Avatar

Death is not the end when more profits are possible.

Doing a police procedural in a fantasy setting isn't an entirely new idea in comics. Antony Johnston and Justin Greenwood launched the genre into a fresh orbit last year with The Fuse. Before that, Top 10 and Powers mashed it up with superhero universes. Just last week, the first issue of Si Spurrier and Jeff Stokely's The Spire dragged it into a Jim Henson-esque fantasy world. Now, with Mercury Heat, Kieron Gillen and Omar Francia have transported the murder mystery far enough into the future that Murder She Wrote is studied as one of the classics, and far enough from Earth to reach the solar system's smallest, hottest planet. This first issue doesn't quite reveal how Mercury Heat is going to stack up against the competition, but it does introduce a fascinating, dense setting.

At this year's San Diego Comic-Con, many thought that The Legend of Korra panel would be a farewell to the characters of the much-loved series, as creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino came together to talk to fans about this year's finale. However, much to the surprise of pretty much everybody, the pair instead announced plans to pick up the story right from where the last episode ended with a series of graphic novels from Dark Horse.

Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows' pandemic horror comic Crossed has been in print since 2008, but now Avatar Press is taking the brutal act online with a webcomic sequel. Crossed: Wish You Were Here (not safe for work or anyone with a sensitive stomach) has just debuted, giving all of its gory murder and dolphin rape away for free...

Art: Robot 6 compiles Lady Gaga illustrations after the recent release of her "Telephone" duet with Beyonce. Interviews: Kurt Busiek gets interviewed by a Girl Scout. Tributes: Frank Miller offers a touching tribute to "Sin City" actress Brittany Murphy, who passed away late year...

Even though its initial hype has passed, Jame's Cameron's "Avatar," remains a money-guzzling machine and a conversation piece for those who take issue with its fairly derivative storyline and Cameron's general spectacle-over-substance approach to grossing hundreds of millions of dollars...

While our partner blog TV Squad has John Scott Lewinski fighting his way through hordes of overweight Rorschachs and pre-pubescent Chun Lis we'd also like to highlight that Cinematical is in the house doing a bang-up job. The movie side of the annual pop-culture cavalcade opened with one of the biggest names in the history of film and what could very well be one of the biggest names in the future

Though we're only on day two of Comic Con, the biggest (and most talked-about) event has already taken place. Yesterday afternoon James Cameron arrived in San Diego and screened roughly 25 minutes of footage from his much buzzed-about sci-fi flick Avatar...

BLACK SUMMER: HORUS 8 inch figureRetail Price: $24.99 USPackage Art: Juan Jose RypFormat: 8 inch figure in a clam-shell packageUPC: 890007002011 Straight from the pages of Warren Ellis' smash-hit series Black Summer, Horus is now available as an action figure ...