First up is my former classmate and fellow cartoonist, Jeremy Canceko (by "fellow cartoonist" I mean "cartoonist that is WAY better than I am"!!! HA!). Jer is a professional graphic designer (by "professional" I mean he gets paid to design stuff) and he's chosen to pimp Shelfworthy.com, an exclusive startup that helps people share their refined tastes in books, movies, and games (by "exclusive" I mean it's invite only).

Here's what I asked Jer:

What comics have you been reading lately? Are you a store every Wednesday guy or just whenever?

And here's what he had to say:

I consider myself a Wednesday guy for the most part. I have subscriptions and try to go at least once a month to pick 'em up.

In general, I've been cutting back on a bunch of titles that I used to read to just focus on particular writers. I read a lot of titles from Brian K. Vaughan, Brian Bendis, Mark Millar, and Robert Kirkman. And then I've been keeping up with some Ed Brubaker, Geoff Johns, and Grant Morrison runs. That pretty much covers most of my Marvel and DC stuff, though there are some other gems in there, such as Captain Britain, Patsy Walker, and Ambush Bug, that I dig.

I'm also a Buffy fan, so I keep up with Season 8 and Angel. I try and read as much indie stuff as possible. I'm a huge AdHouse Books and Oni Press fan. I do read a lot of anthologies like Flight, SPX, and Mome when I have the time.

Now I'm just rambling, haha. But I guess I should just list a few more things: A Top 10 [Editor's note: somebody tell this guy we do Top 9's around here… not 10's!!! – Nick] list of comics I do not miss no matter what (fanboys love lists, don't they ;)

(In no particular order…)

1. Ultimate Spider-Man
2. Scott Pilgrim (The most recent volume is great. It got me inspired to go back and read all the other volumes again!)
3. Invincible
4. The Umbrella Academy (This was a title that I was really looking forward to before it came out and it totally exceeded my expectations.)
5. Fables + Jack of Fables
6. Buffy Season 8
7. Wonderful World of Oz (Marvel's refreshing adaptation. I love Skottie Young's art. I'm a big cartoony art kinda guy, haha!)
8. Green Lantern
9. Ex Machina
10. Runaways (Though it's been a while, original creators BKV and Adrian Alphona are sorely missed.)

Hmm, that's all I got off the top of my head!

P.S. Not sure if you keep up with animated shows, but The Spectacular Spider-Man is definitely one of the best comic book cartoons out there. Greg Weisman (of Gargoyles fame) is one of main showrunners and that's some quality storytelling right there. I also really liked the Wonder Woman animated DVD that came out recently.

Do you have a Profile in Comics Reading you want to share with the world? Shoot me a line at nick@audioshocker.com and I'll let you know what I think!

4. What's the deal with Mark Millar's New Defenders? Here's part of where Marvel went wrong with Last Defenders. Mark Millar's Fantastic Four has, directly after the completion of Last Defenders, introduced a team of New Defenders. Think about that. Casey writes a book called Last Defenders, detailing the ULTIMATE fated destiny of the team, only to have Millar spin out his time-traveling future Defenders in a book featuring another cast of elemental characters. Plus, Millar's gearing up for the Lady Liberators, featuring She-Hulk (a member of the fated Last Defenders), and Valkyrie (a classic Defender).

How did that go down? Was FF editorial too scared to say no to Mark Millar? He is, after all, the new golden boy of the intersection between comic books and movies. Meanwhile, Joe Casey has been Marvel's resident Avengers continuity custodian for the past few years. If Millar is Marvel's rock star renegade writer, Joe Casey is Marvel's team book librarian who makes sure that you don't run down the halls.

3. Did Last Defenders get shorted on promotion from Marvel Comics? Despite his longing to play in the sandbox of continuity nostalgia all day, I saw Joe Casey take a break and go to bat for Last Defenders all over the Internet. And that was nearly all I saw from Marvel regarding this book. There were very few ads for Last Defenders, none of which utilized Jim Muniz's captivating art. And the book's promotion was highly obtuse. No one announced Last Defenders as the end-all love note to Defenders history. That angle may have actually attracted more readers.

2. Was Last Defenders unfairly overlooked by reviewers? Despite Casey's passion for the content and his fairly sophisticated method of storytelling, I saw little-to-no hype on this miniseries from reviewers. I thought it was positively fantastic for most of its issues. And while I concede that the story gets awfully confusing, the final issue wrapped it up nice and neat for me. It created an intriguing blueprint for future Defenders stories.

1. Where are the Last Defenders follow-up stories? Millar obviously had no trouble getting his Defenders approved despite the fact that it blows right past everything that Casey, Giffen, Muniz, Smith, and Fabela just did. The lack of internal Marvel promotion leads me to believe that this book either underwhelmed with sales or simply didn't lineup with the company's future plans. I haven't seen anything suggesting that the Last Defenders lineup will appear anywhere else.

It's a shame that this is all we'll get out of Casey's elegant Last Defenders concept. This story is a smart piece of fallout from Civil War -- but it got released too long after the end of the Civil War event to make a splash. So just like Christopher Priest's The Crew, Dwayne McDuffie's Fantastic Four, and Scott Lobdell's Alpha Flight vol. 3, it looks like Last Defenders now sits on Marvel's list of "to be ignored" superhero stories that took bold steps but never received the recognition they deserved.

Next: The Top 9 Star Wars Characters to Dress Up as for Halloween

Why the Top 9? Because 10 is too many and 9 is better. 3 X 3 = Awesome. Now that’s what I call math.