7 April 2006
[comics] Mountain of Judgement: The Eyes of Jack Kirby [via Progressive Ruin]
8 April 2006
[comics] Script Robot Alan Moore — in the begininning Alan Moore was just one of Tharg’s humble Script Robots…
9 April 2006
[tv] Rik Mayall – This Much I know …
‘After my quad-bike accident I was dead for five days. Jesus was only dead for three, so I beat him – 17 April 1998 was the day I was sent back from heaven. I remember waking up from the coma and there were four nurses wrestling with me, ramming a thingy up my knob. That’s quite a good memory, actually.’
10 April 2006
[comics] Black Legacy — an old Dr Who short-story written by Alan Moore involving the Cybermen … ‘Theta Troop are all dead!’ ‘Oh.’
11 April 2006
[tv] Deal or No Deal Noel Edmonds Figure Playset — for sale on Ebay. … ‘Remember folks this is a one of a kind auction! Now deal or no deal!’ [via Feeling Listless]
13 April 2006
[blog] Minor Tweaks: The Seven-Day Emotional Forecast … ‘Saturday: Disappointment mixed with apathy. Sunday: Mostly okay.’ [via Cheesedip]
14 April 2006
[comics] Ministry Of Space #1, Desolation Jones #1 and Fell #1 — various Comic Scripts from Warren Ellis … ‘Pic 4; An older female PSYCHIATRIST studies us, surrounded by shadows. A light source from above bounces off her little glasses, so that we cannot see her eyes. Psych: It is understood that you have experienced extraordinary stresses in your work, Mister Jones. However, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service requires more… Resilience? Put another way: James Bond never urinated on himself.’
15 April 2006
[film] Snakes on a Blog — a blog for the movie Snakes on a Plane … ‘I want these motherfucking snakes off the motherfucking plane!’
17 April 2006
[comics] Irreconcilable Sameness. (from Mark Stivers)
[puppies] “Inside Horror Puppy Farm – Pictures” — a return to form for the headline poster writer at the Evening Standard … (more: Evening Standard Headline Crisis 2005 and 2006)
[comics] The Mathematical Cartoons of Larry Gonick … [via Neilalien]
(Gonick on Lumps and Chaotic Mixing)
(Gonick on Lumps and Chaotic Mixing)
20 April 2006
[films] Film of the Book: Top 50 Adaptations Revealed — a list of best book to film adaptations includes Frank Miller’s Sin City.
[murder] eBay, Manga and Murder — the Guardian on Kevin Underwood … ‘It is almost certainly true that you can find out more about Underwood’s personality from poking around the internet than his co-workers ever bothered to. But looking through the trails he left online, an awful fact becomes clear. Almost everything he did there to express himself was simply a record of the things he liked to buy or rent. Even his depression was understood in terms of the pills that he did or didn’t take.’
[comics] Grant Morrison Quotes — posted at Wikiquote … On Comics: ‘Truthfully, the job security in this business is uncertain, the hours are long, long and lonely, the audience is increasingly small, fickle and dissatisfied, like 3 of the 7 Dwarves. Respect is nonexistent, success fleeting; you’d be better off in a boy band, where at least you’d get laid before they made you obsolete.’
21 April 2006
[it] Supposing… Computers are deliberately wasting our time — by Charlie Brooker. ‘…the endless stream of finickity little tasks a computer will set you without warning. The tiny hoops you have to jump through before it gives you what you want. Install this driver. Now update it. Now update it again. Register to login to our website. Then validate your membership. Forgot your password? Click here. Now there. Fill out this form. And this one. And this one. Please wait while TimeJettison Pro examines your system. Download latest patch file. Please wait while patch file examines own navel. Remove cable. Insert cable. Gently tease USB port with cable. Yeah, that’s it baby. That’s the way. Now show us your bum or I’m deleting your inbox.’
22 April 2006
[comics] This Vicious Cabaret — an MP3 of David J. performing a song taken from Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta. (from Hidden City)
23 April 2006
[weird] 27 Project — a website about the number 27. ‘…one thing is for sure. once you are awake to the conspiracy you will never be the same again. by reading this far, your life has already changed for ever.’ [via Metafilter]
24 April 2006
[film] 102 Essential Movies — interesting list from Jim Emerson. ‘… [these] were the movies you just kind of figure everybody ought to have seen in order to have any sort of informed discussion about movies. They’re the common cultural currency of our time, the basic cinematic texts that everyone should know, at minimum, to be somewhat “movie-literate.”‘
[ukblogs] Park and Write — BBC News article about a blog called Wandering Scribe by a homeless woman living in her car in London … ‘A woman becomes homeless, so she gets into her car and drives. Except she has nowhere to go – so she stays in the car, with all her possessions heaped in the back, sleeping in the front seats, parking in secluded streets. For eight months, no one notices her, because she makes sure she looks respectable, taking showers and even ironing her clothes in public places like hospitals. She has made herself invisible, out of touch from anyone she used to know – and keeping separate from other homeless people. But this is the information age…’
26 April 2006
[bbc] BBC Programme Catalogue — the BBC’s Infax programme information catalogue available on the Internet … ‘Details of 946,614 BBC radio & TV programmes, dating back 75 years.’
