Is this Maureen Dowd comic book awesome (superhero journalist!) or offensive (she's, uh, naked)? I'm leaning toward awesome.

Yesterday was Veteran's Day. So it was more than a little surprising that the joke for the day's Garfield strip was about an "annual day of remembrance" called "National Stupid Day." Does Garfield support the troops?!

Temporarily liberated Illinois ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich appeared at Chicago's Comic Con this weekend, ostensibly to play with Batmobiles, but mostly to refill his legal coffers. He was charging $50 per autograph and $80 per photo. Wouldn't you pay that much?

Young boys only have two models of masculinity, according to a University of Massachusetts psychologist: Violent, misogynistic superheroes or lazy, funny slackers. What does this mean, for the future of the U.S.? Why, a nation filled with bloggers wearing costumes!

The comic strip "Cathy" will end on October 3, having run out of jokes about shopping.

A family facing foreclosure discovered a copy of Action Comics #1—the first Superman comic—in the basement. It's worth $250,000, and will help them repay debts. The best part? They found it while packing to move out. [ABC]

The progressive webscape has been alight for the past couple days with the story of a truly amazing bit of racism—the Tea Party Comix.

Famed grump and comic book author Harvey Pekar was found dead early this morning in his Cleveland home. The disgruntled and curmudgeonly writer was most famous for his American Splendor comic series, adapted into a well-reviewed film in 2003.

As of June 13, the 85-year-old Depression-era comic strip will no longer be syndicated in newspapers by broke ass Tribune Media Services. The company will instead focus on rebranding Annie for the Age of the iPad. [AP, pic]

In your uproarious Thursday media column: Gerald Posner lawyers up, your favorite comic strip goes dark, a reporter's ready to run against John McCain, the internet gets more ad money, and something wacky is going on at Elle.

Holy Hotdog. Archie Comics — one of culture's most enduring portraits of wholesome Americana — is introducing a gay. A gay male Archie character. His name is Kevin Keller and he is blonde.

Ken Layne has a blockbuster scoop: on Sunday, while Barack Obama was supposed to be fixing America's broken healthcare system, he was actually reading the Sunday funnies. Specifically, "Pickles."

Does the world need Superman? He's probably the most iconic comic book hero ever created, but it seems his invulnerability has a cost. There is buzz about another attempt at rebooting the franchise, but is there any point?

Marvel Comics has kinda apologized for this panel from a recent Captain America issue, in which the Captain observes what is clearly a Tea Party protest. (Their "meant to be a generic anti-tax rally" excuse does not really ring true.)

Remember that time Pat Robertson blamed the earthquake in Haiti on Haitians pact with the devil? Funny enough, a rabbi is now blaming it on Eli Valley, a comic book artist who we've published on this site! Nice work, Eli!

In an apparent suicide attempt, Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lange stabbed himself nine times—six "hesitation wounds" and three "deep plunges"—and is now in the hospital. There is something extra-tragic about comedians with depression. [P6]

Oh look, the black cartoonist Keith Knight dared to draw a black guy in a noose in this recent K Chronicles strip, and now "Students at a western Pennsylvanian school are outraged." Shut up, Slippery Rock University.

America would like to pretend that racism no longer exists in these parts, but of course that's not true. To prove our point, here's reintroduced 60s-era Marvel Comics character Fin Fang Foom and his pals. Ching Chong China man activate!

The Way We Live Now: Broke. Britain's broke. Malls are broke. Even comic strips are broke. Broke, broke, broke.

The highlight of Sarah Palin's career? It's not her guest spot on SNL, or her scary stump speeches in front of screaming crazy racists. It's this cover for the upcoming Tales From the Crypt comic. Sporting a hockey stick—and heaving breasts reminiscent of the comic's golden days—she asks the fleeing ghouls, "Didn't we get rid of you guts in the 50's?" It's a reference to Palin's book-banning ways, as well as to the wave of censorship that forced Crypt's original publisher to shut it down in 1955.