San Diego bound.

'Cause the record company, Rosie, just gave me a big advance!

H over at The Comic Treadmill weighs in with another incisive look at Demo. Issue six is the object of attention this time out. H's work here is definitely one of the most insightful critiques of the issue I've read yet.

Johnny B shows us he's not as grumpy as all that with his review of Ursula on The Johnny Bacardi Show. Even if you don't have time to read the whole thing, his first paragraph is a thing of beauty.

Further up, in his best of the week/comics commentary post, The Divine Mister B laments the Scurv boys being off a step with the latest issue, but still grades 'em with an A- and thanks 'em for getting off the stage before it all gets too cloying. Not for nothing was this last one called "The Scurvy Dogs Sell Out."

And speaking of the Scurv, Sean Collins takes a poke at Ken Lowery's obviously unhealthy love of the Scurv and asks why that is any different than Alan David Doane's call for "everyone" to review Eightball #23.

Leaving aside the "let's-you-and-him-fight" nature of that one, I should think the difference is so obvious that Sean's just looking over its head: that one guy loving something so much he wants to tell his pals about it is a different thing altogether than another guy demanding that everyone review the same thing he does.

But since Sean writes: "Don't get me wrong -- I'm sure Scurvy Dogs is a fun book, but I'm also sure that even its creators would tell you there's a big difference in terms of both execution and intent between a fun pirate romp and what Clowes is doing," and since we here at AiT/Planet Lar love to spend our Sundays making sure these sorts of things don't go unanswered, I stopped watching my TiVoed episode of Friday's American Casino and went down to the dungeon where we keep Ryan and Andrew tethered to the masonry.

"Here, read this," I said, as I threw a printout of Sean's column at Drew and a bucket of gruel at Ryan. "What's your official response?"

Reading over Drew's shoulder, Ryan let loose a demented cackle. "Heh-heh-hee-hoo-haw-huh," he said. "Collins said 'Eightball' and 'Scurvy Dogs' in the same sentence. Heh heh."

Andrew wasn't much better. He moved the soggy, unlit cigar stub he had clenched in his teeth from one side of his mouth to the other, and fixed me with his steely gaze.

"I love it when a plan comes together," he said.

The 160 page graphic novel collection Scurvy Dogs: Rags to Riches will be available in February.