* Hey, how about this: Chris Pitzer of the great indie publisher AdHouse Books describes my anthology comic book Murder as “A well executed mini anthology with the percentage of stories I like being on the higher side. Really chunky, too.” Why not purchase a copy for three bucks plus shipping and judge for yourself?
* AICN’s Quint talks to director Guillermo Del Toro about Hellboy II: The Goldeblahblahblah yeah yeah yeah he asks him about The Hobbit and its sequel. Del Toro says his past comments regarding possibly not making the second film if they can’t “find the story” have been “taken out of context,” and that if they didn’t think there was a story there to make, the idea of a second movie would never have come up in the first place.
* Speaking of Del Toro and Hellboy II, I tend to be more credulous regarding reviews of his work if they’re written by people who, like me, didn’t much care for Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy, and that’s the case with The House Next Door’s Jonathan Pacheco, who (also like me, most likely) treats the film as a way to read the tea leaves regarding Del Toro’s pending work with Tolkien’s material.
* And speaking of Tolkien, Kristin Thompson notes that an upcoming video game will be based on the premise “What if Frodo didn’t destroy the Ring?” This is totally alien to any kind of storytelling Tolkien would approve of and totally rad for nerds.
* Jim Treacher makes the case for Hancock, in both non-spoilery and spoilery fashion.
* Evil on Two Legs takes a look at the use of pop music in horror films. “Goodbye Horses” FTW. (Though I thought the version from the film was by Q Lazzarus.)
* If you’d like to hear how America has been torturing its prisoners, here you go.
* Finally (via Whitney Matheson): Cocksuckers.
Yeah, it’s by Q Lazzarus. Which I only know because it’s in GTA IV. The first time it comes on the radio it’s like, “Hey, where’s Buffalo Bill?”
That’s crushing news about Deadwood. What an ignominious end for one of the finest TV dramas ever.