The Beat

Ever wonder what categories are the most popular in graphic novels? Think it’s all manga and superheroes? Well, as you can see on the...

Ever wonder what categories are the most popular in graphic novels? Think it's all manga and superheroes? Well, as you can see on the chart to...

As you can imagine, we're not the only website counting down Halloween month. Chris Schweizer, comics educator and the man behind the delightful Crogan's Adventures series from Oni, is posting a mostly daily monster picture  and here's today's the Florida Swamp Ape. You can see the rest in the link like this Ghost Rider in the Sky:

 

Well, $412 seems absurdly low to us, anyway. Renowned horror/fantasy artist Templesmith has been experimenting with hand-painted covers for several books, and this is an original one of a kind oil painting done on a copy of The Walking Dead Volume 1. The painting was varnished, and I don't know if you can read the book inside, but it seems to me that this is a pretty darned sweet collectible...especially for Halloween. Also...Christmas is coming. More Templesmith stuff at the 78Squid retail website.

Today we stroll down memory lane to 2005. People were going to theaters to see Anakin lose his limbs in Revenge of the Sith, the last Star Trek movie wrapped up, and Harry Pottermania was well underway, And four young comedians were making us laugh on SNL as repertory players, Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis and Kristen Wiig. At Marvel, House of M was all the rage, as Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel explored a world drawn the imagination of the very powerful mutant known as The Scarlet Witch...events which would spill over the Marvel U for years to come. In this image by Jorge Molina, Magneto, Wolverine, Gambit, The Hulk Psylocke, Ms. Marvel and that darned Spider-Man are all battling...something. And you'll notice that Magneto is battling a raging...something else entirely.

While nerdlebrity comics lines are common now—from Shia LaBeouf to DMC—a pioneer in this regard and still one of the best in terms of quality is Burlyman Comics, which is owned by the Wachowskis, the directing siblings behind The Matrix, the much beloved Speed Racer and the upcoming Jupiter Ascending. The company has been around for about a decade and launched about a decade ago with Doc Frankenstein by the Wachowskis and Matrix storyboard artist Steve Scroce, and Shaolin Cowboy by the all around genius Geof Darrow. Burlyman put out 7 issues of Shaolin Cowboy before fading away—the seriesfollow the  adventures of a nameless Shaolin and his mule in an apocalyptic American West—a concept that seems maybe too simple until you know that Darrow is drawing it with all his hallucinogenic detail. The tagline "A buddy picture with a body count" explains it all.