Friday Evening News & Rants: June 15, 2012 Edition

This is the first installment of what may just turn out to be a regular feature.  It all depends on whether or not there's any news that I deem worth writing about or commenting on.

CAKE banner designed by Chicago artist Laura Park

My readers in Chicago (and I'm told that I have at least one occassional reader in the city) who couldn't make it to Columbus for SPACE have another chance to hang out in a roomful of small press and alternative  comics artists, writers and publishers this weekend when the inaugural edition of CAKE--the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo--takes place this weekend. 

Ok, the acronym doesn't quite work.  I guess they were trying to have their CAKE and eat it too.  

In case you're wondering, the answer is yes.  My main purpose in reporting this item was just so I could make that dumb joke.

Full details on the show, the exhibitors and the line-up of panels can be found at the CAKE web-site.

In mainstream comics news, DC recently announced the cancellation of four of its original New 52 titles.  This was paired, because the company remains inexplicably obsessed with the number 52, with the announcement of four new ongoing series to replace them.  

The new books, all debuting with zero issues as part of DC's line wide "Zero Month" event celebrating the first anniversary of the New 52 reboot (not to be confused with 1994's "Zero Month" that followed the end of the crossover mini-series Zero Hour), are Talon, yet another Batman related title springing out of the recent "Night of the Owls" storyline; Sword of Sorcery, an anthology book anchored by a revival of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld; Team 7, a revival of an old title from co-publisher Jim Lee's Wildstorm imprint; and The Phantom Stranger. The cancelled series  whose spots on the schedule these new titles are taking are Justice League International, Voodoo, Resurrection Man, and Captain Atom.

The bad news, as far as I'm concerned, is that, despite his exit from Green Arrow and the cancellation of Captain Atom, J. T. Krul continues to draw a paycheck from DC Comics. 

To the right of these words is a cropped version of Krul's photo from the DC web-site.  He appears to be either angry or in pain.  You don't suppose he just read one of his own Green Arrow comics, do you?