Brian Alvey spoiled the news, but now we can finally make the announcement:

In the wake of the recent landmark ruling returning 50-percent copyright ownership of Superman to the estate of Jerry Siegel, the Siegel estate has announced their first deal to publish Superman — and we’re proud to say, it’s with us. Starting in time for the San Diego Comic-Con, we will be publishing new Superman stories.

Mike Grell, fresh off of drawing Supes for Action Comics #861 (pictured here) will be drawing the new series, making this the first time in 25 years that he will be drawing a series that he hasn’t written himself. He will be starting as soon as he’s done with his current commitment to Jon Sable Freelance. Dick Giordano is coming out of retirement to ink the series, alongside veteran inker Frank McLaughlin.

John Ostrander will be writing the initial debut of Superman, detailing how he fell through an interdimensional portal and ended up in Cynosure and Munden’s Bar, where the usual confusion reigns until GrimJack intervenes to set things right. From there, he will be crossing over into various other universes (and series) all in an attempt to find his way back to his prime universe.

Mike Gold, ComicMix editor-in-chief, notes: "This will allow Clark to appear in all of our series– Demons of Sherwood, EZ Street, The Adventures of Simone and Ajax, our recently relaunched Black Ice— we can even work him into Trevor Von Eeden’s upcoming biography of Jack Johnson."

Other talent connected to the ongoing stories will be announced in time for the New York Comic Con, although you’ll hear about if first here on ComicMix. And of course, these will be free comics, just like all the rest of our series.

How does DC feel about this? Well, they really can’t do anything as long as the Siegel estate pays 50-percent of the revenue earned to DC. Of course, we expect that the Siegel estate may take a few decades splitting the revenues and making sure DC gets its fair share. Turnabout is fair play, after all.

On March 31, 1930, the Movie Producers and Distributors Association (the MPPDA) first instituted its Production Code, also known as "The Hays Code," because lawyer Will H. Hays headed the association.

The code prohibited filmmakers from producing anything that did not show “correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment.” This included any and all nudity, depiction of illegal drug use, offensive words, and ridicule of religion or marriage. On July 1, 1934, the Production Code Administration was established and every film was required to have a certificate of approval from them before it could be released.

The MPPDA became the Motion Picture Association of America (the MPAA) and continued to administer the Code until 1967, when MGM released the film Blowup despite being refused approval. The MPAA then worked on a rating system instead, and put it into effect on November 1, 1968. A modified version of that rating system is still used today.

Fifteen years ago today, while filming the adaptation of James O’Barr’s comic The Crow, the film crew filmed a scene in which Brandon Lee’s character walked into his apartment and discovered his girlfriend being raped by thugs. Actor Michael Massee, who played one of the film’s villains, was supposed to fire a gun at Lee as he walked into his apartment with groceries.

Because the movie’s second unit team were running behind schedule, it was decided that dummy cartridges (cartridges that outwardly appear to be functional, but contain no gunpowder) would be made from real cartridges. A cartridge with only a primer and a bullet was fired in the pistol prior to the scene. It caused a squib load, in which the primer provided enough force to push the bullet out of the cartridge and into the barrel of the revolver, where it became stuck.

The malfunction went unnoticed by the crew, and the same gun was used again later to shoot the death scene, having been re-loaded with blanks. Nevertheless, the squib load was still lodged in the barrel, and was propelled by the blank cartridge’s explosion out of the barrel and into Lee’s body. Although the bullet was traveling much slower than a normally fired bullet would be, the bullet’s large size and the extremely short firing distance made it powerful enough to fatally wound Lee.

When the blank was fired, the bullet shot out and hit Lee in the abdomen. He fell down instantly and the director shouted "Cut!", but Lee did not respond. The cast and crew filming rushed to him and noticed he was wounded. He was immediately rushed to the hospital where the doctors tried to revive him. It was too late however, and he was pronounced dead at 1:03 PM.

Ctrl+Alt+Del webcomic creator Tim Buckley recently dropped two pieces of news of interest to readers on his website.

The first is that Season Two of the Ctrl+Alt+Del Animated Series begins today. Like the property it was based on, animated CAD will premiere online first. Fans can buy individual episodes, the first of which will cost an introductory $0.99, or they can subscribe for the entire season in advance. This gives you access to the entirety of Season One, Season Two episodes as they become available and a discount on the DVDs. Subscribers get the whole package for $24.95 if they sign up today.

The second piece of news concerns the webcomic. Buckley admits that he was a fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure book series growing up. Before the webcomic gets too tied up with a wedding/pregnancy storyline, he wants to experiment with "Ethan MacManus: Space Archaeologist," a storyline where the CAD characters are reimagined in a cross between Star Wars and Indiana Jones. But here’s the best part: readers will be able to vote on the choices the pop-culture obsessed Ethan must make.

So if it’s not funny, you only have yourself to blame.