Focused Linkblogging

• Though it's not the tempting edition that Eddie Campbell hints is coming, I bit the bullet on the new Top Shelf edition of From Hell. I even splurged on the limited edition hardcover, and it's worth the extra pennies. This is simply a gorgeous edition, with a cover sans dust-jacket: the artwork is printed directly (and beautifully) on the cover. I had carefully amassed a run of the issues at some point, but lent them to a friend who promptly moved thousands of miles away - absconding with my hard-won eBay victory. While I wouldn't use the word "favorite" to describe this harrowing book, I personally think it's Moore's best work. In fact, I think that "Chapter 10: The Best Of All Tailors" is one of the great achievements in all of comics. This is something I want to have a permanent copy of, and this new edition will do nicely ... at least until 2008.


• Tim O'Neil takes 52 to task for being Big Event Fan Service Comics. I'm looking forward to future installments in this series: "24 has too many explosions" and "American Idol doesn't feature enough Arnold Schoenberg".


• You're all following 365 Reasons To Love Comics, right?


• The shame about these World War III one-shots is that they spoil the symmetry and structure of 52. And they present me with a quandry: are these part of 52 on 52? maybe I do a "Three on World War III"?


• The minute I saw the "secret message" in the DC Nation, I thought that it would be fun to decipher. I'm interested in pre-computer cryptography, and this would be a fun exercise. Then I realized that it'd be pointless, as the Intarwub would provide me an answer before I got home. I'm glad I didn't waste my time. Every third word? How frackin' inelegant. I suppose "5 - 2 = 3", but still ... Read, and be spoiled.