In which I have some minor spoilers for Teen Titans Go! To The Movies but don’t spoil the best joke.

filed under Categories cartoons, challs, swamp thing, teen titans 1 Comment

So in my most recent attempt to make the money I’m spending on Netflix worthwhile, I’ve been getting a handful of discs…yes, actual physical media…from them a little more often than I have of late (for example, I finally watched and returned that copy of The Quick and The Dead I’d had in my possession since July), One of my recent borrowings was of Teen Titans Go! To The Movies. a nice, gentle skewering of the superhero movie trend with plenty of laughs…the biggest being Robin’s final line in the film, which still makes me sensibly chuckle even now. Won’t spoil it here, and while it is revealed in the Wikipedia entry on the film, without its context and delivery it’s not nearly as hilarious.

Some of the film’s humor was clearly “not a joke for you, a guy who’s about to turn 50 years old” but I thought most of it was pretty accessible, and to be fair, the Challengers of the Unknown jokes were totally for me, so take that, kids.

Speaking of being totally for me, there was no small amount of Swamp Thing guest-starring action, and a big thanks to fine human being Kevin Church for GIFing up this sequence on my behalf:


We can only hope this is what he looks like in that upcoming TV series on the DC streaming service.

A couple of more things about Teen Titans Go! To Mike’s Blu-Ray Player:

Not a fan of fart jokes generally, but I gotta say, that was a good one in this film.

And, the “mid-credits” bonus scene featuring the original, not entirely-gag driven version of the animated Teen Titans, setting up a Teen Titans Vs. Teen Titans Go movie that is apparently still A Thing That Is Happening: well, that should be weird. It’s the battle between the fans who hated that first Teen Titans cartoon and the fans that really hate the new Teen Titans Go! cartoon!

Also liked the handful of gags aimed at Marvel’s direction (especially the Big Cameo which I’m very glad was actually voiced by him and not someone doing an impression). Frankly, I was a bit surprised not more was make with the comparison between Deadpool’s real name “Wade” and Slade’s real name (“Slade”)…I can see why they avoided the topic of their identical last names, given certain story events.

Oh, which reminds me, I thought the repeated gag of everyone rolling Slade’s name around in their mouths to appreciate how evil it sounds was a solid one.

Of course, the darkest laugh is one I already sort of knew about, when the Titans are travelling through time to restore superhero origins they had undone for, you know, reasons, in which Robin…facilitates Batman’s origin. Hoo boy. All those people in the late ’80s/early ’90s who mimicked only the grim ‘n’ gritty parts of Dark Knight Returns only wished they were that dark.

So anyway, it’s a good bit of fun, worth a rental if you haven’t seen it already. Or if you have, it’s worth it just to freeze frame on some of the movie posters that pop up in the background here and there. Plus, if you’re a Swamp Thing fan…well, I already showed you why it’s worth your time.

“The future was one thing that could never be broken, because it had not yet had the chance to be anything.” ― Sarah Dessen

filed under Categories predictions 32 Comments

As I predicted on this very website only about two posts ago, today is Gimme Yer Predictions Day, as I ask you, The Folks What Still Read The Comics Blogs, for your comic book industry predictions for this coming year of 2019 (possibly to go down in future history books as “The Burning Times,” but we’ll see).

If you’ve got any predictions, share ’em in the comments for this post, but remember, the rules are, as always:

1. Don’t read the other predictions before entering your own.

2. Don’t criticize other people’s predictions.

3. Don’t predict any real person’s death.

4. Limit of three predictions per person, please! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY, ONLY THREE! My fingers are already tired just from looking at all the predictions I have to cover from last time. And don’t do, like, “here’s Part B of Question #3, which has two subsections” etc., or I’ll get you, and your little dog Toto, too.

After the first of the year, barring any lingering eyeball health issues, I’ll get crackin’ on that aforementioned last batch of predictions for 2018, so consider that your fair warning.

Thanks, pals…every year you folks come through for me on these posts and it’s greatly appreciated! Always remember that all of you are a big part of why this site is still around and still a lot of fun for me to do!
 
 

Web of Mystery #19 (July 1953) – art by Jim McLaughlin

Merry 10th Anniversary of the release of Frank Miller’s The Spirit!

filed under Categories Christmas 3 Comments

Progressive Ruin hopes you have the Spirit of Christmas in your hearts, and I, along with…

…The Spirit:

..and the Octopus:

…and Dr. Ellen Dolan:

…and Arthur the Cat:

…and Sand Saref:

…and Lorelei:

…and Commissioner Dolan:

…and Silken Floss:

…and these guys:

…and Plaster of Paris:

…and ol’ Frank his own self:

…and, of course, this little fella:

…wish you the best this holiday season!

A less-brief update.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, obituary 7 Comments

Hi pals! When we last met, I was still in recovery from some minor eyeball surgery and hoping to be back in full swing in time for Christmas. Well, as it turns out, there’s a minor complication requiring me to go back under the knife this coming Thursday. Nothing serious, just, you know, can’t see out of my right eye since blood ain’t clearing out of it. But I was warned beforehand that this was a possibility, so everything should be fine. It just has to be done, so dood it I will.

