Aron, Paulie, Wayne and Jonathan chat about truck wrecks, comic book movies and tv shows, and all the while Wayne maintains a positive outlook.

• Planet Hulk on DVD
• Smallville “Absolute Justice”
• Blackest Night Update
• Siege Update
  • Siege #2
  • Siege: Embedded #2
  • Invincible Iron Man #23
• Red Robin #9
• Justice Society of America Annual #2
• Cable
• Ultimate X #1
• Milestone Forever #1
• The Defense of Spider-Man
• What if We Were Writing Spider-Man?

Stay tuned after the credits for the announcement of  our UNWRITTEN contest winners.

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While my buddy Gary and I were at the Dallas Comic Con last week, Booster Gold and I teamed up.  Rip Hunter tasked us with the mission to travel back in time to smother Grant Morrison in his sleep before he could write Final Crisis and Batman and Robin.

As you’ve no doubt observed, we were unsuccessful.

While we weren’t the most effective crime fighting team - for what Morrison does is surely a crime against God and nature – we found we’re extraordinarily effective at hanging with the boys and rockin’ the ladies.

Booster’s decided to come live at my house.

Here are a few images from Booster’s first week at my crib. (continue reading…)

That’s right.

I’m in this month’s episode of The Variants in a critically acclaimed turn as Customer #6.

Super.  Star.

Like Charisma Carpenter, I now charge for my autograph.

This is an excellent episode.  It is easily my favorite thus far of the series (and not just because I’m in it).  The hot tub scene is hysterical.  I am a bit puzzled that I wasn’t included in this shot, but I’m sure I’m being reserved for some kind of Sharon-Stone-Like-Leg-Crossing action for the season ender.

BTW, I am totally stealing Richard’s customer service training for my next staff meeting.

Tim and Wayne join Aron and Paulie for our weekly round table.

• It’s a miracle, BAM!
• iPad’s possible effects on both the comic print and digital business
• Blackest Night Update
  • Green Lantern #50
  • The Atom & Hawkman #46
  • Blackest Night JSA #2
• Siege Update
  • Captain America Reborn #6
  • Thor #606
  • Avengers: The Initiative #32
  • New Avengers #61
• Batman Update
  • Batman and Robin #7
  • Detective Comics #861
  • World’s Finest #4
• Justice League: Cry for Justice #6
• Justice League of America #41
• Fantastic Four #575
• Teen Titans #79
• Ultimate Enemy #1
• Secret Warriors #2 #12
• Neverland #0

Stay tuned after the end credits for our Indy Comic Book Week Sampler winners announcement!

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We’re awful proud of the guests we’ve had on this month.

Kieron Gillen spoke to us about the recently canceled S.W.O.R.D, his 6-issue run on Thor and his work on Phonogram.

Jonathan Hickman shared with us his vision for Fantastic Four and Secret Warriors.

Amidst talk of “buggery,” Rick Remender joined us for a lively discussion of Frankencastle, Fear Agent, XXX Zombies, and The Last Days of American Crime movie.

Check ‘em out.  These interviews were lots of fun.

The hours are ticking down to the end of our contest for the Indy Comic Book Week Sampler and there’s still MORE books to talk about…

Created by brothers Carlos and Jose Esquivel, MACABRO is a short story influenced by Italian horror movies. It tells the story of Selena, a high school graduate, who moves to Milan, Italy to attend the Lombardi School of Arts. Believing she’s now on the path to fulfill her dreams, she becomes tangled with the harsh reality of her choice, the alienation from her classmates, and gruesome murders.

Our Grand, Second and Third Prize winners each receive a copy of the Macabro One Shot.

Omnitarium, Written and Illustrated by Jamie Gambell, J.C. Grande & Bernie Lee, is a dark tale.  The story starts on an 18th Century gallows.

Arch-villain and murderer, Harrow Moonheart, finally caught and condemned to hang. But will the rope prove enough for the powerful black magician?

Behind the walls of the progressive Victorian prison, Pentansly Gaol, are trapped more than just the guilty and condemned.

Who is Harrow Moonheart, and what is the Omnitarium?

Some doors should never be opened!

Our Grand, Second, and Third Prize winners each will receive a Omnitarium #1

Shrunken Wool is an anthology comic brought to you by the good folks at TwoFold Comics.

Stories in the first issue include:

• Shelter by Alex De-Gruchy, Doug Stambaugh, and Amador Cisneros Jr.
• The Sad Destiny of Who Love and Wait and Suffer by Vete
• The Hit by Scott Hartman and by JC Grande
• Running From Zombies by Martin Fisher, Daniel Mobley, and Jared Rourke
• Life (With Friends) by Adam Wilson and Matthew Smith

Our Grand Prize Winner receives Shrunken Wool #1.

What Planet is This? is a Sci-Fi Noir Comedy about a space detective trying to get out of gambling debts with some nasty aliens. Creator Mike Hankins says, “I was very influenced by the Spaceman Spiff world that was often featured in the old Calvin and Hobbes comics, so in some ways this book is an homage to Watterson in that regard.”

From the back cover:

For Space-Detective Slam Spifson, today began like every other: waking up hung over in a pile of space trash.  But THIS time, his wallet and his brother had been kidnapped.  Now Slam is on a race against time to save his brother and make enough money to get his ship fixed

Both our Grand and Second Prize winners receive What Planet is This? #1 of 1.

