Mark Hamill Will Not Continue To Dress Up Like Your Slave Joker. No, Seriously.

Here – look at this, from, well, here. No, I’ll wait.

Also available for children's parties.

I’ve seen a wide variety of cosplay in my day. I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack Japan-o-philes on fire off the shoulder of Kotobukiya. I watched promo Green Lantern rings glitter in the dark near Entertainment Earth. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die. And stuff.

George Romero Only Likes Some Of The Zombies, Some Of The Time

According to recent tweets by CNN GeekOut! and Newsarama, last night’s season two premiere of The Walking Dead was watched by over 7 million viewers. Huge numbers! Wow, who didn’t see it last night? Well, me – but I had an excuse. I was catching up on Red while the DVR was recording The Walking Dead. Insert your “geriatric killers are kind of like zombies” joke here.

But, you know who also didn’t watch The Walking Dead last night?

George Romero.

Yup, the father of modern zombie horror as we know it is not a fan of The Walking Dead.

Who Wants To Give The Man A Second Glance

Hi. I'm Stan Lee. Like X-men? Yeah, I thought so. Daddy's got a new plan. I will own your children.

I’m not in New York right now. This bothers me on a certain level. New York Comic Con is in full swing. I’m not there. I’m drinking box red wine and listening to Skunk Anansie on a Friday night. I know one hundred ways to be a good girl, but none of them are putting me in front of comic book creators or cognoscenti right at this very moment. I keep pointing out to Rob that we are a Fung Wa Bus ride and an Avatar Press VIP Package away from rectifying this situation. He points out that he likes his interstate travel to remain upright and cause him to, you know, not die. Also, the cheapest Avatar VIP ticket is $275. Times, well, 2. I’d bring Rob with me, after all. Hello? I have a bar tab two blocks from my house. One block from that is the comic book store. The owner knows us and only mostly never closes early if he notices us wandering down the hill from our place at 6:45 pm on a Wednesday. Based on the motley, rather Mos Eisely like crew already gathered there by the time we make last comic call, most Wednesdays are a kind of impromptu con within staggering distance from where we already live. Why should I feel the need to cross state lines?

File Under: This Is Pretty Cool

I’m a little late with this but this past Monday, the Worcester Telegram and Gazette covered the 24-Hour Comic Challenge, which is held yearly at the Worcester Art Museum. Sixteen artists, who ranged in age from 9 to 57, participated. The goal of the event is to have each artist complete their own individual, fully written and illustrated comic book in the space of 24 hours. Artists used a variety of methods to complete their work, ranging from pencil to magic marker to electronic tablets. Jim Lee could learn a little something from these folks.

And one of the most awesome things about this event?

The artists’ work will be on display for a month in the Museum’s Higgins Education Wing. After that, it will be scanned into a computer and sent electronically to ComicsPRO.org, the comic book retailer trade association that sponsors the event, for possible inclusion in the 24-Hour Comic Day Anthology.

How great is it that comic books, and work by, primarily, new artists of comic books, is being celebrated with an exhibition at an art museum – and then gets their work in front of industry and retailers? Now people can have a reason to visit Worcester, MA that doesn’t involve visiting elderly relations or buying crack. Good work!

Brain Bleach: Your Mom Let You Out Of The Basement Looking Like That Edition

Just in time for GirlGeekCon in Seattle this weekend and New York Comic Con in, well, New York City, next weekend, we have a batch of ambitious cosplayers who are ready to embrace the design changes of the relaunched DCnU. Behold the winners of the most recent Gamma Squad cosplay costume contest:

What? No G'nort?

What’s Wrong With This Picture – Splitting Hairs On The Man Of Steel Movie

First we had hipster Superman. Now we have…hippy?

Left: Russell Crowe as Jor-El. Right: Henry Cavill as Homeless Moe

Both Topless Robot and Newsarama are carrying first looks at the new Man of Steel movie, to be directed by Zack Snyder. Gotta say, Kal-El and his dad are looking a little…scruffy. I supposed Jor-El has an excuse. Who has time to shave when your planet is falling down all around you? But, Superman? This movie supposedly has a budget of around $175 million. You prop people can’t spring for some glasses for the man when he’s disguised as Clark Kent? Really? Or some hair dye for Amy Adams (Lois Lane):

LOL, what?

I think casting got confused when they heard the word “Lois”:

We're now going to throw this to our Asian reporter, Trisha Takanawa, who we've decided to cast as a Sioux midget.

We Were Geeks Once, and Young

You know, I reread some of my reviews on this site where I complain that the writing on some comic book sucks, or that the plotting is hamfisted, or that the writer’s betrayed the characters and sometimes I forget that there was a time in my life when, if you’d told me that someday I’d be able to get thirty comic books a week, or that I’d be able to have a place where I could spend all my time just talking about comics, well… I’d have shrieked “Stranger danger!” and run like hell. Seriously: have you looked at yourself? You must have a van.

But seriously: it’s easy to forget how much this stuff has meant to me over the years, or how seriously some of it has affected me. Partially because I’ve simply gotten older, partially because I’ve reached legal drinking age, and partially because I’ve decided that if they diagnose me with cirrhosis while I’m in a blackout, it doesn’t count.

But sometimes I see something that reminds me why I love this shit so much, and why it hooked me from when I was a kid. Something like this video of a four-year-old boy discovering the horrible truth behind the parentage of Luke Skywalker for the first time:

Professor Charles Xavier Explains It All For You

Just found this over at Comics Alliance. College Humor has published The X-Men Guide To Puberty by Caldwell Tanner, who you may also know from Five Easy Ways To Show You Don’t Give A Fuck. Read along as Professor X tell you everything you did, and maybe didn’t, want to know about your unholy mutant aberration rapidly developing body!

I remember when my mom said the same thing to me. I think it was shortly after she admitted she didn't really like kids.

Read the rest of the “What’s Happening To My Body Book For Mutants” here.

Brain Bleach: Friendship Is Magic Edition

In the spirit of providing you with more disturbing art based on comic book characters, I thought I’d pass along this gem I came across while browsing the Reddit Comic Book subreddit (forum thingy). This is the work of Jodi Moisan. Jodi has decided to create art that brings together her love of all things comic book…and My Little Pony – the My Hero Pony. Behold:

Yay! Ponies! Now, I would also like a Transformer and a rocket launcher and a...

Castles Over Kings

So now the both of us have caught this wretched head ebola, which means that posting may slow while we lie around looking for mindless entertainment to feed our middle brains while we slowly undergo the process of turning cold medicine into snot… but don’t worry about us, we have a tool for dealing with this. It’s called a screwdriver.

And a likely candidate for tonight’s distraction from our various aches, pains and uncomfortable viscous bubblings is Castle, starring Nathan Fillion, on ABC at 10 p.m. eastern time. It’s not a regular view for us, but ABC is owned by Disney, as is Marvel, and since, purely by coincidence, Marvel’s releasing a Castle graphic novel Wednesday, it seems that tonight’s episode has a distinctly Marvel Comics feel to it, which you can see in the preview after the jump: