20 January 2008
[life] RulesofThumb.org — a user-contributed collection of Rules of Thumb … ‘To estimate the length of time a person has been dead, take a rectal temperature. If it is above room temperature, subtract from 98. The answer is the number of hours since death.’ [via Lifehacker]
19 January 2008
[comics] Well Hello There, Robin … amusing behind-the-scenes photo of the 1960’s Batman TV Show.
17 January 2008
[comics] Horror in the Nursery — fascinating scans of an article with Frederick Wertham attacking crime comics from Colliers magazine in 1948…
![]() 16 January 2008
[comics] 17 Sensational, Free and Downloadable Graphic Novels — some great stuff here to take a look at including the start of Y: The Last Man, DMZ and Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol (all highly recommended).
15 January 2008
[web] Oblique_Chirps — twitter feed of Oblique Strategies … ‘Remove a restriction’
14 January 2008
[comics] A Storytelling Thing — interview with Paul Grist, the creator of Kane and Jack Staff … ‘I went and printed out… I think I ended up printing 3000 copies of the first issue [of Kane]. Then I decided to try and sell them. That was a matter of sending out a sample copy to all the comic shops in the UK and selling it directly to them. And from that I found that, out of the hundreds of comic shops in the UK, there were about 15 willing to sell something like that.’
13 January 2008
[comics] England their England: Monsters, Maniacs and Moore [Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4] — Alan Moore’s view of the world from a 1987 Central TV documentary now available on YouTube. (I’ve embedded the first video after the jump.) … ‘My names Alan Moore. I write comics.’ [more…]
12 January 2008
[comics] Dave Sim – the Song, not the Singer — fair-minded examination of why Dave Sim’s comic Glamourpuss is worth looking at … ‘Sim as he comes across in print is dogmatic, rude, paranoid, believes women to be subhuman and evil, and holds political and religious views which, to the extent that they’re comprehensible at all, are totally incompatible with humanity. He’s read the Bible as a struggle between Good and Evil and thought that Evil sounded like a good idea. Which is what infuriates me, because he’s destroying the reputation of the finest creative mind of his generation, and I’m sick of trying to defend someone who I find (as an essayist – again, no judgement of him as a human being implied) utterly repellent and inimical to everything I hold dear. But I have to, because he’s that good. Even was Sim’s comic writing as bad as his prose would imply, I would still want to read anything the man did just because of his technical skill.’ [via Meowwcat]
11 January 2008
[comics] Doonesburyland — Radio 4 looks at Doonesbury. Includes an interview with Gary Trudeau and contributions from Steve Bell and Martin Rowson. (This should be available for about a week from now – so check it out.)
10 January 2008
[batman] The OTHER Brian Bolland Batman story — creepy Batman story spotted on scans_daily … ‘I don’t consider myself a Bad Person…’
9 January 2008
[weird] Dearly departed to heat Manchester crematorium — Mega City One’s Resyk comes one step closer … ‘A Manchester crematorium where “grieving friends and relatives have complained of the cold during services” will tackle the problem by using the “body heat” generated in the incineration process to crank up the temperature…’
8 January 2008
[comics] The Rack — I’ve really been enjoying these entertaining comic strips about life at Yavin IV – a Southern Californian comic shop. Check out the start of the comic strip or this weeks staff new comic picks.
[fun] Concentrated Stupid — a webpage showing a random example of the concentrated stupidity of the Internet … ‘u kno dissin tom and if he knew he be deleted all of uscryingnaw playingprobly delete u for posting thislol’ [via Waxy]
7 January 2008
[tv] The GOP Primary Field in Buffy Villains — great list which neatly sums up Republican Presidential candidates (especially for non-american Buffy fans) … ‘John McCain as The Master – The oldest vampire. Got killed early, but there’s some talk about how he might rise again.’
3 January 2008
[war] Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? [Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3] — a wonderful long series of blog posts from Errol Morris as he obsessively examines two early war photos taken during the Crimean War to decide if they were staged or not … [via Metafilter]
‘Much of the problem comes from our collective need to endow photographs with intentions – even though there are no people in the frame, including Fenton himself, who is conspicuously absent. The minute we start to conjecture about Fenton’s reasons, his intent – his psychological state – we are walking on unhallowed ground. Can we read Fenton’s intentions off of a photographic plate? Is there anything in the letters that tells us what he was really thinking and what really happened?’ 2 January 2008
[blogs] WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier — a blog posting letters in real-time (ninety years after they were written) from a English Soldier in World War I to his family … ‘Three days after, we were called up the line again of course I went this time. We had to go to the front line were it was on the Menin Road no doubt you have heard about it. We were there for three days it was awful the shelling day and night.’
