Everybody's Talking about the MAD 20, Wednesday Afternoon (ET) Edition

It’s that time of year again!

As you may already know, MAD MAGAZINE annually releases an issue that counts down the “20 Dumbest People, Events & Things” of the year. As in previous years, there were no shortage of candidates. This year, the issue will be hitting newsstands on December 20th (and readers recycling pile on December 21st.)

Yesterday, THE HUFFINGTON POST exclusively revealed both the cover and top five items in this year’s “MAD 20”, (a move that instantly qualifies them for MAD’s next 20 Dumbest list!)

Speaking from MAD’s international headquarters in New York City, MAD editor John Ficarra said, “This year we’ve been blessed with some especially fine examples of dumbness – and cursed that we had to live through them! Here’s hoping that next year won’t be filled with so much dumbness. But wait, that would make our job next year harder. Suddenly, I don’t like the way this interview is going. Get out of my office!”

Check out their coverage to see who and what took the top spots and who graces this year’s cover. I’d give you a hint but … nevermind.

To be continued ...

Everybody's Talking About Aquaman

Aquaman may be fighting against the tide of public opinion within the pages of his eponymous series, but his profile in the real-world media is undergoing a sea change thanks to his depiction in DC COMICS-THE NEW 52. In an interview with THE HUFFINGTON POST, writer Geoff Johns dove right in to a candid conversation about the less flattering perceptions of the character ­ and how he embraced the challenge of making Aquaman relevant.

"I went back and read a lot of the old Aquaman and there's a lot of great stuff, but there was this attempt to push him as hard as he could to be cool or edgy and I thought that addressing that stuff would appeal to anybody, not just comics readers. It was different, no one had done that yet, and I thought it was more real and honest. And it's fun, working with an underdog."

(Everybody’s Talkin’ About) DC Comics-The New 52, Thursday Morning (ET) Edition

Look what just landed on our desks!

Yesterday marked the release of 12 more titles in DC Comics-The New 52. As press continues to roll in, check out some of the highlights from the past couple of days.

For the fourth week in a row, IFANBOY selected a title from DC Comics-The New 52 as its Pick of the Week. Their selection this week? WONDER WOMAN #1 by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang. “In this issue, she’s a straight up action star, with the power of a god,” IFANBOY wrote of the Amazonian princess.

And speaking of WONDER WOMAN, the series’ critically acclaimed creative team was interviewed by MTV GEEK, IO9 and COMIC BOOK RESOURCES. “There's a very clear sense that what's happening to these characters actually means something. Some of them are in real danger, and why are they in danger? Because they're up against something that is much more powerful and immoral than they are,” Azzarello said to COMIC BOOK RESOURCES. “ I always shy away from the word ‘evil,’ but let's just say there's some big evils in this book.”

UNDER THE RADAR chatted with Cliff Chiang, who will be part of a WONDER WOMAN release party at Bergen Street Comics in Brooklyn, New York this Saturday. “We're revamping the gods and their roles in the world. They're kind of conniving and scheming for power,” Chiang explained. “Wonder Woman is a pawn of theirs. Sometimes she upsets their plans and sometimes she unwittingly helps them achieve their goals. It's been great modernizing the gods and getting rid of togas and all the classical Greek architecture. The heart of all that mythology is great, but we don't want any of this to feel old. We want readers to see a very clear creative vision. We're not just rehashing.”

In anticipation of a couple local signings over the course of the next week, THE LOS ANGELES EXAMINER gave Los Angeles native Eric Wallace’s MISTER TERRIFIC a 5-star review, calling it a “strong debut issue.”

THE HUFFINGTON POST interviewed BATMAN and SWAMP THING writer Scott Snyder. “All of a sudden these murders begin that start to alert him to the fact that maybe he doesn't know the city as well as he thought,” Snyder said of the Dark Knight. “there's an enemy from old Gotham nursery rhymes. An ancient evil in Gotham that's been there for centuries. Because Gotham really 300 years old, no matter how long Bruce has been Batman, he's not as old as the city. So maybe the city belonged to another symbol, a rival symbol, long before it did the Bat, and maybe that sort of organization or that enemy just hasn't really been bothering with Batman until now.” Head on over to THE HUFFINGTON POST to read the full interview and check out their exclusive preview of SWAMP THING #2.

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR highlighted their favorite titles released over the past two weeks from DC Comics-The New 52, which they dubbed an “impressive array of books.” Among their picks were BATMAN AND ROBIN, BATWOMAN, FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E., GREEN LANTERN, SUPERBOY, BATMAN, CATWOMAN, GREEN LANTERN CORPS and WONDER WOMAN.

SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE interviewed DC Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras about DC Comics-The New 52. "I think the (52) first issues really are setting the groundwork, but we're building from there with every issue," Harras told them. "The goal is definitely to keep readers excited and really kind of getting back to that sense of 'What's gonna happen next?' ... We're really just building the base of excitement."

FORBES covered the impact of DC Comics-The New 52 thus far. “To quote one comic store owner, ‘The New 52 is the biggest game changer in comic books we’ve seen in 30 years,’” the piece read. “The anticipation of the new releases every week has been nothing short of mind-blowing. Comic shops can’t keep the titles in stock. Some are selling out within hours of being put on the shelf, if they even make it to the shelf.”

