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In Alphabet of the Arcane, Justin Maudslien, aka Sub-Human’s Mr. M., explores weird and little known factoids and shares his skewed observations about the world of comics, cartoons and sequential art.

Get ready for another dose of shock and awe from the infamous Mr. M. (Infamous is when you are more than famous.)  This one is longer than a hooker’s dream.

If there is only one statement that is true about the entire human race, it is mankind has always been fascinated by it’s cousin, the primate.  Be it the flying monkeys from Wizard of Oz…

…or maybe it was the first time you saw the monkeys bone at the zoo, everyone has a soft spot for our furry mammal friends, even the former President who has more aircraft carriers and federal buildings named after him than an ape has bitches in his harem.

Bask in the glory of one of the strangest gimmicks of the comic medium…Monkeys, apes, and baboons, oh my!

Dial M for Monkeys!

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In Die By the Pen, Jared Gniewek discusses what feeds his fires as an author of comics, screenplays and radio dramas.

I am at the summer place now.  My family purchased a group of cabins on the top of a mountain in the Catskills thirty-nine years ago and they allowed me a week up here at my mother’s cabin for meditative writing.

I am always looking for places from which to write. It seems every location I’m in favors a different style and here, all alone, being kept company by the bears and skunks, I find I let myself think a little more freely. If you can imagine your old buddy, Jared, singing with songbirds and getting beavers to sweep his floor then you got the idea of what it’s like up here.

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In Media Madness, Matt. Murray reviews, revisits and rambles about comics, cartoons and their interactions in and with related media.

A few weeks ago, here on the Ol’ SAC Blog,  I let loose a venom-soaked rant against five of my least favorite comic character performances in live action media.  To atone for that I promised a Top 10 list of my favorite performances to show that I can be at least a wee bit positive about the media that I so love and spend so much money and time watching and consuming.  So, it may be a few weeks late, but here’s that venom-soaked rant that I promised.

But before we roll on, I feel that maybe there’s a little clarification that needs to be taken into account.  There is one, actually two,  key performances of one seminal character missing from this list and that’s because I think there needs to be some time put between those parts and writing about them to understand their true weight, or perhaps they need to be examined in their own post – now there’s an idea, and it’s mine so no sniping – and I’m talking about Heath Ledger, Jack Nicholson and their respective Jokers.

Ledger’s pre-eminence as the premiere essayist of a four-colors-for-a-dime character is up for debate. Yes, he was brilliant; and yes that is at least one of the reasons he currently stands as the only actor to be honored with an Oscar for his performance (read all about the whys and wherefores here); but I believe Jack Nicholson’s Joker could still go toe-to-toe for him for the title of the true Clown Prince of Crime. Only time will truly tell… but, I had to take Ledger, and in fairness Nicholson, out of the race to honestly handicap the rest of the field.

So without further ado, here are my two bits:

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