So for approximately 36.3% percent of my life, I have been working on this website, since way back when I still had brown hair and properly-working eyes. And that also means of the 35 years I’ve been toiling in comics retail (and can currently be found at my own store), 57.14% of that time, more or less, has been spent relating the travails of the funnybook business.
Well, I’m still here. I’ve outlived many other comic shops, many other comics bloggers, mostly out of pure stubbornness, partially out of force of habit. But I’m hanging in there, even as the public’s desire and/or patience for both blogs and comic books wax and wane, and I appreciate you folks out there continuing to tolerate my presence.
As I like to remind folks, when I started this site, I didn’t even plan to bring up the fact I worked in a comic book store. Now it’s such an indelible part of this project of mine I can’t imagine doing without. I doubt I’d still be doing this blog if I weren’t so thoroughly mired in the comics industry.
Big thanks, of course, to my family and my girlfriend for putting up with this ridiculous hobby of mine for this long, to all my pals both online and (supposedly) real, the Longbox Heroes boys for plugging my site every episode, and of course to the Original Comics Blogger, Neilalien, for blazing this weird trail for the rest of us. And naturally to everyone out there still reading blogs and participating in my comments sections…you folks are a big reason why I’m still doing this. Thank you all.
Over the past year, I’ve been doing pretty well, actually. Despite a new but relatively minor issue cropping up, my eyeball problems have been on the mend, experiencing finally some real progress.
At the store, I’ve been having my best year of business yet, in no small part due to the acquisitions of some wild collections. Among those comics are many, many Silver Age Marvels, including a couple of very notable issues which you’ll see linked below.
Social media has been a real ride of late, necessitating the updating of my mikesterling.com page showing where you can find me (which probably could still use a little more updating, frankly). By the way, you can also get to that page via mikester.net, because I’m a raging egotist.
Twitter (or as I’ve been referring to it lately, Xwitter, per its new name nobody seriously uses, and that “X” looks like a collapsing “T”) is a platform I’ve been using far less lately. I’m still there, checking in and monitoring direct messages, but not participating nearly as much. Still, I have a few tweets to share from that platform, for perhaps the last time for one of these anniversary posts:
Marvel movies have taught kids at least one important thing:
Was finally able to form an opinion on The Flash movie based on an actual viewing:
And I can’t help but comment on other people being very wrong about superhero movies:
I address…assumptions made:
I experience the respect I deserve in my own store:
And maybe sometimes I get a little too much respect:
Finally, a fan-casting I can agree with:
And I at long last put my hard-earned English major to use by chiming with some literary criticism:
Now, if you want to find me on a Twitter-a-like social media platform, me ‘n’ many of my pals seem to have settled on Bluesky. Not open to non-members yet, but apparently there are plans to allow public access soon. You can find me here if you’d like (and my store here), where you can see bon mots such as these:
But overall, I understand my life and its position in the world:
Now to this site itself: for most of the year I’ve been discussing your picks for your favorite 1980s comics, and you can find all those posts under this category. I had hoped to be done with it all by the end of the year, but it’s not looking likely, especially since, surprise surprise, I tend to run off at the keyboard a bit so each entry is longer and more time-intensive than even I expected. But we’re almost done, with a couple of really good titles left to go. And you have yet to find out which 1980s title is my favorite!
But here, have some other highlights from throughout this past year:
DECEMBER 2022
I didn’t really need these Popeye action figures but honestly just look at them, more poop on Popeye, more than you ever wanted to know about Gold Key Champion.
JANUARY 2023
My Few Omnibuses with new addition The Thing, and yet morereprints of Swamp Thing for me, and now looking at your predictions for 2022 (123456), that Secret Six (not Blackhawk) story that takes place in my hometown of Oxnard, ass-free comics, arse-full comics and the first Code-approved use of “pissed off,” got pal Nat to sign an early comic of his for me.
FEBRUARY 2023
I still have little confidence that James Gunn DC movies etc. plan are going to go anywhere, maybe I’ve already discovered the Most 1990s comic, Popeye sailing the Spanish seas, it’s never too late for another Death of Superman post, Cerebus meets Popeye plus some street dates talk, a thing that’s bugged me for years about these two Marvel comics, Zot! Talk, parts One and Two.
MARCH 2023
So long to Dilbert, Howard Chaykin did more American Flagg! than I thought, for some reason it’s getting harder for me to do these birthday posts, so long Rachel, where’s my Eisner for the title I came up with this post about Mars, I think the store I talked about here is long gone, “Hey, I like PC comics” “of course you’d like ‘woke’ comic” “what,” I should get my Eisner taken away for the title to this post about Az, I chat about a handful of 1980s indie companies, Jupiter the comic that dares include me.
APRIL 2023
I think there will be an awful lot of posts there it’s just me talking about miscellaneous ’80s indie companies, so long Al, terrifying comic book ad puppets vs. reality.
MAY 2023
Before Free Comic Book Day with bonus Freak Brothers talk, after Free Comic Book Day, these great Golden Age horror action figures sold great, PLANET OF THE APES BUTTS, God is unhappy with one of these comics, honestly I admire DC’s restraint in not reprinting this Batman book, ROM and Micronauts together again.
I finally get some Guts, I tried to ask another question of the person who did this TikTok video but she mysteriously disappeared (or decided she’d heard enough from me), Hulk is honored, a couple of old images archived on old CD-ROMs, in which I bother Shannon Wheeler his own self about shooting Jab comics, by Jove it’s Jupiter, a small edit to Mad‘s Star Wars parody.
