For the research, Zukowska’s team first tried to stress mice in a way that would duplicate human life.

They made them stand in cold puddles — akin to riding a bus with wet feet in the winter. They also put the mice with aggressive mice that might act similarly to an angry human boss.

—“Shots could help you lose that pot belly; Injections in mice blocked chemical linked with weight gain, study finds,” Reuters, MSNBC.com

I can’t remember anything

Can’t tell if this is true or dream

Deep down inside I feel to scream

This terrible silence stops me

Now that the war is through with me

I’m waking up, I cannot see

That there is not much left of me

Nothing is real but pain now

Hold my breath as I wish for death

Oh please, God, wake me

Back in the womb it’s much

too real

In pumps life that I must feel

But can’t look forward to reveal

Look to the time when I’ll live

Fed through the tube that sticks in me

Just like a wartime novelty

Tied to machines that make me be

Cut this life off from me

Hold my breath as I wish for death

Oh please, God, wake me

Now the world is gone, I’m just one

Oh God, help me

Hold my breath as I wish for death

Oh please, God, help me

Darkness imprisoning me

All that I see

Absolute horror

I cannot live

I cannot die

Trapped in myself

Body my holding cell

Landmine has taken my sight

Taken my speech

Taken my hearing

Taken my arms

Taken my legs

Taken my soul

Left me with life in hell

–Metallica, “One,” 1988. Video directed by Bill Pope and Michael Salomon. Clips from Johnny Got His Gun, directed by Dalton Trumbo.

Something that stuck with me once I’d finished the issue…was the way in which the Marvel Universe these days is all about fear…right now, any sense of wonder or awe has been replaced by a sense of terror and threat: We have Atlantis launching sleeper cell terrorist attacks, we have the Inhumans declaring war on humanity and wanting to take over the world, we have mutantkind facing extinction and infighting, America becoming a police state because superheroes might accidentally blow up a school full of kids, and by the way, your best friend or anyone you know might be an alien invader undercover. There’s an incredible and depressing lack of openness to “the other” in Marvel’s books, these days; nothing is seen as new or different or unusual in a good sense, because everything that isn’t “us” is a threat (as opposed to even being a potential threat). …There used to be a time where it was awesome (in both senses of the world) that there was a race of superhumans living on the moon, instead of it being another band of people who want to kill us….Is it really post-9/11, post-Afghanistan invasion and post-Iraq civil war insularism informing what the Marvel writers are coming up with, or something else? And, either way, is there any way that optimism and, well, good fun could come back to these characters again?

–Graeme McMillan, “Where Have All the Good Times Gone: Graeme gets Silent, 6/27,” Savage Critic(s)

I don’t know that this is so much inherent in modern-day Marvel as it is part and parcel of the overall lack of optimistic science fiction, at least in terms of the sci-fi that reaches the mainstream. And Paul Pope recently told me he’s reading Ray Kurzweil these days, so maybe things are changing.

Purchased at Drea DeMatteo’s store Filth*Mart in NYC, under the auspices of research for an interview I did with her for the Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly in 2003. Photo taken when I was full of beer and other things, May 7, 2005. I like a good trashy T-shirt.

Tool, 1994. Directed by Adam Jones.

I remember staying up late and seeing this video on Headbanger’s Ball in high school. It made me feel old and sad.

From a series by artist Jen Wang, of whose work lots more here. Link courtesy of The Missus.

It occurred to me yesterday that a solid 50% of all the ongoing superhero/genre titles I really enjoy had new issues this week: Immortal Iron Fist, Invincible, The Walking Dead, Criminal, Daredevil, Hellboy, Green Lantern…I had a heck of a time doing this week’s Thursday Morning Quarterback at Wizard for that very reason.

An updated photo gallery, a Jeffrey Brown panel report, a Kim Deitch panel report, and a rundown of the best books of the show by a gaggle of Wizard staffers (including yours truly) continue the day job’s MoCCA coverage.

“Unfortunately, that’s part of Florida,” course general manager Rod Parry said. “There’s wildlife in these ponds.”

—“One-eyed gator pulls golfer into pond,” AP, CNN.com

Or something like that? That’s the gist of this article, in which Kill Bill Vols. 1 & 2 executive producer Bennet Walsh says that Volume 3 would focus on the revenge of the characters maimed by the Bride in the first two, while a subsequent Volume 4 would continue the cycle with the daughters of the women involved (presumably the girls of Vernita Green and the Bride herself). Very interesting. (Via Bloody Disgusting.)

Charles Burns (with his free minicomic) and Anders Nilsen.

For more MoCCA pix, plus reports from panels hosted by Alison Bechdel and Nilsen & Gabrielle Bell, check out the day job’s site.

This week’s Horror Roundtable goes meta, asking the participants to name their favorite Horror Roundtable moment. Mine’s got nards.

I mean, don’t they?

It’s that whole beefy, bourbon-drinking uncle vibe.

Find out what I thought of this week’s issues of Captain America, The Flash: Fastest Man Alive, The Incredible Hulk, Ex Machina, Heroes for Hire, Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Justice League of America, and Repo at this week’s Thursday Morning Quarterback at Wizard.

At the 2007 MoCCA Art Festival, the best alternative comics convention going. If you’re in New York City, swing by and say hello to me at the Wizard table. And horror fans, be advised that Bill “Stray Toasters” Sienkiewicz and Charles “Black Hole” Burns will be there too!

Via Jason Adams. Damn you for scooping me on a Dark Is Rising image, Adams. Damn you to Hell!

(I’m actually not so wild about this one, to be honest. Who are those other kids? Am I forgetting something?)

The inaugural installment of the biweekly alternative comics interview column I’ll be doing for WizardUniverse.com, I Can Has Comix?, is up. This week’s guests: Los Bros Hernandez (aka Gilbert and Jaime), creators of Love and Rockets. Enjoy!

Here’s a new pic from Frank Darabont’s upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Mist,” which accompanies an interview with King on his upcoming film and TV projects at USA Today.

Can. Not. WAIT.

(Via Bloody Disgusting.)

This comment at this post about this post led me to this site and this thread where this post brought me to these images:

They’re fan-made alternate covers for the upcoming Twin Peaks complete definitive gold box edition whatever DVD boxed set, the cover of which is, shall we say, aesthetically challenged. And there’s a lot more where those came from.

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. November 6th. Rated NC-17. (Via Cinematical.)