Due to a technical problem the Joe Quesada interview will have to be posted Saturday instead of Friday.  But Saturday will feature interviews with the Marvel editor-in-chief and “Invincible Iron Man” scribe Matt Fraction.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

The end is near for Y: The Last Man.

The innovative book by Brian K. Vaughn has been one of my favorites since I picked up a copy of issue 7 and I’ve followed the adventures of Yorick, the lead character, ever since.

Reading the first trade paperback caught me up quickly and the striking storytelling by Vaughn kept me coming back.

Issue #60 comes out January 2 and that will be the summary of the tale of Yorick. It’s been a hell of a ride and I’ll keep you updated as the day approaches.

Why does Marvel even bother?

I don’t believe I’ve ever met a single person who thought that the character was worth the ink and paper and yet once again he’s fouling our comic book stands.

Yes I meant the pun. As long as I’m going to say how useless something is, I may as well make use of the one thing it is good for. Bad jokes.

This is a character that has never, been funny nor has he had any merit whatsoever. And yet the new title is on stands today.

Love the medium as I do, I still think it’s filled with idiots from time to time.

Aunt May is dying.

OK, so maybe you remember that she died before and got better. The truth is, that happens a lot in comic books and it’s a shame. It would be nicer if writers created new characters and if we, the readers, were willing to accept new characters. Or at least if we gave them a chance.

But that is neither here nor there. What is important is that this woman is dying and Peter Parker, aka the Amazing Spider-Man, is doing everything in his power to stop it.

Aunt May took in Peter when he was a child and his parents (who it turns out were spies) were killed. She and her husband took the young man in despite the fact that she had become comfortable, even happy, with the idea of never having children. She raised him and doted on him. Never faltering in her love and support.

While it’s easy to paint over death when it comes in the pages of a comic book. We’ve seen too many characters return from the dead after all. The problem is that by diminishing these deaths, it has diminished the impact of a very important supporting character.

Spider-Man is easy to see as a hero. The red and blue costume and the amazing feats that he performs. Mary Jane is beautiful and the hero’s wife. But doting Aunt May is easy to overlook.

Still, should she die, the impact on Spider-Man would be more powerful than the death of Captain America did. Cap. was someone that the Web-head has looked up to since before donning the red and blue but Aunt May has had even more of an impact than Uncle Ben who shaped the phrase that the hero lives by, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Unsung she may have gone, but Aunt May is Peter Parker’s hero.

Adult Swim sounds like a wild pool party but it’s not.

The block of time on the Cartoon Network is actually a group of cartoons set aside for a more mature audience. Unlike the name might imply, it’s notrife with nudity and dirty talk, but the themes and jokes are clearly meant for a more mature audience base.

This, combined with the nostalgia button being hit pretty hard, has lead to the block of shows earning cult followings. On top of that, the network has created a niche market campaign that includes watching parties at college campuses across the country.

One of the stalwarts from Adult Swim’s early days has been “Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law.”

This show revamped a B-list, Hanna/Barbara superhero, recasting him as a semi-competent attorney. Like the luchadores in Mexican cinema, Harvey has worn his mask throughout the show with no questions asked about his doing so. Former villians from the Hanna/Barbara stable have been brought in as opposing counsel, judges and clients. This was a show that put Fred Flinstone on trial for racketeering, got Secret Squirrel charged with indecent exposure and saw Apache Chief seek restitution after having scalding coffee spilled on his loin cloth.

Stupid, irreverent and outright hilarious, this is easily the best show on television featuring a purple hippopotamus. The peripheral characters are funny as all get out as well, but Potamus definitely is a standout. Just walk up to someone and say, “Did you get that thing I sent ya?” If they laugh, they’re in the purple hippo camp, and in the know. If they don’t, just run man run.

Adult Swim is bringing the run of the hero/attorney to an end on July 22, but the beginning of the end comes Sunday (July 15). This episode sets the wheels turning for the demise of Harvey Birdman. And trust me, you’ll want to see that.

Brad Bird is a masterful storyteller.

I remember the lump catching in my throat as the robot star of Iron Giant remembers Hogarth’s words; “You are what you choose to be.” And then the robot softly says, “Superman.” He then closes his eyes and braces himself for his collision with a nuclear missile, saving the town.

