I'm someone that continues to not be able (or willing?) to go to the craziness that is SDCC these days - my one and only SDCC visit was when I was 16 - it's a WHOLE NEW THING SINCE THEN, or so I hear.

So like many of you I must get my "breaking news" from all the comic sites out there providing crazy good coverage. A particular tip of the hat to The Beat which did fantastic daily summaries of all their stories, making it easy for me to catch up on everything.  And for today I decided to do a little roundup of my favorite news items from the con. Prepare yourself now, there's lots of exciting all caps talk.

OH! And to kick us off I'll just leave this here, okay?

#1. Brian Wood is writing Star Wars for Dark Horse. Let me say that again. BRIAN WOOD IS WRITING STAR WARS. Not only that, but the more I read about it, directly from Wood no less, the better the damn thing sounds. And you guys heard that Princess Leia is a an X-Wing pilot, right?

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS.



#2. Katie Cook is writing a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic for IDW. At first I was disappointed to read that Cook wasn't actually drawing, I mean, you've seen her adorable stuff, right? But THEN I went to the DeviantArt page for the artist - Andy Price. And OH. MY. GOD.

LOOK:



SOLD.

#3. Neil Gaiman and J.H.Williams III. Is there anything not fantastic about those words assembled like that? Also? Look!



#4. The Walking Dead #100 becomes the best selling comic of the century by reportedly selling out a massive 383,612 on the day it was released. I happen to really like The Walking Dead comic, but even if you don't, this is a great thing for comics.  Not just for comics, but for non-big two comics. Image has been a fascinating publisher to watch this year (and the last few years in fact) and despite already having an interesting and proactive year (thanks to things like Saga, Glory, and Prophet) they also announced a huge slate of  upcoming projects at  SDCC this weekend. This is a big deal, for an independent publisher to have this kind of sales. Change...she is a coming? I'd like to think so. Money moves the world and when an independent can pulls these sales, and get a huge television deal, it makes the people who make decisions think. Let's hope they're all thinking real hard right now.



#5. The end of exclusive contracts? Kickstarter opens doors for creators? You all know I'm a big proponent of the latter, but we've never talked much on here about the former. Following the news that an Independent publisher is breaking boundaries with sales, I'd say exclusive contracts becoming a thing of the past is a similar and much needed development for comics. I want a world in which Brian Wood can write for Dark Horse, Marvel, and Image all at the same time - and he is  - X-Men at Marvel, Conan, Star Wars, and The Massive at Dark Horse, and the upcoming Mara at Image - this is a great thing. I'd like to see this happening more and more to the benefit of both creators and readers/fans. For example, I love Scott Snyder on Batman and it's great to see him able to do American Vampire at Vertigo too, but I wouldn't turn down more creator-owned work from him. So this move away from exclusivity is great as far as I'm concerned, and surely related to the other developments we're seeing, like Kickstarter and huge independent publisher sales.

Oh, and an honorable mention for this, which makes me laugh super hard.

What about you guys? What was some of your favorite news this weekend?