Darkness purges into the far depths of the human soul and will forever leave it’s imprint.  The origins of a super demon… Half demon and half human, a combination that will prove deadly to all who get in it’s way.

Part 1 of the Stolen Blood Mini Series focuses on How Everything Came To Be for J, a young musician on the rise.

Taken from super stardom to serial killer in a heart beat, J’s Soul is possessed by a powerful demon.

There Is No Turning Back, No Forgiveness And No Mercy.

Our Grand Prize winner will receive Stolen Blood.

Our contest ends today.

Enter now!

Senryu is Matthew Warlick’s entry for ICBW.

In a recent interview with Newsarama, he stated:

Senryu started out as an obsession with haikus. Over time I had the idea to set them all to art and see what happened, and fell in love with the format. It was directly inspired by dreams that I’ve had, as well as short stories and poems that I’ve had rolling around in my head for a few years.

I had a dream the other night  myself.  In it, Jesus was performing miracles.  The unusual thing was that the role of Christ was played by Emeril Lagasse.  Every time he performed a miracle, he shouted: “BAM!”

Inspired by dreams, perhaps that could be the subject of your next book, Matt?

Despite the amazing art he previewed for the work, I have to say I was dubious on this one. After all, Warlick brands it as a “stream of consciousness narrative in comic form.”

Yes, there’s poetry. Normally, this would have kept me away from the book. I am after all a hardcore supers guy. I can appreciate poetry, but I don’t usually groove to it.

Not usually.

Senryu is the happy exception. Warlick suckered me in with his lovely artwork and hit me hard with his thought-provoking verse. The book is an anthology of illustrated stories set to lyrical poetry. In my head, there’s a soundtrack to this book. There’s a certain element of Fantasia to it. Nicely done, Mr. Warlick.

Our grand, second, and third prize winner all receive copies of Senryu.

Your chance to win the Indy Comic Book Week Sampler ends tomorrow… and just take a gander at some of the awesome books you could get…!

“Arthur: The Legend Continues” brings the legend of King Arthur to a post-apocalyptic future. Issue 1 takes the legendary king from his “death” on an ancient battlefield to a village on the brink of destruction hundreds of years in our future.

With the world as we know it gone, mankind is on the verge of extinction yet still struggling to find purpose and hope.

From the ancient past a glimmer of light shines and a legend returns to claim his throne. Facing challenges never imagined in his time, King Arthur shall rise again and bring the mighty Excalibur to the throats of all who wish to do harm to his people

Our Grand Prize Winner receives both issues #1 and #2 of Arthur: The Legend Continues plus the first issue convention variant issue.  Our 2nd and 3rd prize winners will receive the first issue.

Written and Illustrated by Adam Wilson and Mike Kay, Life (With Friends) documents those days following college.

With graduation behind them Drew, B, and Kyle decide to hold a housewarming party to celebrate moving into their new apartment. It’s a party of shocking revelations, unprecedented entertainment, and a morning after sure to leave all their heads reeling.

College has come and gone. It’s now time for Drew and his friends to head out into the real world.

The Grand Prize Winner receives Life (With Friends) #1 and an art print.  2nd and 3rd prize winners each receive issue #1.

Time’s running out.  Enter now!

We wrap up the month of January by sharing our conversation with Fantastic Four writer, Jonathan Hickman.  We talk about Hollywood movies, his love of Frank Herbert’s DUNE books, why in the world Sue Richards stays with Reed, Secret Warriors, and all manner of other comic book awesome.

Plus… in a Funnybooks exclusive, Jonathan Hickman answers why he is the best lover on the planet.

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Day three in our showcase extravaganza and there’s still tons of books to peruse in the Indy Comic Book Week Sampler…

THE POSSUM #1 by BLAIR KITCHEN is a super-hero funny book telling the secret origin of how indy comic artist Stuart Spankly gained the amazing powers of a human possum, thereby transforming himself into the hero known as “The Possum”.

Given the gift of having no vital signs, Stuart begins his quest to save the local old folks home from an Evil Genius and his son and learn about his new powers, all while dealing with the pressure of being an unemployed teenager with no living expenses.

Along for the ride, is a colourul cast of characters, such as Steve Tacola (Stuart’s best friend), Greg (the comic shop owner), and Heath (Greg’s hired help.) The Possum promises fun and laughs, along with everything else that makes comics and superheroes great.

The Possum is 72 pages of fun.  Our Grand, Second and Third Prize winners receive The Possum #1.

Ex Occultus is a globetrotting, serialized epic combining elements of Indiana Jones, H. P. Lovecraft and The X-Files as it follows the exploits of adventurer and fortune-hunter Francis Wakefield, the gruff and grizzled Englishman with a tortuous past, and his protégé, a young man only known as Hollander, as they journey through the arcane in search of treasures and fortune, righting wrongs as they go.

In the pages of the Badge of Langavat, it is 1864, Scotland. Francis Wakefield and fellow occult hunter Fergus Duff find themselves investigating the disappearance of children from nearby villages. Their hunt leads them to a forgotten castle belonging to a family of undead, cursed werewolves who have nefarious plans for the taken.

Our Grand, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners each receive Ex Occultus: The Badge of Langavat.

For details on how to enter these great books and more in our Indy Comic Book Week Sampler, click over here.