COWL is an Image Comics series which stylishly depicts an alternate history Chicago of the pre-”swinging” 1960s, when the (in)famously political city experienced all manner of socioeconomic upheaval — including the dissolution of the Chicago Organized Workers League. Also known as COWL, it’s a union for costumed superheroes, and its days are numbered.

Besides the very cool and original artwork of Rod Reis, we like COWL because it avoids some traps into which most non-Marvel and non-DC cape comics fall. Crucially, despite its “real-world” premise and period setting, COWL is not a Watchmen cover version, offering a decidedly less dour tone and honest-to-god superhero adventure blended deftly with its dramatic take on city politics. Sometimes it’s even really funny. The book also bucks the origin fetish of the superhero genre by introducing us to its intriguing cast not at the start of their sagas, but at what might be the end.

Last week at Comic-Con International in San Diego, we had a chance to talk to COWL co-writers Kyle Higgins and Alec Siegel about their series.

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Matt Kindt and Jeff Lemire, the co-writers of the upcoming miniseries The Valiant -- a prestige-format miniseries featuring Bloodshot, Geomancer and Eternal Warrior -- have each done superhero work in the past, but they've really made their names with creator-owned work that they wrote and drew. Kindt's Mind MGMT has taken off, and Lemire struck a chord with series including Sweet Tooth and Trillium.

Those credentials are part of why Valiant invited the two creators to work on the new miniseries -- one that's being touted as an entry point for new readers, but also as a turning point for the whole Valiant Universe. They've been given some wiggle room to develop a character-based story and put their creative voices to work. The result is something both writers seem really proud of, not to mention a story that's bound to look good, with artwork by Paolo Rivera.

We sat down with Lemire and Kindt at San Diego Comic-Con International to ask them about their collaboration, how their backgrounds in cartooning inform their superhero work, and how Valiant's universe differs from others.

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Each week, ComicsAlliance’s Chris Sims and Matt Wilson host the War Rocket Ajax podcast, their online audio venue for interviews with comics creators, reviews of the books of the week, and whatever else they want to talk about. ComicsAlliance is offering clips of the comics-specific segments of the show, usually several days before the full podcast goes up at WarRocketAjax.com on Mondays.

This week is a little different because Chris and Matt attending Comic-Con International in San Diego, and time fell into a deep, inescapable vortex. It certainly wasn't all bad, though, so the two of them are listing their bests and worsts of the show this year, including seeing celebrities in their element, watching the Gotham pilot, buying cool stuff, cosplay, the massive crowds, and so much more.

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The early ’90s were spoiled for choice when it came to comic book adaptations. Not only was Batman: The Animated Series on the air, but X-Men led Marvel’s push to get on the small screen, diving right into the often convoluted continuity of everyone’s favorite mutants, luring in a generation of fans, and paving the way for cartoons to follow. That’s why we’ve set out to review every single episode of the ’90s X-Men animated series.

This week, it's Walking Tall starring Cyclops. For real.

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When discussing the oeuvre of David Lapham, the comic that comes up again and again is obviously Stray Bullets. As great as Stray Bullets is, though, it tends to overshadow the rest of Lapham's body of work rather unfairly in some cases. Despite the several very good comics that Lapham has produced besides his most famous title – including the incomplete Young Liars, the raucous Juice Squeezers, and of course WWF Battlemania – none can match the near-mythic level of quality and reputation of Stray Bullets, and tend to just get left out of the conversation.

The new trade paperback collection of Murder Me Dead, available July 23 from Image Comics, could help change that trend. A dark, stirring, and emotionally manipulative noir about self-destruction, lies, and guilt, it may be the best “other” Lapham comic in his catalog.

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Welcome to the latest episode of ComicsAlliance Presents “Kate or Die,” a series of exclusive comic strips created by one of our favorite cartoonists, Kate Leth! In this episode, Kate offers some advice to cope with the frequently painful aftermath of a big comic book convention like last weekend's San Diego Comic-Con International.

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As you know from our weekly Best Cosplay Ever feature, we are big fans of cosplay at ComicsAlliance. The comics, sci-fi, gaming and fantasy communities’ talents for homemade disguises, craftsmanship, and sartorial superheroics are definitely on display this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, and you’d better believe our own Pat Loika is on hand to document as much as he can. Scroll down for some exceptional examples of superheroic cosplaying talent that we spotted in San Diego!

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Among the colorful cosplay, massive booths, interactive displays and walls of merchandise at Comic-Con International in San Diego — colloquially known as SDCC — remains the most important component of the show: comic book creators. ComicsAlliance photographer and Loikiamania podcast host Pat Loika hit the show floor to catch the men and women who tell our favorite stories in sequential art and captured the enthusiasm that comes from fans getting to meet their favorite storytellers at one of the biggest conventions of the year.

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Eighteen years after Fight Club first saw print, author Chuck Palahniuk is returning to the world of Project Mayhem for a sequel — Fight Club 2 -- which will take the form of a ten issue comic book series illustrated by Cameron Stewart and published by Dark Horse.

In this interview conducted at Comic-Con International in San Diego, the author talks to ComicsAlliance about why he chose to revisit the world of Fight Club, why he chose to do so in the comics medium, the process of learning how to write comics, his collaboration with Cameron Stewart, and how his ant-hero Tyler Durden may be much more than a figment in the Narrator's imagination, but a force of nature dating back millennia, shaping all of human history to facilitate a plan he has for the Narrator's nine-year-old son. And quite a bit more besides.

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Remember 2005? Back when we didn't have a lot of good comic book movies to celebrate? Back before the first 300 movie, when the whole idea of that posturing "no homo" otherness-phobic carnival of green screened pomposity seemed like it might be exciting? Back before Frank Miller's swastika-festooned The Spirit left a bad taste in everyone's mouths? Back when people were still insisting The Dark Knight Strikes Again was actually good satire, before Holy Terror confirmed that, no, Frank Miller is actually frighteningly sincere? Back when we clung to deniability?

Good news, everyone! It's 2005 again, and we get another chance to pretend Mickey Rourke poking his head through a loaf of bread is a thing that works. Here's another Sin City: A Dame To Kill For trailer, and it's everything you'd expect it to be; stylish and insubstantial, with the promise of ample degradation. It's also 'Red Band,' which means you have to be a mature person to watch it, ironically.

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