Well, you heard the news not too long ago: Doug Mahnke is the new artist on GREEN LANTERN. And now, we’re hearing from Mahnke himself, over at NEWSARAMA:

Newsarama: Doug, were you a Green Lantern fan before you got this job?

Doug Mahnke: Thankfully, yeah. Thought it’s not by merely being interested in Green Lantern. Pat Gleason and I have been friends since he was a kid. And his work on the Corps got me picking up the books that he was working on. So I’ve seen everything he’s done, which connected me to the books. And I’ve enjoyed the stories. I got to know the mythos behind it. And I got to appreciate Green Lantern. I knew that the characters were well-loved — Hal specifically — and I got to follow along the re-emergence of Hal. So yeah, it’s through Pat, basically.

Mahnke hops on GREEN LANTERN starting in July.

Bill Radford, over at THE COLORADO SPRINGS-GAZETTE talks to writer Geoff Johns about FLASH: REBIRTH and the return of Barry Allen. Here’s a sampling:

For five years, Johns wrote the adventures of another scarlet speedster: Barry’s nephew, Wally West, who became the Flash after Barry’s death. Throughout those years, Johns said, “it was always about Wally filling the boots of his uncle. It wasn’t about speed. I can make a Flash book now about speed, and I don’t think that’s been done in a long time.”

The Flash is Johns’ favorite character in comics - and that need for speed is why.

“There’s something about being able to move that quickly,” he said. “Especially today, I think this speaks to the theme of everyone wanting things to move faster, everyone wanting more time for things.”

But “The Flash: Rebirth” isn’t just about the power of speed. It’s also about Barry wrestling with some basic questions after his return from the dead.

“He’s very much in the moment of ‘why am I back?’” Johns said. “‘Why now? Why am I needed? Am I needed?’”

FLASH: REBIRTH #1 hits 4/1 from Johns and artist Ethan Van Sciver.

last week, Dan DiDio announced plans for the latest DCU weekly series, WEDNESDAY COMICS, in an interview with NEWSARAMA. Today, they talked to the creative mastermind behind the groundbreaking new series, DC Comics Art Director Mark Chiarello.

Chiarello, responsible for putting together the stellar lineup of talent gracing the new series, discussed some of the logistics and philosophy behind the book:

NRAMA: What went into the selecting the characters and the creators from your side of things?

MC: It was something like what I did with Solo and Batman: Black and White - I just asked people if they could tell a story with anyone in the DC Universe in this format, would they be interested? Fortunately, with those two projects and with this, the creators I asked got it and understood what I was looking for.

NRAMA: Were the answers anything like what you were expecting?

MC: (laughs) Not always. When Neil Gaiman said Metamorpho, I kind of scratched my head, and said, “Whatever you want man – that’s cool.” When I asked Paul Pope, and was expecting Dr. Fate or something, but he said he wants to do a 1950s style sci-fi strip, so that’s cool, too.

There were a couple where I specifically asked the creator if they would handle a certain character –Adam Kubert is writing the Sgt. Rock story for his dad Joe to draw – that’s a no-brainer. Every fan wants to see that, and that’s one of the very few where I sought out creators for a certain character.

WEDNESDAY COMICS launches this summer.

Continuing their concentrated coverage on all things BATTLE FOR THE COWL, our friends over at IGN unveiled a preview of BATTLE FOR THE COWL: MAN-BAT #1, featuring everyone’s favorite flying rodent, Kirk Langstrom.

With Batman missing and presumed dead, the villains of Gotham City are running amok, and Man-Bat is no exception. The issue, written by Joe Harris with art by Jim Calafiore and a snazzy Ladrönn cover, pits Man-Bat against another long-running Bat-foe, Dr. Phosphorous. What are you waiting for? Head over and check it out.

BATTLE FOR THE COWL: MAN-BAT goes on sale April 1.