AUGUST 2023
I’m #1 with a Jab bullet, an early review of the first issue of Mage: The Hero Discovered, the wild reasons this issue of Amazing Heroes is expensive, Mike gets yet more fanzines he has no time to read, and here’s another fanzine oh by the way is anyone actually reading this part of the post – please let me know, and more ‘zines, these Flash comics were a real trial (and a follow-up).
SEPTEMBER 2023
Mostly just bragging that I had Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing Spider-Man #1, those dollar store Disney comics, another exclusive dollar store exclusive comic with video, I may have finally tracked down a childhood Star Wars magazine memory, my initial likely-inaccurate reaction to the whole Bill Willingham/Fables/DC hoohar, and now a picture of me with those Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing Spider-Man #1 comics, so long Joe, just pure nostalgia for my young comic-collecting days, still trying to figure out a price for this German DC Comic.
OCTOBER 2023
In short buy everything Bill Griffith ever does because it will always be good, NANCY TALK with a cameo appearance by long-last pal Andres in the comments, it’s just ducky and very recommended, some new-to-me Curt Swan art, so long Keith, and let’s not forget Video Jack, some of you got the reference in the title, some minor reminiscing about “the dangers of comics,” some info on Comico and its newsstand/money woes.
NOVEMBER 2023
“A bloo bloo this Flash Gordon strip is too vibrant and exciting and I don’t like it because it’s not old,” a sign of the end times, another ancient memory — this time involving Jon Sable — confirmed, another House of Secrets #92 homageand an old catalog, BROW THING OR NO BROW THING, but definitely NO TEETH THING with bonus movie ranting, what is the most 1990s comic, more old archived images this time from America Online, alternate timeline Howard the Duck movie, Wikipedia is wrong about Amazing Heroes, how many is too many Death’s Head II pins.
And I guess that is that…so endeth our 20th year, and on to year 21! Thanks to all of you for sticking around, and I’ll be back later in the week with even more comic talk. Even after two decades of doing this, I still have more to say, much to your delight and/or regret.
But for reading all that, please enjoy this brief video of some oddball’s weird face saying things at you:
Yes, you’ve been putting up with me for nearly 20 years (or a subset thereof), through all the comic scans, the retail talk, the ballyhooing of Frank Miller’s The Spirit and All-Star Batman and Robin, though health issues, through leaving one comic shop and opening another, through all the TV shows and movies, through all the fads and NFTs (but I repeat myself), through…well, through one more year of perpetuating this internetally-ancient blog.
Thanks as always to my family and friends, pal Dorian (alas, his site postmodernbarney is no more, but we’ll find a way to get an archive back up somewhere), and as always, to the Founding Father of Comics Blogging, Neilalien. And a special thank you to Bully, the Little Substitute Bull, who filled in for me during a week where I had other obligations. (Links to those posts below!) And yet more thanks to the boys Todd and Joe at Longbox Heroes who regularly plug this site on their podcast!
And of course big thanks to all of YOU, not just because you’re still out there reading comic blogs, but for all your wonderful comments and emails and such. In a world where online discourse has just swirled straight down the toilet, I’m very lucky that 99.9% of my interaction with readers has been very positive. Honestly, I appreciate it a great deal.
Speaking of podcasts, like I was just right up there a few lines back, I made my stunning return to the internet airwaves discussing the 1981 film Heavy Metal on the Vintage Video Podcast. You can find a link to my post describing the experience below…that’s right, I’m not linking it right here, you have to search for it! HAR HAR HAR! Anyway, hopefully I’ll be back on there eventually, when you least expect it!
Now, onto the regular feature of these anniversary posts…what I’ve been getting up to on Twitter. As you’ve probably heard, Twitter’s been taken over by someone whose actions thus far have…inspired less than a huge amount of confidence, and while I don’t expect that platform to immediately crash into an iceberg or anything, the actual user experience there coiuld very well degrade to the point where I’ll do my social media-ing elsewhere. Like, for example, on Mastodon or cohost or Tumblr or The Hive (no web access on the last one, look for user name “mikester”).
As a result of this online tumult, I’ve revamped the mikesterling.com site showing all the places I’d been and am currently at. And, new as of just a few weeks ago, mikester.net will take you there as well. (Mikester dot com, alas, is on some domain sale site for stupid amounts of money.)
Anyhoo, back to the Twitters. Here are a few (final?) bon mots from that service for your perusal, demonstrating, for example, my customer relations:
…as well as my incisive breakdown of DC’s publishing strategies:
…and my ability to hold a grudge:
…plus my love for things that are bad for me:
…as well as my remembrance of the good ol’ days of comics blogging:
…with a little room for recalling the halcyon days of my youth:
…along with my inability to take a compliment:
…and those excellent marketing skills that Marvel always keeps calling upon me for:
…not to mention that my eyeball stuff is still a thing:
…and my crushing self-awareness:
…or some of these people’s lack thereof:
…plus my occasional run-in with a colliqual conundrum:
…and my encounter with a gentlement with excellent taste:
…as well as my insightful pop culture commentary:
…with a tad of skepticism:
…wrapping up with not just a clear delination of my fate upon this Earth:
…but a mysterious message as well:
So there you go…will those all be screenshots from my Mastodon account next year? We’ll just have to see!
Now, let’s see just what I’ve been up to here on this very site over the last year:
DECEMBER 2021
Let’s get lenticular, an appreciation of George Pérez, the sneaky way Marvel made you decide you wanted more expensive comics, those bait ‘n’ switch-y LEGO variants, I thought I picked a pretty good Booster Gold cover for this vaccination post, I sold the majority of these within a matter of a week or two, hey somebody wrote in these comics, some words on authenticating signatures.
