Man the announcements are coming fat and furious, as IGN’s Direct2Drive announces they will start selling downloadable Top Cow Comics.:

IGN Entertainment, a unit of Fox Interactive Media, today announced that its Direct2Drive (http://direct2drive.com) digital retail store has launched the Web’s first independent, download-to-own comic book store and will begin selling comic book titles from Top Cow Productions. The agreement marks the first time that users will be able to digitally download and own full-length comic books, and Direct2Drive anticipates the addition of content from more comic and manga publisher partners in addition to Top Cow over the next year.

The downloadable comic books will be delivered in high-resolution, full-color documents via Adobe Systems Incorporated’s Portable Document Format (PDF), enabling users to download, view and print the comic books on any standard Windows PC.

“Comic books are a perfect addition to our content library of digital games, anime, TV and movies as we continue to build the Web’s premier download store targeting the interests of men 18-34,” said Jamie Berger, Senior Vice President of Consumer Products for IGN Entertainment. “Top Cow is one of the comic industry’s most cutting-edge publishers and we’re proud to offer their content exclusively to the Direct2Drive consumer.”

”It’s never been a question of ‘will comics be available digitally’, but rather how and when,” commented Filip Sabik, Vice President of Marketing & Sales for Top Cow. “Top Cow has been looking for the right partner with which to launch online content. IGN is one of the premier pop culture sites on the web, and their model for digital distribution on Direct2Drive was the one that allowed us to deliver content to fans while not discounting our core retailer base. It’s a win win situation.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Direct2Drive will serve as the exclusive worldwide digital distributor of Top Cow Productions’ library of comics, with more than 400 total books from Top Cow available over the coming year. Top Cow titles available at launch on Direct2Drive will include Witchblade, The Darkness, Tomb Raider, and Rising Stars, with more added each week.

Pricing for Top Cow Comics on Direct2Drive will be similar to the volume pricing offered for Top Cow’s recent Compendium collections, as well as and other trade collections. Top Cow’s backlist will also be offered through Direct2Drive, with material up to a year old available for download.

Gizmodo is the vastly popular (according to Technorati it’s the #3 blog in the WHOLE WORLD) tech blog and it’s just started running GizComix:

So here’s something a little different. This is strip number one of our new original Gizmodo comics, written by yours truly and drawn by the super-talented Pedro Camargo, a member of the webcomix collective ACT-I-VATE. We’re really excited about this, so enjoy the first strip and keep your eyes peeled for more goodness in the future.

Act-i-vators will essentially be the “in-house” cartoonists for Gizmodo, which makes mucho sense. The blog gets popular content, the artists get mega exposure. Could this be the start of the new “comics page” on the web?

§ Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report: “Should we go to war with Iran? We only need 300 troops.”

§ Joel Silver says Wonder Woman is war at Rotten Tomatoes:

“For years now, Marvel’s just been kicking the DC Comics’ characters ass. They’ve been killing them. And look, I don’t know if that’s because the Marvel characters are more self deprecating and more they twist on the super hero character. But I mean, DC is the foundation of the super hero character. They’re where it came from. Watchmen is more in the Marvel direction, but I would hope that we can bring some of these DC characters. They’re doing the new Batman now, and I hope they can do another Superman, I hope we can figure out Wonder Woman, I hope they make Justice League. I hope we can do a lot of these characters, cause I think it’s good to get them out there, and I’d like to try to win that war.”

War — HUAGH.

§ Wizard yaks with cartoonist turned screenwriter Rob Shrab, whose SCUD THE DISPOSABLE ASSASSIN is coming back:

I started working on “The Sarah Silverman Program.” We did a pilot like a year and a half ago, and then we got picked up for six episodes and we started shooting them in the summer of 2006. At the beginning of the summer, Image called me up and said, “Hey, would you be interested in reprinting all of your Scud books?” I said, “Well, yeah. That would be great.” So I did a little digging, and I found all the pages because for some stupid reason all the original screens were burned up in Canada a couple of years ago. So there was a good chance that Scud was never going to exist again, but I tracked down all the pages and have been putting the book back together over the last couple of months.