IGN continued their series of interviews with all of the creative teams behind DC Comics-The New 52. Check out what Geoff Johns (JUSTICE LEAGUE), Tony Bedard (BLUE BEETLE), Judd Winick (CATWOMAN), Peter Tomasi (GREEN LANTERN CORPS), and Eric Wallace (MISTER TERRIFIC) had to say about their respective series. “There's a reason these characters stick together,” Johns teased. “You'll see new villains. You'll find out why Aquaman and Green Arrow hate each other. It's actually a pretty good story behind that, and that will come to light. You'll see the never ending problems that exist on the team because of Batman and Green Lantern. You'll see why Wonder Woman is the best fighter among the team. You'll learn why Superman keeps his distance from everybody else. There's a really cool arc where Superman and his role on this team is a little bit different than before. I think that's on purpose; he's a little bit disconnected from them. You'll see why Flash refuses to call himself a vigilante.”

To be continued …

(Everybody's Talkin' about) DC Comics-The New 52: Demon Knights edition, Thursday AM (ET)

Two weeks ago, iFANBOY named the highly anticipated JUSTICE LEAGUE # 1 as their Pick of the Week and followed up last week by selecting ANIMAL MAN # 1 (which has quickly established itself as one of the critic darlings of DC Comics-The New 52). Word broke late last night that iFANBOY picked DEMON KNIGHTS for this week’s Pick of the Week, keeping alive their streak of tabbing titles from DC Comics: The New 52.

Here's what Conor Kilpatrick had to say:

"This is superhero fantasy done with a modern sensibility. And it is tons of fun. Writer Paul Cornell is well matched with artist Diogenes Neves. He has a very detail intensive style that does not skimp on the backgrounds and thus does a wonderful job of setting the scene and establishing that this is indeed not a world that you are used to reading in DC comic books. There are some wonderfully frenetic action scenes in this issue that Neves handles wonderfully, and the final page is really a sight to behold."

iFANBOY wasn’t the only site to pay extra attention to DEMON KNIGHTS. POP MATTERS interviewed Cornell three hours in advance of the release of the first issue.

They declared:

"In a heartbeat, Demon Knights is everything The Demon should always have been. A love story amidst an epic fantasy setting is an example of Cornell’s gift as a storyteller, his ability to find the edge, the new. A love triangle just propels the story beyond expectations.

"DC’s New 52 is very much about a reintroduction of the classic. Sometimes characters have been forgotten, sometimes they’re weighed down by decades of continuity. But the company-wide reboot is about bringing creators and longtime readers alike into viewing these characters afresh, and to engage new readers, infecting them with the same enthusiasm the very first generation of comic book readers felt.”

“'I think the New 52 reaches out to all sorts of genres', Cornell continues, 'and it say to a mainstream audience that we know they don’t just like superhero comics. Demon Knights seeks to satisfy those who like that kind of gritty, no safety net, fantasy epic'."

Meanwhile, Turnstylenews.com talked to Cornell and provided a thought-provoking look at the series:

“The book puts the classic Jack Kirby creation "Etrigan the Demon" -- an ill-tempered fiend with a penchant for rhyming bound by the wizard Merlin to the mortal Jason Blood, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table -- at the center of a motley group of characters in the medieval age. Ten years ago, the idea of a medieval fantasy ensemble book being part of the vanguard of a publishing initiative would have seemed preposterous. Yet, in the wake of the Lord of the Rings films, fantasy has never been stronger as a genre, and dark fantasy is newly ascendant.”

Their coverage has already been picked up by the HUFFINGTON POST and other outlets.

To be continued…

(Everybody’s Talkin’ About) DC Comics-The New 52, Wednesday, Afternoon (ET) Edition

Week two of DC COMICS-THE NEW 52 kicks off today with more high profile coverage. Ready?

SWAMP THING issue # 1 goes on sale today and the NEW YORK TIMES has a lengthy major profile on writer Scott Snyder in the Arts section. If you haven’t already seen it, there’s an amazing spread from SWAMP THING issue #1 by Yanick Paquette. There’s also an interesting tease about the upcoming BATMAN storyline, with Snyder telling the NYT that “Gotham is trying to show you that everything you draw your strength from is wrong.”

Meanwhile, the HUFFINGTON POST has an exclusive preview of BATWING issue #1 and an interview with Judd Winick about Batwing and the character’s tragic origin story. Winick explains to HUFF PO “the fact that he lost his parents to AIDS and never knew them is one piece of that puzzle.”

Come back for more updates throughout the day. There are a number of big stories that we expect to be breaking shortly. To be continued …

A few links of note — JMS edition

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That was some big news on Monday, eh?

And with big news comes big reaction, with a number of outlets picking up on the fact that JMS will be writing SUPERMAN and WONDER WOMAN in July and commenting on his excellent essay, posted later in the day Monday.

Bryan Young, writing at THE HUFFINGTON POST, summed things up nicely: "I can't wait to see what he'll do." Same here, Bryan.

In addition to THE HUFFINGTON POST, the news got placement at a number of outlets, including AOL’s COMICS ALLIANCE blog, TIME’s TECHLAND, IGN, io9, NEWSARAMA, COMIC BOOK RESOURCES, iFANBOY, ICv2, ROBOT 6, AIN’T IT COOL NEWS and BLOG@NEWSARAMA.

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