Comics

Continuing the review, I turn my attention to Marvel. They don't usually have a strong Holiday list, instead relying on licensed products to sell in bookstores. They even have a tendency to take what would be big ticket gift items like omnibus hardcovers and schedule them for January! No big gift books on the radar, so I wonder if anything will pop when people surf on Cyber Monday.

Okay... continuing on with Fall previews, we move to one of the Big Six pubishers. No, not comics, the mainstream Big Six, the ones which dominate American and English bookselling. Macmillan is part of of the Holtzbrinck Group, and includes such marques as Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Henry Holt, St. Martin's, Tor, Scientific American, and, of particular interest to comics fans, First Second Books.

Simple but this should get you in the mood. Kochalka tells us he drew this map for the Halloween party at son Eli's school. It lists the various activities, but some abstractly. "For  instance, 'silly windsi is a ping pong ball race where you blow the ping pong balls with a straw."

Although battered and bruised by a wave of opprobrium over his work on the New 52, writer Scott Lobdell hasn't given up, and he's facing the music -- or questions from the internet, as the case may be. After a lengthy layoff from high-profile comics assignments, Lobdell's work on RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS and TEEN TITANS has met with a....mixed reaction. Or as he reportedly asked Gail Simone, "Why didn't you TELL me?" In an interview with Comicvine he does cover some of the more controversial aspects of his recent work like...Starfire, the amnesiac sex addict.

There's been much speculation over the fate of Krypto, Superman's pet dog who somehow came with him to Earth, in the New 52 -- it seems, based on comments at NYCC, that in this grim, no future world of economic collapse, there is no place for a dog in a cape. We'd argue that the opposite is true -- the world needs a dog in a cape more than ever! -- but it seems that Superman's dog will only be seen in flashbacks set on Krypton, like the above Gene Ha variant cover to SUPERMAN #3. He's also been given a grim and gritty makeover as an albino dire wolf, like he wandered over from the set of Game of Thrones. Those who miss Krypto will definitely enjoy the art that is going up in an auction for writer Steve Niles's greyhound Sonny, who is undergoing a very expensive treatment for lymphoma. Artists have been donating art for Niles to sell at auction and collect into a print set to raise money for the treatment. Here's a Bernie Wrightson piece, which really should be in the 31 days of Halloween folder:

Those gruesome/adorable Mars Attacks! cards from the '60s just got another resurrection: Topps and IDW will team for a comics series next year, just in time for the iconic card set's 50th anniversary. And the door looks wide open for more branded entertainment. A perfect distillation of the '50s obsession with little green men mixed with EC's gleeful gore, the cards were the work of artist Norman Saunders and inspired the 1996 Tim Burton film.

Despite all the attention the Kindle Fire has generated in the weeks since its announcement, there is another very similar device coming to the market, even before the Fire arrives on November 15. The Kobo Vox eReader is available for purchase today at $199, the exact same price as the Kindle Fire, and in fact they share the same size, form factor and screen resolution (1024x600). The Kindle has a dual core CPU while the Vox’s is single core, they both have 8Gb of internal storage, although the Vox is expandable to 32GB with a MicroSD card, and both the devices run heavily modified versions of the Android operating system, that discourage, but do still allow users to install their own choice of apps, in contrast to Apple iPads.

Darryl Ayo is at it again with another in his ongoing series of rabble-rousing blog posts. This time he suggests that we need to take a look in the mirror in order to get comics more visibility.

Fresh off the announcement of his reboot of The Prophet for the Extreme Studios, Brandon Graham has a teaser for "The Speaker" a new story in December's Dark Horse Presents #7.

To cleanse our palate from the previous Stan Lee story, happy news that Jim Woodring's website has been relaunched. Mary Woodring tells us "Be advised that Mr. Woodring has a brand new web site (designed by Plexipixel of Seattle) that is loaded with such features as an extensive gallery, ecards, wallpaper and links to various relevant media as well as other eye-tingling and spine-watering delights."

What is a day in the life of Stan Lee like? Judging by the PR wire, as soon as he gets out of bed he asks himself "Whom shall I pact with today, True Believer?" and his people call some other people, and POW! a pact is born! How many times has Stan Lee pacted with another entertainment company? The answer may SHOCK you.

As if we needed more proof that superheroes in any medium other than their original one sell more units, BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY, the new video game featuring you-know-who has sold 4.6 million units in its first week, WB Interactive has announced.