Focused Linkblogging

• Why THE ENGINE is invaluable: Lesson #1. In general, this thread on "Creator's Manga Recommendations" is a beautiful thing. As a manga neophyte, getting ideas of where to head next is invaluable. And getting them from creators like Kurt Busiek, Bryan Lee O'Malley, and Warren Ellis rocks even more. Thankfully, Firefox allows me to have that thread open in one tab, and my JustManga Wishlist in another.
  
  To get a recommendation on a manga I've never heard of from the creator of Peng is in keeping with the thread's general greatness. That fact it is about football? American football? My two loves coming together in a chocolate-and-peanut-buttery union? That drives it past the useful into "must-buy-this-immediately-or-sooner" territory.


• Graeme resurfaces. Multitudes rejoice. (Rampage still remains on my blogroll as some sort of protest. I suppose I should let the grieving process begin.)


• Into the Rampage void steps the most unlikely of heroes: Tom Spurgeon, who provides a link to one of the more curious messageboard threads around (which is a heated competition). I'm almost surprised by the fact that we haven't see many threads like this before.


• Kurt points me to a comment over at Johanna's Cognitive Dissonance wherein my Bulleteer theory is largely invalidated. Strangely, it makes me feel proud to have projected that much intent and structure where none existed.


• I believe I have well documented my abiding love for DC's Absolute format, and Collected Editions just rocked my world. During my previous comic collecting life, I had the full Sandman in hardcover, but sold it on eBay when I left the hobby. Just this past week, I had decided to start collecting the series again, and was debating which format. I was going to place an amazon.com order late this week. Just in the nick of time comes this announcement, ensuring I'll hold off and but the Absolute Sandman when it's released.

Tags: Comics