic Four”: Writing for Techland, Douglas Wolk uses the upcoming FF storyline—the one being teased with that “3″ ad—as a springboard for discussing a perceived inflexibility in that title’s concept. It’s a rather interesting discussion. Marc-Oliver Frisch and Tom Spurgeon each throw their two cents in elsewhere (Actually, I think Frisch throws a whole quarter in).

It’s a tie: “You Decide—Which Hideous Lady Gaga Comic Book Cover Is Worse?”

Warning—Consuming raw Batman may increase the risk of food borne illness: “Gary Frank promises ‘raw’ Batman”

“There’s a whole new family of comic books revolving around their favorite, angry, claw-springing Canadian superhero”: That’s part of the lede of this USA Today interview with Wolverine writer Jason Aaron about his upcoming Wolvie’s Inferno style story, which seems to be picking up on Marvel putting together a Wolverine “family” of books as they have with the Hulk franchise in the last few years, but the rest of the article just focuses on Wolvie’s trip to hell.

Fumetti as show flyer?: This article from North Carolina’s Asheville Citizen-Times is very much a local story, and thus you might not get much out of it, but one thing I found interesting was that the band being featured has apparently been promoting shows by starring in online photos-and-dialogue bubble comics. They’re…not really very good comics or anything, but it’s a fun idea nonetheless. You can check ‘em out here.

Congratulations to Jim Woodring: Remember Jim Woodring’s quest to raise enough money to build a gigantic pen to make gigantic cartoons with? Well, he’s rasied the money. The next step? Building the pen. Here are the plans. (Via Flog)

Two great Scandinavian tastes that taste great together: Drawn and Quarterly’s Tom Devlin shares a video of Bjork’s “The Comet Song,” from Moomin film Moomins and The Comet Chase.

“Dear, Mrs Stanley I Love all of your comics. Can you please give me some”: I couldn’t have said it any better myself, Quenton Bowman. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: Drawn and Quarterly totally needs to start doing John Stanley floppies, if only to publish the fan mail and little kid art they get.

How many drawings of Batman getting hit in the balls is too many drawings of Batman getting hit in the balls?: The number probably varies for every reader. Click on over to Comics Alliance to find your own personal threshold, as they’ve shared a themed sketchbook belonging to Justin Stewart. Weird. I would have assumed the book belonged to America’s Funniest Home Videos host Tom Bergeron, but maybe he’s more of a Marvel guy.

“Comic Book Characters Still Available for Movies”: “What lesser-known comics should Hollywood adapt next if it wants to avoid the ‘Scott Pilgrim’ trap?,” asks Scott Harris in this piece for AOL, “Luckily for the studios, we’ve come up with a list that’s sure to save them a lot of time.” He lists four, none of which seem as movie-ready as Scott Pilgrim was, in large part due to their scope. Three of the four have very, very long storylines that involve a lot of characters changing over time, and the other one is still rather new and thus incomplete. That said, I’d happily pay $8 to see any movie based on any of these comics, if for no other reason than for curisoity’s sake.

“‘Zot! The Complete Black and White Collection’ is my summer romance”: Writing for The Christian Science Monitor, Rebekah Denn explains how she first fell in love with Scott McLoud’s Zot! comics.

I’m actually surprised it took this long: Some of the celebrities having their names exploited in Bluewater bio comics are apparently attempting to sue the publisher. I can’t imagine the celebs have a great case, given that the publisher seems to be pretty carefully to stay within their rights and there is a long, long history of unauthorized biographies and the subjects being displeased with them, but seeing these issues re-explored in the 21st century should prove interesting. MTV’s Splash Page gets a response from Bluewater, which you can read here.

I think surprise should probably in be quotes: In a post entitled “Another Surprise Revelation Hitting Batman in November,” DC’s Source blog links to a New York Post article that reveals that once Bruce Wayne is done returning, both he and Dick Grayson will be Batman. Er, Batmans. Batmen? They also offer a breakdown of which Batman will be appearing in which Bat-titles.  If you’ve seen DC’s solicitations for comics shipping in November, and if you haven’t, you can see ‘em right here, then you would have already noticed that there are two different Batmen with two different costumes in the dozen or so Batman books, and which Batman was in which Bat-book was fairly apparent based on those costumes (Detective Comics was the only up in the air one, since that cover’s Batman had his gloves, belt and crotch area covered by his cape). Anyway, confirmation!

