It’s Comics Relief time girls and boys, and in today’s edition, we’ve got news on the upcoming Image Expo in San Francisco, as well as release dates for the new Walking Dead Compendium and IDW’s laterst version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Before all that though, our first news item is the unfortunate news of a long delay for the Uncanny X-Men’s latest milestone issue…

Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men #600 Gets a four month delay

Although it was supposed to come this month, issue #600 of Uncanny X-Men, which also happens to be Brian Michael Bendis’ last issue, is now delayed until October. Why the reason for the delay?

According to Bendis,“It was bumped until after Secret Wars for editorial and commercial reasons. Not my call. This was Marvel. But they have their reasons…It will not [affect] the story or the impact of the story. In fact it may have more impact on how things shake out after my run. But I promise you, it could easily ship this month as it was supposed to. It has been written. pages are already in as many of the collaborators have said so on Twitter.”

Although we’ll have to wait a lot longer for the “final” issue of  Uncanny X-Men, Marvel has provided preview pages to CBR of young Iceman having a serious talk with older Iceman, with young Jean Grey in the mix. Hmmm…now I wonder what they could all be talking about?

[Comic Book Resources]

Image Comics Announces Image Expo For July

Image Comics has confirmed this week that it will be coming back for another Image Expo this July, which will take place just one week before Comic-Con in San Diego. Considering that so much of the news coming out of Comic-Con these days centers around films and television, the comics news often gets lost in the shuffle, so it’s smart for Image to get a jump on the news cycle a whole week early.

The announced lineup of guests so far includes Robert Kirkman, Tula Lotay, Greg Rucka, and Brian K. Vaughan, and Steve Skroce. Many more creatives are expected to be on hand, but Image likes to keep the bulk of the guests under wraps until they hit the con. Summer’s Image Expo will take place on Thursday July 2, at the Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts. Tickets are currently on sale here.  [Comics Alliance]

The Walking Dead: Compendium Three Coming this October

Speaking of Image, the publisher’s signature series, Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, is getting its third compendium volume this October.  The Walking Dead: Compendium Three will feature issues 97 through 144 of the series, whose original prints go back to May 2012. The latest compendium starts with the “Something To Fear” (issues 97-103) arc and includes the “All Out War” storyline as well, in which Rick Grimes and his group are pitted against Negan and the Saviors. The Walking Dead Compendium Three hits comic shops on October 13, 2015, just in time for the new season of the TV version to start. [Comic Book.com]

IDW Bringing TMNT: Amazing Adventures To Comic Shops This August

Over the past few years, publisher IDW has been publishing kid-friendly comics based on the Nickolodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series. Now coming this August, IDW is relaunching the cartoon tie-in as TMNT Amazing Adventures. The main story will be written by Landry Walker (Danger Club, Supergirl’s Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade), with art by Chad Thomas. Both of them are returning from the previous New Animated Adventures comic.

According to editor Bobby Curnow, “What’s really fun about this series is that we can now start to create new characters and have the overall plot build on itself. The comic will still be episodic and easy to jump into at any point, but we can start to have reoccurring themes and character development, without worrying if it directly conflicts with the show. The show will still be our inspiration, and we’re playing in that world… we can just stray a bit further from the playground now, which should open up a lot of creativity from our talent.” [Comics Alliance]

Marvel’s Tom Brevoort Addresses The Case of the Vanishing X-Men and Fantastic Four

In last few editions of Comics Relief, there have been a couple of news items about how Marvel is seemingly no longer interested in making any merchandise based on the characters from the Fantastic Four or the X-Men, going so far as to alter classic art from the comics for t-shirts. Well, somebody actually asked Marvel’s Tom Brevoort about the issue recently on his Tumblr, asking “How do you explain the classic Secret Wars t-shirts editing out or replacing X-Men and Fantastic Four characters?”

Brevoort replied “If you don’t have the licensing rights to certain characters, you cannot sell merchandise depicting them.” If indeed Marvel lost the merchandising rights to the FF and X-Men characters, that’s a new development because as recently as last year I bought Marvel merch with Wolverine and the Thing on them. We may never know the real story behind all this shade Marvel is throwing to the Richards family and the mutants. [Bleeding Cool]

Valiant Comics Brings Back The ’90s With New “Ultra Coated” Covers

In case you needed further proof that the ’90s are totally back in the world of comics, Valiant has just announced the debut of their “ultra coated” covers with the first issue of The Book of Death this July. Issue #1 will be the first to debut the new, deluxe ultra-coated cover process, described by the publisher as “featuring alternating matte and varnish finishes on heavyweight cover stock, each 40-page issue of Valiant’s highly anticipated summer event from writer Robert Venditti and artists Robert Gill and Doug Braithwaite will leap off the shelf with an “ultra-coated” presentation unlike anything in comics today!” This very much sounds like a throwback to the days of gold covers and die-cut covers. Can the infamous hologram cover be far behind? [Newsarama]

DC’s “New 52” Gives Way To “DC You”

DC Comics is having a bit of a relaunch after Convergence wraps this month, ditching the New 52 name. And now we know just what the company’s new branding is going to be… DC You. (You know, like DCU or DC Universe….but YOU. Yeah I’m not really a fan either.) The new “DC You” initiative kicks off on June 3, and will highlight four main themes: characters, talent, stories and fans. Below is a sampling of the character ads that the publisher has released in advance of this new initiative. These will all be seen in print inserts and ads, as well as on the DC Comics website and across social media with the hashtag #DCYou. [Comic Book Resources]