Publishers

...unless you read old comic strips. Fantagraphics' Floyd Gottfredson reprint project was a big news item at last year's San Diego, and you can bet that the book (due on April 15th) will get people talking some more. FBI released a pdf of the promo materials and here's a sneak peek.

Oji Suzuki is the latest in D&Q's gekiga projects, and Tom Devlin explains why:

Legendary Archie artist Stan Goldberg started his career in the Golden Age coloring countless covers for Atlas, but in the Silver Age he was as a colorist for Marvel, working on such things as the cover to the very first issue of The Fantastic Four and desinging the color schemes for much of the seminal line. So it's fitting that he's been tagged to draw a variant cover for the new FF #1 featuring the new line-up, which features Spider-Man. The interiors are by Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting while other variant covers are by Daniel Acuna, Gerard Parel and Marko Djurdjevic.

Here's the lineup:

There are some well-sourced rumblings out there that DC is ending its First Wave line. The First Wave books centered around several pulp heroes, including Doc Savage, The Spirit, the Blackhawks, and Rima the Jungle Girl. The reason isn't entirely clear, but the stand alone DOC SAVAGE and SPIRIT books were selling below 10K copies, which is well into the danger zone on today's comics.

Just to forestall a heart attack by Mike Richardson, I'll spoil the answer right here: YES. The reason the question even came up is some dissension following Dark Horse's win in the Diamond Awards for "Best Manga Publisher," which, given the wide ranging publisher programs of Viz, Yen and TokyoPop was surprising, to say the least, as Johanna explained:

What is the great Italian cartoonist up to?

Continuing its rollout of their revamped Kaboom! kids comics line, BOOM! is teasing a new series by Roger Langridge called SNARKED as part of the line. Peanuts AND Roger Langridge? This is looking better and better.

What a difference two letters make; just by adding a syllable, BOOM! has made its kid's line even more kid friendly, as the graphic above suggests. Although the Pixar license has gone back to Disney/Marvel, BOOM! is still publishing classic Disney materials, including Barks and Rosa, and the successful Disney Afternoon line, which just added DuckTales, and now, according to this image, is adding Peanuts to its lineup.

The new THE MIGHTY THOR #1 by Fraction and Coipel will have several variant covers, including one by Walt Simonson himself. The book goes on sale 4/27.

This week's EW contains the first photos of Henry Cavill "as" Superman -- if you call wearing a T-shirt dressing as Superman. According to the story, the first time he wore the duds, the handsome Englishman was able to overcome the inherent silliness of the panties and cape look:

Hm, top creators (we're guessing) on new titles. Sounds like the way things used to be in the olden (Marvel Knights, MAX) days before events drove the horse. Will these be real re-imaginings for Daredevil, Punisher, and Moon Knight? Wait and see.