Elsewhere... CrossGen returned

Here's what else I've been up to online:

The Return of CrossGen?



Inspired by the Comic-Con news that Marvel's planning to do "some CrossGen stuff" now that they access to the properties Disney bought when CrossGen went belly-up, Tim O'Shea and I came up with a list of six CrossGen series we'd like to see make a comeback. I was a huge CrossGen fan back in the day, so knowing that it could be resurrected in some form is all the reason I need to appreciate Disney's buying Marvel.

What Are You Reading?



Short reviews of Super Maxi-Pad Girl #3 and a serial killer mystery called The Awakening.

The Royal Historian of Oz and Fanfic



In this week's Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs, we tackle the age-old problem of creator-owned work vs. corporate-owned (or public domain, as the case may be). Which should you read? Which should you create? And what does the concept of Official Canon have to do with it?

Quotes of the Week: Overweight Men With Beards

Not really all from this week, but I'm still catching up.

...in a tighter than expected vote this weekend at an emergency meeting of the International Federation of Overweight Men With Beards, Brian Blessed was named world's leading fat, bearded celebrity following the recent death of comic actor Dom Deluise. Deluise had served in the largely ceremonial position for nearly 20 months after the passing of long-time title holder Luciano Pavarotti. Blessed won by three votes over surprise fringe candidate Jorge Garcia, who emerged when John Rhys-Davies was stricken from the field after a qualifications challenge and a last-minute effort to draft chef Mario Batali failed. Blessed's first action in his new position was to order his hawkmen to dive.
--Tom Spurgeon

George R.R. Martin is not your bitch ... You're complaining about George doing other things than writing the books you want to read as if your buying the first book in the series was a contract with him: that you would pay over your ten dollars, and George for his part would spend every waking hour until the series was done, writing the rest of the books for you.
--Neil Gaiman, on fan entitlement.

...I swear to God, if any of you people start writing Young Spock/Old Spock slash fiction, I will hunt you down.
--Mike Sterling, on a possible negative result of the new Star Trek movie.

“Forgive me, Young Spock,” said Old Spock, “for I know this is a thought most…illogical, but my pursuit of knowledge demands that I must know what it is like…to kiss myself.”
--Dorian Wright, being Dorian.

Quote of the Week: "Even if, like Jane Austen, you're in it for the big bucks."

I was going to quote the letter-writer who asked Neil Gaiman for permission to publish and make money off her fan-fiction, but really Gaiman's response is much funnier.

You need to stay on the non-commercial side of the street, which means you can't sell it, not even if, like Jane Austen, you're in it for the big bucks. Otherwise bad things would happen, involving lawyers from publishers and lawyers from movie studios, and your week would be ruined. Trust me on this.

--Neil Gaiman