Publishers

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.

A piece at business site Fast Company has unveiled the new DC logo — and yeah, it's been chosen because it can be animated and — probably — make a sound. John Rood and Amit Desai, senior vice president of franchise management, roll out the new malleable, adaptable, interactive logo:

In many ways, Rob Leifeld's old Extreme line was the epitome of the Direct Market in the mid-90s. Imagine my surprise when I'm reading the relaunch of one of those books at realize it's very much a mid-80s comic. As with the Prophet re-launch, the Glory re-launch is something a bit different. This time out writer Joe Keatinge and artist Ross Campbell channel Miracleman and Airboy for their new series, debuting with Glory #23. Miracleman and Airboy? Yes, I said it.

IDW has a new POPEYE book and Roger Langridge is going to write it. So there is hope for the world after all.

DC and Lego have teamed for an app that offers all-new, all-free comics. This could be significant, for reasons explained below.

You wanted 99 cent comics? You got 'em. Digital comics, that is. In what's a first for the Transformer series, IDW is making one of it's premiere licensed comics available first as a digital-only 12-part series selling for 99¢ for an 8 page chapter. The chapters will be released every two weeks starting today.

Viz Media is running a nice promotion: new users can download their free app for iPad, iPhone or iPod and, after registering for an account, download a free volume 1 manga of your choice.

Well, by now it's looking more and more like the new DC logo is for real.

Over on her blog, former SLG Publishing editor-in-chief Jennifer de Guzman reveals she has left SLG. She's joining Image Comics as marketing & PR coordinator.

The video game company behind the popular PROTOTYPE series -- NOT the comics company. Dark Horse will create a three-part story bridging the gap between the original Prototype and PROTOTYPE 2 which comes out this year. The series will be released digitally, starting February 15th. Creators include Paco Díaz, Chris Staggs, and Victor Drujiniu.