It's the weekend time again and since we're between the end of football season and baseball season, at least in the U.S., it must be comic book season. Let's take a look.

Author Joe Konrath is a very smart man on the subjects of book publishing, Amazon, and the future of the written word business. He makes a great case in a post called Amazon Will Destroy You.

Tom McLean at Bags And Boards looks at both sides of the Before Watchmen argument and comes up with some smart thoughts worthy of attention.

J. M. DeMatteis runs a very nice appreciation of his sometime collaborator Mike Ploog.

Cartoonist Lew Stringer uncovers an old Dave Gibbons strip you might not be familiar with.

This is an old link, but it’s a nice profile of gag cartoonist Bob Vojtko.

Retailer Mike Sterling takes a look at sales of the Watchmen graphic novel at his store, and, if his sales history is even slightly close to the way it is nationally, it becomes understandable that DC would want to create more of these things.

Space: 1970 uncovers a lost Buck Rogers TV series that looks really cool, and involved Andrew J. Fenady, David Gerrold, D.C. Fontana, and Samuel Peeples.

Bam! Pow! Zap! Did you know that old comics are worth money? Tim Stroup at Today In Comics History runs some old newspaper clippings about comics and their values.

Animation creator Mark Mayerson reflects on the Disney/Marvel fight with Gary Friedrich over Ghost Rider and how the ruling might impact animation artists. Bonus: Nice quote from Dave Sim.

At Bleeding Cool, Rich Johnston looks at all the drama that’s going on behind-the-scenes at Archie Comics. “And, repeatedly, creators discovering they will receive no payments, royalties or otherwise, for the continued reprinting of their work.”

Jerry Beck at Cartoon Brew really looks forward to the restoration on Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics.

J.T. Lindroos at Bookgasm likes The Adventures of Blake & Mortimer: Volume 11 – The Gondwana Shrine, writing: “There is an utterly charming officious Britishness in this Franco-Belgian comic book with carefully drawn and thought-out characters and situations.”

Wag The Fox reviews American Vampire Vol. 2. “Even if the stories weren't so damned riveting, gritty, and relentless, this book would be well worth reading just to gawk at the artwork.” I think he likes it.

At Robot 6, Chris Mautner looks at six comic strips that left us too soon. Two of them are absolute favorites of mine: Oh, Boy! by Bob Weber, Jr. and Jay Stephens and Franklin Fibbs by Hollis Brown and Wes Hargis.

Superman’s Sex Tape? Chris Sims has a copy. (Safe for work.)

John Zipperer at Weimar World Service has good news for horror fans: a one-shot Fangoria special devoted to George Romero, the king of zombies (and other things).

Hermes Press is going to repackage Gold Key’s 6-issue run of I-Spy comics from the 1960s. Based on the classic TV series starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, the comics were written by industry vet Paul S. Newman, and illustrated by Alden McWilliams and Mike Roy.

People are watching Sean Kleefield read backwards.

My pal John Jackson Miller gets himself interviewed at Graphic Novel Reporter. Topic: Star Wars.

That's all for this weekend. Use your internets responsibly!

Artwork: Before Watchmen, © DC Comics]