Here’s a collection of random links, nearly all of them comics-related, that I’ve found entertaining over the past few days.

• The great Norm Breyfogle, a guy who’s done amazing work on almost every character he’s ever drawn, including Batman, Spider-Man, the Spectre, American Flagg, and dozens of others, is going to be drawing Archie soon.
• In other “Archie” news, Kevin Church digs up some clips from a TV pilot called “To Riverdale and Back Again“.
• The Kirby Alphabet.
• Gay characters in comics.
• Kate Beaton draws funny comics about Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Catherine the Great!
• The 50 Most Loathsome People of 2008.
• Editorial cartoonist Ben Sargent’s evolving images of George W. Bush.
• David Rees is shutting down his political cartoon series “Get Your War On.”
• Kevin Melrose looks at some stories about comics and the economy.
• The Helsinki Complaints Choir.

Okay, it’s time to start experimenting with a few changes around here.

If you haven’t heard yet — and I wouldn’t expect you to, ’cause I’ve been keeping it under my hat — I got laid off from the A-J back in November. So how am I enjoying looking for a job during the worst economic downturn we’ve seen in about a quarter-century, if not longer? It sucks.

Now I’m probably doing better than a lot of people in similar situations, ’cause I had a decent sum saved in the bank. But things ain’t exactly rosy either. Now the last time I had a big drop in my financial situation (I took a $5,000 pay cut to take my last job), I got rid of cable TV and my landline, and ended up doing alright. Unfortunately, that means I don’t have much else I can cut from my budget — can’t stop paying rent, can’t stop paying for car insurance, can’t stop paying the electric bill.

But I can cut back on comics.

So we’re gonna see how I do with a strict comics budget of $20 a week.

That means:

1. I’ll be getting only 5-6 comics every week, unless Marvel and DC boost their prices to four bucks apiece. And that means fewer reviews here on the blog. There might be days where I won’t post at all, might be days when I just post a bit of silliness, might be days when I just rant about job-hunting. There might be days when I review old comics. ‘Cause old comics I already got stored in the comics cabinet are cheaper than comics I have to spend extra cash for.

2. No more crossovers. No more “Final Crisis,” no “Blackest Night,” no “Dark Reign.” Crossovers are fine for flush economic times, when people have the spare leisure cash to spend on superfluous cosmic fisticuffs that’ll be forgotten and ignored in three months. Right now, DC and Marvel are hoping their customers will choose another six months of pointless crossovers over, say, buying food or heating the house or paying for the kids’ insurance. Ain’t gonna happen, and I ain’t gonna reward Marvel and DC for thinking like idiots. Besides, crossover books are more expensive than regular books.

3. I may still have to quit buying comics. One big doctor’s bill, one big car repair, another few months of trying to live on the unemployment handouts, and I’ll have to move into my brother’s spare apartment anyway. If the choice is paying my cell phone bill and buying comics, or paying for health insurance and buying comics — comics get the heave-ho. If that happens, I don’t know if the blog will continue. I enjoy the blog, and I think I can come up with stuff to blather about even if I don’t have a regular supply of new comics, but we’ll have to see.

4. There don’t seem to be a lot of jobs being offered in Lubbock. I know everyone says the economy in Lubbock is unusually great, but I tend to take stuff I hear from local bankers and economic development folks with about a quarter-ton of salt. I flip through the want ads, and I don’t really see many jobs being offered. It might be the same everywhere, which means I’ll be cooling my heels in my brother’s apartment for a year. If the job situation is better in other cities, then I’ll be hoping I get a job somewhere else. I like Lubbock an awful lot, but the choice between being unemployed and broke in Lubbock and having a job in another city is a real, real easy one to make. If I leave, I’ll hope to keep the blog going anyway — it might be tough to write about Lubbock’s comics community from a few hundred miles away, but it’s a challenge I think would be fun to undertake.

So does that mean we’ll be seeing big changes here at this blog immediately? Hopefully not. Ideally, I’d like y’all to never notice any significant difference between the way I blogged last week and the way I’ll blog now. But if you see some unusual or interesting new changes, or really weird topic choices, just remember it’s all in the name of science…

Justice League of America #28

It’s the Justice League vs. the Shadow Cabinet. For the most part, it’s a story about a bunch of super-people beating each other up, though the confrontation between Superman and Icon is… interesting. Very interesting.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Yes, I’m still grooving on the return of the characters from Milestone Comics. But there is a lot of excellent fisticuffs going on here. I approve.

Madame Xanadu #7

Nimue is now in Victorian London, using her fortunetelling and spellcasting to try to protect people from Jack the Ripper. And of course, the Phantom Stranger appears, infuriating Nimue with his failure to act to save anyone. She offers to help the police, but finds her ability to see the future mysteriously stymied when it comes to discovering the Ripper’s identity. She lays mystic alarms around Whitechapel to alert her to any attacks, but will her spells be enough to stop the madman? And whose side is the Phantom Stranger really on?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Obviously, this isn’t nearly as heavy as Alan Moore’s classic Ripper story “From Hell,” but there’s some good stuff in here. Ripperologists will find several interesting tidbits to enjoy.

It’s been one of those weeks again. Nothing but bad news all around us, the holidays are over, everyone’s either back at the office or wishing they had an office to go back to, and we don’t have anything to look forward to but dreary, icy, miserable January. Is there any way to get perked back up in time for the weekend? Of course! It’s time for FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight’s fightfest comes from June 2005’s Flaming Carrot Comics #3 by Bob Burden, as Earth’s greatest hero, the Flaming Carrot, faces the robotic, magnetic terror of Magnatron!

And all hail Spacebooger, the Master of Friday Night Fights!

The Brave and the Bold #20

Green Lantern and the Phantom Stranger are still investigating the strange goings-on at a distant alien planet where something slaughtered a whole city of people. They find a single survivor, from a species that instantly wraps itself in an indestructible cocoon whenever it’s startled. He says the culprit was a godlike monster called the Purge, which seeks to exterminate all life on the basis of a really twisted belief in peace, love, and harmony. The Phantom Stranger gets victimized by a dream-creating plant that really shouldn’t have been able to affect him, GL gets ambushed by another Green Lantern who’s been taken over by the Purge, and back on Earth, a corrupt corporation is planning on killing a sick child who may be the only person able to save the universe.

Verdict: Thumbs down. This one is an absolute indecipherable mess from beginning to end.

The Spirit #24

The Spirit is on the trail of someone who’s killing off Vietnam War vets. Obviously, this is all going to lead back to something that happened to them in ‘Nam, so the Spirit takes a trip to Asia to do some snooping. Will the Spirit be able to discover who the killer is in the Cambodian jungle, or is he going to wind up with a bullet in his back?

Verdict: Ahh, thumbs up, but just barely. The mystery is fine, but it’s a shade predictable, and I like the Spirit better when he’s prowling the mean streets of the big city…

Man, Spider-Man gets to meet all the interesting public figures. Late last year, he got to hang out with Stephen Colbert, now he’s all set to meet Barack Obama.

On Jan. 14, Marvel Comics is releasing a special issue of Amazing Spider-Man #583 with Obama depicted on the cover. Inside are five pages of the two teaming up and even a fist-bump between Spidey and the new president.

“It was a natural after we learned the new president is a Spider-Man fan,” says Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada about reports that Obama once collected Spider-Man comics. “We thought, ‘Fantastic! We have a comic-book geek in the White House.’ ”

The White House transition team did not respond to a question about the extent of Obama’s comic-book geekiness, but Obama did mention Spider-Man during the campaign, primarily at children-oriented events. And during an Entertainment Weekly pop culture survey, Obama said Batman and Spider-Man were his top superheroes because of their “inner turmoil.” (John McCain picked Batman.)

In the story by Zeb Wells, Todd Nauck and Frank D’Armata, Spider-Man stops the Chameleon from spoiling Obama’s swearing-in. At one point, Spider-Man says he mistook Vice President-elect Joe Biden for the Vulture (a vintage Spider-Man villain).

This is due to hit the stands next week, but if you want this one, ya better get to the stores early on New Comics Day — they’re expecting this issue to sell out fast.

(Link courtesy of ComicBookResources)

We got time to look at a couple of new all-ages books? Yes, I do believe we can swing that.

PS238 #36

The unpowered Tyler Marlocke and his superpowered clone, now named Toby, are in the process of getting their parents used to the fact that they’re now twins. Meanwhile, Malphast, the son of an angel and a demon (think of him as a pint-sized Spawn), has discovered that his parents and the forces of primal order and chaos plan to invade the mortal world to force their collective wills upon humanity — which will certainly result in the destruction of the Earth. Malphast enlists the aid of the Marlocke twins, conspiracy-minded Cecil Holmes (and his mystical bat-winged coat), and Alec Kent, a local kid with some math talent.

While the little imps and cherubs influence superheroes to chase the kids down, Malphast and his friends draw some crayon glyphs to foil the bad guys and make a stopover in the astral plane to shut down the invasion at its source. Luckily, when Cecil travels to other dimensions, he turns into a giant, tentacled monster, but even with his giant, tentacled aid, can they discover the secret that will stop the invasion in time?

Verdict: Thumbs up. As always, this series is a colossal amount of fun. I don’t think Cecil was always this much fun — I think he’s gotten to be a more enjoyable character as time’s gone on. Seriously, y’all should pick this one up if you have the chance.

Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! #3

Theo Adam has released the Seven Evils, and he finally manages to trick Mary Marvel into revealing their magic word to him. One “Shazam!” later, and the evil Black Adam is released on the world. While Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel try to figure out how to stop the Evils, Adam heads out to take over the city. Is there any way to stop him?

Verdict: This one is still awfully cute, but I think I’m going to give it a thumbs down. I enjoyed all the stuff with Cap, Mary, Adam, and the Evils (sounds like a band, doesn’t it?), but there was a lot of filler in this story, including Cap staying up all night to watch horror movies, and Billy meets a bunch of weird kids who have been given permanent detention. It’s bizarre and it goes on for way, way too long.

