Last month I asked my friends to write about books they loved (you can read all the essays here). This month, I invited them to write about their favorite graphic novels, and they selected some excellent titles. I hope you enjoy them! — Read the rest

[Video Link] I'm looking forward to seeing this documentary.

Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope — a film by Morgan Spurlock explores this amazing cultural phenomenon by following the lives of five attendees as they descend upon the ultimate geek mecca at San Diego Comic-Con 2010:

— Eric, an aspiring illustrator, is hoping to impress publishers and land a job;

— Holly, costume and creature designer, hopes her creations will win the big prize;

— Chuck, a long-time comic book dealer, is looking for a big sale to pay off his debts;

— Skip, longtime amateur illustrator wants to be discovered at this year's event;

— James, a young fan, hopes his girlfriend will accept a dramatic proposal.

On March 30, I wrote about Heritage Auctions' announcement that they would be auctioning the original art for page 10 from issue #3 of Frank Miller and Klaus Janson's The Dark Knight Returns (1986). They figured it would sell for at least $100,000. — Read the rest

Mark and I have rounded up some of our favorite items from our 2009 Boing Boing reviews for the second-annual Boing Boing gift guide. We'll do one a day for the next six days, covering media (music/games/DVDs), gadgets and stuff, kids' books, novels, nonfiction, and comics/graphic novels/art books. — Read the rest

Mark Dery is guest blogger du jour until August 17. He is the author of Culture Jamming, Flame Wars, Escape Velocity, and The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium. He's at work on The Pathological Sublime, a philosophical investigation into the paradox of horrible beauty and the politics of "just looking." — Read the rest

In 1966, manga prodigy Jiro Kuwata was commissioned to do a regular Japanese manga version of Bob Kane's Batman comics, to tie in with the Japanese launch of the Batman TV show. Kuwata quickly decided that Kane's scripts wouldn't play to a Japanese audience, so he remade the Dark Knight for the expectations of a mid-sixties, manga-familiarized audience. — Read the rest

I've posted here before that I love seeing where creative people work: mechanics' garages, artist's studios, scientists' labs, writers' offices. The folks at Dark Horse Comics apparently do too! In July, they're publishing a beautiful hardcover book called "The Artist Within: Portraits of Cartoonist, Comic Book Artists, Animators, and Others." — Read the rest

BP says,

One of the victims in the VT shooting was Christopher James Bishop (Jamie Bishop), a German Instructor. He was teaching German language but was also a skilled Academic Tech Liaison who knew his way around applications.

He kept a site of his work and projects here (Link) along with a portfolio.

Once in a long while, a new comic book series comes along that just kicks the hell out of you, melding words and pictures in a way that is impossible in any other medium, telling a story that you can't put down, one that changes the way you see the world. — Read the rest

This weekend, I read Paul Pope and Jose Villarubia's astounding "Batman Year 100" collection (another great find from the recommended table at LA's Secret Headquarters comic shop).

Batman Year 100 is set in 2039, 100 years after the 1939 debut of The Bat-Man. — Read the rest

The Las Vegas police have redesigned their recruiting ads so that they look like a scene from Frank Miller's Sin City.

Link

(via Warren Ellis)

The next edition of the Batman comic will feature the superhero hunting down Osama bin Laden after Gotham is attacked by terrorists. Link (Thanks, A.V.)

Reader comment: Newsarama's Matt Brady says,

The Batman/al Qaeda thing is kinda inaccurate – Miller's working on a graphic novel that he's been "120 pages" into for at least six months now.

Every couple of years, some newspaper or magazine runs an article about how comic books aren't just for kids anymore. The latest one is from this Sunday's NYT Magazine. It's over seven thousand words long! I haven't read the whole thing yet, but it looks like a great intro to the "graphic novel" genre. — Read the rest