Creators | Dark Horse announced that legendary Lone Wolf and Cub writer Kazuo Koike will be its guest of honor at Comic-Con International in San Diego, where he'll sign July 18-19 at the publisher's booth (#2615). In 2014, Dark Horse will debut New Lone Wolf and Club, the 11-volume series by Koike and Hideki Mori (original artist Goseki Kojima passed away in 2000) that picks up where the initial saga ended. [Dark Horse]

Awards | The Judging Panel for the British Comic Awards has been announced. This panel will choose the final winners from a shortlist sent to them by the Judging Committee, which screens nominations from the public. [Forbidden Planet]

Commentary | Steve Morris pens a thoughtful essay on cost versus content in comics and what exactly you are paying for with your $2.99 (or, more frequently these days, $3.99). [The Beat]



Creators | Coinciding with the release today of Superman Unchained #2, artist (and DC Comics Co-Publisher) Jim Lee discusses reaction to his costume redesign and the Man of Steel's one-time mullet, and dismisses the suggestion that the character's hair is blue: "This is just one of those comic book things that longtime readers understand, like sound effects. When someone comes to a comic as a newbie – they see sound effects and read them as words. To me, I experience the sound effect. It’s really just a way to highlight the hair so it doesn’t look like a singular block, which doesn’t work – trust me on that. And if you use gray or white, it just doesn’t look right. It’s really a way to add depth and density to his hair. He didn’t grab the wrong bottle of hair dye." [EW.com]

Creators | Grant Morrison talks briefly about moving on from Batman -- "The seven years has exhausted everything I ever had to say about the character" -- and turning his attention to Wonder Woman and the long-promised Multiversity. "I think it's important to basically find what was the core of the character," he says, "and then to see how that applies to the way we think in the real world and see if it can be updated and matched to interests and ideas that people have in a contemporary setting." [Reuters]



Creators | Golden Age artist Allen Bellman reminisces about working for Timely Comics in the 1940s, drawing backgrounds for Captain America and moving on to work on a slew of other comics before moving to Florida in the 1950s: "Jews could not get jobs on Madison Avenue at that time, so what can they do? They went to comic books." [Florida Sun Sentinel]

Comics | Dan Nadel of the indie publisher PictureBox is the guest on this past week's Tell Me Something I Don't Know podcast. [BoingBoing]

Manga | Daniella Orihuela-Gruber was impressed with the manga presence at Anime Expo—it was much stronger than in previous years — and she spells out five reasons why she liked what she saw. [All About Manga]

Retailing | The Janesville, Wisconsin, comics and collectibles store Mantiques has embraced its identity as a man-cave and turned it into a marketing strategy. While they are definitely geared towards guys and their tastes, women are welcome to come and shop as well. [The Janesville Gazette]

Fandom | Can't make it to Comic-Con International this year? Sean Kleefeld explains how he sets up his news feeds so he doesn't miss a thing. [Kleefeld on Comics]