Publishers

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.

Here's today's Valiant cover preview!

Valiant is releasing some teaser images for its relaunch this summer, and here's X-O MANOWAR.

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:

Just to finish our "digital news Monday," Marvel's recently teased "Infinite" something-or-other will be revealed this Saturday as part of SXSWi's Screenburn video game conference. Despite the gaming setting, it's expected this will have something to do with digital comics, as indicated by the panel description:

Twin press releases today that Dark Horse's digital comics offering are coming to B&N's Nook and the Kobo Vox, a lesser known but respected platform. Popular titles like MASS EFFECT,HELLBOY, STAR WARS, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, SERENITY, and SIN CITY will all be available for both platforms. DH was already on their own store and via various Apple platforms.

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.)

Fantagraphics has released the cover for Popeye Vol. 6, the final volume of their handsome reprint series of E.C. Segar's immortal Thimble Theater strips. We're eager to get this if only to finish selling out POPEYE on the back of the books. Great design, great strip—one of those "must haves" for every well-stocked comics library for sure.

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.