Double Articulation: Deconstructing Brett Ratner’s X3: This is spot on, except a) it's too nice to Halle Berry, b) it's too nice to the ham-handed Angel plot, and c) the Hellfire Club clearly should have been in the fourth movie, because that's how I would have done it. (Spoilers abound.)
Tales from the Longbox on All-Star Batman and Robin: "Perhaps this is all part of some brilliant DC marketing scheme. People are having so much fun laughing at how bad the book is they're willing to keep buying it just to see how much worse the next issue will be."
How to draw Kirby Dots: A signature effect of the great comics artist Jack Kirby -- illustrating a supernatural glow through negative space.
"Welcome to Eltingville" failed pilot: Sarah "Action Girl" Dyer posts a Cartoon Network reject, based on the characters from her husband's long-running "Dork" comic book.
First Second - Vampire Loves: From French comics guy Joann Sfar, author of "The Rabbi's Cat". Super-awesome.
SFPTZL GLBSH! - The Sugar and Spike Main Website!!!: Dedicated to Sheldon "Scribbly" Mayer's widely lauded series about a pair of toddlers -- the menu items cracked me up.
Look! Up in the sky! It's... the All-Girl Hero League!: Man -- good on them for participating in Free Comics Day, but these characters look like they were lifted straight from someone's Champions campaign.
On superhero comics and the objectifying gaze: The Batman cover made me laugh out loud.
Coconino Classics: Rare early 20th c. comic strips, including T.S. Sullivant's great "Fables for the Times" and several examples of a non-"Krazy Kat" George Herriman strip. Amazing.
The Vendetta Behind "V for Vendetta": Alan Moore's genius is exceeded only by his freakishness; being witness to his hectoring crazy-Druid testimony must have been a treat.
Michael Medved ramps up "Seduction of the Innocent II: Electric Boogaloo": "Even after September 11th, Marvel Comics and other publishers are disseminating comic books that actively promote a destructive cynicism and mistrust of the United States Government." Also, they are soft on the Mutie Menace. (via Jim Henley)
demonbaby: The First Annual MySpace Stupid Haircut Awards!: When did Captain Marvel (Marvel version) change her name to "Photon"?
Bunny suicides: These have a particular sort of Mad Magazine quality to them.
Pure Hero sportswear: If you ever wanted a wicking sweatshirt with a big Fantastic Four logo on it, here's the place.
The Marvel Universe's "Scourge of the Underworld": Today's most pathetically geeky page on the Internet (unless it's the "Circus of Calliope" on the same site). This is why people beat up comic book fans and take their lunch money.
Legions of Doom: One man's Quixotic quest to make various comics artists (including Jeff Smith, Kevin O'Neill, Michael Avon Oeming, and a slew of Europeans) draw him their version of Marvel's maddest villain.
Liberality for All: In a 2021 America under domination by "ultra-liberal extremists", mysteriously well-preserved Gordon Liddy and Oliver North must help cyber-Sean Hannity save freedom.
Superdickery.com: The "Superman is a dick" thread breaks out into its own website.
Everyone Drunk But Me: The adventures of a nebbishy exchange student in Russia.
Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life: A web comic, starring robots.
theferrett: The Weirdest Book I Ever Got: "Yes, that's correct; he has the theory that dinosaurs, enraged by fallen angels, attacked Noah's Ark as the flood began in a no-holds battle to the finish." Awesome.
Spiderman, Superman, Zarqawi: I love it when Abu Aardvark takes a break from serious discussion of Middle Eastern reform to be a great big ol' comics geek.
Snailgate: How a cartoon character won an election: It's nice to be reminded what a farce collegiate elections are.
Wertham's Ghost (a brief history of Batgirl): "If a comic book could actually turn people gay as Dr. Wertham had suggested seven years earlier, this one might have had the power to do it."
Variety: "Grammer feels blue over 'X3'": Some amusing casting for the next installment of the Marvel film franchise.
The "R. Crumb Handbook" on NPR: Alice Koninsky-Crumb gets, I dunno, a pocketbook or something, I guess.
Pow! Zap! Tips for reporters writing about comic books: Or, "It's not 1989, learn to write like it." I'd love to see a New Yorker profile of Steve Ditko and Mr. A sometime.
STRANGEco: Designer Toys, Art and Curiosities: Part zine, part catalog of crazy cute mutant toys.
Jonathan Lethem to write a superhero comic: Now if we could get Ed Brubaker to write a sensitive novel about childhood and race in 1970s New York, we'd be all set.
Clarke American chases the Comic Book Guy market: Poor Aquaman gets dissed again. And is that Comic Sans?
Do the standing still: Nothing Nice's "The Politics of Dancing" is totally true.
Destructo: A Game of Sequential Art: "What if I'm supposed to destroy a cultural movement? Or a concept? Or an emotion? I can't shoot those things with a lazer!"
The Great Curve: A nice news-roundup comics blog, focused on Marvel and DC.
Twisted ToyFare Theater presents "A Very Marvel Seder": In which Ben Grimm learns the true meaning of Passover.