§ Newsarama catches up with Yani Mentzas, Editorial Director and Executive Vice President of Vertical.:

Tezuka was part of our lineup from the get-go. In fact, our plan to publish Buddha was one of the reasons why Mr. Kidd, the design star, agreed to become our Art Director. One of Vertical’s founding ideas was to publish newly translated Tezuka on a regular basis. Tezuka Productions, however, made it very clear to us that we wouldn’t be acquiring any more titles from them until we proved ourselves with Buddha. Thankfully, the series did well, so we were permitted to publish more of the master. In terms of sales, the first volume of Buddha sold roughly the same amount as the first book of the Ring trilogy, the other flagship title of our debut year.

§ Newsarama also sits down with Jana Morishma, Diamond’s new Kids Comics czar:

About six years ago, the graphic novel industry used to complain that their books were getting lost, either racked on a few lonely shelves at the end of the science fiction section, or mixed in somewhere among the humor books. A couple of things happened to change this situation: first, retailers decided to create a separate section with signage that clearly indicated “Graphic Novels.” Having a critical mass of graphic novels in one bay (bookcase) in the bookstores helped increase the books’ visibility. Second, some publishers, like Tokyopop, created P.O.P. (point-of-purchase) displays that called out their books even more noticeably for consumers. Suddenly, graphic novel and manga sales started taking off, and over the past five years sales have grown an astonishing 400% (according to icv2.com, graphic novel sales were approximately $75 million in 2001, and were approximately $330 million in 2006).

I predict that we’ll see the same pattern occurring for children’s graphic novels. Retailers will create a distinct subsection labeled “Graphic Novels and Manga” in the children’s department, and suddenly kids who love comics and manga will know where to find their books. Publishers who are interested in focusing on the category will work harder to market their books with promotions such as displays, special offers, advertising, author signings, etc.

§ Derek McCulloch is interviewed about STAGGER LEE for the WaPo Express

“From everything that I’ve read, I go with the political interpretation that they were men representing pretty bitterly opposed political organizations, and they had some sort of argument of a political nature — eyewitnesses said so.” McCulloch said. “It escalated to the point of killing.”

(Reminder, we’ll be interviewing McCulloch and Shep Hendrix THIS FRIDAY at B&N here in NYC.)

§ Gilbert Hernandez has a new series coming out entitled SPEAK OF THE DEVIL at Dark Horse. What with Love and Rockets, and New Palomar, and his graphic novels, Gilbert seems pretty prolific these days.

Val Castillo is a young gymnast with a strange hobby—looking through her neighbors’ windows. At first, no one knows the identity of the neighborhood peeper, only that the suspect wears a devil’s mask.

When a friend discovers Val’s secret, he joins her into a dark journey of spying and discovery that includes peering into the bedroom of Val’s own father and stepmother. Intimate details of neighbors’ lives, better left quiet, become chatter and threaten all involved, eventually snowballing into a dark journey that even the strongest soul would not care to endure.

Speak of the Devil #1 features story and art from Gilbert Hernandez (Love & Rockets). The miniseries arrives on sale July 25.

§ Eric Powell’s THE GOON is also coming back at DH:

After a long hiatus from the regular series to work on The Goon: Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker graphic novel, Eric Powell, the mastermind behind The Goon is back! It’s been more than a year since Eric has written and drawn the ongoing adventures of his fan-favorite, award-winning antihero, and he aims to prove that the wait was worth it.

The brand-new story is the beginning of major upheavals in the Goon universe. The Zombie Priest and his latest abominations continue to plague the streets, but his madness and use of forbidden magic is drawing forces to Lonely Street that he may not be able to control. Plus the Goon comic is now offering 50% more poop jokes than all the Marvel and DC superhero titles combined. Suck on that, X-Men!

300 has landed at #12 on this week’s Hardcover Bestsellers list at Publishers Weekly. While it’s not the only listing for a graphic novel on a nationally recognized bestseller list (SANDMAN: ENDLESS NIGHTS charted a few years and ago and there have been others including, we believe, the ALIEN movie adaptation back in the day) it’s certainly a strong showing for the Dark Horse books.

We’re assuming Dirk hadn’t seen this when he castigates Dark Horse for their PR:

The following headline can currently be found on the Dark Horse homepage: “300 GRAPHIC NOVEL IS NUMBER ONE IN THE NATION!!!!!”

The 300 graphic novel is currently the #1 best selling graphic novel in the nation! Congratulations to Frank Miller and Lynn Varley!!!! Plus, a very special thank you to all the fans who have helped to make the book such a huge success.

