A thing that is awesome.
This full page splash from Defenders #16 (October 1974) by Len Wein, Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito:
You are currently browsing the archives for February, 2010
A decade of Neilalien.
Neilalien is the longest running continuous comics blogger still active, and as of yesterday he has been doing it for ten years.
I’ve spoken before about how much I appreciate Neilalien. I’ve thanked him in my anniversary posts, I’ve thanked him for helping me hash out my website issues, and I don’t remember if I ever thanked him here for, very early on, helping me with prepping images for site use, but if not, I’m thanking him now.
Neilalien is an absolute treasure, and a unique voice in the comics weblog community. I’ve never met him, no idea what his real name is (though I suspect part of it may be “Neil”), never spoken to him on the phone…but he continues to be an ongoing inspiration to my own comics blogging endeavors. Thank you Neilalien…may your own Eye of Agamotto never blink.
(Read other appreciations of Neilalien at Comic Book Galaxy and The Comics Reporter.)
In other news:
- Pal Andres has started up a postcard campaign to get DC Comics to manufacture a giveaway Legion of Super-Heroes flight ring, like the Lantern and Flash rings. Hey, sure, I’d like one. A ring, that is, not a postcard.
Read more about it from Andres’ cohort Svengali Lad and dis here Robot 6 article.
I think I’m going to start up a letter-writing campaign to get a similar Swamp Thing giveaway. (“Thanks for buying Swamp Thing Adventures #1…here’s your plastic tuber.”)
- Speaking of rings, DC finally announced the White Lantern ring giveaway which everyone kinda expected, including me.
I’m not ashamed…I love these goofy ring giveaways. I totally want them all.
- Speaking of greedily wanting everything…
[SPOILER WARNING]
…I’m glad to see in the new DC solicitations that Larfleeze, the Orange Lantern of Avarice, survives Blackest Night and will be sticking around for a while. Why? Because Everyone Loves Larfleeze, that’s why. I almost broke my own self-imposed ban on buying new action figures to get that Larfleeze figure that just came out.
This whole Blackest Night thing is all worth it just for Larfleeze. I love that guy.
- Chris Sims and pals have done it again…twice! First, you can read the first chapter of The Chronicles of Solomon Stone #2 (with the next three chapters posted weekly). Then, prepare for your emergency awesomeness transfusion at Awesome Hospital, updated Tuesdays and Thursdays!
- Speaking of comics, customer Gary put together a couple of sample panels for the Atomelephant and Elastiquito comic based on Employee Aaron’s sketch.
Oh man, such a tantalizing beginning.
Progressive Ruin presents…the End of Civilization.
Oh, man, it’s been a couple of days, that’s for sure. But, here we go, a new installment of End of Civilization to delight and probably annoy. Download a copy of the March 2010 Diamond Previews from copyright_liberators_daily and follow along. (Also, I finally added an “End of Civilization” category, which only links to this post so far. I’ll add the rest later when I have a little free time!)
p. 132 – Ame-Comi Heroine Series: Star Sapphire PVC Figure:
Oh, good, this should end the debate about Star Sapphire’s costume once and for all.
p. 209 – Fame #1 Lady Gaga:
You know, for most of my End of Civilization entries, I’m only joking that the item in question indicates the imminent fall of the world.
Just sayin’.
p. 244 – The Talisman: The Road of Trials Volume 1 HC:
I’m about to do something entirely unfair.
What my original hardcover copy of The Talisman novel cost when I got it back in 1984: $18.95 (probably about $30 or so today)
What this graphic novel adaptation of the early portions of the novel costs: $25.00
Yes, yes, we’re talking about two different animals here, but still, I think it’s interesting.
p. 275 – Archie: The Best of Dan DeCarlo, Volume 1:
Boy, I sure hope they talk about how he created Josie and the Pussycats in these books. And why he moved on to drawing Simpsons comics and such in his last few years.
p. 328 – Marvel Comics Iron Man 2 Trading Cards:
So I’m assuming Iron 2 Man is about a steam iron magically transformed into a human, and the wacky adventures he has trying to fit into a strange new world. “Hey, man, don’t press me!” “Whoops, sorry, old habits.”
…
I’ve lost my mind.
p. 333 – Krypto Mad Dog II T-Shirt:
“Doggie style.” Hmm, let’s see, what do I think of when I see that phrase?
1. The punk band Doggy Style.
2. A literal reference to the fact that this is a style of shirt with the picture of a dog on it.
3. And nothing else.
p. 335 – Zombieland We Stand United T-Shirt:
I can’t help but think that this is just going to cause problems with people who don’t notice the Zombieland logo in the corner. “What, you got a problem with sick people, jerk?”
p. 373 – Wolverine & The X-Men Colossus Statue:
Oh, thank goodness, my Colossus “Tribute to Armpits” statue is finally on its way.
p. 378 – Sushi Erasers:
Ladies, gentlemen…let the pranks begin.
p. 378 – Mini Designer Chairs:
These are collectible 1/12 scale model chairs, sold in “blind mystery box” packaging.
I don’t have a joke. I’m too busy being stunned.
p. 379 – Marvel Comics Coloud Headphones:
“STUPID HEADPHONES NOT FIT RIGHT ON HULK’S HEAD. HULK CAN’T PROPERLY ENJOY GLORIA ESTAFAN AND THE MIAMI SOUND MACHINE. WANT RHYTHM TO GET ME TONIGHT.”
“War Journal Entry #5511: I had hoped the soothing sounds of Billy Joel’s An Innocent Man would ease away the pain I live with every day…the pain of loss that never ebbs no matter how many drug dealers or mob bosses I take down. But if Hulk doesn’t shut up about his Gloria Estafan record, I swear to God I’m going to shoot the son of a bitch.”
p. 380 – Tru Blood Soda:
“Tart and slightly sweet, Tru Blood pours like a regular soda but appears stormy and mysterious when poured into a glass.”
Well, hell, I’m sold. If it’s one thing I want to put into my body, it’s something “stormy and mysterious.”
p. 392 – Family Guy Clue:
“The loud, obnoxious character…did it in the living room…with the flashback to a pop-culture reference.”
p. 393 – John Wayne Monopoly:
“Ooh, I landed on The Conqueror square. What happens now?”
“You…really don’t want to know.”
Marvel Previews p. 24-31 – Spider-Man family titles:
That’s eleven different titles, including three issues of Amazing, two mini-series, a one-shot, and an annual. …Huh, I wonder how come Spider-Man‘s success doesn’t translate to comic sales? You’d think the transition from one movie every three years or so to nearly a dozen different stories a month would be a natural one.
Marvel Previews p. 99 – Runaways Live Fast Premiere HC:
Hey, it’s that cover again! I think I’d almost be a bit disappointed if they fixed this little problem.
p. 100 – Avengers Red Zone Premiere HC:
Wow, they pumped up Johns’ name on the cover there to almost “Writers Who’ve Licensed Out Their Novels to Marvel” size on the cover there. Must be because of all the advertising DC’s been doing for them.
The world yet to come.
Well said, my Tholian friend.
So with working on the book, trying to help with the launch of The Bureau Chiefs site in my own limited way, dealing with a migraine, and other personal life issues, I just plain ran out of time for good ol’ Progressive Ruin today. I know, I suck. Not that I didn’t work on PR a little bit…mostly more tinkering with some of the pages here as a result of all that stuff I blathered on about yesterday. But I’ve got things in the hopper, like an End of Civilization post, and other goodies, so don’t worry, I still love you, baby. I mean it.
Also, some of you suggested I elaborate a little on my aside in yesterday’s post about the creepiness factor of Alpha Flight, and that’s a darn good idea, so look for that in the future, too.
AND…I had someone ask on the Twitter if I was going to acknowledge the fourth annual Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk Day, which, by the way, was two days ago. I hadn’t thought about it, since the planets aligned, pigs flew, Hell froze over, and Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk finished its run, but I suppose there are some series out there still not officially canceled, but Good Lord A’mighty they’re running late. All Star Batman and Robin is well over a year late at this point, and, well, I’m sure there are other late books out there. Not just a month or two, but like six months or more. Is All Star Batman the current record holder? Shall I begin celebrating a day in that comic’s honor? I mean, I already celebrate the book, because it’s absolutely fantastic, but I’m no fan of its scheduling.
Anyway, thanks for your patience, internet pals, and hopefully soon I’ll get my act together here on the deadline front.
image from Star Trek The Next Generation #72 (June 1995) by Michael Jan Friedman, Gordon Purcell and Terry Pallot
Permalinks, Alpha Flight, Rudy, insurance, and ONE MILLION DOLLARS.
So Neilalien had a short essay regarding Blogger’s dropping of FTP publishing, which, as you may recall, instigated my own switchover to the WordPress blogging platform. After reading what he had to say, I emailed Mr. Alien and talked over this situation, particularly in regards to “linkrot” (i.e. the breaking of links to my old Blogger permalinks, lost when I moved to WordPress). I was especially concerned since, not only did I break any incoming links from other sites, I had a habit of linking to past posts, so plenty of internal links were broken.
However, Neil suggested a solution which I’ve since implemented…republishing stripped down versions of my old archive pages through Blogger, containing all the old permalinks, which themselves include links back to the current version of my site. (I’ve also – hopefully – set those pages to not be indexed by search engines, so I shouldn’t have duplicate results on everything.) It’s not the most elegant solution in the world, but it’s better than people getting 404 errors all over the place. And I’m no longer breaking links in other people’s sites, which really did bother me.
From what I gather, if I’d been using Blogger’s “post-per-page” format instead of the “archive.html#4358435080490”-style permalinks, I wouldn’t be having this problem, as those appear to translate over a little easier. Or, at least, I’d be having different, more easily solvable problems. Unless there’s a solution I missed, which I’m sure I’ll hear about in the comments if I did.
Anyway, short version…old permalinks should go to something other than a 404 page now. Sorry for the inconvenience, and sorry for not being very considerate of you folks who suddenly found old links to my site suddenly not working. And now, I can put off trying to manually fix all my internal links, which would have probably driven me crazy when I hit this post.
A CAVEAT: at some point, I had an issue with some new update of Blogger or ‘nother, and my archive page URLs changed format. If you see links in earlier pages of mine to even older posts in this format:
“https://progressiveruin.com/archives/2004_04_25_archive.html#108291646897164207”
…you can remove the “archives/” directory, making the link this:
“https://progressiveruin.com/2004_04_25_archive.html#108291646897164207”
…which will work. I keep meaning to fix those, but, geez, who has the time?
Anyway, that’s a whole lot of “blogging about blogging,” for which I apologize. Thanks for your indulgence while I work out the kinks that still exist in my redesign.
Just so I have some comic book content today:
- Action Comics #1 sells for one million smackers. I wondered when this was going to happen. I think, a long time ago, back in my BBS days, I predicted in a comics forum that we’d see this happen by the year 2000. Hey, I was close.
- Friend of the site Tom Mason writes a bit about William Overgard, the cartoonist what brought us Rudy, and you know how much I like Rudy.
- Andrew has another Nobody’s Favorite, and she was borne of Bill Mantlo’s Alpha Flight. (By the way, for a while there, Alpha Flight, under both Byrne and Mantlo, was one of the just straight-up creepiest superhero comics ever. And I really do mean that in a good way.)
- I’ve unfortunately not been pointing out Dave’s recent series of posts discusssing the “Interplanetary Insurance” series from 1950s DC Comics. Yes, that would be tales of insurance sales and claims. With robots and aliens. In SPAAAAAAACE. This is both completely insane and completely awesome. Go, read.
A special announcement.
The creators and writers of Fake AP Stylebook (including yours truly and my close, personal internet chums) bring you The Bureau Chiefs, a new site, updated daily, with news, reviews, commentary, and the kind of bemused sardonic detachment you’ve come to expect from the Fake AP.
You can also follow The Bureau Chiefs on Twitter at @thebureauchiefs.
Valentine’s Day II: The Reckoning.
Okay, your pal Mike is still struggling with his migraine, and he has deadlines to meet on top of that, so instead of writing all that stuff I keep telling you I’m going to write, I’m instead following up on my Valentine’s Day post, where I presented a special card made just for me by pals Dana and Jorean. I mentioned then that they had made more cards that just that, and here are a couple of them:
• • •
The Wolverine card:
(Red doesn’t react well to JPEG reduction, so let me transcribe: “Wolver HATES Valentine’s Day / Because everyone he has ever loved DIES – We hope you don’t die!”)
The metallic superhero sticker-thingies on the front don’t show up very well there, so here they are after I fooled around with the brightness/contrast settings:
Anyway, those are some swell cards, huh? And, um…I’m assuming “Wolver” is a thing for some fans, but I’m not Googling it up. I’d rather not know.
Not tonight…I have a headache.
Yesterday was a rare Mike-less Saturday at the comic shop, as I was suffering the aftereffects of a pretty bad migraine headache. As opposed to, you know, all those wonderfully fantastic migraine headaches. As I write this (late Saturday evening) I’m feeling a bit better, but still not quite up-to-snuff enough to generate the post I was planning, so I’m entering Low Content Mode for today. Hopefully I’ll be back and functioning at full power for tomorrow.
Thankfully, so I have at least something on the site today, Pal Nat sent along this image based on the most recent Sluggo Saturday post, illustrating comic fandom’s everlasting dichotomy:
Okay, maybe not a dichotomy for everyone. I, for example, love both these comics. In fact, I’m hoping for a crossover. “I’m the gosh-darned Rena Titañon!”
Bully the Little Stuffed Bull also worked some of his hooved magic and whipped up this little number, plugging both me and Chris Sims in the process.
Thanks for checking in, folks, and I’ll see you tomorrow.
Sluggo Saturday #42.
THE SCORN OF THE MUNDANES
