linkmachinego.com

5 January 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.’
6 January 2009
[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]
[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).’
7 January 2009
[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.’
[lego] Worth a look: Super Lego Sushi … [via GussetBLOG]
8 January 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’
10 January 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.’
11 January 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.”‘
12 January 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.’
13 January 2009
[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]
[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…’
14 January 2009
[people] Brian Eno on Twitter … and he’s tweeting Oblique Strategies‘Faced with a choice, do both.’
15 January 2009
[funny] Hunter S. Thompson Motivational Posters … [via Fimoculous]

hunter s. thompson on professionalism

16 January 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?’
18 January 2009
[comics] The Kirby Alphabet … from Roger Langridge‘A is for Ant-Man…’
19 January 2009
[London] Worth a look: London Shop Fronts … [via The Daily Chump]
20 January 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’
21 January 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.’
22 January 2009
[games] Watching: YouTube – This guy is badass at Marble Madness.(more…)
[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.’
25 January 2009
[comics] Master Post: Frank Miller … fabulous Scans_Daily post showcasing some Frank Miller miscellanea from the 1980’s …

frank-miller-curator

26 January 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.’

28 January 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]

29 January 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…’
30 January 2009
[funny] The 1982 Version of Guitar Hero … [via David McCandless]

1982 Version of Guitar Hero

2 February 2009
[comics] Forthcoming Work by Alan Moore for 2009 (and Beyond..) … from Glycon’s Livejournal‘Saga of the Swamp Thing, Book 1: The first volume of Moore’s run on Swamp Thing, collected in hardback for the first time, and including Saga of the Swamp Thing #20, never previously reprinted.’ [via Forbidden Planet’s Blog]
3 February 2009
[comics] Bob Mitchell in the 21st Century … new-to-me UK comic blog with some great features: What The Hell Is Grant Morrison Smoking?It’s Funny Panel FridayIt’s Superhero T-shirt Tuesday!
[funny] Glanced at: Scissors beat Paper(more…)
[comics] Gordon Brown Reassures The Nation(more…)
4 February 2009
[comics] Comics Lettering Grammar and Tradition … fascinating (okay, to me at least) look at the overlooked craft of comics lettering. [via Daring Fireball]

comics-lettering-double-dash


5 February 2009
[comics] Steve Bell’s If …If You’d All Like To Introduce Yourselves(more…)
[tv] Adam West: Behind the mask … 2005 profile of the Batman actor …

“Batman was comedy,” West says, “let’s face it. What I loved about Batman was his total lack of awareness when it came to his interaction with the outside world. He actually believed nobody could recognise him on the phone, when he was being Bruce Wayne, even though he made no attempt to disguise his voice.”

“In the same way that Inspector Clouseau never notices his accent,” I suggest, “when everybody around him is also French.”

“That’s right. In the first episode, Batman goes into a nightclub in the cowl, cape and bat gloves. When the maître d’ says: ‘Ringside table, Batman?’ he replies, ‘No thank you – I’ll stand at the bar. I would not wish to be conspicuous.'”

6 February 2009
[twitter] Jon Ronson is on Twitter‘Hitler had a special cow commissioned. A master cow.’ [link]
7 February 2009
[apple] Hacking the Apple TV … how-to from the Register … ‘Apple continues to describe its Apple TV set-top box as a “hobby” project: it’ll continue to develop the platform, but it’s not making any money out of it yet. The gadget’s a hobby project for a lot of other folk too. They want to gain access to this closed but surprisingly powerful system to make it more useful. We’ve had an Apple TV unit for a while now, and we decided it was time to dig a little deeper into its foundations…’
9 February 2009
[knowledge] Clive Thompson on How More Info Leads to Less Knowledge‘Normally, we expect society to progress, amassing deeper scientific understanding and basic facts every year. Knowledge only increases, right? Robert Proctor doesn’t think so. A historian of science at Stanford, Proctor points out that when it comes to many contentious subjects, our usual relationship to information is reversed: Ignorance increases. He has developed a word inspired by this trend: agnotology. Derived from the Greek root agnosis, it is “the study of culturally constructed ignorance.” As Proctor argues, when society doesn’t know something, it’s often because special interests work hard to create confusion…’
[fun] London Bus Slogan Generator … Freedom Is Surrender To Darkseid:


