Andy points to Comic Books: The One That Hooked Me! (where it was good to see Carla Speed McNeil).

For me, it was pretty much the, as I referred them at the time, "big, thick comic books" — Origins and Son of Origins of Marvel Comics — that a slightly older neighbor had, and I would read when we visited or cat-sat. I had no idea who some of those characters were, how everything all fit together (because, really, most of those stories presupposed some sort of knowledge of the current [ca. 1974] Marvel universe). Still, I couldn't get enough.

To be honest, was a little disappointed in the latest issue of The Infinite Horizon; waited a while for it and it seemed to kind of fall into the trap I was worried the whole series would, that of just kind of having fun with reinterpreting classical stories to a modern (well, future) setting. It was still done really well, but lacked a certain momentum that previous issues had. Plus, the art felt more…polished, I guess would be the best term. Though subsequent research shows that not too much is different, I felt it lacked a some of the raw immediateness that helped set the tone.

However, the new Hawksmoor series is an unexpected pleasure. Monica originally picked it out because of the art, very loose and marker rendering-like. The first issue started out slow and grabbed me at the end; the second issue, kind of the same. It's shaping up to be an LA noir kind of detective story (odd, 'cause it's so very much set in San Francisco) with a superhero kind of angle, managing to sidestep a lot of the Authority baggage.

Some real Eisner — VCU's collection of his post-WWII Army work, selections at BibliOdyssey. Via Coudal.

Maybe it is just as well.

… and the April jam, How We Defeated Hitler.

Gail Simone on writing: "When I'm building a character I really like to go back to ground one. That comes back to choreographing fight scenes and stuff — how would somebody like Wonder Woman fight compared to someone like Doctor Psycho? They have completely different worldviews and completely different upbringing. One has some handicaps and disabilities, the other one has what we perceive as all the gifts she could possibly have ..." Some good stuff in there.

A little post-Earth Day message at Treeless Squirrel, via Jett.

Raised By Squirrels 1.12 now available! When last we left Rose and Tyler, he had a plan to turn the fiasco at Reginald's to their advantage. But how will it stand up to opposition? Download the first issue of the new arc and find out.

News, news, news. We've got the March 7000 BC jam, Barfight With Knives! posted, and should have the April one up soon. They're both going to be included in a new regular (monthly, hopefully) mini-comic anthology that 7000 BC will be producing, showing off work from members. The first two are off at the printer now — and #1 has the first installment of a new story with Jamie featuring the further adventures of some of the Death, Cold As Steel characters; #2 has that Target story that Marc's working on the rest of now. And Monica's coloring the next issue of Raised By Squirrels right now.

The rough cut of The Spirit trailer is much more Sin City than Albuquerque. Update: I think Ragnell puts it best.

Joe Simon on creating Captain America and what happened after.

On Marketplace Weekend, a day in the work life of a comic store manager, featuring Brandon from Austin Books — a major supporter of and host for the pre-party for STAPLE!.

Hm. McSweeney's presents Michael Chabon's Spider-Man 2 script. Available as a PDF. Downloaded for further examination.

Via Raph, the American Flagg! Cover Gallery.

Thanks to the ISB's earlier post, I've already ordered my copy.

Here we go with another ridiculous Mad fold-in! Interactive fold-ins, in honor of Al Jaffee's 400th. Via Adland.

Kind of a nice pairing with that NYT article below: blast-door art.

Timbuk2, the makers of my awesome messenger bag (except for that one design flaw), are capitalizing on that oh-so-clever MacBook Air ad* with a sleeve that looks like an envelope.

* I tend to imagine the creative team working on the ad, sitting around a conference table staring at the new computer, wracking their brains trying to come up with a killer idea. And then the intern walks in with an interoffice envelope…

The logos of the "black" budget programs.