Comics

Reviews are beginning to roll in on THE AVENGERS and, to our utter surprise, reviewers like it! Well, anyway, Justin Chang at Variety liked it.

I have to admit, at this point in my life, I'm not much of a floppy comics reader. I've been fishing SAGA and PROPHET out of my Image comps, and every two months or so I go to Hanleys in search of a missing back issue but...I'm not part of the Wednesday Crowd. Which is why all the talk of pull lists and ordering and racing to get to the store go right over my head. So it wasn't until i read this piece by Todd Allen for PW that I finally understood.

Here. Gary Panter, Hans Rickheit, Daniel Johnston, and more. We'll be moderating the following panel Saturday at 1:15:

Hawkeye is an odd character, if you look at his publishing history. He's been a staple of the Avengers since the title's earliest days. In fact, you could probably argue that the core of the Avengers were the Vision and Hawkeye. Characters that you read in Avengers and not solo books. When they wanted to spin-off West Coast Avengers, Hawkeye was the centerpiece of the spin-off. When they launched Solo Avengers, Hawkeye was the regular feature. You had Hawkeye mini-series in '83, '94 and '03. More recently, you had Hawkeye & Mockingbird and Hawkeye: Blindspot. You even had an Ultimate Hawkeye mini-series. Hawkeye is similar to Doctor Strange. Whereas Doctor Strange limped along in a lower selling cult title for several years, with occasional team book stops (usually variations on The Defenders, Hawkeye has been a staple of several popular team books (Avengers, West Coast Avengers, Secret Avengers... and an early stop over in The Defenders), but his solo efforts just haven't gotten much traction.

The late Harvey Pekar left behind several projects in various stages of composition, but none was as close to him as CLEVELAND, a love letter and social history of the city that was his muse—an everyman town of ordinary people and the mundane swirl of life that is nonetheless extraordinary. For Cleveland, Pekar's script found an artist among the greatest of his collaborators: Joseph Remnant, whose dense cross hatched naturalism recalls Crumb (who we meet in these pages) but finds its own voice with expansive staging and research.

DC Entertainment has confirmed that VP of Publicity David Hyde is leaving that job at the end of the week.

Mark Waid has posted the audio of his Thrillbent announcement panel from C2E2. He has more general comments here.

INK is a digital comics magazine put out by the kids at the School of Visual Arts—New York's all-purpose art school that's a hotbed of cartooning talent. We told you about the fall issue when it came out, and the new spring edition is now here, with comics and features. Although you can read the entire contents in PDF form, it's been optimized for the new retina display iPad. It's also a free download for all iOS devices.

Nicolas de Crécy is one of the greatest artists currently working in comics, and his book THE CELESTIAL BIBENDUM is spectacular proof of that. An English language edition goes on sale tomorrow in the UK from Knockabout, but probably some copies will be slipping into the US. You can also order a deluxe edition from TFAW for $55.96. Pricey but beautiful.

At the C2E2 comiXology panel it was confirmed that DC graphic novels are no longer being sold through Kindle Fire's comiXology app, and CEO David Steinberger said it was intentional. However the reasons are hidden behind many layers of NDAs. This is all odd because you can certainly still buy DC books via Amazon and their Kindle store. You can purchase tons of DC comics from comiXology, on the web and their IOS app. Apparently, you just can't buy DC Comics through the Kindle Fire comiXology app (we don't have a Kindle Fire handy to check).

Marvel and Barnes & Noble have teamed up to offer $30 off the purchase of a Nook Tablet when you buy two Marvel digital graphic novels from the Avengers collection. Titles available include various New, Mighty and Dark flavors of Avengers, but also classic flavor, The Kree-Skrull War, and Avengers Assemble from the Busiek/Waid/Perez run.

Best known for his hectic DRAGONBALL series, Akira Toriyama is probably one of the most successful cartoonists of all time. His first big hit was DR. SLUMP, a slapstick humor strip about an inventor who creates a little girl robot who is hopelessly naive about the world. Hijinks ensue. Hijinks that anyone who likes FAMILY GUY will appreciate. This is not sophisticated humor but it is energetic, wildly imaginative cartooning at the highest level. It's also world building in the classic McCloudian-approved way, with the setting of Penguin Village, like Springfield or Mr Roger's Neighborhood, a friendly place filled with colorful characters.