When Bruce Timm & Paul Dini created their great character Harley Quinn in the Batman Animated Series, I guess they had no idea that one day not only make the jump into the comic book Batman world, but become one of the most popular characters around. And it began quite the trend. Over the years we've seen such characters as Smallville's Chloe Sullivan and Lionel Luthor  make the same jump, and most recently Marvel has brought Phil Coulson and his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. team into their comic universe, as well as Morph from the 90's X-Men animated series. And the Green Arrow comics have also brought the characters John Diggle and Felicity Smoak into the mix (even though Felicity WAS already a character, the New 52 version is now based on the Emily Bett Rikards character from the Arrow tv show). Read more...

There is a saying that goes something like "what a difference a year makes". It may not be the year part, but I really needed to set this up and that worked best. I had just finished the 2014 Top 50 comics column and went looking for the stats on how January fared when I saw something that I was not expecting. I was expecting something, but this was what can only be called shocking. The main force behind it could be related to just one comic book and that makes it even more shocking. What is it? You will have to wait for a few more seconds (unless you skip this). Another thing that came up this month was we have four first issues on the list. Last year it was amazing to have one per month and it had to be like a major character like Wolverine, Spider-Man, or Batman to make it happen. Is this going to be a trend in 2015? Who knows but it is a new year for the Top 20 column and we need to get started.   Read more...

The Superbowl is upon us and it's that time of year when almost everyone in North America plops down in front of their TVs with chicken wings and all sorts of junk food and watches the two best teams in the NFL go head to head! It's pretty exciting stuff, and this one game means a lot to a lot of people! Does the comic book community take part? I'd say a lot of them do, some fake interest, some don't even bother. But it has nothing to do with their interest in funny books. Not everyone is into sports, it's just that simple. But I think EVERYONE has a bit of interest in popular events, and that's the real appeal of the Superbowl. In spirit of the "Big Game", I decided to take a look at the 10 best athletes from comics. There's actually quite a few! I even have some spandexed individuals who could have even been Superbowl champions themselves! Y'know, if they weren't so busy saving the planet. Read more...

This is it, folks! Part 2 of the most profound and thought provoking comic book awards on the internet! Just kidding! but it's definitely the one with the most spandex involved! And really, isn't that what we all care about?! 2014 was a crazy year for comics and pop culture. And there were SO much awesome stuff going on, these next awards were some of the hardest ones to come up with. So just who will get top honors in TV, movies and not to mention the big money awards like Artist of the Year, Writer of the Year and Comic Book of the Year? I think all the nominees are so great, ANYONE could win! Oh, and if you missed Part 1, Check it out HERE! But hey...you should be reading The Bleed EVERY WEEK, ya slacker. Read more...

Welcome one and all to The 4th Annual Bleedies! Wow, it's actually been 4 years I've been putting this silly little end of the year awards column, and it's been a wild ride! We've gone through so much from the success of the Walking Dead, Marvel Studios taking over Hollywood, and not to mention celebrating the wild world of comics! I've loved every second of it and I hope you guys, The Bleeder Nation have to! And I hope there's many more Bleedies to come! I think we've only just begun to bleed all over comics and pop culture together! It's been a wild year both for me and comics in general, so let's get to the part where we hand out absolutely non-existent (but it would be awesome if they did) awards, shall we?! Read more...

Here we are in the middle of November and I am just now getting out the October Top 20 Comic Books and Top 10 Graphic Novels. I don't even have an excuse for this month. I had thought about this column last week, but just never got around to collecting the data so here we are. Speaking of here we are, if you are in the area of North America right now, chances are you are somewhere where it is cold. This is some what appropriate as DC who was hot last month isn't this one. Other things that were hot in September didn't make the list this month and it pretty much all has to do with DC. There is a brand new #1 this month and it is an Indie. Much like last year this book held around the Top 10 for the year and when (hint) the show started up again it took the number one slot. Finally we have been having a pretty good run on the market lately. After a pretty dismal beginning of the year things have turned around in the second and third quarter. Could October continue the run? Let's all find out together!   Read more...

If you have been paying attention to Marvel's teasers lately, you've probably realized that something BIG is brewing over at the House of Ideas. After announcing a new Secret Wars event at New York Comic Con, Marvel began teasing the return of many of their big time events over the years, such as Civil War, House of M and even the return of the X-Men 1992 animated series?! Nobody knew what it all meant, until this week when The Big M released this interesting trailer on the masses, check it out: Read more...

"Comic Book death". Does it mean anything anymore? For most, even casual readers of comics, it doesn't. And why should it? We have seen dozens of characters meet their demise in convincing fashion and return sometimes not even a full year later. Captain America, Superman, Nightcrawler, Cable, Colossus, Jean Grey, Batman, Spider-Man, Thor, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow....I can go on forever. They all have died and returned...some more than once! Sure there are exceptions, Charles Xavier (so far), Gwen Stacy, and so on...but let's face it. Comic book death has come to mean that it is a temporary situation, and the hero will eventually make his or her triumphant return in some form or another. So when Marvel officially announced the "Death of Wolverine"...well, how could we not be a bit skeptical? But the allure for hose interested, including myself, would turn out to be HOW they could pull it off! Logan is after all, known to be practically immortal. Then they took away his healing factor. Ah HA! Everything began to make sense. Read more...