Comics

We've been following the curious saga of Platinum Studios for some time now, and now, just as MEN IN BLACK 3 is about to open, it seems the company has suffered a blow by being delisted from the SEC:

Looks like DC is really taking some chances and instead of another popular lesbian, a male DC character will reveal he is gay:

“One of the major iconic DC characters will reveal that he is gay in a storyline in June,” Courtney Simmons, DC Entertainment’s senior vice president of publicity, confirmed to ABC News.

As for who, we can't even guess.

Well, after a grueling morning spent watching The View, as one might have expected, it was the nerd of the bunch, Whoopi Goldberg, who announced that "Marvel is making history with an issue on sale tomorrow, as Northstar will propose to Kyle with a gay wedding in a future issue." This prompted Joy Behar to ask "Can Batman and Robin come out of the closet now?"

It's all coming together now, isn't it? Marvel has just sent out the following advisory:

Tune into ABC at 11a/10a E/C tomorrow as the hosts of ABC’s The View exclusively reveal a major Marvel announcement! This is your first chance to get a look at the moment in Astonishing X-Men #50 that will have everyone talking!

Because it's a horrible, rainy Monday, here's some motivational speaking in the form of Neil Gaiman's commencement address to the University of the Arts. And the text of Tom de Haven's Commencement Address to the Center for Cartoon Studies.

As reported over the weekend, Dan DiDio told the Kapow! audience that, as part of the ongoing move towards diversity, an established DC character will be returning and changing sexual orientation. It seems someone is switching teams...and we don't mean going from the Justice League to the Justice Society.

Meanwhile, in Chicago it was the all-time greatest cartoonist confab, the Comics: Philosophy and Practice event, which was overshadowed a bit by the presence of a NATO summit in Chicago at the very same time—apparently traffic and security were taxing. Christopher Borelli's report is written contrasting the two summits, while noting the enormity of the attendees:

David Hine sat down with us at London's Kapow Comic Convention to discuss his newly-announced Image series with Doug Braithwaite: STORM DOGS

Avengers continues rule the U.S. box office and climb up the global rankings. Avengers is now the #4 grossing film all-time in the global market and #6 in the U.S market.

Artist Sara Pichelli won Best Artist and Best Newcomer awards at last night's Stan Lee Awards, which are presented at the Kapow! to recognize achievements in superhero comics or something. Pichelli was on hand to accept her awards, as you can see, which is a good thing because originally there were no women in comics to go to the show. Luckily, some were found.

Roger Langridge mentioned in a podcast that he was done with Marvel and DC (OK, he wasn't working with DC... but he's planning on keeping it that way) a little while back. The story has popped up again over at the Washington Post's Comic Riffs blog. This time out, the emphasis is clearly on Jack Kirby and The Avengers movie.

Torsten gave a fantastic review of things to do this weekend but I'll focus on two fun events for the Maine and Washington people, who desperately should enjoy themselves while the sun is still out!