I just saw the July-August edition of "Air-Brush Action".  In it is a fairly lengthy interview with Alex Ross along with some samples I had never seen before of his artwork.

Too bad I only have enough money on me for lunch and my BART ride home.  I will have to scrape up the six bucks for this by tomorrow.  I don't want to wait too long as I did for last weeks "New Yorker".  Damn speculators bought up every copy before I could get one.

OK, after watching the news this morning and discovering that "The Dark Knight" has sold some amazing amount of tickets in advance of the movie opening, I go to http://slashdot.org and discover an article based on a "Scientific American" article suggesting anyone can become Batman with ten to twelve years of training.

Let's see, the Waynes get gunned down when Bruce is about, oh, let's say ten years old.  He spends a few years in a mental depression and then starts to train for real.  So, he could still be under thirty when he starts.  Too bad the article also suggests this peak of performance can't be maintained.

The November, 2007 issue of "Wired" magazine has a Manga cover, a nice article on Nippon/Japan dealing primarily with artists and copyright, and a TEN PAGE MANGA that has to be read correctly; which means backwards to us. :)

The article should be required reading for the MAFIAA*. Manga appears to be declining in Nippon just as it is rising in Europe and the U. S. There are a group of artists who are creating their own Manga based on Manga that belongs to others without EXPLICIT permission. From what I can tell much of this additional material is Slash fiction. (Google it if you don't know what that means.)

A very interesting read. If you don't feel like splurging whatever "Wired" magazine costs (I'm a subscriber) then just go to the library.

[XEREXES: Most of this is online -- the Wired manga issue: How Manga Conquered the US, Japan, Ink: Inside the Manga Industrial Complex, and a few shorter features here, here, and here.]