Zombies are so over. I don't care that everyone seems to still be pitching and making and making money off zombie stories.

So what are we to make of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? Blatanty cashing in on the dying (intended) days of a trend? Or just totally awesome? Personally, undecided, thought that cover pushes it toward the latter. Disclosure: never read any Jane Austen, another one of those odd gaps in what I consider a pretty good liberal arts education.

Via Coudal, who is bringing us more Layer Tennis soon.

Via Raph, The Onion's "Obama Disappointed Cabinet Failed To Understand His Reference To 'Savage Sword Of Conan' #24." Crom be praised that he's not a Spawn fan.

Some of my photos from Phoenix at 7000 BC's Flickr photostream. Note: in the one of Rob Liefeld, you can't see his feet.

For the fourth time, a great time at Phoenix Comicon. We traveled with, as usual, Pete and Paul and, for the first time, Jamie. A successful outing, and thanks especially to the repeat customers.

We were happy to see Doc, Bandido Studios, John from Anti-Hero Brand, and Dan and the Steamcrow family again, and got to catch up with Hi-Fi Colour and pick up their book.

Eric from Rynaga was making his first con appearance, and we had a nice chat about that. Some fun discussions with our next-table neighbor Scooter and his sister, and David and Becky from Chubi Neko a few tables down. Andy, who wasn't exhibiting at this show, stopped to tell us he'd see us behind his own table at STAPLE!. Talked a bit with Brent and picked up his Scruffy Puppies. And, of course, how could I forget Modern Mythology Press? I don't think I'll never be able to get their mad huckster routine out of my head.

The Dude graciously stopped by to see what was new since our visit last year; he and Jamie had a lively discussion about painting.

We'll see what we can do about getting all the photos on the 7000 BC photostream.

Who is the Electric Shaman? The answer will figure into Reginald's history in the coming year. But for now, Jeff's been working on some concept art — and we'll have a print available at Phoenix this weekend.

We've also got another batch of Panel Press tshirts for the convention. Not sure if/when we'll have the prints and shirts for sale online, but if you're interested in purchasing, just send an email and we'll work something out.

"And, well, when he gets into office, there're gonna be some changes."

The report from New Comic Night:

• as previously noted, I now like Fables more than ever, and I've been reading it since the beginning. That backup was a waste, and I'm worried that this will be a hurried conclusion to the arc, but I think that the changes that have rocked Fabletown and the new threats are offering the best stories yet.
  
• and if Perhapanauts came out more often I would have remembered to add them to the best of 08 list. #5 ties up a bunch of the plotlines kicking around in a way that's going to make me have to dig out the past couple years' worth of issues. But when this comes out in trade, grab it. These guys, they got spunk.
  
• Manhunter #38 tidies up the future histories of our cast in a predictable way, but fairly satisfying. As I stated before, I'm not too sorry to see this current incarnation go, but glad they got to do a proper sendoff. They? Wait, why'd Gaydos only draw 11 pages of this?
  
• Captain Britain and MI13 #9 concludes its arc in a way that I'm fearing Marvel is mandating: well, but crammed into the last issue. Cornell spins a good sci-fi tale and is not afraid to mess around with the cast. Next issue looks to be crazy fun.
  
• when I cracked No Hero #3, I was reminded of Monica's prediction that this whole issue would be all hallucination. As it turned out, only the first few spreads (and they're gorgeous). And though there's precious little happening, it all looks so good and Ellis dishes out just enough to keep me coming back for the next.

Just posted string #11. Check out Courtney's Solstice for these dark winter months.

Be seeing you, Patrick McGoohan. The Prisoner came into my life in my formative years, in the days when the oddest classic television shows were used to fill space on the local stations (I think it actually ran on public television), and appealed to me on a lot of levels. It's tough to say I enjoyed it all, or even understood it all the time, but it was undeniably powerful and visionary.

News just arrived (via VSL) that AMC is offering a stream of the series on its Web site. I also recommend seeking out the trade paperback The Prisoner: Shattered Visage; it may not be the tidy conclusion I hoped for, but it's awfully clever with some great little touches and references, and captures the spirit of the original with a modern (well, circa '80s) viewpoint.

The "pilot episode" of The Panel, the (hopefully) regular roundup of comics, featuring Chris from True Believers. I help him kick it off by discussing the three titles common to each of our top ten of 2008 lists.

And speaking of catching up, the report from last week's New Comic Night:

• X-Men Noir #2 — I appreciate this story is more than an Elseworlds kind of exercise, but what Van Lente is trying to do might be too sophisticated and complex for just a four-issue miniseries, especially since it still seems to be setting everything up. The art is good, but it's murky — it may be keeping with the theme, but there are times when I just need to stare at the pages to figure out what's happening.
  
• Invincible Iron Man #9 is another issue that's so much fun, I didn't realize that nothing really happened. It's plenty explain-y, there are some great character moments, but it's tough to deny that there are way too many pages spent advancing the plot too little. One of the aspects that makes it so enjoyable are the characterizations of Stark and Hill; I take that sort of writing from Fraction as a given, but The ISB and its readers point out that the characters have been pretty one-dimensional recently.

OK, some catching up. The ISB has posted the winners of the 30 Second Recap Contest 2008 and our buddy Marc got an Honorable Mention for Identity Crisis in 30 Seconds. He's also been showing off some new art at his blog.

The Darkness From Warsaw, our new comic featuring Estelle and Norris from Death, Cold As Steel with artwork by Jamie Chase is at the printer.

Here's a preview of the cover. More later.

"While some have difficulty with the cuteness versus deliciousness ratio — that adorable little face, those itty-bitty claws — many feel that eating squirrel is a way to do something good for the environment while enjoying a unique gastronomical experience." Yep, in order to save the (red) squirrels, it's become necessary to eat the (grey) squirrels. Andy — who took all day to point this article out to me — notes that it's important to enlarge that photo there.

The helpful "Related Articles" sidebar leads to an article about actually preparing squirrel.

And some of you may remember when I linked to an earlier NYT Magazine article about the red squirrel problem.

A new year, a new attempt at regular Reports From New Comic Night. It was a pretty great one:

• Criminal's latest arc concluded sometime recently, I somehow missed #7. This was my favorite yet, but the conclusion threw me a little — a little too much reliance (and introduction) of the past, not enough here-and-now. But still, terrific. And I claim Phillps' art gets better every issue...
  
• which leads nicely into Incognito #1, which looks to be a bit of Sleeper meets Criminal; if you're like me, is a near-perfect pitch. It's a slow start, but the setup is unwinding slowly and deliberately, and I think this'll shape up to be a terrific series.
  
• Fantastic Four #562 was a bit of a bridge to the next arc, talky with some diversions. But, as I've noted before, it just consistently hits the right tone. Still a fun read, even if nothing really happened.
  
• and, holy sheep dip, Winter Men finally concluded. I dragged out the first five to re-read, which was a good thing. This series did so many things right and so many things wrong; some of the latter are what made it so intriguing. Granted, I'm a sucker for that whole decommissioned Soviet super-soldier thing, but this was so unexpected (for good and bad) that I was pulled right in. The conclusion seemed a bit rushed given the pace of the earlier installments, but still satisfying.