This weekend, at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con (SDCC), Neil Gaiman made some HUGE announcements about coming back to his “Sandman” character for DC Comics’ Vertigo line. He will write the books and the interior art will be done by J. H. Williams III. The cover art (example up above ) is by Dave McKean and he will do a few other covers as well. This is great news, especially considering that the original comic books came out 25 years ago (circa 1988) and now we get to revisit that world and those amazing characters. The six-issue series starts this October and will be released bi-monthly. Yeah, we’re drooling already and can’t wait!! For more info just check out the video down below:

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) will be in San Diego for the 2013 Comic-Con International (SDCC). You can find them at Booth #1920 and you’re going to NOT want to miss them because they will have a bunch of exciting things going on!

First, the CBLDF will have a few Exclusive items you can only get at this event. One such item is a brand-new T-Shirt with the face of EC Comics/Mad Magazine Creator, William Gaines. The shirt also has the motto, “Bill Gaines Was Right”, which relates to the censorship of comic books and supports free speech. Right On!

They will also have some exclusive variant-cover comic books, really great stuff like:

Adventure Time #18, with art by the amazingly talented Chrystin Garland!
Liberty Variant of Quantum and Woody #1, with a cover by Tony Millionaire!
Comics Code Variant of Lazarus #1, by the Creative Team of Rucka, Lark, and Arcas!
Also, don’t miss their authoritative guide book on Manga Art titled, Manga: Introduction, Challenges, and Best Practices!

Aside from these variants and exclusives, the CBLDF will also have in-booth book signings featuring designer Chip Kidd and translator Anne Ishii, among other exciting appearances! “Chip Kidd” related books on hand will include: Batman: Death by Design (DC Comics), Neil Gaiman's Make Good Art, and The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame. Of course they will have many other Creators, Artists, Writers, etc, as well. For a full signing schedule, CLICK HERE!

Chip Kidd, after being involved with a few projects with DC Comics’ characters, bought the original artwork from All-Star Superman #10, Batman & Robin #2 and a story from the 1960′s Japanese Batman Bat-Manga comics (with the art of Jiro Kuwata) and then had them specially custom-bound with glass covers. You can see them in the Comic Archive video down below and the end result is pretty interesting. Wow, what a treasure!

Here’s some exciting news for Batman Fans!! DC Comics has plans to bring back the extremely awesome BATMAN: BLACK AND WHITE comic books series. You can look for issue #1 around September 4th, 2013. The fun thing that we get to report today is that Chip Kidd will be writing one of the stories for this large 48-page book. They also have plans to publish 6 books in this series. OH MY GOD! Please check out the Official Press Release:

BATMAN BLACK AND WHITE #1
Written by CHIP KIDD, NEAL ADAMS, JOE QUINONES, MARIS WICKS, JOHN ARCUDI and HOWARD MACKIE
Art by MICHAEL CHO, NEAL ADAMS, JOE QUINONES, SEAN MURPHY and CHRIS SAMNEE
Cover by MARC SILVESTRI
1:25 Variant cover by TBD
1:200 B&W Variant cover by MARC SILVESTRI
"We Can Be Heroes" Blank variant cover also available.
On sale SEPTEMBER 4 48 pg, 1 of 6, B&W, $4.99 US RATED T
The legendary, Eisner Award-winning series BATMAN BLACK AND WHITE returns in a brand-new six-issue miniseries featuring tales of The Dark Knight by some of comics' greatest writers and artists! This first issue kicks off with stories by Chip Kidd and Michael Cho, Neal Adams, Joe Quinones and Maris Wicks, John Arcudi and Sean Murphy, and Howard Mackie and Chris Samnee!

Next week, May 8th to be exact, DC Comics has plans to release Chip Kidd and Dave Taylor’s BATMAN: DEATH BY DESIGN in the Trade Paperback Format. Now, we have always preferred the hardback editions but this is very good news for people wanting the book at a slightly lower price.

Also, right now it’s available for a limited time, and at a special discounted price, if you CLICK HERE!

Ladies and Gentlemen - We present, for your viewing pleasure, the four BEFORE WATCHMEN: DELUXE EDITION Book Covers Designed for DC Comics by Chip Kidd. Look for these Graphic Novels to hit the shelves this Summer 2013. One important note is that all four books are available for pre-order so don’t miss out, just CLICK HERE!

Please be sure to read the very recent & quite excellent Book Review for BATMAN: DEATH BY DESIGN over at the TOM BADGUY Website. This guy has an interesting take on the new DC Comics’ Graphic Novel and there’s also some nice pictures to drool over. Overall, it was well designed & very well thought out. ( Thanks Tom, nice job! )

In support of “Heroes & Villains: The Comic Book Art of Alex Ross” now on display at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, the museum has recently released this video with a tremendous interview and biography of Alex Ross at his own studio.

This Alex Ross Art Exhibition is on view at Norman Rockwell Museum from November 5th, 2012 through February 24th, 2013. Video produced by Jeremy Clowe for Norman Rockwell Museum. Exhibition organized by The Andy Warhol Museum, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.

At just three years of age, Ross was drawing TV commercials from memory. By the age of 13 he was scripting and drawing original comic books. Ten years later, Ross was hired by Marvel Comics to illustrate Marvel’s central characters in the comic book event, “Marvels” (1994). His impact on the comic book industry became so powerful that his hugely successful comic book series, “Kingdom Come” (1996), marks the close of the “Dark Age” of comic books, in which pessimism, violence, and gritty stories ruled, into the birth of the “Modern Age” of optimism and strong superheroes. Ross would go on to win the Comic Buyer’s Guide Award for Favorite Painter so many times the award was retired.

Here’s a quick post to share some of the process that goes into making a DC Comics Graphic Novel. As an example we’re using BATMAN: DEATH BY DESIGN, which was written by Chip Kidd and beautifully drawn by UK Comic Book Artist Dave Taylor. This example mainly focuses on the Joker!

OK, the graphics are being shown in order and they should explain their self pretty good. Here, we get to see how the scripted page starts out as a simple layout and then it grows into a final page.

The first page shows the script sketched out by Chip Kidd and it’s also sort of mapped out with basic dialogue. By the way, this was done on Quark! Then, we get to see Dave Taylor’s blue-line ( non-photograph able ) artwork. This gets approved and then he does his light pencil work in black. Then the next image shows a lot of the deep blacks that are added on top & the art is cleaned up a little bit. OK, this is now scanned into a computer and some digital coloring is added. The last photo is the finished work sort of as it appeared in the book. Pretty cool, huh?!

Here’s a quick post to share some amazing artwork we came across the other day. This is a recent drawing of Batman and The Joker done by the ultra-talented DAVE TAYLOR. He did this art for a Fan at a recent Comic Book Convention. Now, for the few people who don’t know, Dave was the official Artist for Chip Kidd’s recent Graphic Novel (DC Comics) titled, “Batman: Death By Design”. The art shown here is slightly different than the version seen in that book but it is still a lot of fun. To view more of Taylor’s stuff just CLICK HERE!