Watchmen

Graphic novels and comics are the focus of this year's Banned Books Week, which starts up September 21, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is getting a head start on the festivities with its new handbook for the occasion, which features a cover by Bone writer/artist Jeff Smith. The CBLDF's Banned Books Week Handbook not only offers up a list of a few comics that have been banned in US schools and libraries -- including Bone, Fun Home, Watchmen, Sandman, Blankets, and Persepolis -- and the reasons why, but also debunks some of myths surrounding banned books.

See what's new in today's link roundup.

You may want to sit down for IDW's New York Comic Con 2013 Artist's Editions... today the publisher announced that it will be releasing Jack Kirby's New Gods Artist's Edition, two Jim Steranko Marvel Artist's Editions and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen Artifact Edition.

Over a lifetime of reading comics, Senior Writer Chris Sims has developed an inexhaustible arsenal of facts and opinions. That's why, each and every week, we turn to you to put his comics culture knowledge to the test as he responds to your reader questions...

There was a lot to look at within Funko's green-hued Toy Fair 2013 booth, chiefly some notable new additions to its growing Pop! Vinyl line and the new Mystery Minis blind-boxed figure line. Beavis and Butt-Head, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, The Rocketeer, the cast of Adventure Time and Watchmen's Rorschach and Dr...

While Marvel's parent company is making headlines for buying up Lucasfilm, DC Entertainment's parent Warner Bros. is getting attention for much more serious reasons: A power struggle for control of the company that could impact the future of DC's multimedia plans and DC Entertainment as a whole...

Comic books have a history of attempting to tie-in with US Presidential Elections; in 2008, remember, Image Comics' Savage Dragon endorsed Barack Obama before the election, and Marvel Comics' Amazing Spider-Man hung out with him following his inauguration...

How does Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons really feel about DC's Before Watchmen franchise? A newly-released interview with the creator doesn't quite answer the question directly, but gives a fairly strong hint as to where his true feelings may lie...

We are not the mainstream. That's a truth understood by anyone who identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered or in any other way queer. We are not the audience. We are not the market. We are not the people. It's also a truth understood by a lot of people with a passion for comics...

In case you've somehow forgotten that this Wednesday sees the release of the first of DC's new Watchmen prequel comics, Darwyn Cooke's Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1, don't worry: Starting this week DC Entertainment will be running televised ads to remind you -- and the rest of the world of Before Watchmen's arrival -- complete with limited animation and seriously serious narration...