* My friend Ben Morse talks to writer Matt Fraction about the cast of kung-fu warriors he’s invented for his and Ed Brubaker’s magnificently entertaining series The Immortal Iron Fist.
* My friend Rick Marshall talks about the trials and travails of sharing the same name as both a prime suspect in San Francisco’s Zodiac murders and the dad from Land of the Lost.
* Publisher Alvin Buenaventura, Comic Art editor Todd Hignite, critic Ken Parille, and cartoonists Jonathan Bennett and Tim Hensley have started a group blog. (Via Eric Reynolds.)
* Tim O’Neil gives a thumbs up to the Marvel event miniseries World War Hulk, up to and including the inexplicably-panned-elsewhere ending. I liked it too. (So did NeilAlien.) Ever since I spent a dreary Thanksgiving weekend reading through about 60-odd issues of Savage Dragon back in 1999, I’ve held the belief that some comics are just tailor-made for reading all in a row rainy Saturdays, and I look forward to having a series of Planet Hulk and World War Hulk paperbacks to do that with one day. (Same with Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern run. Same, I think, with Marvel’s Annihilation series.)
* Here’s a nice little essay on the experience of watching Blue Velvet in a crowded theater by Not Coming to a Theater Near You’s Rumsey Taylor.
* Artist Robert Burden paints and draws gigantic, heroic portraits of action figures. I love them.
To give a sense of scale, note the actual action figure framed atop the painting. (Via Jacob Covey.)