Aya HC
PDF preview at Drawn & Quarterly website
audio interview with Marguerite Abouet & Clement Oubrerie @ The World

The award-winning GN from last year’s Angouleme festival comes to America in an English translation this week.

Firestorm the Nuclear Man #33
Dwayne McDuffie’s website
Amazon link to buy Seven Soldiers of Victory V3, which features Grant Morrison’s reimagined versions of Mr. Miracle II and the New Gods
Amazon link to buy Jack Kirby’s Fourth World featuring Mister Miracle, which includes the first appearance of Mr. Miracle II

Dwayne McDuffie’s brief run on Firestorm begins with guest appearances by Mr. Miracle II and the New Gods.

Also this week:
Firestorm TNM Reborn TP. The first TP for Firestorm II, collecting the One Year Later arc. Pencils by Jamal Igle.
Justice #10 (of 12). Pencils by Doug Braithwaite.
Black Panther #25 (Preview). Written by Reggie Hudlin. Civil War tie-in.
Heroes for Hire #7
Adrenaline #3 (of 8)

So I’m back from the New York Comic-Con, and on behalf of myself and Ron King, I wanna send out a huge thank-you to everyone who came by our table to pick up UVC and hang out with us. We had a good table, a corner spot, directly across from Oni Press (I got to meet Courtney Crumrin creator Ted Naifeh and get his autograph). We had a DJ on Saturday, spinning all kinds of great music (even though the security guy made him turn it down at one point), and his adorable young daughter was one of our biggest helpers, gleefully handing out bags of UVC and assorted swag left and right. We had plenty of volunteers helping out, in fact, including Ron’s lovely wife Deborah, columnist Brandon Easton, and my friend Reid Cooper, whose photos from the show you’ll find in our next issue. A big thank-you goes out to all of them as well.

Opening up a second floor for the artists was the best thing the NYCC could’ve done. The main floor was much easier to navigate, although the “Artists Aerie” (as Heidi MacDonald calls it) was consistently packed when I went up there, especially on Sunday, oddly enough. The show was great. Simple as that.

Discussions and pictures from the show can be found at the following:
Prep Time Posse
Brandon Easton
UVC/NYCC discussion @ BSH
UVC/NYCC discussion @ McDuffie forum
Reggie Hudlin

News from the NYCC, courtesy Newsarama and CBR:
- From the Marvel Initiative panel: Black Panther and Fantastic Four will compliment each other, though they won’t be strict crossovers or tie-ins. Also, Paco Medina will be the artist on Kevin Grevioux’s New Warriors relaunch.

Speaking of Grevioux, here’s an interview with him in which he goes into more detail about NW.

- From the Vertigo panel: Percy Carey, aka rapper MF Grimm, talked about his forthcoming autobiographical GN Sentences, along with executive editor Karen Berger: “Asked to explain how Carey got hooked up with Vertigo, Berger said that editor Casey Seijas was aware of Carey’s music and knew of his love of comics, and approached him about telling his story in comics form. Carey said that he was ‘convinced by Casey Seijas to believe in myself and get into writing,’ despite fear that ‘writing about myself would be boring.’ However, now being part of DC\Vertigo, ‘life is beautiful,’ Carey said with a laugh. He noted that Berger and Seijas have been very patient and helpful, and it was a ‘beautiful experience and I’m looking forward to doing more.’” (N’rama) There will also be a new CD to tie-in with the GN.

Berger talked about the previously-announced GN Cairo: “Structurally similar to films like Babel, Crash or a Robert Altman film, Berger said that it tells of an American abroad meeting an eclectic cast of characters whose stories will all dovetail together in a unique and impressive manner.” (N’rama)

Also, the Denys Cowan-illustrated mini Fight for Tomorrow will get collected as a TP this year.

- From the DC Presents: Crossing Over panel: Carey described his experience working with Vertigo: “…he compared the process to music, analogizing that you have engineers and mixers and producers who each fill a role, but work together to make ‘everything as good as it can be.’” (N’rama) He cited the long-standing connection between comics and hip-hop and how the growth of MySpace has helped fuel the growth of comics’ recognizability. He’d like to do fiction writing, maybe even some DCU-related work.

Carey also talked about his experience speaking with children and people with disabilities and how comics have helped improve literacy. He’s very interested in promoting quality work as well: “Asked about reaching new readers, Carey said, ‘I’m a distributor by heart, so I’ll get trucks and drive around and find you.’ ‘Word of mouth is the best ever’ way to get people excited, nothing that nothing means more than the word of a trusted friend. He believes that word of mouth is more important that where the books are distributed.” (N’rama)

- From Joe Quesada’s panel: Quesada and editor CB Cebulski would like a Cloak and Dagger title, but Quesada wants to wait until the time and the story is right. Also, any more Nextwave material is entirely up to Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen.

- From the Wildstorm/CMX panel: issue 6 of Stormwatch PHD will focus on John Doran, kicking off a two-part story.

- From the Spirit movie panel: director Frank Miller says Ebony won’t be in it: “This a decision from Miller himself, and one based less on the controversy of the character than the fact that he simply doesn’t fit well into the kind of story Miller will be telling with this movie.” (CBR)

Here’s a comprehensive report on the Black Panel (which was relatively controversy-free this time).

In other news: Children of Men got shut out of the Oscar race, losing all three of the categories it was nominated in, but that doesn’t change the fact that it received a great deal of recognition worldwide. Here’s the proof. Congrats to Jennifer Hudson and Forest Whitaker on their wins; they are both well deserved. The complete list of Oscar winners here.

Arcana Studios is spearheading a mega-crossover with a bunch of independent comics called War of the Independents. Among the many titles involved is Public Enemy. Co-writer and artist Adam Wallenta had this to say on the CBR boards: “American Mule and Public Enemy support all of our fellow indie creators and love the idea of working together to create a great story. I agree we need more of this. Too many people get caught up in legalities and money and it all gets ruined. I’m really looking forward to this and making it successful.”