Here is a pictorial history of how the Joker evolved from campy, annoying prankster to murderous, dark villain.  Link.

Any reviews on The Dark Knight?  Share it in the comments.

el estratografico put together a fun flickr set called retronomaopeya which is a collection of images that illustrate the sound and motion found in comics.  Link

el estratografico has a few other sets worth the look:
50's spanish sci fi novels
old 45s

Every Monday you can read new installments of Next-Door Neighbor over at SMITH Magazine:

“Everybody has one. And, no matter how close or how far, we all live next to someone, and we all have a Next-Door Neighbor story,” says NDN Editor Dean Haspiel. “With this in mind, I asked some of my favorite storytellers and cartoonists to create their favorite NDN stories so that we at SMITH Magazine could share them with you over the next year.”

Link [via]

glowingskeleton illustrated a series of one thousand illustrations of beasts which will be appearing in the the Fantagraphics art book Beasts! Volume 2 later on this year.

Jason bought Beasts! last year and it's actually quite a fascinating and eclectic book.  The art book describes mythical beasts from around the world and the illustrations were provided by various talented artists. 

Link to Flickr set [via]

Some famous cartoonists were asked to draw their popular comic strip characters while blindfolded in a 1947 issue of Life Magazine.  See how they did.  [via digg]

Saturday, May 5, 2007 is Free Comic Book Day.  Click on the link to find participating retailers in your area and get free comics!

[via meshly]

Watching this Japanese version of Spider Man made my day.  Imagine a mixture of Voltron, Power Rangers, Spider Man, and Desperado?

Enjoy!

[via Metafilter]

Feast your eyes on this...  Action Comics No. 1 issued in June 1938. 

Chris Yeung scanned each page of what looks to be an original copy of the first issue. 

Enjoy!

Previously:
LwL: Bacon Wallet, Medical Slang, Comic Character Alphabet, Polaroid-o-nizer, Magic Sand (Comic Character Alphabet), Create your own comic strips using Bubblr!, LwL: Old-time and kinky comics, Nintendo Amusment Park, helicopter howto, Guantanamo inmate attack (Old-time and kinky comics), Batwoman has a makeover and returns as a lesbian

From bands to balloons, here is a site that explores the evolution of speechballoons. 

From the site:

During the 18th century, British caricaturists changed the shape of speechballoons from gothic speech-bands or flags into fluffy balloons, our modern speechballoons.

I'm using the word speechballoon as the general, inclusive term. (The gothic form of speechballoons are speechbands, flags, scrolls or sheets of paper, the modern form of speechballoons are balloons, but also little rectangles, often rounded at the edges, or simply little blocks of text above the heads of the speaker etc, etc).

The 18th century term for speechballoons was 'labels'.

Here you can study various experiments and variations and the gradual change from bands to balloons. Even the later examples sometimes have tiny leftovers of the 'bands' on the other side of the balloon.

It's surprisingly interesting.  Take a gander.