10 February 2009
[comics] Todd Klein on Dave Gibbons Cover and Logo Design for Watchmen‘To begin with, Dave (and all the design work here was by Dave Gibbons, with some help from DC’s Richard Bruning at the final stages) decided to use a simple, very bold sans-serif font for the logo, and run it up the side of the cover rather than across the top. This allowed the logo to be large and striking, while still leaving lots of room for the art…’ [via Neilalien]
11 February 2009
[shopping] Stuck in the Lidl with you … a Guardian journalist on shopping at Lidl …‘If walking into Sainsbury’s is like walking into the middle of a massive children’s party, which it is, especially at the weekend, then walking into Lidl is like being mugged by the guy who makes balloon animals.’
12 February 2009
[tv] The Sopranos, Uncensored‘This is every single curse, from every single episode of the sopranos, ever.’
[murder] My father’s murder: Taking his life in my hands … the sad story of a man facing up to his father’s murder and sexually murky past … ‘I sifted the contents of his house for another five months. After the trial I finally felt strong enough to empty it: the furniture, his clothes, my mother’s clothes, the nine video machines, the bamboo canes and the leather paddles and the blackboard. Then I started stripping and cleaning. I told myself it would help sell the flat. How could anyone think of buying it? But I also imagined that if I cleaned long enough and hard enough, the dull patina of dried blood that seemed to cling to every surface would finally go. I hoped that if I emptied the flat of its objects, and pared back its contents to nothing, I would uncover the place that I grew up in, before Ivor was the old man, before he was a legend. I couldn’t find that place, and I didn’t think I would find it in the boxes and among the papers either.’
13 February 2009
[movies] A List Of Mindfuck Movies … On 2001: A Space Odyssey: Yes, it’s a meticulously crafted and imminently rational three-course meal of a film. For the first two hours, anyhow. And then, in the final 30 minutes, it serves up a steaming bowl of WTF for dessert.
10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know‘I figured that many people would benefit from a thorough overview on how to protect your privacy on Facebook. Below is a step by step process for protecting your privacy…’ [via Metafilter]
15 February 2009
[funny] The Tiger Mike Memos … amusingly controlling management memos from an oil company in the 70’s …

tiger-mike-memos-toilets

16 February 2009
[quotes] The words of Mickey Rourke, actor, 56 … On his early days in Hollywood: ‘I was bouncing at a transvestite nightclub… and back then all the transvestites were on this shit called Angel Dust, so you’d hit them over the head with a baseball bat but they’d keep on coming…’
17 February 2009
[comics] The Collector – ‘Profits of Doom’ Photostrip story … ancient Alan Moore photo comic story from Eagle in 1982.
18 February 2009
[comics] British Comic Creators: The Heroes of UK Comics … interesting list from Paul Gravett but missing out John Wagner? FAIL. ‘I don’t intend to get too flag-wavingly patriotic here, but it has to be said that British comics creators stand amongst the greatest in the world…’ [via Metafilter]
[history] The greatest motivational poster ever? … BBC News on the Keep Calm and Carry On Poster … ‘One company has given it a twist, replacing the original slogan with “Now Panic and Freak Out”.’
19 February 2009
[movies] The Universe According to Kaufman … profile of Charlie Kaufman … On Synecdoche: ‘Near the film’s end Caden is confronted by a sea of Post-it notes that stretch toward the horizon, each signifying a part of a larger whole. He takes in the expanse and says, “I don’t know why I make it so complicated”.’
20 February 2009
[movies] How accurate was Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” about the future? … from Currybetdotnet … On Leonard Rossiter: ‘The problem is that, 6 years before ‘Rising Damp’ hit British television, Leonard Rossiter is basically playing a Russian scientist as if he were Rupert Rigsby…’
[comics] BeaucoupKevin(dot)com: Why I will not be seeing Watchmen‘The more I see of the film version of Watchmen, the less I like it, and perhaps more importantly, the more I dislike what it represents: the dumbing-down of something greater for the sake of a false “authenticity” that’s apparent only to those shallowest of readers of the source material.’
22 February 2009
[smile] A design for Life … Jon Savage on the Smiley Face symbol … ‘It may seem weird that such a bland symbol should be used to convey emotion, in such a way that creates as much distance as real empathy. But then there is something powerfully archetypal about an image of a happy face that resembles the sun. Infantilisation or greater communication, joy or horror: the Smiley can encompass everything.’
23 February 2009
[comics] Reading The Watchmen: Ten Entrance Points Into The Esteemed Graphic Novel … Tom Spurgeon on Watchmen … ‘One thing the film trailers have reminded us is how gob-smackingly weird and lurid and intense Dave Gibbons’ visual interpretation of Moore’s script was in the original graphic novel. All those oranges and browns and yellows set against mostly somber grays and blues. And then the squid shows up.’
24 February 2009
[funny] Sasha Obama Keeps Seeing Creepy Bush Twins While Riding Tricycle Through White House‘As disturbing as her encounters have been, Sasha claimed that the sounds of incessant typing emanating from the Oval Office in recent days are what worry her the most.’
26 February 2009
[mail] Return to sender: Artist puts Royal Mail to the test … nicely done envelopes addressed with artistic brain-teasers …

art-of-correspondence

27 February 2009
[watchmen] The Visceral Horrors of ‘Watchmen’ Movie Merchandise … On a Comedian Costume: ‘So, how many people are going to wear this without realizing that they’re dressed as a serial rapist who shot a pregnant woman in the face?’
[comics] In Brightest Day In Blackest Night(more…)
28 February 2009
[comics] Livejournal Kills Scans_Daily‘The community has been dedicated to posting scans of new and classic comics for comment and critique (and yes, sometimes ridicule), although most scans are limited to a few pages by the community’s rules. Comics luminaries such as Warren Ellis and Gail Simone spent time there regularly, and Ellis once gave a year’s worth of paid time to the comm. A common theme among disappointed fans tonight is how S_D got them into reading comics.’ Update: Peter David Kills Scans_Daily
1 March 2009
[comics] (Fake) Frank Miller is on Twitter‘HOPE ROB LIEFELD DONT SAY BALLS NASTY. FRANKY, HE NO SHIV, HE SAY RELAX, MY MON.’
2 March 2009
[comics] Legendary Comics Writer Alan Moore on Superheroes, The League, and Making Magic‘I had DC buying the company I had just signed contracts with, which is flattering in one way and very creepy in another. It’s like being stalked by a very rich demented girlfriend who can just buy your entire street in order to be close to you.’
3 March 2009
[comics] Alan Moore, the man with a graphic vision … the Observer profiles Alan Moore …‘As novelist and Watchmen fan Susanna Clarke puts it: “He took something very American – the superhero comic – reinvented it [more than once] and sold it back to them.” And, one might add, didn’t even want to keep the profit he made on the deal.’
4 March 2009
[lmg] LMG’s Ninth Blogiversary … nine years?! I must be mad – it doesn’t help that my enabler nearest and dearest sends me blogiversary cards …

