* I have a Twitter now. I’m @theseantcollins. I hope you like Primus lyrics, because that’s what you’re getting.

* As mentioned earlier, I’ve also created Fuck Yeah, T-Shirts, a new tumblelog dedicated to pictures of people wearing t-shirts I like. I’m pleased to welcome my friend and Twitter deity Ryan Penagos aboard as my partner in this venture. We’re off to a good start:

* Sean Nerd Crack Part 1: Tim O’Neil discusses the career of David Bowie in terms of Batman. This post is one Hellraiser reference away from making my face fall off.

* Sean Nerd Crack Part 2: Curt Purcell discusses torture porn, also in terms of Batman–Knightfall, to be specific. It was at this point that I wondered if I’d actually woken up this morning. Best of all, like Tim’s Bowie/Batman post, this is just the first in a series.

* Sean Nerd Crack Part 3: Taste the rainbow of San Diego Comic Con-exclusive Green Lantern action figures!

* Sean Nerd Crack Part 4: I can’t imagine actually spending my and my wife’s collective hard-earned money on a G.I. Joe: The Complete Series box set, but I sure can imagine staring at this picture of it for hours at a time. This is like the nerd answer to that Fort Thunder collection I linked to yesterday.

* Sean Nerd Crack Part 5: China Mieville defends J.R.R. Tolkien and holy shit this part reads like I wrote it myself seriously I raised my hands up and cheered:

In his abjuring of allegory, Tolkien refuses the notion that a work of fiction is, in some reductive way, primarily, solely, or really ‘about’ something else, narrowly and precisely. That the work of the reader is one of code-breaking, that if we find the right key we can perform a hermeneutic algorithm and ‘solve’ the book. Tolkien knows that that makes for both clumsy fiction and clunky code.

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

And in his five-point defense of the entirety of Tolkien’s work, one entry is “The Watcher in the Water.” I mean, seriously, am I in some kind of psychogenic fugue? (Via The One Ring.)

* Back on the Batman beat, The Mindless Ones’ The Beast Must Die talks about Morrison & Quitely’s Batman & Robin #1 in terms of all the things that have defined his involvement with Batman over the years: the Adam West TV show and its theme song, Tim Burton’s first blockbuster Batman film and its t-shirts and Prince soundtrack and Danny Elfman score, Frank Miller’s ever-evolving Bat-mythology from The Dark Knight Returns to the years-ahead-of-its-time The Dark Knight Strikes Again to All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder…it doesn’t quite track my own involvement with Batman in every particular (I didn’t read comics as a kid, I wasn’t into Batman before the movie), but it’s close enough to give me chills.

* There’s a really robust discussion of the role of the divine in Battlestar Galactica, and the role that role played in the reception of the series’ conclusion, going on in the comment thread downblog.

* Geoff Grogan announces he’s secured a grant to produce Look Out! Monsters #2! Though it probably won’t be called that. LO!M #1 was a terrific book.

* Elsewhere, and I missed this somehow when it went up back in March, Geoff pans BJ and Frank Santoro’s Cold Heat–a rare reaction indeed, and he pulls no punches.

* Speaking of the PictureBox gang and pulling no punches, I also somehow missed this comment-thread roundelay about artists/critics reviewing works with which their own work may compete, featuring such luminaries as Gary Groth (!), Dan Nadel, Tom Spurgeon, Tim Hodler, Jeet Heer, and Rob Clough. The nice thing about the debate is that there are plenty of clear examples and apples-to-apples comparisons cited for us to work with. Should Dan Nadel review Craig Yoe’s Boody Rogers anthology, given that Dan has himself anthologized Boody Rogers? Should Gary Groth review Denis Kitchen’s R. Crumb publications, given that Gary has himself published R. Crumb? Should Tom Spurgeon review Mark Evanier’s Jack Kirby book, given that Tom is himself working on a Jack Kirby project? Should Tom critique comics news blogs Bleeding Cool or Journalista, given that Tom is himself a publisher of a comics news blog?

I understand where Tom is coming from here–there’s something potentially icky about this idea. (Icky and yucky are perfectly acceptable words for grown-ups to use, Gary!) But the key there is “potentially.” As long as the context is proffered, who ultimately cares? I don’t see why the situations above, or comparable ones, rule out criticism in a way that being socially friendly with the creators or publishers involved doesn’t, or having worked with them or for them doesn’t, and on and on and on. Granted, I sort of have a dog in this race: In the past year, and in some cases on an ongoing basis, I have written for DC, Marvel, Wizard, Top Shelf, and Fantagraphics, as well as The Savage Critic(s), The Comics Reporter, and Comic Book Resources, not to mention The Onion and Maxim and wherever the hell else. I like to think that these facts shouldn’t preclude me from writing about the work produced by any of those outlets, as long as I’m up front about it, which, hey, look at that sidebar to your left. Then again I’m sure others totally disagree.

Moreover, I disagree with Tom insofar as I’m more interested in reading the criticism of a direct competitor, in some ways at least, than I am in reading the criticism of an uninvolved third party. Why wouldn’t I want to hear what new-media music pioneer Trent Reznor thinks about new-media music pioneer Radiohead’s new-media music pioneering? Or what Spirit comic-book guy Darwyn Cooke thinks about Spirit movie guy Frank Miller’s Spirit? Or what Boody Rogers expert Dan Nadel thinks about Boody Rogers expert Craig Yoe’s Boody Rogers anthology? Or what fantasy author China Mieville thinks about fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy? Or what comics reporter Tom Spurgeon thinks about other people’s comics reporting? And on and on and on. It’s the commonality of interest, experience, and expertise that makes these perspectives valuable. Even if said commonality may cut off avenues of exploration that a disinterested observer may have access to, it surely must open up some others that such an observer doesn’t. Sure, there’s potentially an element of armchair-quarterbacking at least and score-settling/sour grapes at worst, but honestly, isn’t that part of the fun? We can take what they’re saying with the requisite grains of salt, as we should when we read any piece of criticism.

(Phew! Original link way back there somewhere via Chris Mautner.)

* David Lynch releasing a rock album recorded during the Fire Walk With Me soundtrack sessions? Sure, I’ll eat it.

* Here’s a 12-minute preview of Ron Moore’s new movie/series/whatever Fox wants it to be Virtuality. I haven’t watched it yet–I hope it’s good! (Via SciFi Wire.)

* Darkseid Minus New Gods. I threw my arms up and cheered for this, too. (Via Kevin Melrose.)

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