“Suddenly, two years later….”
Don’t worry, I won’t run off at the mouth like last time. I was briefly tempted to go with H‘s idea of “everything you knew about ‘the secret origin of Mike Sterling’s Progressive Ruin’ is wrong,” however.
But anyway, here it is, the two-year anniversary of this goofy weblog of mine. Even though I had planned on slacking off a bit on the daily posting once I passed the one-year mark, I still had something new on my site every day. Cut it close that one day while I was in the process of moving, but I still managed it, gosh darn it! Whether that’s something to be terribly proud of, I’m not sure (“I goofed off on my computer every day this year…yay!”), but it’s an achievement of some sort, surely. I even squeezed in a monthly column at Comic Book Galaxy as well (new installment today, in fact).
Now, for the future…ah, heck, I’ll still keep trying to post every day, barring disaster, personal upheaval, and/or finally getting fed up with it. Don’t worry, I’m not likely to get fed up anytime soon…I still like talkin’ about comics, so you’re not rid of me yet!
I had planned on doing some kind of annotated index of highlights from the site over the last year, but as I was working on it, it was turning out to be horribly, horribly long, and more self-indulgent than I was planning.
However, I’m not above a little self-indulgence, so let me tell you about a couple things on this site that you may not know about: for example, a page I put up, at Bjorn’s request, showing how this site looked on April Fool’s Day. (For comparison, here’s pal Dorian‘s April Fool’s page.) Also, I posted a page of all my sidebar icons, accessible by clicking the current pic. Now that I’ve got a lot of ’em, that page is beginning to look pretty neat, if I do say so myself.
I think I’ll still point out a few of my favorite things from the last year, like my Free Comic Book Day speedos, ROBOT SHERLOCK HOLMES, the Swamp Thing sketch by Fred Hembeck, the Swamp Man drawing that Scott Saavedra was nice enough to place in my possession, Swamp Thing versus Man-Thing, deviant sexual behavior in Riverdale, some comic book haiku, some masterful packing, the Watcher movie, “you help blow too,” the many faces of Lex Luthor, the racial sensitivity of Green Arrow, DOOM BUTTON, scary Swamp Thing moments, and, God help us, the “SPECIAL EXTRA LARGE LESBIAN UNICORN ISSUE” — ask for it by name.
And it’s been that long since my last audio post? I need to do more of those.
In all seriousness, thanks to all of you folks out there who read my site. The traffic on this site is way up…still not a patch on some folks, but pretty good for a comics weblog, I think. In case you’re curious, the consistent top referrers to my site, aside from the Update-A-Tron, are Cognitive Dissonance, Dave’s Long Box, and, unsurprisingly, pal Dorian…but a big thank you to everyone else who links to this site, too.
When I started this weblog, it was just another way to express my enjoyment of comics, particularly the more goofy aspects of the hobby, as well as talking about some of the tribulations of selling the darn things for a living. I never expected to have an audience beyond a few friends…but it’s very gratifying to know that a lot of you out there come back to my site day after day, reading whatever crazy talk I happen to be posting. I honestly appreciate your readership, as well as your comments and e-mails. Again, thank you.
And special thanks as well to the Associated Comics And Pop Culture Webloggers of Ventura County, CA And Outlying Environs: pals Dorian, Corey, Sean, Tom, Ian, JP, and Kid Chris, who all encourage me in this sort of behavior.
Well, for the one-year anniversary I presented an embarrassing letter of comment of mine that was printed in a Superman comic. Alas, I have no more LOCs of mine to show you, but, to wrap things up, I do have this embarrassing photo of me as a young Mikester:
The certificate I’m holding is an award for “Most Fantastic Hair in Ventura County” (a title I still hold, thank you).
See you tomorrow!
