From the first mention of WEDNESDAY COMICS months ago, we talked about how we wanted to make reading each issue an experience. Well, now it’s on stands and we want to see it as it happens. Fans and retailers — this is a call to arms. Send us photos of yourself, your customers, your friends, your family – and heck, even strangers — reading the first issue of WEDNESDAY COMICS and we’ll post the best ones here on The Source later this week. (Like the photo above, featuring our VP-Sales, Bob Wayne. Say hi, Bob.)

E-mail your photos here as web-ready jpgs (can you really blame us for not wanting to spend hours watching our computers shrink files? Didn’t think so). In the body of the email, please note that you’re giving us, the fine folks at DC Comics, the right to re-use these images and post them on The Source. Obviously, keep the photos decent and make sure the people in your pics are okay with you sending the photos to us.

Simple enough, right? So get crackin’. The day is almost done.

[Photo via The Beat]

WEDNESDAY COMICS #1 is on stands. Let the games begin, folks.

Haven’t headed over to the comic shop yet? To whet your appetite, USA TODAY has the first installment of John Arcudi and artist Lee Bermejo’s SUPERMAN — both in today’s print edition and online. USA TODAY will continue to serialize the strip weekly on their site.

Still on the fence? Well, first off — shame on you. Who can resist a weekly series that features the talents of Neil Gaiman, Brian Azzarello, Mike Allred, Karl Kerschl, Joe Kubert, Walt Simonson, Dave Gibbons, Kyle Baker, Kurt Busiek, Amanda Connor…to name a few? But because we’re all about doing our due diligence here, why not peruse THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS’ piece on the title and Dan DiDio’s interview with THE CLEVELAND PLAIN-DEALER? Or THE TOLEDO FREE PRESS’s feature on the weekly series?

More? Ok. Well, both PUBLISHERS WEEKLY COMICS WEEK and THE HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN chatted up WEDNESDAY COMICS mastermind Mark Chiarello, who’s the man responsible for gathering such an impressive lineup of A-list talent.

And if you’re not at least a foot out the door by now, keep your eyes peeled at COMIC BOOK RESOURCES and AOL/ASYLUM’s COMICS ALLIANCE blog, as both will have interviews with Chiarello up later today.

And,  in case you missed it this morning, our own Dan DiDio swung by the offices of  the FOX BUSINESS channel to talk up the series. Check  out the video here.

Well? Hop to it.

Philip Tan’s variant covers to BATMAN AND ROBIN #4 and 5. Enjoy!

Seems like people like Gotham’s newest citizen, huh?

DETECTIVE COMICS #854, by writer Greg Rucka and artist J.H. Williams III, has sold and is going back to press for a new, second printing. As most of you know, DETECTIVE COMICS also features a snazzy co-feature by Rucka, with art by Cully Hamner.

And though you probably don’t need any added incentive to check out the book, we’ve still got the mind-blowing new printing cover by Mr. Williams and Dave Stewart right here. Enjoy.

Tomorrow marks the launch of WEDNESDAY COMICS, one of the most-anticipated projects to come out of the DCU in quite some time. Featuring an all-star cast of creators gathered by DC Art Direct Mark Chiarello, the project is an impressive collection of work from the best and brightest the industry has to offer, featuring some of your favorite characters. Whether it’s the pulpy, street-level drama of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s BATMAN or the left-of-center space caper of Paul Pope’s MYSTERY IN SPACE, I’m not kidding when I say WEDNESDAY COMICS has something for everyone. And more.

So, here at The Source, every Tuesday, we’ll be spotlighting one of the 15 stories showing up weekly in WEDNESDAY COMICS.  In the coming weeks, we’ll also use this thread as a venue to discuss the book — what series are you crazy for? What did you like about the last issue? What would you like to see in the future? Sound cool? We think so.

We’ve shown a ton of art from the first week already, so I’m risking Chiarello coming down to my office and unplugging my computer here. But, because we’re kind folks here at The Source, here’s a first look at THE FLASH, from artist Karl Kerschl.

Lovely stuff, eh?

So, what strip are you looking forward to the most? Which creators made this a “must add” to your pull list? Let us know.

More next week.

Why not keep a good thing going? The first two teases we gave you in relation to the new BATGIRL series garnered a huge response. Was it Barbara Gordon? Cassandra Cain? A new Batgirl? We’re not telling. Yet. But we will unveil another lovely Phil Noto cover, though.

