Alrighty then! Lots of great stuff on the internets this past week. Good stuff for fans of Captain Marvel and C.C. Beck, Winnie the Pooh, some guy that used to write Aquaman and Comic Con International (it’ll be here before you know, don’t you know). Enjoy!

CAPTAIN MARVEL’S SCI-FI CLASSIC: C.C. Beck is best known as not just the main artist on Captain Marvel (the Shazam guy, not the Marvel Comics one known as Mar-Vell but also the co-creator. Once DC Comics sued Fawcett Comics into the ground, he did a little fiction writing and became a published science fiction writer. His short story, Vanishing Point, is over at Gutenberg and you can have a nice free-read of it. 
(h/t Mike Sterling at Progressive Ruin)

BENJAMIN HOFF, PIGLET AND WINNIE THE POOH: Benjamin Hoff is a successful published author of books like The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet. Based on the way he’s been treated by his publisher, you can see why more authors are self-publishing, and why the more you find out about how traditional book publishing is run, the more it resembles the dwindling auto industry.

SHAUN: My pal Shaun McLaughlin was at one time the writer for DC’s Aquaman. You can read all about his Aquaman years over at The Aquaman Shrine. After that, he became a producer at the WB where he was responsible for a number of the animated TV shows that we all love, including Batman Beyond and Justice League Unlimited. He once described his work on JLU as “doing everything Bruce Timm doesn’t do.” You can read all about his JLU years at Ugo.

He was most recently the producer/show runner on Beckett Entertainment’s “Gene-Fusion” which he describes as “THE sporting event of the 24th century!”

Massive genetically-designed creatures battle it out in specially-designed arenas in front of hundreds of thousands of screaming fans! You can get a little taste of the fused fighting genes over at the Gene-Fusion website.

He recently left Los Angeles to raise his children in a better place, and while his physical being might be in New York State, his digital self is blogging. You can start reading his stuff over at It’s Not Tundra.

COMIC CON INTERNATIONAL: With this year’s Comic Con coming quickly into view – and parking, hotel rooms and tickets already long gone - you might enjoy this piece by Daniel Nester at The Rumpus about the convention-going experience. While you’re reading it, just do a Jedi mind trick and replace Book Expo America with Comic Con International.

TERRY BEATTY: Longtime comic book artist and veteran inker, Mr. Beatty has also been teaching some classes at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). He posted some of his students’ work at his blog and rightly points out that they are artists to keep an eye on.

THE SIMPSONS TOP 10 EPISODES: It’s not necessarily my top 10, but there you go. (For one thing, it’s missing the “Marge Vs. the Monorail” episode with its “Batman was a scientist” high point.) Let the fiber-optic-based opinion-packed typing war begin!

BLAR: He makes me laugh. Well played, Drew Weing. Well-played.

BEAU: Beau Smith has had a regular column over at Comics Bulletin called Busted Knuckles for quite some time. Beau’s worked for publishers as varied as IDW, Eclipse and Todd McFarlane, and he also writes some of the manliest comics around. In his latest column he takes a look at a forgotten favorite: M.A.R.S. Patrol. “As a kid I loved it for the balls to the wall good vs. evil. As an adult I enjoy it for not being weighed down by someone else’s political agenda and ‘blah blah’ dialogue.” It’s like I’ve found my twin.

PIXAR: They do more than just make movies.

PROS VS. JOES: That classic – and classically-bad – reality show’s got nothing on the real thing. Back in the 1970s, a comic book fan named Ken Gale (hi, Ken!) organized a softball team of comic book fans. In the middle of one of Phil Seuling’s big 4th of July New York conventions, Ken lead the Fandom Fireballs onto the field to challenge the employees of Marvel Comics, led by Stan Lee himself as pitcher. How’d the game turn out? I won’t tell you, but Mr. Gale will regale you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PG-13: If PG-13 is really 25-years-old, is it really PG-38? Matt Kennedy has the details at Forces of Geek.

That’s all for this week! Stay tuned for more, and don’t forget to tip the linker.

[Artwork: Cover to The Shazam Archives, © DC Comics, Inc. A great all-ages book, by the way.]