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Musician Larry "Wild Man" Fischer died on June 16th at age 66. Challenged by severe mental illness his whole life, he was one of the earliest known examples of Outsider Music with his tuneless, shouted ditties that somehow still tapped into the joy of music and performance.

Judging from the images released so far, it would appear that the relaunched versions of Superman and Superboy will be different from previous versions. Superman will no longer be wearing red shorts over his blue tights, and his belt, boots and S-symbol have also undergone notable alterations. Somewhat more dramatically, Superboy is sporting a black shirt and pants, a black-and-white S-shield mini-cape attached to his back, and a stylized red S-shield tattoo. It also appears that both characters will have significant changes in their continuity, most notably Superman’s age and his relationship with Lois Lane. This changes in the Superman costume are in themselves not likely to provide a solid foundation for erasing the Siegel heirs' ownership interest. However, the costume changes and other shifts in continuity are consistent with DC's arguments for limiting what the Siegels now own.  

Bob Haney and Del Connell are the writers selected to received this year's Finger Award. The Finger Award is presented each year to writers, one living, one dead, who for whatever reason, have not received the recognition they should have for their creative efforts. It's named for Bill Finger, who created much of the Batman mythos we see today while Bob Kane got the credit.

When the Captain America movie was in the planning stages, there was some anxiety over whether the "America" in the title would be off-putting to foreign lands, where so much movie money is made these days. Well, there's one place that Cap fits right in and it's Wal*Mart, which has a whole Captain America store, including a link to CAPTAIN AMERICA: FIRST VENGEANCE #1 a digital comic byFred Ven Lente, Luke Ross, and Richard Isanove that you can read right now for free via Marvel's DCU interface. The comic has been up for a while, but it's interesting to see Wal*Mart getting into the game.

The owner of a book imprint called ibooks is suing Apple over the trademark.

Archie's dynamic publisher Jon Goldwater gets the Comics Reporter interview treatment and his comments on the many changes he's made since the venerable comics publisher had a big management change might be viewed as emblematic of much going on these days:

Perhaps it's only fitting that double identity has been a central issue in the never-ending battle over the Superman copyright. As longtime readers of my posts may recall, the relation between the original and contemporary versions of Superman has been central to the Siegel lawsuits from the beginning. To set the stage for the posts that follow, let's take a quick review of how the multiple versions of Superman have played a role in the Siegel lawsuits.

The CCI folks have announced the 2011 nominees for Most Promising Newcomer, an art award that recognizes up and coming talent. Past winners include Dave Stevens, Jeff Smith, and David Petersen, so they have a pretty good track record. The nominees were selected by a committee and the winner (selected by past winners and Russ Manning assistants) will be announced July 22 during the Eisner award ceremony.

Steve Niles, who has been very much in the forefront of the renewed emphasis on creator controlled comics, looks at what recent events mean:

Good news! Turns out DC isn't trying to destroy the direct sales market with their "Flashboot" -- or whatever it's called -- relaunch after all! And it is a relaunch, not a reboot, according to a letter sent by SVP of Sales Bob Wayne to retailers, announcing a pricing strategy that will see digital comics at the SAME price as print comics for their first four weeks of release. Wayne calls this "price parity" -- " No DC digital comic will be cheaper than its physical counterpart at launch." The Johns/Lee JLA #1 will be available with a digital download for $4.99, in print and digital only for $3.99 each.

Via PR and an interview with CBR, the much-argued over Valiant comics characters are coming back, this time under a group led by former Marvel CEO Peter Cuneo, his brother, Gavin, CEO Jason Kothari and director Dinesh Shamdasani.

On his Facebook page, JMS praises DC's plan to relaunch its superhero line and gives a hint of the backstory.