how-many-blogs

5 March 2009
[comics] rorschachsdiary … if Rorschach had a blog it would be on Livejournal… ”yet another example of government oppression: hear scans_daily down for good. irritated; will not have to pay money to find out how the black freighter spin-off turns out. expect veidt behind it…” [via jzw]
6 March 2009
[comics] Review of the Watchmen Movie by Pádraig Ó Méalóid … a real Alan Moore fan reviews Watchmen … ‘There is a scene in the film where Doctor Manhattan is being interviewed in a television studio, just before he abruptly leaves the Earth to go to Mars. He describes something – I don’t recall what at this point – as being as useful as a photograph of Oxygen would be to a drowning man. And this is actually the most apt description I can think of for this film: It looks a lot like the original Watchmen book, but has none of its grace, or beauty, or subtlety, or sinuously beautiful timing.’
[comics] Who Makes The Watchmen? … A illustrated guide to the tortured history of the production of the Watchmen movie … ‘Hurm. Snyder and Tse seem to have faithful adaptation. Minus the squid. But keeping the violence. Fine with me.’
7 March 2009
[comics] Watchmen Links on LMG — just a reminder that I’ve posted a ton of links to interesting Watchmen stuff on the internet in the past. I recommend: A PDF of a few Pages Alan Moore’s Script for the comic, Something Awful Photoshops Watchmen and A Reconstruction of the Tales of the Black Freighter Comic. Finally, if you haven’t already – go and buy the comic book. You won’t regret it.
8 March 2009
[sushi] Kaiten (conveyor) sushi time in real Japan … sweet video of a camera doing a lap on a sushi restaurant conveyor in Japan … (more…)
9 March 2009
[comics] Tom Spurgeon Reviews Watchmen‘Unless you were playing book bingo, there was little that was transcendent or particularly memorable about any of the moments from movie. I’m having a hard time latching onto anything a mere 10 hours after sitting in the theater watching it, a single moment like that weird shimmy that Heath Ledger did in the nurse’s outfit in Dark Knight or Robert Downey relishing a hamburger while announcing a major life decision in Iron Man or Clark Kent getting out of his own head for a moment by racing a train in Superman.’
[fun] Massive Timewaster: Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Unless You’re a Loser or Old or Something.
10 March 2009
[comics] An Interview With The moderators of Scans_Daily‘I went through my bookcase at the weekend and looked at all of the stuff that I would never have discovered without scans_daily. I had Irredeemable Ant Man, My Faith in Frankie, Marvel Knights Fantastic Four (read the predictably unpredictable team-mates scene in “Wolf at the Door” and tell me that that isn’t exactly what Reed Richards should be like), Ex Machina (which is now an obsession and I’m taking First Hundred Days to my grown up book group as a change of pace from Tale of Two Cities and The Kite Runner), Five Fists of Science, The Order (I managed to market that to a few people on the community), The Immortal Iron Fist and Spider-Man loves Mary Jane. Of course, that’s just one person and evidence like that won’t convince anybody.’
[books] New York’s bright young man grows up … an interview With Jay McInerney …‘Bright Lights, Big City turns 25 this year.’
11 March 2009
[comics] Grant Morrison: Final Crisis Exit Interview [Part 1 | Part 2] … Grant explains everything … ‘Every time I read about the agonizing pains of ‘event fatigue’ or how ‘3-D hurts my head…’ or how something’s ‘incomprehensible’ when most people are ‘comprehending’ it just fine, it’s like visiting a nursing home. ‘Events’ in superhero comic books FATIGUE you? I’m speechless. Admittedly they do tend to be a little more exciting than the instruction leaflets that come with angina pills but… ‘fatigue’? Superhero comics should have an ‘event’ in every panel! We all know this instinctively. Who cares ‘how?’ as long as it feels right and looks brilliant?’
12 March 2009
[comics] A Serial Killers Guide To faking Human Emotions … from All Knowledge is Strange

serial-killers-guide

[comics] Amateur crimefighters are surging in the US … [via As Above] …

‘There are, according to the recently launched World Superhero Registry, more than 200 men and a few women who are willing to dress up as comic book heroes and patrol the urban streets in search of, if not super-villains, then pickpockets and bullies. They may look wacky, but the superhero community was born in the embers of the 9/11 terrorist attacks when ordinary people wanted to do something short of enlisting. They were boosted by a glut of Hollywood superhero movies. In recent weeks, prompted by heady buzz words such as “active citizenry” during the Barack Obama campaign, the pace of enrolment has speeded up. Up to 20 new “Reals”, as they call themselves, have materialised in the past month.’