[flash] Daily Mail Picnic — flash fun … ‘Everybody who’s on the web is certain to be a crook… And you’ll turn into a paedophile if ever you take a look…’
27 April 2006
[history] Bronte and Dickens Caught Napping in 1841 Census — one night in 1841 caught in the data from a census of the UK … ‘Up in Yorkshire in the parish of Guiseley, 20-year-old Charlotte Brontë was living in Upper Road as a governess. At Parsonage House, Newton-by-Daresbury near Warrington, nine-year-old Charles Dodgson – later to find fame as Lewis Carroll – was living with his parents, four sisters, two brothers, one gentleman, three private pupils and five servants.’ [via Robot Wisdom]
28 April 2006
29 April 2006
[film] It Becomes a Self-fulfilling Thing — a discussion between Errol Morris and Adam Curtis … ‘Where people do set out to have conspiracies, they don’t ever end up like they’re supposed to. History is a series of unintended consequences resulting from confused actions, some of which are committed by people who may think they’re taking part in a conspiracy, but it never works out the way they intended.’ [via Kottke’s Links]
30 April 2006
[web] cl1p.net — a useful internet clipboard. I’ve found it great for quickly moving bits of text and small files between two computers especially if they are on different networks or there is a firewall in the way.
1 May 2006
[comics] Daniel Clowes Talks Confidential — Clowes interviewed regarding Art School Confidential … ‘I figured we’d work on (Ghost World footage) a bit and be done in two weeks. Cut to a year later and we are still struggling and rearranging scenes and changing the music and doing all of these drastic and subtle things. It made me realize how fluid the medium of film was. You can change a film entirely — you can give the two different editors the same footage and they’ll make two entirely different films…. It got me excited about trying to figure out how to edit and change comics after the fact.’
2 May 2006
[bullets] Worth Watching: A Video of Bullets Going Through Objects in Slow Motion. [via Metafilter]
3 May 2006
[comics] Superman Returns Trailer … ‘You’re Bald.’
[comics] But Is It Art? — interview with Dan Clowes and Terry Zwigoff. Clowes on Conceptual Art: ‘I don’t want to come off like one of those Republicans picking on the NEA, like, “Oh this guy pissed on a crucifix and called it art.” That’s not what this is about. But when I was in art school, people literally were bringing in the tampon in the teacup.’ [via Robot Wisdom]
[comics] Alan Moore Quotes: ‘Life isn’t divided into genres. It’s a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you’re lucky.’
4 May 2006
[money] Carol Vorderman Please Stop Doing Secured Loan Adverts! … ‘We the undersigned kindly ask Carol Vorderman to please stop doing adverts for secured loans. Advertising works, that’s why companies pay for it, and over time her powerful adverts will have contributed to the growing normalization of this form of borrowing. We believe this is truly worrying, as secured loans should only ever be seen as loans as last resort.’
5 May 2006
[lists] Borges’ List of Animals … ‘1. those that belong to the Emperor’ [via 43 Folders]
7 May 2006
[web] Hot Gossip — a profile of Popbitch from the Guardian… ‘[Popbitch] did introduce advertising on the site after three years and the annual revenue is now roughly £100,000, just about covering the costs of the server, technical support staff, legal fees and Camilla Wright’s salary.’
[comics] Sean Phillips has a Blog … ‘The Hardest Working Man In Comics…or a hack…U decide!’
8 May 2006
[numbers] Ask Metafilter: How is this lame maths Trick Possible? …
- Grab a calculator
- Key in the first three digits of your phone number (NOT the area code)
- Multiply by 80
- Add 1
- Multiply by 250
- Add the last 4 digits of your phone number
- Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again
- Subtract 250
- Divide number by 2
[film] Top 10 Sci-fi Films — voted by a panel of scientists. Aubrey Manning on 2001: ‘…the brilliance of the simulations – still never done better despite all the modern computer graphics. The brilliance of using Brazilian tapirs as ‘prehistoric animals’. The brilliance of the cut from the stick as club, to the space shuttle. Kubrick declaring that once tool use begins – the rest is inevitable. Hal: the first of the super computers with its honeyed East-Coast-Establishment voice.’
