Ahh, Sunday afternoons. Come home from church, put some sausage on the griddle, ignore your wife and children, and enjoy some links with your links. Here's what happened on the comics internet in the past week.

ITEM! Abhay, prince of internet comic reviews, unleashes another brilliant piece on Savage Critics, "reviewing" a bunch of stuff he pulled out of a box, and comparing it to today's comics atmosphere. New Abhay is always good Abhay. To wit:

When I first got into DC Comics, everyone in them was a middle-aged failure at life. The Suicide Squad was all about Amanda Waller, an aging, widowed, morbidly obese bureaucrat. The Secret Origins story of Cave Carlson ends with one of Cave Carlson’s sidekicks, years after their adventures together, homeless and in a wheelchair, begging for change. The Atom was divorced, after he’d caught his wife cheating on him in the back of a Chevy. Captain Atom had a dead wife and kids he couldn’t relate to. The Swimmer would go from swimming pool to swimming pool, fighting crime. I don’t really understand DC characters any other way, I guess. DC books don’t make any sense to me, anymore.

IRATE! J. Caleb Mozzocco reviews Grant Morrison's afterword to Mark Waid's new series, Irredeemable, and finds it wanting. He also stole my bit; I was totally going to do this.

Irredeemable #1 is an over-priced mediocre, unoriginal comic book completely lacking in anything you haven’t seen before which just so happens to be written by a pretty great super-comic writer. It features pretty decent artwork and a depressing woe-are-us afterword by a guy who makes one of the smartest writers in superheroes look like a complete putz.

ATOM! Todd Allen predicts comics' armageddon event! Print is dying! Comics are dying! Dogs and cats, living together! Other Venkman quotes!

The end game sees a significant reduction in the number of direct market outlets, another chunk removed from the crumbling newsstand market and a shift to TPB’s and the Internet. On second tier titles, at least for DC and Marvel, between shifting resources due to price hikes, switching to digital and general decreases in disposable income associated with a recession, you might see circulation decreases of 50%.

At what point does it just not make sense to produce monthly comics?

EDAM! Two cool fellows bring us the comical adventures of Strunk & White. Beware: English major humor!

IHOP! Reader Ian A. sent me this link to Evan Shaner's DeviantArt page. Gorgeous art, featuring OMAC, Dick Tracy, gorillas, Beta Ray Bill, Miles Davis, and the almighty Din Dang Doom? I need to make comics with this man.

IPOD! Blog@ tells us that an early copy of the Wolverine movie has leaked to the internets. And the pirates think it sucks. Download it while it's hot!

IDOL! Warren Ellis reveals that John Cassaday has finished drawing Planetary #27. It might actually come out this year! Fingers crossed, everyone.

IBID! This week's Remake/Remodel at Ellis' Whitechapel is sci-pulp adventurer The Bat! Here's lx's contribution. Copyright him, and all that:

IPANEMA! Tim O'Neil tells us how it is when he matches up the Batman and the Doctor (of "Who" fame) to find out who the universe's best hero is. A good spot of fun from The Hurting.

I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM! I can't tell if Devil's Due's announcement of a Barack the Barbarian ongoing series is an April Fool or not. Is that a bad sign in today's comics climate? I've been waiting for someone to try to capitalize on Obamarama in a larger way. This is almost as good as the President becoming a member of Youngblood! But this has to be a joke. It just has to be. I mean... Look at it:

I-CHING! Mightygodking's Chris Bird is at it again, this time sharing his ideas for a hypothetical Doctor Strange run. The first one is here.

IBEX! The Aquaman shrine hosts a Fred Hembeck comic strip ditty that combines two of my favorite things. I bet you can guess what they are.

Unfortunately, we end on a serious note this week:

R.I.P. Andy Hallett, a.k.a. the singing demon Lorne on Angel, died of heart failure, only 33 years old. This is devastating. From all accounts, he was one of the nicest men alive, and he played my favorite character on one of my favorite shows. This is just too damn young to die of heart disease; I'd heard of his condition but didn't know it was this severe. He will be seriously missed.