13 March 2009
[funny] Motivational Wolf Says… ‘If You Never Give Up… You Never Lose.’
14 March 2009
[comics] Man dressed as the Joker from Batman films shot dead by police‘The dead man, who was said to be obsessed with the character, was wearing full costume and makeup when he was challenged by officers in a national park in Virginia, according to legal documents.’ [via Warren Ellis]
[life] Why Systems Fail and Problems Sprout Anew‘Stated as succinctly as possible: the fundamental problem does not lie in any particular system but rather in systems as such. Salvation, if it is attainable at all, even partially, is to be sought in a deeper understanding of the ways of systems, not simply in a criticism of the errors of a particular system.’ [via Robot Wisdom]
15 March 2009
[books] Review of The Black Swan … from Dan Hill‘Those of us who have struggled through nearly 20 years of hearing that the market was the best way to run everything – from schools and hospitals to childcare, housing, energy generation and transport infrastructure – have this recent ‘performance’ of the financial system itself as an additional indication that, well, it patently isn’t that simple. It’ll take some time for those purveyors of that mindless rhetoric to take on board that ever freer markets are not the only solution – much of this book would quickly help with that understanding, even if it is written from the perspective of someone who lives in, and loves at some level, those markets.’
16 March 2009
[comics] Advice Rorschach Says…

Advice Rorschach Says...

17 March 2009
[comics] Quotes on Comics … Bill Clinton: ‘When I was 13, I made a very foolish short-term business investment: I set up a comic book stand and sold two trunks full of comic books. Made more money than I had ever had in my life. But if I had saved those trunks, they’d be worth $100,000 today.’
[weird] Computer programmer from Finland has lost finger replaced with USB drive‘Using a traditional prosthetic finger Jerry has been able embed a ‘USB key’ – like the ones used in traditional flash drives – giving him the world’s only two gigabyte finger. The finger is not permanently attached to his hand meaning it can be removed when plugged into a computer.’
18 March 2009
[watchmen] Charlie Brooker On Watchmen: ‘Fun as a massive great spectacle, but it surely can’t make any sense whatsoever to anyone who hasn’t read the comic; it was a bit like watching an impressive animated version of a collection of snatched memories of what the comic was like, if you see what I mean.’
19 March 2009
[comics] Just Imagine… Social Media’s Watchmen … a twitter from Ozymandias via BeaucoupKevin.
20 March 2009
[comics] Grant Morrison Talks Brainy Comics, Sexy Apocalypse

‘We know we’ve fucked up the atmosphere and doomed the lovely polar bears and we can’t even summon up the energy to feel guilty anymore. Let the pedophiles have the kids. There’s nowhere left to turn and no one left to blame except, paradoxically, those slightly medieval guys without the industrial base. What’s left to believe in? The only truly moral, truly goodhearted man left is a made-up comic book character! The only secular role models for a progressive, responsible, scientific-rational Enlightenment culture are … Kal-El of Krypton, aka Superman and his multicolored descendants!

So we chose not to deconstruct the superhero but to take him at face value, as a fiction that was trying to tell us something wonderful about ourselves. Somewhere, in our darkest night, we made up the story of a man who will never let us down and that seemed worth investigating.’