9 May 2006
[ebay] A beginner’s guide to eBay: Confessions from an eBay store worker — many useful tips (especially if you’ve just starting eBaying). ‘…always remember these key facts: Items closing on Sunday do better, and items closing in the evening do better. Be sure to close your auction at a time when people get home from work, or are done eating dinner.’ [via Lifehacker]
10 May 2006
[belly] Why doesn’t my belly button heal over? — also answers the important medical conundrum: Where does belly button fuzz come from? … ‘Belly button fuzz (or lint) comes from the clothes you wear. Some fabrics shed more than others. Some shapes of belly buttons are better collectors. A hairy belly button will collect fuzz better than a hairless one.’
[business] What does Amstrad actually do? … ‘[Paul Tulip], who said of himself, “I think I’m brilliant”, had not exactly done scrupulous research before going on the show. Quizzed on air about what Amstrad actually does, he replied with his usual stirring confidence. “Computers.” “Amstrad doesn’t actually make computers now,” came the reply. “They distribute them,” Paul tried, gamely. “They don’t.”‘
11 May 2006
[comics] He say Blade Runner — BeaucoupKevin posts a page from Marvel’s comic adaptation of Blade Runner.
12 May 2006
[comics] Evan Dorkin: Did Someone Say “Pirate Monkey”?
15 May 2006
[comics] 52 Pickup — a blog looking at DC’s new weekly comic series 52 (which is partially written by Grant Morrison). ‘Ralph Dibny believes himself to be hopelessly imperfect; he couldn’t save his wife, he couldn’t do much in the crisis, he’s a relic of the Silver Age, etc. Hence his near-suicide attempt. But he is a detective, after all, like Batman — and, actually, like Montoya. And what detectives thrive on is mysteries…’
17 May 2006
[comics] Dave Sim Reads the Bible to Feed the Hungry … ‘No Preaching: Just the Scripture.’
[comics] Top 50 Marvel Characters List — if I were to do a list my #1 Marvel character would be the legendary John Garrett (from Elektra: Assassin) … On Iron Man: ‘Tom Selleck in a can! With Bluetooth compatibility!’
18 May 2006
[radio] BBC Radio Streams … nice, simple lists of the BBC’s Radio output for the last week-or-so.
[id] Q. What could this boarding pass tell an identity fraudster about you? A. Way too much — the Guardian on personal data and identity fraud. ‘…surfing publicly available databases, we were able – within 15 minutes – to find out where Broer lived, who lived there with him, where he worked, which universities he had attended and even how much his house was worth when he bought it two years ago. (This was particularly easy given his unusual name, but it would have been possible even if his name had been John Smith. We now had his date of birth and passport number, so we would have known exactly which John Smith.)’
19 May 2006
[photos] London Daily Photo … ‘A London photo every day. Some pictures will be there for their own sake, some because they are places you may like to see, all because they are part of what makes London what it is.’ [via Diamond Geezer]
20 May 2006
[comics] Free Scott Pilgrim — Brian Lee O’Malley’s comic for Free Comic Book Day available online. ‘SCOTT PILGRIM. PREPARE TO DIE.’ [via Do You Feel Loved]
21 May 2006
[comics] Out-of-Context One Panel Theatre … ‘You’ve got to earn my ring, boy.’ [from scans_daily]
22 May 2006
[nlp] Don’t worry, get Therapy — Jon Ronson profiles NLP, Paul McKenna and Richard Bandler … ‘Throughout the interview, I’m sitting on a low sofa with Bandler standing above me. Something suddenly dawns on me. “If I was standing and you were sitting,” I ask, “would I be forming different opinions of you?” “Yeah,” he says, “of course.” “So, are you deliberately positioning yourself in my hopes and desires eyeline?” I ask. There’s a silence. Bandler smiles to himself. “No,” he says. “My leg hurts. That’s why I’m standing up.”‘
23 May 2006
[bb] Diamond Geezer nicely sums up the contestants on Big Brother 7. … On Shahbaz: ‘unemployable flirt. camp tactile nightmare. hysterical egomaniac.’
24 May 2006
[spy] Tomlinson v MI6 — the blog of a former MI6 agent who has a long running dispute with the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service. ‘…readership has gone ballistic to the extent that I may run out of bandwidth this month. So suddenly, my long-standing dispute with MI6 is back in the public domain. Well MI6 have only themselves to blame for the creation of this blog…’ [via PeterCooper.co.uk]
[empire] Ben Hammersley: ‘Rome did not create a great Empire by organising committees and holding meetings…’
25 May 2006
[comics] Graphic Novels for People Who Hate Comics — a list of serious comics for serious people … ‘Did you notice how the good graphic novels plumbed teen angst and autobiography for material? Did you further notice how the great graphic novels covered bigger subjects: the Holocaust, the Islamic Revolution, the Trojan War? Coincidence? I don’t think so.’ [via Waxy’s Links]
[internet] Rumors Rife on Internet Mergers … ‘Speculation is rife on Wall Street that a big internet deal or alliance is in the works, with Google, Yahoo, eBay or Microsoft as possible partners — and a Yahoo-eBay partnership seen as most likely…’
26 May 2006
[ebay] What doesn’t sell / what to buy on eBay — more tips from an eBay store worker … ‘Here’s a general tip about eBay: brand names are everything. People search for brand names 1000 times more then they search for “home-made”.’
[comics] Warren Ellis on Superman Returns: ‘…[the Superman Returns Trailer] hits the high points of the mythos in a sequence of painterly, carefully composed shots over an altered John Williams score. My appreciation of the Superman movies stops about halfway through the first one, but those high points have over the years accreted the strange magic of Judeo-Christian myth about them, and as a writer I can admire that.’ [from Bad Signal]
27 May 2006
[bb] Charlie Brooker on Big Brother: ‘Of course, there’s one bit of knowledge Shahbaz can comfort himself with: whatever his faults, at least he isn’t Sezer. Sezer: yuk. Just what we need on our screens: a pint-sized, pixel-eyed, monotone, priapic, hair-gelled rodent, so in love with himself he probably masturbates to videos of himself masturbating. And it’s misplaced adoration…’
30 May 2006
[film] An Inconvenient Truth — movie trailer for Al Gore’s documentary about climate change.
[film] Predilections — a profile of Errol Morris … ‘I like the idea of making films about ostensibly absolutely nothing,” Morris says. “I like the irrelevant, the tangential, the sidebar excursion to nowhere that suddenly becomes revelatory. That’s what all my movies are about. That and the idea that we’re in possession of certainty, truth, infallible knowledge, when actually we’re just a bunch of apes running around. My films are about people who think they’re connected to something, although they’re really not.’ [via Kottke]
[film] Blade Runner Final Cut Due … ‘Warner Home Video will issue a new remastered director’s cut of the classic SF movie Blade Runner in September now that it has cleared up rights issues, followed by a theatrical release of a version promised to be truly director Ridley Scott’s final cut, Variety reported.’ [via Feeling Listless]
31 May 2006
[oil] Rob Newman’s History of Oil — 45 minutes long but well worth it … ‘Rob Newman gets to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years – but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, he places oil centre stage.’ (Also mentions Peak Oil and gaylord tennis).
[dvd] How to convert episodes from a TV Series DVD to DivX/XviD with ease using free software — a simple howto using Windows software.
1 June 2006
[telly] Paul Daniels’ eBay Transactions — a blog forensically tracking Paul’s activities on eBay … ‘On April 26th 2006, Paul Daniels purchased a book for only 22p! This has got to be one of Paul’s best ebay experiences ever. So, he paid 88p for postage taking the total to £1.10 and the book looks pretty ropey… it’s a 1964 pot boiler called Jealousy…’ [via Mr Biggs]
2 June 2006
[con] The Perfect Mark — the inside story of a Nigerian 419 Con … ‘An enduring trait of Nigerian letter scammers — indeed, of most con artists — is their reluctance to walk away from a mark before his resources are exhausted. On February 5, 2003, several days after the checks were revealed as phony, after Worley was under siege by investigators, after his bank account had been frozen, after he had called his partners “evil bastards,” Worley received one more e-mail from Mercy Nduka. “I am quite sympathetic about all your predicaments,” she wrote, “but the truth is that we are at the final step and I am not willing to let go…”‘
[comics] In praise of … Tintin — from today’s Guardian Leader … ‘Journalists envy Tintin as a reporter who never feels pressure to file a story, but everyone else can just enjoy the plots. The early books are of their period, stereotyping Africa and Africans but, from the Blue Lotus on, Tintin sides with the oppressed, fighting Nazis, communists and capitalists alike.’
3 June 2006
[tv] BBGossip.com 
— one stop shop for Big Brother updates, gossip and chat.
— one stop shop for Big Brother updates, gossip and chat. 5 June 2006
[comics] All-Suck Batman and Robin — a review of Miller and Lee’s All-Star Batman … ‘The thing is, the book IS immensely enjoyable. It’s like watching a really fascinating train wreck. I simply cannot tear myself away from reading it, and I’ve gotta tell you, I eagerly await the next issue as much as any of my favorite books.’ [via Metafilter]
6 June 2006
[comics] New Comics Blog: Blog@Newsarama.
