* Well how about this: My World of Warcraft-playing friend Ceri B. has started a great new WoW blog expressly dedicated, in part, to answering my questions about the game. I win! One of her most interesting points so far is a bit about the intended audience for that goofy Cataclysm trailer the other day–it’s geared toward a die-hard convention-going crowd, rather than something intended to serve as a bonafide movie-trailer-style commercial for the world at large.
* Good art for a good cause: Anders Nilsen has assembled the 46 Million Art Auction and Benefit, raising money for TV ads supporting the public option for health care reform by auctioning off art by John Porcellino, Chris Ware, Ivan Brunetti, Dan Clowes, Jeffrey Brown, Paul Hornschemeier, Kevin Huizenga, David Heatley, Lynda Barry, Lilli Carre, Sammy Harkham, Nilsen himself, and many many more. Yowza. Bid early, bid often!
* Remember around the time Cloverfield came out and Diary of the Dead was announced and there looked like there’d be a wave of Blair Witch-inspired first-person mockumentary horror? That kind of fizzled out–Cloverfield and [REC] did pretty well, Quarantine was just a carbon copy of [REC], Diary of the Dead was atrocious, and I’m not sure The Poughkeepsie Tapes ever even came it out–although mockumentary-style filmmaking is now widely grokked enough for District 9 to be able to bounce back and forth from it at will and not lose audiences. Anyway, one of the big stars of that early pre-wave, in terms of advance word of mouth, was Paranormal Activity, a supposedly shit-scary “surveillance cameras in a haunted house” movie. Looks like it’s finally headed for a limited theatrical release. Sign me up–as it turns out, supernatural horror (as opposed to monsters or murderers) seems to be the only kind that can get me terrified just thinking about, say, The Exorcist while standing around doing my dishes in the kitchen late at night. (Via Jason Adams.)
* Speaking of the shockumentary genre, is this a viral video for Cloverfield 2? Even if it isn’t, it is, I suppose. (Via Topless Robot.)
* Holy moley, Brian Chippendale is blogging about Marvel comics. How often are you gonna see an Uncanny X-Men/Dark Avengers crossover juxtaposed with a Ron Rege Jr. page? Also, fun fact: Chippendale is working on owning the complete 500-issue run of Daredevil. (Via Heidi MacDonald.)
* Every once in a while a critic latches hold of an unlikely candidate for praise and jams his body in the doorway to hold it open for other critics to come through and have a look. Tom Spurgeon on the Luna Brothers is one of those cases.
* Ryan Kelly has passed the audition for my David Bowie sketchbook. Why didn’t you just say so, Ryan?
* Is it just me, or is this Todd McFarlane Batman-as-troll drawing…lovely? Kind of a Rankin-Bass vibe?
* Guestblogging for Whitney Matheson over at USA Today’s Pop Candy blog, my Twisted ToyFare Theater collaborator Justin Aclin runs down great forgotten ’80s action-figure lines. Sectaurs really were something special, weren’t they?