David Brothers

What a week! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to sit back and read some comics. The weekend is finally here, and the world can relax and rest once more — but the comics industry has been busy too, you know, and the last seven days have seen a flurry of comics-based news and announcements fly past at high speed. ComicsAlliance has got your back, though: when it comes to comics, we never slow down, and so here’s a look back and just what’s been going on. New comics, new stories, new podcasts, new art being made — it’s all part of the ComicsAlliance Weekender!

The weekend is here! Put down your paperwork, throw your stationery out of the window, and do a victory spin in your office chair, because it’s time to catch up on that greatest of all media: comics! What’s been going on this week? There’s so much comics that there’s no way anybody can keep up with all of it — so Weekender is here to catch you up on some of the stories you may have missed, and some of the best writing about comics from the past few days.

The week’s over! And with it we reach the final days of September --- which you've all done a dazzling job with, by all accounts. But while you’ve been off working and living and doing all those things that humans do, what have you missed in the world of comics? With Weekender, ComicsAlliance is here to give you a heads-up on some of the stories that you might have overlooked, and to showcase some great writing on comics for you to enjoy over buttery crumpets this weekend.

If you were to pull a random sampling of professionals from across the comics industry and poll them on their favorite modern-day creators, Mike Mignola's name would doubtlessly rank near the top. Since he burst on the scene at Marvel in the early 1980s, pencilling an obscure limited series about a talking space raccoon, he's matured brilliantly – from his seminal work at DC Comics (pencilling books including World Of Krypton, Cosmic Odyssey, and Batman: Gotham By Gaslight), to his work at Topps, Marvel, and other companies in the early '90s (on Ironwolf, Bram Stoker's Dracula, various X-books, and many other titles), to his move into creator-owned comics with the mighty Hellboy, he's maintained a unique voice and an immediately recognizable art style, bettering himself with each successive project, evolving and refining his voice at every opportunity. Whether it's baby Hellboy eating a forbidden breakfast, a snake and a magician flying kites, or a robotic super-spy with a detachable head in the employ of President Lincoln, there's a dry-yet-absurd tone to Mignola stories that drips with the glee of innovation and possibility, yet manages to keep it all contained within straight-faced third-person storytelling. And so, today, a few days after his 54th birthday, we're excited to celebrate Mike Mignola's career with a few fellow fans (who also happen to be notable comic-makers in their own right).

Sergio Aragones was born in Spain in 1937, moved to Mexico with his family in the early 1940s, and after attending the University Of Mexico, settled in the United States in 1962. His cartoons first appeared in Mad Magazine at the end of that year, and he quickly became one of the publication's most popular contributors. In the years since, he's become well-known to comic readers as the co-creator and writer of DC Comics' western hero Bat Lash and a contributor to countless other titles (including Plop!, Fanboy, The Mighty Magnor, The Simpsons, and Actions Speak); he's continued his association with Mad (appearing in 452 of the 453 issues published since his debut); he's produced a number of bestselling paperback books; and, of course, he continues to produce comics telling the stories of his best-known creation, the bumbling barbarian with a weakness for cheese dip, the inimitable Groo The Wanderer. To mark the occasion of his birthday (September 6), we've reached out to a few of our favorite modern-day creators to join us in paying tribute to Sergio and celebrating his life and work.

This week on ComicsAlliance's War Rocket Ajax Podcast, we're finally back from San Diego! Chris and Matt are joined by CA's own Andy Khouri and David Brothers for a roundtable discussion on the highs and lows of the biggest comic book event of the year, and you can listen to the whole show right here...

It's been a little more than a week since we got home from Comic-Con, which means our bags are (mostly) unpacked and our lives have returned to whatever passes for normal in the blogosphere. Rested and cured of Con Crud, we're reflecting on what went on when we weren't on duty and had a chance to celebrate the true meaning of Comic-Con: Buying awesome things...

Rejoice! If you didn't get a chance to go to New York Comic-Con and check out the Ask ComicsAlliance panel, now you can watch it ONLINE. And if you were one of the lucky 400 people that got to come to our panel, now you can see it again! SPOILER ALERT: We throw Flash Cakes and Glo-Balls at people...