Kate Beaton extrapolates some books by their covers: Using some Edward Gorey drawn book covers as a starting point, Beaton creates five three-panel comic strips summarizing what the books look like they’re about. The Autobiography of William Butler Yeats is particularly awesome.

“The list of films that pundits claim to be something other than what they appear is extensive”: I’m not sure if this article from the Sydney Morning Herald deserves much in the way of attention, even for the purposes of disagreeing with its position on whether or not critics should seek political meaning in popular films (The writer claims a scene from Reservoir Dogs is in Pulp Fiction, and doesn’t even seem to consider the possibility that it was a joke). Recent-ish  comic book blockbusters 300 and Iron Man are included in the list of movies he thinks are better off taken at face value though, so take a look if you’re interested.

Save the date: The film Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World has an official release date of August 13. If you still haven’t read the series, that gives you about six months and two more weeks to do so.

“Yeah, I feel like I really got lucky with Jellaby, because I’m not 100% sure I really knew what I was doing or what I set out to do”: Here’s a nice, healthy-sized interview with Kean Soo conducted by one of his hometown media outlets. There’s a lot of focus on Soo originally got into art,  drawing and comics before delving into his signature work, Jellaby, which interviewer Dave Howard sums up rather succinctly as ” basically about a young girl and her non-imaginary dinosaur friend who she conceals from others.”

“Robin grew up, moved away, and became super-attractive”: An anonymous lady lists her top-five comic book crushes, including Nightwing, Green Arrow, “Spiderman” with no hyphen and two X-Men. I found Green Arrow the most shocking inclusion. Not if she’s talking Smallville Green Arrow of course, as he’s super-dreamy, but comic book Green Arrow is almost always presented as a middle-aged jerk with a funny beard, isn’t he? (Which makes him, like Hal Jordan and Hawkman, a character I like reading about despite disliking him intensely).

One day soon, everything will be have a graphic novel version: Not necessarily a good one, mind you. For example, this graphic novel adaptation of the Lutheran small cathecism looks even dryer and less engaging than the prose version. Did you know reading a newspaper is considered using a Satanic art, in violation of the second commandment…? That’s what I gather from the sample, anyway.

Attention publishers!: Looking for a good idea for a neat anthology project? The Comics Reporter‘s most recent “Five For Fridays” asked readers to suggest five “Musical Acts Whose Songs You’d Like To See Made Into A Comics Anthology, as Tori Amos’ Work Was The Basis of 2008′s Comic Book Tattoo.” That netted about a billion suggestions, almost all of which would lead to some kick-ass comics collection.

More Swedish rap for your listening pleasure: Last Thursday I mentioned Simon Gärdenfors, one of the Swedish cartoonists whose work Top Shelf is helping introduce to the U.S. audiences as part of their “Swedish Invasion” initiative. His comic is called 120 Days of Simon, but in addition to comics-making, he’s also a rapper. If you’d like to hear what he sounds like while you’re waiting to see what his comics are like, Top Shelf has since sent along some links. Here are two songs from his Las Palmas project, in which he raps and Calle Thörn DJs (song one and song two), and here’s the song “Panik” from his Far & Son project, a collaboration between Simon G and Frej Larsson from the Swedish techno group Slagsmålsklubben. Impress your friends with your newfound knowledge of Swedish music!

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