Random Thoughts

Unlike Elayne, I quite like useless statistics, and I enjoyed seeing where people are hitting my page from. So I added OneStat and eXTReMe Tracker to my already much used Site Meter. To my surprise, I already found a new blog that referred to me that didn't show up on Site Meter but did show on the other two. So I think I'll keep 'em.

The new blog Down In The Mucky-Muck, is good, if a little standard for comics bloggers... then again, Mick Martin just mentioned that he's about to be an uncle, and that's a cool little bit. And hey, despite one of his "likes", he also enjoys Astro City and Hellboy, so he can't be all that bad.

A note on linking... I link to sites I want to read. Nothing more, nothing less. If you want to link to me, cool. I don't promise a return link, but I'm far more likely to notice you. Same goes for me: I don't expect a return link if I link to your blog. I'm linking to you so I can read you.

I know some of my readers might be surprised, but I agree 100% with this editorial. Yeah, I read stuff that is, by his definition, conventional. But I also like to try new things and take risks. It's too bad more publishers aren't willing to take a few risks to try something different. Via Neilalien.

Because I've been sick and apparently not reading blogs completely for a few days, I seem to have completely missed the start of Sean Collins coverage of a re-read of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. So, to catch you up, here's the first entry, up through "about a third of Three Is Company", the second entry, up through A Conspiracy Unmasked, and the third entry, up through Fog on the Barrow-Downs. Good stuff, recommended.

I think Alan David Doane is pulling people's leg with his "best superhero cover of the last decade". Those might possibly be the ugliest colors on a cover I've seen any time in the recent (or distant) past, and there is nothing even slightly appealing about the portrait look of characters. The JLA/Avengers #3 cover he mentions, despite being a wee bit on the crowded side, is light-years ahead of that ugly boring thing he says is best. If he's not kidding, I think his sense of what a cover should be is just too foreign for me to understand. See, I thought a cover was supposed to make people want to pick a book up and see what's inside, not make them want to rip it off and throw it away so they don't have to look at it.

Just for laughs, here's a couple of covers that I think are significantly better than that thing ADD posted (maybe he's going to switch it out with something that actually looks good once enough people respond). I freely admit that these aren't likely to be the best of the last decade by a longshot:

I've gotten odd comments on my blog before, but nothing like Geek and Proud's comment. I think I'm jealous.

Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all time. Four of the top ten are the Beatles. Why doesn't this surprise me at all? Via The Modulator.

I like Neil Gaiman's description of man-writing-novel and misplacing the rest of his mind.

Legomancer rehashes why The Dark Knight Strikes Again sucks after reading a positive review of it. Yeah, I'm pretty much with him on this one.

Fascinating post on DC Comics ad pages by the ever interesting Jim Henley. Ok, it's interesting if you are interested in such things.