Mountain of Judgment

New release date: 1963

...or September, whichever comes first.

I've never been bothered by these kinds of delays before; Planetary, From Hell, ACME Novelty, Eightball, All-Star Superman, I usually figure good comics take as long as they take. Even the greatest funnybooks are not exactly life's biggest priority.

But September? (After already being pushed from April to June.) That's five months. This couldn't have been planned any better?

Ah, well. At least the thing is 99.9% guarranteed to be worth the wait. But after such an awful scheduling implosion, how much of its original audience will the book retain?

This radioactive guy punched this other guy clear through a wall. Then his big-chested girlfriend got thrown in a woodchipper. Man, it sucked to be him! Then they made a movie about it.

And I liked it.

• Warning: If you've been thinking about picking up a copy of "Cresta" by minor Madchester act The Hollow Men because you haven't heard it in 15 years, and your memories are fond, not only is it not as good as you remember, it's not very good at all. However, if you happen across a used copy of Digital Underground's second album, "Sons of the P", it is exactly as good as you remember, which is quite good indeed.

• It is now obvious that Ana Marie Cox, nee Wonkette, planned her current situation (Time magazine commentator who fakes detached befuddlement at those icky progressive blogger creatures) from the very beginning. All of her ass-fucking jokes on Wonkette were studiously non-partisan. Anal sex jokes involving Denny Hastert invariably found their balance in anal sex jokes about Teddy Kennedy. Her shtick was calculated to attract the interest of dirty old Beltway pundits of the Howard Kurtz variety, who quickly and happily let her into the club because she was eager (even over-eager, which they like, it strokes their egos) to play their game by their rules. No Stephen Colbert, she. Her career trajectory is invaluable because it shows that the central value of the Russert/Kurtz/Matthews class is abject, soul-free whoredom. It would be nice to think that Cox's Time gig is some kind of high-level Andy Kaufmanesque gag played on an oblivious elite. And so I shall.

• For those of you who know what I'm talking about, WRMC volume three is nearly ready for release. Matt has been distracted with stupid, trivial things like buying a house, but now he seems to have his priorities back in order and the Rock shall recommence.

• Speaking of the Rock, pandora.com is a thing of wonder. Don't know what kind of music you like? Don't worry, Pandora does. Go, check it out, spend the rest of the day not working (like me right now!) Artist suggestions: The Stone Roses, Tito Puente, Death Cab for Cutie, Kelly Willis, Stan Kenton, Danger Doom, English Beat, Urge Overkill, Count Basie, Thin Lizzy, James Kochalka.

• Abe, one hour after watching The Wiz: "Mom, do you have any dance routines?" (She did. And I love her.)