* Happy New Year, everyone. The Missus and I have kicked off 2009 by being as horribly sick as we’ve ever been. Interestingly, this was also how we kicked off 2000. I don’t know what it is about that damn ball dropping that it always has to land squarely on our immune systems.

* Before my life became a David Cronenberg movie, I wrote some things about event comics that kicked off a lengthy discussion in the comment thread by a galaxy of blogospheric stars, including Tucker Stone, Tim O’Neil, Tom Spurgeon, Marc-Oliver Frisch, Sean B., Matthew Perpetua, Ben Morse, Shaggy Erwin, Jon Hastings, Kiel Phegley, and Bruce Baugh. It was still going as of this morning, so pop in and see what you think. O’Neil and Dick Hyacinth have related thoughts at their own blogs.

* If you’re like me and you think Abhay Khosla’s be-boppin’ and scattin’ impedes rather than enhances his criticism, you’ll really appreciate Tom Spurgeon’s holiday interview with him–once you get past the opening answer, the schtick largely evaporates and leaves behind insightful commentary about a wide variety of comics. I particularly liked what he said about whether superhero fans “deserve” being taken advantage of. And even when he’s saying things I disagree with, like praising Civil War for being a bona fide “universe breaker” event comic–which is true, but it broke it in bad ways–he’s still on to something.

* Speaking of Tom (and over the holidays, when aren’t we? dude keeps the comics blogosphere alive singlehandedly between Christmas and New Year’s), here’s some shelf porn strait outta the Spurgecave.

* The gross thing about both Fox’s attempted derailment of Warner Bros.’ Watchmen movie and Tribune’s apparent scuttling of Drawn & Quarterly’s Walt & Skeezix collection of old Gasoline Alley strips (the original post is MIA) is how transparently little either has to do with what benefits the work, the audience, or the original creators.

* Jon Hastings, action-movie philosopher, tackles The Spirit.

* Tentacle update part one: More sessy drawings of girls, hair, and suction cups from Becky Cloonan.

* Tentacle update part two: Monster Brains presents a gallery of preserved cephalopods.

* Finally, get it before Lionsgate yanks it: the trailer for Crank 2: High Voltage. This is a real movie.

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