There’s nothing like curling up with the internets for a lazy weekend. Here are some fun things to keep you happy:

HEXED #1: The good folks at BOOM! Studios have done it again. You can download the entire first issue of Hexed free, as a PDF, and read it. Sample it and I’m convinced you’ll not only rush out to buy the printed copy, but you’ll also want the next three on your pull list. Good stuff. Writer Mark Alan Nelson (Fall of Cthulhu) and artist Emma Rios have crafted a macabre tale of a female thief who operates in the occult underground. Read it and picture Eliza Dushku (Tru Calling, Dollhouse) in the starring role. Rios is definitely an artist to watch and you can check out some of her portfolio pieces here.

MARK WAID: In preparation for the upcoming release of the Potter’s Field: Stone Cold one-shot by Mark and Paul Azaceta, and to promote the launch of Mark’s website, BOOM! Studios (them again) has posted the entire first issue of the original Potter’s Field mini-series online. Potter’s Field is the story of a mysterious man called John Doe who tries to put names to the anonymous crime victims buried on New York’s Hart Island. If you’re only familiar with Mark’s work on super-hero stuff, check out how he handles a Vertigo-like crime book. I think this Waid kid’s going places.

GARY PANTER: The art comics publisher PictureBox is having a sale from now through February 1. You can check ‘em out here. If you’re looking for capes and boots and such, don’t even think about it, but for cool stuff by Gary Panter, Laura Weinstein, King Terry and Frank Santoro, this is your place. Besides, how many comics publishers actually have a Grammy Award?
h/t Tom Spurgeon @ Comics Reporter

STEVE GERBER: There are a lot of great adjectives that can be used to describe the work of the late Steve Gerber. “Iconoclastic” may not be the best one, but it’s my favorite. I worked with him for a while and saw or talked to him every week for a couple of years in the early 1990s. He was a really talented guy who always had an interesting viewpoint. Someone - friend, relative, mysterious benefactor, who knows? - is posting Steve’s life story on the internets. The Gerber Curse has three chapters up so far and each one is fascinating - a great look at Steve’s pre-comics years and his work on Defenders, Howard the Duck, Man-Thing and other oddball Marvel comics. It’s also an insightful peek into the comics business of the mid-1970s. (Steve’s page rate when he first started at Marvel? $13 a page.)
h/t Heidi MacDonald @ The Beat

DAVE STEVENS: The blog Slam Bang Comics hasn’t been updated since Oct. 2008, but if you go over there, and scroll down (no permalink, sorry) to March 12, 2008, you’ll find a rare interview with the late Dave Stevens, creator of the Rocketeer, from 1988. Unfortunately, it’s only part one and the promised posting of part two has yet to materialize, but it’s a good read nonetheless.

THE SCARECROW OF ROMNEY MARSH: My buddy Dave Olbrich has a post on his blog, Funnybook Fanatic, with a lot of great info on one of Patrick McGoohan’s greatest roles. It culminates with a story from former Marvelite Gary Guzzo and his attempts to watch Walt Disney’s Scarecrow when it originally aired. A fun read.

JASON LUTES: Paul Morton has a terrific interview at Bookslut with Jason Lutes (Berlin, Houdini: The Handcuff King). The talk covers a variety of topics, including Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, the Rawhide Kid and comic book westerns and even Jason’s proposal for a Batman story. Read the whole thing, but here’s a fun quote about his rejected Batman pitch to give you just a taste: “The Batman was going to be called ‘The Ballad of the Bat.’ And it was going to go back to the beginnings of the Batman during the Depression. It was going to treat him sort of like a folk hero and really try to treat it realistically in the context of what was happening in America then. [He would be] this mythical defender of the downtrodden and I imagined a bunch of hobos sitting around a fire singing ‘The Ballad of the Bat…’”

That’s it for now. Have a great weekend!