“Suddenly, five years later….”
Five years I’ve been doing this website. Five years of daily updates. Seriously, what’s up with that?
After going through the thanks four times previously, I’m totally repeating myself here, but thank you. Thank you to all you folks who come back day after day, reading what I write here, interacting with me in the comments, putting up with my occasional cranky moments, tolerating my eccentricities, contributing banners, clicking on my Amazon links hint hint nudge, and so on. It startles me sometimes to know that there are a few thousand people looking at what I’m doing here on a regular basis.
And thanks, once again, to my girlfriend Nora and her incredible tolerance of my peculiar four-color obsessions; to my parents, who don’t always know what the heck I’m going on about here but think it’s pretty neat anyway; to my fellow comics webloggers, with whom I don’t always agree except in that, hey, we do love the funnybooks; to Neilalien, for blazing the trail and his always welcome advice; and of course, to pal Dorian, my swell friend and nefarious partner in crime.
This site has become sort of my online home, my base of operations despite having other internet boltholes here and there…I have a MySpace (EDIT: link removed – I canceled the MySpace account) and a Facebook, both of which I hardly use to their full potential, though I check in on them on a fairly regular basis. And someday I may use Mikesterling.com for something other than a gateway page to here. However, over the last year I’ve been expanding my use of the oddly addicting Twitter, which at first I thought was a ridiculous idea, and now I find myself in the position of convincing friends to sign up for it. I love the Twitter. I can’t promise I’ll follow everyone who follows me there (I’m at about the max number of people I can comfortably keep up with), but I suggest you check it out if you want some kind of online soapbox without the burden of a full-blown blog.
Speaking of burdens, I keep saying I’m going to stop the daily schedule, that maybe I’d go to, say, three times a week. That seems like a reasonable amount of content for the site, right? Well, I still can’t bring myself to do it. I’m going to keep up the daily posting for as long as I’m able…will I make six years? We’ll see. Will it make me lose my mind? That’s a fair bet.
And that’s as good as a segue as any into what’s become my annual tradition: a listing of highlights from the past year, and by “highlights” I mean “about 2/3rds of everything I’ve posted because I can’t edit myself,” apparently. But just the same, feel free to peruse some of these links and relive the horrors:
When Darkseid met Swamp Thing (or at least sat in him), the wit and wisdom of Genocide, Marvel subscription inserts, BEHOLD CUTE GALACTUS, yes I saw Underdog – what of it, All Star Batfan banners, the only comic review scale you need, the Black Racer is still cool, hey this Flash comic ain’t too bad, I have to be stopped, it’s just a wee dram o’Comic Sans, the Sluggo Strut, Cloverfield shenanigans at the shop, I meant to blog more about the Flash, smart-ass pie charts, don’t mess with Alvin (with bonus Sluggo content), making a buck off Heath Ledger’s death, Sluggo was here, I talk a bit about Doctor Who, ’90s X-books and the collectibility thereof, stop bedwetting you hideous monster, The Shadow over Aqualad, bolos bolos bolos, I don’t do story overviews like this much anymore, Snapper Carr annoys you, so long to Steve Gerber (1 and 2), I’m only including this link so I can type “Wolverine’s Penis” again, the 2nd annual Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk Day, I can’t believe I actually did this post, Wonder Woman’s marginally new costume (plus bonus shower scene), I may have had a specific person in mind with this YouTube video, BAD TRIP OWL, the Turok DVD, God bless you Herbie Popnecker, a few words on the passing of Gary Gygax, DC’s stamps, I’m glad I didn’t have to explain why I posted about Jack Benny on my 39th birthday, Lois Lane in Near-Immediate Irony Theatre, Darkseid bids one bleen, the Question meets Rorschach kinda sorta, people took this comic ages thing way more seriously than I intended, the horrifying carnage of Wizard World L.A. (1 and 2), Dynamic Forces comics, Garfield