When you drink a quart of blogwatch with your bacon and your eggs Kind of a killer when when when when when you walk the hundred miles to your baby and your baby has her daddy’s car…. Forager 23: Clarifies his remarks on comics and opera, gently hinting that I totally missed his point. Hey, call it a strong misreading, I’ve always been real into that Harold Bloom guy…? More comicsy stuff here. Mark Shea and Amy Welborn: Tag-team audience... Read more

THEN THATCHER SAYS, “I’M NOT YOUR SISTER–AND GET OUT OF MY SEAT!”: Cold War humor. Read more

TELL ME WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS. What does the rest of the world think of Americans? On Thursday you’ll get the next installment of “Judica Me Deus (Judge Me, O God)”–but for today, you just get this snapshot from an ongoing story I’m working on. The story is called Sleep of the Just. Someday, when I’m famous, you can say you contributed, if you criticize this bit! “Tight jeans. Fat people.” Mark laughs. “Fat people in tight jeans. … Casual... Read more

CREATURE FEATURE: Another spate of comics reviews! In alphabetical order: Astro City: “Tarnished Angel.” Good enough for government work. A serviceable and intermittently affecting look at what it means for a guy with superpowers to fail. Not so much my thing, but sweet in its ten-cent-noir-ish way. The Robert Mitchum-inspired pictures of the protagonist are especially fine. OTOH if I want to see superheroic failure, I’ll absolutely pick up New X-Men, where I can feed my Cyclops obsession. Creature Tech:... Read more

With no complications, Sixteen generations of mine, All blogwatching Nature, Until I arrived (with incredible style)… Forager 23: In the middle of something else, Forager drops a reference to comics writers as “librettists,” and a quickie comparison of comics and opera. I found that striking. Not sure if I completely go for it (I’m wildly non-visual and even less musical; pay attention to–in this order–character, dialogue, page layout, plot, pictures; and get a real kick out of at least one... Read more

“If you’ll excuse me, I have an eel to resurrect!” –Doug TenNapel, Creature Tech Read more

THE COMEDY OF ERRANDS. That’s what my day turned into. Totally unavoidable, work-stops-until-this-stuff-happens-type errands. So I’m a bit behind the eight-ball (although I have a spiffy new keyboard and mouse!). A bit more tomorrow; for now, why don’t you read this Volokh Conspirator’s post on agricultural subsidies? Told me some stuff I didn’t know, reignited my simmering loathing of these subsidies, and pointed me toward what looks to be an excellent NYT series. Tomorrow: comics, sex, maybe something on what... Read more

DOMINICAN CLIP ART! And more Reeves and Booster. Read more

Baby, better come back, maybe next week ‘Cause you see I’m on a blogwatch streak… Dappled Things: Rejoice in the Lord–and reject “spiritual” sullenness. Great reminder, well worth your time. Hit & Run: Political interrogations at the NYPD. Egregious. Mommentary vs. me on superheroes. I should say 1) I love both Raymond Chandler and Philip Marlowe; I was dissing, not the character or author, but the floridly sentimental bit of writing cited in the original anti-superheroes piece. 2) Still disagree... Read more

TECHNICAL QUERY: Hola. I’d like to start posting serial excerpts from short stories every week-ish, as below. This would push me to write more and also add a new element to the blog. However, I know the excerpt below is a) very long and b) uh, pungent. So I’d like to do that nifty thing you see on almost everyone else’s blog, where after the beginning of the post there’s a link labeled “more…” and when you click that link... Read more