30 December 2007
[house] It Could be Lupus — a compilation of House lupus moments. And remember: It’s not Lupus, it’s never Lupus. [more…]
29 December 2007
28 December 2007
[cats] The Kitten Channel — because the Internet is all about cute kittens … ‘OMG!!! KITTENS!!! All the best kittens and cats on the interweb – that’s the newest flickr photos, and YouTube videos in one place. Plus a hand-picked selection of the cutest and funnest cat and kitten related pictures, videos, news, views and gubbins on our blog.’ [via More(ish)]
[conspiracies] The Random Conspiracy Theory … ‘O. J. Simpson is looking for proof that one of several children within seven miles of Cincinnati has caused the resignation of Godzilla.’
27 December 2007
[comics] Four Colour Funnies in the Old Grey Lady — Metafilter discuss comics from Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Seth and others published in the New York Times Magazine.
[comics] The Fabulous World of Glamourpuss — a new comic from Dave Sim.
24 December 2007
[blog] Zoom – the blog of documentary filmmaker Errol Morris.
22 December 2007
[space] Astronomy Pictures of the Year for 2007 — another end of the year list from the always worth visiting APOD.
21 December 2007
[blogs] Best Blogs of 2007 That You (Maybe) Aren’t Reading — an end-of-year list from Fimoculous.
[vids] 2007’s top 10 online videos — this video of 1500 prison inmates in the Philippines performing Thriller is worth checking out … [more…]
20 December 2007
[london] Evening Standard Headline Crisis 2007 — another years worth of headline boards from the Evening Standard – just try not to think about the stories behind them too much…
![]() Click on the images for the full set 19 December 2007
[comics] On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, My True Love Gave To Me… — a Christmas Special from Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog.
18 December 2007
[blogs] Top 10 Tips for New Bloggers From Original Blogger Jorn Barger — Jorn’s the Daddy of link-blogging so very little I can add here but I’ve always felt pull quotes and some nice visuals from what you’re linking to is important as well – it’s the great weakness of delicious and Tumblr’s great strength … ‘If you spend a little time searching before you post, you can probably find your idea well articulated elsewhere already.’
[funny] Porn For Girls By Girls.com — another spoof website from The Internet Now in Handy Book Form …
![]() 17 December 2007
[funny] Important question of the day: How Many Five Year Olds Could You Take in a Fight? [via linkbunnies.org]
[kipple] Philip K. Dick on Kipple — brief 43 Folders post on Kipple … ‘I think kipple is the main problem with my computers. It’s not just adware (on the Windows box), but the weird little things that wind up in the nooks and crannies. Installers for demoware. Photographs of children. Zipfiles loaded with mp3s… of songs that I already have in other directories, or on other machines, or on CDs on the shelves on my walls.’
14 December 2007
[movies] Blade Runner: Final Cut Review — nice comprehensive review of Blade Runner: Final Cut … ‘Back in 1982, actress Joanna Cassidy wasn’t allowed to do the stunt where Zhora crashes through the window panes. But if you watch the film closely, especially now in high-definition, it’s painfully obvious that it’s a stuntwoman in those shots. So Cassidy was brought back in, dressed in her original costume, and was shot on a greenscreen stage, going through the same movements as the stuntwoman. Her face and body angles were matched to those of the stuntwoman’s frame by frame. Cassidy’s head was then digitally inserted over the stuntwoman’s, and the resulting image was blended, color-corrected and matched seamlessly. So now, when you see Zhora crash through the glass, it’s actually Zhora all the way through. The result is amazing.’
13 December 2007
[comics] Interview with Brendan McCarthy … ‘I’ve got about seven new pitches out with various comics companies at the moment, but I’m not working on an actual comic at the moment… ‘
12 December 2007
[xmas] Santa putting children’s information at risk, warn experts … ‘Data protection laws lay down strict conditions for the use of personal data and there is no evidence that Claus has an adequate compliance programme in place. Children across Britain who write letters to Claus with a list of gift requests are not told for how long that data is kept, or if it will be used for other purposes such as marketing by third parties.’
11 December 2007
[wrestling] The Ring Cycle — Jon and Joel Ronson investigate WWE and the Chris Benoit double murder and sucide … ‘Bodybuilders beat each other to a pulp. Women in bikinis beat each other to a pulp, sometimes with midgets on their shoulders. From time to time the wrestlers lay out their philosophies for the camera. My favourite philosophical wrestler is John Morrison, who says, “Join me in the palace of wisdom or continue to be slaves to society. I am a portal to the infinite. You are temporary, a fleeting footnote to an average reality.” His palace of wisdom seems to involve hammering opponents’ faces into the floor.’
