About

My name is Mike. I sell funnybooks at my comic book store Sterling Silver Comics, located in Camarillo, CA. I used to work for Ralph’s Comic Corner (later Seth’s Games and Anime) in Ventura, CA. I’ve been at it since 1988, and yet I am still alive.

You can also find me on Bluesky, unless a better short form social media site comes along. You can find other places I’m at, or have been, at mikesterling.com.

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Here are a few things some kind people have said about my site over the years:

  • Dirk Deppey: “…Definitely one of the better new comics bloggers to emerge so far this year.”
  • Laura “Tegan” Gjovaag: “Mike Sterling is nuts.”
  • Fred Hembeck: “…Applies an affectionate sense of humor to the oft-times silly comics he’s focusing his attention on!”
  • Ian Brill: “I always knew that you were sexy, but now I know you’re a genius.”
  • Augie De Blieck Jr.: “It’s zany, but cool.”
  • Mag and H: “…May raise the troubling question whether you fear or envy a man whose mind works like that….”
  • Gordon: “The Greatest Comics Blog in The Multiverse.”
  • Reid Harris Cooper: “The Mikester is one of the most informed comic nerds alive….”
  • Bjorn: “Da kann Mr. Sterling ja gar nicht anders als den Satan mit dem Beelzebub auszutreiben….”
  • Ken Lowery: “Mike has a nose for the weirdest, funniest covers and stories in the days of comic yesteryear, and…happens to be a class act.”
  • Chazzbot: “…Has a keen eye for the amount of crap foisted on innocent comic buyers.”
  • DougBot: “Can somebody take Sterling’s scanner away from him before he scars us all forever?”
  • Ross Richie: “I love Mike Sterling’s PROGRESSIVE RUIN. Yeeeah!”
  • Jim Henley: “…Progressive Ruin has become my favorite comics blog. Perhaps it will be yours too.”
  • Milo George: “Mike Sterling is the only man to ever make me proud to be an American nerd.”
  • Christopher Elam: “Mike Sterling always manages to find the kind of things that make comics fun.”
  • Dave Lartigue: “…Put[s] the ‘Mike’ in ‘comikes blogger’…”
  • Alan David Doane: “…Mike Sterling’s perspective is delivered with wit and the occasional dose of much-needed sarcasm.”
  • Brian Cooksey: “Mike’s a real mensch.”
  • Scott Saavedra: “…Not many days go by without me marveling at some comic treasure he’s found.”
  • Neilalien: “Each post a pocket dimension of pure entertainment.”
  • Chris “Lefty” Brown: “I marvel at his comics history intellect and a bit scared of his consuming passion for Swamp Thing.”
  • Greg Burgas: “If I’m going to hell, I’m taking Mike Sterling with me!”
  • David Campbell: “The ultimate comics blog! EVER!”
  • H: “…You are both the most brilliant and most terrifying of all comics bloggers.”
  • Eddie-torial Comments: “I’m constantly and consistently entertained and amazed at the stuff he can dredge up from a dusty long box of comics.”
  • Harvey Jerkwater: “…One of the tentpoles of the comic blogosphere….”
  • Vincent Murphy: “Progressive Ruin is one of the unmissable comics blogs….”
  • Tom Foss: “…Every day, I find something at Progressive Ruin that I enjoy.”
  • Mag: “Why do you know this stuff? Are you evil?”
  • Chris Karath: “Progressive Ruin is the best one-man-show comic blog on the web….”
  • Eddie Mitchell: “May medical science never find a cure for the way your mind works.”
  • Joe Crowe: “…Mike Sterling writes funnily about dork-related things.”
  • Mick: “You shall go on my spaceship when we destroy Earth and leave it to the meek.”
  • Matt Maxwell: “…The second best-dressed comics retailer that I know….”
  • Tom Spurgeon: “One of the best comics bloggers out there….”
  • Johanna Draper Carlson: “…I admire his blend of no-nonsense realism and Swamp Thing wackiness.”
  • J. Caleb Mozzocco: “…The Internet would be a much, much lamer thing without you doing what you do to it. Er, on it.”
  • Christopher Elam: “…The finest comics blog in this or any other dimension.”