RASL

There are few cartoonists more admired than Jeff Smith. Inspired himself by the serialized newspaper strips he read as a child, Smith went on to create a string of acclaimed, inspirational comics works that have not only proved evergreen in terms of story, but have brought in generation after generation of new excited cartoonists to make their own comics. Five Stars spoke to Smith about his career in comics through five milestone works, tracing a career through self-publishing, work-for-hire, and webcomics, and exploring the inspirations that inform his work.

To help any con-going readers with their convention plans, ComicsAlliance has put together this handy list of panels we recommend. Some are panels we think sound cool and some are panels where you can see CA contributors! You may not be able to experience everything (and probably not everything on this list!), but here's what we think are the best panels to attend on the final day, Sunday, July 12th!

The 2014 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards ceremony took place Friday 25th July in the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, as part of San Diego Comic-Con. It was a good night for Saga, Hawkeye, and the Hernandez brothers. Presenters included Orlando Jones, Reginald Hudlin, Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick, Sergio Aragonés, Phil LaMarr, and Kevin Eastman. ComicsAlliance has a full list of winners, as well as the other nominees in each category.

The comic book, animation, illustration, pinup, mashup, fan art and design communities are generating amazing artwork of myriad styles and tastes, all of which ends up on the Internet and filtered into ComicsAlliance’s Best Art Ever (This Week). These images convey senses of mood and character — not to mention artistic skill — but comic books are specifically a medium of sequential narratives, and

Bone creator Jeff Smith, via his publishing company Cartoon Books, has released the first full color pages from the upcoming collection of RASL. Due out this fall, the RASL hardcover collects the multiple-Eisner and Harvey Award winner's sci-fi tale about a thief who travels to parallel universes stealing art and dodging the government.

Toys: Mezco's first wave of Batman '66 Mez-Itz is slated for a July debut. Upcoming: Cartoon Books will collect Jeff Smith's complete RASL in a 472-page, full color, oversized hardcover this September. Gaming: It's not a comic, but Ballpoint Universe (drawn in ballpoint pen, of course) looks like the kinda game anybody who loves illustration will dig...

Reading Comics author Douglas Wolk runs down the hottest comics and graphic novels coming out this week. KEY: * "But it's not really a superhero comic" ^ Yes, people drew things before Action #1 % Dating is difficult * BATMAN: DEATH BY DESIGN Book designer supreme Chip Kidd is famously a heavy-duty Batman collector, and he's written a couple of prose novels, although I think this is the

Reading Comics author Douglas Wolk runs down the hottest comics and graphic novels coming out this week. KEY: * Eyes obscured by masks ^ Ears overwhelmed by sound % Noses invaded by a byproduct of conflict ^ THE BULLETPROOF COFFIN DISINTERRED #2 The first issue of David Hine and Shaky Kane's returning homage to the weird old days of pulp comics was appealingly different from last year's run; this

Reading Comics author Douglas Wolk runs down the hottest comics and graphic novels coming out this week. KEY: * Donner and Blitzen ^ Dasher and Dancer % Prancer and Vixen * AVENGERS ORIGINS: THOR #1 I believe this is part of a sequence of origin one-shots that will be collected in time for the Avengers movie; this one's by Kathryn Immonen and Al Barrionuevo...

Reading Comics author Douglas Wolk runs down the hottest comics and graphic novels coming out this week. KEY: * Numbers ^ Exodus % Genesis ¢ Colossians ^ % BATMAN: THE BLACK MIRROR HC Scott Snyder, Jock & Francesco Francavilla's double-headed Batman/Commissioner Gordon serial from Detective Comics was one of the chief attractions of the pre-reboot DC (and had a lot of impressively over-the-top