Publishers Weekly’s Calvin Reid reports that Running Press has signed licensing agreements with Marvel, DC and Tokyopop "to publish deluxe hardcover editions of classic cartoonists and other archival material" as well as manga coloring books. 

The first project revealed will be Mad’s Greatest Artists, a series of deluxe, slipcased oversized hardcover collections featuring the great cartoonists who have worked for that magazine; the initial title in that line is The Completely Mad Don Martin, due in October with a price point of $150.  Just in time to start saving up for Christmas!

Tom Spurgeon is the go-to guy for coverage of comics that raise a ruckus.  Today he reports that "an episode of Funky Winkerbean from late last week that hinted at a soldier in Iraq falling prey to an IED in what was actually a video game led to a complaint by a soldier in one case and concern by editors in both. This in turn led to a call from one of the editors to King Features demanding a better heads-up on sensitive material or they would cancel all of their King Features material, and an apology sent to each paper by Tom Batiuk." 

Spurgeon also notes that the Korean-American community in Los Angeles is protesting what it perceives as anti-Semitism in Lee Won-bok’s Distant Countries and Neighboring Countries.  Needless to say, it should be seen as a very positive thing that comics continue to have the power to enrage as well as inspire.

Fourteen years ago, the Babylon 5 two-hour pilot, "The Gathering", aired on the now defunct PTEN syndication network.

Created by J. Michael Straczynski before his more pronounced foray into comics with Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, and The Book of Lost Souls, the pilot has many differences between the series that would air a year later, such as makeup (see right), music (The Police’s Stewart Copeland instead of Christopher Franke), and casting.

A tragic bit of trivia: the broadcast in the New York tri-state area was delayed becuase of the first bombing of the World Trade Center fourteen years ago today, knocking out transmissions throughout the region.