“The swinging 60s version of Batman was dumbed-down New Left cant, proffered by poli-sci washouts and pseudo-artists who moved in the wake of the old left, the civil rights movement, rock and roll, and R. Crumb. But the only New Man possible in the world of 80s comic book crime-fighters is the next hideous, black-hearted mutant announcing himself with some insane outrage.” –Joe Carducci on Frank Miller’s take on  Batman, for the Los Angeles Review of Books.

• In news that will likely make you depressed, angry, or both: the Ridgewood DIY space Silent Barn has been robbed.

• At HTML Giant: Blake Butler’s essay “22 Things I Learned From Submitting Writing.”

• Flavorwire looks at “Unconventional Bookstores.”

• “Although the sounds on MoWest were varied and somewhat adventurous, none of them really tap into the sense of urgency that permeated the nation in the late 1960s and early ’70s — an energy that infused, say, Edwin Starr’s “War” and The Temptations “Ball of Confusion” back east.”  –Nate Knaebel looks at Motown’s early-70s output.

• Bryan Lee O’Malley’s next graphic novel has a title, a release date, and a publisher.

• Terese Svoboda’s poem “Boy on Crutches” is featured at Slate.

• If your musical tastes lean towards the ambient, might we point you in the direction of writings bout new albums from Christian Fennesz and Tape?