Linko! XIII

* I must admit, every time one of my friends starts a new link blog I feel a little more inadequate about Linko! but my perpetual self-loathing be damned...I have to point all of you in the direction of Dave Press' new gig: Blogger for New York's killer Forbidden Planet store! I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who follow the Forbidden Planet UK blog, and so far Dave looks to keep up the store's online rep for providing great content. In that respect, it's pretty lame of me to call what he does link blogging as he's doing interviews, reviews, commentary and the whole gamut of bloggy goodness. It should be fun, and as you can tell from the above pic, Dave loves fun.

* Link that everyone sent me but is still TOTALLY worth reposting: A 13-year-old reviews the Walkman.

* Surprising to me that I have a follow up link: A few weeks ago, I posted a link to a story about a mom who was less than impressed with Marvel's Marvel Kids website. Oddly enough, this week I got a link to a very positive review of the site from a dad who praised it for the same reason the mom hated it. Maybe it's a boy/girl thing?

* Link I'm told it's OK to laugh at: I don't have the foggiest clue who fashion designer Zandra Rhodes is, but my friend Emily claims to have ridden in a car with her and says this story about how Rhodes drove her car into the front of a hardware store is legit and hilarious. The headline would have made me laugh anyway.

* Are you bored? Go read the first two issues of Agents of Atlas and other books for free. You're welcome.


* The main problem I have with the proliferation of manga in America over the past few years is that for the most part, the series I seem to be the most interested in are hard to find, rarely translated or generally underground even in Japan. I don't have the manga knowledge to dig up a lot of cool stuff without the help of others, but hot damn am I lucky to have so man fans of dope boys adventure manga producing North American works inspired by the best of what I want to know more about. Everyone knows Bryan Lee O'Malley, but I've also had a blast over the past few years reading stuff by Corey Lewis, James Stoke and most of all Brandon Graham. Doubly cool: Graham has a blog where he not only posts plenty of awesome manga and manga-influenced comics for me to dig up, but this week he also posted an introduction to the latest volume of Stoke's Wonton Soup that he drew but was dropped due to a printer's error. Go read it, then buy books from everyone I mentioned above.

* Speaking of Japan link: I know I give the Japanese shit for their collective robot fetish often, but at the same time they make all sorts of awesome things, including this insane and intense and gigantic paper castle. (Via Sam)

* Weirdest news story you'll read about a dead celebrity in a week when all we're reading about is weird stories about dead celebrities: the dee friendship between Farrah Fawcett and Ayn Rand.

* I really dug Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg's Plain Janes books from Vertigo's short-lived Minx imprint, and not just in the "I think it's nice they're making comics for girls" way that most people seemed to like before slagging the line. Those books were smart, fun comics with great art, and the second volume improved on the weaker parts of the first. While the books are now done, Hope Larson sent along this like to a kids site called Reader Girls that has all sorts of rad tie ins to the books including new art by Rugg and an accompanying song mix by Castellucci that feels like it was copped from my iTunes.

* According to AOL, Dominic O'Brien has the world's greatest memory, but according to his picture, he has the world's 38,944,673rd greatest hair dresser.

* Link to art that must have showed up somewhere by now, right?: I kind of dug this photo gallery of Ethan Van Sciver designs for DC's upcoming Blackest Night series, and I don't usually like Van Sciver's art.

* There's too much to make comment link: Neilalien outlines his problems with the current state of Doctor Strange. When the dude generally credited as being the first comics blogger blogs about the comics subject he started his blog for, you should all go read it.

* Finally, America celebrates Independence Day tomorrow. If I feel the way I'm expecting, I'll probably spend the day hiding out in bed, but for those who will be partying, enjoy the greatest comic book patriotic theme song ever: