It’s hard to believe that New York Comic Con is only one week away! 

Last week, MTV GEEK told you about two exclusive action figures that DC Collectibles will be selling at the convention. This afternoon, we’re pleased to tell you about some more exciting and exclusive swag you’ll be able to pick up if you’re attending New York Comic Con. Available for $10 each at the DC Collectibles Boutique at the Graphitti Designs booth (#939), the NYCC exclusive variant covers for JUSTICE LEAGUE #12 and BATMAN #13 are true collector’s items.

Illustrated by the prolific Jim Lee, the NYCC exclusive cover for JUSTICE LEAGUE #12 takes the iconic cover for the game changing issue and sets it against a night sky. And like the die-cut covers that COMIC BOOK RESOURCES exclusively revealed this morning, the NYCC exclusive cover for BATMAN #13 depicts The Joker’s face folded over Batman’s in a way that’s equal parts terrifying, unique, and awesome. Illustrated by Greg Capullo, this cover sets the haunting and unpredictable tone of the “Death of the Family” crossover event that kicks off next week.

In case you missed their reveals on BUZZFEED earlier today, take a look at both of the New York Comic Con exclusive covers below. New York Comic Con 2012 will take place October 11th – 14th at the Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan. See you there!

Talk about a whirlwind 24 hours.

Sunday night, Ariel Winter was on stage at the Emmy Awards along with the cast of Modern Family to claim the prize for Outstanding Comedy Series, and on Monday she  walked the red carpet at the premiere of her new animated film, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1.

Winter gives voice to the first female Robin in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1, which represents Winter’s second foray into animated DCU entertainment. Winter also provided the voice of the savvy 10-year-old Princess Perdita of Vlatava, whom Oliver Queen races to protect in the DC Universe Animated Original Short, Green Arrow. She reprised the role for an episode of Young Justice. She has been particularly active in animation, providing voices for films such as ParaNorman, Ice Age: the Meltdown, Over the Hedge and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and TV series like Phineas and Ferb and The Penguins of Madagascar.

In many ways, Winter is a spunky teenager with equal amounts of smarts and sass. She is honest at every turn. So you know her answers were fun when we sat down to discuss Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1…

QUESTION:

Imagining many of your fans are experiencing Batman: The Dark Knight Returns for the first time, describe your character Carrie Kelly’s place in the story.

ARIEL WINTER:

Carrie is sort of a street kind of gangster girl who lives in this shady part of Gotham City. She’s always dreamed of meeting her hero, Batman. One day she’s walking with her friend Michelle, and they get mugged by the Mutants – but Batman saves her. So she then sets out to be Batman’s partner in crime, err, crime-fighting. And eventually, she succeeds and becomes Robin.

QUESTION:

How do you see Carrie’s sense of Batman?

ARIEL WINTER:

I think Carrie feels super ecstatic when Batman includes her in his little facade of Batman and Robin. She feels so honored – it’s a really big deal for her. I think she’s not really just a crime fighter, though – she’s kind of like his daughter. She really cares for him, and he really cares for her. They’re like family.

QUESTION:

Are there similarities between Ariel Winter and Carrie Kelly, and how did that help/hinder getting into character?

ARIEL WINTER:

Carrie and I share a lot of characteristics. We both like crime fighting. We both like Batman. We would both blow off school for crime fighting. (giggles) Actually, no, I would do my school during the day and then crime fight at night.

It wasn’t really hard getting into Carrie’s mindset because I’ve always wanted to play the sort of Tomb Raider, Kick-Ass role where the girl is really the brains behind the power. So I was excited when I got to do it. I just devoured the script. I was surprised. It was pretty violent. I read it and I saw some of the things and I was like, “Woah! That is so cool.” I’m a big fan of that action, thriller sort of thing, so it was exciting for me to read.

QUESTION:

How important to you is being the first female Robin?

ARIEL WINTER:

It’s really cool to be the first female animated Robin. There’s been so many amazing boys, but I think I can just bring something new that the fans have never experienced. So I’m really honored to be part of such a fantastic project.

