Corey Lewis, the creator of the critically acclaimed series Sharknife and PENG has a new online comic that’s in the running on Zuda called “Dead in the Now“.

Just look at the art in the image here, it’s freaking fantastic, it’s some of the best work in Rey’s career! So hurry up and vote so we can see some more!

“I once tried middle of the road, I was knocked down by traffic in both directions.”

— Harry Perkins, A Very British Coup.

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

Mine’s at http://jamesmcewan.socialthing.com. It’s a pretty neat service, I think I might get rid of the lifestream plugin I have here as this does a better job.

On my tariff, £35 a month, it’s an extra £99 for the new phone, on the £45 tariff the upgrade is free. Still I think I’d prefer a one off £99 payment rather than an extra £120 a year.

So why the change? Well, as much as I like Wordpress, I feel like I don’t have enough control of the templates, which is probably due to being more of a front end developer than a PHP dude. So Django seems like a good alternative for me, as from what I’ve heard the template engine is well suited for designers, plus as a bonus, Python code is freaking beautiful and a joy to write.

Okay, I’m feeling exhausted, so I think I’ll elaborate on how I’m going to transfer my site from wordpress to django later on.

The folks at Vivabit put together a stellar line-up including some great talks like Jeffrey Veen’s “Designing Our Way Through Data“, Bronwyn Jones’ “The Book was Better : Writing as Source Material for the Web“, Dan Rubin’s “Designing User Interfaces: Details Make the Difference” and Nate Koechley’s “Professional Front-End Engineering“.

Andy Clarke’s comic book themed session “Underpants Over My Trousers” was was of particular interest to me as it covered the idea of taking design and layout cues from comic books and applying them to the web. With both being great passions of mine, this is something I’ve been thinking about some time, but have always struggled with the execution.

Here, he details down some fantastic ideas to control the user experience through subtle but effective techniques rather than overt ones that have been employed in the past like animation.

These concepts like border breaking, in which a character or item bursts out of the confines of a comic panel to attract the reader’s attention seem simple but when you think about it, the typical reaction in web design has been to put the most important info into a box.

I think Andy Clarke will be doing similar sessions at a few other conferences this year, so I highly recommend web designers to check this one out, and I’d also like to add a note of interest in seeing a book on the topic too!

Traditionally this conference has really given me a boost during somewhat difficult periods in my work and this year was no different. So I want to say a huge thank you to all the speakers this year for sharing their considerable knowledge and to the organisers for putting on consistently great shows year upon year.

DC Universe 0

Basically we’ve got an advertising book here, time was these things would be free, now they’re 40p. Looking forward to seeing Barry Allen back and that multiple Legion story.

Green Lantern 30

So did infinite crisis make it so that all of the reactionary innovations to the GL Corps were always in place, like the training Lanterns etc? If so, doesn’t that lessen the impact of the rebirth storyline?

Iron Fist 14

Seriously Marvel, these 14 issues are a hit movie served up and ready to go. Make it happen.

New X-men Warriors 11

It still annoys me that Bandit in posing as his brother Night Thrasher, managed to change his skeletal structure from being a big dude, to a lean clone of his half brother.

Bonus round!

So this week also saw the release of Ironman, which I cannot find any fault with whatsoever, perfect cast, perfect story, perfect effects. Best Marvel movie yet, kudos Marvel Studios.

I’m a very happy geek.