From observation I think this is the difference between grownups who have children and those who don't.

Tom Lennon updates his seminal 2001-ish article about Alejandro Jodorowski's <em>Metabarons</em> series to mark the publication of the final book. Contains the phrase "buggier-than-batshit craziness"

A very long chat with O'Neill about all manner of things, most pressingly the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Makes me wanna read Asterix again...

BBC article on news that the National Library of Scotland is to start archiving 70 years of fanzine activity. The photo shows copies of Zum! and Caption, which is nice but implies the contents boxes piled up behind my wardrobe may contain a fair amount of duplicates. Still, when the time comes that I'm ready to rid myself of this precious load it's good to know sending them Chris Atton is an option.

One for the 90s small press comics people (and anyone else interested, of course). Jason Cobley has collected his favourite strips from his Bulldog comic into a 200 page book which he's selling through Lulu. Garen Ewing has the details and his personal history with the character and publication.

Notable because most of them are illustrated by Hunt Emerson.

Two foolhardly nerdlings decide to read all three hundred issues of Cerebus at a rate of one a week and write extensively about them, an endeavor which ill last about five years. I celebrate such insanity and will be watching with interest. <i>via <a href="http://rhbfictions.blogspot.com/2009/01/cerebus-diablog-1-issue-down-299-to-go.html">Rich B</a></i>

John Allison's annual roundup of music he liked. (Nice to see a music roundup at the <i>end</i> of the year and not in October or something silly.)

In which Russ L writes a nice blog post about books and somehow Jez turns the comments into a rant about Garfield and then I join it and try to explain the rules of good comic strips. Meanwhile Russ L is presumably bemused and amused by this behaviour.

A lot of these are design classics. I have a personal fondness for those in the 30's but that's because it's when I became a regular reader. <i>via <a href="http://mondoagogo.com/2008/10/21/love-amp-rockets-covers/">Mondoagogo</a></i>

Shane Simmons' Longshot Comics was one of the great gems of the 90s. Good to see he's still at it with these short movie adaptations.

A history of the Lord Taco-Puss, the grossest of cats from Diesel Sweeties. Nice use of the archive as blog fodder.

With the movie about to completely miss the point, Tom Spurgeon asks his readers to define the seminal comic in a few sentences. Some good stuff in there. I like Matthias Wivel's explanation:

"Fundamentally it is about what all Alan Moore's comics are about: Order. The sense that there is a structure to the universe, and to existence, and how this structure starts in ourselves and determines our perception of the world. Moore exemplifies this in the meticulous structure of the comic itself, but also in the character of Dr. Manhattan who perceives the order we can only intuit.

"The conflict of the story arises from the way the individual deals with it, and the main characters each make their own choices: The Comedian absolves himself and becomes amoral, Ozymandias wants to control it, Rorschach has lost faith in it, Dan and Julie chose to make their way within it, and Dr. Manhattan stands back. The play's the thing."

Jason Lutes' superb novel about life in Germany between the wars reaches it's second volume, coming out later this month. Been waiting for this for years and am sure it'll be worth it.

An ongoing jam comic featuring, amongst others, D'Israeli, Craig Conlan and Woodrow Phoenix. The blog format isn't ideal for reading but I think it'll be worth the effort given the talents involved.

This is interesting, I think. A lot of noise occurred when Stevens was one of the first web cartoonists to get a newspaper deal on his own terms. Now he's quitting papers and sticking to his online business. You can't necessarily translate his experience to others as he has his own thing going on, but...

Mark Kermode interviews Jamie Hewlett

Finally got my copy of the new-ish League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book. While a thrilling read on its own this wonderfully anal guide adds depth and plenty of it.

Abadzis is "doing a Posy" it seems with his serialization in The Times. Fortunately you don't have to support Murdoch as he's archiving them on his site. Bruton has the linkage. Oh, and it's rather super!

Interview concludes covering psychogeography, his novels, very early work appearing online and other stuff.

Been a while since someone let the magnus ramble on about stuff for hours and then transcribed it. Always a pleasure.

I'm working through my copy now and have to agree it's one of the best books I've read in a long time. Fantastic stuff.

Lovely collection of illustrations of Marvel Superheroes who used to smoke in the good old days.