July
31 Comic-Con: Gaiman, Kevin Smith write Batman

Yes, there were actual comicbooks at Comic-Con and there were some big-name projects announced.

* On the DC side of things, both Neil Gaiman and Kevin Smith have signed on to write Batman stories. Gaiman's will be a two-part story drawn by Andy Kubert and due out in January. Smith is set to write a three-issue series called "Batman: Cacophany," due in November with art by Smith's longtime associate Walt Flannigan. The scripts for two issues are complete, meaning this series will run at least one issue longer than Smith's "Daredevil: Target" miniseries of a few years back.

* Rockne S. O'Bannon, creator of the cult sci-fi series "Farscape," will write a comicbook continuation of the show for Boom! Studios.  He talks about it on YouTube here.

* Flash fans will surely be pleased to see the cretive team behind the must-read "Green Lantern" on board for a relaunch of sorts. Writer Geoff Johns and artist Ethan Van Sciver will be handling "The Flash: Rebirth," starring the newly-revived Barry Allen version of the character.

* Over at Marvel, blogger Valerie D'Orazio — a former editor at DC and Acclaim Comics — will be writing a five-issue "Cloak & Dagger" series.

* TOKYOPOP was absent from this year's Comic-Con in the wake of a big cutback in their output, but they did announce some kind of alliance with Tokyo-based manga publisher Gentosha.