10 December 2007
[movies] What’s new in Blade Runner: The Final Cut? — contains some spoilers … ‘In the scene where Batty confronts Tyrell, the line, “I want more life, fucker” has been replaced with “I want more life, father”.’ [via linkbunnies.org]
8 December 2007
[comics] Another weird comic guest-star: Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen meets Don Rickles … ‘Kirby’s early 70s run on JIMMY OLSEN was his first work for DC after leaving Marvel, and DC let him go hog wild with the book. Kirby used it as a springboard to introduce his “Fourth World” concepts like Darkseid, the New Gods, etc. Oh, and famous insult comic Don Rickles’ twin, “Goody” Rickles.’
7 December 2007
[comics] Scans of Daredevil #133 — from 1976 – oddly guest starring Uri Geller … ‘Daredevil, Wait For Me — I’m a Mentalist, not an Acrobat!’
6 December 2007
[spam] Inside the “Ron Paul” Spam Botnet — facinating behind-the-scenes look at the methods and tools spammers use … ‘Reactor Mailer operates with a software-as-a-service model. Spammers are given accounts on a Reactor server, and use a web-based interface to manage their spam tasks.’
5 December 2007
[funny] Arnold Shares his Deepest Feelings — yet another of those amusingly weird YTMND pages. [via linkbunnies.org]
4 December 2007
3 December 2007
[comics] Comic Letterer Todd Klein takes a look at 68 years of Batman cover logos: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 – ‘…essential elements that seem to work well for Batman: large, art deco letters in front of a bat shape with menacing, mysterious elements.’
2 December 2007
[comics] The Ha Ha Ha Times — nicely done viral promo site for the new Batman film. Metafilter has more links: Marketing the Bat.
1 December 2007
[comics] Watchmen Movie Blog — a blog of the film production of Moore and Gibbon’s classic comic series.
30 November 2007
[shopping] Complete Receipt Defeat … ‘I recently bought a four-pack of Play-Doh – big plans for the weekend – at my local Toys R Us and received, along with my purchase, over a foot and a half of receipt. That comes out to almost an inch of paper for every dime I spent. Here it is, broken down by height in inches…’
[comics] The 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings — I try to keep it positive about comics but let me be clear here – Rob Liefeld is utterly shit. … ‘The most important thing you need to know before reading about all the terrible things Rob Liefeld has drawn is that he has never seen or talked to a woman in his life and has no idea what they look like or how their bodies operate. If you asked Rob Liefeld to draw a diagram of the uterus he’d put on a pair of gauntlets and punch the shit out of your chalkboard. This is how the man operates…’ [via Do You Feel Loved]
29 November 2007
[comics] Rare Viz comic auctioned for £950 … ‘The mint-condition “number one” edition from December 1979 had a guide price of £350-£400, and is one of only about 500 printed. But it went for double its estimate under the hammer at Anderson & Garland auctioneers in Newcastle.’
27 November 2007
[tv] Adam Curtis : an Audio Special — audio from Andrew Orlowski’s Adam Curtis interview.
26 November 2007
25 November 2007
[funny] This Much I Know from Ken Campbell …
I selected a random address in Barkingside as a setting for a script. It was the first script Frank Muir bought when he was setting up the comedy department for LWT. He rang up and said, ‘Bute Road, Barkingside? I once had sex there.’ 24 November 2007
[radio] After Our Time — a blog about Radio 4’s In Our Time.
23 November 2007
[comics] Kevin O’Neill Interview — O’Neill discusses the LoEG: The Black Dossier … On Alan Moore’s scripts: ‘…when I tidied up my studio, it was the first time I’d put all the scripts into one place, because it’d been written over a number of years. And the finished “Dossier” was bigger than a telephone directory, it was a monster of a thing. If that had all arrived at the same time, I doubt if I could’ve started the book, it would have been so formidable.’
22 November 2007
[tv] The TV elite has lost the plot — Adam Curtis interviewed by Andrew Orlowski … ‘Mark Ravenhill who wrote a very good piece which said that if you analyse television now it’s a system of guidance – it tells you who is having the Bad Feelings and who is having the Good Feelings. And the person who is having the Bad Feelings is redeemed through a “hugs and kisses” moment at the end. It really is a system not of moral guidance, but of emotional guidance. Morality has been replaced by feeling.’
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