Editor's Picks

A few months ago, we brought you the news that Netflix was producing a TV show based on Harvey Comics' infuriatingly wealthy Richie Rich, which naturally led to me venting my boundless rage against the insufferable little tow-headed one-percenter and then doing my best to forget it was happening. Now, though, the Richening is finally upon us.

Every now and then, an announcement comes along that seems so perfectly natural that you start to wonder why it hasn't happened before. Case in point: Dynamite announced today that they are reviving Will Eisner's The Spirit as an ongoing series written and drawn by Matt Wagner, set to launch at this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. The Spirit is, of course, one of the most groundbreaking comics of all time, originally appearing as a newspaper strip that in many ways reads like it was 20 years ahead of its time (while also, it should be noted, featuring the problematic elements of its era). With over 30 years of experience writing and drawing some of the best comics around, Wagner is a natural choice to put his spin on the character.

A group of comic artists including The Kitchen's Ming Doyle (artist site), Unbeatable Squirrel Girl's Erica Henderson (artist site), Howard the Duck's Joe Quinones, (artist site) and Where Is Jake Ellis's Jordan Gibson (artist site) recently came together to brainstorm and illustrate some of their favorite celebrities for #DCBend, a Tumblr-based fancast of the heroes and villains of the DCU with women in male roles and men in female roles. While the concept of gender-swapped casting and fan art for comic movies is not a new one, DCBend has lead to some really inspired choices by some of the rising stars of comics. Check out the entire gallery, including some that are debuting for the first time on ComicsAlliance.

The news that Marvel and Sony have reached a deal to integrate Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been enthusiastically received by fans keen to see the webslinger interact with Marvel's Avengers heroes -- and to see Spider-Man characters and Marvel Universe characters mixed into the same great pot. Though Sony retains control of the Spidey franchise, a closer working relationship with Marvel may also help turn around Sony's lackluster performance on the Spider-Man movies. But there is a downside to this new arrangement. Actor Andrew Garfield is reportedly out of the running in the lead role of Peter Parker. The Amazing Spider-Man movies had an abundance of flaws, but Garfield as Parker and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy were the two things the movies did right. Garfield looked and acted the part, both physically inhabiting the role and bringing to life the charm, vulnerability, and energy of the character. It feels like he never got to make a Spider-Man movie equal to his talents. But if he can't have the job anymore, there is one other actor we'd like to see take his place, and that's Donald Glover.

Divergence follows Convergence this June, as DC unveiled details today of a bold new line-up of post-Convergence titles that suggest that the publisher has learned lessons from past reboots, recent successes, and the best efforts of its rivals at Marvel and Image. The new line-up marks the formal end of the New 52 as a DC brand, though presumably not the end of the continuity it established. Where that initiative took an indiscriminate approach to overhauling the line, and seemed fixated on a young male demographic, the new DC seems determined to appear accessible to new audiences, and offers a more interesting array of titles -- and creators.

This week saw the release of the Multiversity Guidebook, a sort of map for a series of one-shot stories that has inspired a lot of contemplation, examination and confusion among comic fans. To offer an even deeper look into the universe-spanning series and its meaning, ComicsAlliance spoke with writer Grant Morrison about everything we could manage in half an hour: where the idea for The Gentry comes from, Morrison's commentary on Watchmen in Pax Americana, the idea of dangerous knowledge, how these seemingly standalone stories tie together, and just how this sprawling project will wrap up.

Emerald City Comicon is now part of ReedPOP. ComicsAlliance has confirmed that as part of the acquisition of ECCC, director Jim Demonakos and his staff will remain not just with ECCC, but actually join ReedPOP in expanded roles that will see them involved with organizing and executing other conventions as well, both in the United States and internationally. Indeed, in this exclusive interview with Demonakos and ReedPOP vice present Lance Fensterman, the new union's stated goal is to find ways for " what makes Emerald City so much fun for creators to be infused into New York and C2E2."

The Wall Street Journal published Diamond Comic Distributors' list of the top-selling comics publishers for 2014 Friday morning, and for the most part, it's all the usual suspects. Marvel was No. 1 with more than a third of the market share, in both dollars and units. DC was reasonably close behind. Image, IDW, Dark Horse, Dynamite and Boom Studios took the next spots. Then comes number eight. Eaglemoss Publications. Wait. What? Who?

Sarah McIntyre, the author and illustrator of popular children's books including Jampires, There's A Shark In The Bath, and You Can't Eat A Princess, has presented an inspiring response to the massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo earlier this week. On her Twitter account she declared, "Let 2015 be the year more people from around the world take up cartooning/comics to tell their stories." Cartoonists responded to the deaths at Charlie Hebdo -- which included the deaths of five of their peers -- with cartoons that encouraged defiance and free expression. McIntyre took the idea one step further, encouraging people who have never expressed themselves through cartoons to see this as a moment to stand up and tell their stories. On her Livejournal she offers advice on how to get started.

Writer Grant Morrison undertook a major magnum opus with Batman Incorporated. As the culmination of his seven-year-run on the character, working in collaboration with artists including Cameron Stewart, Frazer Irving, Yanick Paquette, and Chris Burnham, he offered up perhaps hs definitive deconstruction of the character of Batman through the creation of a global Batman franchise. Yet as series colorist Nathan Fairbairn tells us, Batman Incorporated experienced an unusual road bump in the form of a line-wide reboot that potentially undermined the thesis behind the whole series. Writing exclusively for ComicsAlliance, Fairbairn reveals how some pages were re-drawn for the book's Absolute collection, which arrived in stores this week.