DC

"Speak of the Devil and he shall appear." On Wednesday, we were discussing how books were shipping on time, but there were a lot of fill-in artists. Now it's Friday and DC has announced two more "Guest Artists."

BY CASEY BURCHEY -- Last summer, DC inaugurated a series of artist-centric hardcover Batman collections with Tales of the Batman: Gene Colan, Volume 1, which highlighted the moody work Colan contributed to Batman and Detective Comics in the early 1980s. Since then, DC has also released similar volumes featuring stories drawn by Don Newton and Marshall Rogers.

When DC launched their comics app, these many months ago, a lot of people wondered why there wasn't a Vertigo app to go along with it. Well, wonder no more. Today Vertigo announced you can download a standalone Vertigo app from the App Store/iTunes. You can also get some 99-cent Sandman issues while you're there.

As many have noted, DC rolled out its brand spanking new website yesterday, with a whole new look, new logo and new commenting system. Among the many improvements, new sections for major characters, and subsections for videos, live social media updating and the like. (What, no Pinterest?) The site seems to be the work of the West Coast branding/web team, and although useful and streamlined, it does match the corporate vibe of a lot of DC rollouts of late.

DC has updated their website design. Their Source blog doesn't seem to have any March content on it yet, figure that will be taken care of soon and this week will be reloaded. It also has a subscription page link that seems a bit more visible to me.

Over at Newsarama, James Robinson is finally talking -- sort of -- about Earth 2. But more dramatically, the cover for the second issue of Earth 2, featuring the redesigned Jay Garrick Flash is revealed.

This interview with Young Justice Lead Character Designer Phil Bourassa has a few clues if you want to connect the dots. Early in he explains his intro to the world of animation:

While they haven't reached Marvel's level of reformatting their trades, DC does release a dizzying array of formats for their classics, from the Absolutes to the omnibus to the deluxe and...even more. (We're actually starting a column on reprints this week to make some sense of it all.) But it seems an upcoming new edition of BATMAN: YEAR ONE, the Frank Miller/David Mazzucchelli classic, isn't the one you should be giving permanent home to on your shelf. The Comics Journal has the scoop.

The DCU is getting a new look for Shazam, and the New York Post has the first glimpse. Once known as Captain Marvel and The Big Red Cheese, he's now officially Shazam, and a backup strip in JUSTICE LEAGUE by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank debuts in JL #7 later this month. Based on the new art and focus, this Shazam seems to be trading in his old crew of a talking tiger and cute bunny for a different crowd—say, Hellblazer and the Phantom Stranger.

According to this posting on the Source, DC collections are adding LoC information and will be added to the library's holdings. The Library of Congress has a few other comics connections of late, including an SPX collection, so the place of comics in the nation's greatest library is clearly growing.

With all the chaos and hype going on today, it sometimes comes to pass that not all good books get the attention they deserve. Here's a quick rundown of things you might not be picking up that are worthwhile. (I'm assuming you've already had someone nagging you to pick up Mark Waid's Daredevil run, so we won't get into that here.)

Last time out, I was only half-right. We got the Superman redesign today (and another priceless editorial quote), but DC went back to Worlds' Finest yesterday for the Supergirl/Power Girl redesign. Which is to say, we've yet to see an Official redesign sketch of anything that wasn't already on a previously released cover.