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Comics Relief: ASTRO BOY Gets the Omnibus Treatment, DC & LEGO Create Art Together, & Comic-Con Sells Out… in One Hour

Thor, Ultimate Thor, and Frog Thor going out together for drinks? Ultron robots fighting zombified Avengers? Spidey cleaning Cap’s shield? Comic-Con selling all 130,000 tickets in an hour?? Today’s news items in Comics Relief are a bit on the wacky side. But then, it’s a wacky world. So let’s start out with something more normal, you know…. like a little boy robot with machine guns in his butt…

Dark Horse Announces Astro Boy Omnibus

Dark Horse Comics is preparing to release an oversized omnibus edition of Osamu Tezuka’s legendary Astro Boy series, which is going to clock in at nearly 700 pages of Astro Boy stories. The Omnibus will start with the work Tezuka originally published way back in 1952, including the story that’s regarded by fans as maybe the first true masterpiece of manga. It will also include everything that was originally printed in the first three volumes of the digest-sized reprints, which have long been out of print. In addition to the comics themselves, the Omnibus promises “rare and out-of-print material,” likely including the “commentary” strips that Tezuka drew himself. [Comics Alliance]

When One Thunder God Isn’t Enough, Call in the Thors

In the current Marvel Universe, we have two characters going by the name of Thor: the original Son of Odin, and the new, female Thor who wields his hammer and his name. But there are going to be a lot more Odin sons (daughters?) hanging out together soon. Marvel is releasing Thors by Jason Aaron and Chris Sprouse this June, as one of the many spin-offs coming out of Secret Wars.

Writer Jason Aaron is describing Thors as a police-style drama with the various Thors from different universes out to “dispense justice.” According to Aaron, “It’s every version of Thor you can imagine, all walking beats, solving murders, getting yelled at by their commissioner and blowing off steam at their local Thor-cop bar.” But nope, that’s not the weirdest new book coming out of Secret Wars from Marvel… that would be our next item. [Newsarama]

It’s Robots vs. Zombies in Marvel’s Latest(And Weirdest?) Secret Wars Spin-Off Title

Marvel Comics announced this week what has to be the strangest new ongoing series to spin out of from the upcoming Secret Wars: Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies. Which post apocalyptic scenario is worse, the Terminator-esque “super smart machines take over the planet” or the classic Night of the Living Dead/Romero zombie catastrophe? Why not both? Writer James Robinson is mashing up both worlds together as one of the landscapes in Battleworld. Characters trapped in this apocalyptic mash-up will be The Vision, Wonder Man, and Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch, and also someone writer James Robinson says will be “a very cool surprise.”

Editor Mark Paniccia shared, “Getting sent to this No Man’s Land means you’ve done something wrong in Battleworld; it’s equivalent to having to walk the plank over shark-infested waters.” What’s maybe the oddest thing about this series is that it isn’t a one shot or mini series, but an ongoing series. It’ll be interesting to see how long Robinson and co. can milk this concept. [Entertainment Weekly]

Paul Cornell Returns to Doctor Who for Titan Comics

Publisher Titan Comics announced at Portland’s ComicsPRO that they would be running a “Doctor Who Day” in August, with writer Paul Cornell writing a five part Doctor Who story running weekly for a month. This is set to replace the ongoing Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctor comics they currently publish during that time and will star all three of those Doctors. Paul Cornell has written several version of Doctor Who across various media, both novels, audio plays and TV episodes, and comics, with the IDW Doctor Who series. [Bleeding Cool]

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What Your Superhero Figures Do When You’re Not Looking, Toy Story Style 

A photographer by the name Edy Hardjo has put together a series of photographs that tell the story of “The Secret Life Of Superhero Toys,” and the results are pretty hilarious. Although mostly based on their movie incarnations, these hilariously posed photos of various comic book heroes’ high end action figures feature scenarios like Hulk cutting Thor’s hair (maybe too much of it), what happens when Ghost Rider tries to use the toilet, the male heroes stripping for the amusement of Black Widow and Catwoman, and the Avengers making Spidey do all their menial chores. You can see Hardjo’s whole collection of photos here at his Facebook page.  [Boredpanda.com]

San Diego Comic-Con Sells Out… in One Hour

Were you one of the lucky few to snag tickets for San Diego Comic-Con this year? Chance are you probably weren’t, as once again, the world’s most famous pop culture convention sold out again in less than an hour. Some are saying the hour it took to sell out was a record, 55 minutes, compared to last year’s show, which sold out in 90 minutes. This is the second year of a new ticket sales policy aimed at preventing system major system glitches like the one that happened in 2013. With demand like that, just how much longer can the Con justifiably stay in San Diego? That’s the real question, isn’t it? [Comic Book.com]

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Lego Meets DC Heroes for An All-New New Art Exhibition

DC Entertainment is collaborating with The Art Of The Brick to create a new contemporary art exhibition featuring large-scale sculptures of DC characters made entirely out of Legos. The Art of the Brick: DC Comics is being created by artist Nathan Sawaya and will showcase DC heroes and villains from the entirety of the company’s 80-year history. “This is an amazing opportunity as an artist to be granted the privilege to bring the pages of DC Comics to life and to interpret some of the most famous and iconic characters in history,” said Sawaya, founder of The Art of the Brick. “I look forward to bringing these characters to life in new ways that uniquely fit the medium.”

DC Comics Super Heroes including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash and more will be featured alongside some of the most well-known DC Super-Villains including The Joker, The Penguin and Harley Quinn in a series of galleries. The Art of the Brick: DC Comics will tour worldwide beginning fall 2015. [DC Comics]

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Which of these wacky news items has you the most excited? Let us know in the comments below!

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Comments

  1. Mike says:

    With all this talk about Astro-Boy does anyone remember a cartoon called Tobor the Eight Man