• On Saturday, July 18 Westfield Comics is proud to be hosting a special event featuring the acoustic band The Wednesday Heroes.

• The Wednesday Heroes have been playing coffee shops and comic stores in the upper midwest recently and feature original songs based on comic book related subjects. Their subjects range from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the Incredible Hulk to the Infinity Gauntlet. (Our favorite is The Ballad of Scott Summers). The songs are family friendly and fun stuff meant for people who love comics.

• The band will be playing two sets on Saturday afternoon. The first set is scheduled from 1-2pm and the second set is from 3-4pm or as the band likes to say “whenever evil strikes!” There is no fee or cover charge for the event but the band does ask that all attendees bring a non-perishable food item or a donation to support a local food bank. If you can’t attend on Saturday, the food dropoff will be set up all weekend and donations will be made to the St. Vincent DePaul Food Bank.

• Come and listen to some fun tunes, do your part to stamp out hunger and be witness to what is sure to be a cool event.

• Click here to check out The Wednesday Heroes and their website

Highlights This Week: The official prologue to the Blackest Night crossover is released within the pages of Green Lantern #43 as the first Black Lantern is born (Blackest Night #1 will be released in one more week!); DC’s new weekly tabloid experiment Wednesday Comics #1 (of 12); the final softcover collection of 100 Bullets Volume 13: Wilt ; the first hardcover collection of Alan Moore’s Superman Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?; the Dark Avengers/X-Men crossover event continues in Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1 (of 3) and X-Men: Legacy #226 (featuring Rogue and Gambit); War of Kings: Warriors #1 (of 2) reveals the shocking event that found Gladiator becoming the leader of the Shi’Ar Imperial Guard; all-new Hellboy related goodness in BPRD: 1947 #1 (of 5); the return of everybody’s favorite Superhero named after an arachnid (well, maybe second favorite) in the Mangalicious Tick #1 (of 3); Dean Koontz’s Nevermore #2 (of 6); an all-new graphic novel by Dave Mazzucchelli Asterios Polyp; The Nobody another new hardcover graphic novel inspired by H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man by The Essex County Trilogy creator Jeff Lemire, and the collected hardcover version of Pixu: The Mark of Evil by Gabriel Bá (The Umbrella Academy) and his twin brother Fabio Moon; Becky Cloonan (last month’s Buffy: Tales of the Vampires one-shot, also with Fabio Moon), and Vasilis Lolos (The Last Call).

• Novelty Highlights This Week: Looney Tunes Huggables 7″ Plush Toys; Marvel Super Hero Squad Figures 200903; Wolverine: Many Masters Brown T-Shirt; X-Men Archives Trading Cards and restocks of Marvel Legends Icons Figures of Daredevil Red; Dark Phoenix and Nightcrawler as well as Star Trek Original Series Cloth Retro Figures of Kirk; Spock; Klingon and a nameless, but very blue (not sad) Andorian

This week, DC Comics gives a fresh twist to a grand comics tradition with Wednesday Comics, a new, weekly 12-issue series by some of the greatest names in comics today.

Wednesday Comics is a unique endeavor in modern comics history: The reinvention of the classic weekly newspaper comics section, as a 16-page weekly that unfolds to a sprawling 28″ x 20″ tabloid-sized reading experience bursting with mind-blowing color, action and excitement, with each feature on its own 14″ x 20″ page.

Spearheaded by DC Editorial Art Director Mark Chiarello, whose past editing credits include the creative projects Batman and White, DC: The New Frontier and Solo, each page of Wednesday Comics spotlights the continuing adventures of the cream of the crop of all the classic DC heroes. Following is a listing of the creative teams handling each of the 16 storylines:

The Nobody is a new hardcover graphic novel by up-and-coming alternative comics creator and Xeric Award-winner Jeff Lemire (The Essex County Trilogy). Jeff is also currently writing and drawing the new monthly Vertigo series Sweet Tooth, which will begin in September.

Inspired by H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, The Nobody explores themes of identity, fear and paranoia in a small community that’ll have you guessing until the very end.

• The tiny, isolated fishing village of Large Mouth never saw much excitement - until the arrival of the stranger, that is. Wrapped from head to toe in bandages and wearing weird goggles, he quietly took up residence in the sleepy town’s motel. Driven by curiosity, the townfolk quickly learn the tragic story of his past, and of the terrible accident that left him horribly disfigured. Eventually, the town embraces the stranger as one of their own - but do his bandages hide more than just scars?

