If this was Jeopardy! this would be the Potpourri category.

I hate that I feel the need to apologize for not posting as often lately, but real life has (rightfully) supplanted on-line life. However, the worst of it is behind me, and I can get back into the swing of things a little bit. As of today, Beth's a licensed RN working an ER night shift, so my evenings are free to whittle down that nasty, nasty review pile I've been building up for months (scan down one entry for the first of the reviews, focusing on Grant Geissman's Foul Play!). So, my weeknights will likely be spent reviewing and doing laundry (we'll let the DVR get the few shows we're still watching so we can watch them together), and I can finally get the scary stack of comics on my bar down to a more manageable level. Work's still on the high-alert ass-kicking level, so daytime posts will likely not start up again until, say, August or so.

• Dave Lartigue's causin' more Family Feuds than Richard Dawson. While we might not get to bond over beer and comics like the ACAPCWOVCCAOE, but the ECB's got crazy skilled bloghedz, and less letters to remember.

• Speaking of the ECB, some guy's taken his beef with Johanna's review of his comic to a few message boards (and probably some others). Now, ignoring the fact that if most people took a casual glance at the comic would probably bring about the same reaction Johanna had to it, it probably doesn't hurt to say yet again that if someone sending out review copies as a way of getting publicity should choose reviewers who seem to like comics similar to his/hers is a good way to go about doing things. In fact, there's probably some kind of "how to get your book reviewed" guide somewhere online or something. Or one could just use common sense.

• It's almost time for the Eisners, so I'll have to get ready to compare my predictions with the results. I'm thinking I might get 25% if I'm lucky.

• I'm also making a point to go and edit out and add things to the blogroll thingy on the side, but I want to make a special note of Crisis/Boring Change. Despite the awkward name, it's shaping up to be daily reading. Particularly, today's piece on manga and the latest issue of The Comics Journal:

I should mention, again, perhaps, that this is meant neither as an attack on manga, nor as a potential invalidation. Though I'm grossly unfamiliar with the (as Dirk Deppey calls it) meta-category, no good comics advocate and proselytizer would claim that any work, created in good taste, that attracts both young and female readers is bad, not ideologically so. More, this little rantlet is meant as sort of a half-hearted explanation of why I'm not on record as having trumpeted how good, and good for our culture, manga can be.

There's quite a bit of online content to the latest TCJ, so browse if you're so inclined--it's tiding me over until I can get down to pick up my copy.

• Just out of curiosity, who is planning on attending SPX? I already know of a few people, but I'm curious as to who else in blogland will be attending.

• James Smith talks about one of my favorite blog topics, the writing about comics. He also links to a site that will probably suck up my time in the near future: Writings by Neil Cohn.