Comics

Over at Blog Flume, publisher Alvin Buenaventura has resurrected hopes and a bit of his shuttered Buenaventura Press with a single image for one Pigeon Press, and the announcement of new issues of Matt Furie's BOYS CLUB and Lisa Hanawalt's I WANT YOU for sale at APE, October 16-17.

This has not upset fanboys at all. CBR's Kiel Phegley and Marvel e-i-c Joe Quesada engage in a massive, week-long tell-all on the subject of One More Day, and it's current retcon in One Moment in Time -- O.M.I.T. OMD, you may recall if you have been near a comic book website in the last three years, retconned the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane out of existence because of a deal made with Mephisto. It was a hugely popular story element ridiculously controversial and fan complained loudly and continually for three years. AND NOW, O.M.I.T. has made that story never happen. So despite the memories people may have of the touching Shea Stadium Watson/Parker nuptials, that storyline is now as leveled and buried as Shea itself.

As part of DC's ongoing reorganization, three editorial personnel have been laid off from the Vertigo imprint: Pornsak Pichetshote, Jonathan Vankin, and Joan Hilty, The Beat has learned. All three are Vertigo veterans. Pichetshote was responsible for the recent hit THE UNWRITTEN, while Hilty and Vankin had mostly worked in acquiring graphic novels, including fall releases, CUBA and HOW TO UNDERSTAND ISRAEL IN 60 DAYS OR LESS.

We get a lot of previews in our in-box -- 146 a day from Marvel's Arune Singh alone -- but we can't run them all nor would we want to. But we can't help but be tempted by the prospect of another Brubaker/Phillips production, this time Incognito: Bad Influences #1.

The Eisner Award-winning team of Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips and Val Staples present the most anticipated super hero noir series of the century, as Zack Overkill heads deeper into the criminal underworld than ever before. This is the mission that’ll redefine his life…if he can find a way to survive long enough.

The book goes on sale on October 20.

Experimental, award-winning cartoonist Dash Shaw is obsessed with the reality show Blind Date. Don't ask why -- it just is.

This was sent to us in email by artist Ulises Farinas and we're not sure what it is, but it is pretty damned amazing. Farinas has done other "unauthorized" Marvel art before, but this should so be used for something cool.

The acclaimed artist of Marvel's Oz adaptations thinks there are a lot more kids comics around than we think:

Former Marvel E-i-C Bob Harras has just been named DC Editor-in-Chief. Harras will be in charge of all DC imprints, including DC Comics, Vertigo and MAD. Since leaving Marvel in 2000, Harras held a variety of consulting positions and and joined DC's collected editions department several years ago as Group Editor. The announcement is a little bit of a surprise as Harras had kept a low profile at DC...perhaps all the more reason to be given a promotion. At any rate, it's sort of a no-brainer since he already has experience running a giant comics publishing company and knows DC's operations inside out.

Somehow or other we just stumbled across this blog by Hungarian cartoonist Attila Futaki whose comics adaptation of the immensely popular Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book One: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan just came out. There are quite a few of these YA novel to graphic novel conversions going on, but Futaki's art is a lot nicer than it has to be. The final version is colored by José Villarrubia and looks even better.