Rivkah starts a new series of columns at The Pulse:

you’re going to get a fresh look at the comics industry from somebody already involved . . . yet seeing it for the first time with unbiased eyes. I don’t “take sides.” You will never see me waving the “manga” flag nor the “comics” flag. Each have their own merits—as I’m surely learning. And it’s the merging of the two—this fusion of East and West—that fascinates me. Because it’s a reflection of a New Generation of artists and writers who grew up on something very different from your typical Marvel and DC fare…

What a rotten shame. Mike Sheard was the one bright spot in the worst convention I ever did, and I spent a lot of that hideous weekend talking to him — no, listening to him. One of the great storytellers of my acquaintance, and one of those great blithe working actors who have been in absolutely everything and just breezed through it all…

Whenever I want to get really depressed, I go to Done Deal Script and Pitch Sales to find out how other people are getting rich:

Title: Double Dutch
Log Line: Set in the world of competitive jump
More: Pitch. Raven Symone is set to star.

Title: Notorious D.A.D
Log Line: A superstar rapper loses everything and is forced to take a job as a nanny for his accountant’s kids while trying to resurrect his music career.

Title: The Grays
Log Line: An alien race function as the “United States of the cosmos” and they run things on Earth as well as on other worlds. Operating in secrecy, the aliens are unwilling to reveal themselves for fear of altering mankind’s development.
More: 75 page treatment, which was based on Whitley Strieber’s unpublished novel.

Title: The Proposal
Log Line: A book editor is forced to marry her male assistant in order to stay in the country. When they travel to Alaska to meet his family, the new couple has to fake their way through a surprise wedding thrown by his parents.

Title: Mr. Nice Guy
Log Line: A guy attempts a seemingly mundane task, but mishaps snowball and turn his life upside down.

Title: Prey
Log Line: A beautiful homicide detective investigates a series of rapes and murders in New Orleans.

Title: Untitled Yakuza Project
Log Line: A white American kid who’s orphaned in Japan is raised by yakuza gang members. He becomes one of their fiercest leaders during an all-out gang war.
(“It’s THE LAST SAMURAI, only with guns and cars! And no Crying Tom Cruise!”)

Title: Genbot
Log Line: A young woman discovers that she is part of a secret government operation that turns her into a cyborg.
Genre: Action-Comedy

FELL #1, by myself and Ben Templesmith, is released on September 8 in North America and from September 9 in all other territories. It retails for US$ 1.99.

Florida prosecutors have increased the charges against a blind man who is accused of raping his own guide dog…

A sculpture made with the pickled head of a dead fetus attached to a seagull’s body has fueled a furor in Switzerland about the boundaries of art.

Berne’s Museum of Fine Arts removed the piece from a Chinese art exhibition earlier this month after a complaint that it was disrespectful to the dead, and following concerns its grisly appearance might traumatize visiting schoolchildren.

The piece, named “Ruan,” stole headlines in Swiss newspapers when artist Xiao Yu confirmed that the fetus head was real…

Yoshinori Watanabe shocked Japan’s underworld late July with the announcement that he was standing down as the kumicho, or chairman, of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s biggest yakuza syndicate.

Hundreds of yakuza gang bosses from across Japan went to the Yamaguchi-gumi’s Kobe headquarters for the July 29 meeting as they were watched by scores of police and media representatives.

Watanabe, 64, announced his retirement in a statement read out by Saizo Kishimoto, general manager of the syndicate’s headquarters.

Apparently, the huge meeting room where the gang bosses sat in silence while the announcement was made, with the hush broken only when some broke down in tears.

Watanabe then stood up and addressed his In November last year, the Supreme Court ruled that Watanabe, as head of the syndicate, could be held liable in civil cases brought about because of crimes committed by members of the Yamaguchi-gumi. The ruling meant that anybody who sued the yakuza gang could also name Watanabe as a defendant and be entitled to claim compensation from him individually.

Watanabe responded to the ruling by announcing the following day that he was taking a sabbatical. Ever since then, the Yamaguchi-gumi had effectively been run by a council of its top leaders.

Watanabe was the first ever leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi to be alive when his successor assumed office…

Cardboard Robot Wrestling is slowly gathering a following in Japan, with about 200 cramming in to watch a recent set of bouts.

Cardboard Robots, or kamirobo as they are referred to in Japanese, are the creation, Shukan Taishu claims, of artist Tomohiro Yasui, who maneuvers the grapplers with his own hands in the bouts telecast on a huge screen so everybody in the audience can see what’s happening.