It’s never too early to start getting excited about the next Jason comic: The cartoonist shares a page from his next album, The Isle of 1,000 Graves, on his blog. According to Fantagraphics, it will be available here in the United States next May. (Via Flog)

Is James Gunn’s Super the least realistic superhero movie of all time?: I think it may be. I mean Liv Tyler married to Rainn Wilson? Come on.

“Comic book artist Frank Cho has made a career of being bawdy and bold”: The Washington Post has a nice big feature on Cho, which you can read here.

“No Name Superhero Iron Fist To Get His Own Movie”: Actually, his name is Iron Fist. You used it right there in your headline.

Asian-American comics character likely to be played by an Asian-American: Er, it probably doesn’t sound like news the way I framed it there, but apparently the role of Nico in the in-the-works Runaways movie wasn’t initially being specified as an Asian-American role, and now it is. Techland sums it up better. It’s weird because I could have sworn that movie had already come out, and that Dakota Fanning or Kristen Stewart had played Nico.

“Swamp Monsters and Stoners”: As a big fan of the original run of Man-Thing comics, I really enjoyed this interesting piece by Oliver Ho about the real-world origins of Marvel’s Man-Thing and the extreme weirdness of the comics he originally starred in. They weren’t good comics per se, but they sure are fascinating comics.

“Marvel now working on Iron Fist film”: This is the best “Oh hey, Marvel is still planning on making an Iron Fist movie” report you’ll read.

 “I don’t think there’s another full-time employed editorial cartoonist in America who can draw an egg as well as I can”: Political cartoonist Clay Jones is quite proud of his egg-drawing ability.

“Indie comic films endure rough summer”: The headline of this “Hey, they can’t all be Spider-Man 2” story is sort of unfortunate, as it confuses the issue a bit—Does “indie” refer to the publishers of the comics under discussion, or the film studios and production companies involved? Because movies based on DC and Marvel comics flop too, like The Losers and Kick-Ass, which the writer mentions by name. There’s an obvious point that ultimately gets made, one that I’m always surprised isn’t common knowledge in Hollywood (and places-that-talk-about-Hollywood) yet. That point being that no matter how popular a comic book is, it’s only that popular for a comic book, and movie operate on an entirely different scale. The comic book audience is the Bottle City of Kandor to the Metropolis of the movie audience.

Do you like comics? Do you like attractive people?: Then you’ll love Hot Nerds Reading Comics, which is a collection of (mostly) very attractive people reading and/or rolling around on beds littered with comics. Study the captions, and you’ll see that you recognize the names of some of these hot nerds…some of ‘em have written and drawn some of your favorite comics. (Via Flog)

Bryan Lee O’Malley, tourist: The Scott Pilgrim series creator took pictures on the set of the movie based on his comics, and he would like to share them with you. (Well, maybe not you personally, but you get the idea…). I particularly enjoyed the philosophical questions raised by the caption of this photo, followed closely by this one, which seems to acknowledge that the movie could have used a bit more of Alison Pill’s Kim Pine. Maybe in the sequel, Kim Pine Vs. The World…? (Confidential to Hollywood: I would also accept Wallace Wells Vs. The World, Knives Chau Vs. The World or Todd Ingram and Lucas Lee: Buddy Cops)

Wait, where’s Wondy’s jacket?: Artist Jo Chen shares a very nice-looking picture of Wonder Woman, for “an undisclosed project.” 

Cartoonist Matt Bors weighs in on a ginned-up controversy, from half a world away: Via Twitter. (Via this dude at Alternet)

See, there problem was putting a specific number right there in their name: In preparation for/hype-enation of an upcoming Fantastic Four storyline, Marvel.com runs through some of the past replacement FF members. 

What about the other 364 days of the year?: Tomorrow is apparently Read Comics in Public Day which, as far as comics-related holidays go, isn’t quite up there with Free Comic Book Day (For one thing, no one gives me free comic books on it). Meanwhile, Dirk Deppey says “Saturday is Kick a Person Reading Comics in Public Day.” Now I’m torn. I really like comics, but I also like kicking people…

If I understand the political ad correctly, DC, Marvel and Team Comics in general should be working against school levies in order to boost their circulation…?: Dean Trippe responds to some dumb-ass political mailer thing some dumb senator made, which implies that if teachers get laid off, kids will read comic books. Or something. (Via Progressive Ruin)

I’ll have to take their word for it: I missed most of the 1970s and not being able to read for the part of the decade I was around for, I have nothing to add to Tom Spurgeon and friends’ “25 Emblematic Comics of The ’70s—A Lengthy First Draft,” beyond noting that I enjoyed reading it and found a lot of titles to add to my “To Read” list (I’ve only read about half of these books at this point).

If conventional wisdom holds that the Watchmen movie didn’t really work…: Why on earth would anyone want to try another movie based on deconstructing the comic book superhero genre using off-brand analogue of name-brand superhero characters? Only with a shorter-lived, less-popular title? I don’t know; The Authority movie discussed here in this bit of gossip is just gossip at this point, anyway.

Local boy makes good: Well, local man. Here’s a little feature from Brownsville, Texas’ The Herald about high school teacher Kevin Garcia, whom the paper reports is making a contribution to Namor: The First Mutant that “will be added at the end of the comic book series and will chronicle the life of Namor through the eyes of Namora, a female version of the Atlantean hero.” So….a back-up story? (Marvel.com’s solicitation doesn’t mention Garcia or a back-up, although online solicitation info is often less than complete).  It’s sort of unclear. Also unclear? Why the paper ran a cover image of Dark Reign: The List—X-Men #1 with the story, instead of one of the covers from Namor: The First Mutant #1. There were at least three different covers to choose from and everything. (UPDATE: Garcia himself clarifies in the comments).

Hopefully as The Thing: “New ‘Fantastic Four’ Casting Rumors Include Adrien Brody”

Actually, I’m not sure I should be: “Why You Should Be Concerned About Frank Miller’s Gucci Ad”

Here’s your regular reminder that Bully, The Little Stuffed Bull is awesome: The Internet’s most washing machine-safe comics blogger takes a look at Archie Comics’ not-always-so-timely attempts to stay on top of the latest youth trends. And man, it is an exhaustive list. Check it out here.

Fine art meets…pop art? Can we call Brightest Day pop art?: Usually when I mention variant covers in any context here, it’s simply to belittle the practice, which I think is helping to destroy the American serial comics industry, and God knows I’m not always so kind to super-comic crossover stories. But I wanted to take a moment to point out this fine piece of art posted on DC’s The Source blog today. It’s of the 12 Brightest Day Returnees, White Lantern-ized and sitting in thrones, while some sort of story tease occurs behind their heads, where heaven would be if this was a piece of renaissance art. Click that link to see the whole thing. So I guess “The Entity” is Jesus/The Word/Logos, and maybe the Returnees are the apostle of his/its Second Coming…?

“The stories and art, take it from me, they’re terrific, and this is an opportunity for you to introuce a whole new generation to the magic of superheroes”: That’s Stan Lee reaching out directly to retailers about the new superheroes he’s been working on with his pals at Boom Studios. You can watch the video here.  And you can watch it even if you’re not a retailer of course; it’s worth it just to hear Lee pronounce the all-caps and exclamation point in the official Boom logo.

“It’s very seldom really that there is even an obstacle to spinach eating; presumably Popeye refrains from it as long as he does because he doesn’t like the taste any more than anyone else does, testimonials to the contrary”: Well I like spinach. Maybe not straight from the can. Or taken like a shot, with the whole can swallowed at once. But cooked and seasoned, or raw in a salad, sure! Wait, what was I linking to? Oh! R. Fiore talks Popeye—specifically, the cartoon Popeye—at The Comics Journal. It’s a great piece, and I’ll have a hard time not thinking of spinach as a “Performance Enhancing Vegetable” for some time to come now.

If Great Expectations had a cover like that when I read it in ninth grade, I probably would have been more eager to do my homework: On Fantagraphics’ Flog blog, Mike Baehr shares a few New Penguin Classics covers, by the likes of Richard Sala, Ted Stearn and Killofer.

Not to jump the gun or anything, but: “Why X-Men: First Class Will Probably Be The Worst [Comic Book Movie] Ever!”

“Five Comics Worth Reading”: Ben Morse of The Cool Kidz Table reccomends five super-comics to check out this August.

“The central question here is, ‘What, if anything, has Superman meant, and does the character still mean?’”: Over at Comics Comics, Dan Nadel discusses Tom DeHaven’s book Our Hero: Superman on Earth, “the best surprise of 2010′s ongoing orgy of comics history.”

Reminder: Kim Deitch can still draw like no one’s business. Check out these pages of the still in-progress Amazing, Enlightening and Absolutely True Adventures of Katherine Whaley which Deitch released to his Facebook friends, and Fantragraphics shared with Flog Readers.