22 March 2009
[comics] Advice Rorschach Says… ‘American Love – Like Coke In Green Glass Bottles… They Don’t Make It Anymore.’ (more…)
23 March 2009
[comics] The Electrick Hoax Revisited… Brendan McCarthy revisits some of his earliest work and his first collaboration with Peter Milligan …

mccarthy-electric-hoax

[comics] Hollywood super-hairo: the comic book genius who won’t make a penny from £65m Watchmen … Alan Moore as viewed through the lens of really poor tabloid journalism … ‘The movie adaptation of his comic book Watchmen has raked in more than £65million since its release this month. But writer Alan Moore will not receive a penny – although it looks as if he could do with a pound or two for a trip to the barber. The eccentric writer lives in a modest terrace house in Northampton and remains a recluse amid the hype surrounding the Hollywood blockbuster.’
24 March 2009
[twitter] A list of things that will get you removed from my Twitter list‘Saying good morning, hello, good night to your followers. This is not your personal radio show. This is not an AOL chatroom from 1995. We’ll know when you’ve woken up, because you’ll start twittering. We’ll know when you’ve gone up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire because you’ll have gone quiet, or possibly will have indicated something circumstantially relevant before you went (e.g. “Bugger this, there’s nothing on television: I’m going to bed”).’
25 March 2009
[comics] The 20 Best Movies Adapted from Comic Books … interesting list to ponder … ‘American Splendor (2003. USA) Welcome to the esoteric life and times of Harvey Pekar, a cranky file clerk from Cleveland whose cult-fave self-published comix used to get pimped back in the day on the David Letterman show. Paul Giamati does a fantastic job of portraying Pekar, and even more eerie is how dead-on some of the supporting cast are at channelling Robert Crumb and Tobey Radloff. Pretty much a perfect movie about one of the most important autobiographical comics to ever come out of the underground.’
[twitter] Salam Pax is on Twitter‘and to add irony while I sit here listening to bombs going off left’n’right.. Iraqi tv is showing a report about how security is better.’ [link]
26 March 2009
[tv] Descriptions of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” episodes from the DirecTV guide‘Sexual re-education poster boy is slain.’
[comics] Big Numbers #3 … the complete issue of Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz’s unpublished Big Numbers #3 has been posted to Flickr …