Yasui has even managed to convince powerful toymakers like Bandai and Avex to market his cardboard ring warriors.

“I’ve been making the robots since my elementary school days and now I’ve got about 200 different robots,” Yasui tells Shukan Taishu.

Yasui’s first kamirobo were fairly simple, moving only their shoulders and elbows. Now, however, the cardboard wrestlers he makes move at all major limbs, giving them greater flexibility and a more realistic look when they are actually pitted in the ring.

“You can make them using cardboard from cake boxes or the packaging you get in business shirts, then color them in using markers, so they’re really cheap,” Yasui tells Shukan Taishu. “Because they’re made of cardboard, they can get pretty beat up after a fight. But I’m pretty good when it comes to fixing them up again and I do it a lot.”

Related: http://www.kami-robo.com

Available in various sizes here:

Japan is planning to develop a new rocket that will carry nearly double the payload of its troubled H-2A booster and carry cargo to the International Space Station.

The new rocket, to be called the H-2B, will be launched in 2008 and carry a payload of up to 8 tons, compared with the payload of 4 to 6 tons for the H-2A, Kyodo News Agency said, citing unidentified officials at Japan’s science and technology ministry.

The main mission will be to carry the H-2 Transfer Vehicle, or HTV, to the International Space Station without relying on the U.S. space shuttle, the report said. The HTV will carry food, clothes and scientific equipment to the ISS.

The H-2B will have two engines, instead of the H-2A’s one, and four booster rockets.

The government’s Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. have been developing the new launch vehicle since 2004 on a budget of around 20 billion yen, Kyodo said…

My old friend Bill Baker’s written a book called ALAN MOORE SPELLS IT OUT, focusing on the creative process of the author of FROM HELL, WATCHMEN and V FOR VENDETTA.

The PR says: “Alan Moore Spells It Out marks the first print appearance of one of the most in-depth interviews ever conducted with this celebrated writer. Even better, its focus is Moore’s approach to creating art, with special attention paid to his thoughts on magic, its relationship with language and with creativity, and tons of stuff on making good comics…. This is something that’s more like overhearing a great conversation between a couple of good buddies than reading an interview, however good it might be. Bill managed to provide Alan with the perfect forum for the kind of discussion which is rarely heard these days, much less captured on tape. Everyone who’s read the mock up, or even had a chance to glance through the Alan Moore-approved transcript, has gotten pretty excited by what they’ve seen.”

Alan Moore Spells It Out will be an 80 page, sparsely illustrated trade paperback measuring 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, and retail for $9.95 US. And it’s out in November. If you’re near a good comics store, ask for it now and they’ll pre-order it for you. It’s released by Airwave Publishing.

BBC:

No no no.

(Via Samantha Lake)

The ‘XTRA SALTY’ Gunnery SGT. R. Lee Ermey 12″ motivational figure is not for the faint of heart. Packed with a one minute sound chip of the Gunny motivating you as only the Gunny can! If you liked the first moto your gonna LOVE it ‘XTRA SALTY’!

Here is a sample of the ‘XTRA SALTY’ motivational sayings:

I am Gunnery Sgt. R. Lee Ermey, I am your senior drill instructor and your darkest nightmare.

You better give me motivation right now scumbag or I’ll rip off your head and take a giant sh*t down your neck.

Now, f**k with my button again and I’ll punch you in the snot locker so *** damned hard it’ll hospitalize your mother.

Knock off the whining you unorganized grabbastic pile of civilian sh*t or I will gouge out your eyeballs and skull f**k you.

Well, installing the newnew iteration of WordPress seems to have fixed it…

Bloody internet.

Something’s gone wrong with this bloody thing. I’ll fix it tomorrow night.

Rebels in India’s north-eastern state of Tripura are making pornographic films to raise money for their separatist campaign, officials say.

The information has come from surrendered guerrillas of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), according to police. They say the rebels are forcing captured tribal women, and some men, to take part in the films. The films are then dubbed to be sold in India and neighbouring countries…

Aviation researchers at the University of Florida have copied the wing action of seagulls to develop spy drones that can morph shape mid-flight.

The toy-sized drones are being developed for tricky urban missions so that they can zip around tight places. They could fly into urban environments to detect biological agents. Funded by Nasa and the US Air Force, the unmanned, sensor-packed craft in development could be on missions in two to three years, say researchers.

By watching how seagulls alter their wing shape, and using morphing techniques, the agile craft can squeeze through confined spaces, such as alleyways, and change direction rapidly…

Available as a print. Consider this the “Feed Katie West” fund.