JANUARY 2022
Some talk about the original black bagged Death of Superman comic, speaking of autographs pal Ian totally ruined the value of this comic, uh oh it’s looking at 2021 predictions time (parts 12345678EPILOGUE).
FEBRUARY 2022
Detroit-era Justice League, putting the Marvel back in the Man, [Homer Simpson voice] “Especially YOU,” my previous place of employment becomes a previous place, yes it’s true the new comics rack has no Tick, “don’t kill trees” says this comic made from trees, SPOILER: my allocationwas 10%, dueling witches,
MARCH 2022
Still have this sign on display at my shop, meanwhile the clock is still on a shelf at my house, one of my more subdued birthday posts, some questions about that sign, on ordering those ratio variants, CUTE SWAMP THING, who could forget “Birthquake” with promos like these, autographed by the real Spawn, the Turok mystery is solved with help from Longbox Heroes, so long Garry Leach.
APRIL 2022
An old Matt Wagner Mage promo, I deserve an Eisner for the title of this post about the EC Comics counter dump; Solson Comics – I have, won’t you; slow days at the shop; printing errors and the worst comic; talking to me is always a mistake; the only good thing featuring Azrael; what’s Metron’s deal anyway.
MAY 2022
Goodbye Ivy and Neal; Goodbye George; this year’s Free Comic Book Day postmortem; lookin’ at Marvel and DC’s African benefit funnybooks; more Death of Superman talk with extra bonus offense of Canadians; Swamp Thing International; ordering suggestions from ye olden tymes (and part two).
DC promo stickers; Swamp Thing vs. the Hot Comics App; this year’s Freak Out Post; still not sure what the point of Dark Crisis is; didn’t think it’d be Plastic Man that would get me to revive the “racial sensitivity” tag; decided against buying all these variants; a rough rough rough Superman joke; the best Megaton Man panels; important Gelatinous Cube news; the Wedding of Superman – no, not that one; the whole numbering-of-Marvel’s-Earth thing; the Marvel multiverse vs. the DC multiverse.
AUGUST 2022
Turned out this wasn’t the gangbuster success the original was; this toy is terrible; it used to be pretty easy to explain DC’s multiple Earths; the forgotten parallel Batman; a rare original drawing from my mini-comics days; the parallel Earth that wasn’t a parallel Earth; making plans for Power Girl; the Joker vs. Hot Comics Apps; the non-mystery of Bruce Wayne’s age in Dark Knight; the history of Earth-S (or is it 5?); comic-age talk again.
SEPTEMBER 2022
Nancy and Sluggo kid’s book; SLUGGO NO; JSA health and beauty tips; the Joker’s real name ’til the next time they reveal his real name; Fantastic Four error variant; fighting for your publishing rights in your satin tights; Thrasher Comics; original art from the Swamp Thing board game; Popeye and the Adventure of the Missing Numbers; Lex Luthor and hair; more super-villain motivations; noted ASS man Roy Thomas.
OCTOBER 2022
Featuring the second-best Superman theme; now entering the Swamp Thing Zone; that whole Supergirl mess; whatever the Joker’s deal is; Batman Beyond for your amusement; a Magic Mountain post just for me; the optimism of filling a whole Miracleman box; Big Peanuts vs. Little Peanuts; no really it almost scared me; more on Mixie-Plick or whatever it is.
NOVEMBER 2022
The only issue of 1963 people might actually want to buy; goodbye Kevin; the return of the Death of Superman (and also, goodbye another Kevin); surprise more Death of Superman talk; Wedding of Superman and Lois orders; this Hero Magazine video is somethin’ else; the Flash is smooooookin’; someone else’s video on variants and the death-question-mark of blogging; still working on this collection.
DECEMBER 2022
I wish I’d scanned the pic of the dentist getting on Doctor Octopus’s case about his oral hygiene.
• • •
And there we go, one more year down, the big 20th anniversary on its way at the end of 2023! Will I make it? Will some of YOU make it? That remains to be seen, but in the meantime I’ll keep blogging, hopefully you’ll keep reading. Thank you for spending a bit of your time with me, and I’ll be back later in the week with CONTENT™.
For reading all that, here’s a pic of me from many years ago, sitting at my computer desk late at night, University of CA Santa Barbara mug in hand, probably working on a post for this site:
I’ll see you here again in a couple of days. Thanks, as always, for reading.
Sweet Mother Machree, it’s been eighteen years of this nonsense, of me writing about them funnybooks and the selling thereof multiple times a week (eyeballs permitting). What madness is this?
Thanks to all of you for sticking around, whether you started reading this site in 2003 or just started…I don’t know, today, maybe? What if this was the first time you ever read Progressive Ruin? If it is, here’s a FAQ:
“What is this site about?”
It’s about Mike Sterling’s progressive ruin, I mean it’s right there in the title.
“Why is there so much talk about comic books?”
LOOK, I JUST SAID….
…
Okay, anyway, thanks to you guys, thanks to my friends and family and customers who lightly cough and turn away when they discover what I’m up to here, and most of all thanks to Comics Blogging Pioneer Neilalien, to whom we must all pay homage.
Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about me. Or rather, this here site. This year was, as you probably noticed, unless you’re one of those “first day-ers” I was talking about, that it’s been The Year of the Variant in these parts. Waaaay back in the middle of April, I asked you guys about variant covers and how they affected your purchasing decisions. Now, the plan was to respond to your comments and move on, but somehow, someway, the thing I call “variant cover-age” and nobody else does launched from that initial post. As such, most every Monday since then I’ve written about the many…um, varieties of variant covers that have been released, and in most cases offering my personal collecting or retailing memories thereof.