Female empowerment really is important to me. I’m a big nerd of the books from the 15^th  Century and 16^th Century, when the men had all the power and the women had none of it. So to have Robin be a girl is cool because it gives girls a chance to know that they can do everything boys can do, and even better. No offense (laughs), but it’s true.

QUESTION:

Are you into comic books?

ARIEL WINTER:

I’m an avid reader, so anything I can read is awesome. I go into comics stores and I can be in there for hours. It’s truly amazing when you open a comic book, because you’re immediately sucked in from the first line. The writing, the graphics, the artwork – it makes you feel like you’re inside the story.

QUESTION:

You’re 14 and acting all the time. How do you balance acting with education?

ARIEL WINTER:

You have to be really smart to be an actor. It’s not just saying lines. You have to know the thoughts behind each line, to know what you’re saying. So I think it’s very important to get an education. And I won’t be going to college for acting or film school – I will probably go to college for medical research because it’s something that really interests me. I always tell kids that you’ve got to have something else to fall back on. Acting is my first love – I hope I can do it for the rest of my life. But I’m going to go to college and get a degree in something else. I really feel school is important.

Click here to watch a clip of Ariel Winter's Robin in action in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1.

Can’t wait for the new series TALON, spinning out of BATMAN: The Court of Owls and featuring Calvin Rose, the only Talon ever to escape the grasp of the Court of Owls, written by James Tynion IV and co-plotted with Scott Snyder? Well, neither can we.

Today and tomorrow we’ll be revealing a few small segments of inked panels from the interior of the new comic book series drawn by Guillem March. Get a glimpse of the first few images below.

TALON issue #0 arrives September 26.

Having made his mark as a villain for many of his 45 years in the entertainment industry, David Selby is only too happy to provide the heroic voice of Commissioner James Gordon for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1.

Selby is best known for his long-running roles as Quentin Collins, the werewolf brother to vampire Barnabus Collins on the original series Dark Shadows, and as the ruthless, vengeful Richard Channing on the 1980s primetime soap opera Falcon Crest. Between those two series alone, Selby logged more than 500 episodes as an antagonist.

Finally, Selby gets a beloved protagonist turn as the everyman hero James Gordon, a straight-shooting, intelligent lawman bent on doing what’s right…with the help of his old pal, Bruce Wayne (and his alter ego, Batman).

Selby will be in attendance on both coasts for the World and West Coast Premieres of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1. Selby will be flying solo on the September 20 post-screening panel at the Paley Center in New York, and he’ll be joined by co-stars Peter Weller and Ariel Winter for the panel discussion on Monday, September 24, at the Paley Center in Los Angeles.

The affable Selby was happy to discuss his role as James Gordon following his initial recording session for the two halves of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Here’s what he had to say …

QUESTION:

Having spent several hours in his mind, how do you see Police Commissioner James Gordon in this film?

DAVID SELBY:

Because Bruce Wayne is Batman, and even though we all want to be heroes, Gordon is willing to take a quieter, more backseat role. I think he’s persistent, he’s calm. He’s a very practical man, like certain presidents. Lincoln was a very pragmatic guy, and I think Gordon is a very pragmatic commissioner.

Gordon is the type of guy that would think, “If I’ve gotta do it, and it’s going to make it right, and I look out and I know that my wife is going to be fine, and the children are going to be fine, then if a certain kind of justice is required to do this, I can live with it.” That’s my kind of Gordon. A very strong, practical guy.

QUESTION:

In this film, James Gordon is 70 years old and about to retire. David Selby is now 70 years old. Usually it doesn’t matter in voice acting, but does that age similarity help increase the bond between actor and character?

DAVID SELBY:

What are you saying? (laughs) That I’ve been playing this game for 50 years? (laughs harder) Well, I guess that’s true. You know the frustrations, the thinking of “Okay, I’ve got a few years to go, and there’s still one thing I want to do.” Maybe I want to play Macbeth. I don’t know. There’s definitely some parallels. Really, though, it’s the whole life experience – that’s the thing that ties me to Gordon. Having been around and seen what we’ve seen. I understand his frustrations. My God, all you have to do is pick up a bloody newspaper. It’s hard to not get frustrated. Sometimes the best thing to do is to avoid the paper in the morning.

