As longtime readers of this site already know, I love me some Speed Racer. That said, it certainly came as a nice surprise to hear that IDW is planning the return of Speed to comics beginning in January with Speed Racer: Chronicles of the Racer. They're even plotting a generational saga, with writer Arie Kaplan and artist Robby Musso planning to explore Racers both known and unknown in these ...

In The Naked Artist: Comic Book Legends, Bryan Talbot bravely goes where no one has dared go before: on the record, telling the embarrassing tales of legendarily bad behavior on the part of comic creators that have previously gone untold outside of convention bars. Talbot shares these stories in his own voice, in the conversational fashion that they are told (and told, and retold) among comics ...

This year's annual CBLDF holiday auction has now kicked off on eBay, and if you're looking for some holiday gift ideas for the comics fan on your list, there are some truly outstanding goodies included here. There are many rare items signed by luminaries including Jim Lee, Frank Cho, Robert Kirkman, Neil Gaman, Charles Vess, Harlan Ellison, and Laurel K. Hamilton, but what's really exciting to me ...

If you're like me --a huge fan of Stephen King's magnum opus The Dark Tower, but not a very big fan of comic adaptations unless the original author is writing the script-- you might have approached Marvel's Dark Tower series with some trepidation when it appeared earlier this year. If, like me, you ultimately decided to give the series a shot, I'd be willing to be that you, too, found it to be an ...

Kevin and Seacord touched on the WANTED trailer in the Explosion a couple of weeks ago, but after another viewing, I'm thinking this trailer merits a spotlight of its own: Since we already had a pretty good idea that costumes were out for the movie, I've gotta say this looks every bit as sweet as I could've hoped. "The sheep or the wolf?" This sucker sure looks "big and bad" to me. What do you ...

(Carol is on vacation this week, but the show must go on, so please bear with me as I attempt to fill her sneakers for this week's episode.) "When confronted by our worst nightmares, the choices are few...fight or flight. We hope to find the strength to stand against our fears, but sometimes, despite ourselves, we run. What if the nightmare gives chase? Where can we hide then?" Such was the theme ...

Last night's Ignatz awards show at SPX was a pleasure to attend, with Heidi MacDonald again handling the emcee gig with customary wit and charm. Living up to the promise to keep the awards show moving along briskly, so that everyone could move on to the after-party (featuring a chocolate fondue fountain!) which followed, the presentation clocked in at under an hour. As fine a job as Heidi and all ...

At the last stop on his year-long Bone World Tour, Jeff Smith sat down at SPX this afternoon with Heidi MacDonald for an engaging hour-long chat in which he spoke of Bone, Shazam, and his forthcoming Rasl. And yes, he also uttered the pull quote I shamelessly used as the title of this post, but you'll have to read on to get the context for that statement. Plainly stating that he is "not a ...

As you'll have likely guessed by now, it's difficult for me to be objective regarding SPX, so I'll just say that day two of the show has been typically great. Lots of women, and quite a large number of kids (largely due to Jeff Smith's appearance no doubt) made for a splendidly mixed crowd. It's always gratifying to see kids at comics shows, and it's a particular pleasure to see them at an indie ...

Douglas Wolk, of Reading Comics fame, moderated an informative panel exploring the relationship between animation and comics this evening at SPX. Joining Wolk on the panel were Kim Deitch, Jeff Smith, Tom Neely and Roger Langridge. All of the panelists except Langridge have had (or continue to have) animation experience, and all of them expressed a preference for making comics over animation given ...