Linko! VI

Woof. I typed most of this from the terminal of the Louis Armstrong airport in New Orleans this morning where I'd been on business for the past two days, falling behind on work and sleeping very little. So, sorry to say that for most of this week's Linko! I don't really recall where I found these things at. Thanks to all the people I know online who are better at finding cool shit than me. On with the show!

* I don't know about the rest of you, but I love how every few years someone comes along and posts a part of the infamously pulped Elseworlds 80-Page Giant that DC barely put out a few years back. Aside from the fact that general consensus said the publisher cancelled the comic thanks to a strip that eventually saw print and won an Eisner, the rest of the stuff that most of us never got our hands on seems really keen. And I'd rather get it as an occasional internet treat than as a full illegal download or whatever. Anyway, this week's resurfacing of material from the issue comes in the form of several splash pages mocking Silver Age books written by Mark Waid and drawn by Ty Templeton, including the above installment spinning a totally historical Superman tale. I know that this gets said every time someone links to his artwork online, but holy shit, y'all...Ty Templeton needs to start drawing my dreams.

* Semi-related?: A fun Watchmen send-up from MAD drawn by Glenn Fabry.

* I don't remember where exactly I saw this link, but Mark Millar got interviewed by a British newspaper earlier this week for...well, being Mark Millar, I guess. Millar is perhaps the most consistently funny and blatantly cocky hype man in mainstream superheroes, and whenever he does interviews on himself and the industry in general, we get quotes like this:

BB What did you think of Watchmen?

Millar I went to the premiere and it was weird because I was 16 when the Watchmen comics were first published. I remember going on a date after buying the final issue and I was so excited about Watchmen, that I actually pretended I had to go to the toilet so I could read it. I just sat on the toilet and read the whole comic.

BB Was the girl not suspicious when you got up in the middle of the date and said: "Sorry, I have to go the toilet. I maybe some time"?

Millar [Laughing] And I come back looking really satisfied.

* Reasons Why I'm Lame #173: I didn't get to go to last weekend's Toronto Comics Arts Festival, which boasted a killer lineup of comic creators. HOWEVER, I did get to interview the esteemed Emmanuel Guibert at CBR in advance of the show, and there are plenty of cool links out there to make the rest of us jealous, including this video overview:



I also dug the first two parts of cartoonist Dustin Harbin's report from the show, and part 3 should be up soon. I don't know Harbin at all, but for some reason we're friends on Facebook and Twitter. The internet is fucking weird, right? Anyway, I hope to check out some of his comics someday.

* I know that there's a link floating around to a Quicktime version of Michael Kupperman's "Snake N Bacon" cartoon show that premiered this past week on Adult Swim, but if you haven't watched it yet or want to watch it again, I highly recommend doing so through the actual Adult Swim website as them getting more hits is the best way the rest of us have of contributing to Kupperman's chances of doing more animation work in addition to his achingly funny comics.

* Speaking of Kupperman, there are too many funny links put up on his Twitter account to ever post here, but this week I couldn't resist sharing this video highlighting Alfonso Ribeiro's brief career as a pitchman for a teach-yourself breakdancing kit. It only gets funnier when you consider how Ribeiro's career highlight involved him playing one of the whitest black men in TV history.

* Not to sound sycophantic or anything, but I'm generally of the opinion that when Scott McCloud tells us he's read four new graphic novels and they're worth our time, I'm inclined to listen to him – especially when two of the books he's talking about are by David David Mazzucchelli and Hope Larson. The other two books sound cool too, though I'm unfamiliar with David Small and Vera Brosgol.

* Hey, are you a lady who's going to this summer's MoCCA festival? Wait! Wait...this isn't some sleazy come on! The aforementioned Hope Larson is throwing a ladies only comics party Friday night before the festival in NYC and made this killer poster to promote it. If I had breasts and a vagina, I'd totally be all over that.

* Rock Link! Via my buddy David Press amongst others, you can listen to the new Wilco album as a continuous stream at the band's website. The idea of naming their seventh studio album Wilco The Album is pretty great, especially as the first song is titled "Wilco (The Song)." That's the best thing I've heard since I played a show back in the day with a South Carolina band called The Weather who's album The Weather included the hit single "The Weather."

* Comic creators give advice to aspiring schlubs part 1: Warren Ellis on promoting your comics.

* Comic creators give advice to aspiring schlubs part 2: Nickelodeon Magazine editor and Agnes Quill creator Dave Roman gives way more advice than is necessary about being a freelance illustrator at his blog.


* I remember back in the day when "Smallville" was a show about a young Clark Kent coming of age with a surprising amount of charm and pathos. The past few seasons, the show has turned into being a pretty over the top homage to continuity porn, as evidenced by my buddy Zach Oat's rundown of DC Comics characters that have appeared in the show over the years at Television Without Pity. Dude...Maxima was on this season?!?!? 6th grade Kiel stares in disbelief.

* Finally, if there's one thing I've learned from years of reading Wizard Magazine and a few years working there, it's that if something's popular enough, it warrants a variant. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who's learned that lesson.