While you can always click on the category link to read them all, I’ve provided this index listing to jump to the subject of your choice. Think of it as a precursor to the eventual article index page I plan to put on this site.
Holy cow, that’s quite a few. And despite popular demand, I’m not done yet.
Other regular features haven’t had quite the same attention…I hadn’t realized, for example, I hadn’t done an End of Civiliation post all year. That’s mostly because it’s no longer as easy to flip through Previews (and other distributor catalogs) as quickly as I used to with my vision shenanigans. But, I promise, I’ll start doing them again. Those naked anime statues aren’t going to make fun of themselves.
Also, Sluggo Saturday only had one installment this year, but that’s kind of par for the course for that series. You can’t force Sluggo, you can only accept Sluggo as it comes. Plus, it’s kind of hard to top this sadly still-timely entry from 2020.
What else, what else…ah, well, I’m still running my Patreon, where all contributions go directly to maintaining my brain in this internet-connected jar, and I’m still doing occassional audio posts. And for some reason I started DoesThisComicHaveStaples.com, based on a Twitter joke I made, where I do indeed tell you if a comic book has staples or not. Went on a brief hiatus, but it’s back, staplier than ever!
And that’s one more year stored away in the archives for future generations to “enjoy,” for as long as the site stays up after I’m dead. Thanks to all of you for reading, for particpating in the comments, for all your emails, and your business. I greatly appreciate all of it, and I still wouldn’t be doing this site if it weren’t for all of you. Yes, I’m passing the blame onto you people.
For reading all that, here’s a photograph of a koala I inexplicably have in my possession:
I’ve had this photo for decades. Where did it come from? I have no idea! But now, you can enjoy it too!
Thanks, and I’ll see you tomorrow to start the next year of this site. What awaits? More variants? Probably. More koalas? I’ll see what I can do.
Seventeen years of me…yes, it’s true, even though the way this past year has been it feels more like that number should be in the thirties, somewhere. But, I started this dumb thing in December 2003 and no one’s stopped me yet!
Of course, the thank yous: to my friends and family and girlfriend, who haven’t disowned me yet, and to you, the folks what keep reading blogs when all that cool kids are on their TikToks and whatnot, to pal Dorian who will still talk to me despite his best judgement, to all my other fellow bloggers active or fallen, and of course to Neilalien, Comics Blogger Number Uno.
Well, as we all know, this has been some year, but there have been a couple of upsides. A couple folks out there said “hey, there’s this guy who’s been selling comics for decades, let’s ask him questions about stuff he knows,” and that’s how I got a feature interview over at The Comics Journal, as well as being queried for this New York Times article.
My store is still doing well, despite everything…luckily with some hustling and some good customer support, I was able to ride out that two month shutdown. The shutdown also gave me time to start putting some of my recent back issue arrivals online…it’s just a spreadsheet, basically, but it’ll allow me to output the data in usable form should I decide to do something else with it.
Also this year, with my eyeball health situation going on and on and on, my resources were fairly drained and I still had some pricey treatments ahead. As such, I finally bit the bullet the did a GoFundMe…which was a lot more successful than I was expecting, and I really couldn’t thank you all enough for it. I haven’t closed it yet because I’ve still got more stuff down the pike, but I haven’t exactly gone out of my way to promote it lately either, since everyone was already so generous the first time. But, if things get really dire, as least it’s there if I need to push it again.
Sadly, we said goodbye to a little stuffed friend, Bully the Retired Bull, as he shuttered his website for good. Not to say he still isn’t out there, of course, doin’ what he does best. Being stuffed. And little.
In better news, November 5th was the sixth anniversary of my store, Sterling Silver Comics. This year was (and still is) a challenging one, but I’m hanging in there!
I did manage to get out a couple Ends of Civilization, as well as a couple of timely Sluggo Saturdays. So, you know, the old favorites haven’t been forgotten, just trotted out when the time is right.
And of course, I’m always doin’ something stupid on Twitter, the worst place, where…
…it’s never too late for a Death of Superman joke:
…I experience the joys of aging:
…I posit DC’s next R-rated animated film:
…I prepare to open the floodgates:
…I occasionally get political:
…I expand the cultural horizons of my customers:
…I discuss my comics pricing techniques:
…and of course I reflect on the fact that I’ve been doing this comics blog for seventeen years:
Speaking of blogging, here’s some of that very thing I got up to over the past year:
If you don’t like me being very slighlty overty political on occasion tough cookies, DC bails entirely on Diamond, leaving JLA/Avengers and thus piles of money on the table, intercompany crossovers 123 and more to come, Warren Ellis and supporting problematic creators, the most sinful of “blogging about blogging is a sin” posts, brought on by Bully’s retirement.
And there you go. Again, thanks to everyone who’s ever found even the slightest bit of worth in reading my excessive, somewhat typo-ridden, ramblings, and then come back for more anyway. Your readership, your comments, your emails, your (hint hint) purchases from my store…it all reminds me about how much I love this business, this pasttime, and the people I’ve met doing it. Especially the purchases. Those BIG, BIG purchases.
For reading all that, you get this picture of me taking a brief break at work:
Thanks, and I’ll see you again in a couple of days.
Somehow I’ve made it sixteen years doing this silly site here, and thanks to all of you who’ve bucked the trend, reading blogs long past that medium’s heyday. Thanks also to my friends and family, who support this endevour by not explicitly opposing it, to my girlfriend Nora who still seems okay with me doing this, to pal Dorian who was there at the beginning, and of course to Neilalien, the firstest and the bestest of the comicwebloggers.
The predominant theme for the past year as been “Mike’s eyeballs,” as I’ve undergone multiple issues and surgeries throughout the last several months…and at times even being pretty darn close to being entirely unable to see. I’m a lot closer to being done wtih all this now, but you may have noticed a relative paucity of posts over the past year as I had to take time off from the site due to assorted eye operations, or straight-up near-blindness, which prevented me from posting pictures of Swamp Thing or Sluggo or both. My End of Civilization posts even took bit of a hit of late.
Like I said, I am almost through all this, though I do have one more operation next week and we’ll see where I’m at after that. But I don’t plan on giving up the blog anytime soon…long as you guys will have me, I’ll be around.
Oh, and my store had its fifth anniversary this year, as I entered my 31st year of working in comics retail. I should probably get a real job at some point, but in the meantime…stop by my store! Say hi! Buy stuff! Buy lots of stuff! Maybe even pick up something off the eBays! I won’t mind!
Speaking of the store, I started posting a lot more on the shop’s Instagram this year. Lots of pics of stuff in and around the store, but I also realized “wait, I have sixteen years’ worth of pics I posted on my blog to pick from, too” so you may see some old ProgRuin favorites on there occasionally. No, I haven’t hit them with “Then…KOREA” yet…not sure they’re ready.
And as always, you can find me on Twitter usually commplaining about something or making stupid jokes, or you can follow my store there too. My store’s on Facebook if you are still putting up with that site.
So one of the side effects of my ongoing eyeball problems is that my ability to read stuff onscreen is hampered a little bit, though the recent acquisition of a much larger monitor seems to help a bit. Anyway, please excuse the occasional misspelling or whatnot as you peruse the archives of recent memory…try to collect them all! Just something I thought I’d mention before directing you to the following links of highlights and lowlights from the past twelve months of ProgRuin history:
DECEMBER 2018:
I mark my first eye surgery in the most tasteful manner, the aftermath of said surgery, here’s the worst thing to do with a guy with one working eye, a Christmas post so great I don’t know if I can top it this year, I give you a beautiful GIF from Teen Titans Go! to the Movies.
Gotta stop getting eye surgeries as I’m running out of punny post titles, I could use four or five more of these to sell right now, I pay pals to speak good about my store, it finally happened — I made a 420 joke, oh hi Walmart thanks for checking in, I go into far more detail than you’ve ever wanted about my eyeballs.
Post #5001 – all about Boris the Bear, Reader John sent me a full run of the Dark Horse Roachmill because of this post so I’ll be posting about the first year of Action Comics next, the last Hellboy movie wasn’t the abomination I feared, the what of super-who, so long Tom, even more Death of Superman stuff (and more!), Marvel making a sow’s ear out of the silk X-purse.
Thanks for sticking with me, friends, whether you just started reading my site or if you followed me over from LiveJournal back in 2003, or if you were putting up with me in the local Oxnard BBS scene before that.
And for reading all that…well, usually I post some old personal picture or something to post at the end of these, but I didn’t have anything ready. So, instead, you get this picture I just took of myself right now as I’m working on this post. Yes, I look tired…hey, you post on a blog for 16 years and tell me you’re not tired!
Yup, I have officially spent half of my comics retailing career blogging about comics in my free time, because clearly I wasn’t getting enough comics in my diet during regular business hours.
A big, big thanks to all of you folks out there in comics internet land who still read my site, even though there are more popular options than ol’ archaic blogging for wasting one’s time online pursuing funnybook material. But I’m still at it, and if you’re reading this, you’re still at it too, and for that I am very grateful.
Special thanks of course to my family, and my long-suffering girlfriend Nora, who have put up with the shame of not only having a blogger in their lives, but a blogger who owns a comic shop, too. OH, THE DISGRACE.
And as always, special thanks to my other pop culture blogging comrades-in-arms, both active and retired…and especially to Comics Blogger Numero Uno, Neilalien, but more about that character later.
So, this year…speaking of my store, it’s had its fourth anniversary, and I’m still open and selling comics and gaining and maintaining a customer base, and so that’s been working out pretty well for me, thankfully! This was also the year I marked my 30th anniversary of selling comic books for a living, which is about as startling to me as it probably is to you. Well, I guess it’s too late to enter that career as a deep sea diver…guess I’m stuck doing this.
The other big event this year was my ongoing issue with my health, where, after years of, well, not being very good to myself, everything finally started catching up to me. However, with some changes in diet and lifestyle, which were much easier than I expected they would be, I’ve managed to improve my health, lose weight, and just generally feel a heck of a lot better. I do have a lingering vision thing which is going to be directly addressed in just a few days (as I wrote about here) so with any luck that will be resolved (or well on its way to being resolved) soon, too.
Those changes in lifestyle don’t mean that I’ve slowed down in goofing off on the Twitters, where I talk about making sure my customers know where I stand on cinematic history:
…Or apparently puzzling them with my honesty:
Frankly, I think my idea here is brilliant and not at all disrespectful:
Sometimes my interactions with folks who walk in the door at my shop leave me wondering just where all the time has gone:
Of course, the passage of time has altered my involvement with my own passions:
The downside of owning a comic shop is, of course, that the collecting impulse never goes away:
My most popular (faved ‘n’ retweeted) tweet of the year was this one, where some people appeared to seriously think I was actually going to do this to my public-serving brothers and sisters:
But my favorite Twitter moment was getting my entry about watching Firestorm’s debut on the Super Friends cartoon retweeted by Firestorm cocreator Gerry Conway:
But it wasn’t just the Twitters where you could find my wit and wisdom…no friends, there was plenty of that right here, on this very web page you’re looking at right now. Amongst the usual Ends of Civilization and Sluggo Saturdays you could find the following entries for your education and delight:
Hey it’s the too-long Doomsday Clock review you were looking for, next best thing to a Sluggo Saturday is a Sluggo Valentine, they’re still drawing the cuffs but it’s almost totally an afterthought at this point, I dive deep on IDW’s Popeye variants, reboots and restarts and wedding specials oh my.
MARCH 2018
Sure here’s a page from the Pac-Man Activity Book, in which I totally solve the problem of comics numbering for all time…well okay I don’t, I still have plans for this site — BIG plans, my late birthday post (and oh crap I’m 50 next year…also I’m totally right about that jacket the dude in Krypton is wearing), oh yeah remember when we were all into trading cards, FOOLED BY A FAKE NO-PRIZE, Swampy toys and games, so they fixed the typo in the paperback but went and did the very same thing again.
Your pre-Free Comic Book Day pep talk, and my pep talk after, and some more FCBD follow-up, so as it turns out that eyedidn’t clear up on its own and I’m having surgery on it next week, some Magoos (123) and some doctors (123), Popeye’s terrible secret.
Again, let me thank all of you for coming to this site of mine, whether you jumped on board today, or whether you were there on day one (and I know there’s a few of you still in that latter category). It’s been a lot of fun doing this, and I plan on continuing to do it as long as you’ll have me.
For reading all that, let me present to you Neilalien’s tribute to my 15th anniversary, including his funny tweet:
Hey, remember blogging? That’s a thing this fellow you’re reading right now has done for fourteen years, long past anyone’s interest in actually reading blogs! That’s okay, I’ll probably soon switch over to that all-video format all the kids are into. Auto-playing video, of course…that’s what the people want.
But honestly, thank you to everyone who’s kept reading this site after all these years, and of course big thanks to my internet pals who continue to support this behavior. Special thanks to my girlfriend Nora, my family, and pal Dorian, who have all pretty much just accepted this is how I’m going to waste my free time. Big thanks to Neilalien, The Most-Firstest of Comics Bloggerers, for his longtime support.
This year, my store Sterling Silver Comics just had its third anniversary, and it’s still going strong. If you’re in the area, drop by and say hello! If you’re not in the area, feel free to give me a call. Oh, and buy something, if you’d like…I won’t stop you!
I still have a Patreon, though my planned regular reviews of Swamp Thing comics hit a snag when suddenly my extra blogging time disappeared. Still planning on keeping that going, though perhaps at a more reasonable pace…I keep saying the new installment should be up soon, but really, the new installment should be up soon. No, really, stop laughing.
Speaking of free time, I still chime in on the Twitterers once in a while, opining on your favorite comic book movies:
…or talking about my day-to-day delights running a funnybook store:
…or relating the vengeance Diamond Previews has exacted upon me for all my End of Civilization posts:
…or telling you about my exciting dream life:
…or remembering this especially-timely Brush with Greatness:
…or admitting this very specific personal problem:
…or just straight-up twittering about Twitter:
…and sometimes my friends pipe up with some True Facts:
Anyway, enough about me posting stuff online, now here’s more about me posting stuff online! Once again I’ve pointed out the highlights, the lowlights and a few of the middling-lights on this site from the past year for your perusal, entertainment, or reawakening of terrible memories. Enjoy, won’t you?
This is a terrible joke I’m totally proud of, I write a bunch about Don Rosa, I made a joke here about Dr. Manhattan stealing Superman’s red trunks that other people came up with independently and it turned into this whole Twitter thing and anyway I still think it’s funny, this birthday post worked out nicely, so long Bernie, DC’s “hardcover/softcover” plan (parts one and two and oh here’s three), Archie Vs. Swamp Thing, Archie Vs. Arcane, a brief discussion of DC’s Hanna Barbera books.
The mystery of that specific issue of Saved by the Bell, always time for a little Garcia-Lopez Superman and Firestorm, you probably hadn’t heard how good this new Mister Miracle comic is so thank goodness I’m here for you, can you believe some dumbass got on my case about taking the apparently extreme position of not liking Hitler, I will be talking about the Death of Superman ’til the day I die, your guide to price guides, I think Helper was probably my earliest “what th–!?” moment in comics, I still can’t believe I had this comic in my hands even briefly, it’s no Google Doodle but here’s aKirby tribute.
SEPTEMBER 2017:
Where’s my Eisner…nay, my Pulitzer…for how I altered this Preacher page, let’s not do this again, a customer-made Swamp Thing drawing, so long Len, Batman ’89 retail and cultural memories and the market crash and a little Dark Knight thrown in (one and two and three and Bob and Ted and Carol and Alice).
A very sincere thanks to every one of you for sticking with me for all these years. I can’t say how much I appreciate it. I hope you come along with me as I work my way through year 15 of this silly ongoing project of mine.
For reading all that, here’s a pic of me taken literally moments ago, sitting at my store counter waiting for Godot my weekly Diamond Comics shipment to arrive:
Thanks again, and I’ll see you again in a couple of days.
It’s the lucky 13th anniversary for this ridiculous website of mine, where I’m still blogging about comics after all this time, long past the point of everyone running out of patience for people who blog about comics. But here I am anyway, still doing it and not planning to stop anytime soon, at least until the meteor finally strikes or the medication kicks in, whichever comes first.
Seriously, though, thanks to all of you out there who are still finding enough value on my site to come back day after day and see what I’ve managed to type up this time. I really do appreciate your readership. And thanks of course to the usual suspects, like my family who supported my comic book habit (and later my comic-selling career), my girlfriend Nora, pal Dorian, my fellow comics bloggers both still standing and emeritus, and as always, thanks to Comics Blogger Supreme Neilalien for leading the way. I also wanted to give special notice to a couple of swell cats: Tim O’Neil, who’s a good pal and has been undergoing some significant life changes this year; and Bully the Little Bull Stuffed with Wonderment and his pal John, both of whom we are very fortunate to have around.
This past year has been going along mostly smoothly, despite losing my grandmother in January, which was very sad, but she did have 96 full years of life and was active and out and about up until nearly the very end. As I mentioned in that linked post, she was thrilled to pieces that I finally had a store of my own and loved telling me how happy she was she got to visit it.
Speaking of the store, Sterling Silver Comics had its second anniversary last month, with hopefully many more anniversaries to come in the future. The business is doing well, I’m paying myself and my bills and building stock and clientele, so I seem to be doing okay. I do tend to complain about the vagaries of the comics industry both here and on the Twitterers, but that’s just venting…I’m happy to be where I’m at, and only wish I’d made the move sooner.
Another big change this year is that I set up a Patreon account for this site, so if any of you happen to have a spare dollar or two a month that you’d care to contribute in support of the work I do here, I’d be most appreciative and it would help out a lot.
I also had to get a new vehicle this year as the old truck finally gave up the ghost, so have I mentioned my Patreon account, ha ha, you know, just asking for no reason.
Speaking of Twitter, as I was just prior to the above begging, I’ve been active there as I have every year since first joining back in 2007. Free free to follow me there if you’d like, but here are a few highlights (or lowlights, depending on your particular opinion of my “humor”) from the past few months:
Usually I’ll post about the comics retail life, such as when this realization set in:
Or when a most fortuitous event occurs:
Once in a while I have to remind myself to have some perspective:
But sometimes it’s hard when faced with a public that can hate and fear the very idea of funnybook sellin’:
Sometimes my perspective veers off in the opposite direction:
But there are still plenty of moments at the store that make it all worth it:
Then I’m pulled back down again:
And it wasn’t all just retail talk on the Twitters…sometimes I gave insightful film commentary:
And then I made everyone sad with this observation (though the way things are going, maybe we’ll get this as a comic book):
Once in a while I’ll talk about actual comics:
…And the people who make them:
…And once in a while, I’ll ruminate upon the very idea of comics blogging:
As evidence for that last tweet, here are some of the notable posts (i.e. about 95% of them) on Ye Olde Progressive Ruine from the past twelve months:
As I write this the last issue of this series has been cancelled and not yet resolicited, just couldn’t make it through the original Supergirl movie, hey did you know people don’t like high comic prices, I’m about 99% sure this Superboy scene was homaged on the Supergirl TV show a few weeks back, I wonder how much longer we’re going to have the “Rebirth” banners on the covers, this is what I would do if I ran an EEEE-VIL comic book store.
And just because of the way things were timed this month, all I have to list here is the latest End of Civilization post, which is as good of a place as any to remind you that I’m back to doing monthly EoCs after an extended break somehow caused by opening my store. Plus, I did some comics reviews over the past year, and I also threw in a couple Sluggo Saturdays, too.
Again, thanks to all of you for sticking with me all this time, for reading my site and leaving comments and even occasionally stopping by my store to say “hello” in person — that all means so very much to me, and I can’t tell you enough how greatly it’s appreciated.
For reading all that, here’s a picture of 13-year-old me with my grandparents’ tortoise while it’s eating a bunch of flowers:
That is some real “that kid from The Walking Dead” hair I’m sporting.
Thanks, and I’ll see you all again in a couple of days.
Twelve years? Why, it feels like no more than eleven years and a few months that I’ve been at this, writing a silly comics blog and trying to entertain those few people I don’t otherwise annoy. But here I remain, plugging away at it when time allows…I still enjoy doing it, and I hope you folks out there still enjoy reading it, and thank you for doing so.
Thanks also to my extremely patient girlfriend Nora, my parents, pal Dorian, my fellow bloggers, my customers, and of course Neilalien, First Among Comic Bloggers.
Speaking of customers, my store Sterling Silver Comics is still movin’ along as well, now having completed the first year and one month of its hopefully long life. It’s been long enough that I’ve now lost count of the number of people who have shouted “BIG BANG THEORY!” or “SHELDON!” in and outside of the premises. That’s okay, they mean well.
I also got to meet a handful of people that I’ve known primarily from the Internet, such as longtime reader of the site Walaka, who wrote up a very nice review of my store right here. Longtime blogging brother Tim O’Neil has been good enough to pop into the shop a couple of times. The amazing Karla Pacheco (creator of America’s most evil book Inspector Pancakes Helps the President of France Solve the White Orchid Murders) stopped in, and don’t tell anybody, but she’s a sweetheart! And then there was that time I met up with the artist Coop (link NSFW, probably!) at his Los Angeles studio to get my filthy capitalist mitts on his funnybooks. And several other folks who’ve been reading this goofy website came into my shop anyway, so thanks to them, too!
Despite the lighter posting schedule here caused by your pal Mike being at the shop seven days a week, I still threw in with the group comics blog Trouble with Comics. I’ve only been a participant in the weekly Question Time segment, but I find it a useful and entertaining writing exercise, occasionally forcing me to think about and write upon topics I wouldn’t necessarily address. …And hey, the rest of the site is good, too!
And of course, I’m still nattering away on the Twitters, where you can follow me at @mikesterling (literally “at at-mikesterling” but it looks funny without the second “at”). There, you can see me tweet about my day-to-day store happenings:
Once in a while I get the best of compliments:
Sometimes I ponder the very nature of comics retailing:
Then there are the reactions I receive to the very idea of a comic shop:
You can also catch my opinions on recognition by the public and my peers:
Or you can see my insightful media commentary:
And of course, my behind the scenes thoughts on comics blogging:
Speaking of blogging, I did manage to do some this year. My End of Civilization posts have been curtailed somewhat, but they’ll be back someday. In the meantime, please enjoy some of these pseudo-highlights from the previous twelve months:
Really the only post for this month prior to the anniversary – that’s what sickness does to you!
• • •
In all sincerity, thank you so much for reading my site, whether you’ve been with me from the beginning or just started today. I greatly appreciate it.
For reading all that, here’s a pic of me from several years ago, clearly having no time for your shenanigans:
Thanks again, everyone, and I’ll see you on Monday.
So apparently the traditional eleventh anniversary gift is steel:
Is there a greater gift one could receive? I submit there is not.
It really is hard to believe that I’ve been doing this website for eleven years. It’s been long enough that I’ve had to contact my webhoster about giving me more database space because I’d filled up the amount I was originally allotted. It was bit of a panic that evening when I discovered I couldn’t save any posts or changes to the site or anything until I figured out what happened!
But I’m still here, I’m still doin’ it, even if not as frequently as I had at the start, but I’m not going anywhere yet! Even with the Big Change this year, quitting my previous job as Head Chimp at Seth’s Games and Anime/Ralph’s Comic Corner to go open my own shop, Sterling Silver Comics (for which today is the one month anniversary!), I’m still poking away on this here website, sharing my knowledge, my dumb jokes, the occasional photo, some Sluggo and Swamp Thing talk, and all that. And, of course, occasionally warning you about the forthcoming End of Civilization, which I’ve sort of slacked off doing lately since I’ve been busy, but I’m gettin’ back to it!
As always, thanks to my pals, online and off, for their continued support…to my girlfriend Nora, who continues to put up with me for inexplicable reasons, my parents, pal Dorian, all my customers (new and old), all of you, and, of course, Neilalien, Comics Blogger #1, in whose path we all follow.
I didn’t do a whole lot with my other online projects this year, but I can still be found goofing around on the Twitters so please feel free to follow me there if you’d like. Why, you might see such vital Twitter entries such as my usual complaining about certain types of comics not getting published:
Or you might see the worst Watchmen joke yet:
Or you could see me deliberately trolling people (or am I?):
Or you could see that which I would like to unsee:
Or you can get a small glimpse how your pal Mike runs a comic shop:
Or maybe you might get an off-color joke that your pal Mike is inordinately proud of:
And then there’s this site you’re reading right now: as I like to do every year, here are a list of what I will call “highlights” (for the lack of a better term) from the last twelve months, along with some brief commentary, explanations, or even more bad jokes. Please, enjoy:
I go over your predictions for 2013 (1234 and (whew) 5), “SWAMP JACKET / you make my heart…uh, ratchet,” so I joked in December about one of you folks out there buying this for me for a gift and good gravy you delivered (and say, on a totally unrelated subject, I sure could use a new car), how I marketed Miracleman to our customers since nobody else bothered, basically I have to order everything as if it were a mini-series, I review that weird Justice League direct-to-DVD cartoon (“weird” = “actually appropriate for children”), one man’s box of junk toys is another man’s blog post.
I could probably just order a copy of the new edition of this for the store (wink wink), Bill Mumy’s greatest creative endeavor, I think that actually was the real Bill Griffith who commented on this post about the pretty Sluggo doll, I’d had this post, planned out in my head since I was about 42, I love Steve Lafler comics, sometime I come across Swamp Thing parodies without even trying, all the boys think he’s a spy / he’s got Alec Holland eyes, I may have put this comic for sale in the shop at a ridiculous price.
My postmortem for what’s turned out to be my last Free Comic Book Day at Seth’s/Ralph’s, a quick overview of some entertainment I absorbed while I was ill – which I ordinarily wouldn’t link to in one of these overviews but I gotta pad out May a bit, oh my God they cut Constantine‘s season short because I haven’t been watching it didn’t they, please enjoy this Swamp Thing animated GIF, CRANIUS, too much about me ordering DC’s latest 3D covers, if more Woody Woodpecker stories were like this maybe I’d actually like the character.
There is a greater-than-zero chance that if I talk about Star Wars I eventually get to a Lobot joke, I needed my dad to come with me to buy the comic but the book that comic used for photo reference was readily available to me at the library I worked at, I’m still trying to work out how to deal with the naughtier books at my new store, this scene from a Robin Williams movie really does make me crumble like a cookie every single time, Jughead – a monster in any decade, I actually remember to keep my promise to look at the market prices for last year’s 3D comics from DC, where are my promo Frisb…er, “flying discs” from current comic companies, just imagine me droning post after post at you instead of you being able to skim through all these walls of text I put up.
I say this every year, and every year it’s just as true: I am extremely grateful and amazed that I have any readership at all, given my intended and expected audience was just a few friends. That I have as many kind, wonderful and funny readers as I do, as I’ve seen from my comments sections, from emails and from actual physical mail, is quite the pleasure. Even the folks who’ve never said or written one word to me, who come read what I have to say and leave the connection to me at that…thank you for spending at least a little bit of your day here. I hope I can always make the visit worthwhile, for all of you.
And for reading all that, here’s a blurry photo of me “working” in my store a few weeks before opening:
Once again, thanks for visiting my site, and I’ll be back soon with more stuff.
