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Most impressive.

• The New York Anime Festival showed record attendance.  Up 16% from last year, which is great to hear.
• The Ignatz Awards were announced.  Congratulations to Jordan Crane, Nate Powell, and for the Kramers Argot, which is sitting on my To-Read list.  Brian Heater at the Daily Cross Hatch has video of the ceremonies.
• David Finch, Sim, Niko Henrichon and Cameron Stewart all won at the Shuster Awards.  And if you haven’t been reading Stewart’s spectacular webcomic, Sin Titulo, you should begin doing so: now.
• The video from the set of Iron Man 2 from the EW perspective looks massively annoying in the usual EW fashion.  I don’t know why they care about U2’s Chris Martin’s kids with Gwyneth Paltrow but that’s annoying.

Brian Austin Green as Metallo on Smallville.

Mickey Rourke as Whiplash in Iron Man 2.

Heh.  Well, this is awkward.  No, not that the fact that the former 90210 alum is sticking close to something that he previously did on Sarah Conner Chronicles BUT the fact that he looks so much like the new design for Whiplash.  I guess it would be tough for him not to look like that.

I have to say I applaud Smallville.  The first couple of seasons were really stagnant, boring, and like watching a broken record season after season. However, that changed quite significantly after they killed off Jonathan Kent and to say the least, the show has become its own thing.  Its not afraid to do something different with the Superman mythology and has continually broken expectations towards what “should” happen in the mythos of the character.

• “The Usual Suspects” writer Christopher McQuarrie said he will be writing “Wolverine 2″.  Apparently, the Oscar winning screen writer helped on the last film’s script but declined credit.
• McQuarrie’s collaborator on “The Usual Suspects” (Bryan Singer) may direct a Battlestar Galactica film remake.  File this under why does this need to exist?
• X-Men killer Brett Ratner wants “Twilight” star Robert Pattinson in his “Youngblood” movie.  Hahahaha, go on. Take him. Not like I’m going to see it anyway.
• Cameron Diaz says her character in Seth Rogen’s “The Green Hornet” will be quite different than previous incarnations.  Previously, Lenore “Casey” Case was Rogen’s Britt Reid’s secretary and knew everything about the newspaper editor’s late night activities. However in this version, Casey is a television obsessed amateur sleuth who is stalking the Green Hornet and Kato.
• One part of the superhero power team of the Ryan Reynolds/Scarlett Johannson team spoke about “Iron Man 2.” I don’t know, I really liked Emily Blunt.

Over the weekend, grainy footage from the Kick-Ass and Iron Man 2 panels at SDCC wound up on the Internet.

The Iron Man 2 footage, which was sweded by a couple of budding fanboys, showed Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) giving it to Gary Shandling which was quite hilarious.

The Kick-Ass footage, however, I don’t know whether its supposed to be funny, like its a comedy, or some kind of low-grade horror movie with splatter and physical comedy. Like some kind of uber-violent snuff film version of Mystery Men. Bleh.

Of course, there should be a disclaimer. Most of this footage was probably taken on someone’s iPhone 3GS, there is an echo, bad sound and shaky hands.  So, really, to get an accurate portrayal of these two clips is next to impossible.  But its worth looking at anyway.

I’d also like to ask why on god’s green earth these studios don’t release the actual footage after showing it at these cons. How is showing clips to 6000 people better than showing it to everyone? Wouldn’t you build more buzz by just releasing the damn thing for the rest of us? Grr.

What exactly is the deal with being an elitist and showing it to fans at the Con? Why wouldn’t you post it on the Intertubes immediately after so millions of other people can also get fired up for the movie? Just doesn’t seem very conducive from a marketing standpoint.  Are the Con-goers more special than those of us who didn’t go?

That is certainly a good thing. From consulting on the “Iron Man 2″ movie, to being nominated for an Eisner for his work on “Invincible Iron Man” it now surfaces that Matt Fraction is writing the video game version of Jon Favreau’s film. The trailer premiered at Comic Con.

Along with this bit of news, comics rumormonger Rich Johnston claims that Fraction will be taking on the Thor event titled “Dark Siege.”

I’ve just learnt that, as the title of this piece states, that the upcoming Marvel Thor event will be called Dark Seige, in line with Marvel’s ongoing Dark Reign event, and will be written by the X-Men’s Matt Fraction, currently writing a Dark Reign crossover with New Avengers, Utopia.

UPDATE: Brian Bendis writes “I love when rich is wrong!!!”

Why so negative, Brian? That I’m wrong is very possibly true. That you take pleasure in said wrongness is, well, I don’t know what it is. Any suggestions?

Regardless, I certainly support this idea.

Now, would probably be a really great time to say GIANT SPOILERS from this week, and last week’s comics.  So you’ve been warned.

And. Here. We .Go.

Dave at home. Found in his natural position.

