This Week in Comics, 06.02.2010

Well, I'm back and well rested again after another loooong vacation. You know those little coconut drinks with the fancy little umbrellas in them? Yeah, I didn't have any of those. I had a thermos with 2-week old hot cocoa as I climbed to the highest peak on Mars. Yeah, you heard me...Mars. The Olympus Mons, the highest peak in the solar system. Beat that every person that's ever done anything.

Now for the most humble report on the comic book news...

-- Let me start with the sad news. Thundercats writer and comic book author Stephen Perry has been proclaimed dead by homicide. What a terrible thing to happen to anybody, much less the guy that gave us Thundercats. You guys think I'm kidding, but I'm not. I've recently rediscovered the 1980s cartoon in the last couple weeks, so I was severely disheartened to hear this news.

"Perry, 56, suffered from bladder cancer and had been jobless, without health care and, for a time, forced to live in his van with his 5-year-old son Leo. Over the past eight months he received assistance from the Hero Initiative, which helped him to line up work and pay rent, utilities and medical bills." [Police confirm that ThunderCats writer Stephen Perry was murdered]

Thoughts and prayers to his family.

-- When I heard that Steve Rogers, the original Captain America, was going to return, I was ecstatic. However, I also heard that Bucky Barnes would be keeping the Cap mantle, and Rogers would be demoted to "regular guy". That's why I suggested the new title, Steve Rogers: Director of SHIELD. Well, Marvel half-ripped my idea with the new series, Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier. Kind of different, but not really... [SNEAK PEEK: Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier #1]

-- Remember how Green Hornet was just blown the F up by Dynamite Entertainment? Well, guess what Schwarzenegger fans, Total Recall is coming back as a comic book series. I'm so excited my eyes are about to explode...no, wait, that's the steroids. [Dynamite Acquires "Total Recall" License]

-- To keep with the Dynamite Entertainment news, Grant Morrison (Animal Man, the utter mindf*ck that is Final Crisis) is penning a new series called 18 Days. Morrison talks to Newsarama about his inspiration for the story:

"As a child I was obsessed with mythology of all kinds so I had a very basic grasp of the Mahabharata story. When I was a kid all mythology made a big impact on me. At the time I was starting The Invisibles, the Peter Brook stage version of Mahabharata was being shown on the BBC, so I got into that and I used the Mahabharata story there as a metaphor for the illusion of duality – this immense war between two vast opposing forces was actually conjured by a single person - an Indonesian dalang shadow puppeteer."

The only thing I know about Indian mythology is from that Three Stooges short where Curly dresses up like the Maharajah. Oh, and that scene in Shanghai Knights when Jackie Chan bobbles his head. So for the record, I'd consider myself an expert in Indian Mythology. [GRANT MORRISON Wages War Using Indian Mythology for 18 DAYS]

Now listen, I want a record breaking number of comments this week. If you've seen our record at the TWIC column, it approaches almost three. So shatter that number and next week I might embed something a little special for you. **wink wink** **nudge nudge**

Hitting Shelves This Week In...