But thanks to all of you for your well wishes and kind words, and Progressive Ruin Industries will be up and running again in short order, processing that comics-related product that you’ve grown accustomed to over the last decade and a half.

In the meantime, I will have a special Christmas post up tomorrow…in fact, it’s already put together and scheduled to publish, so it’s too late to stop it now. And I’ll have the annual “gimme your comic predictions for next year” post up Wednesday, so warm up your clairvoyant powers for that. And then, most likely, the rest of week I’ll take off, but I plan to be back the following Monday.

On a somewhat related note, I was pretty happy to have a new issue of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen show up last week…I’d been looking forward to reading it, but I was curious as to why the latest installment came prebagged:


When I popped it open to discover the reason, lo and behold, 3D GLASSES:


This is pretty much the face I made:


Ah, well…something to look forward to after the surgery, I guess.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I’ll meet you all back here tomorrow and Wednesday.

• • •

I should note the passing of Brian Snell, the person behind the Slay, Mostrobot comics blog. He clearly loved the comics medium and had many people who appreciated and supported the work he did expressing that appreciation on a daily basis. My condolences to his friends and fans.

A brief update.

filed under Categories low content mode 6 Comments

Hi pals! I think I’m going to take a little more time off from blogging while my eye recovers. My prime blogging time is at night, prior to bed, but since the surgery my eye gets a little too tired from the events of the day to want to be pointed at a computer screen. So, let’s give it another week and I’ll try to be back here before Christmas.

Thanks for your patience, friends, and I’ll talk to you again soon, I promise.

Eye’ve got you, babe.

filed under Categories eyeball, nightmare fuel 9 Comments

SPECIAL EYEBALL UPDATE: the eye surgery went well, despite looking like this for a few hours after the event:


After a post-op check-up on Thursday, it looks like I’m well on my way to healing up and being back in stereoscopic action before you know it. However, it is going to take some time for that eye to clear up as it heals from the recent medical intrusions. So, in the meantime, since having one good eye and one eye’s vision temporarily obscured is a bit distracting, if not outright headache inducing, you may catch me at the store looking a little something like this:


Look, it was either that or squeezing my right eye shut for hours at t time. I mean, yes, I know, it’s good enough for Popeye, but friends, I am no Popeye. I’m not really much of a Nick Fury, either…more “nearly forgotten David Hasselhoff TV version” than “far cooler Samuel Jackson version.”

Anyway, thanks for all your good thoughts and well-wishes, here, on Twitter, via email and otherwise. I appreciate it all, and I should be back into regular blogging action next week.

“Save vs. hemorrhaged eye.”

filed under Categories question time 4 Comments

Let’s get a few more questions answered here, before I go under the knife and I’m away for the week:

Cassandra Miller foresees

“Who’s right about the Lucky Dime, Magica or Scrooge?”

Ooh, a good question. The Lucky Dime AKA the Number One Dime is, of course, the first dime Uncle Scrooge ever earned, which Magica De Spell believes has imbued it with some mystical essence she could exploit for her own nefarious purposes. As I recall, Scrooge’s own belief in its “magic” comes and goes depending on the story, but in general it’s a highly personal symbol of the wealth that followed.

Given that the main “canon” of Scrooge, as presented by Carl Barks, tends to generally hew towards the “real” mundane world and away from more fanciful explanations, I would say that Scrooge is more correct, more or less. It’s true that “magic” and “luck” and other weirdo stuff exists in the Duckiverse, and there are times when Scrooge is parted from his Lucky Dime and suddenly everything just goes to hell for him, but I would say Scrooge’s fortune arose without any supernatural advantage from ownership of that dime. It simply served as an inspiration for Scrooge, and any of his difficulties that arose from losing said dime were likely psychological in nature, losing an old crutch he depended on to support his financial endeavors.

I’m sure there are comics and TV shows and such I haven’t read that directly contradicts the above, but I think the ultimate answer is, as always, “depends on the needs of the plot.”

• • •

Skyintheairwaves swoops in with

“Mad Magazine has been a ‘thing’ that has seen many phases and highs and lows. But it has a place in so many of our consciousnesses.

What has been the heyday of Mad for you?”

Kind of like how the “Golden Age of comics” is described “whatever you were reading when you were a kid,” what I think of when I consider the definite era of Mad is what I read in the 1970s and very early ’80s. I still think of issues from, say, 1984 as “those newer Mads.” Pretty sure this was during the publication’s era of its largest print runs, so just by sheer numbers this may be the definitive version for most people, featuring the classic cartoonists and features that comprise the Platonic ideal of a Mad.

I was exposed to earlier Mad, mostly thanks to an uncle who passed his copies down to me…but mostly still within the ’70s, from the earlier part of the decade as opposed to the latter half where I was getting my hands on them, but were still mostly the same (but with more gags about Nixon and hippies). It was when I got my hands on the occasional copy of an early ’60s era issue, where it was like “Dave Berg’s art looks different, and where are the Marginals, and why are there weird jokes written in the margins instead?” — they just felt slightly off to me. Recognizably Mad, just not my Mad.