BATGIRL #1, written by Bryan Q. Miller with art from Lee Garbett, hits 8/19.

It’s become something of a tradition here at The Source to start the week with some news, and we’ve got a nice bit here, with more to come later this week.

You all saw the preview pages from Judd Winick and Mark Bagley’s first BATMAN issue, right? To say it’s essential reading is an understatement. Heck, for us to say anything at all might be pushing it. So, we gave Judd a quick ring and asked him for the 101 on why this arc is so integral to the new Dark Knight. Judd?:

“This is Dick Grayson’s first chapter as Batman. Despite all his training, despite growing up at Bruce Wayne’s side, it’s a hard transition. He’s going to make mistakes, and he’s going to pay for them. But it all begins here.”

And the fun doesn’t stop there. Starting in October, after the conclusion of his “Long Shadow” arc, Judd Winick and Mark Bagley will pass the BATMAN baton to writer/artist Tony Daniel, who’ll be pulling double-duty on the title for six issues. You may recall Daniel did a pretty bang-up job on a little thing called BATTLE FOR THE COWL, which set the stage for all the Batman excitement going on now. Because we’re all about consistency here at The Source, we got Tony chatting about his plans for a certain Caped Crusader:

“It’s a very exciting time right now. I’ve done my research, I’ve chosen my players, and I’ve outlined six months worth of story and I’m in the scripting phase of my first issue. We’ll be seeing the return of  some once-familiar faces,  faces, I can say, who are not so friendly to Gotham. I’ll be introducing a new character to the city of Gotham. There are also a few surprises in store that I hope will get people excited. “

Being such faithful Source readers, I have no doubt you all saw our initial Red Tornado news. But to keep you all up-to-date on that front, we snagged some of cover artist Ed Benes’ pencils for the second issue of the mini-series from writer Kevin VanHook and artist Jose Luis, showing off the character known as Red Torpedo.

RED TORNADO #1 hits 9/1.

Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend. Got your fill of BBQ’d foodage, fireworks and patriotism? We sure did. And while it’s hard to pry yourself away from lazing around, we’ve got some images that might make avoiding a case of the Mondays that much easier.

ABSOLUTE JUSTICE, collecting the series from writer Jim Krueger, artist Doug Braithwaite and some guy named Alex Ross hits in November. And because we can never get too much Ross goodness, we’ve got the previously-unseen dustjacket from the collection, along with some character sketches that will also be in the Absolute. See? Mondays aren’t all bad.

My magic blogging eight-ball just said “Blogging Will Be Light,” so I’m going with that. Oh, and it’s a holiday weekend. So, yes. This’ll be it for today. But, we bring you some more fun news from the DCU editorial gang. Specifically, TITANS editor Brian Cunningham. What say you, BC?:

“When is Tempest coming back?”

More often than not, that’s been the question fans have asked since TITANS launched last year. A fair query, since Tempest has been AWOL from the DC Universe for seemingly longer than the Jonas Brothers have been alive.

So when we here at DC started discussing the mega-event called BLACKEST NIGHT with writer Geoff Johns, we all figured, “Let’s bring back Tempest in style.” So, bam, he’s smack in the early pages of BLACKEST NIGHT #1. If that’s not style, I don’t know what is. (This coming from a guy who still wears shirts from 1996. But let’s stay on topic here.)

Okay. So, Tempest is in BLACKEST NIGHT. Huzzah! But then we figured, “Wait. Let’s find out where he’s been first. What’s kept him from appearing all this time?” That’s where TITANS #15 comes in. We find out exactly where he’s been and what he’s been doing. It’s pretty heavy and not for non-swimmers.

With the spiritual guidance of Geoff Johns, writer J.T. Krul plumbs the depths of Garth’s soul, while also setting him up for his future in the DC Universe, which we’ll see in BLACKEST NIGHT and in the BLACKEST NIGHT: TITANS mini-series. With gorgeous art by José Luis and J.P. Mayer, I really feel that we’ll surprise people. The last page of TITANS #15 alone should certainly provoke a strong reaction.

So mark you calenders for July 15 when TITANS #15 goes on sale in comic stores. In the meantime, check out this exclusive excerpt below. It’ll whet your appetite for more Tempest. And quite possibly some shellfish.