The Comics Curmudgeon: "OH NO, SHARKS. THAT"S ALL I NEED." This is so joining my morning cup of coffee as an a.m. ritual.
indietits.com- these birds are hipper than you: Questionable Content branches out into a questionably named pair of Pitchfork-reading birdies.
Paul Greengrass makes promising noises about the Watchmen movie: I liked "Bloody Sunday", and though Greengrass isn't an -obvious- choice, he sounds like he gets it. But Alan Moore's cinematic misery will go unabated for some reason, I'm sure.
The JLA in the Crisis on Infinite Earths: I once tried to explain how ludicrously overcomplicated this whole thing was; this page does the job for me.
Logos of the Dark Knight: The evolution of the "Batman" splash, 1940-2003
On posting a Sandman rarity: A debate about the value of IP breaks out, and one of the artists shows up to point out that if nothing else, the scanner is being rude. (via Ralenu)
Beekeeper Comix has returned!: Two years after "Shutterbug Follies" wrapped up, Bee has a new series of weekly adventures.
Kuwaiti media conglomorate buys "Cracked": I'm glad it'll survive, even if it's not nearly as good as "Mad" (and if the Kuwaitis think it'll drive worldwide growth, they've got another think coming). (via Mark Evanier)
The Secret Friend Society: Two comics (Salamander Dream and Jellaby) sharing a single URL. Vaguely reminiscent of Craig Thompson's style.
Uzumaki- Spiral into Horror: Man, Japanese horror comics do -not- actually make good bedtime reading.
Tales of the Composite Superman: "omic-reading kids of today, "sophisticated" party-poopers that they are, would take one look at the Composite Superman and declare him the dumbest villain ever created."
On the libertarian comics of Peter Bagge: "[I]t's simply one more instance in which Bagge's moral instincts are trumped by his aesthetic revulsion at everything he beholds."
LA Times drops "Garfield": Oh no! Now how will we discover if Garfield manages to eat all of Jon's lasagna? (via Waxy)
Comic Book Politics: Like the name says. A companion weblog to a college class. (via Unqualified Offerings)
Will Eisner, R.I.P.: One of the most important people in the history of both the medium and the business of comic books.
Peiratikos - a weblog about narrative art: Comics and videogames and lowercase-t theory, mostly. I can get behind that. (via)
Scary Go Round's twenty best albums of the year: Reviewed by Shelley, fresh from not being eaten by a superintelligent man-o-war.
Exciting Christmas Stories featuring Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman: The voices are so dreadfully wrong.
"This is the voice of your Communist government speaking.": A 1961 Catholic comic fantasy of a dystopian Soviet America.
Lulu Eightball: Who's watching you sleep?: Damn that hangover fairy!
I can't believe the Comics Code let that through.: In other news, Betty gave Archie the cutest model Hummer!
Freaking vortex: I've had days at work like this.
"And dear God, PLEASE tell me those aren't real.": A remarkable sampling of dreadful covers from "Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane" and "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olson". (see also) (and this) (via)
Local Superheroes: Evildoer! Cower before the might of Head-Butt Man!
Jack Chick's "The Devil's Night": Jack Chick and Li'l Suzy wish you a happy Halloween, baby-sacrificer!
Corpse on the Imjin: This was the first E.C. comic that I read. A Harvey Kurtzman classic, the Korean war reduced to two men and six pages.
Jalila, Egypt's first superheroine: A bullet-breasted Islamic superheroine, "Jalila gained her super powers when she was exposed to radiation from a nuclear blast"; the Arabic version outsells the English.
John Crowley on "Pogo": "Do the bodies of our souls perhaps have longways oval eyes, though our physical bodies do not...?" (via)
Yale University Press does Chris Ware: I'm curious to see whether it's tonally any different from Dan Raeburn's impressive Imp issue about Ware. (via)
Jack Chick makes a movie!: Perhaps one day we will get to hear what Chick imagines "HAW! HAW! HAW!" actually sounds like.
Treasure trove of comic book links: From Adam Strange to Zero Hour.
The 25 best covers in the history of American comics: The Jack Cole and Harvey Kurtzman examples are wonderful, and Brian Bollman's "Wonder Woman" cover is all the more impressive given that I've never heard of him.
The 10 Commandments of Simon: The main character of Derek Kim's "Small Stories" dispenses relationship advice so your love life can be as successful as his.
Jason Craft: "Video games, comic books, popular media and literary theory."
So long, Unca Scrooge: Even rumors of cease and desist letters can cause a site which linked to potential copyright violators to close up shop.
Jude Law outs himself as comics geek: He's highly interested in playing Ozymandius in the "Watchmen" movie... and he has a Rorschach tattoo.
The Dark Knight as Japanese prototype: Taking a look at Frank Miller's obsession with Japanese warrior culture
The Furry Dracula: ".Professor Abraham van Helsing - A specialist in rare diseases - a raccoon."
Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site: Dedicated to those halcyon days of "Trots and Bonnie", Henry Beard, Michael Gross, the "1964 High School Yearbook Parody", and an attempt to make MAD Magazine for semi-grownups. (via)
"The punchline is this:": Kip remembers the decadent era of the Chrome Foil Cover era and takes an entirely justified jab at Rob Liefeld. (Includes laugh-out-loud bad visual aid.)
The birth of Image Comics: How a bunch of young guns saw their chance to break loose, get rich, make enemies, and blow up an entire industry. (via)
The New York Times Magazine on graphic novels: Absolutely nothing new here, but if it gets even one person to pick up Chester Brown's magnificent "Louis Riel", I'll be thrilled. (via)
Japanese Defense Ministry to publish manga: They also hope to make their annual white paper more interesting to younger Japanese by throwing defense minister Shigeru Ishiba into the Jusenkyo Springs, where he will be cursed to turn into a panda. (via)
Ben Samueks' Golden Age comic book covers: Bonus point for the presence of romance comics like "Radiant Love".
Bill Sienkiewicz gets a website: "Big Numbers" is not, however, listed as a continuing work. (see also)
G-8 and His Battle Aces: "America's Flying Spy is the Allied forces' first line of defense against a Germany that has recruited every mad scientist, zombie, Martian, beast-man, voodoo priest, and thawed-out Viking it could find to do its bidding!" (I finally found the model of Planetary's "the Pilot".)
Spiderman: The Clone Saga: A 35-part (!) series on Peter Parker and his innumerable clones. Holy crow, but Marvel continuity went to hell in the early '90s. (via)
The villains of Spiderman: "Typeface has a variety of letter theme weapons including explosive letters he calls letterbombs and scrabble-like letters he uses to create words such as 'sleep' to put his enemies asleep and such." Mysterio should be ashamed to hang around people who use "scrabble-like letters" as weapons.
The powers of Superman: Superman #133 asserts that Superman could consume virtually endless quantities of food, and Action Comics #306 suggests that Superman can perform feats of lovemaking of which an ordinary man would be quite incapable...
Register to vote, get a free comic book: It was an idea from Brian Vaughan, the writer of the well-regarded "Y: The Last Man". More people, even those without politically themed superhero comics to promote, should do things like this.
Why Garfield sucks: No, seriously; making something inoffensive with broad but incredibly shallow appeal seems to have been Jim Davis' conscious business decision, and it worked.
Howling Curmudgeons: A two-fisted group blog, all in color for a dime.
Scary Go Round: Count My Toes: I am loving, loving, the current Scary Go Round storyline. It may not make much sense to non-readers, though.
A Chris Ware bibliography: Adam of Kempa resurrects the Acme Novelty Warehouse, a kindness to sad robots and angry superhero divinities everywhere.
Mills and Boon does manga: Mills and Boon is the British equivalent of Harlequin; they turned to manga to crack the Japanese market. (via)
A trove of Carl Barks' Donald Duck comics: Barks created Gyro Gearloose, Magica DiSpell, and the Beagle Boys, and was generally the greatest funny animal cartoonst EVAR. (via)
Little Dead Girl falls through the roots: Thank goodness for underground rivers. (start here)
The New Yorker on Aaron McGruder: Local boy makes good, gets radicalized, runs comic strip off the rails. Who knows what the next step will be?
What Max said: I haven't agreed so completely with six words in some time, and I'll extend it to the people defending Rall on Max's site. (via)
"There are secret messages everywhere!": There are secret messages written on your shoulders... (via)
Jonathan Lethem's "Marvel Years": Jack Kirby, Sue Storm, and the titanic conflict in one young bookworm's soul. (via)
Coming soon: Flight: If it's half as good as RAW, it'll be frigging great.
This Godless Communism: "Teacher said there is no God and that Communism is all-good and all-powerful!" (via)
"I can write π to 206 digits with my tongue.": Your clothes are the silken chains of an oppressive patriarchy! Throw 'em off, sister!
Not for critics.: Populism: the last refuge of a scoundrel.
City of Heroes MMRPG: My legion of informers reports that it resembles "Top 10".
The annotated "The Monument": Alex Toth's detailed comments on the generally dreadful DC horror books he worked for in the Sixties and Seventies are endlessly fascinating.
Drawing Superman: "Besides doing 'Boy Commandos', I was now doing 'Tommy Tomorrow' and a thing called 'Gangbusters'. I even did some 'Superboy' covers..." (see also) (via)
Alex Toth: Annotating old 'House of Mystery' pages! Insulting Space Ghost! Using thick, lustrous blacks! (via) (see also)
Gaudy Night: Jim Henley on superhero comics as "literature of ethics"
If some of us could fly or shoot rays from our hands, I wouldn't put anything past us.: Jim Henley on fantasty, reification, and superhero comics. Ethan Van Sciver's description of DC's characters as 'gods at play' seems apt. (see also)
"If you could beat up any emo band...": That's a good idea for an icebreaker. (I'd vote Get-Up Kids, but I think they broke up ages ago.)
Nowhere Girl: It's beautiful, it's well-written, it was nominated for an Eisner... It's never going to get another chapter, is it?
Supernova Comics torrents: Bringing comic books into a brave new century of copyright infringement