• The Miami Herald’s Richard Pachter has a few kind words for the FINAL CRISIS HC, calling the collection “provocative, thrilling and resonant.” And because it’s not a blog post without me shamelessly interjecting my life into it, it’s nice to see my old stompin’ grounds giving DCU books some love.

• Continuing their concerted BLACKEST NIGHT coverage, IGN unveiled a first-look at GREEN LANTERN #43, a prologue to BLACKEST NIGHT #1 spotlighting Black Hand. And, in case you missed it the first time, up above is a spread from #43 which has a few hints about BLACKEST NIGHT, to say the least.

• Over at THE BEAT, Heidi has the 2009 Harvey Award nominees. Winners will be announced at the Baltimore Comic-Con, which will be held October 10-11, 2009. The ceremony and banquet for the 2008 Harvey Awards will be held Saturday night, October 10. Congrats to DC’s nominees, which include Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely for their work on ALL STAR SUPERMAN, Alex Ross for his cover work on JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA and Rob Leigh for his lettering on THE SPIRIT.

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.

It’s been a busy week here, and I’m sure it’s been equally hectic everywhere else. But it is Friday, which means a few minutes should be taken to scan the wide expanse of the Internet for some interesting early afternoon reading. Ask and ye shall receive.

• We debuted four pages from the first issue of WEDNESDAY COMICS this week, and so far the response has been resoundingly positive.

• This week’s NYT Graphic Best Seller list features BATMAN R.I.P., BATMAN: HEART OF HUSH, BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE, JOKER, ALL STAR SUPERMAN v2, SUPERMAN: BRAINIAC and BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS.

• IGN has an early look at Batman in July, while NEWSARAMA runs down the Superman titles for the same month.

• Comic Book Resources reviews GREEN LANTERN CORPS #35, SECRET SIX #8 and ACTION COMICS #876.

• Dan DiDio answers fan questions at NEWSARAMA, and, most notably, reveals that artist Mark Bagley will be joining the BATMAN creative team in July. NEWSARAMA caught up with the artist today.