What’s the greatest form of flattery? The fanzine, of course. Andrew Coulon digs this collection of _Alter Ego_s from TwoMorrows.

Staff Writer Enthralled By Absurd! Carl F Gauze gets a secret thrill from the tabloid stories of Sam Post.

Hey kid! Wanna write comics? Carl F Gauze suggests you read Danny Fingeroth’s collection of interviews and articles from Write Now!, a magazine for Super Hero cartoonists, first.

With the Dark Knight casting his long shadow over box offices this month, a true sidekick emerges to help define this troubled but beguiling hero. Batman Unauthorized lifts the cowl with 18 diverse essays that do a lot more to support the Caped Crusader than that “Aww shucks!” Robin, and should be the perfect warm-up for the big screen bat.

Scott Adams finds that his leather chaps-wearing inner metal fan is satisfied by this new heavily illustrated tribute to the British metal gods. Need research fodder to debate the relative merits of British Steel over Screaming for Vengeance? This book is for you!

Four years of Little Nemo in Slumberland Sunday pages are brought together in one volume. Carl Gauze remembers it as if it were a dream.

Rose Petralia takes an evil stroll through Toronto’s dark underbelly with Toronto Noir.

Matthew Moyer is suitably intrigued by this new book about DC Comic’s science fiction titles of the Sixties, and how they summon up a vision of a brave new future that is even more distant now than it was back then.

A young man, born in a test tube and raised in an ominous underground bunker, grows up to be head of security at a dying shopping mall in a dying city. Carl F Gauze has seen the future, and there isn’t a single flying car on the horizon.

Nick Drake’s third and final album is one of the most heart-wrenching in musical history, Linda Tate finds out why and how it’s inspired some of today’s influential artists.

New money and old values clash in Aspen as land developers fight over the last pristine lots high in the Rocky Mountains. And there’s sex…

Multimedia provocateur and no-wave icon Lydia Lunch’s tell-all will jar even the jaded. Tom “Tearaway” Schulte already feels dirty.

Wanna know what “The Dungeon” is? Here’s a hint: Some professional wrestlers left it bawling like babies. Lifelong wrestling fan and pop culture reporter Heath McCoy tells us all about Stu Hart’s legacy in Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling. Tim Wardyn is still in pain.

Mark Schultz’s trademark barbarians, dinosaurs, and hotrods get the Modern Masters treatment. Consider Andrew Coulon conquered.

Arne Johnson and Karen Macklin lure young women away from the sofa and to the drawing board. Andrew Coulon thinks the time is ripe.

Brian Colman’s book gives the inside scoop on 36 classic hip-hop albums, all from the mouths of the artists who created them. Lori Bartlett thinks it’s about time.

You can keep yer campy movie and yer 21st Century remake, Shaun Corley just wants to remember Flash Gordon the way he was rendered in Alex Raymond’s stunning Sunday comic strips.

David Whited shares what he learned from Ian MacDonald’s seminal look at 1960s Beatles’ songs and their influence on American culture.

Kip Fulbeck’s Permanence examines tattoos as a means toward self discovery. Every piece of ink has a story and it all adds up to who we are as people. Jen Cray could barely finish the book before adding a fresh layer of ink to her body.

Matthew Moyer makes a public spectacle of himself over Incredible Change-Bots.