* BREAKING: RETURN OF THE KING RIFFTRAX NOW AVAILABLE
* Alex Dueben speaks with Megan Kelso at length about Artichoke Tales, one of those Black Hole/Big Questions-style decade-in-the-making graphic novels, as well as pretty much the entirety of her career.
* I’m glad Ken Parille decided to un-delete his post on “hyper-aggressive misreading” by critics, i.e. when someone goes completely buckwild on a book in a fashion that’s both disproportionate to the offense and ultimately inimical to actual insight–into the book, that is; it provides plenty of insight into the creator. Be sure to read the comments, too–the first sentence of the first response made me laugh out loud.
* Is the new AT-AT the greatest toy in the history of mankind?
* The best part about this Walking Dead set-visit report is that it heavily features Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull, who was visiting the set the same day.
* Mark Waid makes a funny at J. Michael Straczynski’s expense.
* Good on Paul Cornell for signing an exclusive with DC–I look forward to his Lex Luthor book–but count me among the millions upset that this is a definitive no on further Captain Britain and MI-13.
* Here’s a cute reminiscence from Anne Groell, editor of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, about her long history with the books. Sounds like Book Five is…well, I don’t wanna say imminent, but… (Via Tower of the Hand.)
* My favorite LCD Soundsystem song is probably “Sound of Silver,” in large part because James Murphy’s vocals sound like Heaven 17’s. Turns out that was exactly what he was going for. I dunno, I get really excited when I accurately trainspot. The aforelinked Fresh Air interview with NPR’s Terry Gross comes via Matthew Perpetua, who pulls the following killer quote from Murphy on the sort of hipster-band checklist at the end of “Losing My Edge”:
At the end, the reason why I yell all the band names, is because I suddenly realized that this is what you do when you know things. Knowing things, knowledge, or your attachment to things, your self-association with other bands, or books, or whatever. It’s often like this weird amulet that protects you. Like “No, I am serious, look at my library, listen to this!” I can list all the books I’ve read, and now you know I am a serious person. And so it’s just supposed to be this amulet swinging around me to protect me from being seen as anything I didn’t want to be seen as.
* Go buy a bunch of mostly decent, mostly recent superhero paperbacks, as well as assorted manga and a bunch of Bacchus and 30 Days of Night stuff, for super-cheap in Barnes & Noble’s big bargain graphic-novel sale.
Tags: A Song of Ice and Fire, fantasy, Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin