A Little Busier Thinking about Comics

In fact, how about another piece by Colin. This one suggests that Warren Ellis' The Authority has a lot in common with SuperFriends., writing that it is "the last true heir of the Silver Age." That boom you hear is Warren Ellis' head.

Too Busy Reading About The Secret Six.

Too Busy Thinking About My Comics has some excellent analysis of The Secret Six. In fact, the blog has plenty of excellent analysis of plenty of comics. And, as the mission statement reads, "It's not the reading of comic books that can threaten friendships and derail marriages. It's the unintended, casual babbling about comic books that does."

Picking It Apart

Another reason to love This American Life. Joss Whedon performs part of the commentary track for Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog. (via Film School Rejects)

Lost And Heroes, Compared.

James Poniewozik on Lost and Heroes: "Put another way: you have to be willing to suck if you ever want to be great. 'Awesome' and 'awful' are actually closer to each other on the continuum of quality than either is to 'meh.'"

Kerfuffled Fans

Oh, such a kerfuffle about Roger Ebert's review of Kick-Ass and his blog piece, "Videogames Can Never Be Art."

Comics Misunderstanding, Well, Argument Really

The comics misunderstanding (i.e. respectful critical discussion) continues at The Groovy Age of Horror as Scott McCloud responds, a commenter gets in a dig and Curt Purcell writes more about homeostasis and how human brains process information. Geek fight! C'mon, fight! Fight?

Black History Mumf

It's Black History Mumf at Big Media Vandalism and the Odienator provides a recap of his film reviews here.

2009's Sticky Comics

Glen Weldon writes about the comics that stuck to his "teflon-coated brain"in 2009. Blair Butler shares her best of stand alone and stand outs as well as her best ongoing series. Meanwhile, Brian Cronin completes his year of cool comic book moments and begins his year of cool comics.

The Comics Journal, Online

The Comics Journal goes fully online, and give you a brief history of comics criticism 

Comic Critics Comic

The narrative frames and meta possibilities of "Comic Critics" webcomic could crack my head open, but they don't. Instead it's a neat, deeply geeky take on comics, criticism and the industry with a storyline. Special neatness includes this interview with Brian Cronin and this dramatization of Dwayne McDuffie's time as JLA editor. (via Comics Should Be Good)

Missing Duncan

"Maybe it's too bad that a game with such a strong visual imagination is entirely about kicking people in the face.  But violence is your compass. You'd be lost without it." It's only been a few weeks since Duncan has stopped writing his fine, thoughtful pieces on games, but I miss them. Go read Hit Self Destruct whether you like games or not. (The piece I quoted is here).

Talking Shit about Grant Morrison and Alan Moore

Savage Critics Jeff Lester and Graeme McMillan talk some shit about Grant Morrison and Alan Moore, smart shit. And if that's not enough, the talk a lot about other comics. But hearing them talk about Grant Morrison and Alan Moore is enough if that's all you have time for.

I Got 99 Problems But a Bitch Ain't One

Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan occupy some interesting real estate in the romance world; a previously untenanted corner of Innernet and Romancelandia. Smart Bitches, Trashy Books is a different sort of headspace when it comes to a website about Romance novels.  It's frank, forthright, and not above fart jokes. 

Wendell and Tan don't just review novels, they also subject them to analysis, and praise or pan them as the situation requires. They demonstrate an unquenchable and exuberant love for the entire genre, while acknowledging - and even celebrating - its most ridiculous excesses. They've amassed an interesting and intelligent readership who tune in for the commentary and stay for fun. They even popularized the ever-useful phrase ‘man-titty’ as a descriptive aid in the discussion of cover art.  And now the original Smart Bitches have written a book of their own: Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels

Continue reading...

Ebert Hunts the Snark

Roger Ebert suggests that snarking "has operated almost as a reflex to smack down behavior that upsets our expectations." And offers the case study of Joaquin Phoenix's hip-hop persona/possible Andy Kaufmanesque performance art project.

Gender in the Horror Genre

Watch out, the ladies are doing more than scream--Ax Wound's a new magazine about "gender in the horror genre." (Thanks, Rachael!)

The Man's Got His Tricks

"Since this isn’t the story of someone finding a hidden magical world that the squares don’t know about, it’s the one about people in a story sitting around telling stories." Chris has some things to say about Neil Gaiman in, "This Week in Ink."

Kaiju Shakedown Goes Down Again

Like King Ghidorah, Kaiju Shakedown has succumbed to market forces. Again. Hopefully like King Ghidorah, Kaiju Shakedown will rise again.  Kaiju Shakedown's writer, Grady Hendrix, is taking some time to figure out how.

Missing the Point in Ashes of Time

Grady Hendrix writes about missing the point in martial arts and action movies, especially Ashes of Time: "Character, dialogue and subtext are important parts of the moviegoing experience, but there's another more primal language that's harder to parse and that's the language of action."

The Mainstream Notices Us, Head Explodes

Forbes gets worried - World of Warcraft will create "offline political forces". Charles Stross' Halting State has a lot to say about this stuff, including a fun, opposing theory: we've never been contacted by aliens because they're probably too addicted to some advanced MMO game to worry about reality anymore!

Stainless

Recently, one of my friends told me that Superman was an inch from becoming a dictator. It didn't seem likely to me, but I didn't have any arguments, just a sense that Superman wasn't inclined toward world domination. Luckily enough, the public library system provided me with, The Man from Krypton: A Closer Look at Superman, a collection of essays edited by Glenn Yeffeth.

Continue reading...