@@@@RIP Dave Stevens@@@@Pact with the devil complete…March 8th declared Joey Q Day@@@@GAMEKEEPER Contest Winners!@@@@

What’s SHOOT THE MESSENGER? Well, AICN COMICS: SHOOT THE MESSENGER is your weekly one stop shop for comic book news that’s dropped in the previous week. Thanks to Newsarama, CBR, Wizard, etc. for reporting it as it breaks. Click on the links for the original stories. This column cuts the crap to run down all the vital information for those of you who don’t follow it as it comes in, and serves it all up with that special ingredient of @$$y goodness. It’s also the place for interviews, previews, and special reports.

You know the drill by now. I’m Stones Throw, and here are some more bullet point rundowns of the week’s biggest and best comic book news. This week we’ve got updates from the MegaCon in Florida, new series announcements galore, and maybe a few surprises!!?? But we’re kicking off on a melancholy note…

@ …with Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson paying tribute to ROCKETEER creator Dave Stevens here.

@ MEGA-CON NEWS…Hey, ONE MORE DAY haters! Why not go to Orlando on March 8th and commit an act of civil disobedience? Why the hell would I do that, you ask? Well, it’s just been named “Joe Quesada Day” by the mayor of Orange County…

@ Joey Q was also presented with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Sun Award for achievements within the Hispanic community at this year’s MegaCon…

@ More news from the MegaCon… a new DEADPOOL series is apparently in the works at Marvel…

@ The issue of WHAT IF…? that Mike Wieringo was working on prior to his death last year will be completed by several artists before being auctioned off for the Hero Initiative charity…

@ Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner’s TERRA should see the light of day soonish…

@ Meanwhile, Darwyn Cooke, J.H. Williams III and David Michael Beck will offer up their renditions of JONAH HEX in upcoming issues…

@ UPCOMING SERIES RUN-DOWN…Colossus gets time in the spotlight in May’s X-MEN ORIGINS: COLOSSUS, by Chris Yost and Trevor Hairsine…

@ Huntress gets the YEAR ONE treatment in, you guessed it, HUNTRESS: YEAR ONE from DC this May. Ivory Madison writes and Cliff Richards draws…

@ Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn’s FIREBREATHER, about the son of Godzilla and a human woman, returns at Image…

@ BUFFY’s Spike is on the receiving end of a four-issue miniseries from IDW in July…

@ Dynamite has secured the comic book license to BUCK ROGERS, with Alex Ross and John Cassaday attached as cover artists and character designers…

@ NEW WRITER ALERT!... Rick Remender joins the over-worked Matt Fraction as co-writer of PUNISHER: WAR JOURNAL in May…

@ AND FINALLY… Remember that FANTASTIC FOUR: THE LOST ADVENTURE issue that came out a few weeks back, heralding all-new Kirby art originally intended to run in FF # 108? And how not enough of it was available, leading to Ron Frenz being called in to fill a few panels? Well, according to Marvel editor Tom Brevoort, the missing page was just sent to JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR by a fan who picked it up off Ebay. I find this extremely funny for some reason…

That’s it, ladies and gents. Drive safely and remember to shoot your messenger. Or, y’know, whatever.

Hey folks, Your Friendly Neighborhood Ambush Bug here. One last thing before we go, AICN Comics & Virgin Comics would like to congratulate the following winners in our “Cast the GAMEKEEPER Movie” Contest, which coincides with the release of GAMEKEEPER VOLUME 2 #1 (reviewed here and previewed in last week’s STM column). Congratulations:

John Brophy
Jonathan Soweidy
Matthew Bensen
Personally, I agree with John Brophy and think Jason Statham from THE TRANSPORTER is perfect for the part. Winners, expect some very nice prizes from Virgin Comics in your mailbox very soon.

Thanks to all for participating in the contest. Be sure to pop back here next week for an interview with the GAMEKEEPER V2 crew (Jeff Parker, Ron Chan, and Ron Randall).