Above: spotted in Phnom Penh.

After uploading the last comic I needed to give my brain a rest. What to my wondering eyes should appear but a bootleg DVD of ‘The Matrix Reloaded’? That’s hard to find in Siem Reap, so close after the release date. It was the only copy in the store so I snapped it up.

For $4 you get what you pay for. The last segment didn’t play, so I didn’t see the end. And it was bad quality video, obviously filmed by a videocamera in a theatre. Ouch. No, I don’t think bootlegging is as huge a threat as the major media companies think it is. There will always be a demand for quality.

Big marketing blitz this time too. Free your mind. With fine Matrix (TM) products.

Ethan Persoff:Has dug up a fascinating and creepy comic: The Atomic Revolution Comic Book

Artbomb.net gives you tidbits of online comics as well as reviews of book sized comics. (I’d say graphic novels, but some of these are clearly not.) Of note: New strips by D’Israeli and Lauren McCubbin.

The latter, ‘Harvest Gypsy’ captures the ambiance of zipping through Central California perfectly. As a college student in Santa Cruz, I traveled the same route many times.

Artbomb though – sexy for westerners… “it’ll blow your mind!” Would that name appeal to an Iranian or Cambodian? In a ‘post-conflict’ society, there isn’t a lot of intrigue in ordnance, just pathos. Hmm, may have to do a comic on that.

Finally, an interesting piece by some guy named Tenzin Gyatso.