Catching Up...

I've been neglecting the blog (and almost everything else) a bit lately while I try to get ready for San Diego and make sure everything at the store is done so I can take what amounts to a week off. One of those things is catching up on my email and responding, usually embarrassingly late, to friends and acquaintances, and discovering things that I really ought to link to. So this is mostly a links post.

First off, just for the record, I went and saw The Dark Knight at a midnight screening at the Alamo Drafthouse. I was really impressed by the trailers for Watchmen and Quantum of Solace, and I loved the movie. Over two hours long, and it never bothered me. I was a skeptic on Batman Begins, I still have some issues with it, major and minor, so I didn't really expect to love this one as much as I did. But it's awesome. Heath Ledger is amazing, there are some great action set-pieces, Aaron Eckhart is fantastic as Harvey Dent, Gary Oldman gets to play Gordon in a way that I liked a whole lot more than his somewhat goofy turn in Begins, Bale and Morgan Freeman are terrific, Maggie Gyllenhall brings some nice weight to Rachel Dawes, there are several great twists and turns... it's not the best adaptation of Batman to the screen (that's still Batman: The Animated Series and Mask of the Phantasm), but it was pretty amazing. Maybe even better than Iron Man, although I go back and forth on that, since Iron Man was so much fun, and this one is more of a dark, harrowing movie.

Anyway, on to the linkblogging:

Ryan Claytor of Elephant Eater Comics is making another driving tour across the country, starting in San Diego at Comicon and then getting back to his new home in Michigan. He's going to stop at a bunch of comic shops along the way, and if you're on that route, you should stop in and see him and pick up his comics, as they're really good. You can see the route and more about the tour at his website.

This one's from Chip Mosher, and it's worth heading over to Boom! Studios to see what all they're getting up to in San Diego and beyond: