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 active in comics retail since 1988, and yet I am still alive.

I have been running this comics blog since 2003, back when comic blogs were still a thing. I’m still here doing a text-based blog in this modern world of TikTubes and SnapBooks out of sheer stubbornness for upwards of tens of readers, and I appreciate each and every one of you.

You can also find me on Bluesky, where I’m usually doing something dumb. You can find other places I’m at, or have been, at mikesterling.com.

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.”