The comments alone are worth it.

OK, now do I get to read the second issue of I Am Legion?

The report from New Comic Night:

• The new creative team on Immortal Iron Fist has a lot to live up to, and not much time to prove they can. I miss the elegance of Aja's art, but the story picks up on the style and tone while adding a little time-jumping to mix it all up. I may continue, though I just don't have much invested in the character.
  
• Ambush Bug Year None #1 — I'm surprised I didn't fall into a black hole of self-referential meta-ness reading this. Combining the humor and characters from the original 80s series with satire of the current state of comics, it proves that DC can still laugh at itself. Or maybe that Giffen can still laugh at DC and get paid to do it.
  
• in Elephantmen, the story's moving forward, there's a bunch of action, all the characters and plotlines are converging (or at least crossing). This comic really rewards patience and I've got my hopes up for the rest of the "Worlds Collide" arc.
  
• Hawksmoor continues to pleasantly surprise. OK, so we've drifted more beyond the California noir thing I was so enamored of (but in some ways, not really), but its strength, besides the art, is how it's not bogged down and beholden to all The Authority baggage.
  
• High, high expectations for War Heroes, but issue 1 found me living in voiceover city. It's setup. It's a good setup, not particularly interestingly told. But Millar has described it as "Ultimates 3", so I'll follow it through.
  
• Black Summer, conclusion. I wasn't expecting to be blown away by this, and I wasn't, but it was a satisfying and logical showdown and ending, though predictably full of Ellis' social/political ideology.
  
• and I kinda let the shop talk me into the CBLDF's Liberty Comics because of a Criminal short. As these sorts of anthologies are, it's wildly uneven, often heavy-handed. But there's an all-star lineup of creators and it's a worthwhile cause.

The report from Jason's visit to Santa Fe, including his interview with Jamie and Kevin and trip to Comic Art Indigène.

Font Conference. I thought it was just going to be type geek humor, but it might be on that part of the Venn diagram that intersects with regular geek humor. Via Adland.

Well, getting Bill Sienkiewicz to do your concept art is a good way to start if you want to set some records.

The report from New Comic Night:

• Tangent: Superman's Reign is more and more just a standard DC teamup book. And, seems to me (though maybe I need a re-read of the old series) that the Tangent world has become less interesting. The first series(es)' strength might've really come from the idea that a long narrative and ongoing story didn't have to be sustained.
  
• Helen Killer #3 — this series is just weird fun, kind of irreverent and wrong, but handled with a terrific sense of story. Revisionist history and Helen as Dark Phoenix in this issue.
  
• Perhapanauts #3 — talk about the sense of fun carrying this title. The creators' obvious love of old adventure comics goes a long way to offsetting the fact that very little actually happens in each issue. I hope I'm right and that they're building all these various plotlines to a big, overarching story.

More Richard Thompson. It's like Absolute Danders.

Jason, one of our buddies from the DCC, has hit the road to San Diego. He'll be talking with comics folks on the whole trip, and we'll be seeing him here in Santa Fe at the end of the week.

I know some people who could really use one (or two, or three) of these great motivational posters. Via More Ways to Waste Time

Happy Talking Squirrel! Actually, my favorite bit is the "stray bit of the Springfield Interchange." And yurt. Yurt is an awesome word.

Other than the possibility of stalking meeting Mr. Thompson, I'm so glad I don't live there anymore.

The report from New Comic Night:

• Invincible Iron Man #3 — it's decompressing and there's too much voiceover that's telling, not showing (so Fraction's mortal, I guess). But it's still a great read, clever the sort-of tie-ins to the movie but still very much its own thing. Next issue better be the Stark/Stane smackdown, though.

It's come to my attention that not everyone's aware that Squirrel Girl is an actual Marvel Comics character.

In Jemez Springs right now, but we'll be making our way to Albuquerque tomorrow to be at the 7000 BC table at the Warehouse 508 Block Party.

Squirrel Girl! Via Pete and Paul from Wizard World Chicago last weekend. Note Monkey Joe on the far shoulder.

Update: more of their photos at 7000 BC's flickr photostream.

The report from New Comic Night:

• Fables #74 — in which the war continues and everything … goes well. Cool as it is to see the Fables mixing modern warfare with their sorcery, I have a feeling it won't continue like this. Consistently good storytelling.
  
• Manhunter #32 — if I hadn't spent all that time at Wikipedia catching up the DCU during the last run, I'd be even more lost. The various story threads are developing well, the dialog and character interaction are terrific, the art looks good. However, a lot of setup, a reliance on a more knowledge of the DCU continuity than I care to have, and I'm not real into the way The Disappeared are being used as a part of a superhero story.
  
• Hawksmoor #4 veers from the California noir (until that last panel) I was liking , but actually starts to stitch together a good, unique look at Hawksmoor's past. Plus, giant robot-type thing. And I'm still a sucker for that art, though it seemed even sparser.
  
• The Programme concludes, as expected, taking the story off in yet another different way. So now I can pull the whole run and try and figure out what I was reading this past year. I mean, I can't say I was disappointed, 'cause it was an ambitious, sprawling series, but it wasn't what I wanted.
  
• ran across the Previews entry for the third issue of Station, and it sounded like a great, high-concept pitch (something Boom! seems to excel at): the ultimate closed-room mystery, with a murder on the space station. LCS got me the first one and it's OK, good setup, a narrator we can rely on. The rest better move faster. Art, solid but not terribly inspired; too much like the movie's storyboards. Because of the special ordering, I think I'm committed to this anyhow.
  
• I knew that Astonishing X-Men would be very different under Ellis, and was dubious. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of about 60% of his stuff. This starts off with a pretty good premise, gets underway fairly quickly — and as usual with his stuff, bickering kind of takes the place of actual character development, but at least everyone's got their own voice and viewpoint this time. Art's a bit murky and static, but it may suit the tale. Hope this doesn't unfold with a Thunderbolts level of decompression, though.
  
• and I also ran across the solicit for the third issue of Patsy Walker, Hellcat, and got the shop to get me the first. No idea why particularly; not a character I've ever really followed or even know anything about. I'm reading Laura (and Stuart) Immonen's webcomic and, beyond the fear that they're stealing my idea about doing a comic about the WWII art looting, I'm still not particularly into it. No idea what to expect from Hellcat, but this wasn't it — a goofy-yet-reverent-yet-appropriate tone, a couple laugh-out-loud moments, some flipping back to see if I saw what I really saw, and a great feeling of, "OK, what now!?"