Need some sweet, sweet Nolan North as Nathan Drake before Uncharted 3′s launch on November 1? Aside from playing the first two Uncharted games again, the next best thing will be an official Uncharted novel, dubbed The Fourth Labyrinth, penned by Christopher Golden, who, judging from his website, has the uncanny ability to inhabit all benches at all times. Then, if both the novel and Uncharted 3 didn’t satisfy that Nathan Drake drug, November 30 sees the release of a six-issue comic book published by DC Comics, written bu Joshua Williamson, who isn’t as bench-oriented, with pencils by Sergio Sandovai.

The comic series will take place before both Uncharted 2 and 3, and

…will find Nathan Drake discovering that the legendary Amber Room was hidden by another great explorer, Sir Richard Byrd, where legend has it that many, many years ago, Byrd hid the Amber Room in the fabled Agartha (a legendary city that is said to reside in the earth’s core, often referred to as “The Hollow Earth”).

Looks like another legendary city for Nathan. So, while we won’t get Nolan North until November 1, we’ll at least get some official Uncharted fiction.

When my father was in high school, my grandfather became convinced that comics were a communist plot, and so he burned all my dad’s Ditko/Kirby/Lee era Spider-Man and Fantastic Fours.

Sure, everybody has that story about parents throwing away their comics, but this one seems particularly relevant now that George Rigakos has written a graphic novel version of The Communist Manifesto, quite a few years too late for my grandfather to use in justifying his actions.

Marvel has announced that it will be killing off a member of the Fantastic Four in next month’s issue, number 587, and that this time, they’re not promising a comeback.

In a story arc entitled “Fear Itself,” the Fantastic Four – Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, and the Thing – have been placed in life-threatening situations, and executive editor Tom Brevoort says, “I think we’ve given plenty of hints as to who may die – perhaps too many.”

We can’t imagine a single aspect of our lives where we wouldn’t want to follow the example set by Frank Castle.

Scans_Daily has a roundup of great comic book based de/motivational posters, four more of our favorites after the jump.

As we know, geeks take their wedding invites quite seriously. (For instance: Fully playable 8-bit games?) Etsy seller swelser makes some wonderful, totally customized wedding invitations in the style of the pulp comics of yore, packed with the blurbs and dialogue bubbles of your choice. “I’ll make sure you look as though a cover was drawn by one of the top comic book artists from the 1960s to celebrate your big day. I don’t just trace the photos, but rather come up with a comic style interpretation that should still be easily recognized as you.”

Today, DC Comics allowed the New York Post to break some surprise news: as of this fall there will be two Batmans. If you can call it a surprise, since the covers of DC’s November comics were released about two weeks ago and feature two different Batman costumes. Fan speculation was already off and speculating that this would mean that instead of Dick Grayson giving up the cowl when Bruce Wayne gets back, there might be some sort of timeshare agreement.

So. Keeping up with Batman continuity is the reason I started buying monthly comics, and now it looks like it’s going to be the reason I severely cut back on my monthly comics. I’m going to elaborate below, and I’m going to try to keep it down to a conversational level of nerdrage. I’m also going to try to keep from getting really depressed.

So. Lets talk about continuity.

(Yes, the plural of Batman is Batmans. Because it is a name. If you knew a family whose last name was Wolf you wouldn’t call them the Wolves, would you?)

The Harvey Awards, the American comics industry’s in-house awards show, was last night. For the second time, the MC was the internet’s own Scott Kurtz, writer and artist behind PVP, occasionally known as the granddaddy of webcomics.

There was even a bit of controversy, after Mark Waid‘s “impassioned speech about copyright and what its intent truly is” which contained a reminder to the comics industry to “not make the mistakes of the RIAA and the movie industry.” According to Bleeding Cool,

Sergio Aragonés was later to counter Waid’s theme face-to-face which led to a rather loud contre temps between the two and a bit of a storm off on Waid’s part, with Aragones acclaiming that you don’t just give your work away.

Aragonés, if you’re looking for a contextual touchstone, is a veteran of Mad Magazine and the creator of Groo the Wanderer, while Waid wrote The Flash for eight years, and was the writer behind Kingdom Come.

But enough of that! See the award winners and their competition below:

Maryland State Senator Nancy King is running for reelection on a platform of education reform, and her ill-thought out direct mailer is slightly confusing for a moment, and then, once its meaning is fully grasped, starts raising the blood pressure of anyone who has ever worked in or enjoyed the fruits of sequential art.

It implies, for the record, that if children don’t have teachers to educate them, they will start reading comic books.

The HORROR.

Psychologist Sharon Lamb thinks that todays superheroes send the wrong messages to young boys.

There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday… Today’s superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he’s aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity. When not in superhero costume, these men, like Ironman[sic], exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns.

The comic book heroes of the past did fight criminals, she said, “but these were heroes boys could look up to and learn from because outside of their costumes, they were real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities,” she said.

In response to her statement, you could ask “Have superheroes really changed over time?” (Yes, everything does.) “Is there something about movies that requires superheroes to become more violent?” (No, they’re just as violent if not more in current comics.) and even “Why is it a problem that superheroes are no longer clear cut examples of heroism?” (Who knows.)

But all of those questions allow Dr. Lamb to stand unopposed on one fundamental assertion: that all superheroes are for children.

Read on...

Great Comic Con exclusive, or greatest Comic Con exclusive? This packaging has been made to look and feel (with the help of some strategically placed weights) as if it contains a tiny replica of Wonder Woman’s invisible jet, right down to, you guessed it, the invisibility.

(Bigger picture below.)

Read on...