The blurb is dated “Updated 3/23/07,” and I suppose it’s possible that Bookscan might be telling a different or more current story than, say, the USA Today listings. I hope so. I’d hate to think that Dark Horse, of all companies, doesn’t consider manga volumes to count as “graphic novels.”

We’d hate to think that Dirk is so in love with his manga that he ignores any evidence that goes against the worldview that he is hellbent on promoting each and every day. While we agree with him that it’s silly to ignore the huge success of manga, it’s equally silly to ignore the success of things that AREN’T manga…cuz it CAN happen y’know.

Maybe we’re jsut punchy, but this parody of Dean Haspiel’s Billy Dogma by Simon Fraser, Mike Fiffe and Dan Goldman was one of the funnest things we saw this week. The rest is NOT work safe, if you consider being attacked by a giant penis to be not work safe.

We are quite fond of the charming grotesqueries of of the work of Benjamin Roman (I Luv Halloween, Cryptics), so we were happy to see he’s launched a new webcomic, entitledMOTORFACE:
We’re not sure the MySpace blog interface is all that handy, but you should be able to add it to you RSS feeds.
[Spotted at Blog@Newsarama]

Big AP story on Virgin’s release of The Virulents, which is produced by creators in Bangalore, apparently. The story, which was picked up by the Washington Post and USA Today, includes a slideshow of the making of the book.

“It’s one of the biggest entertainment markets with 55 percent of the population - 550 million people - under the age of 20,” Suresh Seetharaman, president of Virgin Comics, told The Associated Press in Mumbai. “Virtually all the art is created here. We have a team of 120 in Bangalore.”

“An American reading it has no idea it was not written down the road from where he lives,” added Larry Lieberman, Virgin Comics chief marketing officer. “He has no idea it is written, conceived and illustrated in India, in Bangalore.”

[snip]A recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, released earlier at the Mumbai conference, projects India’s media and entertainment business to more than double over the next five years to hit $22.5 billion in sales by 2011. Sales touched nearly $10.4 billion in 2006, up 20 percent from a year ago.

Virgin is all over the place with this story, as well, news of a graphic novel starring the Masked Magician, who’s tell-all TV specials incurred the ire of fellow magicians.

Now, Nash Entertainment CEO Bruce Nash hopes to turn the Masked Magician into a fictionalized franchise, starting with the novel. Nash hopes ultimately to use the novel as the basis for a feature film.

“I didn’t think just having the specials was enough to show the studios that this could be turned into a real dramatic narrative,” Nash said. “So we went to Virgin with the idea of turning it into a graphic novel, and they loved it. Once it’s produced and distributed, we’ll take it to the studios and networks with the idea of turning it into a movie or TV show. The graphic novel will be sort of like the first script.”

The novel will revolve around the fictional magician, on the lam from the law. The character dons a mask to protect himself and begins using magic to solve crimes — and attempt to redeem himself from whatever past he’s trying to escape. Taking a cue from the real-life specials, the book and movie will show how the masked magician actually conjures up his illusions.

Hm, using a graphic novel as the “pilot” for a film…what a great idea!

Well, crap, now they can squeeze a whole elephantman into a mobile phone! How do they do that? Oh it’s a COMIC BOOK by Richard Starkings and Moritat. In fact, interested parties might want to check out the Gocomics website and see what all they are distributing–the march of progress.

uclick has announced an exclusive agreement with comic book publisher Active Images to distribute its popular ELEPHANTMEN line of comic books on mobile phones.

The mobile product line will debut in early summer with comic books and wallpapers starring the series’ larger-than-life characters.

“Whether readers are aware of it or not, ELEPHANTMEN and HIP FLASK were designed from the ground up to be digital media friendly,” said writer/creator Richard Starkings. “Moritat and I are very happy to be working with uclick Mobile, and can’t wait to see our work on the small screen!”

ELEPHANTMEN is an ongoing monthly published by Image Comics. The series takes place in a not-too-distant dystopian future in which an insidious corporation known as MAPPO genetically manufactured intelligent hybrids of humans and animals as super soldiers to fight in a New World War. Decades after their liberation, the hybrids have been integrated into human society.

Starkings originally created the character Hip Flask, an anthropomorphic hippopotamus, to serve as the mascot for the Comicraft library of comic book fonts. The character was soon featured in his own comic book mini series, before jumping into Image Comics’s ELEPHANTMEN.

