In the Library with Holo-Man

Tumbling down one of those unmappable internet rabbit holes, I somehow found myself searching for a book that I recalled checking out incessantly from my hometown library. The book was Holo-Man, the only superhero book the library had. It was a paltry fourteen pages of comics, a 45 record, and completely insane. The book features a super team that never appears in the comic, a villain on the cover that never shows himself, and it all ends in a cliffhanger, never to be resolved (as no future issues or editions were ever published).

It was everything I could have hoped for. Disco insanity and science fiction balled up in perpetually unanswered suspense. A tip of the nostalgic hat to you, Holo-Man, you've affected me more than I probably care to analyze.

Planet of the Kung Fu Ape Gators

I loved Johnny Sampson's recent melting, kinetic cover for the Chicago Reader (above) and after looking through his illustrations online, thought I'd be doing them a disservice if I didn't mention them here. Especially my favorite (below). Perfection, mayhem. Stop by his blog for updates and monsters.

The People Tree, Talking (to Yourself) Heads

Boing Boing just featured the above video that's pretty impossible for me to not love. I'm an unabashed fan of David Byrne, and love just about everything Marcel Dzama and Chali 2na have done, so the combination of all three was a welcome union.

Speaking of David Byrne, it reminds me to post this (below) interview I stumbled across a while ago: A bizarre Bryne on Byrne interview that only he could pull off as strangely or wonderfully as he did.

Up, Up and Away

At some point in the last few days, sitting at the dinner table, I was looking out the window. I was focusing somewhere above the Sears tower, though nowhere in particular, glassing over. My girlfriend, Emily, wondered where I was, and I explained that I had gotten my head lost in the song "Up, Up and Away," and explained that I couldn't help but make that song segue into "Pacific Coast Highway" by Burt Bacharach. I sang some of it ("Up, Up and Away") for her, and she assumed I was making it up (not an unsafe assumption on her part, I have a bit of a habit of making up ridiculous songs to torture her). So I retreated to the internet for verification, and came across this treasure.

Ladies and gentlemen: The Fifth Dimension.

Embrace the ruffled necks.

Nerd Shangri-La

Not that I had any impression that Pauls Valley, Oklahoma doesn't have bountiful amenities, I just can't say I had a burning desire to visit. More bluntly: I fulfilled my obligation to be a functioning member of everyone by never having heard of the place.

But stumbling across these photos on Wired of the town's Action Figure Museum, I foresee an increase in their tourist industry.

Nerdiest. Roadtrip. Ever.

Hovering Bacon? Magic Cats? Pick Up the Phone.

Two absolute gems of insanity that I came across today: "Kittens, Inspired by Kittens" and "Hover Bacon." And to wrap it up (not found today, but almost as insane): "Pick Up the Phone" (thanks to my brother-in-law Dan for that link).

Once More, With Lion Masks

Fantagraphics has posted a slide show/Flickr set for the imminent re-release of Mother, Come Home. The book – out of print in North America for almost two years and now issued in a (in my opinion) massively improved hardbound format – will be in hand soon, and in stores around mid-March. I'll be doing a few signings of the book on the west coast around the time of its release: I'll post more information about that in the near future.

Visit the the book's product page to download wallpaper for your desktop or phone, read a fourteen page excerpt of the book, and, should the mood strike, pre-order the book.

RadioGramm

Awards shows in general are stiffly delivered scripts and rote performances masked in set design. But Radiohead's performance backed by the USC marching band almost makes me wish I'd watched the Grammys. Almost.

Dream a Little Yeti

Photographer Joe Reifer has a couple gorgeous shots of a a roadside Yeti on his blog, along with loads of other hypnogogic pictures elsewhere on his site. It's certainly worth a scroll around.

Psychedelic Winkfield

Over at A Journey Round My Skull I came across the work of Trevor Winkfield, with whom I'll admit I was completely unfamiliar. "The Painter and His Muse" (above) is a delicious bit of skull scramble, and, though employing a far different palette, I love his "Rice Bomb" and "Waiting" (below). His work feels to me to be one prong of the fork that feeds Karl Wirsum's art (his "Winsome Works(some)" is a book I flip through with embarrassing frequency.)

More terrific images are available on Winkfield's site.

I Have No Problem With This

My prediction for best picture of the day. (Thanks to Emily for passing along the unfortunate article.)

No, Really, This Begs the Question

Countless friends and students of mine have had to suffer me ranting about the actual (or anyway, time-honored) meaning of "begs the question", which I've heard misused by anyone from NPR anchors to Conan O'Brien (though their very use of the phrase this way leads us to question (but doesn't beg the question) as to whether the phrase has simply morphed into another meaning in the endless of evolution of language). I stumbled across a great and ridiculous dinosaur comic about just that subject, told far more interestingly than I typically would.

Ultimately, I should give up making a stink about, as Stephen Fry's excellent podgram on language would agree.

Coming Soon: Mr. America!

The venerable John Hodgman just posted this through Twitter, and I was delighted to see it. My editor at the briefly relaunched Life magazine, Mark Adams, has a new book coming out, titled "Mr. America: How Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet." Mark told me about the book over sushi while I was in New York briefly a couple years ago, and it's one of those unbelievable but true tales from the boiling stew of our nation's history. Give the video a look and be sure to pick up the book when it makes its way to breakfast tables across the world.

Evidence for Future Institutionalization

In an effort to remove any doubt that I'm losing my mind, I have joined the ranks of Twitter (I mainly blame my pal John Huston and the all too addictive Stephen Fry for this).

I've also attempted to have a feed of Twitter updates as well as your (should you be so inclined) responses on the right hand side of this blog. It's sluggish right now at best, but hopefully I'll figure out what the bug is and fix it if possible.