* Against nerd-culture hegemony: Parts one, two, three, four, five, etc., etc….

* Seriously, read Matt Zoller Seitz’s anti-superhero-movie piece in Salon. It’s no secret what an admirer of Seitz’s I am, but I hope you’ll believe me any way that it’s a cut above the screeds you’ve seen along these lines from, I don’t know, Roger Ebert or Ron Rosenbaum, or a Comics Journal message board user in 2002, or whatever. It’s the kind of thing where you can disagree with several of his specific assessments of superhero movies–I love Burton’s Batman and hate Spider-Man 2, just for example–and still agree wholeheartedly with his conclusion. For me, the prosecution could present the Fantastic Four movies as Exhibit A in The People vs. Superhero Movies and rest their case immediately–you have access to the definitive work of one of the greatest visual thinkers in any medium of the entire 20th century, and that’s what you come up with? Anyway, I talk a bit more about Seitz’s piece on Robot 6. Suffice it to say I’ve been thinking and chatting a lot about the goonish conservatism of nerd culture for the past few days–ever since Wilson came out, I believe–so this piece was a nice bit of synchronicity.

* Elsewhere on Robot 6: Sexy superhero art from Canadian cartoonists. Here’s Jillian Tamaki’s Catwoman:

* Comic-Con’s David Glanzer talks to Kiel Phegley about the Con’s big decision on location. I was struck to see him publicly batting down at least one claim made by L.A. Inc’s Michael Krouse in that Jeremy-Piven-in-Entourage interview yesterday. Also, to hear Glanzer tell it (and contra Krouse and Chris Butcher), San Diego’s offer was a fine one, although of course that’s what he’d say.

* Actual, honest-to-God new reader Curt Purcell says Blackest Night was plenty new-reader friendly, thank you very much, for whatever its other faults.

* Tom Neely is the best there is at what he does.

* Despite its lack of anything from The Wizard of Oz (flying monkeys!!!), this list of disturbing moments in kids’ movies from Topless Robot’s Ethan Kaye has a strong blend of iconic horrors (Willy Wonka’s tunnel is the predictable and deserving #1, you’ve got the Child Catcher and Bambi’s mom) with offbeat and personal choices (the clown nightmare instead of Large Marge in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, also-ran animated features like Scruffy and The Black Cauldron, which reminds me I wanna reread the Prydain Chronicles).

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