Illustration roundup

Sean Hartter imagined a movie based on my mascot.




The Avengers by Team Ninjaink.




Good Night by Digital Orgasm up for vote at Threadless.




Fairest #3 cover by Adam Hughes.

*Buy Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Microscale Lego X-Wing. Here's the parts list.

2. Tentacle girl cake.

3. Jim Romanesko's new site is active and he wrote a long post about the ugly drama surrounding his leaving his old site (which I've been reading faithfully since I discovered the internet). The bit that stands out:

I was told that traffic to my page had dropped about 30% in 18 months. It was easy to explain why: I was one of the few journalism town criers on the Internet a decade ago; now every news junkie with a Facebook page and Twitter feed is shouting out stories about the news business.

Also, he made a six figure salary on his site.

4. Andy Suriano's new comic book comes with a free sketch.

Link roundup

1. How to hire an artist to illustrate a book cover (and how much it costs).

2. Mumm-Ra paper toys.

3. An assertion that Cleveland sportswriters were well aware of Delonte West's mental problems (and witnessed various outbursts) but decided not to report on them.

4. The process of adding a custom domain to a Blogger blog has been simplified (with Go Daddy).

5. New shirts on sale at Last Exit to Nowhere - - Bedford Falls and Cyberdyne Systems (new color).

6. The BBTS has available for preorder Marvel Select movie versions Hulk and Hawkeye.

Link roundup

1. "Master of horror John Carpenter presents Blockhead’s Revenge — a 'gritty, sexy, scary' Peanuts reboot starring the cast of MTV’s Teen Wolf."

2. How to build a relationship with a blogger before asking for a review.

3. Grantland:

ex-Cleveland Brown and Minnesota Viking LeRoy Hoard — a physical, bruising former running back — famously (though perhaps apocryphally) described his running style as the antithesis of the space player: "If you need one yard, I'll get you three yards. If you need five yards, I'll get you three yards."

Blogger's going to be integrated with Google+, too

Apparently Blogger is going to be integrated with Google+, also. Via.

UPDATE: Here's the official announcement:

If you blog under a pseudonym and you don’t want to connect your common name with your blog, this integration may not work for you. That’s why we’ve made it completely optional to switch.

Link roundup

1. The tap water in a Pennsylvania town is so polluted with methane that you can light it on fire. Via.

2. Today's new free games: City of Heroes and Glitch (haven't tried either yet as I've been spending my video game time enjoying Lego Clone Wars).

3. In light of the way Google has cancelled projects under Larry Page, it's reassuring that they keep rolling out new improvements for Blogger.

4. Cheating by the Redskins apparently caused those bad snaps in last night's Cowboys game.

How to become a super-duper successful blogger

Yesterday, BoingBoing posted an excerpt from a book called "Blogger's Boot Camp: Learning how to build, write, and run a successful blog," with the most insipid advice I've recently seen on blogging. The advice? 1. "You must write a minimum of 1,000 words a day," a rule the author justifies by mentioning a blogger who specializes in writing pithy sentence fragments and quoting other people's writing. And 2. "Always Be Posting. You will burn out. When this happens, take a break. Always take weekends off and limit your off-the-clock consumption of social media." Got that? Write 1,000 words every day, except when you don't, because you will almost certainly hate blogging.

Here's the real advice:

1. Create a time machine, go back in time 10+ years, start a blog, and update it every day. Through the power of longevity and the luck/foresight of being first you'll amass so many readers that you'll be able to make a living simply by posting a couple of daily links to the New Yorker.

2. Become famous for something. Even better, become famous and attractive. Then start a blog. Your fans will adore your every post no matter how banal.

3. Be a mom blogger (marketers adore mom bloggers, especially those who link to the words insurance or bank) and mix in product reviews with detailed discussions of your family's most private secrets. Especially the ones about sex. When you run out of your own secrets, betray your friends.

4. Figure out a way to become a pornographer. Deadspin's basically a sports-themed porn blog. In fact, the porn doesn't even have to be sports-related. Gawker writers spend their time coming up with clever excuses for posting photo galleries of busty children and up-skirt shots.

5. Convince people you're a guru on relationships, or career advancement, or marketing, or health. Hope they don't notice you spend your time telling other people what to do, instead of doing it yourself.

Bonus points if you have the energy, knowledge, and willingness to manipulate traffic sources like Google, Reddit, and Stumbleupon.

or

6. Write a regularly updated blog, on a topic people are interested in, filled with original content and funny insightful commentary.

Of course, if you can do that, you don't need anyone's advice. There's also no reason to burn out. Writing a blog, if it's right for you, is fun. You can read my genuine tips on writing a blog here.