The Marvel Masterworks line has already released the earliest adventures of their Adam Warlock character. But now, they’ve released the character’s 1970s mind-blowing cosmic adventures by writer/artist Jim Starlin for the first time in hardcover. Marvel Masterworks: Warlock Volume 2 follows Starlin’s 70’s work for Marvel after reinventing their Captain Marvel character to great success and acclaim. His second reinvention with Adam Warlock set the tone for star-spanning spectacle that is considered a high-water mark to this day. Taking the legacy laid out by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, Jim Starlin evolved Warlock to the next level, imbuing the character with the furies and inner demons of a man-god on the brink of insanity. Forced to confront the Magus, an evil version of himself, and the nihilistic menace, Thanos, Warlock’s conflicts weren’t just knuckle-grinding throw-downs, they were epic, existential struggles for his very soul. Culminating in the first-ever assembling of the Infinity Gems, the book features the first appearances of such cosmic Marvel mainstays as

If you haven’t already heard, and that would be highly unlikely considering the extent of the media’s coverage, Michael Jackson died from cardiac arrest on Thursday, June 25. We won’t jump on the bandwagon to argue the whys and the hows ’cause its certainly not our place, but we celebrate his life and contributions to the entertainment of the world.

• It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that Michael Jackson was a comics fan. A few comic websites have made some postings about his comics connections including a rather surprising revelation that Michael Jackson had discussed the possibilities of buying Marvel Comics with Stan Lee in early 2000. There’s even video footage of the meeting! The sites also mention visits to comic stores with his children even as recently as last fall as well as depictions of Jackson in various comics throughout the years.

Highlights This Week: Plenty of new titles and storylines are heading your way! The showdown with the Circus of Strange in Batman and Robin #2; Captain America Reborn #1 written by Ed Brubaker begins Steve Rogers’ return to the Marvel Universe proper; Escape from Wonderland #0 from Xenoscope starts a new chapter in the Grimm Fairy Tales spin-off; Mike Mignola writes a Hellboy-related Victorian Era adventure beginning in Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels #1; someone is seeing just how well he can sell another solo book in Deadpool: Merc With a Mouth #1; Green Arrow and Green Lantern lead Justice League: Cry for Justice #1 written by James Robinson; Uncanny X-Men #513 continues the Utopia crossover with Dark Avengers; Blackest Night starts hitting full-stride with Green Lantern Corps #38; the John Layman written hit Chew #2 is shipping alongside a Chew #1 2nd printing, in case you missed it the first time; Finding Nemo Reef Rescue #1 continues Boom Studios great Pixar-based comics; and Dark Horse brings us another Star Wars comic in the form of Star Wars Invasion #1!

Novelty Highlights This Week: DC Direct’s Superman Batman Series 7 figures; Buffy The Vampire Slayer 2010 Wall Calendar; Futurama Action Figure Series 6 Assortment; various Star Wars Lightsaber Pens, as well as an Emperor and Admiral Ackbar Bobbleheads; and, as always, we’ve got plenty of other items in stock if these aren’t your style!

• Are you tired of news and reviews sites full of ads? Are you looking for sites with a little bit more independent thinking? Maybe you …

From the pages of Hellboy and Abe Sapien comes Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder! Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels chronicles one of Grey’s first cases as an agent of the queen, which takes him from the sparkling echelons of Victorian London to its dark underbelly in his first clash with the city’s most infamous secret society…

Just in time for the celebration of our country’s birth comes the comic that begins the rebirth of comics most famous patriot. Captain America #600 (still available for your reading pleasure) recently dropped the bomb that there might be a way to bring back Steve Rogers, the original Captain America, from his presumed death. In Captain America: Reborn #1 (of 5) we get the beginning of the examination of Steve Rogers’ life, with two or three other plot lines that will intertwine to tell a broader story that has been in the works since Brubaker took over the writing chores. We will see the trials his fellow heroes endure in trying to bring him back, as well as stories about Rogers’ past and why he is and will always be Captain America. Captain America: Reborn is by regular Captain America writer Ed Brubaker and artist Bryan Hitch (Ultimates).