Yesterday, the comics internets burst with the news that Pádraig O Méalóid, aka LiveJournal user glycon, had acquired and posted a set of xeroxes of the complete long lost BIG NUMBERS #3 by Alan Moore, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Al Columbia. Planned to run 12 issues, had it been completed, it would be fairly unique in Moore’s oeuvre– a contemporary story about real people, albeit with heavy duty science fictional trappings. It would be interesting to see how it would have been ranked by Moore admirers, but we’ll never know — he has no interest in completing it and it appears that many of its ideas will be incorporated into his long-simmering novel, Jerusalem.

According to Méalóid, he acquired the xeroxes via an eBay auction from someone who got the copies from someone who got the copies probably from someone who had worked at Tundra. Since the script for #3 was available, an unknown party went ahead and lettered the art.

Obviously there are a lot of missing steps here. A few pages of the art has previously been published in a magazine called Submedia, but it’s quite noteworthy that the missing pieces of such an important project from such a noted creative team had been floating around for nearly 20 years and just now got restored. (It’s a bootleg to be sure, but Moore has given his blessing to the posting.) It’s sort of like someone finding the lost tracking shot from the last reel of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, or Charles Dickens’ notes for the ending of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

At any rate, it’s fun to live in a time when oddities like that can still be discovered–despite our media saturation, there are still mysteries to be solved, and that’s half the fun of it.

Eddie Campbell has some very noteworthy commentary on the discovery:

this is an important event. I don’t know the whole story of who did it yet, but the entire unpublished third issue of Big Numbers has been cobbled together. I recall asking publisher Kevin Eastman at the time why, even though the 12-issue series was abandoned, he couldn’t put out the existing third issue. He looked at me as though I was daft. Who would want a third issue if they knew there wouldn’t be any after that? Given the number of unexplainables he had already published, and the millions of dollars squandered, I couldn’t follow his logic.

He also mentions this:

Another thing I remembered, and I don’t think I ever mentioned it to Alan, but I always felt a certain resentment that Billy the Sink got Big Numbers and blew it while i was stuck drawing Jack the bloody Ripper for ten years (I once described it as a penny dreadful that costs thirty five bucks).

Eddie, we think you may have had the last laugh.

We haven’t read the third issue yet — we have to find our copies of BIG NUMBERS #1 and 2, which we haven’t read in, oh…20 years or so. For a refresher, here’s Frank Santoro’s take on the book:

Okay, wait, I take that back. It’s an inspired work, but there is this lack of motion, of movement that adds to the density. Beyond the incredible glass shattering sequence in the first issue, it’s basically a quiet European film of a comic. I’m sure Moore’s script was pretty intense and Sienkiewicz does a decent job of mixing and matching talking heads and word balloons with these formal devices that “open up” the page and let it breathe a little. But again because of the photographic sources, there is always this middle ground focus where every character is shot from the waist up, gesturing. There will be two pages of dense talking head panels and then some sharp detailed sketch within a scene (like above) that is very focused, not only in technical articulation but in feeling. They show great restraint and balance and then release into sketchy memory. The pages are clean in their black white and grey purity but somehow the palette only adds to the gloomy claustrophobia of its rigid structure and square format. Big Numbers, just plods on and on formally like this and ultimately feels like a straight-jacket.

Variety reports that Marvel Studios has launched a writers program that will pay several screenwriters to sit around and work on developing Marvel movie ideas.

Marvel will invite up to five writers each year to work on specific projects, said a source familiar with the deal. Those could include staffers behind Marvel’s comicbooks. Tenpercenteries around town are currently pitching potential candidates with writing samples.

The company will provide the specific pitches it wants the scribes to tackle. Those could involve certain plot points for movies already in development or characters it would like to see in its future film slate.

Gathering of scribes will help Marvel come up with creative ways to launch its lesser-known properties, such as Black Panther, Cable, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Nighthawk and Vision.

This sounds all well and good — the writers could make $100k a year– but Nikki Finke says it comes at a price:

One source tells me the terms of the program “are apparently more onerous than the terms of the Disney Writers Program. Before the writers are even allowed to come in and meet, they must sign a non-disclosure agreement and a 70-page, non-negotiable contract. Among other things, the contract gives Marvel ownership over everything the writers create during the one year term of [the] deal, plus a first look and last refusal to any and all projects the writers have previously written or will write for 24 months in the future.” Egads! Unfortunately, with Hollywood feature development at a near standstill, I suspect Marvel could have its pick of film writers in exchange for $5 and a hot lunch.

