Publishers

Two is a trend! Oni Press has just announced a new logo replacing the Dave Gibbons-designed original. The new logo was designed by Oni Press art director Keith A. Wood and will first appear on THE SECRET HISTORY OF D.B. COOPER, which comes out in March.

The ugly legal battle between Archie Comics co-CEO's Jon Goldwater and Nancy Silberkleit has escalated in recent weeks with new legal filings. And now a judge has banned Silberkleit from going anywhere near Archie's offices or contacting any of the employees.

One of the questions you ask when you hear about a new Shadow comic is "what kind of take are they doing?" Another is "how serious will it be?" And then there's "how faithful is it to the source material?" As it happens, I've had a chance to read the script for The Shadow #1. I can't speak to Aaron Campbell's art -- I haven't seen that yet. I can, however, tell you what the tone and the take are going to be.

With Marvel's April solicitations up, we can now declare crossover season upon us. AVX (Avengers vs. X-Men, if you prefer) has been announced. Axel and Tom have talked about keeping it in the core books. Let's see how many titles that entails in April.

Who the heck is Afu Chan? He drew a story in SPERA, the fantasy anthology by Josh Tierney that also sports art by Kyla Vanderklugt, Hwei, and Emily Carroll, and was published by Archaia. But a glance at his Deviant Art page reveals an illustrator very much in the modern, pan-comics Moebius-inspired vein, but with violent, pastel brawls breaking out all over the place.

Starting with yesterday's highly corporate We Can Be Heroes press conference, DC Comics/Entertainment has been rolling out its new logo. It's seen briefly at the end of the WCBH video—but not in the eagerly awaited animated form, alas.

New manga! Fast cars! Sexy women (and men)! Nazis! Cats! Rock 'n' Roll! Murder!

In comics, were one privy to what goes on in the editorial suite, you could probably do "The Hour In Creative Differences," not "The Week." That said, there have been a couple cases of creative differences that have bubbled to the surface in the last week or so: the circumstances of how John Rozum came to leave Static Shock and the demise of The Infinite from Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld.

Okay so that Allie McAmazon version of Wonder Woman didn't work out as a TV pilot. Despite being re-elevated to Trinity Status as one of DC's big three, Wonder Woman is still languishing in the development purgatory that so many DC characters seem to swim around in. But how's this for an electrifying concept for Diana: a film directed by DRIVE's kinetic stylist Nicholas Winding Refn and starring-MMA fighter-turned-actor Gina Carrano. Wow, now didn't that make you jump up and shout "2012!" Refn's movie was a great character piece, a twisted noir view of LA, a hipster retro fest, AND an edge of your seat action film. All traits that could make an amazing comic book adaptation.

Every once in a while Marvel likes to get cultural by commissioing a bunch of variant covers in the style of great paintings. they've just done this with April's Avengers Art Appreciation Variants, which will whet your appetite for both the Avengers movie AND a trip to the local museum. Alex Maleev, Michael Kaluta, Gabriele Dell’Otto, Greg Horn, Gerald Parel and more channel Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Monet, Pollock, and Egon Schiele (one 'l'). Which one do you like best?

Superheroes have often stepped up to campaign for charities, but this morning's announcement of Warner's new WE CAN BE HEROES initiative has set the bar pretty high. A multi-pronged campaign spearheaded by DC Entertainment and WB has committed several million dollars to teaming with three charities to fight starvation in the Horn of Africa, where 13 million people are currently at risk due to drought and war. In addition to selling merchandise, DC Entertainment will match donations dollar for dollar up to $1 million.

Having now had a little time to digest it, DC's secondary relaunch (wave two, line expansion -- pick your favorite term) looks like it might have a little more resonance for me, percentage-wise, than the initial relaunch. Whether this is a specific attempt to appeal to traditional fandom or happenstance, I can't tell you. I do have a few observations, though.