* I’d love to hear more about the specifics if only to determine how best to fight back, but this report of a man named Christopher Handley being prosecuted for the possession of obscene manga is as chilling as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s involvement on his behalf is welcome. Extra disturbing: Handley was literally followed home from the post office by law enforcement after picking up the books in question, which allegedly depict sexual activity involving minors. I have a pretty brightline approach to this particular area–if it’s not an actual photograph it shouldn’t be illegal to possess–and I hope this outlook is upheld.

* Bruce Baugh’s Shift-T is a new blog dedicated to chronicling Bruce’s experiences playing World of Warcraft. I’ve already waxed rhapsodic about why he’s worth reading on this subject even if (like me) you don’t play WoW–why he’s worth reading if the only things you have in common with him is indulging in a hobby, any hobby, and having some desire to think about what you get out of that hobby. But if you’re not sold on those high-falutin’ grounds, he does post on why it’s fun to go into battle with an angry gorilla by your side.

*The minicomics clearinghouse known as Global Hobo has relaunced under new management with a new blog and some of the great USS Catastrophe site’s backstock. (Via Tom Spurgeon.)

* Heroes loses AICN’s Hercules. This is like when Cronkite declared Vietnam unwinnable.

* My pal Rickey Purdin’s Octoberfest of horror sketches is getting more and more fun:

Altcomix fans, can you identify the unfortunate soul in that last illo?

* An exclusive, limited-edition Marc Bell book? Drawn & Quarterly people, you’ve got my mailing address, right?

* I’m not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination, but the decidedly post-apocalyptic treatment given to Venom in the new video game Spider-Man: League of Shadows looks like imaginative fun if this trailer is any indication. It also occurs to me now that superhero-comic-based video games have been a pretty conservative lot in terms of their plotlines, as best I can tell, but the medium lends itself just as readily to more expansive, quasi-Elseworlds narratives like this one.

* ZOMG LIBRARY PR0N (via everyone):

* If you’d like to feel your own sanity slip a bit, read the repeated pleas of a U.S. military officer on behalf of a captive American citizen and “illegal enemy combatant” who literally was being driven insane by his treatment in a Navy brig in Charleston. (Via Andrew Sullivan.)

* Finally, I repeat, Chinese Fucking Democracy.

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