panels from Big Numbers 3

27 March 2009
[comics] Eddie Campbell on Big Numbers: ‘Another thing I remembered, and I don’t think I ever mentioned it to Alan, but I always felt a certain resentment that Billy the Sink got Big Numbers and blew it while i was stuck drawing Jack the bloody Ripper for ten years (I once described it as a penny dreadful that costs thirty five bucks). I stand by my opinion that Big Numbers was the superior idea and would have been Alan’s masterpiece.’
[comics] Pádraig Ó Méalóid (aka Livejournal’s Glycon) reveals the story behind Big Numbers #3 making it’s way to the internet‘Anyway, the story I heard was that Al Columbia completed this issue, had it sent off for lettering and then went a little crazy and refused to release the art for publication … In any event, this art did exist long enough for it to be photocopied.’
29 March 2009
[comics] Five Kinds Of Serial Comic Books I Prefer To Buy Right Now Over New Ones … another interesting comics list from Tom Spurgeon … On Kirby Comics from the 70’s: ‘…it’s like reading comics brought home by a father who is taking sales trips to an alternate dimension full of crazy people.’
31 March 2009
[comics] Dave McKean is on Twitter‘@stephenfry Surpised you are enjoying Watchmen, so many wonderful comics published since then without silly costumes. Hope you will try…’ [link]
[comics] Rejected Rorschach Blots … from Kyle Baker. [thanks Tam]
1 April 2009
[lists] The 10 Biggest Intellectual Fights Of All Time … On Galileo vs. The Church: ‘…in 1632 he published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems and quickly found himself summoned to appear before the Inquisition on charges of heresy. Galileo was forced to recant his support for the Copernican model and spent the rest of his life under house arrest, though with rather lenient travel and visitation allowances. His works were finally dropped from the Index of prohibited books in 1835. In 1992 Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the “Galileo Affair” was handled, officially conceding on the part of the church that the earth is not stationary and that the planets orbit the sun.’
2 April 2009
[thisisgood] What the Hell is Grant Morrison Smoking? … from Bob Mitchell in the 21st Century‘I got six chambers of semi-jacketed realism aimed right at your Sea of Tranquilility. Drop the rock.’
3 April 2009
[comics] Bear Alley … a fantastic comics blog covering all aspects of old and new British comics from Steve Holland … On The Perishers: ‘I was particularly taken with the “eyeballs-in-the-sky” sequence which was reprinted that year. The original strips dated from 1979 and, for those who never followed the story, each summer the Perishers-Wellington, Masie, Marlon and Baby Grumpling-would visit the beach at St. Moribund’s. Boot, Wellington’s huge, hairy, hungry dog, would visit a rock pool each year to the amazement of the crabs inhabiting the pool; it has become a religious experience for many of the crabs whilst other crabs, more dedicated to science, try to debunk the God-like status of the eyeballs-in-the-sky…’
4 April 2009
[history] The Torture Colony … the disturbing story of how the the Pinochet Regime outsourced some of it’s murder and torture to a cult of religious Germans living in Chile … ‘…Colonia Dignidad was founded on fear, and it is fear that still binds it together. Investigations by Amnesty International and the governments of Chile, Germany, and France, as well as the testimony of former colonos who, over the years, managed to escape the colony, have revealed evidence of terrible crimes: child molestation, forced labor, weapons trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping, torture, and murder. Orchestrated by Paul Schaefer and his inner circle of trusted lieutenants, much of the abuse was initially directed inward as a means of conditioning the colonos to obey Schaefer’s commands. Later, after General Augusto Pinochet’s military junta seized power in Chile, the violence spilled onto the national stage…’ [thanks Phil]
6 April 2009
[comics] All The Joy I See Through These Architect’s Eyes … comic artist D’Israeli looks at Mega-City One through the art of various artists who have visualised it over the years … On Carlos Ezquerra: ‘Though his Judge Dredd pilot strip was never published, the last page (a full-page view across the city) was used as a back-cover of Prog 3. I remember seeing this aged about eleven and it absolutely blew my mind. The sense of scale, the strangeness of the designs, the feeling of the future as a gritty, exotic place formed by unguessable processes, all of this generated an excitement I’ve rarely felt from comics or any other medium. Along with Italian Massimo Bellardinelli, Ezquerra dragged 2000AD away from the comfortable visual tropes of the 1950’s and, importantly, gave it a signature visual style that distinguished it from the blocky, industrial designs of the recently-released Star Wars. That one page set a visual and imaginative standard for later creators to aspire to; ironically, as a leftover page from a rejected strip, it may be the most important piece of work Ezquerra ever did, and in its influence it may make him one of the most important artists in British comics in the last 30 years.’
7 April 2009
[quotes] 10 Best Geeky Last Words … H. G. Wells: ‘Go away. I’m all right.’
8 April 2009
[comics] Kyle Baker’s Batman at the Diner‘So, really, what’s with the costume?’
[quote] ‘Everybody Lives By Selling Something.’Robert Louis Stevenson
10 April 2009
[press] Richard Littlejohn Audit 2008: Year Of The Nazi‘I have concluded that 2008 for Richard was very much the year of the ‘Nazi’. Littlejohn gave us the: ‘elf ‘n’ safety nazi’, ‘road safety nazi’, ‘anti-smoking nazi’, ‘eco-nazis’, ‘dustbin nazis’, ‘recycling nazis’, ‘diversity nazis’, ‘tinpot nazis’, ‘condiment nazis’, ‘nail-varnish nazis’, ‘noise abatement nazis’ and ‘City of London Corporation safety nazis.’ [via More(ish)]
12 April 2009
[news] Adam Curtis on the Rise of Oh Dear-ism in Television News‘It’s like living in the mind of a depressed hippy.’ (more…)
13 April 2009
[science] Go Watch: What happens when you drop a cannon ball in a bath of mercury? [via Kottke]
14 April 2009
[blogs] Nick Denton Quote On Blogging from 2002: ‘People like Doc Searls and Meg Hourihan are to the weblog as Oppenheimer and von Neumann were to the A-bomb. Gentle souls whose creation will be used by others more ruthless.’ Nick was certainly right about that wasn’t he?
[polictics] Slugger O’Toole on Smeargate: ‘… if you pick a fight with someone who has nothing to lose (and you do), you’re the one most likely to end up on the floor. To quote blog sceptic Geert Lovint, ‘blogging is a bleed-to-death strategy’. Mr Draper is a PR professional floundering in a world he barely understands, allowed himself to be entranced by the (what Lovint terms) ‘banal nihilism’ of one particular type of blogging, and now finds himself being bled to death through his own actions.’
15 April 2009
[funny] Uncomfortable Plot Summaries … from postmodernbarney.com‘DAREDEVIL: Blind man pisses off crime boss, gets all his girl-friends killed.’
16 April 2009
[books] Unspeakable Horrors – H. P. Lovecraft was a Racist‘Race prejudice is a gift of nature, intended to preserve in purity the various divisions of mankind which the ages have evolved.’ [via Robot Wisdom]
19 April 2009
[tv] Disturbing Strokes … the opening to Different Strokes set to music from a horror film … ‘This has turned out far more creepy than I thought it would.’
20 April 2009
[comics] Typeface Inspired by Comic Books Has Become a Font of Ill Will … profile of the designer of Comic Sans‘Mr. Connare says he pulled out the two comic books he had in his office, “The Dark Knight Returns” and “Watchmen,” and got to work, inspired by the lettering and using his mouse to draw on a computer screen. Within a week, he had designed his legacy.’ [via More(ish)]
21 April 2009
[comics] Brendan McCarthy Art Show at Orbital Comics: ‘Featuring a lost image from the graphic novel SKIN, some drawings from a new comic project, DREAMTREES, a number of published ARTOONS from the CRISIS period of the early 90’s and more pictures from Brendan’s archive of unpublished art. Brendan is currently working on a new Spider-Man/Dr Strange mini series for Marvel Comics, out later this year.’
[funny] Go Look: Escape From Thom Yorke [via David McCandless]
22 April 2009
[zombies] Spelling With Zombies … [via GussetBLOG]