QUESTION:

Was there a centering emotion you used in James Gordon to help you focus on his motivations?

DAVID SELBY:

For Gordon, what he wants to do more than anything in the world is that he wants to leave the world a little better place than when he came into it. And he thinks of how awful it would be to live your life and not be able to do that.

I like Gordon. Sometimes you have to draw the line in the sand, the morality line, and each of us has to decide how far you’re willing to go for success. Now if you’re battling the Mutants, you can go a long way. You can step over that line, as long as you know why you’re doing it. That’s my little take on that.

QUESTION:

You had more than 300 episodes to get to know Quentin Collins for Dark Shadows. You spent 209 episodes creating Richard Channing for Falcon Crest. Today you had about four hours to become James Gordon. How do you develop a character that quickly?

DAVID SELBY:

You don’t. You just sort of depend upon Andrea [Romano] and Bruce [Timm], because they know this territory far better than you. I did do a little research, though. I asked my son, who is a great aficionado of Frank Miller and all of these things. That was my first call. He gave me a great rundown, so there was a little preparation. So mostly you put yourself in the hands of those that know the character, and learn from their experience.

QUESTION:

So your son is a Frank Miller fan. Do you have newfound street cred in the family?

DAVID SELBY:

You can’t imagine. My son-in-law is a big fan, too. I’m in like flint now. I couldn’t have done better than to be able to make that call. “Do you know Dark Knight?” “What do you mean, do I know Dark Knight? Who do you think you’re talking to?” “Well, I’m playing the Commissioner.” “You’re playing James Gordon? You’re playing Gordon?!? Commissioner Gordon?!?!?” I never mentioned the Gordon’s name. (laughs) I just said the Commissioner. Oh my God. How special is that? I like that.

QUESTION:

Did you read comics when you were a kid?

DAVID SELBY:

We lived in a little community called Woodburn, where I grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia. There was a store down the street from where I grew up – a confectionary, you know, “beer on tap” – and they had a comic rack. Tom and Ann Torch owned the place – Tom would sit in the corner by the Coke machine and play checkers. And then guys would come in and order… Dewey would order egg in his beer, and all the regulars who lived in the neighborhood would be around. We could look in the comics, and they never once said “Put the comics down.” Now, once we graduated from comic books and went on to Sexology Magazine and Golden Nugget Girls, then Ann and her sister Hortense got concerned. But as long as we stuck to the comics, it was okay, so I read all the comics. I’d also go two houses down to my friend Wally’s house – he had a lot of comics. But at the Richwood Confectionary, that was terrific place to grow up. Sit in there, drink a Nehi Orange for a nickel, and read your comics.

QUESTION:

What was going on in 1966 that made it right for both Dark Shadows and Batman to premiere and explode in popularity?

DAVID SELBY:

That was a special time in the 60s, and for whatever reasons these shows captivated the public’s imagination. Maybe we just needed it in the 60s. They were shows that allowed you to escape … shows that made life a little easier to cope. I think about New York City at that time and all the things that were going on. The corruption, the racial conflicts, the unrest at Columbia University. There were protests everywhere. Then there was Chicago, and the election in 1968. The assassination of Martin Luther King, the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. Vietnam was raging. And then you had these shows. I’m sure some sociologist is examining all of this and working it out. But I think those two shows, Batman and Dark Shadows, they fit that expression, “Whatever gets you through the night.” It is interesting that they both came out of that period. But maybe not. Maybe the times were right.

QUESTION:

You’ve obviously had the experience. But do you like playing the villain?

DAVID SELBY:

I’m not complaining – a lot of times the villain is the most interesting character. But

I’ve played some awful people. I played a character who got rid of his own sister. In doing these characters, I like them, and you have to get your audience on your side somehow. They have to understand where you’ve come from. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll hang in there with you.