One of our email pen pals compared this to a Tokyopop type deal, but we suspect Toykopop did not pay its creators $100,000 a year. (Disney has a similar writing program and pays $50,000 a year.) Selling your immediate past and future is indeed a pretty onerous deal, but we hear comics writers are jostling for a place in the program. Go figure.

BONUS: make sure to read the comment section at Finke’s blog for a “spirited debate.”

Wimpy Kid unsurprisingly won two of the inaugural Nickelodeon Magazine Comics Awards, but Naruto got beaten by Pokémon. The winners:

+ Favorite Graphic Novel: Diary of a Wimpy Kid (series), by Jeff Kinney, Amulet Books/Harry Abrams
+ Favorite Comic Book Series: Simpsons comics, Bongo Comics
+ Cutest Comic Character: Snoopy–from Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz (United Feature Syndicate)
+ Favorite Comic Strip: Garfield by Jim Davis (Universal Press Syndicate)
+ Best Hair in Comics: Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson (Universal Press Syndicate)
+ Favorite Manga Series: Best of Pokémon Adventures, by Hidenori Kusaka and Mato (Viz)
+ Grossest Thing in Comics: The Cheese from Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books/Abrams)
+ Favorite Fantasy Graphic Novel: Bone (series), by Jeff Smith

Via PR:

Nickelodeon Magazine, the leading entertainment and humor magazine for kids, announces the winners of the first Nickelodeon Magazine Comics Awards. The eight winners, chosen by more than 17,000 readers, are featured in the April 2009 issue of Nickelodeon Magazine– currently on newsstands. The Nickelodeon Magazine Comics Awards–the first major comics awards for kids–honors the best comic books, strips and graphic novels for kids published across the U.S.

“Our readers have spoken, and thousands have cast their votes,” said Laura Galen, Editorial Director of Nick Magazine. “This contest presented us with a great opportunity to engage our readers and make them a part of the editorial process. We hope they’ll enjoy seeing their favorites in print.”

Over a six week period (Nov. 24–Dec. 31, 2008), readers cast their votes for their favorite comics and characters across eight categories through a mail-in print ballot and online at http://www.nickmag.com. Readers selected their favorite graphic novels, fantasy graphic novels, comic book series, comic strips, manga series, cutest comic characters, best hair in comics and grossest thing in comics.

Rumors flew yesterday that Wizard had canceled Anime Insider, its J-culture-themed magazine, and Newsarama confirmed:

In an email to Newsarama, Gramling writes, “…after several years of producing Anime Insider magazine, Wizard Entertainment has decided to discontinue its publication. The last issue will be Anime Insider #67. We thank our dedicated staffers for all of their hard work, and we thank our readership for their loyal support.”

Johanna Draper Carlson rounds up other recent comics magazine expirations, including Comics Now! — the last issue came out in September, now officially canceled. Comic Foundry and Write Now! are also mentioned, although it should be noted, Comic Foundry ended because its creator just didn’t have time to do it anymore, not really because of economic factors.

Is Comics Comics still coming out? I forget.

The Cartoon Network held its upfronts the other day — you can read the PR here – but like most cable channels, the name of the channel is becoming less and less accurate. Broadcasting & Cable assesses the changes:

Cartoon Network is boosting its live action fare and expanding into unscripted alternative programming in an attempt to woo a slightly older (and potentially more profitable) new crowd.

“Just like the boy that wakes up one day and starts to sound different, our voice is changing too,” said Stu Snyder president and COO of Turner Broadcasting’s Animation, Young Adults and Kids Media division.

Upcoming shows include a live action show about kids working with a demolition expert to blow things up, a show about teenagers asking silly questions, and various other sorts of quiz shows, viral videos and the like.

But there will be SOME cartoons — Genndy Tartakovsky has a new show , and more Ben 10 spin-offs and Scooby Doo movies are in the works. Tartakovsky’s show is called Sym-Bionic Titan, and it’s “an exciting hybrid of high school drama and giant robot battles.”

GIANT ROBOT BATTLES! Back in the olden days, that’s as exciting as it got! Kids didn’t need any fancy demolition quiz videos!

The Cartoon Brew comment section on the announcements has a “spirited discussion” of the announcements.

A tweet yesterday about “packing up my office” prompted some concerned private messages, and I am always touched by concern, but I am just moving office, not leaving office. However, I’ve been packing up all the stuff piled in my cubicle and it’s just insane. My packrat nature has rarely been such a burden. Plus, I’m recovering from a sprained ankle and putting extra weight on it (like say lifting a giant box of books) results in an unpleasant bulgy feeling.

Plus what to do with all these p-p-…comic books. Tons and tons of comic books that I think I will someday get around to reading, just like someday I will get around to climbing Annapurna.

I took heat from one poster yesterday for saying I called comic books periodicals instead of pamphlets, heat which was somewhat justified. In my fatigued state, I should have added the word “now.” I certainly have written about floppies and pamphlets many times, often derisively, but in their current, endangered state that seems kind of below the belt. While editing articles for PW Comics Week, I sometimes find our writers using the word “pamphlet” in a business sense — pamphlet publishers, pamphlet industry. The word “periodical” seems more dignified, perhaps.

The origin of the phrase “32 page pamphlet” as a negative term for periodical comic books is usually attributed to either myself, Kurt Busiek or Marv Wolfman. Specifically it goes back to PROcon, a gathering for comics professionals, back in the early ’90s, that was sort of an industry issue conference. Attendees listened to panels of other pros, and spirited hand raising debates often began. And everyone wore togas.

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Via pr, it seems that ComicMix, the website offering classic and new comics material in serialized webcomic form, has just landed a print deal, via IDW. Previously, a few print editions of ComicMix titles had been published as a one-off for the Baltimore Comic-Con.

IDW Publishing, a leading publisher of comic books and graphic novels, has begun an innovative partnership with ComicMix.com, a free website offering new and classic comics. Through this multi-year agreement, IDW will publish graphic novels, books and comics for ComicMix.com properties, enabling both companies to expand their offerings to customers and retailers, and combine their audience reach.

“ComicMix has a great line up of original and classic brands that are currently only available online, and despite the shift to the virtual world, there is still something unmistakable about reading a real-life book” said Greg Goldstein, chief operating officer of IDW. “IDW is known for producing some of the highest quality books in our industry, and we are looking forward to offering this to fans of ComicMix properties.”

Beginning in the fall of 2009, IDW will release trade paperbacks of ComicMix comics, as well as monthly comics, including many new stories that have previously been only available online at ComicMix.com. Initial titles will include GrimJack: The Manx Cat by John Ostrander and Timothy Truman, Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden by Mike Grell, and Hammer of the Gods by Mark Wheatley and Mike Avon Oeming, among others.

“This is a bit of a homecoming for many of us at ComicMix, because we have had a professional relationship with IDW Publishing over the past several years,” ComicMix Editor-In-Chief Mike Gold noted. “We’re honored to be among such first-rate comics and graphic novels. Quite frankly, I don’t think the ComicMix properties could find a better publishing home than IDW.”

The partnership with ComicMix allows IDW to distribute comics via mobile devices, increasing the company’s growing digital, downloadable publishing program, which already includes several major titles such as Star Trek: Countdown and Ghostbusters.

A few people have emailed us with the link to the WWD article on Marvel’s licensing deals for female apparel and cosmetics. Current items include contemporary fashion tops from Mighty Fine, junior fashion tops from Junk Food, mass fashion tops with Fortune Fashions, and jewelry with H.E.R. Accessories. Later in the year, new products include handbags from Bioworld, stationery with iScream, color cosmetics with Lotta Luv, and watches and fashion jewelry with MZ Berger. The piece contains much of demographic interest:

“Since our core customer has always been guys, we need to be very careful when we introduce female product so that we don’t alienate our core,” said Paul Gitter, president of consumer products, North America, for Marvel Entertainment Inc. “What we have found through testing is that we haven’t alienated them, which gives us the OK to move forward with female product.”

Since 2007, the $5.7 billion consumer products division at Marvel has been testing select items for females, such as graphic character T-shirts at Hot Topic and Gap, and jewelry at Claire’s, among other items at select mass and mid-tier retailers. What executives at the firm found while testing was that when it comes to females, relevance to trends is key. Simply relying on the character alone to sell themselves doesn’t fly.

[Thanks to Jeff and Steve for sending the article.]

BIG NUMBERS may just be the most checked out comic in the Library of Imaginary Books — a companion piece to FROM HELL and LOST GIRLS as one of the projects Alan Moore launched when he left DC in the late ’80s, two issues, with art by Bill Sienkiewicz, were published by Moore’s own Mad Love imprint (distributed by Tundra.). As opposed to his other, more period and fantasy-influenced tales, this would have been contemporary fiction in a slightly more traditional vein, if you consider Philip K. Dick traditional. The story was inspired by fractal numbers and chaos theory and was at one point called The Mandelbrot Set.

Sienkiewicz left the series after the second issue and Al Columbia took over as artist. What happened next depends on who you ask. What all agree on is that Columbia also withdrew from drawing the book, perhaps after destroying an entire issue’s worth of art.

Some Sienkiewicz art for #3 did exist at some point, however, and an LJ user aptly named Glycon has just posted them:

In any case, everything I know leads me to believe that this is a copy of the unpublished third issue of Big Numbers, and I genuinely didn’t believe it existed, and certainly never expected to actually see a copy, led alone own one. Even Alan Moore doesn’t have a copy, to the very best of my knowledge, which in this case is considerable, as I decided to specifically ask his permission before I posted this here. He is happy for it to be made available to the world, so here it is.

Get ‘em while their hot!

Spike Jonze, I never stopped believing in you.

§ THE COURIERS, by Brian Wood and Rob G, has been picked up by Intrepid Pictures. Javier Grillo-Marxuach, formerly of Lost, and more recently of a bunch of comical books of his own, will write the script. “The series follows the adventures of two gun-toting mercenary couriers named Moustafa and Special who take on jobs other couriers will not tackle, involving intelligence, large cash transfers, protection, assassinations and blockade-running.”

§ Meanwhile, THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF H.P. LOVECRAFT, a graphic novel by Mac Carter and Jeff Blitz which hasn’t even been published yet, has been picked up as a potential directing vehicle for Ron Howard:

U sparked to “Lovecraft” because its take on classic horror fits in well with the studio’s library of monster fare featuring Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and the Wolf Man, the last of which is being brought back to the bigscreen later this year.

Created by Mac Carter and Jeff Blitz, book borrows elements from Lovecraft’s life, such as his family’s struggle with mental illness and his own bouts with writer’s block, and transforms the young writer’s darkest nightmares into reality when he comes across a book that puts a curse on him and lets the evils he conjures up loose on the world.

Will the film portray Lovecraft as the oddball, mother-fixated, asexual racist many think he was? Hm, didn’t Howard direct A BEAUTIFUL MIND, which completely omitted the fact that the (real) main character was bisexual? We shall see.

The graphic novel, btw, was apparently drawn by the very talented Tony Salmons — a page art is seen above.

§ Director Matthew Vaughn had such a great time making a commando-style (i.e. self-financed) film based on Mark Millar’s KICK-ASS, that the duo may team again for an “AMERICAN JESUS” movie:

Vaughn is eyeing Millar’s “American Jesus” as his next directing vehicle, which would be produced by Vaughn and his Marv Films partner Kris Thykier and financed independently in the same manner as “Kick-Ass.”

The story centers on the return of Christ in the modern world, leading to a final confrontation with the Antichrist in a bid to save humanity.

The book debuted as CHOSEN, and the artist is Peter Gross. We wonder if a film with this title would be controversial at all? Probably not, but it’s funny to think about.

§ Finally, to those of you fretting over whether WATCHMEN’s tepid reception has killed the superhero movie, this headline will come as gladsome news: Wolverine ‘heralds new age of superhero movies’:

The film, it says, “heralds a whole new approach to the superhero movie” because it goes beyond Wolverine’s backstory and introduces a gallery of other comic book favourites such as Deadpool and Gambit.

Empire’s Helen O’Hara writes: “So it’s not quite a simple spin-off like 2005’s ill-fated Elektra, not quite a prequel or reboot like Batman Begins – rather part of a spreading trend in Hollywood to look beyond the obvious Franchise III: Return of the Whatever formula for superhero sequels.”

Hooray! We were very worried for a bit, but all is well now!

