* The Hobbit has been partially cast! Martin Freeman from the English Office as Bilbo, Richard Armitage as Thorin, and about two-thirds of the remaining Dwarves have been announced as well. The linked-to TORn post has a pretty thorough write-up for each actor, if your’e interested.
* Chris Mautner presents a newcomer’s guide to Kevin Huizenga in his regular Comics College column.
* Journey into the minds of Daniel Clowes and Johnny Ryan!
* Even in this, the age of Strange Tales, I don’t think I ever expected to see Dame Darcy’s name in the credits for a Marvel book.
* I always get really excited when I discover that the military acknowledges paganism and Wicca, especially at the Air Force Academy, of all places. You pretty much turn into a Republican when you pass within a 20-mile radius of that place.
* Speaking of which, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The Republican Party’s repeated intimations of militarization have disturbing implications.
* More Real Life Horror: WikiLeaks’ Iraq War doc dump has begun. The government lied when it said it didn’t keep a body count for Iraqis: 109,000 deaths, including 66,801 civilians, by the government’s own, likely woefully underestimated count. We also presided over a fairly extensive torture-murder regime by the Iraqi authorities that we did basically nothing to stop. Meanwhile, I hadn’t thought of this for a while, but Saddam Hussein’s personal pistol hangs in the George W. Bush Presidential Library:
I remember when I first learned that factoid, it literally took my breath away. It’s the past decade’s Rosebud. Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? Take it away, John:
Darcy actually had a pair of credits with Alan Moore in his old Tomorrow Stories series at ABC/Wildstorm/DC, so it’s not completely out of left field… I mean, less out of left field than seeing Alan Moore’s name, probably.
Alan Moore collabos are a different story, though, you know?
Sylvester McCoy also seemed pretty confident that he had the role of Radagast the Brown when I saw him speak at a New Zealand geek convention yesterday. He did do a costume fitting in Wellington while he was in the country, but stressed that nothing had been officially signed yet….
Yeah, I’ve seen the various LotR/Hobbit news sites report that as him saying it’s a done deal, Bob…