* I’ve been waiting for this for a long time: Entertainment Weekly’s Lost correspondent Jeff “Doc” Jensen runs down the 15 mysteries the show must solve, as nominated by the fans. Interestingly, he says only the top three were suggested by more than 5% of the fans, which I guess means there are a shitload of mysteries overall. But I think it’s a very strong list, and though my brain’s a bit fried I didn’t notice any glaring absences. Obviously the creative team pays attention to Jensen in particular and the hardcore fanbase in particular, so it seems safe to assume that they’ll use this as a guide to, at the very least, include at least a throwaway line or two of explanation for each mystery. (In-show explanation of the Numbers’ significance FTW!)

* San Diego Comic Con participants, beware the area’s infestation of carnivorous giant squid. (Via Kevin Melrose.)

* Topless Robot’s Rob Bricken is a great nerd-culture blogger, but his admitted weak spot is American comics. Watching him try to blog about the latest superhero sensation is always a bit like listening to your six-year-old cousin try to explain the plot of The Lord of the Rings or what have you. Still, his remove from the teapot-tempests that we hardcore readers get involved in gives him fresh eyes and a valuable perspective, which is why I enjoyed his review of Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis’s Blackest Night #1–he’s able to see the zombification of various superheroes for its in-story ramifications regarding superheroes’ frequently realized hopes of resurrection. Interesting.

* Speaking of Blackest Night, my friend Rickey Purdin made DC’s special sub-site for the event.

* Tom Spurgeon wonders if the Double Deuce that is the comics industry has finally reached a critical mass of Daltons. I thought they’d be bigger.

* Eve Tushnet liked Shaun of the Dead. A lot.

* I’ve long had a soft spot for Rick Trembles’ Motion Picture Purgatory movie-review comic strip, to the point of wondering aloud whether or when it would be collected. But I think someone pointed out to me that this had already happened, and lo and behold, they’re up to Volume 2–and that cover is a doozy.

* Curt Purcell reviews Pixu by Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, Fabio Moon, and Gabriel Ba. I haven’t read the second half of the book so I can’t say if I agree or disagree with Curt’s take, but I really liked his logic here:

Ultimately, though, this doesn’t work for me, because of a problem that I think plagues a lot of “creepy” horror–the creepiness is evoked by piling details on each other in a way that ends up feeling ad hoc, and that never quite coheres into any really substantive sense of menace. One guy seems to have been reduced into obsessive-compulsion and paranoia. Creepy! One girl cuts off her boyfriend’s hair while he sleeps–then eats it. Creepy! [etc.]…Creepy horror works, to my mind, when the details function as a system of symptoms, and the punch comes when we get the big reveal of the underlying illness, so to speak.

I totally get what he’s saying here. I think maybe the best example of this is The Ring 2–lots of lovely creepy imagery in there, but as opposed to the first film, this imagery failed to cohere.

* Did you know that Stephen King was the first writer to print the words “fuckery” and “fucknuts”? In his two best books, The Stand and It, no less. Now I love them even more.

* My pal (and occasional editor) Justin Aclin was on the Fanboy Radio podcast promoting his upcoming superheroes-in-college graphic novel Hero House. He was also interviewed by Robot 6’s JK Parkin for the same purpose.

* Jordan Crane made this gorgeous print of one of Jaime Hernandez’s Love & Rockets #24 cover, and holy smokes, look at the damn thing. Actually, look at all of Jordan’s prints.

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