Linko! XII

So, Michael Jackson died yesterday, making what was already a super weird and stressful week even more bizarre. I'm pretty bummed about this as I still held hopes he had one more good album in him (and I didn't think the cuts I heard of "Invincible" were too bad). I know there are probably a million people who are going to use any reverential posts about MJ to snark about him being a child molester. Me? My point of view is that sometimes you've got to separate the art from the artist. Michael was doubtlessly fucked up in ways most of us can never understand. He was also a musical genius. What a bummer.

* In terms of nerd linkage, I've had very little time to amass a decent round up of tribute links, but luckily my friends have already done so here and here. Also, I cannot recommend Sean T. Collins' general write up and his brilliant argument for why the video for "Thrill" deserves to be in the horror movie hall of fame. In between reading all of that, please spend a bunch of time watching MJ videos on YouTube. Start with Heidi's picks here, or click below to see MJ meet Stan Lee:



* On to comics stuff! Mark Evanier has a great little post highlighting a letter a fan wrote about meeting legendary writer John Broome. I've been wanting to write a big, meaty profile on Broome for years, but the magazine I wanted to pitch it to stopped publishing. Would anyone out there pay me to write that?

* Killer interview of the week to read: DC Editor Joan Hilty talking about her second job as an alt newspaper cartoonist at CBR. I bet you didn't even know she did that, huh?

* JK Parkin put this story on Twitter: It's about Super Hobos

* TV might not totally suck after "Lost" wraps up link: a preview of Jason Schwartzman's new HBO mystery series.

* Sports link of the week that I bet no one will want to read: The Detroit Free Press' Joe Dumars profile. (Thanks to Jeff Katz)

* Speaking of Katz Link: Here's a profile on the kid from New Zealand whose comic he picked up.

* And speaking of Michigan: I've long been a reader of Gordon Young's Flint Expatriates blog, which keeps those of us who have left my beloved hometown of Flint for better jobs abreast of efforts to reinvigorate the greatest little city in America. Apparently, someone at Slate digs Gordon's work too as they asked him to write this killer essay on his search to buy real estate in Flint.

* It looks to be down right now, but later on check out this site that sells mashup stickers combining Star Wars with Hello Kitty.



* Speaking of Japan...Radical manga link #1: A gallery of Astro Boy color images forwarded to me by Matthew Brady.

* Radical manga link #2: CB Cebulski past on a link featuring images from the advertising campaign for Naoki Urasawa's new cartoon-inspired manga Billy Bat.

* Last week, Tom posted this link that features a meeting between R. Crumb and a long lost cousin that looks like a long lost brother. Crazy.

* As Mel Caylo pointed out, the only good thing about this news story is the ridiculous photo.

* Finally, someone from Flint posted a link on Facebook to this awesome video featuring animated stickey notes:


Have a good weekend, gang!