* Dan Nadel reviews the Dave Stevens bio Brush With Greatness and in the process comments on Stevens' work as well: "Stevens made a conscious choice to marginalize himself, to live within the bubble of fandom. He was a willful anachronism, frustrated by his chosen intellectual and artistic world but unable or unwilling to see beyond it."

* A la Casey Kasem, Tom Spurgeon counts down (or really, up) the top 10 best comic series of all time. Quick, before you click on the link: can you guess what number one is based on this quote? "Three generations of American adults not only read some excellent comics in this magazine, they saw a great deal of an age-stratified pop culture through its lenses."

* Speaking on Radio Canada International, novelist Miguel Syjuco offered an early (and, I think, first) review of Seth's new book, George Sprott (click on the first part of the program link. It's around the 12-minute mark).

* Steve Duin (who really, you should be reading regularly) has some nice things to say about Fantagraphics' new collection of Nell Brinkley cartoons.

* The Jog/Tucker Stone review rundown of DC/Humanoids titles continues. For those keeping score they just finished talking about Enki Bilal.

* Graeme McMillan eviscerates that second half of Neil Gaiman's two-part Batman story.

* Shaenon K. Garrity writers about her trip to Japan and how exactly she ended up there.

* Rob Clough reviews Miss Lasko-Gross' A Mess of Everything.

* Derik Badman continues his look at Tezuka's Phoenix series with a look at Volume 8.

* Kinukitty gets global with her yaoi coverage by looking at In the End, a German-made manga.