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As long rumored, Lego is following up its highly successful Star Wars Lego video game franchise with the Caped LegoBrick Crusader himself!

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and TT Games will bring LEGO® BATMAN™: THE VIDEOGAME to next-generation and current generation platforms and the PC in 2008 with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment serving as the game’s North American publisher, including all sales and distribution functions.

In LEGO BATMAN: THE VIDEOGAME, TT Games brings the world of DC Comics’ Caped Crusader to life in an entirely new way. Players can explore a richly interactive LEGO Gotham City as Batman and Robin, capturing infamous villains – and even take control of the villains themselves.

“Batman spans several generations as one of the most popular DC Super Heroes, and LEGO BATMAN will appeal to several generations of gamers who grew up idolizing the Dark Knight and playing with LEGO toys,” said Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President, Development and Production, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “Working with TT Games, we are confident they will continue their LEGO games’ success with this title, and we will expand our publishing endeavors with the introduction of the LEGO BATMAN franchise.”

“We’re sure our fans will be excited to know that we have the same fantastic team at Traveller’s Tales responsible for LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Star Wars II working on LEGO BATMAN,” said Tom Stone, Director of TT Games Publishing.

“There’s a special magic to the LEGO incarnation of Batman that makes him accessible to a younger generation of his fans,” said Paul Levitz, President, DC Comics. “We look forward to the videogame version extending this fantasy.”

The LEGO BATMAN: THE VIDEOGAME story unfolds with Batman’s greatest foes escaping from Arkham Asylum and creating mayhem throughout Gotham City. Tracking criminals, including The Joker and The Penguin, players will utilize Batman’s gadgets as well as build and operate fantastic vehicles in one or two player cooperative gameplay.

It started when Glenn Hauman (him again!) wrote the following about last weekend’s I-Con:

Friday night, while I was escorting a number of actresses from the annual Destinies Mystery Guest show at I-Con, we were forced to go through a crowd of LARPers to exit the building.

The smell was, shall we say, pungent. And that’s being polite. I’ve smelled better rotten meat and curdled milk. The comments between us after we could breathe again were savage.

Now, the case of Black Plague we had earlier this year rendered our sense of smell inoperable which sounds great (we also lost our sense of taste, which was not great) — especially for our trip to NYCC. We thought this was the best-smelling big con we’d ever been to before we remembered that we couldn’t smell anything anyway. Because you know, at some point in our con-going years we’ve all wandered into the Waft of Death. The WoD is not exclusive to comicons — It also is scented at concerts, post offices, the VA. But it seems to happen very often at nerd-esque gatherings.

Well, along comes Mike Chary at Howling Curmudgeons to say stinky is peachy:

No, you idiot, attractive women are not laughing at them because of their hygiene. They are laughing at them because they are stupid, shallow actressses who don’t realize they are at a crowded con with limited ventilation, and are not used to being in such a place, and their guide, a stupid, shallow columnist, doesn’t realize that like all crowded venues with limited ventilation (rock concerts, sporting events, gyms, night clubs) such a circumstance will result in some body ordor issues regardless of the deodorants used. Especially on the second day of a con with people engaged in the physical activity of live action role-playing. Your complaint is like coming in with a group of actresses to half-time of a high school basketball game and complaining about the odor in the locker room.

Mike, I hate to tell you this, but those girls were laughing because the LARPers smelled. What’s this about “SECOND DAY”. That meant SECOND SHOWER OF THE CON! Esp. if you’re going to go LARPing around in body armor. Yes yes, we know inside armor it gets stinky and moldy — that’s why those hygiene-loving Spartans didn’t wear armor!* — that is why you shower often, and douse yourself with Polo before a joust. Come on now, that’s just common sense. So the moral of the story is: clean up your spoor!

As for the speculation over the odor in a high school girl’s locker room, it smells like heaven and everyone knows that.

[LARPing photo taken from the Maine Adventure Society website, on our family compound, and The Beat has LARPEd with some of those chaps and they smelled okay, even after a brisk campaign.]

*Actually they did but that wouldn’t have been as hot.

Because the world needs more videos of otters floating around holding hands.

[Via Cute Overload]

We never actually went any where, but we’re back in the metaphorical saddle, at least for today. We can barely type straight, as our typo-ridden postings of last show, but we’re alive and in more or less one piece.

