349 - Marvel/DC Continued

1. Episode Six

2. Episode Seven

3. Episode Eight

4. Episode Nine

5. Episode ten

337 - with Links!

1. Back in Black Here's an interesting story about how a Marvel Comic reader, Randy Schueller, through a contest with a relatively small prize, wrote the basic story which led to the popular black suit which was a main dramtic component of the Spider-man comics for many years and features heavily in the new, blockbuster movie. Schueller doesn't seem very bitter about the situation, but I can't help but feel these are reletively poor business ethics, from a company making millions on stories mainly about the ethics of heroism.

2. Sketch Swap Use your mouse to create a masterpiece and then send it on for someone else to enjoy. In return, you will recieve a drawing as well. When you see how good the picture you recieve is, you'll be ashamed of the half-assed attempt you made.

3. Kosbees After his run-in with the lawyers of Bill Cosby because of his Channel 101 series, the House of Cosbys, Jusin Roiland is apparently back at it with his new show on VH1's Acceptable TV. By the way, does anyone watch this show? Admittedly, I don't watch a lot of VH1, but I don't think I've seen a single ad for it anywhere on television.

4. Hand, Hand, Finger, Thumb A tattoo that is incredibly awesome and yet somewhat repulsive at the same time.

5. Plupon Add three numbers for a sum in a multiple of ten before too many numbers reach the bottom of your screen, and turn your volume down because the sound effects are high pitched and overly loud.

304 - Advertising

1. Reality I'm sure everyone knows that restaurant advertisements don't do a very ethical job of depicting the reality of what is being advertised. A self proclaimed "Pulitzer-caliber project" puts the advertisers to the test with side by side comparisons. Surprisingly, the actual products from McDonald's look pretty similar to the ad photos, the KFC one is terrible. Anyone associated with it should be ashamed..

2. Speaking of Ads This collection of ads for novelty products from the back of vintage comic books could probably go on forever. They used to sell some really awesome stuff. One correction: Those Kryptonite Rocks weren't just painted green, they also glowed in the dark. I know, I had them.

3. Design If you are interested in graphic design; take a look at this series of short documentaries about some of the most promising independent designers working today. I'm especially partial to the work of Andy Mueller at Ohio Girl.

4. Serve and Protect Advising drivers to slow down via a roadside letterboard, and cheating the municipality out of revenue at the same time.

5. Classifieds Real ads from the classified section of the newspaper. It’s like a Jay Leno segment, only funny.

277 - with Links!

1. Chatroom User: Dead The death of his father, the dissolution of his marriage, and a recent debilitating car accident all conspired to send Kevin Whitrick into a deep depression. Mr Whitrick decided to take his own life. However, he wasn't content to keep his death anonymous. Whitrick logged onto a popular internet chat room, plugged in his webcam and proceeded to hang himself live via streaming video. This is the fist incidence of "cyber-suicide" in the UK, although a young American performed a similar act in 2003. I'm not going to look for the video of Kevin Whitrick's suicide, but I'd imagine it is out there if you really want to see it.

2. Chicken McButane I once read that the Chicken McNugget contains absolutely no food value. I think that was an exaggeration. Obviously, there is at least some chicken in them, so that's food, right? However, this guy claims that the nugget is 56% corn. I think he is playing with the fact a bit because he includes "ingredients...that can be derived from corn" such as corn-fed chickenas well as the chicken broth that comes from the afore mentioned corn-fed chicken. He also reports one very interesting ingredient that I doubt you'd really want to be eating; butylhydroquinone, supposedly a form of butane. That's right, lighter fluid. Considering his assertation that chicken is derived from corn, it seems the author has a pre-existing bias against McDonalds. Maybe the butane issue shouldn't go unchallenged.

3. 11 Spring The building at Eleven Spring Street has been a sort of Mecca for street artists for decades. Although their work wasn't really sanctioned, no one ever bothered to remove the layers of graffiti that continued to appear on the building's walls. When the building was purchased by a property developer, the story could have come to an end. However, the developer, Caroline Cummings, recognized the significance of the building and decided to allow a huge street art display in the building prior to remodeling.. Dozens of artists from around the world traveled to New York to be a part of the exhibition.

4. Stormy Kromer After retiring from baseball, Stormy Kromer became a railroad engineer. The high winds whipping through the locomotive engine were constantly flinging the hats off of Stormy's head and then freezing his ears. On one particularly cold day, Stormy asked his wife to modify one of his old baseball caps to protect his ears and stay firmly in place. The modification was a huge success. In fact, it was so successful that Stormy began manufacturing hats for other engineers and for anyone else that need to stay warm though the long, cold winter. Over 100 years later the Stormy Kromer hat is still made according to the original design.

5. Watchmen I've wondered for a while now if it really necessary to make a movie out of Alan Moore's classic comic Watchmen. The project has jumped around from one filmmaker to another for years. Terry Gilliam (once attached as director) notably claimed that the comic was totally unfilmable. Others have suggested it would be best suited for a 12 part miniseries on HBO. After all these starts and stops it looks like Zack Snyder is actually going to get the movie made. After seeing Dawn of the Dead, which I loved, I still was doubtful. 300, on the other hand, made me feel a little more hopeful. It really seems like Snyder understands what makes the original comic great. Keep your fingers crossed.

266 - with Links!

1. 30 Dead People Neatorama runs down 30 of the most fascinating deaths in recorded history, including the drowning at a lifeguard party, Christine Chubbuck's live TV suicide, and the woman that electrocuted herself while demonstration how her sister had electrocuted herself.