“Weathered and deeply closeted P.I. Frank Grissel…takes on what appears to be a simple missing person case but ultimately gets sucked into a sinister, twisted, and very queer underworld conspiracy”: The Windy City Times interviews Andersen Gabrych and Brad Rader about their graphic novel “with a gay twist,” Fogtown. Gabrych has some interesting observations about old-school noir movies.

“The only thing that I am not able to do at all is help with the drawing because I’m really hopeless at art”: Jane Wiedlin talks to Spinner about her new-ish comic with Bill Morrison, Lady Robotika.

“Let’s face it, the only reason ‘Catwoman,’ ‘Elektra’ and the other pictures failed is because they were lousy”: If you read about comic books on the Internet at all—and something tells me you do—then you’ve probably already heard many variations of the “How come superheroines don’t get as many big-budget Hollywood adapations as superdudes do” argument before. This one, by Chris Hicks and appearing in the Desert News, is somewhat interesting in that it’s written by a non-comics person for a non-comics audience.

Aack attack: Shaenon Garrity surveys the usage of Aacks in Cathy for The Comics Journal. There are pie charts.

“It’s impossible to reproduce a novel’s deep characterizations and nuances of plot development in a comic book format…I don’t see how a novel could be done that way—except by boiling down the novel to a few incidents and characters and tossing away almost all of the depth and plot development”: That’s science fiction writer Ben Bova making one of the two major statements this week that have raised the hackles of many on Team Comics. Bova was writing about the future of books and literacy in general, and made an unfortunate detour into comics for a few paragraphs, in which he said something silly. There are a few factors that explain why Bova may say something so silly. First, he doesn’t seem to have a firm grasp on what graphic novels actually are, defining them as “Essentially…comic books for adults,” which, at best, is true of only some of the things we refer to when we say “graphic novels.”  Second, he’s a lifelong, career prose writer, and thus likely sees the publishing world from that perspective, so that only the word half of the comics equation registers with him. And third, he is old. None of these are excuses for saying something as ignorant as that in public—he is, after all, completely ignoring the fact that art can also be used to reveal deep characterization and plot nuance—but they at least help explain why he might have said it.

“Today’s superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he’s aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity”: And that’s the other statement, part of psychologist Sharon Lamb’s conclusions of a study of how the media and marketers package masculinity to boys presented on Sunday to the annual convention of the American Psychological Association. Coverage and reaction have popped up here, here, here, here, here and some half-dozen other places so far as well, but I think Tom Chivers of The Telegraph offered my favorite response so far.  After pointing out the obvious that of course superheroes are usually terrible role models—box office champs include alcoholic, narcissistic arms developer and dealer Iron Man and violent psychotic vigilante Batman—the study’s conclusion of “today’s superheroes” is flawed by the fact that today’s superheroes are the same one of the 1940s and ’60s: “If Dr Lamb really wanted to criticise modern superheroes, she could point out that they don’t exist: nobody seems to have thought up a really interesting new one in 25 years.”

“If we don’t break out of the big buff guys with swords, and guys in tights, and space marines in armor, we’re going to get marginalized the way that comic books have been in the United States”: So said Disney video game developer Warren Spector, talking about the video game industry.

You guys aren’t sick of talking about Scott Pilgrim’s box office performance yet, are you?: Here’s another analysis, this one from the LA Times and focusing on Scott Pilgrim as “a comic book movie,” despite the vast differences between it and other comic book movies like Kick-Ass, The Losers, Watchmen, The Spirit, Iron Man and The Dark Knight. Blogger Heidi MacDonald has the best take: “nothing can take away Bryan Lee O’Malley’s charming, thrilling, hilarious generation-defining graphic novels and the wonderful movie they inspired.” Amen.

“Skeletor as envsisioned as a Road Sorcerer who dispense evil on his Panthor cycle”: That’s part of the description of Shane McDermott’s redesign for He-Man’s archenemy on Superhero Cocoa. Check out all of the redesigns—including Baby Skeletor and Hipster Skeletor— here. (Via Project: Rooftop)

“Penny Arcade surprised to find that rape jokes offend people”: That’s the headline of this story, to which I have no commentary to add, because I am not surprised to learn that that’s a touchy subject.

“The History of Aquaman Explained”: At Comics Alliance, Curt Franklin and Chris Haley recount the history of Aquaman in just nine extremely wordy panels. I, um, I didn’t read the words on top, as there were one million of them in each panel, but the pictures and dialogue were very funny.

