Who would have thought that the deranged version of the Joker from the Dark Knight films would make a great getup for a little boy doll? Apparently someone from WorldBox, an Asian toy manufacturer who also thought it would be endearing to label the ads “Take Happiness Home”. More like “Your Kid Will Never Sleep Again”, or “Joker, Now With Diapers!”  *shivers*

Link –via SuperPunch

In my opinion, the Joker is the ultimate comic book villain. From the beginning he has been one badass dude, killing with laughter in a time when comic book deaths were few and far between.

He is the ultimate nemesis, a criminal so chaotic, so insane, that Batman’s logical mind simply cannot keep up. The Joker has seen his character remodeled over the years, but not as much as many of the other comic book heroes and villains that get facelifts, proving that the Joker’s creators more or less had it right the first time.

ComicsAlliance has an interesting and insightful article detailing the history of the clown prince of crime, read on if you want to see just how far the Joker has come over the years.

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Comic book artists Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo honored the great cartoon Calvin & Hobbes with a comic showing Lex Luthor as Calvin and the Joker as Hobbes plotting to kill Superman. Click on the link to see the rest.

Link via Popped Culture

Ugliest Tattoos has more: Link – via Great White Snark

That wasn’t an idle comic store chit-chat – rather it was an example given by philosophy professors to introduce coursework:

William Irwin, a philosophy professor at King’s College in Pennsylvania, edits the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series, which includes titles such as Batman and Philosophy, and X-Men and Philosophy.

He says there’s nothing unusual about using popular references to illustrate complex theories.

"This is what philosophy has tried to do from the very beginning," he says. "Philosophy starts with Socrates in the streets of Athens taking his message to the people and speaking in their language – agricultural analogies and common mythology."

Katie Connolly of BBC News writes about the growing use of comic book characters to teach philosophy: Link – via Cliff Pickover’s Reality Carnival

Link via Geekologie