Publishers

Reviews are beginning to roll in on THE AVENGERS and, to our utter surprise, reviewers like it! Well, anyway, Justin Chang at Variety liked it.

Hawkeye is an odd character, if you look at his publishing history. He's been a staple of the Avengers since the title's earliest days. In fact, you could probably argue that the core of the Avengers were the Vision and Hawkeye. Characters that you read in Avengers and not solo books. When they wanted to spin-off West Coast Avengers, Hawkeye was the centerpiece of the spin-off. When they launched Solo Avengers, Hawkeye was the regular feature. You had Hawkeye mini-series in '83, '94 and '03. More recently, you had Hawkeye & Mockingbird and Hawkeye: Blindspot. You even had an Ultimate Hawkeye mini-series. Hawkeye is similar to Doctor Strange. Whereas Doctor Strange limped along in a lower selling cult title for several years, with occasional team book stops (usually variations on The Defenders, Hawkeye has been a staple of several popular team books (Avengers, West Coast Avengers, Secret Avengers... and an early stop over in The Defenders), but his solo efforts just haven't gotten much traction.

The late Harvey Pekar left behind several projects in various stages of composition, but none was as close to him as CLEVELAND, a love letter and social history of the city that was his muse—an everyman town of ordinary people and the mundane swirl of life that is nonetheless extraordinary. For Cleveland, Pekar's script found an artist among the greatest of his collaborators: Joseph Remnant, whose dense cross hatched naturalism recalls Crumb (who we meet in these pages) but finds its own voice with expansive staging and research.

DC Entertainment has confirmed that VP of Publicity David Hyde is leaving that job at the end of the week.

At the C2E2 comiXology panel it was confirmed that DC graphic novels are no longer being sold through Kindle Fire's comiXology app, and CEO David Steinberger said it was intentional. However the reasons are hidden behind many layers of NDAs. This is all odd because you can certainly still buy DC books via Amazon and their Kindle store. You can purchase tons of DC comics from comiXology, on the web and their IOS app. Apparently, you just can't buy DC Comics through the Kindle Fire comiXology app (we don't have a Kindle Fire handy to check).

Marvel and Barnes & Noble have teamed up to offer $30 off the purchase of a Nook Tablet when you buy two Marvel digital graphic novels from the Avengers collection. Titles available include various New, Mighty and Dark flavors of Avengers, but also classic flavor, The Kree-Skrull War, and Avengers Assemble from the Busiek/Waid/Perez run.

Best known for his hectic DRAGONBALL series, Akira Toriyama is probably one of the most successful cartoonists of all time. His first big hit was DR. SLUMP, a slapstick humor strip about an inventor who creates a little girl robot who is hopelessly naive about the world. Hijinks ensue. Hijinks that anyone who likes FAMILY GUY will appreciate. This is not sophisticated humor but it is energetic, wildly imaginative cartooning at the highest level. It's also world building in the classic McCloudian-approved way, with the setting of Penguin Village, like Springfield or Mr Roger's Neighborhood, a friendly place filled with colorful characters.

The Archie staff has been busy sitting around dreaming up more outrageous what-ifs, including this gender-swapped natural. Shark jumping...or classic?

By now you know a lot of the wacky details: "Penis! Penis! Penis!", the restraining orders, the menacing muscle who was only a friend, and so on—but this account adds some dog poop.

This art will all be available at the Before Watchmen website later today. Live from #c2e2 UPDATE WITH FINAL ART.

Since the story broke in USA Today, DC has put out a press release with more information on their new original digital comics, which you can read below, but the short version is that the Ami-Comi comics, in addition to being written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, will be drawn by the following artists:

DC has finally pulled the trigger on their long-gestating original digital comics line, USA Today tells us. Several new projects are going to launch in addition to today's launch for SMALLVILLE SEASON 11, by Bryan Q. Miller and the ongoing BATMAN BEYOND and BATMAN: ARKHAM UNHINGED webcomics. Here's what's new: