Even if you're not a toy collector, there's something inescapably cool about the action figures, statues and other gear on display at fan conventions. Whether they're massive and costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars, or little itty bitty things that still cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars, the toys found at San Diego's Comic-Con International serve the dual purpose of advertising new collectibles for those so inclined, but also standing as three-dimensional tributes to the comic book superheroes and other characters upon which Comic-Con and so much of fan culture was built -- in many cases, actually designed by the artists whose work we love so much.

For the non-collector, these are just really exquisite pieces of fan art, especially as seen through the lens of ComicsAlliance's SDCC photographer Pat Loika, who spent a lot of time in the DC Collectibles and Sideshow Collectibles to document what two of the industry's leading toymakers had to show off at the San Diego show.

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The 2014 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards ceremony took place Friday 25th July in the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, as part of San Diego Comic-Con. It was a good night for Saga, Hawkeye, and the Hernandez brothers. Presenters included Orlando Jones, Reginald Hudlin, Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick, Sergio Aragonés, Phil LaMarr, and Kevin Eastman. ComicsAlliance has a full list of winners, as well as the other nominees in each category.

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Writer of ComicsAlliance favorites The Wake and Batman, Scott Snyder is enjoying a kind of imperial phase of his comic book career, where everything he releases is met with commercial popularity as well as critical success. A long form collaboration with artists Greg Capullo, Danny Miki and FCO Plascencia, Batman has been the unquestionable leader of DC Comics' "New 52" line of superhero titles, routinely appearing in the #1 spot of monthly sales charts and just completing a wild and operatic revision of the Dark Knight's origin story in "Zero Year" -- an arc that CA's resident Batmanologist Chris Sims suspects may go down as one of his favorite Batman stories of all time.

But beneath Batman's twisty plots and memorably big moments lies the true trademark of Snyder's work; a conscious, almost intuitive sense of his characters' psychology and inner lives. It's Snyder's fundamental understanding of his heroes and villains that drives all the occasionally over-the-top action of his series, and of Batman especially.

Dr. Andrea Letamendi is a clinical psychologist and co-host of The Arkham Sessions -- the ComicsAlliance feature focused exclusively on psychology as expressed in Batman: The Animated Series -- and she sat down with Snyder at Comic-Con International in San Diego for a chat about the themes of mental health in not just his work, but in his own life.

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Marvel is committing fully to Angela with the character's first ongoing series, Angela: Asgard's Assassin, which comes with yet more surprises. It's a solo title starring a female lead, which of course is still rare in American superhero comics, and it's also drawn by Phil Jimenez, whose long association with certain amazon princesses and other distinctly powerful women characters sends a very loud and clear message about Marvel's intentions for Angela.

Joining Jimenez is writer Kieron Gillen, himself one of Marvle's most acclaimed Asgardian scholars, if you will, having done very well regarded runs on Journey Into Mystery and Thor. Also writing Angela is Marguerite Bennett, who's penned numerous books for DC and other publishers, but who this year landed two ongoings in the form of Angela and the recently announced Sleepy Hollow. As part of the book's unique "stories-within-stories" structure that you'll read about below, Bennett will collaborate with noted cover artist and illustrator Stephanie Hans, who's making a relatively rare visit to the realm of sequential storytelling to help make Angela that much more distinct.

ComicsAlliance spoke with all four creators and series editor Wil Moss about the endlessly impressive surprise that is Angela.

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For years now, DC Comics fans have been hearing about writer Grant Morrison's The Multiversity -- a universe-jumping series of one-shot stories tied together by an introductory and concluding issue that tracks the cosmic monitor Nix Woton as he tries to save multiple universes from an existential threat. Universes that become aware of this threat by reading about it in comic books... comic books that, it turns out, take place in neighboring universes. We first saw artwork from Frank Quitely's installment all the way back in 2012, but the project has been in the works since even before the advent of DC's line-wide 2011 reboot, the New 52 (a name that has proven confusing in the past, but, we promise, never more so than in this interview).

Now it's finally starting next month, featuring auspicious collaborations with artists including Cameron Stewart, Ben Oliver, Chris Sprouse, Ivan Reis, Frank Quitely, and even more besides, introducing readers to a Vampire Batman, a Nazi Superman, a dinosaur cop, "Sister Miracle," an evil comic book called Ultra Comics, and tons of other ideas inspired by the deep history of DC Comics lore.

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Photographer Pat Loika and the bloggers of ComicsAlliance have been been exploring the scene in and around the San Diego Convention Center since Comic-Con kicked off earlier this week, and what follows is a compilation of some of what's been uncovered so far. As you can see, SDCC is a hotbed of cosmic-religious strife, homeless Batmen, and Donal Logue.

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After decades of waiting, fans of the beloved Batman television show of the 1960s -- or Batman '66 as it is known -- will finally be able to own all 120 episodes on home video, and in high definition. After protracted litigation with series owner Fox, DC Comics' parent company Warner Bros. has set November 11 as the on-sale date for the completely remastered Batman '66, which will be available on Blu-ray, DVD, digital, and, of course, a super expensive collector's edition that comes with all sorts of groovy stuff, including a selection of photos from star Adam West's personal archives (when you're as mature and sophisticated as West, you get to have "personal archives").

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Spotted by ComicsAlliance photographer Pat Loika walking away from the San Diego Convention Center this week was doubtlessly the most Deadpoolish bit of Deadpoolery we've ever seen in 3D space (today). It's not hard to imagine Usagi Tsukino and the rest of the Sailor scouts enjoying their day before Sailor Deadpool jumps into the scene and just Deadpools all over the place as they watch completely speechless and aghast.

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What if Batman had a fur-lined cape? Or had Scribblenauts on his cowl? Or was Rorschach?

All those questions and more were answered at the Cape/Cowl/Create Exhibition hosted by DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Vice magazine at Comic-Con International in San Diego. The whole thing was a promotion for the new Batman: Arkham Knight game, and used the cape and cowl designs from the game as a basis for the artwork. The concept resulted in some pretty cool stuff, and the opulence of the event was a vivid expression of just how big the Arkham games have become -- often, installations like these are reserved for big tech franchise announcements.

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Asgard already boasts an unlikely agent in the form of young trickster god Loki. Now it has an unlikely assassin as well, as Loki's sis from another exis(tence), Angela, gets her own solo title this November, Angela: Asgard's Assassin.

The new series by writers Kieron Gillen and Margeurite Bennett and artists Phil Jimenez and Stephanie Hans was announced at the Avengers NOW panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday -- the same panel where Al Ewing and Luke Ross's Captain America And The Mighty Avengers was unveiled.

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