Greg Rucka is one of the most acclaimed comic book writers and novelists in the business. Along with wife -- and fellow comic writer -- Jen Van Meter, Rucka is at the forefront of modern comic book writing, as evident from his work on Queen and Country, Whiteout, Gotham Central, Superman: World of New Krypton, DC's Action Comics, and most recently Detective Comics, starring Batwoman.

So you can imagine how excited we were when he agreed to guest host Fresh Ink Online in place of host Blair Butler, who happens to be one of his biggest fans. So sit back and enjoy this special edition of Fresh Ink Online, where Greg chats about three of his all-time favorite comics, The Question, Justice League International, and Mage: The Hero Discovered. Enjoy!

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As we ramp up for Comic-Con ’09 in San Diego, host Blair Butler blasts through a slew of new comics to wet your appetite, including Viking, Berserker, Gotham City Sirens, Northlanders, GI Joe: Cobra, Elektra and Utopia. But is it Runaways or Batwoman’s run in Detective Comics that nabs Pick of the Week? Stay tuned and find out…

Make sure to tune in next week when the great Greg Rucka guests hosts! Make sure to visit us on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace as well, kiddies!

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On this very special webisode of Fresh Ink Online, Blair welcomes two very special surprise guests. Plus, she reviews the latest and greatest comics, including Phonogram: The Singles Club, The Invincible Iron Man, Punisher, Red Mass For Mars, Destroyer and Batman: Streets of Gotham. But it’s the gore-tastic Invincible that really has her talking. Did it make Pick of the Week? Tune in and find out.

…and make sure to visit us on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace…

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If you live in the Hollywood area or have ever watched Blair Butler do her thing on AOTS's Fresh Ink, then you're at least loosely aware of the iconic comic book store, Golden Apple Comics. What you might not be aware of, unless you've read Issue #5 of Marvel's Dark Avengers, is that in the last few pages giant monsters attack the store. It's a cool nod to the fans and the legendary staple that had me grinning ear to ear when I saw it. However, there's one little detail that's off.

More than a year ago, Golden Apple comics moved from its location at 7711 Melrose, which is shown in the book, to it's new location at 7018 Melrose. Still, it's pretty damn awesome to see a store that I shopped at as a kid (as I'm sure some of you did) get a moment in the spotlight. Good one, Mr. Bendis or Mr. Deodato or whoever's idea it was! Look below for pictures of the real world counterpart of the panel above as well as pictures of the new location. Excelsior!

Yes, it’s Batapalooza this week as host Blair Butler covers a whole slew of Batman related comics, plus new issues of Resurrection, Absolution, Crossed, Punisher, Northlanders, Green Lantern Corps and more. But it’s Red Robin, Batman Reborn, and Batman & Robin that really tickle her fancy this week. Ooooh, that sounded kinda wrong, huh? Oh well, enjoy the comic goodness!

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To kick off this fantastic holiday weekend host Blair Butler reviews Fantastic 4, Ex Machina, Wolverine Noir, and Batman: Battle for The Cowl.

And it wouldn’t be Memorial Day without a visit from good ol’ Captain America, would it?

Go, America, go!

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After a long absence Nick Fury is back and in a big, bad way and he's got company. As seen in the pages of Secret Invasion, Fury and his new team of young hell raisers (some would call them Howling Commandos) are doing what ol' eye patch does best, defending the world against tyranny, in this case, the world dominating cult of Hydra.

Following the revelation in Issue #2 that S.H.I.E.L.D. (now H.A.M.M.E.R.) has always been secretly run by Hydra, Nick sends his team to the Australian Outback to recruit new talent in the form of a reality bending mutant named, Eden Fesi, while he travels to Africa to recruit some talent of his own, namely S.H.I.E.L.D. bruiser, Dum Dum Dugan, as well as the remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who have refused to be a part of Norman Osborn's new world police. F@#% yeah! It's a sweet, sweet reunion, one that will make Nick Fury fans very happy. Meanwhile, the heads of Hydra, ever the over-eager fascists, make plans to conquer the world and to deal with Fury's insurgency in what will surely be a twisted and brutal way.

Fresh Ink Online gets intense this week as host Blair Butler walks us through the terror of The Walking Dead, the action fury of Wolverine and G.I. Joe, the superhero adventures of Dark Reign: Young Avengers, and the tripped out mystery of The Unknown and The Unwritten. Which one will make Pick of the Week? Tune in and find out…

(…and make sure to check us on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace…)

As The Cabal divvies up the 616 universe, they enact sweeping and unrelenting havoc, both on the nations of the world and in the lives of Marvel's heroes, havoc against which no one can stand, not even the god of thunder, Thor. Directly following the events of the previous issue (in which Loki tricks Thor into killing his grandfather, thereby earning him banishment from Asgard) we find the hero alone in the fields of Oklahoma, with a broken Mjolnir and no hope of being reunited with his people or homeland again.

