* What happens when a comics market designed to sell event comics fails to ship any event comics in the middle of a recession? That market tanks. Yikes. Congratulations to Top Shelf on bucking the trend with the new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, though.
* My old Wizard chum Jim Gibbons interviews Ed Brubaker about Captain America #600 and Reborn. One of the interesting things about the Death and Rebirth of Captain America is that, as opposed to most big mainstream-friendly comics events, they’ve taken place as part of a long, high-quality run by a genuinely gifted writer. Unfortunately, there’s really no way to get that across in mainstream coverage, or even in coverage of that mainstream coverage.
* Wow, look at all those Fort Thunder comics! (Via Tom Devlin.)
* Curt Purcell is prepping for a big torture-porn post by watching the Hostel and Saw movies. YES.
* I fully support the official release of a studio version of Antony & the Johnsons’ stunning cover of Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love.”
* A documentary about a vineyard operated by the lead singer of Tool, featuring Tim and Eric? Sure, I’ll eat it. There’s certainly a lot to enjoy in this trailer, including but not limited to the following: Maynard James Keenan apparently preparing to give Evan Handler a run for his money in the casting process for the Lifetime Original movie Not Like This: The Brian Michael Bendis Story; Maynard rocking the vintage mid-to-late-’90s altrock fashion staple “logo T-shirt over long-sleeved shirt”; Maynard moving to the future eastern shore of Arizona Bay.
Regarding the Comics Reporter May 2009 analysis: Yikes, indeed. For all the kvetching from us comics fans about the annoyance of all the Major Summer Crossover Events, turns out that we might be kidding ourselves. If there’s no big, multi-title storyline driving things, and sales crumble, then maybe it’s time just put up with it all. A collapsed comics publishing industry is far less preferable than some ploy to get me to buy, like, 15 different Final Crisis titles.