…(located here):

• We’ve gone from not having any DC Direct Batman figures to having too many.
  

• As The World’s Biggest Swamp Thing Fan (TM), I am glad to see a new Swamp Thing series on the schedule.
  

• So that’s how they’re going to handle the trade-paperbacking of Warren Ellis’ mini-series…put ’em two in a volume. Good idea. (Mek and Reload, if you’re wondering.)
  

• The continuing shoehorning of Smallville-esque continuity into the Superman comics continues, via Birthright, it appears.
  

• Of course, now that I’ve finally finished my run of the original Doom Patrol, DC is well on its way to reprinting them all in the Archives format. Of course, I think I paid about as much for all the back issues as you’d have to pay for the two Archives that reprint issues 80 to 97. Maybe I exaggerate slightly…but not much.
  

• John Byrne drawing Hawkman? What the…?
  

• Ah, Batman in the 40s trade paperback, how I love you.
  

• I wonder how many copies of the Smallville comic book series are ending up in the hands of non-comic-fan Smallville fans?
  

• As noted by my friend Dorian, one of the great villains returns in JSA. (Linkage totally stolen from him.) This makes me really, really happy for very stupid reasons, mostly involving my younger self’s obsession with Roy Thomas’ Golden Age obsession.
  

Superfolks should be out this week in your finer comic shops, in a new edition from About Comics. It’s an interesting read…varies widely in tone from cartoonish parody to social satire, but it’s compelling stuff for those of us who have been reading comics for a while, and can see where its influence has played out in the industry.

I came across this months-old discussion of aborted DC Comics projects that I found interesting…and one of the items discussed, the New Teen Titans graphic novel Games by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, is, after all these years, back in production. If only the same would happen to, say, Joe Kubert’s Redeemer, but how likely is that, at this point.

Further discussion of Alan Moore’s proposed DC crossover series (and alleged Kingdom Come inspiration) Twilight can be found here. And here’s a brief mention of Rick Veitch’s proposed King Hell DC crossover series – in Spanish.

Then there are those series that got cut off midstream…like Mike Baron and Barry Crain’s Sonic Distruptors (only other site with anything of significance is here – where he also mentions that he can’t find any sites on the series) – I seem to have a very vague memory of a blurb in an Amazing Heroes news column suggesting that the series would be concluded in a graphic novel by Baron and Mike Mignola. Which, of course, didn’t happen.

Andy Helfer and Kyle Baker’s Shadow series is another famous example of runs cut short…probably because the owners of the Shadow had heart attacks when they saw what was done to him – take a look at the last cover for the best example. I thought it was a hoot, myself. And, once again, my aforementioned vague memory seems to tell me that a wrap-up graphic novel by Helfer and Baker was announced as well…my guess is that it never got past the “no way are you going to be allowed to do that!” stage. Oh, well.

(And this has nothing to do with comics, really…but I found this page during my Google searches, and goodness, how old is that Quicktime logo?)

What’s the stupidest way they could bring back Hal?

First (and best) response: “Carol Ferris gets pregnant, baby Hal crawls out (complete with costume and/or facemask).”

(“Have him become the new Spectre” is a very close second.)

Kudos to my friend Corey for bringing this important topic to my attention.

Andy just pointed out on his excellent site that Sony Pictures is promoting Spider-Man 2 by offering Blogger and Livejournal templates and icons.

Well, give them credit for trying something different, anyway.

(Where’s my Santa Sangre template?)