Early in 1992 my phone rang. At the time I was an art director at a book publisher in Manhattan, and it was some time before I learned the art of being taken to lunch. On the other end was a book agent. “Do you want to go to lunch?” “No thanks,” I replied. “Then I guess you don’t want to meet Jack Kirby?” Less then an hour later I walked into the lobby of the hotel where the Kirbys were staying. I was the first to arrive, and walked over and introduced myself to Jack and Roz. The raison d'être for the meeting was that Jack and Ray Wyman were shopping around "The Art of Jack Kirby." I will save the details of that meeting for another time, but suffice it to say Jack regaled me with war stories over lunch, and I met one of the greatest influences on my early life. Unfortunately I could not convince my publisher how important I believed the book to be. Sadly, almost exactly two years later I learned Jack had passed.

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A new exhibition at New York City's Rubin Museum (an institution wholly dedicated to the art of the Himalayas) will show you "the most complete collection of comics related to Tibet ever assembled." A number of them may already be familiar to you; as curator Martin Brauen explained to me this week, popular comic figures like Donald Duck, Lara Croft and Tintin all make appearances. All the comics -- from the obscure and frivolous to the overtly political -- capture Tibet as it has been perceived by artists and readers at different points over the course of past several decades.

Click through the following slideshow for some truly remarkable images from the exhibition.

Why did you decide to do this exhibition now?

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[caption id="attachment_230862" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Kevin Eastman"][/caption]

These days, the so-called San Diego "Comic" Con's main attraction is sugary TV and movie confectionery. But if you enjoy graphic novels and cartoons – and, well, scary stuff – you may have attended the recent Comic & Horror Con at Long Beach, Calif.'s Convention Center.

While SDCC has been around for over 40 years, the relatively pint-sized LBHCC just started in 2009. But it certainly doesn't seem new. In fact, it feels downright retro. Sure, it had its panel sessions about "Robot Chicken" and Web comics and "Transmedia." But the longest lines of autograph seekers were for Kevin "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Eastman and, well, John "Halloween" Carpenter… 1980s, anyone? Hell, there was even a stage for group readings of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and other such classic radio drama performances.

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Beginning in the trenches of the Eastern Front and ending with the February Revolution, "Petrograd" is based on enough known facts and real people to credibly capture a sense of time and place, but it also employs just enough fiction to create a compelling (if conventional) spy thriller. It mines a fair amount of tension out of material that's already, in a sense, a matter of history.

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Lest you've forgotten any part of this, "Maus" mastermind Art Spiegelman is publishing "MetaMaus" to mark the 25th anniversary of the original. And after a quarter of a century, the work still provokes spellbound fascination and anguish in equal measure.

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Before "Peanuts" there was "Skippy." And "Always Belittlin'." And "The Clancy Kids." And a wealth of other illustrations by Percy Crosby, one of America's most talented comic strip artists. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1891, Crosby's illustrious career began when he was in his teens, at a Socialist newspaper where fellow workers called him "Comrade Crosby." It ended in 1964 when he died, isolated and destitute, in an insane asylum. He had been committed 16 years earlier when he was diagnosed, possibly wrongly, as paranoid schizophrenic and delusional.

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With that in mind, these are books with reasonably complete narratives and a minimum of the following:

1. Superheroes: True, some die-hard fans will never tire of this motif, but for the rest of us the Burden of Specialness is like gum with all the flavor chewed out.

2. Scene after scene of characters in their mid-20s sitting around in cafes kvetching about their love lives.

3. Three dozen identical panels in which the schlubby protagonist stares off into the middle distance, followed by one nearly identical one in which he sighs.

4. Darkness, oh such very dark darkness. This quality is probably a lot more appealing if you live with one of those chirpy moms who's always urging you to think positive.

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Beaton, a native of Nova Scotia who recently relocated to Brooklyn, N.Y., began writing comics about historical figures and characters from literature for her college newspaper; her first strip offered tips for surviving a Viking invasion of campus. "The response was way bigger than I ever imagined," she said recently over lunch. "I knew that I had something."

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At the center of the storm is Jim Lee, DC's co-publisher, who has the job of expanding readership without losing longtime fans. He also happens to be the artist on DC's Justice League, one of the books that debuted this week. While juggling his drawing, signing and publishing duties, Lee took some time to discuss how the relaunch went and the future of comic books in a digital world.

You had a huge midnight signing at Midtown Comics in New York with writer [and DC's chief creative officer] Geoff Johns on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. What was the highlight?

