Reed Exhibitions (PW's sister company) will hold next year's NYAF once again during the last week of September, despite scheduling conflicts with other conventions held around the same time. This year, Anime Weekend Atlanta took place the weekend before NYAF while San Francisco's Yaoi-con was held the same weekend.

"I don't want to compete with any show, but getting dates at the Javits Center is harder than finding a non-costumed fan at NYAF," Fensterman told PWCW. "I felt that consistency on the calendar (and frankly any space at all) needed to take precedent over working around the con schedule."

Anthology compilations are usually a crapshoot at best, so it's a delight to discover a collection as rich, colorful and diverse as this. Rock stars, mythic beasts, superheroes, American history, horror and sci-fi explode across the pages, offering something for everybody without a dud in the lot. Summarizing the amount and kind of fun to be had is difficult, but highlights include the charming adventures of oddball rockers "Sugarshock" in an intergalactic battle of the bands penned by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and gorgeously drawn by Fabio Moon; Peter Bagge's (Hate) hilarious "Founding Fathers Funnies"; the POV narrative of Adam Warren's neurotic female superhero, "Empowered"; Steve Niles and Brian Churilla's werewolf/vampire superhero duo, "Scratch and Suck"; a creepy Christmas yarn from Mike Mignola (Hellboy) and his B.P.R.D. creative compatriots; and Eric Powell's the Goon handled in "cartoony" fashion by five different illustrators. A veritable buffet of exactly what makes comics good, this is a solid winner. (Oct.)

Following the success of its Conan the Barbarian comic books, Dark Horse is now bringing back two other Robert E. Howard creations from the pages of the pulps to the pages of the contemporary comics world with Solomon Kane this month and Kull in November. Longtime Conan editor Scott Allie is trying his hand at writing a Howard character for a change with Kane. The five-issue miniseries, with art by Mario Guevara and covers by John Cassaday and Joe Kubert, (re)introduces readers to the enigmatic Kane, a 17th century vengeance-obsessed loner who must solve a supernatural mystery in Germany's Black Forest.

• Black Jack Vol. 1 (Vertical)
• Countdown to Final Crisis Vol. 3 (DC)
• Alcoholic (DC/ Vertigo)
• Dark Tower: The Long Road Home (Marvel)
• Aya of Yop City (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Sublife (Fantagraphics)
• Gus and His Gang (First Second)
• My Brain is Hanging Upside Down (Pantheon)
• American Widow (Random House) Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons (Raw Junior)
• Essex County Vol. 3: Country Nurse (Top Shelf Productions)
• Gantz Vol. 2 (Dark Horse)
• Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Official Casebook Vol. 1 (Del Ray Manga)

• NYAF08: Bandai Rules
• NYAF08: The Iron Chef Speaks
• NYAF08: Closing Ceremonies
• Viz Episodes Online
• Second Printing of The Stand #1
• Dan Pink at the Japan Society
• Spider-Man and Stephen Colbert
• Richard Thompson at SPX
• Abel, Madden at Housing Works
• This Week @ The Beat