“5 comic books that will see you through Scott Pilgrim withdrawal”: All of the comics on this i09 list are pretty good and/or ones I enjoyed reading, but I’m not sure any of them qualify as all that Scott Pilgrim-like…even by their definition of “the Scott Pilgrim aesthetic” as “disaffected young people in totally inexplicable supernatural and scifi situations.”  Off the top of my head, and looking around at the comics in my own long boxes and book shelves, I’d suggest Oni’s own Black Metal, Sharknife and Peng! as the closest to Scott Pilgrim overall, while Lost at Sea and Project: Superior give you more Bryan Lee O’Malley (just a single short story in the case of the latter).  Sailor Moon, School Rumble and Kill Me, Kiss Me among the many, many manga and manwha that similarly use fighting as a symbol of young love, Sidescrollers similarly uses some arcade-logic and plenty of video game references and, I don’t know, King City has an all-around-awesome-in-its-own-way-the-way-Scott-Pilgrim-was-also-awesome-in-its-own-way thing going on.

“I like Marvel…I’ve kind of given up on DC at this point”: That’s actor Seth Rogen talking comics in an LA Times piece…probably not doing much to increase his chances of playing any DC Comics superheroes in the near future.  Which is really too bad because he’d make a great…um. Hmm. Blue Devil? Maybe?

“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, bowed to a disappointing $4.5 million and a likely fifth place in the rankings”: I’ve seen a lot of the box office reporting for the weekend talk about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World in terms of disappointment (like the one quoted above), and/or expressing surprise at its showing. Did anyone—anyone on earth at all—really think a Michael Cera vehicle had a chance in hell of beating a Julia Roberts movie (based on a super-popular memoir/publishing phenomenon) and a Sylvester Stallone movie featuring just about every action star from any action movies in the last twenty years?  As Albert Ching noted below, Scott Pilgrim at least beat its main competition out in one category—critical assessment. Not that anyone in Hollywood considers positive reviews as important as a huge opening weekend. 

“Trust me, it’ll be much cooler than you think”: Speaking of Edgar Wright movies based on comics characters, Vanity Fair recently had a Q and A with the filmmaker in which several questions were devoted to the Ant-Man movie. They managed to spell Ant-Man wrong every single time, too. Something to keep in mind next time you find yourself disgusted by a typo on Blog@—at least we remember to hyphenate the names of Marvel superheroes here!

“…And the 7 Other Best Film Adaptations”: I don’t know, Sammy Perlmutter of The Huffington Post, if you include the movie The Dark Knight on your list as an adaptation of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, I think it’s safe to say you’re really reaching.

“If you were a librarian in 2612 working at the Grand Library Of Comics located on a floating platform above the city of Des Moines, and a student from Neil Gaiman Academy came to you wanting to know what comics in the 1970s were like, what works would be on the shelf you walked them over to see?”: Inspired by Tucker Stone and David Brothers’ consideration of the “Panther’s Rage” Black Panther storyline from 1973, Tom Spurgeon wonders what comics wer emost emblematic of the 1970s. He offers some suggestions, and asks readers for more.

Wow: Phineas X. Jones covers the cover of an Usagi comic on Covered. (Via Flog)

Of course not; the ring has a safeguard that prevents the use of lethal force: “Did Green Lantern just kill the Deadpool movie?”

“Now, philosophy professors are finding superheroes and comic books to be exceptionally useful tools in helping students think about the complex moral and ethical debates”: The BBC on why Batman doesn’t just kill the Joker…sorta.

11-word, one-pun review of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: Available at Living Between Wednesdays.

Uh-oh, the covers are usually the best part, aren’t they?: “‘Glee’ Comic Book Cover Evidently Drawn By Artist Who Has Never Seen ‘Glee’” (Via Journalista)

How J Chris Campbell writes a comic for an anthology: The cartoonist shares a predicably humorous account of his creative process. (Also via Journalista)

More of Mark Millar on his movie pitch-turned comic-turned movie: I always hesitate to link to Millar talking about anything other than comics, because I feel like I’m just helping his promotional efforts, but I found this interview with Empire about Nemesis: The Motion Picture kind of amusing. Remember how Millar was pitching Nemesis: The Comic Book as a Batman/Joker inversion? Well, he continues to do so in this story, even suggesting he would cast the film based around actors who have played Batman and The Joker in the last Batman movie:

“With Nemesis, you’ve got two great roles for two A-list stars,” he says. “The thing is, one guy has to be as good as the other. You’ve got Holmes versus Moriarty here or Batman versus The Joker, so each one has got to be a $20 million actor, really. I think you could go for the A+ list and get Johnny Depp as Nemesis and Brad Pitt as Blake Morrow.”
…

“When I was writing the comic, I genuinely saw Johnny Depp as Nemesis,” explains Millar. “He’s a thin-faced guy, slightly creepy, a cross between Heath Ledger and Christian Bale, and someone who could pull off both those things at the same time is Depp. He would get it. He goes slightly crazy in his roles!”

