Second Coming officially begins with the release of X-Men: Second Coming #1 on March 31st. To prepare for this big release, we've put together an ongoing feature that explores the big names in Second Coming. Much like our Final Days of Dark Reign feature last November, these character spotlights offer stats, biographies, commentary from various X-Men creators, and even some exclusive preview art. We'll be updating this feature every day for the next three weeks as Second Coming looms closer and closer.

* Tahawwur Rana has once again been denied bail according to the charges brought against him regarding scouting sites for the Mumbai Massacre and planning harm from the Jyllands-Posten news building, editor Flemming Rose and cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. I guess he's been asking for bail a bunch of times. * NPR unpacks the Jihad Jane mini-news phenomenon. * if you want to chop your way into Lars Vilks' home, he's prepared to chop back. That article also provides a fine summary of how that drawing was originally published and a rundown of who republished it this week and why. Here's an entire article focused on the re-publishing of that drawing.

The saga of the missing Sri Lankan cartoonist/journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda is stretching to the six-week mark. There's little ground left to cover on his pre-election disappearance except to include more family members in public expressions of fear for his fate and to publish more international organization supporting the family and regional groups in their condemnation of his abduction. This article gives us both. Also included is the fact that Eknaligoda had planned an exhibition of his cartoons this year, which one hopes can still happen if not for the best reason than as something of a response to the worst.

I made a solemn vow back in 2004 that this site would report each and every scrap of sports cartoon-related news that came its way, out of deference to a once towering and vital but definitely still out there expression of the art form. That is why we were so glad to see the results of the cartoonist category at the British Sports Journalism Awards. The winner was Paul Wood of The Premiersh*ts, which runs in Private Eye; while the runner-up was Nick Newman of the Sunday Times. The awards are voted upon by a short list of five to six peers, made public on the awards program's ballot. I believe without knowing 100 percent of sure that Newman is more explicitly that paper's "pocket cartoonist" -- the best job designation in cartooning -- and it's just that a number of his smaller illustrations and cartoons are either by design or accident sports-related. that Wood cartoon is from recently, and probably wasn't one of the cartoons for which he won; it just occurred to me that with the John Terry story front and center Wood's cartoon must be a joy to do right now.

For the past couple years, toy maker Kotobukiya has been producing a variety of statues and busts based on Marvel properties, from Wolverine to the Hulk and everything between. But prior to that, the company was well known for its Bishoujo, or "pretty girl," line of toys, a series that focuses on... well, pretty ladies. Kotobukiya has announced some additions to its Bishoujo sets - two from Marvel Comics and two from the Dead or Alive videogame series.

The comics business news and analysis site ICv2.com offers their usual array of lists, estimates and analysis regarding the performance of comic books and graphic novels in the Direct Market of comic and hobby shops, this time for February 2010. * Overview * Analysis * Top 300 Comic Books * Top 300 Graphic Novels John Jackson Miller at The Comics Chronicles has begun his analysis of the month right here. I picked the cover image above because that was the last comic book on the chart to sell over 50,000 copies: 26 copies pushed past that mark on these initial sales. I'm sort of interested in the 50,000 and 25,000 thresholds. My interest in that particular market isn't solely tied into the aggregate or into the fate individual comics. I'm also interest in how many comics, for instance, have traction with readers. Because the market can be manipulated to churn out high-end sellers and flooded to churn out a greater interest in low-end sellers. So it's my own personal measure of how many books make a middle-class living or above (50K) and how many books operate well above every cynical model of profitability I've ever heard expressed (25K). So here are the number of old-fashioned comic books exceeding 50K and 25K over the last five years. 2010 -- 26, 72 2009 -- 22, 72 2008 -- 34, 81 2007 -- 37, 80 2006 -- 31, 83 2005 -- 27, 79 2004 -- 30, 78 2003 -- 19, 68 2002 -- 16, 64 Now, it's not like such made-up numbers mean anything. They're just for my own personal musing. There are all sorts of problems asserting specific numbers mean specifically what anyone says they mean on charts like these, because the number of qualifying factors is almost always immense, starting with the re-order For instance, you could look at the numbers now and suggest "Those event tie-ins probably make up more of the comics middle class than in the past." But the distinctions between something related to the mini-series with a colon-ed title and the ongoing titles linked to the current event are difficult to parse, and so on. It does look like there's a bit of a bow in that chart, though. I don't have anything else -- Fables sure has become a solid performer in trade form for that market. ICV2.com led its analysis with the top of the chart stuff: Blackest Night still bringing in the orders late in its run, Siege not dropping off no matter what you may think of its original performance. I think the Siege numbers are interesting and no one should be mocked for noting that they're not as high as some people think -- some of the same people doing the mocking were quick to point out when DC's Final Crisis had a similar case of perceived under-performance back in 2008. I'll agree that some of the analysis of why seems weird to me. I know I've read some stuff that suggests the concept isn't very solid, and while few such series will match Civil War in terms of an easy-to-digest, little-kid-awesome concept, "super-villains invade Asgard" -- at least I think that's what Siege is about --- seems fine to me with 11-year-old me. (I just checked; he's eating a bowl of chicken nuggets and playing on the Atari 2600, but he's giving me a thumbs up.) There are some secondary analyses of content out that that seem to me a bit more convincing, for sure, about how fans may have perceived this series as a mega-cycle ending, and the structural issues raised also seem worth raising.

During one of DC's recent news blitzes, the publisher announced that Marc Guggenheim (Amazing Spider-Man) would be taking over Action Comics early this summer. Today DC revealed who would be working alongside Guggenheim on the series. It turns out that artist is already working within the Superman franchise, helping wrap up the current New Krypton direction.

According to wire reports, Turkish cartoonist Turhan Selçuk passed away early today in Istanbul. He died during surgery at Acidbadem Maslak Hospital, where he was a patient in intensive care. Selçuk began his long and distinguished career as a magazine cartoonist, founding a caricature association and finding clients in a number of late 1940s magazine including Tasvir and Aydede. In 1949 he began working with his first newspaper, drawing for them as well as penning articles on the history of caricature. By 1951 he enjoyed his first exhibition and by 1954 he had founded two comics magazines (41Buçuk, Karikatur) and had released his first book, The Turhan Sel&@231;uk Caricature Album. These were considered generational moments in terms of cartoon art in the region, as opposed to solely singular achievements. In 1955, he joined the daily newspaper Milliyet as its main cartoonist, beginning a series of employment runs at such publications that included Yeni Istanbul (1969), Aksam (1969) and Cumhuriyet (1972). Sel&#231uk was recognized with honorary degrees, showed his work international via museum collection and tour and won several international awards.

If you ever wondered why even the medium-sized paper editorial cartoon contributors might sometimes seem to prefer broader, national commentary, check out the heat heaved Tony Auth's way for a pretty standard "sleeping on the job" cartoon aimed at South Philly High principal LaGreta Brown. The odd thing is that the responses from her defenders and political supporters feel the need to point out that Brown isn't actually physically sleeping on the job, which is one of those things where you go, "Nobody seeing Tony Auth's cartoon will think that" before you go, "Okay, maybe they will, but still!" and then you finally go, "Point to the critics." I guess it's a step up from Turkey, where the Prime Minister seems to believe he's actually being described as a half-animal.

Now that Osborn's reign is making way for Heroic Age, what does that mean for Moon Knight's resurgent career? Will he continue to carve out his place in the Marvel U? Or is he destined to slide back into darkness and insanity? Readers will find out for themselves when the series dons the Heroic Age banner beginning with June's issue #9.