Every once in a while you stumble upon an obsessive hobby niche with some really stunning visualizations. Today’s obsession: Avengers comic books and the work of Jer Thorp. It turns out that there is a massive database of comic book metadata to work with.

The covers of every Avengers issue:

Who appears in each issue, by date:

Jer goes on to look at Avengers by first appearance, sex, robot, gods, and in part II who appeared more, who created the characters, and so on. I only wish he had shared more about how he built the visualization tools.

The Pimkie clothing company has come up with an interesting real-time fashion indicator: They video what people are wearing as they walk down the street in Paris, Milan, and Antwerp (supposed fashion capitals), and analyze what color pixels are moving. You can then look at the findings in real time, for yesterday, last week, or last month. Apparently, peach-ish red is huge right now in Paris. (via StoryTellingWithData)