LMG in Zombie Font

[comics] Neil Gaiman Writes a Final ‘Love Letter to Batman’ … Wired on Gaiman and Andy Kubert’s Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? … ‘Well, the great thing about Batman and Superman, in truth, is that they are literally transcendent. They are better than most of the stories they are in. That’s jut Sturgeon’s Law: “90 percent of everything is crap.” Can you imagine how many thousands, or millions, of words have been written on Batman? Try to read them and you’re looking at 100,000 pages, perhaps a million, and you can assume that 90 percent of it is crap. Yet the 10 percent, and even better the 1 percent of that 10 perfect, is absolutely glorious. That pays for everything.’
24 April 2009
[what-if] Nixon’s Undelivered Moon Disaster Speech … What would Richard Nixon have said if disaster had trapped the Apollo 11 Astronauts on the moon? … ‘In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.’
[funny] God is on Twitter‘I could post 141 characters if I wanted to.’ [via @BeaucoupKevin]
25 April 2009
[film] Go Watch: Carousel … I watched this and wondered… Where’s Batman? … ‘Tribal DDB, Amsterdam commissioned us to create a piece of filmed content that could hold its own with Hollywood’s best. Director Adam Berg responded with an idea for an epic ‘frozen moment’ cops and robbers shootout sequence that included clowns, explosions, a decimated hospital, and plenty of broken glass and bullet casings.’