Avengers: The Initiative #1

In this preview you can see the new character Gauntlet, and it looks like he no longer has the icon on his chest that resembled the Love Brothers’ Chocolate Thunder character. So it’s all good.

Also this week:

Buffy TVS #2. Pencils by Jeanty.

Nightwing #131. Pencils by Igle.
Welcome to Tranquility #5
Spawn Collection V3

So I spent Friday night at the Stagger Lee signing and slide show at Barnes & Noble. Creators Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix weren’t actually able to do slides, but they had images from the book on their laptop. It was a small audience, but they were definitely fascinated by the graphic novel.

The creators both talked a great deal about the process behind the making of the book, especially Shep. Derek talked a lot about the mountain of research he underwent, plus he read excerpts from the book. Shep brought his portfolio, which included not only original Stagger Lee pages (!), but pages from his forthcoming solo project, a futuristic sci-fi adventure story. Heidi McDonald was there as a kind-of panel moderator, though honestly she didn’t do much more than ask a few questions.

Derek invited me to dinner afterwards, so I got to hang out with him, Shep, Heidi, and Charles Brownstein from the CBLDF, among others, and it was as much fun as you would expect from such a group. (Next time you’re at a gathering of any sort with Heidi and she’s had a few drinks, get her to sing the original lyrics to the Star Trek theme. Bet you didn’t know there were lyrics, did you?)

Heroes for Hire is getting a new writer.

Further proof that no conept is too wacky for the Japanese to make an anime out of.

Don’t forget, beginning tomorrow night and every weeknight through the 27th, we’ll profile all of this year’s Glyph Comics Award nominees.