Batman: Curse of the White Knight #5 (2019)
pencil & ink by Sean Murphy
color by Matt Hollingsworth

In the early/mid-nineties, I was a comic book self-publisher. With LA-based Mike Meyer, we were Twist & Shout Comics, and published a comic book called Dirtbag and a spin-off comic called The X-Flies. Thirteen issues between them, it paid for a few trips to San Diego Comic-Con and friendships that have lasted a lifetime. I mean it's not like I was any good or anything., So I had to try and find ways to get people to order my comics regardless of quality. And so I invented the jam cover. Going to comic book conventions and persuading comic artists of note to add a sketch to a planned cover, allowing me to solicit covers by Simon Bisley, Frank Quitely, Mark Buckingham, David Lloyd and many more people who are much better than me. For my third issue, I found myself at a Neil Gaiman event in 1994 organised with Bryan Talbot – and so I pounced. He signed my Good Omens, my Hellblazer and very generously, sketched Sandmouse on the cover art for Dirtbag #3, signed and sticking out behind a monstrous concoction by Bryan Talbot.

The comic was published in November 1994 and it made enough to send me to San Diego Comic-Con for a third time. It remains one of my most treasured possessions, which means it has to go..

Because Gail Simone has challenged comic book writers to make a sacrifice, give up artwork they own, representing part of their career, that they hold the most dear, and auction it for Black Lives Matter charities. So, after shouting at myself a lot, I took this piece down from the wall. An original A3 sized piece of original cover art on bristol board, by me, Bryan Talbot and Neil Gaiman, from a published comic book that is included in Gaiman's bibliography and sometimes makes collectors act a little stupidly. This is the original and is a unique addition to any serious Neil Gaiman collections.

Bid in response to this tweet, as instructed. I will ship worldwide, which will probably cost $50 or so, so I hope your bid will be higher than that. Good luck. And to the successful bidder, I hate you even more than I hate Gail Simone right now.

Other Ways To Help

The protests against police brutality now span the entire globe and there are many ways you can get involved. You can go out and peacefully protest if you want. You can also donate to numerous organizations that are doing a lot of good work for the cause. Here is a list of just some of them

• Minnesota Freedom Fund
• George Floyd Memorial Fund
• I Run With Maud
• Black Visions Collective
• Reclaim the Block
• Campaign Zero
• Communities United Against Police Brutality
• Black Lives Matter
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund
• American Civil Liberties Union

Over at AfroTech, there is a great list of five apps that can help you find black businesses to help support in these trying times. The rest of us should be supporting, protecting, and lifting up our black friends, family, colleagues, and total strangers whenever we possibly can.

The post Neil Gaiman Original Cover Artwork Auction for #ComicWritersChallenge appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.

Our comic book heroes have become part of the protest language of the times.  This has been true, in other forms, throughout the course of history. Robin Hood, The Three Musketeers, and many more over decades and centuries.  And now, Spider-man. Over the past few days, we have seen comic book iconography used again and again.  There was a bow and arrow-wielding "Dollar Store Hawkeye":

A political activist taking to the streets with a crossbow to dispense justice? That's Green Arrow. And that was also Brandon McCormick of getting out of his car during a Black Lives Matter protest in Salt Lake City, Utah, yelling 'Yes I'm an American, all lives matter!' before producing a compound bow and arrows and aiming it at the protestors, to screams, in different directions at different people, before he was jumped upon and forced to the ground.

There was Sean Hannity wearing a Punisher pin on his massive Fox News platform:

His current coverage is nothing new, trying to draw attention to what Trump and Fox News are trying to call Obamagate, and urging states to control the current protests with whatever force or means are necessary. All the time while wearing a Punisher Skull badge.

Spider-Man Takes a Stand

And now, exactly where and when you'd expect him, here comes the friendly neighborhood Spider-man scaling a structure looming over Manhattan.  Of course, this is hardly the first time Spider-Man has taken part in or discussed political activism.  For example, there were student protests in Amazing Spider-Man #38 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.  There was that time in 1990 when Spider-Man took on animal rights issues.  As tonight's protesters themselves did, we might even reference the iconic scene on Queensboro Bridge from 2002's Spider-Man, with citizens of New York shouting, "You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us." This all but came to life during a protest tonight on the Manhatten Bridge. Comedian and writer Anya Volz has captured the Amazing Spider-Man doing his thing at a Black Lives Matter protest in Manhattan:

A huge development at the Manhattan Bridge protest right now pic.twitter.com/rCH0GLDgEe

— Anya Volz (@AnyaVolz) June 3, 2020

It's fairly clear from the video that people are referencing the 2002 Spider-Man movie directed by Sam Raimi where the people of New York infamously turn on the Green Goblin and shout the iconic line.

How You Can Help

The protests against police brutality now span the entire globe and there are many ways you can get involved. You can go out and peacefully protest if you want. You can also donate to numerous organizations that are doing a lot of good work for the cause. Here is a list of just some of them:

• Minnesota Freedom Fund
• George Floyd Memorial Fund
• I Run With Maud
• Black Visions Collective
• Reclaim the Block
• Campaign Zero
• Communities United Against Police Brutality
• Black Lives Matter
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund
• American Civil Liberties Union

Over at AfroTech, there is a great list of five apps that can help you find black businesses to help support in these trying times. The rest of us should be supporting, protecting, and lifting up our black friends, family, colleagues, and total strangers whenever we possibly can.

The post Spider-Man Scales Manhattan Bridge at Black Lives Matter Protest appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.