Okay gang, hold onto your shorts, as the New Progressive Ruin is launching next Monday!
I’ve been working in a secret laboratory, tinkering with templates and japing with jpegs, and I think I finally found the right formula to freshen up this site. I won’t bore you with details (“What? Who are you, and what have you done with Mike?”) but one template I was working with, that I sure was The One, turned into a huge pain in the Athol, Idaho, so I pivoted mid-stream to another and found that it did, like, 75% of the formatting for me.
So what’s left is that other 25%, which has taking a bit of learning new tricks, and just straight up downloading CSS and PHP code to plug into the new site to make things work the way I want them to.
Ultimately, things won’t be TOO different. I was trying to find a new design for the site that worked more or less like the old one. The priority was finding a more modern theme, one that’s been updated more recently than 2010 and will play nicely with the underlying WordPress mechanics. That said, there may be further poking and prodding of the template after Monday, after we all experience it in action.
Speaking of which, a big thank you to Andrea Mignolo, designer of the Hanami theme, which I’ve been using since I switched from Blogger to WordPress 16 years ago. That it’s functioned as well as it has for so long, through so many WordPress updates, is miraculous. And while that recent glitch wasn’t necessarily because of Hanami’s age, it was a reminder that it was time to bring the site at least a little more up to date. But…ah, Hanami, I shall miss you.
Anyway, the site should be up and running properly on August 10th, but if you pop in Sunday evening prior, things may be a bit of a mess as I’m updating, so…
Considering how many good and enjoyable comic blogs have simply died over the past 15 years or so – or turned into glorified curriculum vitae pages as the owners have moved out of fandom spaces in attempts to secure gainful professional employment – we’re glad YOU are still here, still blogging like it’s 2003.
We’ve lost so many fun, engaging, and interesting voices as some comic bloggers briefly turned pro (and later had the companies that employed them bought out and later shut down by their new owners) or were seduced away by the instant gratification of other social media platforms inherent in places like pre-Musk Twitter and its replacements, or stream of consciousness rambling on podcasts.
We’re glad that you – and the precious few who remain – are still here plugging away, doing it old school.
I second @Donald G’s sentiments above.
Also, nice banner. Zig-a-zig-ah!
What is wrong with Athol? I need answers!!!
And please don’t make the old link for your blog take to a place I have been warned about for years. (It will be a different URL, right?)
And I third Donald G’s comment! The internet would be a much sadder space with your site.
I’m excited to see the changes!