Whoa.

To everyone in the Eastern US affected by Frankenstorm Sandy, my heart goes out to you. Stay safe and I hope normalcy returns as soon as possible. (And don’t forget to vote!)

Show business knew how to take away the game ball from Sandy coverage with the announcement that George Lucas was selling Lucasfilm to Disney for $4 billion (with a ‘b’). That’s just mind-boggling.

And with that news came the news that new Star Wars films will be forthcoming with Lucas not involved in their production. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, Lucas announced his charitable intentions with the $4 billion. What a week. Marvel and DC will have to stage a double-secret-reboot just to get a little press.

Let’s see what else is going on:

With the new James Bond movie - Skyfall - opening up, what are the worst ones in the franchise? Matt Singer at Indiewire has his choices. Let the arguing commence!

Well! Alyssa Rosenberg would not want Joss Whedon at the helm of Disney’s new Star Wars franchise. It’s all in a post called “Dear Internet, Joss Whedon Shouldn’t Run Everything, Including 'Star Wars'”

Graeme McMillan looks at the comic book adaptation of Alien that we never saw: pencils by Carmine Infantino and inks by Walter Simonson.

Capital New York’s Matt Haber ponders MAD Magazine and asks the question everyone asks about something that’s been around a lot time, whether it’s a magazine, a TV show or your Uncle Plotzkin: “Is there even room for MAD anymore?”

Longbox Graveyard goes off-topic for a bit to cover The Walking Dead.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal’s creator Zach Weinersmith has himself a new book out and he took to the pages of John Scalzi’s Whatever to talk about it.

Novelist and occasional comic book writer Mark Ellis has a new book series out and Bruce Grossman at Bookgasm likes it.

Gary Reed reports on the Detroit Fanfare convention.

And finally, I worked for a company that once published a lot of Retief comics before Keith Laumer passed away. I was sad to read about his final years from Frederik Pohl.

[Artwork: Star Wars via Dark Horse]