On HU

Featured Archive Post: Jason Michelitch on Eddie Campbell’s After the Snooter.

Me on how Peter Jackson is too twitchy and so made Frodo paranoid and stupid.

Alex Buchet with a survey of the cartoons of G.K. Chesterton.

Ng Suat Tong on how the EC Comics are still not very good despite Eddie Campbell’s protests.

I compare Billie Holiday and Jack Kirby since Eddie Campbell asked me to.

Christopher Gavaler on the original Iron Man and other war machines.

Eddie Campbell on plot summaries and Nicki Greenberg’s graphic Hamlet.

Robert Stanley Martin explains why he prefers Eddie Campbell as a cartoonist to Eddie Campbell as a critic.

Jones, One of the Jones Boys pisses on Eddie Campbell from the heights of Mt. Parnassus.

Our weekly music sharing post features Uriah Heep’s Bird of Prey.

 
Utilitarians Everywhere

Bunch of articles at the Atlantic this week:

I confess that I’m a lazy parent.

I stage a cage match between Betty Friedan and Anne Bronte.

I ask why no one calls Beyonce is a genius.

I review Hitler’s Children, a documentary about the descendents of notorious Nazis.

At Splice Today I compare the shaming of Minami Minegishi of AKB48 to the shaming of Ann Wilson of Heart.

Also at Splice I review the soundtrack to Berberien Sound Studio.
 
Other Links
Apparently Wertham fudged his data.

Tom Spurgeon with a nice brief review of a T.Rex gag book.

Alan Jacobs on why he doesn’t like Watchmen.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy on rich girls and unpaid internships.

Laura Hudson on the (lack of) women in Star Wars.
 
This Week’s Reading
Kind of a crazy week; I didn’t manage to read much. Read this mediocre book about US involvement in Afghanistan that I’m supposed to be reviewing. And just started a collection of Anna Akhmatova’s poetry.
 

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Monika Bartyzel on Bella, Buffy, and Katniss.

Me on Jack Hill’s Switchblade Sisters and the feminist revolution.

Voices from the Archive: I express some skepticism about the excellence of Eddie Campbell’s prose.

Jacob Canfield reviews a bunch of student-run college comics publications.

Brian Cremins on the end of the Comics Buyer’s Guide and Matt Levin’s Walking Man comics.

I talk about gender in comics by Lilli Carré and Derik Badman.

Jog on why he writes the comics criticism he writes.

Bert Stabler asked folks to help him out with recommendations of comics for his high school art class.

Vom Marlowe reviews Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians.

Our weekly shared music post features Wax Audio’s amazing mashup “Stayin’ Alive in the Wall.”
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I wrote about Azzarello’s violent, man-pandering Wonder Woman.

Also at the Atlantic I talk about noir and misogyny and Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects.

At Splice Today I explain that Matthew Houk is not as cool as Johnny Cash, and that he should really shut up.

Also at Splice I write about the ambience of pop and the pop of ambience.

Other Links

Alyssa Rosenberg talks about video games and the violent fantasies of the gun lobby.

Carly Lewis suggests that men stop writing celebrity profiles of women.

Helen Rittelmeyer on less sex and more God at Yale.

Russ Smith speculates on personnel changes at TNR.

A short piece on the state of video games.

Jadehawk on whether there will be sex work in the feminist utopia.

C.T. May sneers at House of Cards.
 
This Week’s Reading

Finished Carol Ann Harris’ Fleetwood Mac tell-all memoir; read Franklin Einspruch’s Comics as Poetry anthology; read the Azzarello/Chiang second volume of Wonder Woman; just started Anne Bronte’s Agnes Grey.
 

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Ng Suat Tong on original comics art and a nostalgia for racism.

I talk about Irish music and authenticity.

Voices from the Archive: Matt Thorn on Kirby and the world outside his skull.

Bert Stabler on the new free Chicago comics issue of Lumpen.

Emma Vossen kicks off a short Twilight roundtable by explaining why you should hate Twilight hate memes.

I argue that Edward is a male variation on the manic pixie dream girl.

Peter Sattler wonders what reading influenced Kirby (Charles Hatfield, Jeet Heer, and James Romberger weigh in, among many.)

Mette Ivie Harrison on Bella as a Mormon Goddess.

Charles Reece ends our twilight roundtable with a whimper, as he explains why he hated the series too much to write about it.

We had the first of what may be a regular music sharing post…so let us know what you’ve been listening to if that appeals.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I got to write about the great romance of Charlotte and Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice.

At the Atlantic I argue that geeks are not necessarily bullied for being geeks (but instead for reasons involving class and gender.)

At the Loyola Center for Digital Ethics I write about the ethics of scanlation.

At Splice Today I argue that US employers are crippled by their hatred of workers.

Also at Splice I talk about the great gospel duo The Consolers.
 
Other Links

Eleanor Barkhorn on not overselling marriage.

Amanda Marcotte argues that my feminist argument against women in combat is wrong.

The American Conservative on right-wing copyleft.

Miss Universe national costumes.

This story about being out with HIV made me cry.
 
This Week’s Reading

I finished Sense and Sensibility, read for review a preview copy of Alex Sayf Cummings’ book about the history of music piracy, Democracy of Sound, and started Elmore Leonard’s Get Shorty…which is mediocre, but plugs along quickly. Also started Storms, Carol Ann Harris’ memoir of dating Lindsey Buckingham…which I may or may not finish….