Comic books have come a long way since the 1960s, but publishers have since sadly phased out one of my favorite aesthetic flourishes: that histrionic nobody who was perpetually screaming his lungs out on the front page.

In 1962's Strange Tales #94, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby teamed up to create the short comic "SAVE ME FROM THE WEED!" In this tale, a weed is bombarded with radioactive dust and immediately conspires to take over the world.

What's new in comic shops this week? Ed Brubaker wraps up his latest Incognito miniseries, Bill Willingham pulls the plug on Jack of Fables, and enough one-shot comics are out to wallpaper your bedroom.

Giving comics to your non-comics-reading loved ones is a tricky proposition...and you doled out copies of All-Star Superman last year. Fortunately, there are plenty of other splendid comics out there for folks who can't distinguish Daisy Duck from Dormammu.

Derrial Book was one of the most enigmatic characters on Firefly, and almost a decade after the show premiered, we're finally getting some answers in the good Shepherd's very own graphic novel.

What's up with this week's comic haul? New Batman , Shadowland, and Locke and Key! Also, the second installment of Marvel's Strange Tales anthology is out! This comic features a ton of indie creators reinterpreting merry Marvel weirdness.

Even though Mickey Mouse now owns your favorite comic publisher, that doesn't mean that it's all change in the world of comic books. Yes, tomorrow is still new comic book day, and that can only mean New Comics We Crave.