june brigman

Over the past couple of weeks, DC Comics' Convergence event has resulted in some of the most exciting and most bizarre announcements since the company threw out their previous shared universe canon in favor of the "New 52" reboot -- especially since the core idea of next April's big crossover is that they're bringing back a bunch of the versions of characters that they got rid of for a big battle against the new batch. Last week was particularly enticing for long-time fans, teasing us with Greg Rucka's return to writing Renee Montoya in The Question and Gail Simone going back to the fan-favorite pairing of Nightwing/Oracle. This week, they've attempted to top that with a whole new roster of books, and this time they're set in a pre-Flashpoint Metropolis. The second week's launches will see the return of characters from 1996's Kingdom Come and the landmark Justice League International, plus Louise Simonson writing Steel. Of course, we're also getting Azrael and the return of Larry Hama to writing Batman, so someone out there needs to stop wishing on the Monkey's Paw already.

We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art Ever (This Week), a weekly depository for just some of the pieces of especially compelling artwork that we come across in our regular travels across the Web. Some of it’s new, some of it’s old, some of it’s created by working professionals, some of it’s created by future stars, some of it’s created by talented fans, awnd some of it’s endearingly silly. All of it is awesome.

With hundreds of panels to choose from at San Diego Comic-Con, the show can be an overwhelming experience — and it’s far too easy to miss a panel you think you might have loved, or to find yourself on the wrong side of the con floor five minutes before a great panel is about to start! Take heart, brave reader. ComicsAlliance has sifted through the schedule to offer up our pick of the best programming at the con. Today we offer our suggested highlights for day two, Friday July 25, 2014 — with an emphasis on comics programming. We’ll also let you know where and when you can find ComicsAlliance contributors at the San Diego show.