Patchwork Earth

Pre-Thanksgiving Showdown!

Well, this has been one Hell of a week already. I’ve got a column to work on, but I should provide at least a bit of a status update. I’ve finished six issues of script on “Project: Ballad,” and the artist hunt has begun in earnest. The less said about that in particular, the better; BUT, let’s look back on some of the ongoing topics here at PE.

• I’ve written twice on the BoingBoing subject. I haven’t really changed my point of view on BoingBoing proper, but its increasing number of franchises has offered some areas of interests. BoingBoing Gadgets is a reminder of the earlier, more focused BoingBoing proper, but now the new BoingBoing Offworld is entirely gaming focused. The enormity of the BoingBoing brand is sudden and a little disturbing, but Offworld has already formed links with Rock Paper Shotgun and other folks in the biz, and it’ll be interesting to see how it goes.
• A rare political moment: this “visual guide to the economic crisis” was, I thought, a pretty good summation for people still trying to juggle all of the elements in their head. And while it’s certainly not comics, there’s a certain thematic link to my last column, about charts and timeflow.
• Everyone’s linking to this article, and it’s obvious why from the title alone: “Who Stole My Volcano? Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dematerialization of Supervillain Architecture.” And speaking of “supervillain architecture,” check this out: I’m noting it for reference, for my current project, but… Lilypad, the floating city for ecological refugees. Stunning! And combine it with Google’s plan for floating data centers… everyone’s already seen the “real life road to the underworld,” so maybe this will be new for you?
• Leigh Walton of Top Shelf, in response to my last column at THND, linked to his own article on the “Big Kids Table” discussion, and he had this fantastic image macro:

• In lighter news: clowns vs. mimes: to the death!
• In less light news: Game reviewing is utterly fucked.
• And one enormous article on how Manga became a global cultural product. Whew!

Anyway, links aside: I’m getting deluged with comment spam. Swifty suggested a plugin which I’ll try to look at as soon as I’m able. I’m also looking for a new template: this site is dreary and a chore to scroll through. Anyone with suggestions, feel free to make a note in the comments.

Anyone who’s followed this site for a while knows Thanksgiving is Patch Brennan Day. I’ll be keeping my head down and out of site, so I hope you all have a happy holiday.

Boy, it’s late. I need to get back to work!