Oh Mark Millar…what are we going to do with you?

“No one else can do much more”: That’s R.C. Harvey talking about the characters of Sherman’s Lagoon raising awareness about the BP oil spill in this piece for The Comics Journal examining the ways various newspaper comics and cartoons have confronted the ecological disaster.

So, what’s up with the Earth-One line, exactly?: No one knows for sure, apparently. Well, maybe that’ s not quite true, but a lot of folks were trying to figure it out over the course of the last few days. When DC Comics announced a new line of new reader friendly comics by top creators with the old pre-Crisis branding of “Earth-One” last year, they set a lot of tongues a-wagging (and fingers a-typing). Not simply because of the stories, but the way in which DC was planning to publish them—a series of original graphic novels, bypassing the traditional serial publication in stapled comics format. Well, friend of the blog Kevin Huxford noticed something odd from panel reports coming out of San Diego, Johanna Draper Carlson wondered about what sounded like a change in plans (noting that the management has changed between the original announcement and now) and then Comics Beat’s Heidi MacDonald asked DC about it and got a not-terribly-specific reply, and more and more blogs took note. Finally, JDC offers a follow-up with some lessons to learn here. (Speaking of the upcoming Earth-One books, doesn’t the new new Batman costume look an awful lot like the one designed for the Batman: Earth-One series?)

Everyone knows women love to shop though, am I right, guys?: The New York Times puts together a story stating the obvious, although the twist here is that some women shop for things you (or New York Times editors?) would think only men would shop for. The aforementioned Heidi MacDonald, who was apparently interviewed for the piece, notes an obvious problem with the article. And while I’m linking to The Beat like crazy, attaching myself like a remora to MacDonald’s shark-like blogging, here’s another gynocentric piece, linking to a couple of very talented cartoonists’ comics about Comic-Con.

Ahahahahahahahahahahahah!: (Inhale) Ahahahahahahahahahahah!

“It also reminds the reader that a large part of the superhero formula used to be protecting the innocent as opposed to simply reacting to personal danger”: You know, for a guy who doesn’t consider himself a superhero guy, Tom Spurgeon sure writes very well about the genre, as evidenced in this review of Invincible Iron Man Annual #1, part of a modern super-comic series that Spurgeon regularly name-checks as being one he follows and enjoys on his Comics Reporter blog.

Slow news day…s. Slow news days. Anyway, here are a couple of links you could follow. If you want. No pressure.

Well I bet she and her publishers hope so, anyway: “Is Michigan-born author’s vampire series the next ‘Twilight’?”

No, no it probably isn’t:“The geeks are pulling Hollywood’s strings right now, and that’s not a good thing”

Sure, I’d wear that: Paul Hornschemeir shows off his latest (and greatest…?) t shirt design, in the process of sharing horrible news about the triceratops.

Noah Van Sciver draws a Batman comic: Please note, Noah Van Sciver is not the Van Sciver who drew this. (Via Flog)

Has Kevin Church found a way to freshen up the Garfield Minus meme?: I think he may have. I particularly like the positioning of the addition, as it seems like Jon’s new furry friend is walking around on his hands and knees.

Kate Beaton’s big superhero news: The cartoonist is contributing to Marvel Strange Tales, and she’s not going to be drawing Wolverine, Cyclops or Storm. She drew them in the first of these two superhero strips though.

Everyone in the American comics industry can stop worrying about the American comics industry now: Is that the take away from this ICV2.com piece about comics sales being up and graphic novel sales being down? Probably not. But that’s what I’m going to take away from it at the moment, because I don’t like thinking about numbers.

Jim Woodring is a genius, and he has the cake to prove it: The Seattle Stranger has awarded Seattle cartoonist Jim Woodring, whose latest was published by Seattle publisher Fantagraphics, their 2010 Stranger Genius of Literature award, which is a cake. It doesn’t look as good as a statuette on the mantle, but it’s edible.

