Sometimes, a picture really is worth a thousand words.

From Newsweek:

After years of humiliating sexual-abuse scandals, Roman Catholic Church officials are trying harder than ever to convince parishioners that they’re doing everything they can to prevent such tragedies from happening again. That means public education, training programs and—in the New York Archdiocese—a surprisingly direct, abuse-themed coloring book for kids that’s being sent to parishioners across the area. At first glance, "Being Friends, Being Safe, Being Catholic" is what you’d expect from a Christian handout: lessons in loving thy neighbor and knowing we’re all special in God’s eyes, plus a fun word search with names of people whom kids can trust (parents, counselors, teachers). Many of the book’s cartoon-sketch drawings, which were created by a church volunteer, are light in tone and narrated by an angel looming overhead. But on one page, the angel warns of an online predator—with chest hair exposed—who attempts to chat with a child; on another (shown above), the angel implies that children should make sure they’re never alone in a room with a priest.

Uh… okay. Me, I’m waiting for the inevitable Jack Chick anti-Catholic screed.

Happy Hannukah, everyone. (Hat tip: Boing Boing.)

This list is making the rounds, The 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings, highlighting his particular style of anatomy, perspective, teeth-gritting and shoulder pads. If you can get through to the site, it’s worth a view. However, the compilers missed an entire category of sins. Look below:

The first image is from New Mutants #93, cover date September, 1990, reprinted here. I would normally say that it’s by Rob Liefeld except when you look at the second image, from Fantastic Four #247, by John Byrne back in October 1982, reprinted here— well, it’s not quite Rob’s art, is it now?

If you have other examples of other places where Rob Liefeld has been less than a scrupulous stickler for credit, list it in the comments below and we’ll find the art and post it.

Today, ComicMix takes you back to Sherwood Forest in Demons of Sherwood.  It’s twelve years after the end of the Robin Hood story you know, when Robin restores Richard to the throne and regains his castle. 

Happily ever after? Not really…

Robin is a drunk.  He hasn’t seen Marian since the end of their adventures with his merry men.  He hasn’t seen much of them, either.  And now comes word that Marian is in trouble, jailed as a witch by the Inquisitor from Rome…

Written by Robert Tinnell (co writer of EZ Street, and writer and director of the upcoming film Feast of the Seven Fishes, based on his comic), Demons is co-written and painted by the legendary Bo Hampton. Bo knows comics.  He has worked in comics and related media since 1978 as an artist and occasionally as a writer. He painted Viking Glory for DCComics and Legend of Sleepy Hollow for Image.  Last year he co-plotted with writer Tinnell and drew Sight Unseen, a graphic novel for Image. Bo, his wife Teresa, their daughters Caitlin and Callie, and their dog Tickets, currently reside in Atlanta, Georgia. He describes himself as a Southerner who never thought he had an accent until moving to New York to attend Art School whereupon he discovered that he was, after all, a hillbilly. But the kind of hillbilly that says "whereupon".

What is Demons of Sherwood about?

Bob:  Demons of Sherwood picks up the story of Robin Hood around more than a decade after his "glory days."  The Merry Men have moved on with their lives and Robin is pretty much a falling down drunk.  Worse, he hasn’t seen or heard from Marian in the intervening years – until now.  There’s a new breed of tyrant in the neighborhood, a self-proclaimed "Witchhunter" – and he’s tried Marian, found her guilty and sentenced her to death by burning.  So Robin’s got to get his act together.  Unfortunately, for all parties there really are demonic forces at work in Sherwood Forest…

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