WEDNESDAY COMICS, the groundbreaking weekly series featuring the all-star talents of Neil Gaiman, Joe Kubert, Lee Bermejo, Brian Azzarello, Kurt Busiek and many more, was a critical and commercial success across the board, featuring DC’s greatest characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Green Lantern, in stories from the most talented creators in the industry. For 12 weeks, fans were treated to an historic and energized collection of newspaper strips compiled by editor Mark Chiarello that ranged from standard and captivating superhero drama to the surreal and innovative. But wait, there’s more?

Just announced at the Baltimore Retailer Summit, we’ve got the details on the WEDNESDAY COMICS collection, a topic that’s been hotly debated and prognosticated by fans since the inception of the series.

The hardcover collection of the series, which will retail at $49.99, will clock in at 11 x 17 inches, which will present the series in a deluxe, big-screen format befitting the series, which was originally printed on broadsheet newspaper pages.

So, there you have it. WEDNESDAY COMICS, presented in oversized and deluxe glory. Not too shabby, huh?

The day is winding down a bit, but not before we get to experience a dose of the critically acclaimed WEDNESDAY COMICS, live from Comic-Con. DC Art Director Mark Chiarello is the MC tonight, with a collection of talent from WEDNESDAY COMICS. Which talent? Well, if you’re around, swing by Room 5AB and find out. If not – we’ll have photos and audio up soon.

In the meantime, here’s some snazzy art from WEDNESDAY COMICS to keep a smile on your face.

Well, we’re one week in and response to the first issue of WEDNESDAY COMICS has been amazingly positive. We even got some photos out of it.

So, we’re back for another installment of TUESDAY TUNE-UP, our weekly WC feature, where the basic question is: What’d you think? What strip did you like best? What surprised you? What left you curious and excited for more? Let us know here in the comments.

And, as promised, we’ll be cycling through all the WEDNESDAY COMICS strips to show you a page each week before the issue hits. This week, we’ve got DEADMAN, by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck (with colours by Dave Stewart), which looks quite lovely, if I do say so myself.

Make with the click. Hopefully this’ll tide you over until WEDNESDAY COMICS #2 hits tomorrow.

Hm, maybe we should make this a regular feature here on The Source?

Last week, we put out a call for photos, asking you, the fans, to chime in with pictures of you and your friends reading copies of the first issue of WEDNESDAY COMICS. We got such a great response, we had to post two batches, with the second right here. Thanks to all that participated.

Jordan Stewart

David Roberts’ pets

Steve Higgins

Tomy Torres

Jason Horn

My buddy, CRIMESPREE MAGAZINE’s Jon Jordan

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.

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.

So, you saw the news, right? Yup, starting 7/8, USA TODAY will be syndicating the SUPERMAN strip from WEDNESDAY COMICS by writer John Arcudi and artist Lee Bermejo. Cool, huh? We think so.

Special thanks to io9, THE BEAT, BLOG@NEWSARAMA and COMIC BOOK RESOURCES’ ROBOT SIX for picking up and spreading the news.

And, in our continued efforts to make every day feel as fun as Wednesday, here’s a page from the SGT. ROCK WEDNESDAY COMICS strip, with words by Adam Kubert and artwork from living legend Joe Kubert.

Well, here’s another bit of fun, a page from SUPERGIRL, by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner:

Happy Monday, Source readers. Why not start off the week with some major DCU news?

You’ve all seen a smattering of pages from next month’s WEDNESDAY COMICS, the newspaper-format weekly series spearheaded by DC Comics Art Director Mark Chiarello. The collection of talent, characters and format is a first on many levels, and just from looking at the first few pieces, it’s not an understatement to say the highly-talented creators participating are pouring their best into their respective projects. When the list of talent working on the book includes Neil Gaiman, Dave Gibbons, Brian Azzarello and many more taking on the likes of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and every corner of the DC Universe, you’re entering new territory.

But the history-making doesn’t stop there.

Starting Wednesday July 8, when the first issue of WEDNESDAY COMICS hits stands, USA TODAY will be syndicating writer John Arcudi and artist Lee Bermejo’s SUPERMAN strip every week over the course of the 12-week series. The first strip will appear in print on July 8, and subsequent strips will appear each Wednesday on USATODAY.COM, day-and-date with the respective issue. Additionally, each online preview will be promoted weekly in USA TODAY’s print edition. USA TODAY announced the news this morning.

It just makes sense, no? A weekly series created to remind readers of the joys of standalone comics and the newspaper strips many of us grew up on debuting in the pages of one of the most well-known and widely-read newspapers ever.

The first issue of WEDNESDAY COMICS, and the debut of the SUPERMAN strip in USA TODAY, hits on 7/8.