DAVE: So, BLACKEST NIGHT #1: Really? Really, with the ripping out of the hearts of Guardians and Hawkpeople left and right? Jesus. Geoff Johns, you’re a good, pleasant guy, a kind-hearted individual, where does this come from? You gotta see someone. You have some repressed anger going on here.

Jeff at home.

JEFF: Reminds me of George Lucas’ similar fixation with using lightsabers to chop off limbs. The Star Wars universe is filled with amputees! The first comic book I ever read was an issue of Green Lantern when I was four years old. I think Hal used his ring to make a big-ass green fist to punch the baddie. I’d say this is a bit of a departure from the tone of that issue.

Yeah maybe a little bit of a departure. That’s funny. What is also funny, but probably not really, my first comic as a kid was a Green Lantern comic too.  It was an annual, I think it, and I still remember the cover: it had Hal Jordan bursting through this giant robot.  No idea what it was about, but I think I still have it somewhere in my parent’s garage upstate.

I don’t know if you had a chance to check it out, but I just got done with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep #1 and found it okay. Art not too flashy- refreshingly so- and a lot of bang for the buck. Given the source material (it’s a direct adaptation of PKD’s novel) it’s pretty hard to go wrong. Just one quam:

It’s #1. OF 24!!!!!! Am I going to be around in two years or so when it concludes? Maybe. Is Boom, the book’s publisher? Can they sustain interest in this for two years? I wish them all the best, but…. To  paraphrase the closing line of Blade Runner’s theatrical cut (which I prefer): I don’t know how long this book and I have together. Who does?

Whaddya think of that Spider-Man variant with Nixon on the cover?

I did look at it [Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep], and you’re right, it is hard for them to get it wrong by transplanting Dick’s words into the comic.  However, I imagine most of the people that book would appeal to are huge into the movie, and have probably read the book a while back.  So, in the end, I’m not really sure why this is a must buy.

I don’t think anything of the Nixon variant, though I will say how about the giant reveal in Amazing Spider-Man annual with Ben Reilly being alive? Sorry, spoilers, but its been a week so if you have a problem, feel free to pick a fight in the comments.

OMG. I didn’t see that. Was he wearing that Flashdance meets Carnage Scarlet Spider costume? Cuz that thing’s rad…

No, he was calling himself Velociraptor, which is probably just as Flashdance as his previous version. He had jaws, and bone knives coming out of his forearms, very much like that formerly stupid mutant. What was her name? Oh yeah, Marrow. God, remember when the X-Men comics had a fixation on gross mutants…Marrow and Maggot? Those were the times.

I feel like I have to bring it up: but Wednesday Comics? I loved Ben Caldwell’s Wonder Woman strip, but I hear the predominant favorite is Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook’s Kamandi, but that doesn’t surprise me.

Ryan Sook could draw a comic about styrofoam and it’d be gorgeous.

Kerschl and Fletcher’s Flash page is my fave. Haven’t felt anything but “meh” about the character since the height of Mark Waid’s nineties run, but this is dead on the characters I loved growing up.

I liked Johns’ run on The Flash, but that was forever ago, and the book just hasn’t been that good (barring the short stint Tom Peyer had on it).

I just finished The Nobody and you mentioned something about how you liked the smell of it.  I liked how it was this almost Cormac McCarthian statement on loneliness.  I also really loved Jeff Lemire and how he captures a small town, I haven’t seen that done well in comics ever, but Lemire really captured what its like to be in a small town, or be from a small town.

Yeah. It’s pretty terrific, and as deftly executed as his previous Essex County books, which Top Shelf is reprinting in one volume later this summer.

Back to the smell of the book… from a book sniffer’s perspective let me say that it’s important your book stand out from the crowd. The Nobody’s piquant, inky aroma is distinct to say the least. And bloody hell is it pronounced!

[LAUGHS]. Yeah, this is my first introduction to Lemire so I will definitely be picking up Essex County when it comes out, and his new Vertigo series “Sweet Tooth”.

Last bit: ScarJo shows up in EW as the Black Widow.  What are your thoughts on this? She looks more like Anna Mercury than she does the Black Widow but I still say I would rather see Emily Blunt.

Ah, Scarjo & Ryan Reynolds, comic book movies’ power couple. Ya know, I just IMDB’d Emily Blunt and I’ve not seen anything she’s ever been in. Daaavid, have you been watching “The Devil Wears Prada” behind my back? I gotta agree with you. She’s much more exotic and her cool eyes and demeanor more suitable.

At this point in the conversation, I jump through the screen like Ray Palmer does through a telephone and begin strangling Jeff for “The Devil Wears Prada” crack. This concludes the first issue of THURSDAY WALK OF SHAME. Maybe there will be another one next week, if Jeff survives. (Dave exits, while sharpening knives).