Sorry I've been missing the past few weeks. Real-world stuff intruded, and I just couldn't put the serious time surfing the Internet to get a link-post up! It's hard work, people!

COMICS!

Tom Scioli writes about Gødland. The full article is here. The final issue comes out in November. I can't wait!

Speaking of Tom Scioli, here he reviews some random comics. It's pretty fun.

You may have already seen This Charming Charlie, which takes Smiths lyrics and puts them in the mouths of "Peanuts" characters, but there's the link. I saw this on Robot 6.

Here's an interesting post about the recent kerfuffle over McFarlane, Conway, and Wein's statements about comics and diversity. It's a bit all over the map, but it's still a cool post.

Speaking of which, here's some commentary about comics not leading society. Oh, comics - why don't you do more????

SPORTS!

Some dude took it upon himself to invent the saddest sport in history. I don't know - it sounds pretty keen.

This is also a political story, but I'll put it here: Gay athletes might be arrested at the Sochi Olympics next year. I have to say, if I were a gay athlete, I would flaunt it to force the Russians to arrest me. I don't really think a boycott is in order, but I would love to see the Russians arrest some athletes from other countries and maybe an NBC person or two who dares to speak about the situation. Fight the power!

POP CULTURE!

Here are all of Troy McClure's movie/TV/promotional posters. Man, remember when The Simpsons was good?

If Troy McClure wasn't enough, here are posters of movies mentioned on Seinfeld (via here). Man, Deathblow still cracks me up.

Tuesday was Alfred Hitchcock's birthday, so here's a supercut of every Hitchcock cameo in all his films, from 1927 to 1976. Some of them are blink-and-you'll-miss-them, but it's a pretty cool reel.

This isn't really a comics story, and it's more "high" culture than pop culture, but what the heck: Here's a nice interview with Joshua Hagler, creator of The Boy Who Made Silence, one of my favorite comics of the past decade. It's very sad that Hagler probably won't ever finish the comic, but he's doing well in his other ventures!

Here's a list of the best times people on Facebook thought the Onion was real. Awesome.

So, Prince started tweeting.

I know other dictionaries have done this, and authors have done it for years, but it's still a sign of civilization's collapse, as Google now defines "literally" to mean both "literally" and "figuratively". God, it's depressing.

One day this week, I was kind of sucked into Cracked.com, which is never a good thing. But I did find a list of five pieces of scary art, so there's that.

Also on Cracked.com, here are some true stories about movie locations. It's pretty keen.

In the greatest casting call in history, if you're a "male frat bro" with "keg stand experience," CBS wants you!

You know you're always up for some Jennifer Lawrence .gifs, right?

In case you missed it, Lisa Robin Kelly of That '70s Show died this week. She's been having a rough time of it for years, and unfortunately it's not too surprising it ended like this.

Should kids' movies build self-esteem? Point and counterpoint. The first post makes good points but gets some weird things absolutely wrong, which weakens the argument a bit, unfortunately.

Here's a list of Chinese signs that got lost in translation. I love stuff like this, because it points up the weirdness of idioms in languages that make them difficult to translate.

For your bibliophiles (that includes all of us, right): 16 bookstores to see before you die. I've actually been to one (1) of them, so I'm on my way!

Robin Thicke has sued Marvin Gaye's family. Wait, what? Here's more to the story. So, he's suing because they said his songs sound like Marvin Gaye's but they haven't actually sued him yet? Man, that's cold, Robin Thicke. If you think you haven't plagiarized it, then challenge them to sue you and prove you have! On a related point, I haven't actually heard "Blurred Lines" yet. I consider myself lucky.

John Oliver finished his guest-hosting duties on The Daily Show this week (and he did a damned fine job, except for some of the interviews), and so we get all of his excuses for Jon Stewart's absence. Funny stuff!

POLITICS (THE WEIRD KIND) AND SOCIETY!

You have to respect the Arizona family that tried to sail to Kiribati because they don't like the U.S. anymore. They didn't make it and they seem a bit wacko, but for all the people who claim they're going to move out of the country because their candidate doesn't get elected, these people are the first I've heard who actually did it.

Have you heard about the Tennessee judge that summarily changed a baby's name from Messiah to Martin? Man, that's weird. I think weird baby names are cruel, but is it really the judge's jurisdiction to state in a court that "messiah" should only be applied to Jesus?

According to Rush Limbaugh, if you believe in God, you can't believe in man-made climate change. I listened to this entire thing, and it makes no sense to me whatsoever. I mean, a lot of what Limbaugh says makes no sense, but at least I understand the actual argument even if it's crazy. This, however, I can't even parse.

You may have read that Orson Scott Card decided to write something political, and the Internet noticed. I saw the story about it, which provided a link to the original essay. I really like Card's books - well, most of them - and it's really sad that he's so cray-cray. I get that his essay is a "thought experiment," but he's really gone 'round the bend. Obama can barely get his own party to agree with him, and in the next three years he's going to take over the country? Really, Mr. Card?

I'm sure you've heard about San Diego's creepy mayor, and now, the ultimate indignity: Hooters won't serve him. The best part? Hooters believes that "women should be treated with respect." Bwah-ha-ha-ha!

WHINY NOSTALGISTS!

Guess what? Technology is killing childhood! Yes, it's horrible. If only these kids today had Pong to keep them busy. Or, you know, parents who told them to stop using that technology all the time. Woe, woe!

CIVILIZATION IS DOOMED!!!!

Well, it looks like Arizona is running out of water faster than everyone thought. Yay, lack of water! I've always wondered why the Southwest states don't have a better water policy in place, but they don't, and it's slowly coming back to bite them in the ass. Perhaps they shouldn't allow so many golf courses in the middle of the fucking desert, but what the hell do I know, right? Anyway, I hope we'll be out of here when the state actually does run out of water. It could get ugly!

On that cheery note, I'll wrap up. I hope you have a nice day!