Three new comics for you today:

• Hawty McBloggy has the latest Grin + Bear It – I don’t know what to say about it.
• Elnea’s posted Halo Action Figure Theater #195 (No Reply) – I think maybe Six and John might have overreacted…
• TTL Demag0gue stopped by to announce Reclaimer 234 (Interrogator) – Indigenous Adjuvant discusses some questionable procedures he was involved in.

Go read!(Louis Wu 15:12:55 UTC)

Oonsk is taking on a life of his own – yesterday, ZzoMBiE13 sent along a tribute. You can see the full-sized version by clicking on the thumb… Update: even Stuntmutt is getting in on the act. (Louis Wu 15:01:15 UTC)

CaptainTony has done some digging – and come up with the following info: Amazon has Greg Bear’s first Forerunner novel slated for release on July 6, 2010, and McMillan is listing a due-in-March ‘Halo Boxed Set‘, which CaptainTony speculates might be the first three Tor-published Halo novels (Ghosts of Onyx, Contact Harvest, and The Cole Protocol), packaged together. While release dates are not set in stone until they’re officially announced, book release dates as posted by Amazon have a MUCH better track record than video game release dates – so even if they’re off by a little, July is a decent target for the first of the Bear-authored trilogy. Looking forward to it!(Louis Wu 21:35:27 UTC)

If you’re not up on internet memes, you might have missed ‘Geddan‘, a craze originated in Japan a couple of years ago. The ModHalo crowd wanted in, though, so Geddan Halo Master Chief was born. Thanks (well, maybe), Pepsi.(Louis Wu 20:55:28 UTC)

Halo 3 Screenshots is back with a new Top Ten collection, this one focused on Thel ‘Vadam (otherwise known as The Arbiter). And what a glorious collection it is! Go look.(Louis Wu 20:34:46 UTC)

GamesIndustry.biz surveyed almost 10,000 industry professionals about their predictions for 2010 releases – Halo: Reach was tapped as the biggest seller of the year. Here’s hoping they’re right!(Louis Wu 20:30:16 UTC)

So if you don’t visit NeoGAF, you’re missing some fun stuff. Junior Member Flipyap looked at the GI cover a couple of days ago, and posted a cropped shot of Kat’s shoulder. Since not everyone got the point, Flipyap made it clearer – and soon after, even pointed out the little guy’s name. Oonsk is now the default HaloGAF mascot… and he’s so adorable he’s spawned a commercial. (Yes, of course, he’s been added as a cornershot here.) GO OONSK!(Louis Wu 20:25:41 UTC)

Hedgemony dug up some information about the artist responsible for the Game Informer cover art – awesome to see that the chosen artist cites Craig Mullins as an influence!(Louis Wu 20:08:50 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy has a picture that was created in the snow for… dogs? I dunno. It’s cute, though! (Louis Wu 17:25:33 UTC)

Halo Waypoint has posted The Making of ‘Origins I’, the Legends episode we saw on Waypoint last week. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the building of this overarching storyline, and it includes tons of footage from the second half of Origins (which none of us will be able to see before Legends is released on DVD at the end of February). If you have an Xbox LIVE Gold account, go watch! (Louis Wu 16:57:31 UTC)

In case you’re wondering what there is to watch this weekend… it’s the MLG 2009 National Championships in Orlando, with $100k on the line for the top team. The landing page is here, on MLG’s website, and the live stream schedule is here. (Just visit their homepage for the stream itself.) Good luck to all the teams!(Louis Wu 16:42:32 UTC)

The latest Top 10 Halo 3 Series is up to Episode 46 – Big Team Battle Kills. The kills themselves are pretty good… but the Countdown Extras make this one. Go watch!(Louis Wu 16:42:04 UTC)

Wondering how the Winter Pentathlon went for Bungie yesterday? There are a bunch of photos up on Bungie.net (it looks like fun was had by many) – congrats to the Grizzled Ancients for pulling out the win!(Louis Wu 16:28:23 UTC)

RC Master wondered if Reach might include some RTS features, courtesy of Forge’s successor… and Hawaiian Pig added a substantial analysis of his own. Would this be fun? Who knows? It’s sure interesting to speculate about, though!(Louis Wu 16:25:42 UTC)

Well, the big news of yesterday afternoon was the announcement of Game Informer’s February issue – Scotty, on our forum, was the first word I saw. There are Twitter updates from GI editors and tidbits all over the place – GI will be releasing new Reach information nearly every other day through the month. Looking forward to the flood!(Louis Wu 15:42:55 UTC)