I saw this on BoingBoing today:

Dick Burger has been hailed by fandom as the greatest comic book creator since Jack Kirby. Unlike Kirby, however, Burger retained ownership of his characters and became a media tycoon, complete with a private jet furnished with a hot tub and a mansion in Los Angeles. He is also an insufferable bastard.

Leonard Bates is a North American journalist who is conducting research for a biography of Burger. When he travels to Hicksville, New Zealand to visit Burger’s childhood home, he discovers that no one in the village wants to talk to him about Burger. For reasons unknown to Bates, they are downright angry at him for even mentioning his name. They are delighted, however, to give Bates access to the town library, which contains the greatest comic book collection on the face of the earth (including several copies of Action #1 which they casually pull from the shelves). It turns out that everyone in the village is connoisseur of comics and they’d all read Bates’ earlier biography of Kirby. What is going in here? wonders Bates, and what’s the big mystery about Burger?

It sounds fascinating to me. I do enjoy more “real” comics, in addition to the standard superhero fare. Joe Sacco is probably my favorite non-fiction writer (check out Palestine and The Fixer, and Ryan Claytor (now a fellow Michigan resident) has done some cool autobiographical stuff, as well as a wonderful, sad piece called The Machinist.

My expectation is that Hicksville is a bit of that kind of tone – obviously fiction, but much more real-world than the typical comic book – melded with a bit of meta-awareness.

I’m going to hunt this one down.

Thank you Mr Andy Kubert.

Via DC’s The Source

Bourbon Barrel aged beers from Founders. A brewery known for producing consistently high-quality beers, and sometimes brilliant high-gravity beers. Then sometimes, they decide to put them in oak barrels. That’s how you get these beers.

Backwoods Bastard: This is a bourbon barrel aged version of their Dirty Bastard Scotch ale. While Ian doesn’t normally like Dirty Bastard (not that into the style, to be honest), he happens to love Backwoods. Get a bottle and put it in your cellar. Better yet, get a few, save some, and drink some now. Go ahead, we’ll wait for you to get back from the store.

Brian isn’t particularly thrilled with Dirty Bastard either. Its good for the style, just doesn’t knock his socks off.

So Backwoods is quite remarkable. It takes a moderate beer, and turns it into something HUGE and amazing. A huge bourbon in the nose, and some roastiness in the flavor that isn’t there in the original. It is also WAAAYY darker than the original. Maybe that’s from the charring of the barrels? Hard to tell, but if we had to guess, that would be it. But its tasty.

Nemesis is a maple bourbon barrel aged wheat wine, and is particularly interesting in that its a lot lighter in color and mouthfeel than expected.

In a blind smell-test, Brian could barely tell the difference between the two. There is a very similar bourbon aroma to them, and a serious alcohol presence, but Brian detected a slightly greater sweetness in the Backwoods.

The Backwoods is more complex, and has a weight in the center of the palate. Brian almost wants to say its vanilla, but also knows that’s not quite it. Ian thinks its a darker flavor.

Brian has a theory: Backwoods Bastard has carmel corn in it, and Nemesis doesn’t. That’s it. Only difference.

In all fairness, that’s a decent (if unique) way to describe it. The high malt profile of the Dirty Bastard, paired with the vanilla in the bourbon, seems to give an effect not totally unlike carmel corn.

The difference is carmel corn.

Backwoods Bastard: 8/10 – the benchmark by which all other bourbon aged Scotch Ales are to be judged.
Nemesis: 8/10

But here’s the kicker: value. Is Backwoods worth the $5/bottle? Oh yeah.
Is Nemesis worth $7/bottle? That gets a little tougher.

VALUE POINTS:
Backwoods Bastard: 6.5/10
Nemesis: 4/10

Doesn’t seem like it should make that big a difference, but it does.

This is looking so awesome. I was kind of wary, but now that I’ve watched these? No doubt in my mind.

Via MajorSpoilers.

EDIT: NPH IS IN THIS TOO?!