Comics

Fantagraphics is having a four-day 40% off sale featuring some amazing books by Gilbert Hernandez, Robert Williams, Jules Feiffer, Carol Tyler, and more. You really can't go wrong with anything on the list, but here are a few of our own picks:

--remember that "handholds and rockface" metaphor we just used in the SLG piece? Here's an example of what we meant in an interview with Secret Acres' Leon Avelino and Barry Matthews at The Comics Reporter.

Almost every time the name of SLG publisher Dan Vado is mentioned, the word "survivor" is appended to it -- surviving over 20 years in an industry that provides indie comics only scant handholds in its forbidding rockface is no mean feat. But you will never know just how much of a survivor Vado and crew are until you read Five things we survived at SLG., an account of rodent, insect and human scourges on their physical offices. The most famed, of course, is the drunk driver that plowed through their office in 2004 -- thanks to a woman who insisted on stealing the keys to someone else's car after everyone deemed her so drunk they had taken away her own car keys.

Did you get some money from Memaw and Pepaw for Christmas? If you're not going to spend it on a comics shop, howabout buying Kevin Eastman's art studio? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator is auctioning off all the contents of his art studio -- located within Meltdown Comics -- with 20% of the proceeds to go to the Hero Initiative. Eastman gives a tour of the overflowing contents of the studio in the very entertaining video above. Among the anecdotes he drops along the way -- he once owned a Batmobile and his goal was to dress in a complete Batman costume and drive up to the 7-11 for a pack of smokes in full Batman gear -- a dream sadly unrealized. Here's some of what you will win in this treasure trove of '90s and '00s nostalgia.

Some online sales data for 12/25 and 12/26 from IBM, a Top Ten list from Amazon's Kindle graphic novel page, and a surprising discovery! Read on!

By Todd Allen There's a sub-genre of espionage that's come to be called "Spy-Fi."  Spy-Fi is the blending of science fiction and spy stories.  It's...

Via their Facebook page, the upcoming Spider-Man reboot movie posted some stills. Surely Jim Carrey is very excited now over this still of Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, as well as Captain Stacy and Peter Parker in action. Is it just us or has this Spidey reboot hype kind of gotten lost in the Batman/Avengers shuffle?

"I think a solid core of high-selling mainstream-y genre comics would be nice, but it really hasn't happened (except for arguably the manga phenomenon,...

Given that creator Pendleton Ward is a huge comics reader and sometime cartoonist and that half the staff consists of folks you would normally see at Stumptown, AND that the cartoon itself is heavily influenced by generations of alt.comix (Ward says Trondheim's Dungeon comics are a huge influence) ....it's a surprise that up until now there hasn't been an ADVENTURE TIME comic book based on the hugely popular Cartoon Network show. But now BOOM!! is remedying that with a new ongoing monthly series written by Ryan North (DINOSAUR COMICS) with art by Shelli Paroline (ICE AGE: ICED IN and MUPPET SNOW WHITE.) It's part of Boom's KaBOOM! kid line. Also of note: the book is coming out from BOOM! rather than DC, which, like the Cartoon Network, is owned by Warner Bros.

In an emailed newsletter, artist Steve Rude reports that his rough year is ending on an up note, and he'll be re-teaming with writer Mike Baron for a new Nexus story starting in DARK HORSE PRESENTS #12 in May. The three installments of the story will then be collected into a standalone 30-page book. The story deals with the "nature of evil". Nexus, the spacefaring tale of a superhero who kills mass-murderers -- has had a long run with multiple publishers since the early '80s. Baron and Rude self-published an issue a few years ago but the series has been hit with delays since then.

Wow those WATCHMEN 2 leaks are getting better and better. On Christmas Day, Bleeding Cool posted some WATCHMEN 2 artwork -- a Nite Owl pin-up by Joe and Andy Kubert and a Comedian pin-up by JG Jones.

A few suggestions on how publishers can improve their websites. Feel free to add your own in the comments! (And, yeah, I guess we could take some ourselves, "what's sauce for the goose" and all that...)