For those who think the cartoons in the pages of Playboy or Hustler are racy, or the cartoon cavalcade of Seth MacFarlane pushes the boundaries of taste… sit down, and get something cold to drink. Last week, the world lost John Callahan, taboo cartoonist extraordinaire. Callahan, a quadriplegic since a car accident at 21, turned to cartooning to share his worldview. By clasping a pen between his two hands (akin to a “praying” pose, if you will) John spent his years sharing his darkly funny worldview with the public at large.

Callahan was an original voice in his oddly-drawn world. His cartoons were dark, and funny. For those who are familiar with the webcomic The Parking Lot Is Full, or finds Family Guy’s “Prom Night Dumpster Baby” song to be hilarious… know now that this godfather to that raunch has passed.

While his cartoons were shown in local Portland papers, where John was considered an often seen man-about-town, he was a varied artist at heart. He wrote his own “quasi-memoir”, Will the Real John Callahan Please Stand Up? His songwriting skills led him to record an album in 2006, Purple Winos In the Rain. In addition to this, Callahan’s cartoons became the basis for a pair of animated series, Nickelodeon’s Pelswic, and the Canadian-Australian Quads. Quads retains Callahan’s more darkly twinged humor.

Feel free to take a look at Callahan’s website, which includes both raving good reviews, as well as hate mail, and the subsequent store, where you can purchase some his wickedly funny cartoons. And as a treat, enjoy John’s uke and harmonica twinged tune…Touch Me Someplace I Can Feel.

DC Comics was born in the fall of 1935 and they are celebrating their diamond anniversary in many ways including a digital iTunes experience with movies such as The Dark Knight or animated features such as Superman: Doomsday available for download complete with extras. You can even experience the previous nine seasons of the WB/CW’s Smallville in HD. See for yourself in this cool clip:

The kind folk over at Warner Home Video have offered us three prizes:

• DC Character Hat
• Batman Under The Red Hood Free iTunes Download
• DC 75-branded toy set

To win one of these, you will have to stump the expert – me.

As writer of DC’s forthcoming new edition of Who’s Who, I will be answering DC Comics-related trivia questions posted in the comments section. The first three to genuinely stump me will be declared the winners. Our definition of trivia is the kind of semi-obscure questions that make you nod in agreement when you see the answer and think: ‘D’oh! I knew that.’ We don’t want obscure, picky questions such as what brand of ketchup was used on page 4, panel 3 of Donut Man #75. That’s not trivia, that’s the sign of having too much time on your hands.

Check out the iTunes offerings and good luck with the challenge.

Back in business from ComicCon, we have a TON to share! First, Tim Matheson takes us behind the scenes at the hit USA Network shows that he is directing including COVERT AFFAIRS, PSYCH, WHITE COLLAR & BURN NOTICE. Then we give you a glimpse of our ComicCon experiences as we share comments from Grace Park, Erica Durance, Chris Helmsworth (THOR), Joel McHale (COMMUNITY), Robert Carlisle (STARGATE UNIVERSE), Ryan Reynolds (GREEN LANTERN) and even some comic book guy named JIM LEE.

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We started hearing about director Zack Snyder working on adapting Kathryn Lasky’s Guardians of Ga’Hoole as his first foray into animation as his work on The Watchmen was concluding. Legend of the Guardians is finally opening on September 24 and Warner Bros. just released the first one-sheet for the feature.

Here are the other vital stats:
Cast:    Emily Barclay, Abbie Cornish, Ryan Kwanten, Anthony LaPaglia,
Miriam Margolyes, Helen Mirren, Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess,
Hugo Weaving, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham  

Writers: John Orloff and Emil Stern

Producer: Zareh Nalbandian

Executive Producers: Donald De Line, Deborah Snyder, Lionel Wigram, Chris DeFaria, Kathryn Lasky, Bruce Berman

Fantasy Adventure.  Acclaimed filmmaker Zack Snyder makes his animation debut with the fantasy family adventure.  The film follows Soren, a young owl enthralled by his father’s epic stories of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones.  While Soren dreams of someday joining his heroes, his older brother, Kludd, scoffs at the notion, and yearns to hunt, fly and steal his father’s favor from his younger sibling.  But Kludd’s jealousy has terrible consequences—causing both owlets to fall from their treetop home and right into the talons of the Pure Ones.  Now it is up to Soren to make a daring escape with the help of other brave young owls.  Together they soar across the sea and through the mist to find the Great Tree, home of the legendary Guardians of Ga’Hoole—Soren’s only hope of defeating the Pure Ones and saving the owl kingdoms.

Just to prove that it can be done like we said it could be, we figured we’d do what the convention hasn’t and make video of some of the heavily attended panels available to you for viewing.

First on our list, Marvel’s Kevin Feige, Kenneth Branagh, Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, give you an
inside look at the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe– and you’ll see the first video of the Avengers assembled, as they’re joined by Joe Johnston, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johannsen, Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, and Joss Whedon. Enjoy.

There’s something very strange when the only write-up I’ve seen on this year’s Black Panel came not from any comics websites, but from the Wall Street Journal. On the other hand, perhaps they were just reading the actual sales figures, and they noted that the best selling comic of 2009 featured a black man.

This year’s panel included, besides moderator and self-crowned Master Of The Universe Michael Davis, author Nnedi Okorafor, entertainment
attorney Darrell Miller, former Danity Kane singer Dawn Richard,
director and comics writer Reginald Hudlin, artist Denys Cowan, writer Natashia
McGough, Wu-Tang Clan’s Prodigal Sunn, and actor Bill Duke.

The WSJ certainly captured the flavor of the panel:

Davis opened the event by beckoning any reporters from conservative
media outlets to take his comically incendiary comments out of context,
including his announcement that he would not be letting white people
into the event and that white people are all better off dead. He later
scathingly lambasted anybody that violated the rules of the panel, such
as when audience members digress during the Q&A portion. Suffice it
to say, it pretty much happened most of the time anyway.

Hopefully video will be available soon.