Culture

Joanne Siegel, the widow of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and inspiration for the Lois Lane character, passed away today at age 93. Her death comes only a few days after Jerry Siegel's childhood home in Cleveland, OH was restored and the streets in front of it honorarily renamed Joe Shuster Lane and Lois Lane.

Also in keeping with this special day of love, after a troubling seven-year stretch in which they were separated, Barbie and Ken are together again. Although they had dated steadily since their days as surfers together in Malibu in the early '60s, they gradually drifted apart over the years. After Barbie left Ken for Blaine, another, younger surfer dude, Ken entered an "experimental" period that involved Fire Island, waxing, and watching Glee. But it's been announced -- just in time for Toy Fair -- that these two dolls are really soulmates in vinyl.

It looks like the 32-page monthly comicbook magazine is doomed. Digital comics seem to be following the evolutionary model of MP3s, video-on-demand, and e-books. What can comics shops do to remain successful?

This article from New Zealand goes into more detail on he thinking behind the current manga sales restrictions, and they are pretty much aimed at stopping young folks from doing anything stupid and fun, not stopping perverts. Take this from gynecologist Dr Tsuneo Akaeda, who thinks manga leads to STDs:

Talk about informed, could you have a better guide to the history of comics logos than the lettering master himself, Todd Klein? His research into the history of comics is as extensive as it is informed:

E-i-C Laura Hudson tweeted that the HuffPo/AOL alliance was yet to have any effect on AOL's comics blog, Comics Alliance, it seems that now AOL is sending out PR about sub-site achievements. Congrats to the Krew!

In as unstable job market as we have today, three men have decided to give their art their full time attention, their all. Writer and artist of Let's Be Friends Again!, Curt Franklin and Chris Haley respectively started their witty webcomic on the print comic world and what it means to really be friends in 2008. Eugene Ahn aka nerd rapper Adam WarRock quit his career as an attorney in 2010 in order to follow his heart and let his mouth fly. Today they announced the joining of their two ventures into LBFA!, Inc.

TwoMorrows has been publishing its series of artists spotlights, Modern Masters, for some time, and they're up to volume #25 and Jeff Smith by...

Even our congressmen are getting bitten by the graphic novel bug, as Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) is signed with Top Shelf to co-write...

Nominations have opened for the 2011 Eagle Awards. You have until March 7th to nominate writers, artists, comics, and the like. Then on March 14th the top 5 nominees in each category will be named, and the real voting begins. The awards will be handed out May 27th at the MCM London convention.

David Brothers is blogging Black History Month, spotlighting great cartoonists George Herriman and Jackie Ormes, thus far.