Publishers

If you're going to be in the Bay area tomorrow through Sunday, you might think about dropping by the Oakland Convention Center for the Image Comics Expo. This is a combination 20th birthday party for Image Comics and a sorta/kinda replacement for Wonder Con, which has moved to Anaheim this year while the Moscone Center in San Francisco is undergoing a remodeling.

The internet is NOT forever. DC's website is undergoing a huge overhaul in a few weeks, according to The Source, with a new design, and new, exclusive content, and the old forums are going to be erased.

The new Nerdist YouTube channel is hosting the first look at the Plastic Man shorts that will be airing shortly on DC Nation. As we reported earlier, Tom Kenny voices Plas, while Andy Suriano and Stephen DeStefano are involved in the animation—the John K. influence is strong but it works with the character.

In advance of this weekend's Image Expo, Jamie McKelvie and Kieron Gillen are teasing a new book at iFanboy but given the Daft Punk reference, smart money is on a a new PHONOGRAM. Two previous minis about the magical powers of pop music were cult favorites, resulting in mainstream work for both, an X-Men gig for Gillen but also McKelvie's famous quote about working on an indie book resulting in "a constant low level money anxiety." Regardless, its return would be a joyful thing indeed.

Here's the latest AVENGERS photos, showing Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson feigning interest in mundane supercomputers. And then Hawkeye, Cap, and Black Widow striding confidently into battle.

You gotta hand it to Archie Comics. They are completely staying on top of current trends and even controversies. If it isn't gay marriage and interracial dating, it's now income inequality and the Occupy Movement, as shown by this awesome Jill Thompson variant cover. Not that this comic will necessarily deliver a sharp critique of Keynesian models vs the Austrian School...by now "Occupy anything" is just another buzz word. But it is definitely today's buzzword.

Have you heard? Sex sells. Specifically a book called Stuff About Sex... For Guys Who Are Not Like, Total Idiots, a digital-only books of sex tips by cartoonist David Mellon that in only a few days has become one of comiXology's top 20 graphic novels. Published by Top Shelf, here's a sneak peek at the first two pages—it's basically a bro-to-bro sex guide for the uninitiated. The author is a self-confessed hippie and it shows....but you know, maybe we need more hippies!

The major con season for 2012 kicked off with MegaCon in Orlando. And so did the con news tidbits season.

New collections from Marvel, including a storyline which takes place between paragraphs in another book! And the Justice League as zombies! New Titles from DC, including Silver Surfer and Captain America!

If you didn't hear about it, the Ghost Rider sequel film, "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" debuted this weekend. It also didn't finish where the experts thought it would. Initial estimates have it in the #3 slot behind Safe House and The Vow.

IDW has hired a new marketing and PR person, namely John Schork, who has joined the company as Associate Manager, Marketing and Public Relations. The position opened up when AnnaMaria White left to start her own PR company. Schork was formerly an assistant editor at Dark Horse. In his new position he'll work with IDW's Director of Marketing Dirk Wood and Marketing Coordinator Chloe Zuanich on industry outreach and social media.

Uh, uh, looks like maybe Dynamite should have entitled its Barsoomian comics "Master of the Male Wedgie" and not Dejah Thoris and so on, because ERB, Inc., the family-owned corporation which controls existing trademarks to the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate, is suing Dynamite, Dynamic Forces, and Savage Tales Entertainment for trademark infringement and unfair competition over Dynamite's publication of books entitled "Lord of the Jungle," "Warlord of Mars," "Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris", and "Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom" based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs originals.