Just another day for the SUPERMAN Group Editor

Hey folks! As usual, we have our regular “From the Editors” post  coming your way. Being the diligent worker we all know and love, Matt Idelson  managed to give us his entry early, as he made his escape to the distant land  of Barcelona. Enjoy...

Spring has reverted to summer here in New York, which would be a nice thing if I could have class outside. Alas, I have a job to do, and panic’s starting to set in. The offices close early today going into Memorial Day weekend, and of course we’re closed Monday. Which means aside from Tuesday, I’ll be out of the office for a week and a half, attending a convention in Barcelona.

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Tops on the priority list is putting a wrap on ACTION #878, the first of a two-part story by Greg Rucka & guest artist Diego Olmos that introduces us to a new pair of Kryptonian sleeper agents. Once I’m done giving the lettering a final pass, it comes down to waiting for the trusty and reliable Rod Reis to keep feeding us pages of color to go over. I know already that assistant editor Wil Moss and I will be reviewing pages over the course of the weekend so Rod can have the final colors ready for us when we come in Tuesday morning.

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Not far behind that is keeping things moving on the ACTION ANNUAL, which comes out the week after ACTION #878. Greg’s done a very different story for this one, and it’s coming together beautifully. Pere Pérez, who knocked it out of the park with the GUARDIAN SPECIAL last fall, is doing all 40 pages of this one, and it’s pretty awesome. Right now I have to start reviewing Mazi’s colors for the book—they’re gorgeous, but of course I have to go over them with a fine-tooth comb and make sure everything is as it should be. The guy can color, though, no question!

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My focus is broken when Wil, associate editor Sean Ryan and editor Liz Gehrlein pop in for our daily session of updates, problem solving and movie reviews. Today I discover that neither Liz nor Sean had seen “Taxi Driver” before the past weekend. I am appalled. Some of our discussion centers around actual work, in this case some ideas Geoff Johns has had for his contribution to the upcoming SUPERMAN SECRET FILES. Geoff has an alteration in mind that opens up some interesting possibilities …

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The gang leaves to do their thing, and I get back to ACTION – but  wait! An excellent colorist who goes by the name “Blond” has accepted our offer to color the upcoming SUPERGIRL ANNUAL since our regular SUPERGIRL colorist, Nei Ruffino, is way too busy. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this means I have to establish a pay rate for him—I’m guessing he won’t do this for free out of love for the medium.

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Oh, look – it’s almost 1. Gah! Clearly I’m not getting out of here when the offices close. That’s cool—I have the best job in the world anyway. Leisure and cookouts can wait. Especially when I get an email from David Macho in Spain, with Santiago Arcas’ colors for the first installment of our Captain Atom co-feature, which will debut in ACTION #879. David says in the email that we’ll be stunned by what we see. He wasn’t kidding!!!!!! Man, I can’t wait for that issue to come out. The readers are definitely in for a treat!

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The phone rings and Jim Fletcher of DC Direct fame is on the line with some Superman-related questions, mostly of the “will this character be around a year from now?” variety. They do really cool stuff down there, and I’m eagerly awaiting my Mike Carlin action figure.

Cue a discussion over Rocket Reds with SUPERMAN artist Renato Guedes, figuring out what the tomb of Zor-El is going to look like with Pete Woods, going over lettering corrections for SUPERGIRL #42 with Sterling Gates, a new idea from Geoff (him again?!?) about the end of SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN #2, annnnnd the end of the day has finally arrived! Well, it’s 1 o’clock somewhere …

Head into Friday with some pages from SUPERMAN #688

Mon-El's role as Superman's stand-in for Metropolis is threatened by a sudden and mysterious power loss. How can he be the hero he needs to be without any special abilities? James Robinson and Renato Guedes answer the question, with a dash of the Guardian thrown in for good measure. Can you guess who the spy within the Science Police is? Probably not, but guess anyway.

SUPERMAN #688 is on sale 5/27.

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A few links of note for Tuesday

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Happy Tuesday, Source readers. It's been a busy few days here at the DC offices, with tons to discuss and point you to. So, let's hop to it.