[pi] The Mountains of Pi — the 1992 New Yorker article which influenced Darren Aronofsky’s Pi about two mathematicians who build supercomputers in their Brooklyn flat. ‘…the digits of pi may ramble forever in a hideous cacophony, which is a kind of absolute perfection to a mathematician like Gregory Chudnovsky. Pi looks “monstrous?” to him. “We know absolutely nothing about pi,” he declared from his bed. “What the hell does it mean? The definition of pi is really very simple — it’s just the ratio of the circumference to the diameter — but the complexity of the sequence it spits out in digits is really unbelievable. We have a sequence of digits that looks like gibberish.” “Maybe in the eyes of God pi looks perfect,” David said, standing in a corner of the room…’
7 June 2006
[news] Ten things I learned by reading the Daily Express — one man reads the Daily Express so you don’t have to … ‘7: There is insufficient police brutality.’ [via Pete’s Linklog]
8 June 2006
[history] Britain celebrates the Queen’s Silver Jubilee — on this day in 1977 … ‘All things considered, it was not a good day for the anti-monarchists. “We were going to have a proper meeting and then march to Buckingham Palace to proclaim the republic,” the organiser of one stuff-the-jubilee rally, Terry Liddle, observed. “But unfortunately it was too cold and only five people turned up.”‘
9 June 2006
[tech] 18 Days of Reckless Computing — How to Kill a Dell Computer in under three weeks … ‘I ask friends and relatives to forward me their nastiest-looking spam. In response, I start getting emails from my mom with discomforting subject lines like “Dating for kinky people!”‘
10 June 2006
[comics] The Diary Of Ralph Dibny … the weblog of the superhero formerly known as Elongated Man … ‘It’s been a couple of weeks since the unpleasantness with the alternate earths and the killing and the shouting and all and my therapist thinks I should start keeping a journal of my inner thoughts and feelings. Well screw you Dr Willis. If you were any kind of therapist I wouldn’t respond to a serious global emergency by sticking a goddamned gun in my mouth. I blame you for the last three suicide attempts, you quack.’
[fruit] Innocent Drinks Blog — a blog from the popular Smoothies Company … ‘We need somewhere to share our thoughts and to give other people a chance to comment on what we’re doing. We need somewhere to post our pictures and tell our stories. We need somewhere to let off steam. We hear that there are these amazing things called blogs that help you do all of this.’
12 June 2006
[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#76 – #100) …
- Rom the Spaceknight.
- Dave’s Long Box.
- The 1989 Batman Movie. directed by Tim Burton.
- Winker Watson from The Dandy.
- Mek-Quake.
- Animal Man #26 by Grant Morrison and Chaz Truog.
- Mike McMahon.
- Diesel Sweeties.
- Dave McKean.
- Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks.
- Captain Haddock.
- John Romita Jr.
- The V.C.s
- DR and Quinch by Alan Moore and Alan Davis.
- Green Arrow.
- Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu by Doug Moench and Various Artists.
- Powers by Brian Michael Bendis and Micheal Avon Oeming.
- The Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.
- The Watchmen Smiley Face Badge.
- The Mighty Tharg.
- Jack Chick’s Comics.
- Robert Crumb’s Cross-hatching.
- The Original Superman Movie.
- DMZ by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli.
- Chopper (aka Marlon Shakespeare).
[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#51 – #75) …
- Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker.
- Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein.
- The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke.
- Uzumaki by Junji Ito.
- John Garrett.
- The Time Machine (from 2000AD #324) by Alan Moore and Jesús Redondo.
- The Eltingville Comic Book, Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy and Role-Playing Club comics by Evan Dorkin.
- Philip Bond.
- All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
- Neilalien.
- Eightball #22: Ice Haven by Dan Clowes.
- Y: The Last Man by Brian Vaughan and Pia Guerra.
- General Zod as played by Terrance Stamp.
- Comics Letterers — Tom Frame, John Constanza, John Workman and Tom Orzechowski.
- Issue 6 of Sandman by Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III.
- John Wagner.
- Tomb of Dracula by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan.
- The 600 page novelisation I did of the Judge Dredd story Apocalypse War which is now sadly lost to history.
- scans_daily on LiveJournal.
- Barry Allen.
- The smell of old comics.
- Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly.
- Moon Knight by Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz.
- Zenith by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell.
- Walter the Wobot.
13 June 2006
[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#26 – #50) …
- Grendel: God and the Devil by Matt Wagner, John K. Snyder III and Jay Geldhof.
- Charley’s War by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun.
- Hellblazer #27 – Hold Me by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean.
- The Batman TV Series.
- Shadowplay: The Secret Team by Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz.
- V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.
- Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.
- Judge Dredd.
- Stray Bullets by David Laptham.
- Alan Moore on Swamp Thing with Various Artists.
- Carlos Ezquerra.
