Culture

The occasion of ASTONISHING X-MEN's same-sex wedding has also seen several parties and receptions at various comics shops across the nation, including Zeus Comics, which held a bachelor party last week. But Midtown Comics is going all the way by hosting two actual same sex weddings this Wednesday, with a reception taking place at the Eventi Hotel. Two couples—Scott Everhart and Jason Welker, and Khris Wilson and Chris Orme—will be tying the knot. Both events are private but people are being encouraged to take photos outside, as the shop will be opening late due to the nuptials.

Meanwhile, what is going on over at the Billy Ireland collection of comics and cartoon art? Oh just some doodles by Playboy/New Yorker cartoonistEldon Dedini like this one of painter Diego Rivera. Dedini donated his art archives to the collection before his death.

I'm sure you've seen heard of celebrities having perfumes before.  Paris Hilton has one.  As Does Kim Kardashian.  There's also the category of celebrity driven "fragrance for men."  Entrants in this category include Justin Beiber, Tim McGraw and Usher.  Add to this list... James Bond?!?  Yes, there's a "the making of" teaser video for the James Bond Fragrance for Men:

The Beat salutes the secret superheroes, fathers!

Debuting this weekend at CAKE, Gabby Schulz's new comic documents the return of character Gordon Smalls, as he muses over American consumerism 40,000 feet in the air.

As we previously noted, and as this sales chart shows, and The B&N chart from last night confirmed, Jeffrey Brown's DARTH VADER AND SON is doing very well, especially in advance of Father's Day this Sunday. The Tribune interviews Brown with a classic cartoonist profile description:

A ton of Amazing Spider-man clips, some great new pics from Season Three of The Walking Dead, along with a smattering of interesting development news in your weekly roundup of comics and nerdy film happenings.

It seems Valiant was being a little sneaky and pulling a misdirection when they released that Ninjak teaser image. Turns out, Ninjak is actually making his debut in X-O Manowar #5. Is this Valiant's first crossover? Maybe. But nothing's yet been indicated the story will be continued in Ninjak #1. For that matter, Ninjak #1 hasn't been announced yet. It probably isn't too far off, though. If this doesn't cross into a Ninjak series, it would just be what they call a backdoor pilot in the TV business and Ninjak would spin off into his own series.

With only a few weeks until this year's Comic-Con extravaganza, the big studios are rolling out their panel plans, and as we suspected, film studios are not going in pedal to the metal this year. Variety reports that Paramount, Fox and Relativity are definitely sitting things out, while Universal is iffy. Disney/Marvel sat out last year—they went to their own purpose built D23 show instead—but will be back. (Perhaps to announce the mystery 2014 movie?) WB is also expected to attend with Superman and (we pray) THE HOBBIT. Elsewhere, it's all a little sketchy:

Lettering king Todd Klein has a couple of great blog posts showing a series of photos by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez in 1979 on a visit to DC's offices. Klein's memory is prodigious and it's a great look at everything from obsolete technology to the prevalence of sweater vests in the late 70s to a different way of working:

We were all pretty excited when the first set photos of Henry Cavill as Superman leaked out. It seemed that after years of binding and CGI smoothing, Superman was finally getting super where it counted.

Wild party man Andrew W.K. is known for his high energy rockin' anthems, his white attire...and now that he is a Brony. It seems that he has signed on as a speaker for Canterlot Gardens, an Ohio convention for My Little Pony Fans, where he'll deliver an inspirational speech.