Linko! VII

* I don't like to crow too much because I don't have too much to crow about, but I am totally in love with CayLOLz – the new group Tumblr blog I'm running with some friends dedicated to the comic industry's most huggable man, Carmelo Caylo. Please, please, please follow it if you know Mel. If you don't, find him at a con this summer (he works for Archaia) and give him a squeeze for me.

* Speaking of CayLOLz, the concept's masterminds Zach Oat sent me a link this week to this blog, which reposts one-star reviews of undeniable classics on Amazon. It's pretty genius in general, but I think the people who don't get "Spinal Tap" are the best:

Okay, seriously, who the heck are these Spinal Tap fellas? I’m an expert on music (I studied the art form for four years, know every artist of the last 40 years, and scored an A+ on my math test…which really doesn’t have anything to do with music, but it shows you that I am intellegent), and have never heard of these guys before. Let me ask you a perfectly reasonable question: why would you want to watch a documentary on a band that you’ve never heard of before?

The Anne Frank ones are pretty crazy too.

* Hell, let's round things out with a third Mel-themed link: the first issue of David Petersen's Mouse Guard Winter 1152 in its entirity at CBR. I really dig Petersen's ongoing series outside of my general love for young readers series about woodland creatures involved in wild fantasy epics (exhibit A, exhibit B). Plus, he's from Flint.

* You know, if you read this blog regularly and don't also read Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter, I'm not sure you're making the best use of your time on the internet. He's way better at all of this than we are, and as an example, here are three things I found through Tom that were great reads outside of all his own, invaluable writing:



1 - A brief post on Jack Kirby's two magazine-style comic projects from when he first left Marvel. In my dreams, DC will wrap their awesomely awesome run of Kirby '70s Omnibus volumes with an anthology of all his one off comics for the publisher like the above black and white comics, his 1st Issue Specials and killer fill-ins he did like this and this.

2 - The first part of what looks to be a pretty comprehensive history of Tekno Comics. I remember reading some of these comics off the spinner rack at the book store in the mall and not getting why Leonard Nimoy and Neil Gaiman weren't actually writing the comics in the line themselves. Now that the practice of having big name people "executive produce" comics by coming up with the core concepts and then plastering their names across the top to attract Hollywood attention is common place in the market, I still think it's totally fucking stupid.

3 - DC Comics 40 Years Ago may be the coolest new blog I've found all year.

* While I'm at it, I think the last two entries in Tom's regular Sunday interview feature have been insanely good, and justifiably linked to everywhere else. Here's Darwyn Cooke and Ed Brubaker on the former's upcoming Parker adaptations for IDW and here's Craig Yoe on the just released Secret Identities book and the historical background behind Superman co-creator Joe Shuster's bondage art.

* Speaking of Golden Age Superman stuff (hooray for transitions!), Cartoon Brew has more posts on the Fleischer Brother's Superman shorts than you even knew you wanted to read including this link to a blog that does some detective work with the initial responses to the legendary action series and this killer video history of Superman's animated appearances throughout the years.



* Also from the Brew, "Ren & Stimpy" creator John K has a new blog where he only posts drawings of classic Hanna-Barbera characters with gorgeous results. Why there are no cable channels willing to pay this man money to make more cartoons is a fucking heartbreaking mystery to me.

* Connect the Dots! Dot 1! Dot 2! Dot 3! I concur.

* I thought the trailer for Fox's upcoming "Human Target" adaptation looked pretty good, honestly. Not Peter Milligan good, but good. You can watch the trailer here, but I give you fair warning that it pretty much spoils the entire pilot episode's main plot.

* This week's comic blog I found via Twitter: Comics Alliance Link Inker and Daily Cross Hatch contributor Adri Cowan.

* Link from the New York Times that made me cry the other night.

* Link that I don't recall where it came from: A werewolf comic by Simon Furman and Steve Dillon.

* Via Michael Kupperman's Twitter: The true story of the Private Eye with no hands.

* Via Laura Hudson's Twitter Mach 1: This article offering a conservative Christian reading of "Star Trek" on Fox News' website is funny for a lot of reasons, but it was funny to me mostly because I initially misread the beginning as quoting verse from Romulans 11:33.

* Mach 2: Apparantly geeks are less selfish in the sack than jocks, as concluded by some research study. If those researches would have just called me I could have told them I knew that because we had HBO in my house when I was 11:Nerd Link!

* Mach 3: Physics!

* Dude, Sam is on Twitter! Dude, she also wrote a radical blog post recasting "The Breakfast Club"! GAH!

* Everyone heard this, right?

* Publishers Weekly's continued coverage of the fight to define a law restricting lead in children's toys for publishers of novelty books has been solid and necessary reporting. Too bad I giggle every time I read one of the articles because the seal for the Consumer Product Safety Commission reminds me of the Battlestar Galactica logo.

* Lastly, congrats to my former boss Joe Yanarella, who kicks off the post-Wizard phase of his long, distinguished career in journalism with a story that entertained me on multiple levels.