[comics] 52 weeks, 52 wonderful pieces of art – Metafilter discuss DC’s 52. ‘…the idea of an island filled with nothing but the DCU’s “mad scientists” was absolutely hilarious … until it became absolutely horrifying.’

[blogs] To The End Of The Line — another blog about the London Underground … ‘This is a hugely self-indulgent, yet also dangerously ambitious, undertaking. Namely, to document my visit to every single working station on the London Underground. It’ll take the best part of the year, so don’t except regular updates. It’ll also be far from objective, fairly presumptuous, and (hopefully) by no means earnest or exhausting.’ [via Feeling Listless]

[comics] Revenge of the Dark Knight — profile of Frank Miller … ‘Miller got famous for fight scenes that played like ballet across comic book pages bounded by rooftop water towers and dingy alleyways of Hell’s Kitchen in New York. Now he is far from his New York world and getting further from comics, where he has been a beloved figure; if this Hollywood player’s romance is a passing affair, can he comfortably go back to just the small pages? “That’s the hardest question. I love that community and love the freedom I have had there and the success there and appreciation. But I’m on this new adventure right now.”‘

[blogs] Pole to Polar: The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive … ‘A Guide to Being A Mentally Interesting Girl Navigating the Labyrinth of the NHS Mental Health Services.’

[comics] Forbidden Planet Blog: Steve Ditko documentary on the BBC … ‘Jonathan Ross has a programme coming up on the BBC entitled “In Search of Steve Ditko” […] Contributors include Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Mark Millar, Stan Lee, John Romita and Paul Levitz among others…’

[speccy] Youtube: Watch Manic Miner loading on a ZX Spectrum — I spent a lot of time as a teenager waiting for games like this to load up – And now so can you! :) [via Complete Tosh]

[tv] Fallen Madonna to go to New Buyer … ‘An auction of The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies – the picture made famous by BBC sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo – has raised more than £4,000 for charity […] Mr Moore, from Thame, said many other copies of the picture, by fictional artist Van Clomp, were ruined during shooting of the series. “They were rolled into German sausages, shoved down trouser legs, or singed by an exploding gilded frame intended as a gift for Adolf Hitler,” he said.’

[weather] Rising Slowly – the original Weather Blog from Giles Turnbull.

[comics] Frank Miller and Jeff Smith’s All-Star Shazam …

[blogs] In which Weird and Inexplicable Things Happen Involving Letters, Trees, Front Doors and Keys — Dave Gorman on why he’s changed his locks … ‘It was about 9.30 on Sunday night and I and a friend were watching some TV and having a lazy time of it. Pizza was involved and bellies were full. I heard a key in a door and I heard a door opening and there was a moment before I realised that it was my door opening. Now… no one else should have a key for mine and no one else should be letting themselves into my house at 9.30 on a Sunday evening…’ [via Feeling Listless]

[crime] The Vanity of Reason: Making Sense of the Virginia Tech Tragedy … ‘People of sound mind often assume that individuals with mental illness think like we do: therefore, they must be misinformed, wrong-headed, or just pretending. We are, essentially, in denial. We delude ourselves into believing that we can figure these people out, and in so doing, learn how to “fix” them.’

[blogs] The Diary of a Nobody, as a daily weblog … ‘This is a weblog version of The Diary of a Nobody, written by George Grossmith and originally serialised in Punch magazine in 1888 and 1889. Bringing Charles Pooter into the 21st century, his diary is now available as a selection of weblog-style RSS feeds which you can subscribe to…’ [via As Above]

[drugs] 72-Hour Party People … behind the scenes at 3 day meth binge — ‘”Oh, my God, you know the fucking war, right? The liberation, the occupation, whatever? And the Palestinians, right? And the Israelis and the Muslims and Hindus and all the hate and the fucking guns and the bombs and the, uh, the, uh, you know, all the children with their legs blown off by land mines in Afghanistan, right? You see what I’m saying? I mean, you all know, you’ve all seen like a million times that one picture of that little boy from Afghanistan, right? And he’s in his little purple robe, with his little white sheepherder’s hat, and his little Christmas Carol, um, what do you call it? His Tiny Tim crutches, you know, right? And he’s got these, like, you know, like these little sad, brown, puppy dog, fucking abused-animal, dog-pound, take-me-home-please eyes, right? I mean, God…okay, right now, let’s get online, and let’s find out who he is and where he lives and, and, and, let’s find out what we need to do to buy him a new leg, right now! Who’s got a laptop?” Bonnie is 27 and a florist…’ [via Metafilter]

[blogs] Scenes from a Blog — the life of a blog-post expressed in diagram … ‘Descend to general ennui.’

[funny] Biblical Curse Generator … ‘I pray thou shalt be mocked by eunuchs, thou child of Jezebel!’

[tv] The MacGyver Multi-Tool … ‘The only tool you’ll ever need…’ [via Clipmarks]

[comics] Massimo Belardinelli 1938 – 2007: A Tribute by Pat Mills — very sad to hear news of the death of this stalwart 2000AD artist from it’s earlier years … ‘It is also worth stressing his real devotion and loyalty to 2000AD. He was not working for 2000AD as a portfolio piece before he headed off to Marvel or Vertigo; in working on the comic he had arrived. It was where he chose to be. I can relate to that. As one 2000AD reader, Steve Earles, put it to me today, he was: “A true one-off. In this day of cookie-cutter clone artists we will not see his like again.” I concur…’

[archive] Linkdump:

• Akira Fansite … ‘TETSUOOOOOOOOOO!’ [via Metafilter]
• Use Your Mac Mini as a Media Server … I’m very tempted by this…
• YouTube: The Simpsons Evolution Intro … watch the evolution of the Homer and check the comments: ‘ Matt Groening created “The Simpsons.” That’s probably as much creationism as is relevant for this video.’
• Create a Safely Remove Hardware shortcut … useful tip for using USB Devices with Windows.
• The Top 50 Productivity Blogs … So, you can cure procrastination by reading productivity blogs?
• YouTube: Lazy Sunday UK … ‘Tea, Motherfucker!’
• Ask Metafilter: Women comic book authors … ‘What are some good comic books written by female authors?’

[health] Ask Metafilter: I am a Mutant with an enlarged brain, I’ve had a device implanted into my head but its very sensitive to electromagnetic fields.. please help me avoid them.

[comics] A Script Review of Grant Morrison’s We3 — a look at Morrison’s script for New Line Cinema’s adaptation of We3 … ‘Much of the film is a long chase, a blend between one of Disney’s Fantastic Journey films and, perhaps, The Iron Giant by way of Robocop or another hard, gristle-strewn actionaer. It is also a brilliant and incisive exploration of freedom, instinct, will the universe’s natural orders… and the desire to identify yourself as an individual.’

[music] Coming soon: the Ian Curtis happy meal? … ‘Sportswear company New Balance has commissioned two pairs of trainers inspired by [Joy Division]. One features the cover artwork and the catalogue number of their 1979 debut album Unknown Pleasures, while another displays the Factory records logo and the cryptic slogan One of One Made in Macclesfield. They are the work of Dylan Adair, perhaps the only man in history to listen to Joy Division and think of sports-casual footwear…’

[tv] £1,500 in a carrier bag? What planet are you on? — the origins of the BBC TV drama Life on Mars … ‘One of us said, “Is there any way we can just do The Sweeney in the Seventies?” The Sweeney is terminally sexist, terminally racist, all the things you just can’t do, and yet we also thought there was almost an odd innocence about it. We just had a feeling it wouldn’t turn out to be a vile piece of offensive drama but might end up being quite cool and fun, and probably the only way to do that it is to take someone with our sensibilities and plonk them right in the middle of it, so that any time Gene Hunt says, “All right luv, go and make us a cup of tea and [bring] a Garibaldi biscuit,” someone can roll their eyes. Somehow that lets us off the hook.’ Graham got to work on the story under the working title Ford Granada…’

[comics] Stuart Immonen on Computers and Art: ‘…Huge imagebanks and community photosites started cropping up online. If I wondered whether the NYPD drove Ford Crown Victorias or Chevy Impalas (trick question- they use both), the answer was available in a matter of clicks. Need to know the typical architecture in the Pyrenees or the Ginza? No problem. The governing philosophy is this: reference is a device, and is only as useful as the artist who wields it is talented. In other words, ideally, it will spur creativity, not stifle it, allowing the artist to work efficiently and effectively.’

[bbc] spEak You’re bRanes — a blog on the wit and wisdom of the BBC’s Have Your Say Site… On the Falklands (I think!): ‘when jim challaan was pm thay got to know some how that the agies where going to invade the fslklands and thats all he did was send a nuclear submaren out there and let the argentenas know that it was waiting for them but we all knew what happened then maggie did she do the same as jim no she let them invade and she was told the same as jim that thay were abought to invade and look what it cost us’ [via The Daily Chump]

[comics] The Connections between Lost and Watchmen — interesting Wikipedia-style article … ‘In Watchmen there are a character named Bernard, who opened a magazine store to meet people after his wife, Rose, died. In lost Rose and Bernard are two minor characters…’ [via Pete Ashton]

[film] Charity Screening of An Inconvenient Truth — Sashinka has arranged a screening of Al Gore’s Documentary at the End of April for charity. Details below. Please support if you can by attending or if you’re not based in London you can donate by clicking here. Thanks!

Charity screening of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth    Date: 29th April 2007   Where: Tricycle Cinema, London   Time: 12.30pm  Price:£12.50   (or click to support Sasha’s Charity Mission to Moldova)

[london] Google thwarts al-Qaeda kamikaze strike on US embassy … ‘Quite what the Post Office boys down on Rathbone Place will make of Google’s fingering of their building as a decoy target is anyone’s guess…’

[self-help] Ask Metafilter: What is the dumbest, funniest, most peculiar piece of advice you have ever found in a self-help book? … ‘From the worst ‘How To’ book on screenwriting ever written (“How to Write a Movie in 21 days” by Viki King): WEAR YOUR LUCKY SOCKS.’

[comics] The Mile High Collection — interesting Metafilter discussion on the discovery a massive collection of Golden Age comics (reminds me of Seth’s wonderful Wimbledon Green) … ‘$2 million for Action Comics #1. $273,000 for Flash #1. This society is sick.’

[green] I’ll Compost Your Corpse — The BBC’s “Ethical Man” looks at the issues around decomposing a corpse in an enviromentally friendly way. ‘…the problem with the way a corpse decomposes at the bottom of a grave is that there isn’t enough oxygen to get a good aerobic compost going. The main by-products of aerobic decomposition include carbon dioxide and water meanwhile anaerobic decomposition produces methane – 23 times as powerful a greenhouse-gas as CO2.’ [via Digg]