• Over at NEWSARAMA, Dan DiDio answers the latest batch of fan questions, and shares more details on DOC SAVAGE, BLACKEST NIGHT, ADVENTURE COMICS and the new cover design for books featuring co-features. See above for a visual aide. Also at NEWSARAMA, James Robinson and Greg Rucka share some info on the August Superman crossover, CODENAME: PATRIOT.

• BATTLE FOR THE COWL is speeding toward its final issue, and IGN's got a first look at the third issue. Not to mention a peek at the BLACKEST NIGHT stuff hitting in August, along with the cover to BLACKEST NIGHT #2.

• Speaking of James Robinson, COMIC BOOK RESOURCES sits down with him to talk about JLA: CRY FOR JUSTICE.

• And congrats to the VIXEN creative team of G. Willow Wilson and CAFU, for their Glyph Award victory in the Fan Award For Best Comic category.

Celebrate Friday with a SUPERMAN: WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #3 preview

Superman's been drafted into New Krypton's Military Guild, so it's starting to look like General Zod might have finally put the Man of Steel under his control. But when an order comes down commanding Kal to commit an act of brutality, Superman has to choose between his duty and what's right. Click below for some pages from the issue, featuring a snazzy Howard Chaykin variant.

SUPERMAN: WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #2 hits on 5/6.

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Get a first look at the CAPTAIN ATOM co-feature

You've gotten a peek at a few of the upcoming co-features over the last few weeks, including MANHUNTER, RAVAGER and THE QUESTION, but there's still one that hasn't seen the light of day: CAPTAIN ATOM, co-written by James Robinson and Greg Rucka with art by CAFU, who you first saw in the pages of the recent VIXEN mini-series. Who is this Captain Atom? How does he fit into the DCU? We'll let the story speak for itself, which kicks off in ACTION COMICS #879, in July.

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A few links of note for Tuesday

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Yes, it's only Tuesday. But look at it this way -- that means a few more days of cool debuts here at The Source. Surely that's motivation enough?

• In case you missed it, the team at MYSPACE COMIC BOOKS previewed SUPERMAN #687 and SUPERMAN/BATMAN #59.

• Over at Comic Book Resources' Robot 6 blog, Tim O'Shea talks to R.E.B.E.L.S writer Tony Bedard about the series, and artist Claude St. Aubin's upcoming stint as artist.

• In Batman news, Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert's conclusion to "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" got positive review attention from Comic Book Resources, Newsarama's "Best Shots" team and IGN. IGN also previewed the first issue of BATMAN: BATTLE FOR THE COWL -- THE UNDERGROUND.

Newsarama shows off some shiny TRINITY pages and Robot 6's Tom Bondurant continues to annotate every issue. Impressive, eh?

• The build up to BLACKEST NIGHT continues, with IGN previewing GREEN LANTERN #40, and reminded people about that page Eddie Berganza posted last week. Newsarama's Vaneta Rogers spoke to artist Ethan Van Sciver at length about the looks for the different Lantern Corps and their symbols.

• And in case you were still hungry for Red Circle info after our debuts last week, superstar artist J.G. Jones spoke to Newsarama's Matt Brady about his role in redesigning the characters for the DCU.

A day in the life of SUPERMAN Group Editor Matt Idelson

Ah, dawn in the city. I start going through emails. Renato Guedes has sent us pencils for pages 9-10 of SUPERMAN #688. Wow, these are gorgeous! Renato has been nice enough to draw this critical scene first, as we’ll be flashing back to it in SUPERMAN ANNUAL #14 a couple of months later.  Some more gorgeous pencils are in from guest-penciller Fernando Dagnino for SUPERGIRL #41—man, he’s SO good. Looking at our schedule, however, I’m thinking it might be more logical to ask Fernando to draw the upcoming SUPERGIRL ANNUAL rather than ACTION #878-879.

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Dan pops his head into my office and wishes me a good morning. Communicate with Fernando’s agent, David, by email and put forth my suggestion. He’ll get back to me. Most of the other emails are either updates on work progress or artists stating their availability.

I go through the lettering for SUPERMAN #687 one last time in preparation for the book to be sent off to the printer, then look over the latest inked pages from Pere Pérez for June’s ACTION ANNUAL. Really, really great stuff! Man, I’m lucky. Get an email from Greg Rucka saying how happy he is with the pages as well. Greg’s up early this morning—must be ‘cause he has kids.

Jamal Igle drops me an email—he’s back from two weeks in France with his wife and daughter. I should have been a penciler. Enjoy a chat with Gary Frank regarding SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN #2 and the cover he’s working on for SUPES: WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #5.

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While on the phone with Gary, Pete Woods submits a design for a new character who will be playing a progressively larger role in the Superman books over the summer. All I can say is, “WOW!” I don’t know how he does it time and again, but Pete nails it on the first try.

Assistant Editor Wil Moss strolls in with some last-second questions regarding the SUPES #687 coloring, specifically involving a scene deep in the heart of Metropolis’s sewers, were Atlas currently hangs his hat. As usual, he raises an excellent point, and splits to let colorist David Curiel know what we’re thinking. Then he returns with Editor Liz Gehrlein and affable Associate Editor Sean Ryan—must be time for our daily group meeting. We review the state of our respective books, running proposed solutions by each other, then get to discussing the various pitches we’re considering for a very-down-the-road 80-page book.  In the process, we eliminate a few repeating beats in a couple of the stories and see a theme for the overall book emerging. Also in the process, a good twenty more emails show up.

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The lunch hour arrives, which means eating at my desk and attempting to catch up on email. I also spend a bit chatting with James Robinson, who is putting the finishing touches on a Captain Atom story he is co-writing with Greg. He, Greg and I then share our thoguhts—via email—on the initial designs that come in from the Captain Atom artist, CAFU. Simply stunning! We explore steering some of the architectural designs in a slightly different direction.

All of the sudden it’s 1:30, which means it’s time for the weekly Superman writers’ chat. Liz, Sean and Wil reemerge from their offices to join me, and we phone up Greg, James and SUPERGIRL writer Sterling Gates and begin a very focused discussion on our next crossover between the Super-books in August. What these guys have come up with is simply amazing, and I’m getting more and more excited about the event. About five minutes in, Geoff Johns joins us—in person!  Geoff’s taken up temporary residence in our fine city while constructing the upcoming BLACKEST NIGHT epic. I choose not to ask Geoff who’s feeding his dog, just in case he’s forgotten about that.  The call ends at around 2:45, but that’s only because we editorial people have a meeting coming up which we need to prepare for.

3:00 on Wednesdays means it’s time for our weekly staff meeting. Part of the focus each week is on the general status of the many books coming out from now through about 12 weeks down the line. Dan also goes through a couple of top-secret items with the full staff, then fills us in on his trip to Seattle’s Emerald Con. Sounds like a great show, and the fan response he got is really gratifying to hear.

The rest of the day is divided between returning emails, finding reference for artists, taking stock of the status of our covers and solicits for the next catalogue cycle with Wil, and preparing as best we can for what awaits us tomorrow.

5:30 rolls around and I head for my long train ride home, during which I’ll be reading Greg’s latest script pages for the ACTION ANNUAL and a short story by James for the upcoming SUPERMAN SECRET FILES detailing the humble beginnings of a certain Project 7734.

More JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE goodness

Yesterday, we gave you a look at an early version of the cover to the first issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE, which, as we guessed, left you interested in more. Let it never be said we don't deliver here at The Source. As promised, here are three pages from the first issue, from writer James Robinson and artist Mauro Cascioli. We also tossed in the final cover for good measure.

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Take a first look at JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE

Slated to hit in July, writer James Robinson and artist Mauro Cascioli's JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE mini-series has been hotly anticipated, to say the least. And now, as we inch closer to the release of the first issue, here's a look at a prelim cover for the first issue of the series. Like what you see? Come back tomorrow for some more Cascioli goodness. Yes, you have to wait.

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PREVIEW: SUPERMAN: WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #2

Writers James Robinson and Greg Rucka, along with artist Pete Woods, continue to turn up the heat on Superman, as he realizes his move to New Krypton has done little to ease tensions between Earth and the newly-formed planet. How can the Man of Steel cope with an entire planet's worth of Supermen with none of his self-imposed limits? For an idea, check out these pages from SUPERMAN: WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #2, on sale next week!

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