* If you’re looking for me at MoCCA tomorrow, I will be wearing a red Partyka t-shirt and sporting longish hair that sorta curls outward on the sides like Pippi Longstocking. I’m also a bit on the beardy side at the moment, unless I get fed up and shave tomorrow morning.
* Of all today’s MoCCA previews and guides, I like Chris Mautner’s the best since it’s the most squarely focused on “books to buy/people to see.” The Panelists show at Giant Robot Saturday night also looks like it could be pretty sweet.
* I’m really glad Marvel has finally announced its long-gestating altcomix superhero series Strange Tales MAX. You’ll be seeing a lot more from me on that particular project.
* Hey, artist Sean Gordon Murphy’s art for the upcoming Grant Morrison Vertigo comic Joe the Barbarian. Looks like a Morrisonian take on Toyland is afoot.
* Tom Spurgeon reviews Gilbert Hernandez’s Luba. ‘Nuff said.
* Edward James Olmos reminds us that Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is on its way in September. I kind of always thought it was weird that they’d release a two-hour movie after the series finale, doubly so after how final that finale ended up feeling.
* Matt Maxwell notes that Agents of Atlas sales increased for the series’ third issue according to Paul O’Brien’s Marvel month-to-month sales analysis for April. A welcome development following the cancellation of Captain Britain and MI-13.
* Tim O’Neil passionately defends the Star Wars prequels. There are a couple of great (though probably not likely to be Lucas-approved) bits in there if you’re like me and walked out of those movies thinking “I was supposed to hate these?”
* CRwM reviews the Battle Royale franchise’s every iteration, pretty much. I still have the complete set of the Tokyopop/Keith Giffen adaptation of the manga sitting around at least 50% unread. I’m gonna sit down and plow through them at some point–I remember them being enjoyable trash, Giffen’s tics notwithstanding. As for CRwM’s take on it, how’s this for a chilling aside in the post-Handley era?
In fact, there are several scenes that, given current US laws concerning the illegality of even drawn representations of explicit underage sex, make the book too questionable to risk owning, in my opinion.
* Torture Link of the Day: Looks like liberal House Democrats are blocking the passage of the Graham-Lieberman-sponsored, Obama-supported bill to permanently block the release of any more detainee-abuse photos.
* When I worked at Wizard there were entire areas of the office’s physical plant dedicated to nothing but the bizarre ephemera accumulated by the various magazines from their, uh, readers, I guess is the word? This bizarre letter was definitely a highlight.
I’ve been thinking good thoughts about the prequels, too.
I think the sequels still suck, and I say that despite the fact I would love to think the opposite because this puts me on the side of people I’d much rather spend time annoying.
90 percent of the arguments for them I read don’t seem genuine, either, they read like people staking out a position for the sake of taking a position.
Anyway, that’s a great Wizard letter. Someone should gather all the comics company psycho letters into a book to benefit the CBLDF.
Ugh. The post-Handley era.
I’ve actually been digging another over the top sci-fi/horror manga series that, because I’m not actually sure about consistent application of these moronic legal standards, I cannot in good faith recommend to anybody.
Sadly, I think we’re stuck with the overreaching act. What politician could ever harness the legislative coalition necessary to loosen the restrictions of a law ostensibly meant to protect children from sexual exploitation? It would be career suicide.