January 30, 2009
January 29, 2009
[comics] Obama Disappointed Cabinet Failed To Understand His Reference To ‘Savage Sword Of Conan’ #24 … ‘[Robert] Gates told reporters he may have gotten off on the wrong foot with the new president, citing an occasion when Obama asked him what he knew about 1984′s Secret Wars, a 12-issue limited Marvel release. Gates then handed a visibly confused Obama 1,400 classified pages on covert CIA operations in El Salvador. Later, the defense secretary attempted to find common ground with Obama by making casual references to the comic book Spawn…’
January 28, 2009
[comics] I’ve been stalking Comic Creators on Twitter:
- Brian Bendis … ‘i hope your internet personality becomes your real personality- watch how fast you get punched in the face.’ [link]
- Ben Templesmith … ‘Currently inking a demonic turd.’ [link]
- Matt Fraction … ‘man, you know you’re starting to make it when the torrent sites have your books up before lunchtime’ [link]
- Cameron Stewart … ‘How does one get urine ON TOP of a urinal?? People are monsters’ [link]
- Andy Diggle … ‘Ah, London, it’s good to be back. First stop: Gosh comics.’ [link]
- Ed Brubaker … ‘And now I get to go write Captain America some more today.’ [link]
- Neil Gaiman … ‘Locked out of hotel room. On third notworking roomkey. Inside the phone is ringing with another interview. I smile and twitter.’ [link]
- Joe Quesada … ‘Damn you, Warren Ellis, just LOVE ME!’ [link]
- Warren Ellis … ‘Also, one of you made off with my Bag Of Ideas today and I want it back. Name your terms.’ [link]
- Brian Wood … ‘I stupidly did it again. I done read some blogosphere and am now struggling through the shit-colored tsunami of ugly negativity.’ [link]
January 26, 2009
[war] Atomic John … New Yorker article on one man’s obssesive search to find the secrets behind the first Atomic Bombs … [via qwghlm]
‘Human beings are proud of what they create—no matter how controversial or deadly. Edward Teller revealed the essential secrets of the hydrogen bomb in a popular encyclopedia article. In 1995, Robert Henderson, the chief engineer for the Manhattan Project, sent back to Coster-Mullen an early version of the “Atom Bombs” manuscript, with comments such as “shit” and “pure shit,” and then went on to explain the exact (and still classified) process by which engineers made the lens molds that cast the explosives that squeezed the core of Fat Man until it achieved critical mass. Reading through President Truman’s diaries, at the Truman Library, in Independence, Missouri, Coster-Mullen found an entry dated July 25, 1945, in which the President marvelled that “13 pounds of the explosive” had made the shot tower at Alamogordo, New Mexico, disappear—a pretty accurate estimate of the amount of nuclear material contained in Fat Man.’
January 25, 2009
[comics] Master Post: Frank Miller … fabulous Scans_Daily post showcasing some Frank Miller miscellanea from the 1980′s …
January 22, 2009
[war] Rocket Strikes I Am Near … type in a London postcode and get a list of V2 rockets strikes in that area. Londonist: ‘V-2 explosions devastated Selfridges, Speakers’ Corner and Holborn. That isolated Caffe Nero near the mural on Tottenham Court Road stands on the still-undeveloped site of a blast that killed nine.’
[games] Watching: YouTube – This guy is badass at Marble Madness. … (more…)
January 21, 2009
[funny] Making Light: The true history of the Bush years … as told by the Onion. I’m Really Gonna Miss Systematically Destroying This Place: ‘Still, I have to admit, sometimes I think I could’ve dismantled so much more. The very fact that the environment still exists, that a mere 4,000 troops have died in Iraq, that there is still the slightest glimmer of hope for the future left in this nation—it’s easy to feel like maybe I didn’t do my job. But no, no, there’s no use having any regret. I fucked everything up the best I could and that’s good enough for me.’
January 20, 2009
[rEDrUM] Finally Published: All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy by Jack Torrence … you can buy a copy at blurb.com: ‘If it’s nearly impossible to read, let us take a moment to consider how difficult it must have been to write. One is forced to consider the author, heroically pitting himself against the Sisyphusean sentence. It’s that metatextual struggle of Man vs. Typewriter that gives this book its spellbinding power’
January 16, 2009
[comics] Grant Morrison, Batman and the Superhero Genre … another interview with Grant Morrison … On his recent Batman stories: ‘The big breakthrough for me was when I decided to bring Batman’s entire 70 year history into canon by declaring that ALL of these stories had happened in one man’s incredible life. He’s lost two Robins, seen Batgirl crippled by the Joker, had his back broken and his city devastated! What would the accumulated mental toll of all those years do to even the strongest man? And how would a well-organised and frighteningly-prepared villain attempt to take advantage of that?’
January 14, 2009
[people] Brian Eno on Twitter … and he’s tweeting Oblique Strategies … ‘Faced with a choice, do both.’
January 13, 2009
[space] Go look: In the Shadow of Saturn … ‘The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn recently drifted in giant planet’s shadow for about 12 hours and looked back toward the eclipsed Sun. Cassini saw a view unlike any other…’
[health] The Daily Mail Oncological Ontology Project … ‘A blog following the Daily Mail’s ongoing mission to divide all the inanimate objects in the world into those that cause or cure cancer.’ [via Mondo a-go-go]
January 12, 2009
[comics] 25 Great Things About Being A Comics Fan … ’16. At first you’ll like all the comics. Then you’ll get a little bit older and like only a few of them. Then you’ll get a little older than that, and you get to like all the comics again.’
January 11, 2009
[books] 15 Things Kurt Vonnegut Said Better Than Anyone Else Ever Has Or Will … ‘Many people need desperately to receive this message: “I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.”‘
January 10, 2009
[comics] Watching Dave Gibbons … one more interview with Gibbons on Watching the Watchmen. ‘… there was a misguided idea where we might do Rorschach’s Journal or The Comedian’s Vietnam War Diary, but I don’t think you need to see that. It’s much better if it’s hinted at.’
January 8, 2009
[comics] Top Ten Lists I Did Not Make For The Year-End Wrap-Up That Every Comics Blogger Seems To Be Doing … from BeaucoupKevin(dot)com … Number Six: ‘Top Ten “Chris Ware, What The Hell, Man? Are You Trying To Ruin It For The Rest Of Us By Being So Fucking Good And Creepy At The Same Time?” Moments In Acme Novelty Library 19′
[comics] The Comics Reporter … Tom Spurgeon interviews Matt Fraction … On Grant Morrison’s recent Batman comics: ‘…using Batman as frame of reference for Batman. The gag is that everything that’s happened in the Batman comic actually happened to Batman, right? And what would that do to a human mind? From the bleak noir stuff to the bam-sock-pow stuff and everything in between. He’s using the whole history of the character to comment on the character as the character endures it. And to comment on the comics mainstream, and on heroes, and all that great stuff.’
January 6, 2009
[funny] Let’s look back on the year to come … David Mitchell on the events of 2009 … ‘James Bond to commit suicide in next film: Bond purists were outraged by the news that the suave womanising superspy hero will finally lose the will to live at the end of the next movie, Die and Live Death is Golden Casino Gun Depression (working title).’
[funny] The Great British Sandwich … there are some odd layers in that there sandwich! …‘Help build the world’s tallest sandwich’ [via Mondo a-go-go]
January 5, 2009
[london] Abandoned London … ‘Xmas morning is the only time that London is (almost) empty of humans – so a morning spent cycling around town taking photos.’