- Ghost World by Dan Clowes.
- Evan Dorkin.
- We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
- Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon by Hergé.
- Brian Bolland.
- American Flagg by Howard Chaykin.
- Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo (the Manga and the Film).
- Warren Ellis.
- DC comics from the 60s with go-go checks on the cover.
- The Shadow by Andy Helfer, Bill Sienkiewicz and Kyle Baker.
- The Incredible Hulk.
- Hellblazer.
- America by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil.
- Lex Luthor.
14 June 2006
[comics] 100 Reasons Why I Love Comics (#1 – #25) …
- Alan Moore.
- Grant Morrison.
- From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell.
- Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
- Daredevil: Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli.
- Cerebus by Dave Sim and Gerhard.
- St. Swithin’s Day by Grant Morrison and Paul Grist.
- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.
- 2000AD (between 1977 and 1989).
- The Castafiore Emerald by Hergé.
- Steve Bell.
- The Playboy / I Never Lived You by Chester Brown.
- Dan Clowes.
- Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison and Various Artists.
- Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz.
- Hate by Peter Bagge.
- It’s A Good Life if you Don’t Weaken by Seth.
- “Gaze into the Fist of Dredd!”
- Peep Show by Joe Matt.
- Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau.
- The Alec McGarry Stories by Eddie Campbell.
- Daredevil.
- Rupert the Bear Annuals (Probably the first comics I ever read).
- Brendan McCarthy.
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill.
15 June 2006
[gtd] The Perfect Apostrophe — amusing podcast where Merlin Mann discusses his procrastination whilst abortively attempting to write an O’Reilly Life Hacks book.
16 June 2006
[comics] D’Blog of ‘Israeli — the blog of comic artist D’Israeli … ‘Want to know what being a comic artist is about? Packing, that’s what. I always start out with the intention of making some great new thing that’ll redefine the medium, but in the end, it’s always comes down to packing, cramming it all in.’ [via Pete’s Linklog]
17 June 2006
[gtd] 43 Folders Podcasts — an archive of Merlin Mann’s audio accompaniments to the the 43 Folders website.
19 June 2006
[wikipedia] Un_Wiki — watch crap get deleted from Wikipedia in real time … ‘So I’m told that Scotty doesn’t know? Matt Damon sings this song? Octavio has a really hot girlfriend and gets none?’ [via Haddock]
20 June 2006
[bb7] Grace Dent’s Big Brother Blog — well written blog about Big Brother from the Radio Times … ‘Mikey goes to bed clutching a photo. Instead of sweet nothings and a peachy bum, Mikey is lulled to sleep by the sound of Glyn vigorously excavating his right nostril and dislodging phlegm.’
— well written blog about Big Brother from the Radio Times … ‘Mikey goes to bed clutching a photo. Instead of sweet nothings and a peachy bum, Mikey is lulled to sleep by the sound of Glyn vigorously excavating his right nostril and dislodging phlegm.’ 21 June 2006
[tv] Scaryduck on Ben Elton: ‘I’m a pretty confident chap. So confident, in fact, that I am willing to lay a wager. And it is this: “I bet you ANY MONEY that at some stage before the next UK General Election, Ben Elton will stand up and declare his allegiance to David Cameron and the Conservative party.” I tell you, it’s going to happen…’
22 June 2006
[comics] The Myth of Superman — Neil Gaiman and Adam Rogers on Superman … ‘Other heroes are really only pretending: Peter Parker plays Spider-Man; Bruce Wayne plays Batman. For Superman, it’s mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent that’s the disguise — the thing he aspires to, the thing he can never be. He really is that hero, and he’ll never be one of us. But we love him for trying. We love him for wanting to protect us from everything, including his own transcendence…’
23 June 2006
[google] The Devil’s Guide to Google — a dummies guide to fucking with Google … ‘Buy 2 million cheap domains, heavily interlink them, and wait until they go up in Google’s ranking. Start using them to sell Viagra.’
[comics] Comic row over graphic Peter Pan — Great Ormond Street Hospital isn’t happy Alan Moore sexing up Peter Pan’s friend Wendy … ‘The Lost Girls, which shows Wendy in erotic trysts and being observed by paedophiles, is the latest work by Alan Moore, the British graphic novelist behind V for Vendetta. He said that his novel was inspired by Peter Pan but he would not seek permission to use the Wendy character. “I don’t see that you can ban anything in this day and age,” he said.’
[comics] ‘Sex acts’ Wendy is Panned — CNN on Great Ormand Street and Lost Girls … ‘Stephen Cox, the hospital’s spokesman, said in a telephone interview Friday that it has not taken legal action against Moore and is was waiting to see whether the author will contact the institution to discuss its objections.’
