Près de deux ans se seront écoulés depuis la fin d’Inri, deuxième volet du Triangle secret, avec la publication en mars prochain du premier tome des Gardiens du sang, troisième cycle – ou saison, c’est la mode – de la saga ésotérique conduite par Didier Convard. Denis Falque sera chargé de la plupart des dessins sur un tome qui se passera essentiellement de nos jours, avec l’assassinat d’une huile du Vatican par un mystérieux tueur au service de la foi.

Double ration aujourd’hui, avec ce petit dessin qui était initialement prévu pour un magazine.

Sans même entrer dans le vif du sujet, Bottomless Belly Button, roman graphique de Dash Shaw, en impose par ses mensurations : 720 pages, un dos de 5,5 cm sur lequel on trouve une foultitude d’infos, bref, une sacrée bête. Acclamé meilleure bande dessinée indépendante de l’année aux USA, le pavé édité par Fantagraphics arrive aux éditions Çà et là pour 30 €, un an après la sortie du tout aussi imposant Château l’Attente.

Mais rien à voir ici avec de la fantasy médiévale, Bottomless Belly Button flirte du côté de la chronique sociale iconoclaste à travers les aventures de la famille Loony, qu’on croirait presque sortie d’un film de Wes Anderson, genre Famille Tenenbaum. Il faut dire qu’après 40 ans de mariage, les parents Loony annoncent leur divorce, et réunissent tout le monde dans la maison familiale. Fantaisie parmi d’autres, Peter, le cadet de la famille, apparaît la quasi-totalité du bouquin sous les traits d’une grenouille – même s’il nous a fallu un quart du livre pour comprendre que ses narines n’étaient pas ses yeux ! –, en écho à sa position de loser que ce soit sur le plan professionnel ou sentimental. Lui, comme les autres, va vivre un séjour riche en rebondissements tapant au cÅ“ur de ses complexes. À la fin, tous les personnages auront évolué de façon perceptible.

Varié et hétéroclite, tant sur les thèmes que sur le plan visuel, avec des mises en pages éclatées pour rythmer les différentes parties et de nombreux jeux graphiques avec des onomatopées d’ambiances “musique à fond” et de mouvements “emmêle”, les 720 pages se lisent d’une traite. Pourtant, Bottomless Belly Button aura du mal à séduire ceux pour qui les histoires qui mènent en voyage dans la psyché des personnages ne font ni chaud ni froid. Reste qu’en la matière, grâce à ses trouvailles graphiques et à sa façon de traiter de façon simple les choses complexes, le roman graphique de Dash Shaw est ce qui s’est fait de mieux cette année !

Les images sont © Dash Shaw.

À la façon de l’Étrangleur de Tardi chez Casterman, Carabas s’essaye au format tabloïd en proposant une histoire courte de Low Moon, le nouveau Jason, déjà dispo chez l’éditeur dans un petit format de 180 pages vendu 20 euros. Cette version allégée, proposée 3 euros au format journal, nous fait profiter en très grand format des situations cocasses imaginées par Jason, soit un western où le jeu d’échec semble avoir remplacé les bons vieux colts poussiéreux. À cela s’ajoutent les habituels running gags et les innombrables comiques de situation. Forcément Jasonesque.
En deux mots : Western et mat
De Jason, aux éditions Carabas - 20 pages - 3 € (visuel récupéré sur placedeslibraires.fr)

Chris Isidore / CNNMoney.com:
It's official: Recession since Dec. '07  —  The National Bureau of Economic Research declares what most Americans already knew: the downturn has been going on for some time.  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S …

Alex Weber, of Tinkerlog, who's brought us such wonderful projects as the programmable LED (featured in The Best of Instructables) and synchronizing fireflies, now offers kits for both of these projects in his new Tinkerstore. Synchronizing Firefly kit sells for 11.50 Euros (about $14.40) and simulates a firefly with a tiny microcontroller. If put together with other fireflies, they will flash randomly. After some time they will start to interact with each other and the flashes will start synchronize until all fireflies flash at once. The kit contains the Firefly PCB, ATtiny13V microcontroller, bright RGB LED (~4000mcd), phototransistor, capacitors and resistors, sockets and header. Not included are a power supply and the ping pong ball. The programmable LED kit sells for 6.50 Euros (about $8.25) and has a blinking sequence that can be programmed with a flashlight. It detects changes in the lighting, records them, and plays them back. The kit includes everything you need to build the circuit, including the 3V coin cell battery. It requires freeform soldered (no PCB).