§ Steven Grant looks at DC’s return to back-up features:

Not that DC’s heart is in the wrong place. In a sane market, the move makes perfect sense. Raising prices is a great way to lose sheaves of readers who might be forgiven for bristling at paying more money for the same amount of material. The theory is sound: add enough additional material to offset reader doubts and offset the additional cost of the additional material with the additional income provided by the higher price. In theory, it should work, even if the general scheme smacks a bit of if we had some eggs we could have some ham and eggs if we had some ham. All things being equal, it would work.

BTW we have many evolving thoughts on the evolution of the “pamphlet” or the “periodical”, as we prefer to call it, but finding time to give them a coherent shape continues to elude us. Some day.

§ The Great Recession may be killing newspapers and cutting a swath through the ranks of editorial cartoonists, but financial bad times are GOOD times…for Dilbert!

As it turns out, economic collapse benefits at least one oppressed office worker. Dilbert, the iconic cartoon character who represents the crushed souls and wrecked dreams of so many cubicle dwellers, is having a banner year.

In February, dilbert.com handled 1.5 million unique visitors, among the busiest of months in the site’s history. Maybe that’s because lately the strip’s stories of pointed-haired bosses, corporate gobbledygook and naked incompetence feel like chicken soup for our downsized souls.

An interview with Scott Adams follows.

§ Sean T. Collins has the first long consumer review of David Mazzucchelli’s long awaited graphic NOVEL, ASTERIOS POLYP, that we’ve seen:

What I can say with confidence, however, is that I enjoyed that story immensely. And a big part of that is because this isn’t a Woody Allen film or a Philip Roth novel–it’s a comic, and there’s no mistaking it. Yeah, the basic story could be told in other ways, but if you wanted an illustration of that old saw that you should be able to look at a comic and determine why it’s a comic and not a movie pitch or a short story, look no further. Mazzucchelli clearly had a blast drawing this thing.

(Btw, we read it and liked it.)

§ Disappointment. This headline from Women’s Wear Daily looked so promising:Marvel Debuts Female Apparel and Cosmetics…but goddam it, they have a paywall! We’ll have to leave non-subscribers to only imagine White Queen lingerie, Wasp (female) concealer, She-Hulk after-shave skin conditioner, and Aunt May elastic-waist slacks.

§ BUT — see Tom Crippen on Stan Lee’s female characters before you get too excited.

§ We’re GUESSING, this story on a college talk by Ivan Brunetti was evidently written by a college journalism student because it’s got that weird AP style one-sentence-to-a-paragraph thing going on with absolutely no sense of how people talk, and the awkward result becomes a kind of clumsy poetry:

One of the cartoons Brunetti presented in the slide show was about his first wife in what he considered “a marriage from hell.”

He also showed naked cartoon drawings of himself.

“I am getting rid of my persona or façade,” Brunetti said.

In some of his works, he made fun of his co-workers.

Brunetti said usually people are OK with it.

“One co-worker was angry,” he said. “But the drawing wasn’t even of her, anyway.”

§ However THIS college paper human interest story about young student/fencer/cartoonist Sam Tung is a real charmer:

Wrought in a clean, high-contrast black-and-white style that sometimes resembles a woodcut, the story is set in the Dustbowl of ‘30s. “It was a strange, uneasy point in American history and kind of a cool retro thing,” notes Tung. “I enjoyed researching it.” The hero, a former mercenary, and his buddy, have unwittingly been hired to transport what turns out to be a doomsday device. Machine-gun toting bad guys, bent on stealing the goods, unleash on them gunfire and booby traps at every turn.

This story has everything but a byline, apparently. Oh well.

Flickr and Twitter are pretty much the Infinite Monkey Theory in actual practice–ultimate ephemeral randomness, projected from the brains of a representative sampling that approaches the average. And now you can prove it by turning these two movable zeitgeists into comics via a randomizer!

Infinite Monkey Comics takes a similar approach, however with less deliberation (and even fewer humans), and presents you with a random image from Flickr superimposed with some random text off of Twitter based on keywords of your choosing.

We typed in “toast ” and “spree” and got the masterpiece seen above. (Click for a larger image.)

You know how when you are painting a watercolor and you rinse your brush in the water and eventually all the colors blend in and you get a greyish/brownish/reddish muck? The no-color that is all colors? It is possible we have achieved that, but with much more effort.

If you watched last week’s episode, you know where this is going. So let’s get right to it.