[comics] Hospital worry at “porn” take on Peter Pan’s Wendy — Reuters on Lost Girls … ‘Moore insists on calling the work “pornography”, while Publishers Weekly, in an article earlier this year, said it involved “fetishism, incest and even a touch of bestiality, as well as a whole lot of sexual activity involving minors”. It is due to be published in the United States in August.’
24 June 2006
[ebay] Mathematicians snipe to win on eBay — the New Scientist on the best strategy to win auctions on eBay … ‘[Mathematicians] saw a mathematical pattern in the bidding behaviour of bidders and derived a simple power-law equation to describe this. This power law reflects the fact that bids become more frequent as the end of an auction approaches. The researchers used this equation to determine the best time to make a winning bid. They conclude that sniping is the best approach.’ [via Kottke]
[comics] Alan Moore’s Erotic Lost Girls — some pages from Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie’s Lost Girls [NSFW].
25 June 2006
[comics] Rich Johnson on Lost Girls: ‘But I can’t see this being published, with Alan Moore’s current media profile, with the characters of Alice, Dorothy and Wendy used in this was (not to mention the coincidental Harold Potter) without someone kicking off. Am I the only one who can see “PEDO PAN” as a front-page headline of the News Of The World? I’ve already been asked for comment by the BBC which is planning a news feature in a couple of weeks.’
[comics] Rich Johnson Reviews Lost Girls: ‘This comic has driven me to complex thought, to patterns and ideas staying fixed in my own mental space that will stay with me. I will quote this book in conversation, I know it. I will see others through it, I will filter experience through it, it has affected me as much as any fiction can.’
26 June 2006
[tv] Mr Noseybonk in the Greenhouse — kids TV in the 80’s. I’d completly forgotten about Mr Noseybonk. Probably for the best… [via Venusberg]
27 June 2006
[comics] Metafilter on Lost Girls … ‘So is this really a viable business model? Take a children’s classic, toss in some pornography, generate some canned controversy and then PROFIT!? I’ll be watching closely to see how much Moore rakes in on this. If this works then I can finally start shopping around my The Secret Life of Tiggers.’
[comics] John Byrne and his Forum discuss Lost Girls … Byrne: ‘This thread is officially too depressing. That there are people who would defend Moore on any grounds just adds to my overall sense of having wasted 30 years of my life. End of thread.’
28 June 2006
[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: Evel Knievel … ‘On the morning of the jump, Knievel stopped in the casino and placed a single $100 dollar bet on the blackjack table, which he lost, stopped by the bar and got a shot of Wild Turkey and then headed outside where he was joined by several members of the Caesar’s staff, as well as two scantily clad showgirls. After doing his normal pre-jump show and a few warm up approaches, Knievel began his real approach. When he hit the takeoff ramp, he felt the motorcycle unexpectedly decelerate. The sudden loss of power on the takeoff caused Knievel to come up short and land on the safety ramp which was supported by a van. This caused the handlebars to be ripped out of his hands as he tumbled over them onto the pavement where he skidded into the Dunes parking lot. As a result of the crash, Knievel received a crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to his hip, wrist and both ankles and a concussion that kept him in a coma for 29 days.’
[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: Alfred Henry Hook — I took a look at this because I wondered what happed to Hooky from Zulu after the Battle of Rourke’s Drift … ‘In the film Zulu, Hook is portrayed as an insubordinate malingerer and drunkard who only comes good during the battle. In fact he had been awarded Good Conduct pay shortly prior to the battle, and reports also suggest he was a teetotaller.’
29 June 2006
[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: No True Scotsman. ‘…a common fallacy in politics, in which critics may condemn their colleagues as not being “true” liberals or conservatives because they occasionally disagree on certain matters of policy. It comes in many other forms – “No decent person would” – it is argued “support hanging/watch pornography/smoke in public”, etc. Often the speaker seems unaware that he/she is, in fact, coercively (re)defining what the phrase “decent person” means to include/exclude what he/she wants and NOT simply following what the phrase is already accepted as meaning.’
[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: Seinfeld … Jason Alexander on George: ‘…the true root of [George’s] character was realized upon a conversation between Alexander and David earlier on in the series, in which Alexander questions a script saying, “This could never happen to anyone and even if it did, no human being would react like this” to which David replied, “What do you mean? This happened to me once and this is exactly how I reacted!”‘
30 June 2006
[comics] Alan Moore TV interview from 1987 — watch young Alan Moore flipping his hair back all the time as Gaz Top interviews him about Swamp Thing and plugs the recently released (at the time) Watchmen.
2 July 2006
[photos] On D’Israeli’s Flickr photostream: A Plug Cyberman.