Issue #601 is mainly an exile's tale, one longtime fans might have never thought they'd read in the pages of Thor. The warrior who has turned aside armies and crushed mountains becomes as emotionally vulnerable as a lost pup. It was one thing to lose his lady love, Sif, but to lose everything he has ever known simultaneously is a much worse fate. Yet, there are no Avengers to help, Captain America can't save the day and none of the pantheon of gods would dare subvert the laws of Asgard. It's a look at the Odin son, we've not seen often before. Though he remains stoic in the face of this tremendous setback, you can almost feel his heart shatter (thanks to the penciling of Marko Djurdjevic) as Mjolnir has been shattered.

Blair Butler takes you a wild ride through the latest issues of Final Crisis Aftermath, New Mutants, Superman: World of Krypton, Irredeemable, and Dark Reign: Invincible Iron Man, on this week’s Fresh Ink Online…now in HD! But is it The Flash Rebirth or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1910 that takes the Pick of the Week crown? Watch and find out!

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Back in the days when comic books with anthropomorphized characters (or holofoil variant covers) sold like hot cakes, one pair of anthropomorphized miscreants, Milk and Cheese, also known as the "dairy products gone bad," dared to be different, choosing brutality and bitterness over vapidness and mass-marketability.

They were foul-mouthed and violent, everything you'd want in dairy products, but unlike curds and whey, they never sold out, Little Miss Muffet be damned. The question is, where are they now? Yes, they've made a few crossover appearances in other books over the years, like the horror comedy title, Hack/Slash, but that's hardly enough for the diehard fans. It's not like they can expect a movie or cartoon adaptation after all this time (unfortunately, the two never made the jump to other mediums, because their creator, Evan Dorkin has a touch of Alan Moore's Disease, also known as "integrity").

Today, the only place you can find a heaping helping of the dynamic dairy duo is in the back rooms of comic book retailers and your grocer's freezer. Milk, Cheese, I miss you.

TV fans know Milo Ventimiglia from Heroes and Gilmore Girls. Movie fans are familiar with him from his work in Rocky Balboa and the upcoming Armored. But the comic book crowd knows him one of the men behind the awesome Berserker and a co-founder of production company Divide Pictures. The man is a multi-tasker, that’s for sure.

So check him out as guest host of this week’s Fresh Ink Online, where he runs down some of his favorite new comics, including Bad Night, Deadpool, The Darkness, Incognito and Batman: Whatever Happened To Bruce Wayne?

He also gives you an exclusive look at the sketches for the upcoming issue Berserker, and makes a special announcement regarding the new home for his much talked about comic Rest that will have fans in a tizzy. Enjoy!

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Have you ever had a bad first day at a new job? What happened? Did you piss off your boss, maybe spill coffee on your shirt or make an idiot of yourself in a big department meeting? Whatever it was, it probably wasn't as bad as Tim's first day at Super Crisis International. As you might imagine, being an employee, especially the new human resources temp at a company that financially supports and arms super heroes, might be a bit dangerous, and as TIm discovers, it's a lot dangerous.

Murderous ninjas, brain eating zombies, drug dealing swamp creatures, perverted deities and flaming hot (literally) vixens are just a few of the hazards he has to overcome as he orientates himself to his new place of employment and he deals with them like any normal guy would, by completely freaking out. In panel after panel, this regular guy comes face to face with the stuff of legend and the things that nightmares are made of. Fish out of water hardly describes it, but you can definitely describe it as funny.

Super Human Resources is like a Saturday morning cartoon for working adults. If you've ever gone in to work petrified of dealing with the monotony of another day in the office, you'll like it because it's a nice slice of escapism and if your office life is crazy and fast paced you'll find it fun and relatable, despite its super heroic outrageousness. Pick up a copy and write it off on next year's taxes as a work expense.

Host Blair Butler dissects the latest and greatest comics on the racks, including Batman Detective Comics, Star Wars Dark Times, The Immortal Iron Fist, No Hero, Messiah War: X-Force, and the debut of Viking. And who on earth spoiled the outcome of Kick Ass #6 for good ol’ Blair? Well, you’ll find out but let’s just say this… thanks a lot Hollywood!!! Check us on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Captain America is an icon in the Marvel universe and is respected by everyone from heroes like Iron Man to villains like Doctor Doom, but he wasn't always so prolific. At the outset of World War II, the man that would become the legend, Steve Rogers was a scrawny weakling, unfit to serve in the army. Was it the Super Soldier Serum alone that transformed the puny reject into the legendary figure? Not according to writer, James Robinson.

Captain America Comics #1 retells part of the origin of the classic hero, not by retconning the work done by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby back in 1941, but by padding that continuity with an untold tale of the red, white and blue Avenger. With fresh eyes, we are shown why Rogers  was always destined to cary the big shield. In this one shot, fate grabs the dejected young man and throws him into the middle of a conflict with Nazi spies on the streets and railways of Brooklyn, New York. With a wink and a nod to the Nazi ass kicking he would do later, a powerless Rogers uses his wits and his courage to outfox and defeat his Nazis opponents, thereby keeping the Super Soldier Serum (which would eventually transform him into the ultimate warrior) safe in American hands.

Although, a fully powered Cap adorns the cover, the entire issue is dedicated to Steve Rogers, the ordinary patriot and less-than-average Joe with the courage to stand up to evil without question or pause. What better tribute is there to the legacy of the hero who has passed on in body, but remains in spirit? Do your patriotic duty and buy a copy.