To make up for the absence of our usual rigor, here are pictures of always-adorable Rosario Dawson and sexy Carla Gugino from the GRINDHOUSE premiere the other night. GRINDHOSUE is of course the double feature by comics-loving directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. (You can see these two badboys pick their favorite movie posters here.)

BTW, we hear Tarantino will be making a special appearance at Jim Hanley’s Universe from 12-1pm this SATURDAY (March 31).

As for Rodriguez, he’s talking SIN CITY 2 again…and SIN CITY 3, even!

Rodriguez says Sin City 3 will revolve around the Sin City graphic novel “Hell and Back”, the story of a brooding artist named Wallace who is drugged repeatedly and wanders through the story hallucinating. With this new story may come some exciting new castmembers too. Rodriguez says Johnny Depp may play Wallace.

Rodriguez is also looking to get his old pal Antonio Banderas in Sin City 3. Antonio apparently told Robert he’d play anything in the movie he was so excited about it. “I’ll be the hunchback,” Banderas said. So Frank Miller and Rodriguez are looking through the cast trying to find a place he might fit.

Banderas and Depp? To the Google Image Search-mobile, Robin!

It’s true! While Cap’s shield has been bequeathed to truth-seeker Stephen Colbert, his mantle as icon of American Freedom and democracy has been taken up by the blood thirsty killer know as THE PUNISHER. IS THIS REALLY WHAT OUR GREAT NATION HAS COME TO?

Captain America is dead. Long live…the new Captain America!?!?

Castle is adopting a whole new patriotic costume in the pages of Punisher War Journal as this buzz-worthy title is sure to turn heads in the coming months. Punisher War Journal #7 will see the Punisher in his new costume taking on the old Captain America villain Hate-Monger and will feature 50/50 covers by Young Guns Reloaded artist Ariel Olivetti – one with the classic costume and one with his new star-spangled threads.

The creative team behind Punisher War Journal have been praised for bringing Frank back to the mainstream Marvel Universe in nothing but thoroughly entertaining stories. Writer Matt Fraction, the writer quickly making a name for himself with Punisher War Journal and co-writing the smash-hit The Immortal Iron Fist with Ed Brubaker, and Ariel Olivetti, the bourgeoning artistic talent who was recently named one of the Young Guns Reloaded, have put the Punisher back in the spotlight and super-villains back into the Punisher’s crosshairs.

Steven G. Saunders of SilverBulletComicBooks.com says, “This is solid Punisher, with Matt Fraction treating the character of Frank Castle with the love and respect he deserves…Coupled with the great art, I see great things for this title in the future.”

A.C. Hall of PaperbackReader.com says “Fraction has an incredible understanding of The Punisher and writes him brilliantly.”

The first two issues of Punisher War Journal have sold out and gone back to press as this new ongoing title continues to heat up. And things are about to go nova when Frank adopts a new costume which may signal the arrival of a new Captain America. You’ve been warned - Punisher War Journal is a book to watch in the coming months.

If you’re one of those people who goes around pitching comic book movies in Hollywood, we’re willing to bet that “It’s the next 300!” may have been uttered in your presence a time or two, maybe even by you. IESB.net weighs in with this bizarre, seemingly PR-fed tale of a bidding war for a graphic novel deemed to be the Next 300!

IESB Exclusive! With the success of WB’s 300, studios are scrambling to find other graphic novel properties that will translate well onto the big screen. Reliable studio sources are revealing that the upcoming graphic novel “War in Heaven” is being targeted for quick development by several studios.

ImageTrac 2 Media, is developing a feature film adaptation of the forthcoming comic book series “War in Heaven.” The project has been dubbed “the next 300.” The comic book series, created by producer Jeff Krelitz, is scheduled to be co-written by screenwriter Craig Fernandez, fresh off adapting Arthur C. Clarke’s Time’s Eye for Sci-Fi Channel and comic book legend Keith Giffen. Ex Machina co-creator and Eisner award winning artist Tony Harris is drawing the book.

Talk of the town is that several major comic book publishers, one being D.C. Comics, along with several studios were vying for the rights to “WAR IN HEAVEN” this past weekend.

Yes, it’s the talk of the town! We can see DC getting into a bidding war right about now, for sure. As you can see from the art, it is the next 300, because Tony Harris draws just like Frank Miller!

Emile Hirsch has been cast as Speed Racer in the upcoming movie:

The actor most recently earned critical acclaim as the charismatic Johnny Truelove in the real-life crime drama Alpha Dog, and as skateboarding vanguard Jay Adams in Lords of Dogtown. He next stars as Christopher McCandless in Into the Wild, Sean Penn’s screen adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s bestseller, which is set for release this September.

Well, he’s got the eyebrows.

A few days ago we were wondering just what’s up with comics in India, as we frequently see items come across our news feed, but have no idea what the popular reaction is. One of our commenters had an interesting take on the matter. Now from the Business Standard of India there’s a fuller account:

You’ve been hearing about foreign graphic novels for some time. Now desi ones are hitting the market, and more hearteningly, they are getting better.

Signs are that the desi graphic novel is coming of age. When Sarnath Banerjee’s Corridor, widely marketed as the first Indian entry in the genre (or more accurately, medium), was published in 2004, the response was mixed: fans were pleased that a start had finally been made, but it was widely felt that though Corridor was clever and good for belly-laughs, it didn’t break new ground.

The article goes on to say that Bannerjee has hit his stride more with his second book, The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers, a retelling of the legend of the Wandering Jew. It also covers the work of Phantomville, an Indian publishing house specializing in graphic novels. It’s interesting to see comics sprout up in an entirely new culture like this, something we’ll continue to track.

[Link via Dirk.]

Members in good standing of Friends of Lulu are called on to help laud the best of women in comics. Don’t just sit there–when you see the list of past winners (yours truly excepted) you see just how many great women and creators have been honored over the years:

It’s that time of year again—time to nominate the brightest and best for the 2007 Lulu Awards! Our annual Lulu Awards bring honor and recognition to the most inspiring and noteworthy women in the comic book industry, as well as the efforts, achievements, and works that reflect Friends of Lulu’s goals. It’s up to you, Lulu members, to make the nominations and to vote for this year’s shining stars!

Nominations for the Awards are made by and voted on by current members of Friends of Lulu. The Lulu Awards are handed out during our evening awards ceremony at Comic-Con International in San Diego each year. (It’s always a blast!)

Start thinking about who you want to nominate for this year’s awards.The Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame nominees must have published work, whether self-published, company-published, or web-published. An individual cannot win more than once.

Past winners include: Roberta Gregory, Naughty Bits, Artistic Licentiousness - 2006; Rumiko Takahashi - 2005; Lynda Barry - 2004; Wendy Pini - 2003; Lynn Johnston - 2002; Trina Robbins, Hilda Terry (tie) – 2001; Marge Henderson Buell - 2000; Ramona Fradon - 1999; Dale Messick - 1998; Marie Severin - 1997.

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Always busy Jim McLauchlin is going fulltime with the Hero Initiative in order to expand the organization’s activities in ways that could benefit a lot of people. (Had has recently been EIC at Platinum.) The Hero Initiative has already made a difference for many people, and it sounds like that was just the beginning.

The Hero Initiative, the 501 (c) 3 charitable organization dedicated to helping veteran comic creators in medical or financial need, is expanding its lineup, and its reach.

A massive expansion of its initial agenda will include financial planning for creators, mainstream education, Hero-branded products, and an eventual professional guild arrangement in which creators could obtain access to group health insurance and related services. The expansion will be facilitated the hiring of a second Hero employee, organization co-founder Jim McLauchlin. In his new capacity, McLauchlin will devote full-time energies to bringing all of Hero’s long-range plans to fruition.

“There would be no Hero Initiative without Jim McLauchlin,” said Marvel Comics editor-in-chief and Hero Board member Joe Quesada. “Hero is an incredibly important and much-needed addition to the comic community. We at Marvel have been proud to work with Hero in the past and look forward to the new heights Jim will bring to the organization. Over the years he has worked tirelessly and has done great things through the charity, all volunteer and all of it in his spare time. Having Jim come on board in a full time capacity will only strengthen what Hero does.”

The move is fueled by a call from within the comics community to expand services. McLauchlin has 14 years of experience in comics, which will allow Hero’s other employee, Development Director Janine Bielski, to concentrate her efforts on more “main street” initiatives outside the comics world.