“Today is the day for all my easiest-to-achieve, most unimpressive dreams to come true!”: Savage Critic and One of Caleb’s Favorite Writers-About-Comics Abhay Khosla had a rough day at work and decided to go into his comic shop and buy all of the comics. Well, comics are expensive. And there are a lot of ‘em. So he thought he’d just buy all of the new Marvel ones. But Marvel published a lot of comics this week. So be just bought all of the ones A through H (excepting a reprint and one written by a vocal bigot) and is currently blogging his way through that portion of the alphabet. Part one and part two, which can be clicked upon at your earliest convenience.

“Just $30,000?”: No offense to any journalists in the reading audience (nor to whoever wrote this stupid headline), but having spent the better part of a decade as a newspaper reporter and editor, $30,000 sure seems like a hell of a lot of money for a job that amounts to typing and talking to people. Even the hard stuff tends to be things like staying awake during meetings and feigning interest in the most boring subjects in the world, like zoning and tax issues. You know who deserves more than 30K a year? Waitstaff and grocery store check-out people—that is hard work.

“Am I crazy to love Superman Returns just a little?”: Yes. Yes you are. Well, eccentric at least. I thought Routh made a good Superman and Kevin Spacey made a good Gene Hackman and, um…well, that’s all I got.

“Michal Cera Vs. Jason Schwarzman: Who Would Win?”: Hmm, here’s an interesting twist on The Hulk vs. Superman line of debate. Which of the not-particularly-tough-looking actors could take the other in a fight? (And isn’t it weird that a film even exists in which the climax involves characters played by those two actors fighting to the death?). Also under the heading of recent-articles-about-Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is this Boston Herald piece.  I like tthat headline, but I have a feeling someone else has used it already.

“Is Quentin Tarantino Directing ‘The Shadow?’”: I don’t know, but can anyone—even Tarantino—hope to top the 1994, Alec Baldwin-starring version? And am I being facetious? (Yes, yes I am).

All of these look better to me than Batman: Arkham Asylum: But then, I am old. Check out Chris Sims’ reimagination of various comics characters as the stars of NES games: Archie, Hellboy, even Cerberus is included.

I’m sorry, how many millions?: Here’s something to keep in mind when you hear discussion of how comics aren’t mainstream, or they don’t make comics for kids any more, or how it’s a shame that comics just don’t have the sort of mass acceptance they used to. The latest volume of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece, a known comic,  has an initial print run of 3.2 freaking million. (Via Journalista!)

Does…does that mean that I won an Emmy?: Sorta…? Jeff Smith’s Boneville blog has news that director Ken Mills’ documentary The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Bone and the Changing Face of Comics has won a regional Emmy for best documentary. I’m not sure how Emmy’s work, exactly, but is it like an Eisner for best single issue, where everyone involved shares in the prize? Because the back of my bald head is in The Cartoonist, at the 3:52 mark. Does that count? Did I just win an Emmy?! I think that’s close enough. I better go update my resume…

“Wallace Wells Vs. The World”: At After Elton, Jamie Maurer takes a look at how Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series does with “the gay best friend” character type, ultimately giving Scott and Bryan Lee good grades.

I’m about 1000 times more likely to watch a Taco Bell-themed superhero cartoon then I am to ever actually eat anything from Taco Bell: Brandweek’s Brand Freak offers a look at the fast food chain’s stoner-focused ad campaign featuring the Super Friends-like “Super Delicious Ingredient Force.”

Warren Ellis will have a new Marvel series, closer to Nextwave then Astonishing X-Men: And his announcement of the series, which he himself regards as a non-announcement, leads to a pretty amusing Ellis-esque post about how the post should have been better.

Is this the precise moment in which the devil first entered Lucy Van Pelt?: At his Roasted Peanuts blog, John Harris draws attention to a 1952 strip, which seems to be the first time Charlie Brown’s major antagonist shows spite, destroying the happiness on Chuck’s face in a matter of seven panels. (Via…I forget who, exactly. Probably Spurgeon, but possibly Deppey).

“I have been interviewed several times and my view is that this is not specifically a problem for comics, but for the whole of Swedish society”: Writing for The Comics Journal, Fredrik Stromberg discusses Sweden’s child pornography laws and the unfortunate ways they can be applied to comics in the country and, in fact, recently have. In addition to the standard screwed-up logic that the difference between photos of children and drawings of imaginary children means no one gets hurt in the case of the latter, Sweden’s laws have other illogical aspects. For example, in Sweden you can legally have sex at 15, but that sex can never be depicted in, say, an autobiographical comic about losing your virginity and that because it’s illegal to even look at images, it’s impossible for anyone to decide whether something is actually illegal or not. Stromberg therefore doesn’t have examples of the exact images judged illegal in the case he discusses, but offers some popular manga that would be in Sweden’s “danger zone,” like Dragonball and Love Hina (both of which feature a little nudity and copious near-nudity, but no actual intercourse).

Aw, what the hell, let’s end on an up note: Here’s more of Fake Stan Lee, this time coming face to face with Genuine Stan Lee. Naturally both of them note how handsome the other one is.

More like mayflies than tortoises: At Funnybook Babylon, Chris Eckert crunches some numbers in an attempt to determine the average life span of a Vertigo “ongoing” comic.

In favor of rules: Tim O’Neil uses a Grant Morrison quote as a springboard into a discussion on the rules that govern fiction writing, especially that which occurs inside decades-old, massive shared settings of the sort pretty much unique to Big Two serial super-comics.

The best-written review of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (the movie) I’ve read so far: Joe “Jog” McCulloch is one of the better writers on comics on the Internet, and he’s not so bad at writing about movies either, so who better to address the film adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s six-volume, 1,200+ page comic series? It’s a sharp, solid piece, taking the two works of two different media on their own terms, but focusing on how they compare, contrast and interact. Spoilers for the comic and the movie though, so proceed with caution if you’re spoiler-senstive.

Er, arcade logic isn’t exactly the same thing as “zero logic,”  amigo: “Michael Cera enters the zero logic, graphic novel world of ‘Scott Pilgrim’”

“Don’t piss off Zac Effron”: Does the former High School Musical star have a superpower beyond his preternatural cuteness?  Cartoonist Lars Martinson has read the blurbs for Charlie St. Cloud, and suspects he might.

“A Real-Life Comic Book Superhero”: Ignore the bland headline Newsweek affixed to this sizable profile of Lily Renée Phillips and give it a read; Phillips was a rare female comics artist in the early years of the Golden Age, working for Fiction House, home of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. It’s especially enlightening reading given the existential financial and PR troubles that women-in-comics advocacy group Friends of Lulu has had over the last few years—troubles that finally went public last week. FoL is mentioned  late in the story, but only to offer a quote about Phillips.

What’s a crazy Frank Miller Batman story once you take Batman out of it?: We’ll find out soon. Frank Miller recently discussed his upcoming Holy Terror book with the LA Times, revealing that the project that was originally announced as Holy Terror, Batman!, about the Dark Knight waging war against Al Qaeda, will now feature a new, original character called “The Fixer.” It’s sure to be a must-read—you’ve seen the political wallop Frank Miller projects can pack when they’re not as clearly labeled as “Batman vs. Al Qaeda,” can you imagine what it’s like when Miller’s trying to be in your face about it?—but it’s still a little sad to hear about the change in protagonists. Is All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder really as far over-the-top as Miller can take the character?

“Wealth of comic novels compete for shelf space”: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch runs a column of comics reviews, apparently for the first time in months, based on some of the books included.

Sorry, I just can’t see it: “Adrien Brody Considered for ‘Ant-Man’ and ‘Dr. Strange’”

“Four years of comics just to solve a non-problem badly”: That’s Paul O’Brien’s ultimate assessment of Wolverine: Origins, which just wrapped up, as given in his weekly review column. Obviously it’s not the kindest ultimate assessment, but I sort of admire O’Brien’s commitment to follow the X-Men being such that he’ll read every single issue of even X-titles he doesn’t much care for. Hey, someone’s gotta do it, and I’m glad it’s him.

Just six?: “Six DC Comics Superheroes that Shouldn’t Feature in Slots”

Don’t turn your back on Wedgie: Johnny Ryan’s four-panel gag strip Blecky Yuckarella, a sort of Little Lulu/Nancy parody as only Johnny Ryan could imagine such a thing, has come to its end. You can see the final strip here, but remember, all links to work by Johnny Ryan come with an implied NSFW warning.

Tomorrow’s big comics news stories…today!: Comics Reporter’s comics reporter Tom Spurgeon lists about a half-dozen big stories he expects to get a log of play in the second half of 2010. I never felt actively frightened by rumors of DC Comics relocating to California until I read Spurgeon’s piece. Now I’m terrified!