Events
January
January 1: The direct-to-DVD film Hulk Vs is released. January 6: The third and final volume of Hollow Fields has been released. January 15: Dutch cartoonist Tom Janssen wins his second Inktspotprijs for Best Political Cartoon. January 28: The Dutch comics magazine Eppo returns to the market, after being discontinued for a decade. It manages to remain in print, as of today.
February
The Ultimate Marvel titles Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four are both cancelled at milestones: Ultimate X-Men's series finale ends issue #100, while Ultimate Fantastic Four's ends at issue #60. To celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama, Amazing Spider-Man #583 presented an all-new story teaming up President Obama and Spider-Man in "Spidey Meets the President!" The title featured five variant covers.
April
April 19: In Boechout, Belgium, a memorial plaque is attached to the former house of comic author George Van Raemdonck. A local park and street are renamed after him, with a sculpture of him and his characters Bulletje en Boonestaak inaugurated in the park. April 26: Suske en Wiske receive a comics mural near the station of Kalmthout, Belgium. In honor of Wolverine's 35th anniversary, Marvel Comics announced that numerous Marvel titles would feature Wolverine Art Appreciation Variant covers in April 2009. Styles will be reminiscent of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol. The first issues to feature a Wolverine Art Appreciation variant cover were Captain Britain and MI13 #12, Amazing Spider-man #590, Hulk #11, Uncanny X-Men #508, and Secret Warriors #3. "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" was a 2009 story featuring the DC Comics character of Batman. The story was published in two parts, in the "final" issues of the series Batman (#686) and Detective Comics (#853), released February and April respectively. Written by Neil Gaiman, pencilled by Andy Kubert, and inked by Scott Williams, the story was purported to be the "last" Batman story in the wake of severe psychological trauma that Batman endures within the Batman R.I.P. story, and his ultimate fate in Final Crisis. The 40th and final Sammy album is published. Author Jean-Pol announces his retirement and the end of the series.
May
May 1: X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released in theaters. May 19: The final issue of the relaunched version of the German comics magazine Fix und Foxi is published.
June
June 2: In Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, the Hergé Museum opens its doors. June 18: In the Zandstraat/Rue de Sable in Brussels, Belgium, the Marc Sleen Museum opens its doors, the first museum dedicated to a Belgian comics artist while the artist in question, Marc Sleen, is still alive. King Albert II of Belgium officially opens the building.
August
August 30: A statue of Mafalda is placed on the Plaza Mafalda (named in 2005) in Buenos Aires. August 31: The Walt Disney Company buys Marvel Comics. Textbook publisher Flat World Knowledge publishes a business-themed graphic novel, Atlas Black: Managing to Succeed.
September
September: The first episode of Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan is serialized in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine. September 9: It was announced that Paul Levitz would step down as president and Publisher of DC Comics to serve as the Contributing Editor and Overall Consultant for the newly formed DC Entertainment and Diane Nelson would serve as President of the new division. September 11: The lifeless body of Japanese manga artist Yoshito Usui (best known for the series Crayon Shin-chan) is found at the bottom of a cliff. He was only 51. September 26–27: During the Stripdagen Barbara Stok is the first female comics artist to win the Stripschapprijs. Hanco Kolk, Jean-Marc van Tol and Dutch Minister of Education Ronald Plasterk win the P. Hans Frankfurtherprijs. Ed van Schuijlenburg wins the Bulletje en Boonestaakschaal.
October
October 7: Haunt, an ongoing series created by Todd McFarlane and Robert Kirkman, was launched by Image Comics. The book is written by Kirkman with layouts done by Greg Capullo, pencils by Ryan Ottley, and inks by McFarlane. October 15: Albert Uderzo is named doctor honoris causa by the University of Paris.
Specific date unknown
Iván and Andrés Ramírez Ortiz establish the alternative Costa Rican comics magazine Revista Fotocopia, which will run under the name Ultracomics from August 2010 on and eventually bring out its final issue in 2014.