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A post at Consumerist rounds up a variety of bad owen surrounding troubled big box bookstore chain Borders:

Yesterday’s post about Borders closing down its unprofitable CD and DVD sections prompted a tip from the owner of a small music label. He says his distributor has already cut off shipments to Borders once for nonpayment (in November 2008), and on Monday the distributor warned labels that they’ll have to agree not to hold him “liable on any future shipments to Borders in case they file for bankruptcy.” Borders’ CFO left in January, which is rarely a good sign for a troubled company. And this morning, the Detroit Free Press notes that the bookseller is facing being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. We may not have to wait long to find out; CEO Ron Marshall is hosting a conference call with analysts and investors next week.

The grim comments section has even more baleful signs, including this:

I work at a B&N in a town where there is also a Borders, and I’ve been hearing various grumblings from customers recently, from Borders not being able to special order certain items, or requiring that all special orders be paid for ahead of time. These weren’t always small-press books either, some of them were from major publishers. Word was that it was because their suppliers were not getting paid and were severely limiting what they could get. The above story seems to support that.

Borders’ financial troubles have been a point of much worry among comics publishers and distributors — some of the smarter among them are making future plans around the idea that there will not be a Borders around very soon. At the very least, proceeding with caution around the retailer would seem to be a necessity.

What does everyone think would be the result of a World Without Borders®?

The Harvey Awards nominations close Friday, so if you haven’t organized your voting tong yet, hurry up! Ballots are downloadable at the above link.

A. David Lewis has made SOME NEW KIND OF SLAUGHTER, a look at mythic floods by the writer and MP Mann, available to download for FREE at the above link. The move is to get more people to read it and nominate it for a Harvey Award, but it’s also just a good comic, so enjoy.

Anne Cleveland, a cartoonist from the ’30s to the ’50s, whose main subject was college humor and her alma mater, Vassar, has died at age 92, according to a comment on this blog by her granddaughter, Ursula. We’ve taken the liberty of reprinting the comment here with some minor technical editing:

My grandmother died in February 2009 (she was born in May 1916, not 1917, so the previous age was wrong). The Oregonian refused to publish a paid obituary with a cartoon instead of a photograph– yeah, I know, my mother is up in arms about it.

Anne had a twin brother, Van (short for Van Buren; I think that was his middle name), and two younger brothers, Stanley and Harlan. Her father had volunteered as a clergyman in WWI; he died of a blood infection contracted during that time period when Anne was a girl (somewhere between ten and thirteen). Her mother supported the family; she worked at Andover as a house mother for a while, and eventually became Dean of Women at Rollins College.

Anne started out at Vassar as a classics major, and soon switched to art history. (There are several family legends about her ability to identify art forgeries.) At some point she taught a few classes at Rollins; during WWII she worked for the WAC, drawing maps. (My mother has some sketches of Anne’s fellow WACs.)

My grandfather’s name is Augustus R. White; to this day, he says that he married Anne because she was the most brilliant woman he’d ever met. Anne and Gus had two children, A. Tobias White and my mother, Susan (now Susan Whitcher). Gus’s family had lived in Shanghai before the War, and maintained business interests in Japan afterwards; that’s why Anne spent time in Japan (where my mother was born).

I understand that in addition to the books, which one can buy on Amazon, Anne published some cartoons in the New Yorker, but I have not yet tracked them down . . .

Anne & Gus divorced c. 1965. After that, Anne spent a couple of years in New York, battling depression, then moved to Ashland, Oregon. She lived in Ashland until the early 1980s, until she moved to Baltimore to be closer to my mother; she moved back to Portland, Oregon with my family in 1992.

Cleveland’s cartooning career was fairly minimal, but she became something of a cause celebré here at this blog, for various reasons. Instead of rehashing that, we’ll just post links to appreciations by Shaenon K. Garrity, here, here, and here. (We’ve stolen a photo of young Cleveland and a cartoon from Garrity.) Our last post on Cleveland can be found here. Our condolences to her family, and thanks to Ursula for passing on the news.

Craig Yoe has been reminding us to remind you about his new blog, Secret Identity, which both celebrates the release of his Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Shuster — which just came out this week! — and other matters of some…naughty import. Plus, he’ll be talking about the book — which, as the title suggests, reveals a little-known facet of Shuster’s career – in April!

draws…things.