As usual, a ton of disparate links have piled up while we were on the road.
§DC is teaming with the NBA for some licensed apparel, and the result is this fine piece of Photoshop craftsmanship.
§ This is old, but everyone was Tweeting it yesterdayL Nikki Cook’s advice to artists:
14. Before walking out of your hotel to a convention- stop and look in the mirror. Ask the following questions:
A. Have forgotten to bathe or shave today?
B. Does my shirt have a cuss word on it?
C. Are my clothes stained? Even a little?
D. Is my shirt made of silk and sold at hot topic? Any little dragons or spidermans on it?
E. Am I wearing a kilt?
F. Am I wearing cat ears and not being ironic?
G. Do I have gut leakage? (is my belly waving hello from under my tshirt)
H. Can I see my underpants or tits?
I. Am wearing sweatpants?
§ A lot of people were shocked by this interview with Al Columbia, which seemed to suggest that he had been plagued by mental illness at some point; apparently those people weren’t following Columbia’s career:
No, not anymore. But it happened for a good three-year period, about three or four years ago, where I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t work on anything. I almost couldn’t function properly in everyday life. I never knew when it would happen. Not only were they scary images, but there was a spiritual quality to it that made me feel like something was in jeopardy, something wasn’t right with me.
§ The Nerdy Dozen of wrestling comics, including ones by John Byrne and Marv Wolfman.
§ A preview of the second issue of the Euro anthology Solipsistic Pop.
§ Kai-Ming Cha digs into the roots of the scanlation smackdown:
This is also the way I feel after reading some of the comments on the discussion thread at Anime News Network and Japanator. One thing that technology has done – aside from tearing down borders, bringing everything foreign much closer to home, and democratizing information, is that it’s built this “free” experience that’s really only free for some. It’s free for you if you’re consuming it, but it’s not free if you’re the person making it. So essentially, the democratization of information is about privileging one side of the equation – the consumer side. So instead of a global economy, what we’re really left with is a sense of global entitlement.
§ Brigid Alverson also pushes back
This is hilarious on many levels, from the misuse of “it’s” (no apostrophe in the possessive—don’t they teach that in law school?) to the fact that what MangaXXX is doing is in fact prohibited, not protected, by the DMCA, to the mere idea that a site that consists almost entirely of stolen content would attempt to take legal action against anyone who stole their “original work.”
§ Ruth Marcus on our shrinking attention span…
As Carr writes, “I can feel it too. Over the last few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going — so far as I can tell — but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think.” Trying to read a book, he says, “my concentration starts to drift after a page or two. . . . I feel like I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the test.”
Nice play, putting the article on shrinking attention spans last. Now none of us will ever read it.
Just a quick note, the basketball Superman image isn’t photoshopped. Dwight Howard actually wore that during a slam dunk competition.
Beat me to it, John. And I thought I’d be the only NBA guy hanging around the nerd water cooler.
How does Al Columbia live? I mean (not that it’s any of my business, mind you) his output is legendarily slow, even though in that article it states he draws/writes from sun up to sun down. He must be independently wealthy or something…
“…you returned in 1994 with The Biologic Show. What prompted you to do those two issues?
…I did it without any idea that someone would publish it… But I sent it to Kim Thompson [at Fantagraphics], and he said he’d publish it. I wish I’d done a better job…”
THAT alone explains so much about his output. I mean, to me Biologic Show is a masterpiece. And HE wishes he’d done a better job!?! Man, he needs to cut himself some major slack. If I could get such “hackneyed work” from Al Columbia as Biologic Show was on a regular basis, I’d be an extremely happy man! Sigh…
Yeah H, that’s from like the….I think 2008 slam dunk contest, where he actually took off his jersey and wore the cape and all. ;D