Focused Linkblogging

• Child's Play 2005 has launched. Cartoonists and gamers working hard to bring happy holidays to a lot of very sick children. It's a great thing, and I support it every year. The best description of it can be found in the FAQ:

  Now I understand what all of the anti-videogame people meant when they said children raised on games would grow up abnormal. They were right, we'd all grow up with really big hearts.



• Ian Brill writes a hell of an essay about getting superfans to read alt-comix. Read it, if you haven't already. It remains a hell of an essay, even if I disagree a bit. I think it's a bit like going up to a Danielle Steele or Tom Clancy reader saying "Why won't you read Thomas Pynchon? How about William Gaddis? You like words, don't you?" The mainstream view of comics that can't separate superheroes from the medium they appear in has it's tentacles deep, even among those of us that reject it. Just because someone likes superhero comics doesn't mean they would (or should) like all comics. I agree people need to have their blinders taken off, but I think there's better ground to hoe converting people already interested in the content to move from prose to sequential storytelling.(Yes, I plagarized my own comment from Ian's blog. Sue me.)


• One of the first things I read when coming back to comics full-time this past summer was Identity Crisis. I certainly didn't care for it on that initial read, and doubt I'd change my mind on further re-reads. Making you question your opinion can be one of the signs of a good review, though, and Colledted Editions nails it. The writer raises some very good points , and makes me want to get the issues out to see what he was talking about.


• Occult spies in the American Revolution? Are you kidding me? I may be in a minority, but occult spies in the American Revolution sounds insanely cool. The only problem with these early press releases is remembering to preorder, but I hope that all lovers of occult spies in the American Revolution will unite and get behind this. Both of us.


• From the "New To The Blogroll" department: THE ZETA-BEAM, and I was sold the minute I read this post.


• Happy Blogoversary to James Meeley's The Comic Asylum!


• Where is the Rampage when you need it?

Tags: Comics