• LOT #42: ART OF SIN CITY HC BY FRANK MILLER. $23
• LOT #62: SGT. ROCK BETWEEN HELL AND A HARD PLACE HC. $13
• LOT #70: ULTIMATE SIX #1-7 BY BENDIS AND HAIRSINE. $12
• LOT #74: THE ESCAPIST #1-2. $10

"Protests from seven safety groups prompted General Motors Corp. to pull a television ad that shows a young boy driving a Corvette sports car so recklessly that it goes airborne, officials of the automaker said on Wednesday... Directed by singer Madonna's husband Guy Ritchie, the spot shows a boy's daydream of racing the Corvette through downtown streets and through a construction pipe. The safety groups said in a letter to GM released on Wednesday that the spot could encourage children to take their parents' cars for a drive."

"X-FORCE #26 COVER ROLE-CALL! REIGNFIRE! ROLLERGIRL! FOURARM! KNIFEY McSTICKERSON! None of whom show up until page 20! And that guy's real name, the one I called "Fourarm"? His name is... Forearm. God, fuck you, Rob Liefeld. I know you left this book 3 issues in, just like Jim Lee left X-Men and Todd MacFarlane left Spider-Man, the titles Marvel was nice (i.e. stupid) enough to create just for you guys, but fuck you for doing this to the world."

"The woman on the cover who looks like Judy Garland by way of ER starring Silver Sable is... jeezus, I don't even want to type this out. She's... gah... "Surgeon General." And what she does, see, she seduces guys in clubs using sub-Elimidate level dialogue, lures them back to bare apartments, and cuts out their organs to sell on the black market. And for this she gets called "Surgeon General"? I could see "Cutress," maybe, or perhaps "Transplantra" might have made more sense."

"ATHENS (Reuters) - The U.S. Olympic Committee has asked the campaign to re-elect President Bush to pull an ad that refers to the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee said on Thursday. The ad has angered Olympic officials because they feel it hijacks the Olympic brand -- a registered trademark -- even though it does not display the Games logo."

"Thurlow, the commander of another swift boat who won a Bronze Star for helping the crew of PCF-3, insists there was no enemy gunfire during the incident. The citation and recommendation for Thurlow's Bronze Star, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, also mention enemy fire, however.

Thurlow's medal recommendation, for example, says he helped the PCF-3 crew "under constant enemy small arms fire." That recommendation is signed by George Elliott, another member of the anti-Kerry group."

"Human nature is the series's broader theme-our drives for sex, for symbolic immortality, for family, for acquisition of wealth, for collecting. Combine those with our inability to deal with threats that aren't sudden or dramatic, and you have the Human Dilemma in a nutshell...I confess I enjoyed writing and drawing the sex scenes, too. Always in service of story and character! But nice."

"Gotham's Son Returns! Two decades after the golden age of superheroes has passed, hope has abandoned Gotham City. Corruption has infected Gotham's highest levels of power and led to the death of its greatest champion. Now, former boy wonder, Dick Grayson, will emerge from the shadows of retirement to avenge the murder of his legendary mentor."

"Gib Bickel, owner of the Laughing Ogre on N. High Street, has read the series
many times. He found the ending bittersweet. 'I was happy to see how it turned
out, but it felt like my friends were going away,' he said. 'The characters
really matter to me, and the fact that their adventures are over is really kind
of sad.'"

Blast from the past: from Caliber Comics to Desperado

I meant to post this a while back but forgot. Joe Pruett, former writer and editor with Caliber Comics, is starting up his own indy comics company: Desperado Publishing. And check out the list of talent that have projects lined up: Brian Bolland, P. Craig Russell, Bob Burden, Andrew Robinson, Paul Jenkins, Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Goran Sudzuka, Tony Harris, John McCrea, Phil Hester, and Brian Stelfreeze. Aside from publishing comics and graphic novels, Joe's also planning on printing art books, with Brian Bolland and P. Craig Russell being the focus of the first two volumes. In addition, this week's Lying in the Gutters column is reporting that "Desperado Publishing, Joe Pruett's new company, is starting a new volume of "Negative Burn," the highly influential anthology series from his previous company, Caliber."

A rundown of some of the first few projects to hit the stands:

* Phil Hester and John McCrea on The Athiest.
* Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray on Widowmakers. "Superhero stuff with an edge."
* Tony Harris’ Roundeye.
* Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot Comics.
* Pruett and Andrew Robinson's Dusty Star.

"The idea behind this site is simple, to compile as large a collection of great opening hooks from as many titles, authors, and genres as possible. Of course, what makes a great opening sentence or paragraph is subjective, but we know it when we read it. This database will allow readers to share their favorites with each other and provide writers a chance to see what a readers look for in an opening sentence."

"My mother was the village whore, and I loved her very much." -- from Pigs Don't Fly by Mary Brown

"Cho’s been working on a new and updated version of Shanna the She-Devil for Marvel’s mature line, MAX. And he’s provided fill-in art for Terry Dodson in the recently-released fifth issue of the Mark Millar-written Marvel Knights Spider-Man and is currently working on the eight issue of the series."

"As you may know, Shanna was originally a cheap rip-off of Sheena. So I had to move Shanna away from the Sheena character and make her unique. The first thing that I had to do was to update her and power her up for the modern audience. This opened doors to more interesting story potential. In the story, Shanna is a genetic experiment. She was Nazi Germany’s answer to Captain America. I don’t want to give too much away but if you want to know her level of power, she fights off several T-rex and hundreds of raptors throughout the series."