Comics

Deadly Women are at it in this well-designed cover by Frank Cho.

ICV2 has released it's sales estimates for November (you know the drill, actually sales should be bumped somewhere by 10-20%, split the difference and call it 15%), and it's shedding a little light on a few things. What Happened To Shade We have a little better idea why Shade might be on the verge of being in trouble.

Here's a peek at the first collection of the comics adaptation of GAME OF THRONES, courtesy of Dynamite. The cover is by Tommy Patterson & Sail.

An ultra violent blend of Paul Blart, the Village People, Robocop and Axe Cop (although it came first), Joe Casey and Chris Burnham's Officer Downe wishes us happy holidays in preparation for this week's debut of the Officer Downe: Bigger Better Bastard Edition. Artist Burnham has since gained fame as a Batman artist, so there's that, too.

Over at his blog Bermejo posted this two page spread from his best-selling GN BATMAN: NOEL. YOWZAH. Click for larger version or go to the link for full size.

Well, not content to merely sanction alternate futures, gay marriage, and the rights of the mentally challenged via Jughead, Archie Comics is following up on a storyline from last year with a rekindled romance between Archie and Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats— and another alternate future is on tap where Archie decides to marry Valerie.

Over on their "Mystery Project Liveblog," Marvel has announced the new team on Astonish X-Men. Taking over with issue #48 in March are Marjorie Liu and Mike Perkins.

CHANNEL ZERO, Brian Wood's mash-up of cyber imagery, sloganeering and popular dissent, is getting a new edition from Dark Horse. This marks its third edition: it debuted as a miniseries from Image in 1997, with a collection following. Then it moved to AIT/PlanetLar, where it has been OOP for a while. The new book will reprint the original GN and its sequel, JENNIE ONE (with art by Becky Cloonan), two volumes of related design, and various and sundry other rarities.

Over at CBR, Kiel Phigley had a chat with John Rood, DC's Executive VP-Sales, Marketing and Business Development, about DC's digital sales and it's worth taking a closer look at. The biggest question, which is still utterly unanswered, is how many copies these digital comics are selling. The second biggest question is where these sales are coming from and Rood does get into that, just a little:

IDW has announced that Greg Goldstein has been promoted to the rank of president. In a release, Goldstein is credited with helping drive much of IDW's growth in new business channels. Publisher Ted Adams will continue to oversee overall strategy while Goldstein takes on more of the day-to-day operations of the company. In addition, Anna Maria White, IDW's Director of Marketing and PR, is leaving to start her own marketing company.

Not too long ago, we presented for your amusement several videos recapping the rather appalling events of AVENGERS #200, in which Ms. Marvel was kidnapped, drugged and forcibly impregnated, and after giving birth to a reincarnation of her rapist, went off with him in a happy daze. The writers on the story are listed as Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, Bob Layton and George Pérez but it's been noted that in the years since, no one has actually taken credit for coming up with the story. It's like that one round of blanks in the firing squad -- every man can believe he is the innocent one. Now over on his blog, Jim Shooter has come out and confirmed that he's wiped the entire incident from his memory:

Eddie Campbell's long out of print DAPPER JOHN has been released as an iPad app, he writes: