Publishers

In an article that starts off looking at the possibility that Marvel's Kevin Feige will be the new head of Disney Studios, replacing departed Rich Ross, Kevin Melrose distills more than 20 years of Marvel history, such as how they came to have their own studio.

Hot off the heels of his successful run with Marve's X-CLUB, Simon Spurrier joins forces with BOOM! Studios to reveal a new dystopian super-hero series called EXTERMINATION.

Dynamite has just revealed these exclusive sneak peaks of their July releases. Take a look at the covers for GAME OF THRONES #10, WHEEL OF TIME #27, and FULL MOON #7. Expect these on your radar in July!

Earlier this week the resurgent Valiant unveiled a redesigned logo, courtesy of logo king Rian Hughes.

WOW, Creator Rights day on the Internet rolls on with what we might call Stan Lee's Hilary Rosen moment: an unforced error that cannot be rolled back. In an interview with Moviefone, of ALL PLACES, Stan is asked POINT BLANK about whether Jack Kirby should be credited on THE AVENGERS:

You have to be a certain age and have grown up in NYC to really get this, but Drew Friedman and brother Josh Alan Friedman have created an online magazine all about the single comic strip "The Joe Franklin Story." The strip appears in the new edition of ANY SIMILARITY TO PERSONS LIVING OR DEAD, Friedman's seminal collection of strips about the eerie twilight world of syndicated TV before cable, a world of goniffs and mensches and dames, where Ethel Merman and Ernest Borgnine were married and Rondo Hattan roamed the woods outside.

This weekend at the LA Times Book Festival, Dan DiDio and Jim Lee appeared on a panel, moderated by Geoff Boucher and in a press roundtable beforehand, to talk about BEFORE WATCHMEN. The Beat's own Shannon O'Leary has a nice, succinct report on their comments here at PW, and from what we understand, she asked some of the tough questions of the pair. So for those of you wondering when the eager "Will the Comedian be raping many people?" fan questions at events like C2E2 would stop, the DC brass have been faced with actual questions.

Last week, BuzzFeed, the hugely popular "viral" media site, went on a photo tour of DC's offices, including a slideshow that we now can't find that included shots of publicity VP David Hyde's office. Which was ironic, since early last week it was announced Hyde was leaving DC. Well apparently, while on that tour someone held open the ultra-secret notebook of Watchmen art, which was handcuffed to Bob Wayne's wrist at the retailer summit week before last.

The LA Times handed out its book prizes at the LA Times Festival of Books this weekend, and the winner in the Graphic Novel category was Carla Speed McNeil for FINDER: VOICE. The other nominees were:

As expected, today's firing of Disney Studio head Rich Ross has Tinsel Town buzzing, and a picture of a Mouse House in disarray is emerging. Marvel Studio head Kevin Feige has been named several times as a potential replacement, but Nikki Finke's must-read analysis also confirms what we wrote about last year: legendary skinflint Ike Perlmutter is very much in the mix at Disney, and his personal dislike of Ross certainly didn't help matters. (Ross was also on the outs with Pixar's John Lasseter, according to Finke.) But even Disney chairman Bob Iger is feeling the Ike pinch:

Unsurprisingly, after his public statement on not working with DC over their ethical practices towards creators yesterday, it turns out Chris Roberson's arc on FAIREST, the FABLES spin-off, will not get written.

Rich Ross, the head of Disney Studios since October 2009, has just been removed from his post. We can't hope to know what it means—although lots of theories will be floated very soon—but flops like MARS NEEDS MOMS and JOHN CARTER are probably part of it. "Mars killed Rich Ross." Even the impending mega-colossal worldwide superhit AVENGERS didn't help Ross.