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Plympton's work on Fox's "The Edge" and MTV's "Liquid Television" in the 1980s and '90s were so ahead of their time it's amazing the networks allowed it -- but he now bemoans the lack of American distribution for adult cartoons. (My personal favorite of his is "25 Ways to Quit Smoking.") He hates Internet piracy, but loves the international audience it has provided him. He's collaborated on videos with both Kanye West ("Heard 'Em Say") and Weird Al Yankovic.

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Not so for "Misfits," a British comedy-drama about to begin its 3rd season on the E4 network. The five teen protagonists are neither heroes nor antiheroes: They are "troubled youths" hit by lightning while performing community service. And they spend most of their time hiding their newfound abilities, wishing they'd just go away. They're mistrusted by the authorities and have less desire to save the world than to save their own crumbling relationships. "Misfits" feels less like a superhero show than an episode of the original "Skins" -- if Tony were immortal and talked to the dead and Sid could turn back time whenever he screwed up.

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Fine artists look down on graphic designers. And graphic designers look down on comics artists.

Like all generalizations, this one isn't entirely true. For one thing, a great number of successful designers look into the work of comics artists, very often and very closely.

Chip Kidd is, of course, the prime example. He was also the obvious choice to moderate a discussion about the art of design, and how it relates to comics, at the recent San Diego Comic-Con. Panelists included Seymour Chwast, Craig Yoe, Michael Gross, and Mark Chiarello. You can find a thorough report on the session at Comic Book Resources.

Afterward, I asked these super-pros about design projects that were directly inspired by the comics medium. And here are their answers.

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In fact, the studio's president Jeff Robinov -- not the screenwriters, and not director Martin Campbell, who may or may not be fired anyway -- has already promised us an "edgier," "darker" movie:

"To go forward we need to make it a little edgier and darker with more emphasis on action ... And we have to find a way to balance the time the movie spends in space versus on Earth."

I somehow doubt that the Earth-space ratio is what killed this movie. Perhaps Ryan Reynolds' face just doesn't translate well in foreign countries. Or maybe part of the issue can be found by looking at the huge push by DC Comics and Warner Bros. to remind their audiences who the Green Lantern is. (As long as you put it on a Subway cup, they will come.)

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Miles Morales is a half-black, half-Hispanic teenager. Ultimate Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis claims he's based on Donald Glover, the "Community" actor whose viral campaign failed to net him the web-slinging role in the new movie.

Though the two actors have hugged it out, some fans have grumbled that Garfield was chosen to avoid the controversy that "Thor" attracted when it cast black actor Idris Elba in the role of Norse god Heimdall. The Council of Conservative Citizens issued a boycott of Kenneth Branagh's superhero movie, and although most people chalked it up to a ridiculous racist stunt on the Council's part, the boycott may have received enough media attention to make Marvel wary.

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Who'd win in a fashion fight, the original Wonder Woman or Miss Fury?

Well, one of them wears a headband, a bustier, a star-spangled skirt, and calf-high boots, all in bright, primary colors, which she often models in manacles. The whole ensemble is très tacky. And the other one vogues in the finest haute couture her creator can imagine, or lounges in satin and lace finery, in her "civilian" Marla Drake identity.

"Unfair fight!" you cry. After all, Fury's creator began her career as a professional fashion illustrator. And! During "Miss Fury's" first couple of years the heroine typically prowled around in a skintight, basic-black body suit with pointy little cat ears and panther-paw fingers and toes ... très silly.

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A few months later, in April 2011, a different man wearing a Captain America costume stood on the National Mall. Like the Cap from October, he was there for a rally, only 2011's Cap was a Tea Party patriot clamoring for a government shutdown while holding up a sign that read: "Shut it down/Save America."

After the July 22 release of the summer blockbuster "Captain America: the First Avenger," we'll probably see even more Captain Americas waving placards at protests for all parts of the political spectrum. The Red, White and Blue Avenger is and always has been a potent political image, but whose side would Captain America be on? Would he be a New Deal Democrat slinging his mighty shield for new public works programs or would he be rallying with the Tea Party to lower taxes on billionaires and gut Medicare? Whose Captain America is he anyway?

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Perhaps even more alarming than the costume change is the news that Superman and longtime girlfriend Lois Lane are "DUNZO," according to a report by TMZ. (I like to imagine that Harvey Levin's tabloid empire has a couple of paparazzi staked outside the Fortress of Solitude for just this type of scoop.) She might even have a new boyfriend!

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In two weeks, nerds will descend en mass to California, and in preparation, the producers of Comic-Con have posted the schedule of events for the kickoff day on July 21. (Technically there is a preview night, but who is counting?)

If you're still feeling overwhelmed, we've prepared a brief guide of the day's must-sees, as well as what programs to avoid.

Definitely catch: "Game of Thrones" panel

Author George R.R. Martin moderates a panel featuring series executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss as well as cast members Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington and Jason Momoa.

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