[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: Richard Belzer — random cast look-up during Law & Order: Special Victims Unit … ‘Belzer and Henry Winkler (most notably the Fonz on Happy Days) are cousins.’
3 July 2006
[shop] Forbidden Planet’s Blog … the famous comic shop gets a blog.
… the famous comic shop gets a blog.
[comics] From Zero to Hero — How does Hergé’s Tintin compare to great literature? ‘…should we now claim, posthumously, on Hergé’s behalf, that in fact he was a writer, and a great one? My short answer to this question is: no. My longer answer is that the claim we should make for him is a more interesting one. And it revolves around two paradoxes. The first is that wrapped up in a simple medium for children is a mastery of plot and symbol, theme and sub-text far superior to that displayed by most “real” novelists. If you want to be a writer, study The Castafiore Emerald. It holds all literature’s formal keys, its trade secrets – and holds them at the vanishing point of plot, where nothing whatsoever happens.’
4 July 2006
[7/7] The Mysterious Case Of The Non-Existent Train Time — a blog investigating the messy loose-ends in the story behind the London Bombings on July 7th last year … ‘I have only one reason for starting this blog. It is to ascertain the facts behind the events in London on and since the 7th July 2005. I have made many attempts to ascertain a few simple facts (and therefore truths) about the events on that morning…’
5 July 2006
[wikipedia] My Wikipedia Contrail: Kipple … ‘Kipple is a term coined by science fiction author Philip K. Dick in the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. It refers to unwanted or useless junk that tends to reproduce itself. Some of Dick’s descriptions of it suggest an analogy to entropy. According to two characters from the book, John Isidore stated that the first law of “kipple” is that “kipple” drives out “nonkipple”;’
[kipple] More on Kipple … J.R.Isidore explaining Kipple to Pris: ‘Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers of yesterday’s homeopape. When nobody’s around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you go to bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up the next morning there’s twice as much of it. It always gets more and more.’
7 July 2006
[7/7] Diamond Geezer on 7/7 … Aldgate, Edgware Road, King’s Cross St Pancras, 30. ‘…it’s just something I have to do every day. It’s just another train. It’s just another carriage.’
8 July 2006
[7/7] Seeing isn’t Believing — The Guardian on the 7/7 Conspiracy Theories … ‘”I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” insists Dunne. “I was just trying to make a cohesive, coherent story from the facts.”‘
9 July 2006
[art] Create your own Jackson Pollock … fun, simple flash app. [via Robot Wisdom]
10 July 2006
[comics] Steve Bell’s cover to The British CB Book from 1981 …
[comics] Cape Fear — The Guardian asks if Superman is still necessary? … ‘Superman seems to thrive – at least in the movies – in periods of political conservatism or backlash. This is true of many superheroes, but particularly of Superman, who is not usually considered a rebellious figure.’
[comics] Review of Lost Girls — Blogcritics.org reviews a preview copy of Lost Girls … ‘Much of Moore’s work involves a critical transformative event that breaks the border between worlds, such as the genocidal concentration camp that creates his “V” in V For Vendetta, or the murders of Jack the Ripper seen as a kind of invocation for the 20th century in From Hell. In Lost Girls, the telling of sexual histories by his girls is a chance for them to escape old hurts, embrace old pains and enjoy their sexuality unashamed. Wendy, from Peter Pan, is a tightly wound Victorian prude when we first see her, but gradually opens to embrace her lusty past with Moore’s sexaholic Pan.’
11 July 2006
[bb] Meanwhile, in the Big Brother House… ‘After winning the tennis task, the house is furnished with lots of alcohol and a small sense of drunken bonhomie fills the air. “I know!” shouts Mikey, “Let’s play Truth or Dare!” “Yes! What a great idea!” shouts everyone else. There must be a box on the Big Brother application form that says: “Despite being over the age of 12, do you still think it’s a really good idea to play any drinking game with a title like Spin the Bottle/Ten Minutes in the Closet/Bap-Grope/Touch the Snake, or any other party game that will no doubt result in someone needing 72-hour emergency contraception? Tick yes or no.”‘
[books] The Myth Maker — a profile of H. P. Lovecraft by Michel Houellebecq … ‘Few beings have ever been so impregnated, pierced to the core, by the conviction of the absolute futility of human aspiration. The universe is nothing but a furtive arrangement of elementary particles. A figure in transition toward chaos. That is what will finally prevail. The human race will disappear. Other races in turn will appear and disappear. The skies will be glacial and empty, traversed by the feeble light of half-dead stars. These too will disappear. Everything will disappear. And human actions are as free and as stripped of meaning as the unfettered movement of the elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, sentiments? Pure “Victorian fictions”. All that exists is egotism. Cold, intact and radiant.’