Wondering why the recent film version of “The Spirit” did so bad? You might look into Neil Gaiman’s Law of Superhero Films:

Had a conversation with Paul Levitz the other day about Gaiman’s Law of Superhero Movies*, which is: the closer the film is to the look and feel of what people like about the comic, the more successful it is (which is something that Warners tends singularly to miss, and Marvel tends singularly to get right) and the conversation went over to Watchmen, which had Paul explaining to me that the film is obsessive about how close it is to the comic, and me going “But they’ve changed the costumes. What about Nite Owl?” It’ll be interesting to see whether it works or not…

As Neil points out, this very neatly explains why people didn’t like Frank Miller’s film of “The Spirit,” despite liking the films of Frank Miller’s “Sin City” and “300.” The “Sin City” and “300” films looked just like Miller’s comics, but the “Spirit” film looked nothing like Will Eisner’s original “Spirit” comics.

You can apply this to other comic-based movies, too. Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” movie closely replicated the feel of Lee and Ditko’s classic Spidey comics. Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man” got the vital essence of Tony Stark on celluloid. Tim Burton’s “Batman” movies succeeded because they got the look and feel of the popular parts of the Batman mythos on the screen, while Joel Schumacher’s “Batman” movies failed because they just got the unpopular “Batman” TV show on the screen.

Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight” would seem to be exceptions to the rule — both films always felt like comics revisions more than comics tributes, but they work perfectly all the same.

Oh, and speaking of “The Spirit”: Rather than watching that movie, maybe you should get acquainted with some “Spirit” comics by Will Eisner and Darwyn Cooke instead…?

Justice Society of America #22

The mask is off — Gog is seriously bad news. And the gloves are off — the entire Justice Society, including Gog’s former supporters, come together to put some serious hurt on the gigantic god. They even lop his head off! Not that he gets killed by that, but it does give the Kingdom Come Superman and Starman a chance to take Gog’s head to the “Source Wall” where the other gods of the Third World are entombed. You’d think that would be the end of the story, but Supes has Starman return him to his home dimension, where the rest of the “Kingdom Come” series plays out to its conclusion… and beyond, as we get some quick glances into the next thousand years of Superman’s story.

Verdict: Thumbs up. This was a really excellent conclusion to an extremely long storyarc. I think it should’ve been a great deal shorter, but I certainly can’t fault the ending. We also get some pretty Alex Ross art for the scenes set on “Earth-22”. And yes, the Justice Society gets to appear, too, and they have a lot of good story beats here as well. All around, a very, very good issue.

Top 10: Season Two #3

Lt. Peregrine’s husband goes off on an “origin weekend” — think of it as a “Promise Keepers” con-game for roleplaying super-people — and gets a lot more than he bargained for. The formerly hypercompetent Sung Li runs into serious trouble against the Red Ring Gang. And Duane Bodine and Pete Cheney barely manage to stop a wizard handing out magic words to superpowered stooges, but something weird happens to Cheney afterwards.

Verdict: Thumbs up. On one hand, I’m not real thrilled with the new emphasis on Peregrine’s husband, but the rest of this is really extremely awesome. Cheney is the same old dimwit, Sung Li is facing entirely unexpected challenges, Bodine is still the best and most level-headed cop on the force. And please pay special attention to the buffet at the origin weekend — funniest food jokes you’ll ever see in a police procedural comic.

Wonder Woman #27

Well, Wonder Woman has gotten completely stomped by the man-made god called Genocide — and she’s taken the Lasso of Truth, which she has the Secret Society surgically implant within her, making her even more powerful. Meanwhile, Sarge Steel has gone murderously insane, and the gods of Olympus have returned, which doesn’t mean anything good for the remaining Amazons.

Verdict: Ehh, not great, but not awful either. Genocide is an interesting opponent for Wondy, but Diana spends the entire issue moping around and looking defeated, which just isn’t a good look for her.

Atomic Robo: Dogs of War #5

The conculsion of this story starts out with Robo getting captured by the Nazis and turned into a power source for their newest super-weapon. He gets rescued by a Scottish commando with an outrageous accent, but has to spend the rest of the issue legless and later down another hand. Can Robo and the scotsman put an end to Skorzeny’s evil schemes?

Verdict: I’m gonna give it a thumbs down. The conclusion just felt a bit flat. And the scotsman was an interesting and amusing character, but this series felt a bit like the creators were throwing a bunch of different characters out there for brief guest-starring roles. For the big conclusion, we should’ve seen the Sparrow and the other previous guest stars, too.

For the first Friday Night Fights of 2009, I’m pulling out all the stops. From 2005’s Bizarro World anthology, here’s the big fight between Wonder Woman and Supergirl from “Super-Dumped” by Johnny Ryan and Dave Cooper.

Not sure that’s technically an “epic,” but it’s sure got all the violence you’ll need this weekend.