* Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis are, at long last, officially signed to play Gandalf and Gollum in The Hobbit. Elijah Wood will be back as Frodo, too, somehow.
* Top Shelf has a good 2011 ahead of it, anchored by the new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the new Nate Powell, the new Incredible Change-Bots, and the new Ax.
* Jesse Moynihan’s Forming will be collected by Nobrow and released through AdDistro! That’s a good comic.
* Tom Spurgeon muses on the Fantagraphics Complete Carl Barks Disney Duck Comics announcement. Short version: It’s all good.
* Speaking of Spurge, here are links to all of his Holiday Interviews. Tons of talented people in there, interviewed by the best there is.
* Today on Robot 6: Is DC Comics a two-man operation? Actually, you could say that the whole Direct Market is a three-man operation: Fully 65 of the 75 bestelling comic books of 2010 were written by Brian Michael Bendis, Geoff Johns, or Grant Morrison. That seems extraordinary to me, but then I’ve never crunched the numbers to see if this is an anomalous situation. (Hat tip: Douglas Wolk.)
* The New Yorker makes fun of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
* The co-publishers of Secret Acres serve up a fascinatingly candid look at a year in the life of their business, tackling topics from how unexpected demand for one book mucked with their plans for other books to the impact of negative reviews. (To be fair, Barry and Leon: The very same year I was upset by Wormdye, I loved Capacity and named it the #5 comic of the year! Much love for the Acres.)
* Gabrielle Bell battles bedbugs.
* Real Life Horror: The beginning of this Rachel Maddow segment on mass shootings is just magisterially chilling.
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Tags: Carnival of souls, comics, links, real life