“It’s a breathtakingly lyrical and poignant work”: That’s Jeff Yang, writing about Belle Yang’s graphic novel Forget Sorrow, which he read at the World Expo in Shangai. His piece in the San Francisco Chronicle is part feature and part review, and includes a lot of local color regarding the Expo as well as some interesting commentary from Belle Yang on the process of creating a graphic novel.

Well, at least he’s humble: “Avengers Director Joss Whedon Says ‘I have No Directing Skills’”

“Their presence in Iron Man 2 epitomizes the conflict between specific story needs and the demands of a shared superhero universe”: That’s Mel Valentin blogging about “‘Iron Man 2′ and the Shared Universe Problem” at Cinematical. I still haven’t seen Iron Man 2 yet so I can’t offer an opinion on the matter, but Valentin notes that in order to expand Nick Fury and the SHIELD sub-plots screen time, Iron Man 2 had to sacrifice some of its own story needs in service of an overarching, multi-movie story. Whether they ultimately can make this work or not, it’s going to be very interesting to see how films try to replicate something second-nature to the comics they’re based on.

And speaking of Cinematical…: This was new to me (or perhaps I saw it and forgot it?), but chances are many of you have seen it before. The site has a gallery of story-board images from James Cameron’s never-got-out-of-development Spider-Man. Some look like they would definitely have lead to striking film images (like number 3), while others make it pretty clear that the webbing-as-semen metaphor wasn’t something Sam Raimi and company thought of (like number 5).

“It’s profoundly charming”: Dan Brown (author of The Great Expectations School, not the author of The DaVinci Code) reviews To Teach: The Journey, In Comics by William Ayers and Ryan Alexander-Tanner on The Huffington Post. Brown loved it.

“You’re talking about the part where Promethus cuts off Arsenal’s arm. Spoiler alert!”: Tucker Stone and Benjamin Marra discuss Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal at length. Hilarity ensues.

No joke, Faith Erin Hicks has created one of the best Wolverine comics I’ve ever read: Seriously, check this out. Can you think of a better example of the Wolvie-as-grumpy-uncle-to-super-teens aspect of Wolverine? Or the world weary-always-having-to-fight-ninjas aspect of Wolverine? I can’t. Damn, that’s some good Wolverine comics-making… (Via Warren Peace Sings The Blues)

“I’m not saying the whole thing isn’t utterly depressing, it is, but only because it’s just a monumental waste of time and resources and talent and opportunity…”: Retailer, blogger and manga fan Chris Butcher reacts to the demise of CMX. In summary, he says it was poorly launched, generally poorly run, rather poorly received and it’s not all that surprising that it’s not going to be around much longer. It sure lasted longer than Minx though, didn’t it?

Can I ask a stupid question about that Heroes/comic series lawsuit thingee?: Here’s a piece from Kevin Melrose on Spinoff Online, “How Does The Fourth Season of Heroes Compare To Carnival of Souls?” I’ve never watched Heroes or read/hear of the comic book doing the rip-off alleging, so am perhaps the least-suited person to say anything at all about any aspect of this story. But I do have a question. The comic book in questions was actually entitled Carnival Souls, the same name of a classic 1960s horror movie widely regarded as one of the best and scariest of the period and therefore not exactly an obscure film? The comic wasn’t a licensed adaptation, was it? Because that’s pretty weird.

Example #413 of Why Bully Is A Genius: “Seige Reading Group Guide and Discussion Questtions.” In a perfect world, that would be reprinted in the back of the Seige collection.

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