Experts say that any creature inside in the pools of water – which are intended to protect workers – would have been exposed to the nuclear fuel.

This raises the prospect of a creature having morphed into a new species of ‘extremophile’ after being exposed to uranium.

Organisms with a natural resistance to radiation are said to be ‘radioresistant,’ and do exist. Deinococcus radiodurans is one of the most naturally radioresistant organisms on Earth and has been genetically engineered so that that it can be used in the treatment of radioactive waste.

Tests are being run on the substance and a report only states that the it has yet to be characterised, but “may be biological in nature.”

From AP News:

For Timely, the duo created Captain America, debuting on the cover of “Captain America Comics” No. 1 with the champion of liberty throwing a solid right-hook at Adolf Hitler in December 1940, a year before the United States entered World War II.

“Jack and I read the newspapers and knew what was going on over in Europe. And there he was — Adolf Hitler, with his ridiculous moustache, high-pitched ranting and goose-stepping followers. He was the perfect bad guy, much better than anything we could have made up, so what we needed was to create his ultimate counterpart,” Simon told the AP.

We recenty lost Jerry Robinson, creator of The Joker, and Eduardo Barreto, Judge Parker, Teen Titans.

From Comic Book Resources:

Over the course of his early years in comics, Robinson proved a creative and social dynamo, moonlighting as a comics artist on projects such as the infamous “created in one night” issue of “Daredevil” while taking classes in Journalism at Columbia University. “I was always a political animal,” Robinson told CBR News last year. As the production of comic books wound down near the end of World War II, Robinson moved primarily to newspaper comic strips where he remained for the late ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, becoming known for Editorial illustration, political satire strips such as his long-running “Still Life With Robinson” and lush cover paintings for Broadway’s “Playbill.” The artist also served as President of both the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) and the National Cartoonists Society (NCS), and remains the only person to receive both honors.

Read the rest of their obituary

UPDATE: An individual of his reputation is going to get main stream media attention. I’ll link to some of the larger news orgs.

LA Times: Jerry Robinson, key creator behind the Joker and Robin, dead at 89

Hollywood Reporter: Batman Artist Jerry Robinson Dies at 89

NY Times: Jerry Robinson, Godfather of a Comic-Book Villain, Dies at 89

From TMZ:

So the question — Did the producers know about Busti before they penned the graphic novel and the movie? Well, according to a lawsuit filed today in federal court in Texas, Busti notes back in 1994, his “Cowboys and Aliens” was featured in Comic Shop News on the same page that also featured a story about Scott Mitchell Rosenberg — who produced the 2011 film. So there!

From Michael Cavna:

The near-mint-condition copy of Action Comics No.-1 easily beat the record of about $1.5-million set in 2010 by the same issue, according to ComicConnect and sister partnership Metropolis Collectibles, which also conducted last year’s record sale.

Michael also reports that that same comic book set records before at auction. In 1992 it sold for $86,000 and $150,000 in 1997. According to my back of the envelope math that means that its value from 1992 to 1997 increased 58% or just shy of 12% a year. In comparison, the stock market (S&P) averaged 21%. During the second period (1998 to 2011) the value of the comic increased 1,440% or 103% a year. The stock market? It has averaged just under 6% (four years had negative returns 2000, 2001, 2002, 2008).

So moral of the story? During a periods of a Democratic administration, buy stocks. During years of a Republican administration: buy comic books!

If Stan Lee is the George Lucas of comic books, then Jack Kirby is the medium’s Spielberg. Born Jacob Kurtzberg in 1917, the artist was honoured by his family and fans in 2005 with the Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center website. Currently operated from Hoboken, New Jersey, the museum’s new home is intended to be housed in Kirby’s childhood stomping grounds of New York’s Lower East Side.

Kirby earnt his title of The King with decades of excelsior work for Marvel and DC Comics. Universally beloved, he is often recognised even outside of the comics industry as possibly the world’s most influential comic book artist, to rival talents such as Osamu Tezuka and Hergé.

They’ve produced a teaser comic book (issue #0) that is already in stores. There has been some discussion about whether Peanuts creator Charles Schulz would have approved of new material being produced. The commonly held understanding is that he didn’t want anyone else carrying his work.

Robot6 quotes Dr. Michael J. Vassallo who says:

“From a variety of sources, I learned that these DELL issues were produced by a crew of artists working for Schulz and who did advertising artwork for him. The main artist was Dale Hale. This information has been confirmed for me by the late comic strip art collector/historian/agent Mark J. Cohen, who was gracious enough to ask Charles M. Schulz over dinner about his contribution to those Dell issues. Mr. Schulz enumerated that he did the very first one himself with Jim Sasseville doing the next few and Dale Hale doing all the rest.”

Diamond has signed with Rovio, maker of the game sensation Angry Birds, to distribute their growing line of books — presumably by launching them from a slingshot through the windows of comics shops, bookstores and mass market retailers around the world.
A worldwide sensation, the Angry Birds game has been downloaded over 400 million times. Angry Birds costumes were the top pick for this Halloween, and their merch is showing up everywhere.

Angry Birds was a big thing locally this last Halloween as far as costumes and t-shirts. It’s amazed me how well the game as been able to branch out.

Final statistic for you: the largest single age cohort in the responses (34.2%) is 22 – 30 years old, who are both young enough to be completely immersed in technology, old enough to have some disposable income, and have decades of comic buying in front of them. They want digital, they have reasons to buy them, but they ain’t going to spend as much for non-physical artifacts as they would for actual things they can hold – and the two least appealing things about digital comics for them are not actually owning the comic (51.0%) and DRM (44.1%).

I’m emphasizing the pricing models of publishers, but Garry has info on who buys and why.