Unwanted advice is our speciality

-Look, I don't relish saying this, but I have a problem with Tom Spurgeon's writing. It's unclear. Maybe it's an affectation; if so, I'd urge him to drop it. From today:

"I think Campbell has it dead on where the heart of the strip's appeal lies, and what I think is even more remarkable is to realize this kind of work had a significant audience who valued to the point of holding dear that non-sensational reflection of life as lived."

I read more than my share of academic texts, so I'm semi-accustomed to this style of writing. Unfortunately, most academic writing is a nightmare to read. No one should try to emulate it, especially when it's totally unnecessary. The idea Spurgeon is trying to express doesn't require an undiagrammable sentence. Doesn't this guy have "former editor of the Comics Journal" on his resume? Or is that more explanatory than contradictory?

-That Liefeld/Kirkman thing all the Bendis board people were complaining about? It's Killraven. Oh, doctor.

-Heidi MacDonald (note the correct spelling) seems to be promising weekly Ultimate Fighter recaps. Here's the first one. I'm pretty excited about this season--the coaches hate each other, one of the contestants has actually defeated one of the coaches in a fairly high profile match, and the all-lightweight formula holds the promise of all-action all-the-time.

And man, on the subject of MMA, was this a crazy weekend or what? Serra beats GSP, Sanchez and Koscheck turn one of the most anticipated fights of the year into one of the worst of all time, the DSE era ends, Sokoudjou KOs Arona, fans on message boards anoint Sokoudjou as the greatest fighter in the history of the sport (even though he's only fought 5 times, has never gotten out of the first round, and looked kind of bad in his loss to okay-but-not-great Glover Teixeira), Big Nog is the first Pride fighter to cross over to UFC, Don Frye almost dies on his feet.... It's a good time to start watching MMA, and a better time to incorporate it into your message board (hint, hint).

-The Beatles were like the remedial class version of the Hollies. The Beach Boys were remedial class version of the Hollies who spent most of their time in the auto shop.

-You can count me among the people who'd like to see My Boy published in North America. I mean, it's in English already. That cuts out all the costs of translation and re-lettering. (Yes, I realize that Kim Thompson translates most of Fantagraphics' French language comics himself, or at least he used to.) Sure, I guess I could get it right now since it's already in English, but then again I'm too lazy to figure out how to pay for something in shillings and tuppence or ducats or whatever goofy currency would be necessary to acquire this book. Besides, I'm in no hurry. I've read only about .005% of Alice in Sunderland.

-Did I Kill the Goose That Laid the Golden Egg? Dept: I think Greg Rucka's on to me. I'm going to be really disappointed if he clams up now, but I think he'll eventually feel compelled to say something about someone at some point. Don't hold back, Mr. Rucka!