Comics

Chicago's inaugural CAKE Expo kicks off with a bunch of events tonight, and we expec this to be an awesome show, based on the amazing guest list alone. Jessica has already informed you of the debut of Gabby Schulz's WEATHER, but there's a ton more going on. Here's the event list below, more info at the site. And please -- we are looking for reports so hit us up.

Pretty much what it says. The show is curated so just applying doesn't mean you get in, but it should be pretty lively and awesome.

Once again, I peruse the Barnes & Noble website, taking a look at what is selling. There are quite a few surprises this month, including some kids books!

Today's Kindle app update for both iOS and Android has received little notice inside the comics world, but it now includes comics and children's books.

Bryan Q. Miller's comic-book continuation of the Smallville series brings a few familiar people face-to-face with Tom Welling

Wow, two crotchgates in one day. It seems that Andrew Garfield, who will appear as Spider-Man in the new film which opens on July 3rd, had to learn the hard way that superhero costumes aren't that practical in real life. It turns out that obliging certain natural functions was not that easy in his Spidey suit.

Lettering king Todd Klein has a couple of great blog posts showing a series of photos by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez in 1979 on a visit to DC's offices. Klein's memory is prodigious and it's a great look at everything from obsolete technology to the prevalence of sweater vests in the late 70s to a different way of working:

We were all pretty excited when the first set photos of Henry Cavill as Superman leaked out. It seemed that after years of binding and CGI smoothing, Superman was finally getting super where it counted.

Frank Doyle—a prolific writer for Archie—and Steve Skeates, a busy comics writers of the '70s, have won the Finger Award, which honors two writers, one living, one deceased, whose contributions to the comics medium have been underappreciated. Two great choices. The awards will be presented during this year's Eisner Awards.

Speak of the devil! Only hours ago we were making jokes about Chris Ware joining the Cirque du Soleil and now there is nows of an actual Cirque du Soleil comic! Sadly it is not from Ware—we can just imagine his version of Limber 12-year-old Chinese Acrobats Stories—instead, it's from Marvel, in a custom comic that ties in with the Vegas spectacle Kà which you will be able to get at this year's Comic-Con.

Note to Europeans: I am available to go to your comics festivals. Cry cry cry....

By Todd Allen

--I learned something new today. Remember how Watchmen started out as a treatment for the Charlton characters DC had purchased? Come to find out out, DC didn't purchase the rights to all the Charlton characters and Dynamite now has the rights to Peter Cannon/Thunderbolt. As in, the prototype for Watchmen's Ozymandias.