2. Bob Spongee Small press comic book self publisher, Troy Walker, is trying to get 1.6 million dollars out of Nickelodeon for stealing his idea for a talking sponge that lives in a "house concept." I know a lot of people that live in house concepts. Maybe I can sue all of them for stealling my house concept idea.

3. Catch 33 I like a game so simple that its instruction manual doubles as its title. Catch 33, it's as simple as that.

4. 13 Things The author of this piece on scientific mysteries seems to think the lack of understanding should be embarrassing to science. In fact, unanswered questions are the entire point of science.

5. Candy Jones Is it a true story of a government abusive use of power and brain washing, a sad tale of mental illness, or a fictional conspiracy theory concocted by opportunists? The world may never know.

196 - with Links!

1. UFO Chicago Dozens of people, including airline employees and pilots, report seeing a large saucer shaped UFO hovering over Chicago's O'Hare Airport. It seems suspicious to me that, in this day and age, none of them had a cellphone with a camera feature.

2. The Top Ten Lamest Superheroes Actual heroes from the world of comic books including Vibe, the Spanish American, breakdancing, former gang leader who can create earthquakes with his awesome dance moves.

3. Don't Let Go The rules are simple: Hold the button! Whatever you do don't, stop holding the button.

4. Creationism: The Game You can guess by the name of the store, Living Waters, that this "Intelligent Design vs. Darwinism" board game is probably skewed toward the creationist player. What would the faithful do if the scientific player actually won the game?

5. The Slave Leia Appreciation Society An incredible flickr pool with nothing but pictures of nerd-girls wearing Princess Leia metal bikini outfits.

149 - with Links!

1. Punk-O-Matic This is a little more complicated than your average flash game/time waster, but once you get through the learning curve it is pretty fun to build generic punk rock songs.

2. Urban Sprinting They get away with stuff on foreign tv shows that would never fly in the United States.

3. Invisible The Glasswing Butterfly.

4. Afterlife in the Funnies David Lynch stole the basic concept of Mulholland Drive from a series of Garfield comic strips.

5. Rusty Narcolepsy and wiener dogs, what more could anyone want.

115 - with Links!

1. Lasik Again Studies show that having lasik surgery is actually safer than wearing contact lenses. So, if you are too vain to wear glasses, maybe you should consider taking the plunge.

2. Weird Scott I love mid-eighties homemade lip-synch videos, especially when they were made by people that I know.

3.Thorium Norwegian nuclear physicists have come up with a way to run reactors using the element thorium. The science is over my head, but it is reported to be a cleaner, safer, more efficient method than traditional nuclear energy production.

4. Lost City The remains of a recently discovered city underwater off the coast of India have been carbon dated to around 9000 BC, about 5000 years older than any know civilization. Of course much more research need to be done, but this discovery could totally screw up our ideas about human history.

5. The Nietzsche Family Circus "The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception."

061 - Comics - with Links!

1. Super Spy Matt Kindt's weekly spy thriller in online comic form. Available as an RSS feed and as a, likely unused, playstation portable format file.

2. DC Archive I'm not sure why they haven't been shut down yet. The Comic Books Archive is attempting to collect every comic book published by DC Comics published between 1936 and 1980. They are closing in on 3000 books and making them all available for download as CBR files

3. Happy Town Writer and artist, Justin Madson, has been self publishing the continuing adventures of the residents of a town where anything can happen since 2001. The first 12 issues were recently collected in two trade paperbacks.

4. Superman is a Dick He thinks he's better than you. He's cocky. He's a womanizer. And he's very often mean to Robin the Boy Wonder.

5. Working Hard Though I didn't think much of the sequels, the first Hutch Owen story is a perfect book. If you can find the original edition, buy it up right away. If you can't, then just read it online.

059 - with Links!

1. Bob Thaves: Dead Luckily, (at least for my dad, who loves Frank and Ernest) Bob's son, Tom, will be taking over the strip.

2. Graveyard Theatre A state-by-state breakdown of the late night horror show hosts and the programs they present, including the one I grew up with, The Son of Svengoolie. See what public domain movies are being shown in your market.

3. Drug vs. Drug A study from the U.K. reveals that ecstasy is far less dangerous than alcohol. Also take a look at how high tobacco ranks. Hmmm.

4. It Does a Body Good Seven hundred and nineteen people singing the praises of Tuscan Whole Milk.

5. What You Make It The debut issue of a new online zine featuring interviews with artists and designers making waves in the DIY world. A nice, quirky interface as well.

022 - with Links!

1. Syd Barrett: Dead One time my friends and I watched The Wizard of Oz while listening to Dark Side of the Moon. When the Pink Floyd album was done, A Faith No More record came on the CD changer. That worked out pretty well too. That was the only time I ever listened to Pink Floyd.

2. "Witty " Comics Easily make your own clip art comic strips like this one.

3. Crazy Skull After being electrocuted, the blood vessels in this guys head stopped supplying blood to the bones of his skull. Eventually, his skull died and fell apart. I guess that's the whole story. He's fine now. Don't bother clicking the link.

4. Desktop Trebuchet Clear and detailed directions for making a tiny trebuchet that you can bring with you to the tiny Renaissance Faire.

5. Hot Club de Paris Another English band without an album doing well. Sorry about the myspace business, I guess it is just an easy way for these guys to get some MP3s out.