Two of my childhood comics idols, Chris Claremont and Paul Levitz, will be appearing together next week at Columbia for a talk entitled Claremont & Levitz: Jewish Influences & Themes in American Comics. Presented by the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, the talk will take place at Columbia University's Schermerhorn Hall from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 13.

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This isn't exactly graphic-novel related, but it's close enough. If you were blown away by Danny Elfman's soundtrack work on Batman way back in 1989, you'll be interested in hearing that Elfman's long collaborative history with Burton is about to get a huge retrospective (with a huge price tag to match). The Danny Elfman & Tim Burton 25th Anniversary Music Box is being released in a limited-edition box set (only 1,000 copies are being made) that will be available in December.

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This past week, Oni Press celebrated a big number for their megaselling Scott Pilgrim series: one million copies in print. That's a remarkable accomplishment for Bryan Lee O'Malley's little series about a guy who has to fight off his potential new girlfriend's deadly exes. Since the series has been translated into 13 languages over the globe and was the subject of a major motion picture recently, it shows how pervasive this book has been. Congratulations to Bryan and Oni on their success!

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Last week, Fantragraphics made the cool announcement that it would be publishing William S. Burroughs' last work (and only graphic novel), Ah Pook Is Here. Written by Burroughs and drawn by artist Malcolm McNeill, the work was first published in 1970 under the name The Unspeakable Mr. Hart as a comic strip in the British magazine Cyclops. It was envisioned as a strip whose images would combine, one by one, into a 120-page long foldout (something that was unprecedented at the time, causing most publishers to decline printing it).

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The one and only Neil Gaiman takes an animated turn in an upcoming episode of PBS's popular kids' series Arthur. On October 25, Gaiman will play himself in an episode that centers on one of the characters on the show looking for inspiration to create her own comic.

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Todd Kent is a writer and filmmaker from Dallas whose latest project is the documentary Comic Book Literacy. The film explores how comics are utilized in the classroom and features interviews with several creators and comics readers discussing how comics promote a love of reading. Here, Todd talks about his love of comics.

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If you're in the New York City area, the goings-on at MoCCA should always be on your radar. Their new exhibit, NeoIntegrity: Comics Edition, is fantastic and runs through next Sunday. Find out more about it here.

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Here's a great article by an acquaintance of mine, Anne Trubek, detailing the Ohio origins of Superman and his creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. It's a nice article about the history of comics; check it out.

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To mark their one-year anniversary, ComiXology, the digital comics provider, is offering 79-cent comics (marked down from their normal 99 cents). Right now, at their website, you can get discounted comics from nearly 20 publishers, including Dark Horse, Top Cow, and SLG; plus you can get big discounts on more books from DC, Boom!, and others. They're doing a lot to kick up excitement about their anniversary, so check it out!

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Here's a very interesting article on how comics can help motivate readers. I loved how it debunked so many of the common myths surrounding comics...one being that those who read comics will somehow forego reading anything else. If anything, being a comics reader promotes active reading of more and more things (other comics, of course, but also more and more books). Nice to have this long, footnoted article from the Canadian Council on Learning back that up.

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