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By Todd Allen In a surprise twist, Marvel has announced that Ed Brubaker is no longer writing Winter Soldier.  January's issue #15 will see him...

By Steve Morris Just like every delicious Cow Pie you've ever had the pleasure to eat, The Dandy is now reaching an end. One of Britain’s...

Some hours ago I found out Sergio Toppi has passed away. Art as a whole, and not only comics or illustration, has lost one of its biggest masters and even more important, a kind, humble, and amazing human being with a heart of gold. Also this year, we’ve lost Jean Giraud (Moebius) and, very recently, Joe Kubert. Three giants I had the immense honor to meet, and that leave a hole that will be so, so difficult to fill.

We've lost another great one: news spread today that Italian art master Sergio Toppi had passed away at age 80. Toppi got his start in advertising (and his sketchy, geometric styleed the way for the familiar the mid-century advertising look) but contributed comics to such magazines as Linus, Corto Maltese, Un uomo un’avventura, and Il Giornalino in Italy and l’Histoire de France en bandes dessinées and La Découverte du Monde in France. Best known for single stories rather than series characters, in recent years he worked exclusively with the French publisher Editions Mosquito. Archaia is bringing out a US edition of his retelling of the Arabian Knights, Sharaz-De later this year. A selection is below.

Erin Polgreen's iPad-based magazine of comics journalism, Symbolia, gets previewed as part of Christopher Borelli's look at the rise of non fiction comics journalism. Polgreen was in town a while ago and showed us some samples of the project -- not only was the lineup of creators impressive, but Polgreen has the smarts and focus to make Symbolia a must-read.

Surprise! It's Shia LaBeouf and his girlfriend Karolyn Pho, who handles the business side of LaBeouf's Campaign Book comics publishing company. LaBeouf is making a Lars Von Trier film called Nymphomaniac which may require him to film actual sex acts, which is a step up from the torture and blinding and other miseries which actors in von trier films must often endure. Whatever happens, we're sure Shia will make a comic about it.

Here's a new one for the comics-related crime blotter: A Utah teen has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault after he used replica Wolverine claws to attack a friend. No one knows why Kristofer Ryan Huff, 19, set into his 20-year-old roommate with the claws....and also a knife. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that the victim was dating Huff's mother, who was also injured in the attack.

As we reported a few days ago, Ingram/Lightning Source has announced an incredibly cheap level of color print-on-demand, and Todd Allen has seen the samples:

It's nearly a year later, and retailer Brian Hibbs is first out of the gate with an analysis of the New 52, a year later and he says it was good. An attached chart shows all the books up significantly for the year, and more importantly, as Bob Wayne promised at Comic-Con last year, the New 52 actually enlarged the pie with some new readers:

The FINAL deadline for Harvey voting is TONIGHT. You can vote online, or mail or fax in in your paper ballot.

The Newbery Award is the gold standard for children's books; it's awarded to one book each year (along with a handufl of Honor books) and signifies the level of excellence that such past winners as A Wrinkle in Time, Sarah, Plain and Tall and The Graveyard Book imply.

[On Monday, US District judge Otis Wright cancelled a hearing on the case of the Joe Shuster estate's claim for his half of the copyright to Superman. This led many observers to think a decision was near. The Beat's legal expert, Jeff Trexler explains it's just not that simple.]