Tinkerstore

More:

The Best of Instructables Volume I

Instructables.com has become one of the most popular magnets for makers and DIY enthusiasts of all stripes. Now, with more than 10,000 projects to choose from, the Instructables staff, editors of MAKE, and the Instructables community itself have put together a collection of technology, craft and food hacking how-to's from the site. The Best of Instructables Volume 1 includes plenty of clear, full-color photographs, complete step-by-step instructions, and tips, tricks, and new build techniques you won't find anywhere else. Cool electronics projects such as Alex Weber's programmable LED are included in over 120 projects.
Price: $29.99

Rex Nutting / MarketWatch:
U.S. recession began in December 2007, NBER says  —  WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. economy entered a recession in December 2007, a committee of economists at the private National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday.  The economy reached a peak in December and has been declining since …

The FBI emailed us today - never a good sign - to let us know about their updated top ten fugitives widget. It’s a big improvement on the eyesore that they released a year ago. Get it here.

The widgets are powered by Silicon Valley based Clearspring.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

In the waning days of his leadership at the FCC, chairman Kevin J. Martin is trying to push through some striking initiatives in his last chance to leave his mark on the agency. On Election Day, for instance, the FCC approved unlicensed use for white-space TV spectrum (aka, WiFi 2.0) that is being freed up. Now Martin wants to rid the wireless Web of porn.

One of the issues he plans to tackle in upcoming meetings this month, is a plan to give all Americans free access to the Web via the airwaves, minus the porn. Adults would be able to opt back in to get the raw, unfiltered Internet.

The proposal opens the door for the FCC to regulate decency standards on the Web, but only when it is accessed over the airwaves by wireless devices. It would reassert the FCC’s authority in this area, which harkens back to the decency standards it imposes on broadcast TV. This is a bad idea for several reasons.

2. The rule would apply to only one sliver of spectrum, the AWS-3 band, which nobody really uses yet. It would be like banning porn on fiber-optic IPTV, but not doing anything about it on satellite or cable. If children watching porn is the problem, this will do nothing to stop it.

3. Porn filtering aside, requiring winners of the AWS-3 spectrum auction to give up a quarter of the airwaves they win to set up a free slower-tier wireless Internet service will certainly make those airwaves worth less to any potential bidders. Worse, it could drive away the best potential bidders who might decide it is just not worth their effort or capital.

You’ve got to wonder whether Martin really thinks he can get this passed, or whether he just wants it as a resume stuffer. It’s the kind of thing that plays well on the campaign trail, should Martin decide to run for political office in the future. Why is he bringing this up now for what is ultimately a minor swath of spectrum? If he was serious about eradicating porn on the wireless Web, he should have tried to impose this kind of rule during the last set of auctions for the 700 MHz spectrum. But he didn’t.

Setting up a free tier of wireless Web access is the more interesting part of his proposal. Perhaps a better way to do that would be to set up economic incentives for spectrum winners to offer free tiers of service, rather than mandate it. For instance, why not offer a 25 percent discount to each bid that includes provisions for free Web access that could be supported by advertising. That way the market would sort out what portion should be free and what portion should be paid.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Jack Schofield / Guardian:
Memeorandum runs rings around Google News  —  If you want to know what's happening in the world, then Memorandum will tell you - at least in a couple of areas.  It's an automated news clipping service, known in the trade as a “news aggregator”.  It provides headlines and short texts updated every few minutes …

CNN:
Obama names Clinton to national security team  —  (CNN) — President-elect Barack Obama on Monday announced Sen. Hillary Clinton as his pick for secretary of state, calling her an “American of tremendous stature who will have my complete confidence.”  —  “Hillary's appointment is a sign …