Looking up our own
Despite my first claim to “fame” being a self-published zine in the ’80s called INSIDE JOKE, I admit to having a limited tolerance for deconstruction and meta-winks in storytelling. To me that sort of linking and meta-footnoting belongs in essay-writing and blogging; in fiction, more often than not it becomes a form of cultural cannibalism largely practiced by creators (a) with only a surface knowledge of comics history who believe it’s cooler to point back to a story which readers recall fondly than to come up with original story ideas themselves, or (b) who believe not so much in writing stories as in structuring gags which they’re betting will amuse their audience and editors as much as the setups and punchlines amuse themselves.
I can understand the impetus. The more experienced you are as a writer, the more you need to keep up your own interest in your work. That’s why many writers enjoy experimenting with different storytelling formats, like starting the action in media res or recounting events backwards. They need to keep from getting bored, and they hope that their readers will also appreciate them shaking up expectations a little. And when it works in service to the story, it’s a treat to note all the different kinds of ways a tale can be spun. But the problem is that these kinds of tricks, when overdone, often become more about the writer than about the story.
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As someone whose first reaction to the news about 
More good news for all those teen readers! Meg Cabot, author of the popular Princess Diaries series, will be making the foray into comics with Avalon High: Coronation, a manga sequel to her novel Avalon High brought to us by the ever-expanding Tokyopop (which also answers the question "whatever happened to Jinky Coronado?", as Coronado is set to draw the graphic novel). This should hit stores in July.
Now that comics have earned mainstream respectability, can videogames be far behind? Henry Lowood, curator of the History of Science and Technology Collections at Stanford University, is at the forefront of gaining recognition of this hobby and industry as having "a history worth preserving and a culture worth studying."
Looking for that video of Stephen Colbert 
According to 
Earlier today, Dateline Hollywood Daily speculated that the movie adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300, which brought in well over $27 million Friday night in only 3,103 theatres, "looks set to shatter the record for biggest March opening ever," amassing "what is likely to be a $60+ million weekend." And that’s with the time change and the relatively balmy weather in the northeast this weekend! Now AP’s 
Out in Austin, Texas it’s 