Hero’s core mission of providing relief to comic creators in need—a mission that has aided over 40 creators and their families with over $240,000 in funds—will continue at the core of the organization. New Hero initiatives—pun unintentional—will include:

* Financial planning and tax seminars at conventions that will aid today’s creators as well, and allow them to better plan for their financial well-being.

* Movement into educational and mainstream awareness arenas that will aid comics recognition and revenue across the board.

* Creation of additional Hero-generated product, such as last year’s ACTOR Comics Presents book and the current Marvel Then & Now DVD, which can result in both paying work and increased recognition for creators, and value for retailers and consumers.

* An eventual professional guild arrangement in which creators could obtain group access to health insurance and related services.

Some of the new Hero wheels are already turning, with announcements soon to come of partnerships with major multimedia organizations.

“We have a truly massive slate of projects to work on,” McLauchlin said. “We are going to move cautiously, one add-on at a time. I’d rather do one thing completely than six things by half-measures. But within a couple years, I think Hero can be a great and well-rounded service organization for the entire comic industry.”

Apologies to Jim for misspelling his name!

We’re still behind the eightball with other deadlines here at SBM, but are trying to keep up with the news. So much of it sad, alas.

We also wanted to extend sincere condolences to our friend Elayne Riggs on the death of her father, who died from injuries sustained in an auto accident.

Via DC:

Artist Marshall Rogers, who won acclaim for his stylish depiction of Batman, has died at age 57.

“Marshall was one of the radical young stylists bringing new looks to DC in the ‘70s, especially with his memorable collaboration with Steve Englehart on Batman,” says DC Comics President & Publisher Paul Levitz. “His debonair smile and charm were every bit as endearing as his art was energetic, and his colleagues at DC are all shocked to have a great artist pass so young.”

Born January 22, 1950, Rogers studied architecture at Kent State University before pursuing a career in comics. His earliest work appeared in Marvel Comics’ black and white magazines; in 1976, his art first appeared in a backup story in DETECTIVE COMICS, the title with which he is most identified.

Rogers quickly moved up to pencilling the lead stories in DETECTIVE, working with his frequent collaborators, writer Steve Englehart and inker Terry Austin, on a run of issues that featured the acclaimed “Joker Fish” story. He simultaneously drew a memorable run on MISTER MIRACLE.

Rogers returned to Batman frequently after his initial run on DETECTIVE, contributing stories to BATMAN FAMILY and other titles, including a new look at the Dark Knight’s beginnings in SECRET ORIGINS. In the 1980s, Rogers began working for Eclipse Comics, with projects including Coyote, Scorpio, the graphic novel Detectives, Inc., and his own creation, Cap’n Quick and A Foozle.

By the mid-1980s, Rogers was working for Marvel Comics, where he illustrated Dr. Strange, G.I. Joe, Howard the Duck and more, as well as a long run on Silver Surfer. He became the artist on the Batman daily comic strip at the end of the decade.

More recently, Rogers illustrated the miniseries GREEN LANTERN: EVIL’S MIGHT, then returned to the Dark Knight for a 5-part story in BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT. He reteamed with Englehart and Austin for the 2005 miniseries BATMAN: DARK DETECTIVE, a follow up on their classic work of the 1970s.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turyles made a CGI-powered comeback, rising to the top of the weekend boxoffice with $25.45 million. 300 was second, continuing its fantastic pace with $20.5 million.

By the way, did you know that TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES started off as a parody of Frank Miller’s RONIN? It’s TRUE! He’s everywhere!

TMNT’s success prompted studio head Harvey Weinstein to wax philosophical.

“It’s sequel time, dudes,” said Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of the Weinstein Co., which is distributing “TMNT” overseas. “We knew from the inception of this project that that the `TMNT’ characters would continue to resonate with audiences across the world.”

Meanwhile, The New Yorker proclaims that 300 “is perhaps the nuttiest film ever to become an enormous box-office hit.”

Further meanwhile, AlJazeera, the pan-Arabic news service, proclaims 300 is part of a Jewish conspiracy:

The West claims that the Muslim world continuously fails to show tolerance for different cultures and different religions. Who needs to show tolerance? The Muslim world, which has so far showed nothing but true respect to the Western culture, or the West who persistently attempts to distort the image of the Islamic and the Arabic culture through various means?

