Ben Hatke's Zita the Spacegirl trilogy was one of the best kids' comics of the new century (and it's headed to TV!), and he's been very productive in the years since, but his new series, Mighty Jack feels like the true successor to Zita: a meaty volume one that promises and delivers all the buckle you can shake a swash at, with more to come.

Kid or adult, parent or not, you should already be reading Ben "Zita the Spacegirl" Hatke for some of the most rollicking, science-fictional kid-friendly comics between two covers, but now you've got no excuse: Little Robot, a nearly wordless graphic novel about a little girl and a fugitive robot, will fill you with terror, laughter, wonder and joy.

Ben Hatke's Zita the Spacegirl kids' comics are a huge favorite around these parts. In The Return of Zita the Space Girl, Hatke wraps up his first story arc in a way that can only be called an absolute triumph. Cory Doctorow reviews it.

I absolutely adored Ben Hatke's bestselling, science-fictional kid-comic Zita the Space Girl, and the sequel, Legends of Zita the Space Girl, was the perfect followup. Hatke captures the madcap lunacy of Vaughn Bode and the Mos Eisley Cantina, throws in a kick-ass girl adventurer, and great art, and it's just about perfect. — Read the rest

Back in June, I reviewed the delightful science fiction kids' comic Zita the Spacegirl and mentioned that the sequel would be out in September. That sequel, Legends of Zita the Spacegirl, comes out today, and is a most worthy follow-on to a most excellent kids' comic. — Read the rest

Zita the Space Girl is Ben Hatke's 2011 kids' science fiction graphic novel about a young girl's adventures on a distant world that she is transported to after clicking a mysterious button that she finds in the center of a meteor crater. — Read the rest

A Vermont man was so bladdered when arrested by Ontario Provincial Police that he did not realize he had made his way into another country. CNC News reports that the 52-year-old man was charged with impaired driving in Cobden, Ontario after the truck he was driving was found with flat tires "stuck in a drive-thru" at about 5 a.m. — Read the rest

The New York Times reports that Twitter co-ordinated with the Trump Campaign to ensure that damaging information about GOP vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance was kept off the platform. It disclosed this fact somewhere within a floaty piece about Elon Musk's massive financial donations to Trump's campaign, and so we go instead to The Guardian for context:

The former president's team contacted X, owned by the billionaire Trump backer Elon Musk, about a 271-page document compiled by his campaign to vet his running mate … X responded by blocking links to the material, claiming that it contained sensitive personal information such as the Ohio US senator's social security number, and banned Klippenstein from the platform.

The ingredients list is simple: a Raspberry Pi Zero, a wee display, a 3D-printed case, and a keyboard salvaged from a Blackberry. The method is a little more challenging, but you can buy them online for $130. Creator ZitaoTech writes why:

The main reason why I design and built this handheld cyberdeck is to treat this as a lernning tool and also a funny toy for the hackers.

A Florida nurse who allegedly poisoned two cats and a pregnant dog faces three counts of felony animal cruelty and one of depositing poison in a public area. Polk County Sheriff's Office announced Thursday that they arrested Tamesha Knighten, 51, after the three pets were killed. — Read the rest

John Plant of Primitive Technology is back making magic with naturally-occurring iron bacteria. In this video, we see him go through the entire process, from collecting and processing the iron bacteria, to creating the charcoal he'll need, building the bricks and furnace, and finally, smelting the iron. — Read the rest

Andrew Wodzianski is a DC-area artist whose work often riffs off of nerdy pop cultural touchstones and ephemera. His pieces make references to comic books, 8-bit video games, monster movies, and tabletop gaming.

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, September 28, 1987, he created pieces of meme-styled art that draw inspiration from the Star Trek coloring books and ship blueprints of his youth. — Read the rest

Watch the dashcam video below. This isn't Mario Kart, people, this is reality!

(OK fine, it's just water on the side of the road. But still!)

Cultural critic Mark Dery wrote a brilliant piece on the Surrealism Beyond Borders show at The Metropolitan Museum. Mark describes the show as "groundbreaking," one which "decolonizes official histories of the movement, cutting the ribbons on new Dreamlands and Luna Parks of the unconscious." — Read the rest

I've been using a reMarkable Tablet, for years now. It's great for taking notes at my day job. I waste no paper when I jot down meeting minutes, annotate stories and starting off new pieces of writing in long hand. I dig how easy it is to organize my notes on the tablet and that I can back them up to the cloud—including, recently, to Dropbox and Google Drive. — Read the rest

This footage (relaxing, but unnecessarily sped up) shows Takumi drawing what the title describes as the "hardest" kanji—Japanese logographic character—in the world. I don't know what it means (and there is some suggestion among commenters that it is a literary contrivance, like Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft or floccinaucinihilipilification) but it sure is pretty.

Wow, this is terrific. Bravo to Swiss animators/filmmakers Zita Bernet and Rafael Sommerhalder of Crictor for this delightful short film, simply called "Popcorn."

(swissmiss)

Filmmakers Zita Bernet and Rafael Sommerhalder, aka CRICTOR, created this delightful short as a cinematic holiday card.

He was performing 'Day-O,' the Afro-Jamaican chant made famous by Black civil rights activist Harry Belafonte.

Ben Hatke — the living superhero who wrote such wonderful illustrated kids' books as Zita the Spacegirl, Little Robot and Mighty Jack is touring his new graphic novel, Mighty Jack and the Goblin King, and tonight's stop is 7PM at Once Upon A Time Bookstore in Montrose (near Pasadena), where I'll be serving as interlocutor.