Reaching out.

You know, I've gotten slightly insulated here at Quality Control. See those links on the right? I use about half of them. I don't know what it is... I'm kind of in control of my own hype more and more these days. I've learned to trust my instincts, and I've learned to explore the Diamond Previews catalogue like an ancient (dangerous) treasure cave. Newsarama, Comicon PULSE and CBR are all sites I used to hit every day - now it's closer to once a week.

So I miss things like Warren Ellis' new column for Comicon, "The Ministry". Where he complains about his health and discusses his writing process, it seems. Which smacks of the Bad Signal e-mails I used to enjoy so much. (I dropped myself from the list a while back after the deluge of e-mails about Warren's new cell phone.)

I also missed the new Mouse Guard preview that Newsarama put up. I'm not gonna read it - I'm already sold on this incredible fucking book and I'm kinda playing peek-a-boo until the next issue drops into my hands - but if you're still waffling, take a look. Really, you need to try this book. I'm not fucking around. Look.

I also missed out on the news that Neil Gaiman is involved in a film version of Charles Burns' Black Hole. Which sounds like a fair match, to me. I read the hardcover collection earlier this year and what really impressed me about the book was its unwillingness to meet my expectations. The slithering, snake-like evasiveness of its structure seems like just the sort of thing Gaiman would like and respect about it, so I'll look forward to a sound translation.

I've got a few bloggers I check in on pretty often, and my man Zilla is one of them. Zilla reminds me I'm off my game this week by reviewing Fear Agent #3, which really kicked me in the balls. Fear Agent has really grown into itself with this issue, and both Rick Remender and Tony Moore are bringing their best work now. Exciting, stupid fun, and top-notch in all regards. Good catch, Zilla.

Jen Contino reminds us that the Isotope mini-comic award submissions deadline looms, so as I said: let's bring it, California. Stop being such a bunch of hystrionic pussies. Put down the mirror and make some fucking comics.

Speaking of the Isotope, James recently helped announce the coming of Skyscrapers of the Midwest #3, which is awesome. The first two issues of Josh Cotter's excellent book both completely broke my heart, in that way that actually feels kinda good (no, I know that sounds gothy and gay as fuck, but seriously, it's great - I swear, you'll never see a Jhonen Vasquez review here at Quality Control). So I'm glad to hear I can expect more as "Love, broken toys, bloody noses, and giant robots abound in this new heart-breaking issue."



Great fucking news.

I also wanna thank Photobucket for cleaning up their shit. It's much easier for my sorry-ass dial-up using self to use now.