Jewish media control determines the foreign policy of the United States, and the U.S. govt on the other hand controls what the media presents to Americans and the entire world.

Wait until AlJazeera gets wind of TMNT’s reptilian conspiracy.

Spurge leads us to Comichron a site at which polymath (and CBG publisher) John Jackson Miller collates old sales figures of comics from postal statements and the like, as well as historical distributor records. The site will reward many hours of fruitful browsing, but we’ll give you some highlights. Just at random, lets look at the best selling comics for, oh say…1968.

1) Superman DC 636,400
2) Archie Archie 566,587
3) Batman DC 533,450
4) Superboy DC 532,135
5) World’s Finest Comics DC 480,115
6) Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane DC 461,725
7) Superman Family DC 460,560
8) Action Comics DC 423,000
9) Betty and Veronica Archie 419,544
10) Adventure Comics DC 411,200

11) Tarzan Gold Key 384,450
12) Amazing Spider-Man Marvel 373,303
13) Laugh Comics Archie 347,178
14) Archie’s Pal Jughead Archie 345,269
15) Fantastic Four Marvel 344,865
16) Archie’s Joke Book Archie 339,066
17) Archie and Me Archie 333,212
18) Justice League of America DC 315,500
19) Detective Comics DC 309,850
20) Thor Marvel 295,371

Oh, Mark Millar!

Here’s the Diamond/Heroes World figures for September 1996:

1 Fantastic Four (Vol. 2) 1 $2.95 Marvel 314,000
2 Iron Man (Vol. 2) 1 $2.95 Marvel 277,500
3 Avengers (Vol. 2) 1 $2.95 Marvel 276,700
4 Captain America (Vol. 2) 1 $2.95 Marvel 274,100
5 Uncanny X-Men 338 $1.95 Marvel 203,700
6 X-Men 58 $1.95 Marvel 203,100
7 Wolverine 107 $1.95 Marvel 184,300
8 X.S.E. 1 $1.95 Marvel 172,300
9 Incredible Hulk 447 $1.50 Marvel 170,000
10 Spectacular Spider-Man 240 $1.50 Marvel 165,400

Now let’s jump ahead to September 1999 :

1 Uncanny X-Men 374 $1.99 Marvel 110,700
2 X-Men 94 $2.99 Marvel 108,500
3 JLA 35 $1.99 DC 83,400
4 Spawn 90 $1.95 Image 82,700
5 Avengers 22 $1.99 Marvel 81,100
6 Wolverine 144 $1.99 Marvel 76,600
7 Daredevil 9 (Res) $2.50 Marvel 73,700
8 Earth X 8 $2.99 Marvel 71,800
9 Astonishing X-Men 3 $2.50 Marvel 71,600
10 X-Men Children of the Atom 1 $2.99 Marvel 64,800

HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!! No wonder everyone was depressed. But we made it, guys…WE MADE IT TO THE LIGHT.

Comic books: A force to be reckoned with

Nerds gather, mingle at CSU

Seize the day, my children! SEIZE IT!

[Illo by Fletcher Hanks]

§ Cartooner Keith Knight speaks of racism and humour:

Knight encountered a similar problem when trying to sell racial cartoons shortly after the Muhammad cartoons caused riots and controversy around the world in September 2005.

“Does everyone understand what this is? It’s not about being hateful against black people, it’s being critical about society,” he said.

But not all cartoons about race are acceptable, Knight said.

He addressed the Andy Marlette cartoon that ran in the Alligator in September 2005, causing rallies and protests from black students and professors.

The cartoon featured Kanye West holding a life-sized joker card that read “race card” in front of Condoleezza Rice. Rice crossed her arms in disgust and said, “N****, please.”

Knight said the cartoon was unacceptable and was created only to stir controversy and hurt feelings.

“When I looked at Marlette’s piece and see him using the ‘N’ word as a cartoonist … he could have easily substituted another word for that,” Knight said.

§ Joe Pruett tells Wizard about newly single Desperado Publishing:

WIZARD: How long have you been planning this move, and what made it seem like the right choice at this point in time?

PRUETT: I wouldn’t say I’ve been planning it for a while, but when I signed with Image I told them it was going to be two years. It’s kind of like you have a girlfriend: Should I stay with the girlfriend? Should I break up and find something new? It came around January time, and I started thinking about it again, and I thought, “This time, maybe I should go ahead and break up.”