“Icon is that rarest of creatures — a well-told adventure story that achieves genuine political depth. Highly recommended.”

-Alan Moore (writer of WATCHMEN)

ICON: A HERO’S WELCOME TP NEW PRINTING
Written by Dwayne McDuffie
Art by M.D. Bright and Mike Gustovich
Cover by Denys Cowan

The flagship character from Milestone Comics is back in this new printing of the classic title collecting Icon #1-8. This is the title that introduced Augustus Freeman, a successful lawyer who covertly uses his alien super-powers to help those in need. But when a teenaged girl from the streets convinces him to use his abilities to inspire his people and becomes his sidekick, Rocket, the affluent Augustus embraces his true destiny and becomes Icon, the hero of Dakota.

Advance-solicited; on sale September 30 • 192 pg, FC, $19.99 US

Comic book and animation writer Jake Black (who has written an episode of Ben 10: Alien Force for the new season) has some pretty serious medical expenses, and the good folks at Mirage Studios (home of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) have come up with a way that we can all pitch in and help him out. I’ll let them explain:

In effort to help “Tales of the TMNT” writer Jake Black pay for his cancer treatments, Fernando and Ryan have created this exclusive, one-time-use image of the rare villain Scratch attacking Leonardo. The artwork will be featured on a limited edition T-Shirt that we’re now taking pre-orders for. Each shirt will come with a numbered certificate of authenticity. The edition is limited to pre-order sales – no extras will be produced. All net proceeds from the sale of this shirt will go directly to Jake to cover his medical expenses. All shirts will be printed with white ink, as pictured above.

So all of the Ben 10 fans who post here need to step up. Let’s click over to http://www.ninjaturtles.com/html/scratch-shirt.html, order a few of these shirts, and help Jake pay for his medical expenses. Then he can get back to the business of writing more great stories for us to enjoy.

The “TV Ate My Brain” column at io9.com has this to say About Static Shock, #91 on their list:

Static Shock
The Big Bang, an industrial accident in the city of Dakota, turns many of the city’s residents into powerful metahumans. Though many “Bang Babies” use their newfound powers for evil, quick-witted teenager Virgil Hawkins uses his electromagnetic powers to fight crime, aided by the gadgets built by his genius best friend, Richie. But it’s trickier hiding his identity as Static Shock from his widowed father Robert and strong-willed sister Sharon. Even amidst a glut of superhero cartoons, this is one of the most memorable.

Pretty Cool, huh?

“My father worked for the same firm for twelve years. They fired him. They replaced him with a gadget this big. It does everything that my father does, only it does it much better.

The depressing thing is my mother ran out and bought one.”

-Woody Allen

Start saving your money, on November 10, Warner Home Video is releasing “Justice League: The Complete Series” on DVD. The 15 disk set includes all 91 episodes of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, an episode guide, and a bonus disk with “Unlimited Reserve: Exploring the Depths of the DC Universe,” an all-new documentary on the creation of the series.

TVShowsOnDVD.com has more info…

I didn’t know it until just now, but Final Draft 8 has “Graphic Novel” Templates built in. I still prefer my own format to the four that they offer, but what they’ve got is pretty useful for an aspiring comic writer -or for longtime pros like me who like writing in Final Draft.

Columnist Vince Moore doesn’t much care for Comic Con International’s ”The Black Panel,” an annual gathering of Black comic book, animation, and hip-hop personalities. In his new column, he  tells us precisely why:

“This column, however, is not a declaration of war.

This is a declaration of independence.

We African Americans are neither a monolith nor a hive mind. Our culture and cultural artifacts are as varied as the colors of our skin, going from high yellow to cinnamon brown to blue black.

Hip hop is not nor should it be the sole fount, the be-all, end-all of creativity in the black community. Some of us are jazz lovers, some of us are rockers, and some of us are just plain geeks, reading our science fiction and fantasy books and our comics.

What we need are more voices and more varied voices from which to learn and to which we can listen.

What we need, particularly on stages like Comic-Con International, is to show that the African American creative comes from lots of different places and that the African American community wants and, more importantly, needs lots of different choices and voices.

What we need is no more Niggapaloozas like The Black Panel each and every year.

What we need is not The Black Panel but many panels featuring black folks talking about comics, science fiction, horror, fantasy, mystery, westerns, et cetera, et cetera. After all, isn’t competition the real American way?”

There’s a lot more.

Have any of you attended the panel, or discussed it with fellow fans? What’s your take on all this?