Publishers

With less than a month to the premiere of JOHN CARTER, Disney is releasing all kinds of new goodies, to try to explain why you should see this.

. Here's the second part of February's preview.  There's some unusual titles here (including a publisher of religious graphic novels), some which don't seem to...

We've never been able to hide our adoration of Jason's time travel tale I KILLED ADOLF HITLER, and we're far from alone in this regard. Fantagraphics has just announced that Studio Eight in association with Up Country Productions has optioned the film rights to the book. Jamie and Alex Brown of Studio Eight have previously produced LAND OF THE BLIND and CAPTURED. They've tapped screenwriter D.C. Walker of Up Country Productions for the script.

Well, speak of the devil. As we posted only a few hours ago, Marvel is in a very vulnerable PR position on the Gary Friedrich matter...so much so that they have sent both CCO Joe Quesada and publisher Dan Buckley to clarify and soothe at Comic Book Resources. As they point out, the matter is still under litigation and a settlement is being negotiated. Buckley and Quesada do a good job of trying to handle the negatives—they're pros—especially with this:

You can be sympathetic to Gary Friedrich's current situation—older, broke and in bad health—while still being alarmed over all the issues his court case has raised. My own email and IMs are full of variant views on it. So let's trace the evolution of this a bit.

Army of Darkness (as in Evil Dead) returns to the world of comics today with a new first issue. We caught up with Army of Darkness writer Elliott Serrano (who likes to pretend he's a mild mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper as the "Geek To Me" columnist at the Chicago Tribune's Redeye) to talk about Ash, Bruce Campbell and the new series.

Via Fast Company, of all places... So this is going to be the Minutemen Frontier? No surprise there. And, of course, it does look great.

Dropped into this little item about BEYOND THE FRINGE, a digital tie-in to the popular TV show, is the news that Jhonen Vasquez, the incredibly popular creator of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, will be doing some digital comics for DC, along with Becky Cloonan. SWEET.

Ut oh, guys... it's a leap year! So if you're the type to skedaddle from matrimonial minded maidens, be sure to grab some reading material before you head off to the Valley of the Shmoon!

Comic books crossing over? The crossover quote of the week goes to Dan Buckley in his Comic Book Resources interview:

What is James Robinson's and Nicola Scott's Earth Two comic really about? The official line is, it was originally to be titled Justice Society. We know that Worlds' Finest is about the Earth Two Power Girl and Huntress (who is confirmed as the daughter of Batman and Catwoman, per the original concept of the character) getting trapped in whatever DC is calling its main dimension. But I don't think anybody's ever said Earth Two was necessarily going to be where the superheroes started out in World War II. Like most people, I'd just been assuming that was what they were talking about, and then DC releases an alternate cover for the first issue:

How many statistics can one news day handle? DC has just released results from their Retailer Survey which they launched in conjunction with the New 52. As we noted at the time, the survey was aimed at gauging interest in each and every New 52 title, as well as general readership demographics. As such, it represents the most comprehensive reader survey a comics company has made in some time. While it's very New 52-centric, it does reveal a lot. While DC has released their own bullet points, which we've shown below, ICv2 has more info and an interview with John Rood. You'll want to head over there and digest the whole thing. But here's the broad picture: