Gimzoo

Link roundup

1. Tax dollars at work in Southern California:

When it's completed this fall, Riverside's Hillcrest High School will be a high-tech academic hub with wireless Internet, a robotics lab, digital smart boards in every classroom and a first-rate performance hall worthy of any "Glee" hopeful.

But no students.

Sapped by state budget cuts, the Alvord Unified School District doesn't have the money to turn on the lights or hire staff for the $105-million campus.

2. Young Jason Kidd.

3. It's a tremendous shame George Takei hasn't been able to show off his personality until the last few years.

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Dark Horse was kind enough to send me a few preview issues:

1. Hellboy The Fury #1 by Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo features outstanding art, and the issue feels packed with panels. You can read a few preview pages here, but they're easily the most boring in the issue, and the preview really does the issue a terrible disservice. You can preorder the issue with the sweet Francesco Francavilla alternate cover for 20% off at TFAW.

2. Also excellent is Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever #5 featuring art by John Severin. The zombie cowboy army is nice, but I wish the preview showed off the witch (sorry, I'm not allowed to post anything other than what's in the public preview). This issue's also 20% off at TFAW, and I'll definitely be placing the collection on my wishlist when it's available.

3. By comparison, other than Dave Stewart's colors, I have nothing nice to say about BPRD The Dead Remembered #3 - - it feels like such a retread of previous Hellboy/BPRD stories.

4. And I didn't bother finishing Solomon Kane Red Shadows #3.

Link roundup

1. Long, interesting article about Paul Budnitz and kidrobot. I suspect some of his former employees have a less glowing take on the relocation of the business from New York to Colorado:

All employees were invited to make the move, but most had no interest in moving, and because Kidrobot's retailing has always been mostly Web based and thus location agnostic, the collision of circumstances provided for a kind of crazy kismet—a successful and still-ambitious company was able to hit Reset without actually changing its business.

He started selling fireworks to classmates when he was 15, and now has many different businesses:

During this particularly fecund, halcyon period of his life, Budnitz has started so many different companies that he forgets about some of them, and they slip out into conversation only when something reminds him of one. For instance, we were eating sushi below the Kidrobot offices when he happened to mention that he started and still owns one-third of the most successful nonmusic ringtone company in the iTunes store.

And he's not afraid to break the rules or brag about doing so:

Being a hacker, Budnitz manipulated the site's search engine and ensured that his albums ranked at the top.

2. Zeppo Marx sounds like an interesting guy.

3. Conveniently for her blog, when Penelope Trunk's life isn't a trainwreck, her friends provide the cringeworthy moments. Part 1, part 2.

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Golden Age Sandman action figure (and more)

MTV Geek has a look at DC Universe series 19, including Sandman, Stargirl, and Magog.

*Buy DC Direct action figures at eBay.

Illustration roundup

Batman wallpaper available in high-res here.

Oh, Betty!

Seriously, if this was just fan art by some random artist, would anyone have reposted it today? I mean, it's almost as ridiculous as getting excited over the news that George Lucas has written 50 hours of scripts of a Star Wars series.

Kate Beaton mocks a mermaid cover. (Speaking of, Hark! A Vagrant! can now be preordered for 37% off Amazon.)

Link roundup

1. Comic strip by Lucy Knisley about online dating.

2. Weird niche blog - - Could they beat up China Mieville? Via.

3. It's Yang, Master of Kung Fu vs. a mistress of wolves in Night of the Wolf.

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Link roundup

1. Totally bizarre story of a nuclear power plant mishap that killed three men in 1961 Idaho. "When one of the trio was buried, his family asked to see the coffin: permission was only granted when they agreed to rush through the funeral in five minutes."

2. Fast Company chose Reshma Shetty as one its most creative people in business:

At MIT Shetty earned her synthetic-biology chops by helping engineer a strain of E. coli bacteria that smelled minty fresh, eliciting praise from experimental biologists who hated the outhouse stench of unadulterated E. coli.

3. It's Star-Lord and a sort of space Dr. Moreau in "More Than Human" by Doug Moench, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Bob McLeod.

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Hogwarts house penants

Slytherin, Gryffindor, and Ravensclaw penants by Andy Pitts. The Gryffindor penant is on sale here.

*Buy trophies at eBay.

Green Lantern Lego Cubedude (and more)

A few Lego Cubedudes by Chris Doyle:

Green Lantern Hal Jordan.

Red Lantern Atrocitus.

Sinestro.

White Lantern Deadman.

Relatedly, I saw this Lantern Lego Cubedude on sale at eBay:

The time when Wonder Woman had to babysit a dinosaur for charity

Full scan of Wonder Woman #90, when Wonder Woman had to babysit a whale, elephant, and dinosaur for charity.

*Buy invisible jets at eBay.

Ian Alexander Martin: Book Publishing Trends & Challenges - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio

Independent book publisher and President of Atomic Fez Publishing, Ian Alexander Martin, shares his views on current and future trends in the publishing industry. Ian describes the challenges facing publishers in the current economy and with the rapid changes taking place in the publishing industry. Ian shares his thoughts on genre busting fiction, developing a niche market for specific titles, and how an author can get published in today's highly competitive marketplace. Ian also offers some advice for successful online book marketing including some very unique and unexpected tactics for which Atomic Fez Publishing has become famous.

Ian Alexander Martin is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Tuesday, May 31, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Independent book publisher and President of Atomic Fez Publishing, Ian Alexander Martin, shares his views on current and future trends in the publishing industry. Ian describes the challenges facing publishers in the current economy and with the rapid changes taking place in the publishing industry. You will learn:

* Some of the challenges facing the independent publishing industry

* How publishers and authors are leveraging the internet and social media

* How to select the right publisher for your book

* The future of publishing including electronic books

Ian Alexander Martin (photo left) has been over the years a photographer, a photo-lab store-owner, stage actor, and performing arts journalist; thus demonstrating a fascination with embracing trends already well into their death throws. Currently he's the Proprietor of Atomic Fez Publishing, which is dedicated to providing well-written stories to people at fair prices in a variety of formats; including electronic, hardback, and soft-cover editions. He's lived in Metro Vancouver all his life, and in Burnaby with his wife and two cats for rather less than that.

My written interview with Ian Alexander Martin of Atomic Fez Publishing.

Listen live on Tuesday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.

If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.

To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with independent book publisher and President of Atomic Fez Publishing, Ian Alexander Martin, as he shares his views on current and future trends in the publishing industry. Ian describes the challenges facing publishers in the current economy and with the rapid changes taking place in the publishing industry. Ian shares his thoughts on genre busting fiction, developing a niche market for specific titles, and how an author can get published in today's highly competitive marketplace. Ian also offers some advice for successful online book marketing including some very unique and unexpected tactics for which Atomic Fez Publishing has become famous on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Atomic Fez Publishing, Ian Alexander Martin, publishing industry, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Link roundup

1. Wild, probably NSFW book cover for The Princess Bride.

2. "Cow tipping or cow pushing is the purported activity of sneaking up on a sleeping, upright cow and pushing it over for fun. As cattle do not sleep standing up, cow tipping is a myth." Via.

3. Muppets t-shirt design contest at Threadless.

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New Alice: Madness Returns gameplay footage and wallpapers

This Alice: Madness Returns video really shows off how platforming-centric the game will be. (Hopefully those elements will be a lot more fun and forgiving than the first game.) I cropped some widescreen wallpaper-sized stills: