Megan Purdy

Awesome Kickstarter Indiegogo of the Week!

The Batman Chronicles is an original, live action, web series, produced by fans, not DC Comics. A young Batman battles the Red Hood Gang and meets his forever lover nemesis. You’ve got 27 days left to contribute, if the trailer and pitch tickle your fancy.

Cool Thing of the Week!

It’s a motion comic! Without motion!

Ok, it’s a motion comic without animation, but plenty of motion. Edsen Oda does all the work of making the panels of his comic come to life. And it’s a gritty fantasy-Western, which is a guarantee of my attention.

News

• Just A Few Isolated Incidents, gtz: This timeline looks back on the many, many isolated incidents of sexism in gaming in 2012. It’s spectacular.
• Here They Are–The Best Comics of 2013!, Erik Henriksen (Wired).
• Warren Ellis Returns to Comics for Scatterlands with Jason Howard, Steve Morris (The Beat): Whoa, whoa, whoa. Will this be Amazing Ellis, or Paycheck Ellis?
• 6 minute sci-fi short earns student Hollywood movie pitch, Mathew Humphries (Geek.com):
• Batmobile sells for $4.2 million, David Schwartz (The Star): Neeeeerrrrrrd.
• Parker‘s Michael Chiklis Goes Toe-To-Toe With Jason Statham, Keri Luna (Spinoff Online): Yeah, they’re making another Parker movie (Payback is the other Parker movie, you philistine). Yeah, it’s gonna be terrible. At least it’s got Chiklis. Still, an animated adaptation of Darwyn Cooke’s adaptation… now that would be just right.
• 

  Parker ain’t having that.

  Speaking of incredible artists, some of Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen covers and original art are going to auction (Robot 6). You can start bidding online on February 2nd, but unfortunately, Gibbons won’t be the one benefitting from the sale. Instead, ex-retailer Martin Shamus will be enjoying the spoils. Bummer.

Editorials and Interviews

• In honour of the just passed Orwell Day: Politics and the English Language, George Orwell (The Orwell Prize).
• Mission Accomplished?, Kelly Thompson (She Has No Head): This year we’ve got an all female X-Men team. Only a few years ago we had the Marvel DIVAs. Have we won?
• Internet Trolls an Online Nightmare for Young Women, Antonia Zerbisias (The Star).
• The always lovely Jian Ghomeshi talks to Quentin Tarantino about Django Unchained (Studio Q). [Video]
• Historically Authentic Sexism In Fantasy. Let’s Unpack That., Tansy Rayner Roberts (Tor Blog): Tansy is responding to this Mary-Sue piece, Is ‘Historical Accuracy’ A Good Defense of Patriarchal Societies in Fantasy Fiction?, by Dan Whol, which is also very much worth reading.
• Random Online Search of Comics Shops Shows Opportunities for Exploitation, Dominance, Torsten Adair (The Beat): I love Torsten and his numbers-wrangling.
• Henry Jenkins on ‘Spreadable Media,’ why fans rule, and how ‘The Walking Dead’ takes on a life of its own, Frank Rose (Deep Media).

Reviews

• My Week In Manga, Melinda Beasi (Manga Bookshelf). [Video]
• Calling Dr. Laura: A Graphic Memoir, Hilary Brown (Paste Magazine): I have a feeling I’ll be reviewing this someday soon…

Science! (Because I said so).

• The Worst Scientific Mistakes, Missteps and Misdeeds of 2012, Nadia Drake (Wired).
• How the Viral Neanderthal-Baby Story Turned Real Science Into Junk Journalism, David Wagner (Atlantic Wire).
• People Accept Anger In Men, But Women Who Lose Their Temper Are Seen As Less Competent, Science Daily: Accept this, boys. *MEGAN SMASH*.
• Bruce Sterling Thinks Artificial Intelligence Has Jumped the Shark, George Dvorsky (io9): Thank you, Sterling. I SPIT ON THE SINGULARITY.
• The Irrational Consumer: Why Economics Is Dead Wrong About How We Make Choices, Derek Thompson (The Atlantic).

And finally, the science of Gandalf:

Thank you, and good night.