Tony Bedard welcomes guest artist Claude St. Aubin aboard just in time to meet the galaxy’s new would-be conquerer. Dox and the Omega Men plot their next move as the alien Khunds and Dominators team up to face off against the mysterious threat. As tempting as it might be, though, do not — I repeat — do not just jump to the last page. It’s a shocking one. Yup.

R.E.B.E.L.S. #4 hits 5/13.

What, two news items in one day? Hey, things happen fast here, and we’re happy to keep you posted.

We’ve shown you some sample pages from the first issue of WEDNESDAY COMICS, and that seemed to get folks excited, so why not update you on a very exciting creative addition?

Joining the roster of A-list creators collected by DC Art Director Mark Chiarello to create the weekly WEDNESDAY COMICS is none other than José Luis García-López, who’ll be joining our very own Dan DiDio on the METAL MEN feature. Now, García-López needs no introduction. The man’s been drawing amazing comics for decades. Plus, you don’t want to hear me yammer. Let’s look at the art. Check out a page from METAL MEN, below.

Did I mention he’ll be inked by Kevin Nowlan? Double good, yes?

WEDNESDAY COMICS #1 hits July 8.

How about a little news with your coffee?

This August — ACTION COMICS #880, to be exact — will see Julian Lopez (ORACLE: THE CURE, BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS) step in as the regular series artist, just in time for a crossover with the other Super-books. I could summarize the plot of said crossover, or hint at stuff, like Superman maybe returning to Earth, or New Krypton/Earth relations hitting an all-new low, but that’ll just make you impatient for August, right? Not to fear. We have some sketches from Mr. Lopez to tide you over until then.

Starro designs by superstar artist J.G. Jones. What is this for? When is this coming out? Stay tuned.

Sad news to report. According to Comic Book Resources’ Robot 6 blog, picking up on a report from Mark Evanier, comic book artist and animator Ric Estrada has died after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 81. From Robot 6′s obit:

Estrada was perhaps best known for his work on Amethyst: Prince of Gemworld, Karate Kid, Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes and numerous DC war comics, including G.I. Combat, Our Army At War, Weird War Tales and Unknown Soldier. Later in his career, he moved into animation with such 1980s TV series as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Jonny Quest and Bionic Six.

DC Comics President and Publisher Paul Levitz shared his thoughts on Estrada’s life and work:

“Ric was a quintessential cartoonist, storyteller and animator, ready to take on any material or creative challenge with a smile,” Levitz said. “He’ll be remembered for tales he told, lessons imparted, and for his abundant love of his life, his family and his faith.”

Happy Monday, all. By now, you’ve probably pried yourself away from the pile of free goodies you snagged from your local comic shop on Free Comic Book Day, which was Saturday at participating stores. How was it? Get anything cool? As you probably know, FCBD also marked the debut of BLACKEST NIGHT #0, kicking off this summer’s mega-event from writer Geoff Johns and artist Ivan Reis, along with artist Doug Mahnke. If you haven’t gotten a copy, you might have time to take an early lunch and beg your favorite retailer to pretend it’s Saturday.

• THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS kicked things off for New Yorkers with a nice primer of events happening in the Big Apple.

• Geoff Boucher, over at THE LA TIMES Hero Complex blog, had a nice general FCBD primer for fans on the big day, which is worth checking out to get a sense of what publishers were offering.

• USA TODAY’s David Colton also had a nice FCBD preview, along with a quote from our very own Geoff Johns, who summed up the event like so:

“It’s like the peace summit of comic books when all of the major publishers work together,” says Geoff Johns, writer of DC’s Green Lantern. “There’s always something for everyone.”

• Speaking of USA TODAY, over at their Pop Candy blog, Whitney Matheson points out five books fans should’ve picked up on FCBD, including BLACKEST NIGHT #0, which Whitney described as: “Green Lantern fans are psyched about this all-new story that introduces the new series and is guaranteed to include more top-notch writing from Johns.”

• Additionally, Comic Book Resources had a 15-hour marathon of coverage, while Newsarama made their annual FCBD pilgrimage to Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find, in Charlotte.

So, how was your Free Comic Book Day? Let us know.

BATGIRL #1 hits in August.

The sudden arrival of a new band of surface-worlders in the exotic land of Skartaris has thrown its delicate political balance into disarray — and only the Warlord can diffuse it. But it’ll take an epic journey across the deadly lands of the Shadow Kingdom to do so. Writer Mike Grell and artist Joe Prado continue their reinvigoration of the classic character with this issue. Check out a few pages right here.

WARLORD #2 hits on 5/6.

Hey everybody – Senior Story Editor Ian Sattler here.  It’s almost hard to put into words how excited I am right now.  I’m not talking about winning the championship in my fantasy basketball league — and that was pretty awesome.  I’m not talking about the huge sandwich I had for lunch that was totally killer.  I’m not even talking about my copy of Van Halen that I found last night, which is an all-time classic.  No, I’m excited because working at DC Comics right now is amazing!  We’re close to the end of Battle for the Cowl and a Batman event in June that’s going to change everything.  The events of New Krypton in the Superman books are spectacular.  Flash: Rebirth is setting yet another new standard.  JLA: Cry for Justice is FULL of surprises.  Wednesday Comics…co-features…I haven’t even gotten to Blackest Night yet and the list goes on and on!  And I’m not even allowed to tell you about a few of the big-ticket items we have coming.  So yeah – I’m a little bit excited.

It seems like every time I turn around the creative team on a book is blowing my mind.  Let’s take today for example.  Now it’s no secret that I think the Final Crisis Aftermath titles are something special.  After all I’m editing ¾ of the line so you’d expect some favoritism.  But I can seriously say that these books have taken off beyond my wildest dreams and today it was Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink that was in the spotlight.

When we started this line we wanted to make sure to do something special with all of the covers.  Since Ink starred The Tattooed Man we knew we wanted to focus on the tattoos, but we were having a hard time figuring out the exact angle to go for.  Enter DCU Art Director and style ninja Mark Chiarello.  Chi said that there was only one guy for the job and that he’d call Brian Stelfreeze.  Brian gave us the sketch you see below that not only offered a totally unique way to layout connecting covers, but also really tell the story of what the main character goes through in the book with his powers.

Each cover Brian turned in was superb, but it was only today that I had them put together for this blog entry.  Whoa.  As you can see when connected the covers to Ink are truly spectacular.  I just started pulling random people walking by my office in to see what I was yelling about.

As if this wasn’t enough I also finished the latest script from Eric Wallace who is the freaking man.  My notes on his scripts consist of me going “OK – you know that part where you came up with the totally epic plot twist?  Yeah, that was awesome.”  Eric and I wasted no time in getting talking about our artist Farbrizio Fiorentino.  Plain and simple – Fabrizio is putting it down on Ink.  He’s owning every inch of each page and he’s going to be one of your new favorites by the end of the summer.  But you’ll be able to see all of this for yourself when Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink #1 comes out May 27th.

So yeah – I’m a little bit excited to be at DC right now.  Speaking of which, I gotta go back to work now. But I hope you’re enjoying the books as much as we are.

Take care,

Ian.

Superman’s been drafted into New Krypton’s Military Guild, so it’s starting to look like General Zod might have finally put the Man of Steel under his control. But when an order comes down commanding Kal to commit an act of brutality, Superman has to choose between his duty and what’s right. Click below for some pages from the issue, featuring a snazzy Howard Chaykin variant.

SUPERMAN: WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #2 hits on 5/6.