District 9 is the best socially conscious sci-fi story I've experienced since Ender's Game. I don't know if it was animatronics or computer-graphics or a combination of the two, but Christopher Johnson has my vote for actor of the year. Look at those eyes -- they will melt your cold, cold heart. (Sharlto Copley as Wikus is a close second for actor of the year.) To avoid potential spoilers I won't go into too much detail here just PLEASE SEE THIS MOVIE.

And it doesn't hurt that the graphic design within the movie is gorgeous as well. Here's some of the signage used in the film:

I spotted a comics-related cameo while watching Pedro Almodóvar's hilarious Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown last night. Look! It's Bucky's friend! Captain America!

Please also note the Almodóvar-esque photograph. Snort!

This is gorgeous.

I showed it to Jason Miles and he said, "This guy's his own Fort Thunder."

I am inclined to agree, but mostly I just want a giant poster of the thing.

Above is a preview of what will be in your COMPLETE UNLOVABLE box-set (minus the ghost-hand). Coming SOON!

It's almost the weekend, friends. Here's a sampling of the brilliant lyricism in Dr. Dre's "The Watcher" from his album 2001:

"Things just ain't the same for gangstas.
Times is changing, young n****s is aging,
Becoming OG's in the game and changing,
To make way for these new names and faces, but
The strangest things can happen from rappin, when
N****s get wrapped up in image and actin,
N****s get capped up and wrapped in plastic,
Zipped up in bags, when it happens, that's it."

I'm a secret life-long video game junkie* and found this feature at the Cracked website very entertaining. The twisted naïveté of the drawings is a perfect fit for the subject matter. I wish this is what I AM 8-BIT had been.

How Five 8-Bit Characters Would Really Look

*If anyone wants to get wrecked by my akimbo .44 magnums in MW2, post your 360 gamertag in the comments and I'll add you, hooah.

EXTRA SPECIAL BONUS:

 I drew Q-bert on my big board way back in 2008 when I was working on Bill Schelly's excellent Joe Kubert bio Man of Rock. Homophones, har har. 

You want to make art with a medium that restricts your ability to make said art? Try an Etch-A-Sketch instead of glorified finger-painting. Knock yourself out with an iPhone for studies and sketches -- just please don't present it to me as finished art.* Thanks!

* Exceptions may apply, but I haven't seen any yet.

(Spider-man by Keith Drake from Wanderline.com.)

Making poor Lucy cry... Hägar, you truly are horrible. (I guess Dick Tracy is no longer the only one getting coal in his stocking this year from cartoonist/The Complete Peanuts designer Seth.)

And in the cosmic coincidence department:  This first volume of Hägar covers the 1973 - 1974 strips, which just happen to be the same years covered in our most recently released collection of The Complete Peanuts. Make of that what you will.