Wizard Magazine has included Top Cow in their Decade Issue out this month.

Around Comics welcomes Bears great, and uber comics fan Lance Briggs to this week's show. Lance is one of the best players in the NFL, and he's also a dedicated comic book fan. Listen in as he talks about growing up with comics, how he's kept his love of comics alive through college and during his NFL career, and The Darkness.

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Lance Briggs sank into the squishy red upholstered chair at Challengers Comics on Western Avenue. He sank so deeply his chin peeked above the table top before him. And though he looked a bit uncomfortable, he smiled like a kid who just found the compatriots he never knew he had.

He turned to Tom Katers, who sat across from him, whose face was half the size of Briggs' neck, and he said, yes, he was like Katers, he was a member of their "secret society."

Briggs said later he doesn't usually admit to that, certainly not to his friends or his teammates.

Not that he's ashamed.

It's just that, well, you know, he works weekends, has this intense job, and doesn't meet many people as obsessed with comic books.

Indeed, Briggs, 29, may be the most nonchalant comic book geek in the world, understandably oblivious to the taunts and snickers that greet your average, physically less-intimidating hard-core enthusiast.

So there was Briggs at Challengers the other night, prowling its aisles, stooping to examine a cover, then adding it to the expanding mound of $3 issues he was gathering beneath his arm, his eyes never leaving the racks. He's a big reader of "The Darkness," "New X-Men," "Pitt," "Silver Surfer." His total bill, a couple of hours later: $154.54.

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1 Bears linebacker and comic book fan Lance Briggs buys more single issues than trade paperbacks. Even die-hards wait for the paperbacks, which often collect a number of issues based around a certain story line in a handy, cheaper package. But you do have to wait, and Briggs can't wait.

2 He knows his stuff, who guest-starred where, which mutant is feuding with which sorcerer. ("I get behind," he said, "but I like getting behind because the nice thing is having someone say, 'You have to read this,' and I do and I get hooked again.")

3 His favorites are not trendy within comic-book circles or well-known to noncomic-book fans -- "The Darkness," "Pitt," for example.

4 He's a continuity freak -- he prefers comics that retain consistent plot threads over a series of years and throughout a variety of crossover titles. That's a point of dispute among aficionados, some of whom think it leaves comics inaccessible to newcomers.

5 He started a social-networking site dedicated to serious comic-book discussion: lancescomicworld.com.

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WitchBlade from Philippines, highly anticipated team due to their costumes. They put in a lot of efforts in their costumes with the LEDs installed and WELL-HIDDEN. It added very nice effects to their performance. Their make up and hair styles were very well done too. Accurate to the anime -according to Kaname San. The performance had a bit of storyline, with the first beaten then triumph hero ending.

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Writer Robert Kirkman isn't a hostage taker, but that's not stopping him from taking over "Pilot Season," Top Cow Productions' unique competition that asks readers to select one of several pilot issues to continue on as a miniseries. Past incarnations of the competition have seen a diverse roster of creators working on the "Pilot Season" titles, but this year's contest only has two masterminds: the aforementioned Kirkman, who is writing each of the five titles, and Top Cow founder Marc Silvestri, who is responsible for each book's visual design. Five illustrators - Nelson Blake II, Joe Benitez, Sheldon Mitchell, Bernard Chang and Brian Stelfreeze - will join Kirkman and Silvestri as the interior artists for each of the different issues.

Follow the link below to see unlettered pages from Pilot Season: Murderer.

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If you're worried that Jeremy Haun is going to make Berserker #4 any less gory and visceral then your fears are unfounded. But there's nothing like a little friendly competition among artists as to who can out-gore the other.

Berserker #4 will feature covers by both Haun and Dale Keown and both really escalate the violence. Keown did a variant cover for Berserker #3 where Aaron snarls through his opponent's blood and guts as he tears him in half, and for this issue it looks like he's going a step further.

“In addition to producing a compelling story, both Jeremy Haun and Dale Keown seem to be engaged in a good natured competition to see who can produce the grittiest cover image” said Top Cow Publisher, Filip Sablik.

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On Wednesday, November 25th a unique comic book event begins. Six of the original Image Comics founders – Rob Liefeld, Jim Valentino, Erik Larsen, Marc Silvestri, Todd McFarlane, and Whilce Portacio – along with new Image partner Robert Kirkman, will unite and reunite for Image United. This six-issue limited series features all of the Image Universe's major characters like Spawn, Youngblood, Witchblade, Invincible, the Savage Dragon, and Shadowhawk, in a story written by Kirkman and uniquely illustrated by ALL of the original six creators, each drawing their own characters and creations, sometimes on the same page.

To mark the debut of the first issue, Newsarama announces a unique, live online Image United event.

On Tuesday evening, November 24th at 7pm EST, the night before issue #1 goes on sale, Newsarama will welcome all seven creators in a 90 minute online interview/chat hosted by our own Vaneta Rogers, and all comic book fans from around the world are invited to attend.

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@robertliefeld My 2 boys tore into my Image United copies, they were soo digging it, I ran to get my camera http://www.youtube.com/watc...
-Rob Liefeld, Writer/Artist ("X-Force," "Onslaught Reborn")

Parting Wisdom for the Day:

@ronmarz Lesson from 2009: If you make a shitty movie involving giants robots, vampires, werewolves or sulky teenage girls, people will see it.
-Ron Marz, Writer ("Green Lantern," "Witchblade")


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The Comics Reporter is still in the process of building his Best Of lists for the decade we are currently exiting.

His final superhero comics list, due in early 2010 along with his overall list, will be posted, shortened a bit, altered slightly and ranked #1 to #whatever.

Included on his Best Superhero Projects of the Decade is Wanted.



* Wanted, series and trade, Mark Millar and JG Jones, Image (2003-2005)

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