Minus Everything, half of a full run of the Brady Bunch comic, SHADOWMAN RAP CONTEST, Mike’s a smart-ass about Secret Invasion, All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, I’m the only person who thought the stealth Durlan variant was funny, DVDs and James Brolin, Doom’s got words for you, LITTLE ARCHIE VERSUS SHARK, Archie’s Giant-Size Freak-Out isn’t as cool as it sounds, Greek Batman (there’s a joke there somewhere), I really wanted to order those tribbles, the beauty of Funnybook Shatner, Monkey Doodle got me linked on Boingboing, Star Trek and Spiro Agnew together again, this post resulted in a whole lot of Wikipedia editing, are you Space-Crazy, oh go cry about it Validus, this is a really inappropriate title for my Iron Man review, Free Comic Book Day aftermath, apparently giving away as many FCBD books as possible makes me the jerk, this panel still makes me laugh, that Phantom movie ain’t half-bad, oh Lord these X-Men cards, Lex Luthor versus Swamp Thing, THE NOSE OF VALIDUS, Hex versus the Legion, Steve Ditko versus the Legion, new members for the Avengers, this is just way too much to think about Brainiac 5, letters to Jimmy Olsen, a tribute to the moustache of Bouncing Boy, this still puzzles me, Slash the turtle, entirely inappropriate in-store behavior, seriously some people need to yank that stick out, X-Men versus Pizza Hut, Kubert School student ‘zines, in which we talk novelizations (1, 2, 3), MIKE REVIEW HULK MOVIE, Condorman: International Adventurer, this Batman panel drove me crazy, Batman’s villains had the most awesome hideouts, Baby Spock, Batman and Robin don their rubbers, Bizarro Break, the future of Peanuts, no one loves the Badrock Skydisc, my Hellboy 2 review, seriously just what the hell is going on in Batman comics, my Dark Knight review and follow-up, the disturbing faces of Popeye, Swamp Thing masks and Employee Aaron at San Diego, Mike’s mini-comic nostalgia (and some actual comics by me: 1 and 2), emo Batman is emo, the Cosmic Cube’s love for Twinkies, Superman and Batman and the state of their friendship, that whole stupid NOT BUY thing (and the inability of people to, oh, I don’t know, ADDRESS THE ACTUAL POINT), extreme close-ups of old comic ads, things I have found inside other things, OBVIOUS POINT COMING IN ON RUNWAY 12, why oh why was Walking Dead Vol. 1 unavailable all summer, Squeeks the Monkey, Land of the Lost creeps me out, in-store oral adventures, Mike’s dirty Aunt May post, CONTEMPLATE SLUGGO, Mike watches cartoons, no honestly don’t invest in F/X comics you dummies, I thought these panels were funny, thank goodness my readers have got mad Photoshop skillz, Sluggo planes wood and is awesome, Marvel and Star Trek coins, Avengers swimtrunks, Dead Jonah Hex is still Badass Jonah Hex (and follow-up: 1 and 2), King Richard I is a fighter, this is really gross, the Punisher versus typefaces, the Golden Age Sub-Mariner is so much better than the modern one, the Batman and Robin movie is discussed to death (1, 2, 3 and 4), Buenas Noches Dr. Manhattan, gorilla arms and adult babies, the internet’s only quality source for Rex the Wonder Dog adventure (1, 2 and 3), we actually had to explain why this might be construed as racist, plain brown wrappers, only I care about MacKenzie Queen, the forgotten faces of laughter, this is not suitable for viewing by anyone, French super-comics, a few quotes from an issue of Turok, hey kids comics, Sluggo questions the universe, way too much discussion about Smallville (1, 2, 3, 4), this mystery half-wit accidentally duplicated a post by Dr. K, the most important election of the year and the follow-up, an original Dark Knight Returns press release, the greatest promo poster of all time, Heroes for Hope radio script, and some bits of business re: Heroes for Hope interior pages (i.e. the ones are any good).
For looking at all that, let me show you yet again the unofficial mascot of Mike Sterling’s Progressive Ruin, the Swamp Thing Chalk:
…but with one important difference, thanks to Employee Aaron taking it with him on a recent convention visit:
It’s now autographed by Swampy’s cocreator Len Wein…who, according to Aaron, saw the chalk and exclaimed “hey, I have one of those!” AWESOME.
Thanks again for reading, internet pals, and I’ll see you tomorrow.