* Here are six clips from the already much-maligned The Spirit, directed by Frank Miller. It looks pretty and fun to me. A lot of my friends are freaking the fuck out over this movie, but look, they can’t all be There Will Be Blood, and superhero movies could use a Road House/Speed Racer/Sin City hybrid. Hell, any genre of movies could use that. (Via AICN.)

* The Fantagraphics blog coughs up some deets on Fanta’s upcoming Hans Rickheit graphic novel. It’s called The Squirrel Machine and is slated for release in 2010. I’m a fairly outspoken Rickheit activist so this is really delightful to me.

* Kenneth Branagh is directing Thor. How about that, man. This brings the total number of superhero movie directors who have had sex with Helena Bonham-Carter to two. As far as we know.

* Lost Season Five will air uninterrupted, with the possible exception of a clipshow-augmented skip week prior to the finale. Nice. (via The Tail Section.)

* They’re remaking The Crow, They in this case being Stephen Norrington, the guy who did The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Blade. I would be lying if I said High School Sean T. Collins never dressed up like the Crow for Halloween then ended up not even going out, instead lurking around his parent’s house in pancake makeup and a black leather trenchcoat, so this news concerns that part of me. The graphic novel was actually rather good I always thought. (Via Bloody Disgusting.)

* Marc-Oliver Frisch describes his requirements for how a superhero story would constitute good Art, and then runs down some prominent writers in terms of whether they make the grade. It’s good reading even if he uses the dreaded “transcend the genre” criterion–worth a read, particularly if you’re looking to better understand the kinds of folks who are smart, demanding readers but still stick primarily with superheroes for one reason or another.

* Speaking of whom, my pal Ben Morse, an indie comics tyro, gives Kazimir Strzepek’s world-building exercise The Mourning Star a go.

* Check out some panels from Dave Kiersh’s upcoming Xeric Grant-funded book.

* Thanks to Rich Johnston for correcting the record on a story he ran once about being banned from Wizard’s message board when I ran it. (He wasn’t.)

* Missed linking to this when it was initially reported, but the Senate Armed Services Committee’s report on America’s use of torture and abuse of prisoners has found Donald Rumsfeld and other high-ranking officials responsible.

* Finally, here’s a great description of Sid Vicious, from Not Coming to a Theater Near You’s Evan Kindley in his review of Sid & Nancy:

here we have kind of a black hole at the center of all the frippery: Sid Vicious, whose very claim to fame was his nullity, his embodiment of the concept of “no future.”

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