Thursday Miscellany

- If you aren't keeping up with Boston.com's The Big Picture blog, you're missing out on some of the best photography in the world. They post a few themed sets each week (usually around 20-30 photos), and they're unifomly excellent. Wednesday's "Robots" was fascinating and a little creepy - what's up with #16 here?

- Talking to Lynda Barry for a few minutes at last year's MoCCA festival was practically a life-altering experience, and I was excited to listen to this interview she did with Canada's Radio One. I was less excited to see that Canada is still using RealAudio. I half expected to see "Hosted By GeoCities" at the bottom of the page.

- Get warmed up for tomorrow night's Battlestar Galactica with Todd VanDerWerff's take on last weeks' Starbuck-centered "Someone To Watch Over Me" over at The House Next Door. Todd's recaps are always insightful, so take some time to dig through the archives if you haven't read them before. [EDIT: His recap of last night's excellent, seventies-tastic Lost episode, "LaFleur," is up now too, so get thee there.]

- And here's Sean T. Collins on the same episode. (You really should be reading his blog too.)

- I've mentioned Josh Cotter's Skyscrapers Of The Midwest here before, and it's a book I'll probably never stop recommending. Cotter has been posting pages from his upcoming sketchbook project, Driven by Lemons, over on Comic Stripjoint, and shit be experimental (examples here, here, and here). Can't wait to see the finished product later this year. At this point, everything he publishes is a preorder for me. (I also bought an original Skyscrapers page from him a few weeks ago, and I'll get around to posting a photo of it one of these days.)

- Cartoonist/illustrator Craig Frazier has started a weekly contest called DraWords, and it's similar to the New Yorker's Caption Contest. Each week, Frazier will post a new drawing and accept captions up through Friday afternoon. This is supposed to go for about a year, after which the completed cartoons will be collected in a book. Winners will be credited on the site and receive a free copy of DraWords when it's published.

- I think any aspiring or practicing cartoonists out there should be reading Matt Bernier's Comic Tools blog. Before Bernier took over the reins, it was basically an interview blog where cartoonists discussed their methods and materials, but it's become an invaluable resource for information about tools and techniques. (I particularly liked this entry about the basics of inking with a brush.) The most recent post is kind of a catch-all, and it's got enough content to keep you busy for a month.

- Here's a fascinating animated GIF showing the steps, from rough pencils through inks and colors, of a commissioned piece by Rick Veitch (Army@Love, Swamp Thing, Bratpack). I love this stuff.

- Tired of people asking you questions when they could just as easily get the answer through Google? Give them a gentle hint.

- You got your Portal in my WordJong!

Oh, and I'm posting songs on Blip.fm again, so swing on by and give a listen sometime.

Okay, I have to get back to Peggle Dual Shot now.

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