Links du Jour

Adventure

• Dan Taylor, creator of the super-fun Hero Happy Hour comic, has T-shirts for sale featuring the Hideout Bar and Grill logo from that series.


• I'm a little late with this one, but the superhero redesign blog Project: Rooftop just finished a Supergirl week that was pretty awesome, especially considering the beating that DC's current Supergirl design has taken from fans.

Mystery

• Christopher E. Long (The Easy Way) and Chee (Wake the Dead) have a new comic book thriller coming from Image/Shadowline called Ward of the State. The Easy Way was a surprisingly good thriller, so this one definitely bears checking out.

Horror

• Sam Hiti's Fist-a-Cuffs blog is a place where artists create monsters in order to have them duke it out in a Tournament of Death. Blog readers vote to see which monsters prevail and move forward in the brackets. Very, very cool.

Fantasy

• The movie adaptation of Alternative Comics' suicide fantasy Pizzeria Kamikaze is set for an August release. Read my review of the original graphic novel here.

Science Fiction

• Top Shelf's excellent scifi comic The Surrogates is on its way to the big screen.


• Joe Hilliard reviews the first issue of Steampunk magazine.

Comics

• If you're the kind of comics reader who's upset over Marvel and DC's huge, multi-title-spanning epics that are screwing over your favorite characters, Jeff Parker tells you what to do with your angst: Really, I don’t want to be preachy here, but if you’re one of those readers outraged at the big media stunts and going on a tirade about characters being desecrated, etc.- the ONLY thing that will make Marvel or DC listen to you is to vote with your purchases. Here’s where Leonard starts on our Avengers book, with the Giant-Girl origin issue, heroes as you claim you want them. The Adventures books sell way more in chain stores than they do in the Direct Market, so if there’s a surge in sales from comics shops, it will be noticeable and read as a buying trend. There, tough guy, I’m drawing the chalk line on the sidewalk, step over it. Or do you not have enough money because you spent it on the heavily promoted book you want to complain about?


• Why I Love Kyle Baker No. 84: Autism Awareness Day.


• Other Heroes, an exhibition of comics and comics-inspired artwork focusing on African American creators, characters & archetypes, will be on display April 5-25, 2007 in the Jackson State University Art Gallery in Jackson, MS. It features the work of Denys Cowan and Kyle Baker, among many others. Sounds well worth checking out for anyone in the area.


• Tim Bradstreet -- cover artist for Criminal Macabre, The Punisher, and sometimes Hellblazer -- isn't the first name you might associate when you hear someone talking about rapper 50 Cent. That could change though.