* New Love & Rockets Free Comic Book Day comic featuring the following cover and a story from Gilbert Hernandez called “Chest Fever,” the title of the Band’s best song? Shit yeah.
* Triptych cover for Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1-3? Oh, indeed. My God the rainbow of Lanterns is a wonderful idea. I do apologize on behalf of Ed Benes, however. Star Sapphire LOL
* Josh Cotter announcing the completion of Driven by Lemons and March Hare? Good golly. Here’s the cover for Lemons.
It also looks like I’ll be interviewing Josh for The Comics Journal, so look out for that.
* A new Abstract Comics blog in preparation for the Andrei Molotiu-edited anthology coming soon from Fantagraphics? This one literally made me pump my fists in the air with glee. This is like pure pleasure for me.
* Torture part one: Here’s an update on the ACLU’s efforts to get the Obama Justice Department to release the Bush Justice Department’s memos giving torture the green light.
* Torture part two: Here’s a video of and an article about a woman being flogged in public by the Pakistani Taliban for the crime of coming out of a guy’s house.
“Please stop it,” she begs, alternately whimpering or screaming in pain with each blow to the backside. “Either kill me or stop it now.”
A crowd of men stands by, watching silently. Off camera a voice issues instructions. “Hold her legs tightly,” he says as she squirms and yelps.
[…]
The woman’s brother is among the men pinning her down…
(Both links via Andrew Sullivan.)
* Boy, recent events sure have exposed the lurid eschatological delusions of significant segments of the political and opinion establishment, huh? And only two months into the new administration! It’s not a good look. I’ve seen enough comparisons to the Joker and references to the mustachioed dictator hall of fame that I’m left wondering where they’ll go when he tries to pass climate change legislation or institute universal healthcare. Darkseid and Elizabeth Bathory? I’ve learned from bitter, bitter experience that politics are not the place to apply the lessons you think you’ve been taught by heroic fantasy, or by the aspects of history that most closely resemble heroic fantasy.
Marijuana is neither evil nor dangerous. Scientists have proven its medical uses. It has spared millions from anguish. But the casual pleasure marijuana has delivered is orders of magnitude greater than the pain it has assuaged, and pleasure matters too. That’s probably why Barack Obama smoked up the second and third times: because he liked it. That’s why tens of millions of Americans regularly take a puff, despite the misconceived laws meant to save us from our own wickedness.
* Ezra Klein:
As a policy wonk, I think marijuana should be legal, but should be regulated, heavily taxed, and subjected to various restrictions on advertising, age, etc. That said, I think it’s important to say that it shouldn’t just be legal for reasons of profit but for reasons of pleasure. It’s a public good for people to derive enjoyment and relaxation from a harmless and private pursuit.
* Jim Henley:
In my case, Will stands in for the numerous friends we all have who either were or are recreational drug users – mostly marijuana smokers but also dabblers in other drugs – who, today, lead perfectly “productive” lives, as conventional society measures productive. It’s a great evil to waste untold billions of dollars and ruin millions of lives, and end numberless thousands of others around the globe, in the name of a futile war based on lies.
I’ve learned that last part from bitter, bitter experience too.
Are you suggesting someone’s equating Obama with Darkseid?!? And, what, Michelle with Bathory? Uh, links? I’ll understand if you don’t want to send them traffic, but still, this I gotta see.
“. . . or by the aspects of history that most closely resemble heroic fantasy.” ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANTASY mentions a few of these, and takes a pretty wary, if not outright jaundiced, view of treating them as such in fantasy, let alone real-world politics.
Elizabeth Bathory reference FTW. Yeesh!