STATE OF THE (COTTAGE) INDUSTRY: Mark Millar interviews Bill Jemas/Joe Quesada and CrossGen's Mark Alessi. And here's Mark himself on The Ultimates, the current big thing in mainstream, wide-distribution comics that he writes for Marvel. Comics have really retreated into a fading blip on the ol' American cultural radar--a shame.

Oh, and here's the top 300 comics and top 50 graphic novels for October.