Linko! LIX

* Two issues in, and I'll admit to being impressed by Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma's Morning Glories series from Image. It's not a perfect comic or even the kind of thing that demands to be read by everyone for all the eggs its breaking, but its creators seem very confident in their ability to tell a big, sprawling, TV-style genre drama in the comics form, and that confidence carries you well through the few awkward moments in the book so far. If you're still on the fence about checking the book out, you could do a lot worse than by checking out my pal Josh Wigler walking through the first issue with Spencer at CBR. Lot of spoilers in there, FYI.

Still, maybe I don't need to be saying much on behalf of that series as apparently it sold out so fast in NYC this week that Tom Brevoort was S.O.L.

* Another worthy read for the week: this Comics Alliance roundup with some bigger retailers speaking to how the $3.99 price point has affected sales. I'm still not convinced yet that that price is causing as much trouble as some speculate or even upsetting as many fans as you'd think, but I would bet it's exacerbating a situation already under the influence of maybe a half dozen factors. Still, getting the opinions of comic sellers out there is a pretty important part of the discussion.

* Everybody and their third cousin Alice has already linked to this, but in case you missed it: Mark Andrew Smith and Matthew Weldon's New Brighton Archaeological Society comic is now online in full. Also kudos to Brigid Alverson for getting Smith on the horn to essentially ask him what the hell he was thinking doing that.

* Holy fuck, Dash Shaw:


More at the official web site for "The Ruined Cast." (Via)

* This NY Times story about a "comics in court" exhibit at Yale was a fun example of how comics have continued to crossover into other parts of our culture. In an odd way, so was this pice of political reporting in the paper for its offhanded Stan Lee reference.

* Hey, speaking of the Times: here's another profile on my poor, proud hometown of Flint, Michigan.

* In more fun news, Topless Robot had a couple of fun lists up this week including "8 Superheroes That Turned Evil But Got Better" by my friend Eric Drumm and "The 10 Coolest G.I. Joe Ninjas" which was less entertaining to me and more like the kinda thing that makes you go, "I can't fucking believe there are ten G.I. Joe ninjas in a list and I can name at least two that got left off." Speaking of Topless Robot, props to site editor Rob Briken for making me laugh yesterday by ReTweeting this.

* Finally, yeah that Joaquin Phoenix thing was a gag. Fuck Roger Ebert, I guess?