A moment of pure emotion akin to the moment that Jim takes the rifle from his mother’s hands and says, “He’s my dog. I should do it.” The boy then takes the weapon and ends the life of his beloved dog, the title character in “Old Yeller.”

Some stories are so beautifully told that you are swept up in the moment and you’re left helpless to stop the tide of the moment. Bird, the writer/director of “Iron Giant” is one of those storytellers that grabs you by your heart, makes you love his characters and leads you along the path of the tale he wishes to tell.

He repeated his masterful pros when he took to the keyboard and crated “The Incredibles.” If you’ve seen the film, you know why it took home the Oscar. It’s almost sad that the movie came out so close to the release of “Fantastic Four” as it showed audiences what that movie could have been with a master like Bird at the helm.

The story of a super-powered family was Bird’s first foray into the realm of 3-D storytelling but it will soon be followed up by “Ratatouille” and I for one can’t wait.

Thought the film looks silly Bird tends to tell stories from the heart, and to grab viewers by theirs.

I quietly entered his room in the darkness. A gentle shake, a whisper of his name and his eyes opened.

He blinked deliberately in the darkness, shaking off the sleep.

“Go wash your face and get dressed,” I told him. “And make sure you run a brush through that mop of hair.”

“Do I wake the others?” he asked.

“No. It’s just you and me.”

Fifteen minutes later the skinny 13-year-old stood in the living room still curious about what was going on. He seemed so small. As he stood there, tired and puzzled, I thought of how quickly those years had sped by.

I told him we were going to see “Spider-Man 3″ and handed him a shirt with the hero emblazoned on it.

He smiled and an excited giggle escaped the back of his throat.

Spidey and I go back almost thirty years now. I had watched the last two movies with my four children and spent more than one Saturday watching the cartoons and movies on DVD with them, but watching the midnight sneak-peak with my oldest son was so much more personal.

It was sharing my best friend with my namesake. It was the kind of special you remember in years to come. One of those precious few moments that will make you smile and tear up in years to come. And where you know this, even as the memory is being written. It made it all the more special since I could savor every moment.

We got our sodas and popcorn, found our seats and then spent the next 40 min. talking.

We started with “Animal” Farm” by George Orwell and the political overtones of the book. Our conversation wandered through the Mongol Empire and the strengths of Genghis Khan’s leadership, the rise and fall of the dinosaur and our shared belief that they regulated their body temperatures internally, like mammals and birds rather than reptiles.

Eventually he brought me back to the beginning of the conversation.

“Why do you think ‘Animal Farm’ ends the way it does?” he asked.

The answer started with the rise of the communist government in Russia and wound it’s way to Spidey’s mantra of, “With great power comes great responsibility,” and the need of those overthrowing oppressors to remember this, lest they oppress.

(I’m a geek after all.)

It may not have been the best comic book movie ever — heck, it’s not the best of the three Spider-Man flicks — but it’s my favorite.

Because, when the lights went down, the trailers played and then there I was, with my two best friends.

“The Simpsons” will breach the 400 episode mark on Sunday.

While comics aimed at adults seem pretty common today, for years the medium was considered kid country. Anyone working in animation had to pretty much decide that their craft would be stuck on Saturday mornings.

It hadn’t always been so.

“The Flintstones” and “The Jetsons” had both been initiated as prime time shows. Each enjoyed some success and have gone on to be mainstays in pop culture.

Before that though, cartoons were mostly done for the craftsmen themselves. I remember watching a documentary on the Looney Toones Studios and being surprised when more than one of the guys said that they were always making stuff for themselves, if others dug it too, that was just gravy.

I think the attitude is pretty common. Don’t believe me?

When was the last time you watched Homer and fam take on whatever strife they’re facing for the week and didn’t feel like an outsider. The show is rife with insider humor. They even have the voice of the comic book guy - the one on the show, not my comic book column - speaking out on continuity.

Not that this is necissarily a bad thing. It’s fun to watch people enjoying what they’re good at. And, all things said and done, Groening and Co. are very good at what they do. They’ve been putting out a show for almost two decades that constantly skewers pop culture and politics.

But honestly, they’re mostly coasting on fumes of late.

So I wonder, do you want to watch the show drag out it’s demise over a few more years, or should Fox have passed on another season?