A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran

i09 lists Orbiter among the top SF graphic novels guaranteed to get you hooked for life. Warren Ellis wrote it, and I drew it.

If you are interested in picking up a copy of this fine tome, try to get the first printing. Far better quality paper.

JK Rowling donates 10 million pounds to new multiple sclerosis research center.

The world-famous children’s writer made the generous donation in memory of her mother Anne, who suffered from the degenerative condition and died in 1990 at the age of 45.

Can the iPad Save Spider-Man?

Single issues regularly topped a million in sales during the Depression; last year, the top 300 comics sold in the United States combined added up to less than 75 million copies. Hard-core collectors may still flock to dedicated comic shops, but even the comic-book movie craze hasn’t drawn mainstream fans to the oft-impenetrably serialized monthlies. And while more sophisticated, complex graphic novels have charged into bookstores, it still can’t compare to the widespread accessibility comics enjoyed during their old newsstand days.

Does Peter Parker Have a Moral Responsibility to be Spider-Man?

If we were consequentialists and thought that the rightness and wrongness of actions depends entirely on the good or bad outcomes produced, we would believe that Peter is morally obligated to be Spider-Man, at least on the assumption that being a superhero produces more overall good than being a good scientist, boyfriend, etc. As appealing as consequentialism might seem at first blush, it’s riddled with problems.

Jane Austen had punctuation issues.

“Austen hardly punctuates at all, so what you get is a much more urgent form of language, which becomes more restrained when it is edited,” he said.

“There tends to be an awful lot of clauses and sub-clauses. There is the odd comma, but they aren’t always in the most rational places. There are no paragraphs.”

I used to get a ten-point deduction for every comma splice.

Jane Austen and her homies fight it out.