Thank goodness this post didn't go up on Talk Like a Pirate Day. We all dodged a bullet there.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK-- U-DECIDE!: New Justice League lineup-- the lamest one ever?



Links below! No lynxes, though.

NEW ABHAY! As ever, I'm excited. This one's on crime novelists writing comics. Sort of. Again, it's Abhay, so the discussion veers in several interesting directions:

Swiercynski writes comics, too: IRON FIST and CABLE for Marvel. That’s been a thing with Marvel lately— collecting crime novelists. Hurwitz and Gishler and Huston and whoever else. I hadn’t read any of Swiercynski’s comic work, so I looked at a random issue of CABLE after I read his novel. If I’m remembering this right: Cable was on a farm in the future, wearing overalls; he fought bugs. If you want a comic about cyborgs fighting bugs on a farm—that happened.

THAT VOODOO THAT YOU DO-DO: Newsarama interviews Rick Remender about his upcoming Doctor Voodoo ongoing. I have always (read: since 2007) wanted to read (or write) a Brother (Doctor) Voodoo ongoing set in New Orleans, and here it is! This series sounds pretty good, and you should all buy it in singles so that I don't feel bad about waiting for the trade (it's only four bucks for the first issue and three bucks after that, so don't fret!):

Currently Jericho lives in New Orleans where he runs a non-profit clinic and keeps the evil Loas at bay. Then one day -- POW -- he’s the Sorcerer Supreme and every major bad ass in the MU is out to take him down.

Jericho Drumm aka Doctor Voodoo is stuck between two lives; that of a voodoo healer and psychologist serving the impoverished communities of New Orleans and that of the new Sorcerer Supreme, defender of the unknown.

I'm getting something of a Denys-Cowan-on-Deathlok-in-1992 vibe from the art, which is a good thing. Now let's get a Fred Hembeck variant cover! I'll buy that for a dollar!

CHOKER? I BARELY KNEW 'ER: The upcoming totally-not-Fell series by Bens McCool and Templesmith was also featured at the 'Rama this week (not that I'm trying to get a commission from the Nistinguised Rompetition):

Nrama: You have a lot of experience at establishing setting, from towns to worlds and even a few dimensions. What's the town of Shotgun City like?

Templesmith: Hmmm, potentially like what you'd get if the Chicago of the 1930's had a one night stand with the city scenes out of Blade Runner. Slightly futuristic yet quaintly odd in places and thoroughly dirty and dank. At least, this is the ambition.

McCool: Well, let’s put it like this: there’s never a dull moment. A bewildering twist of 1930’s Chicago and a technology-infused postmodern metropolis, it boasts as many bowler-clad gangster types as it does avant-garde cyberpunks. The cops are bad, the crooks worse, and good things very, very rarely happen. Inhabitants would think of Camden, New Jersey as VACATIONLAND!

THE VAULT brings us The "Real" Top Ten Marvel covers, and Seven Questions with Fabian Nicieza. Check it out.

ITEM! (I can't keep cheeky headlines up forever.) Thanks to Rich Johnston and Bleeding Cool, we all kinda-sorta get to take Ethan Watrall's History of the Modern Comic Book class at Michigan State University... for free! It's like Cliffs Notes.

ITEM! Kevin Church has a new webcomics project starting this week: She Died in Terrebonne. Should be a cool noir-ish series. The art, by T.J. Kirsch, is great.  Read it, and stuff:



ITEM! Via Mike Sterling via NeilAlien, here's the best nerd costume ever. (Spidey-related.)

REMAKE/REMODEL: This week, it's Black Orchid! Now Ellis himself has already linked to the pros who stopped by like Pia Guerra, Ben Templesmith, and Ryan Kelly, so I'll show you some examples from the beautiful lesser-knowns. Here's Andrew Nixon (a.k.a. "Frequent Contributor")'s Seuss-inspired entry:



And here's one from user "Miranda", who is a dude:



NOT COMICS DEPT: Nathan Rabin of the Onion's AV Club dares to eat a KFC Double Down sandwich (the sandwich that has fried chicken instead of bread), and, barely living to tell the tale, writes the greatest article in the history of the website:

My stomach began to feel like a brick. I wanted to quit after a few bites but I soldiered on, ignoring my increasingly intense stomach pain. The Double Down did to my gastrointestinal system what Sherman did to the South, leaving a scorched-earth trail of destruction in its wake. ... God clearly did not mean for humans to eat chicken, bacon, and low-quality, gelatinous cheese at the same time.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK THAT IS ACTUALLY A QUESTION THAT SHOULD PROBABLY ONLY HAVE ONE ANSWER: So when is Batman: Brave & the Bold coming back? I hope I haven't missed the OMAC and musical episodes.