• • •

Rob Staeger stages the following

“What novel that has never gotten a comic book adaptation do you think deserves one?”

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. I mean, like, the whole thing. The trilogy, the prequel, the follow-ups, the novels from other Asimovian franchises that tie in, the whole enchilada. You thought the comic book adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand was a mountain of a project? Wait ’til you get a load of this. In some parallel universe, adapting all of Asimov’s novels into comic book form is the sole purpose and publishing concern of Positronic Comics, Inc.

• • •

Andrew Davison sneaks in with

“Do you visit other comic book establishments to see how they do things? What disguises do you normally use? A rubber mask, a la Mission Impossible, or stage makeup and wig, a la 50’s Batman?”

One time, very early on, a fella that used to shop at our store opened up a store in a neighboring town (long gone…the store, not the town). Just out of curiosity, I popped in to take a look and see what was goin’ on, but not with any specific plan to see what his display or marketing strategies or whatever. Later we heard that he was talkin’ up the fact that “oh yeah, a guy from the other store checked me out, they must be worried!” so I kind of put an end to that.

In the years since, particularly on the rare occasion I was out of town, I’d drop by other stores, mostly to shop for myself, and to some limited extent to see what they’re carrying and how it’s laid out and sometimes think how lucky our customers were they weren’t shopping at this store. Haven’t done that in a long time.

Nowadays, if I’m going to other shops, they’re usually shops run by people I actually know, and if I’m there, I’m either doing some horsetrading, or just saying “hi,” or picking up some of my UPS shipment from Diamond that got misrouted to the wrong comic store (which happened at least once in recent months). Thus, I’m otherwise occupied and not really there to steal…comic secrets. Or…am I?

• • •

philfromgermany drops in the last question for today

“Considering the TWERPS shout-out you must have at least a passing knowledge of pen & paper D&D and their ilk.

“Have you ever read any Knights of the Dinner Table and if so, who’s your favorite character?

“Is it selling at your store?”

Phil is referring to this post, where I dropped in a reference to Twerps, the simple and bargain-priced role-playing game that used only one die, and utilized characters with only one stat (Strength). We sold quite a a few of these at my previous place of employment, though I wonder how many sold because people just wanted the small-sized 20-sided die included with the game.

While RPGs aren’t my particular passion, I do have some familiarity with them simply from my years of carrying large stocks of them at the old job. Plus, I sold a lot of vintage gaming materials on eBay when they showed up in collections (some of which you can see in this site category). I don’t do anything in new gaming materials currently at my shop, but I wouldn’t object to dealing in more of the old items. I always found those fun.

Knights of the Dinner Table does sell at my store…not a lot, but it has its fans. If I had to pick a favorite character…well, Brian is just so hilariously single-minded when it comes to gaming, but Bob is just plain bonkers. It’s hard to choose!

• • •

Okay, pals, don’t forget I’m taking the next week off from the site following my eye procedure, so I’ll see you on the other side!

“Suddenly, fifteen years later….”

filed under Categories suddenly... 10 Comments

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:

DECEMBER 2017

I could have just rerun this same post a couple of weeks ago, I love blowing up background details like this, Cathy and Andrew – two great tastes that go great together, the ol’ “Photoshop this scan” thingie didn’t over like they used to do in ye olden blogging tymes but I still like it and it’s season appropriate again.

JANUARY 2018

Naked on the cutting nude room floor, for the love of God pick up your comic pulls at your local shop, I mean seriously a Superman series by Todd McFarlane would make all the money, I’LL GET YOU GILBERT GOTTFRIED FANS!!!

FEBRUARY 2018

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.

APRIL 2018

Don’t forget my pal Kurt’s podcast, some prerelease Fantastic Four talk, Land of the Lost talk turns into the worst idea for a comic gimmick, the Secret Origin of Siri, really guys it was more than a thousand issues at that point, Sluggo has some words for people who don’t dig the new Nancy strip, more of that pog content you crave, I need a full run of this or a deluxe reprint hardcover right now.

MAY 2018

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 eye didn’t clear up on its own and I’m having surgery on it next week, some Magoos (1 2 3) and some doctors (1 2 3), Popeye’s terrible secret.

JUNE 2018

The scarcity of Miracleman #15 (and follow-up and more follow-up), the new Hulk comic is good, ordering comics then and now, s whole lotta war books, I give up pronounce “Constantine” however you’d like, good gravy back away from the camera Namor, a recent dive into DC animation, so long Harlan.

JULY 2018

The most patriotic Popeye ever, boy I sure was subtle with my Batman #50 commentary (and follow-up), so long Steve, those Walmart comics NOT DIGESTS (and what I thought of them once I actually had some in my hands), making the (comics) grade, boy this Titans show sure loves the f-word, I had a dumb Twitter joke go semi-viral (and also, more Batman #50 follow-up), MORE JUPITER COMICS HURRAH!

AUGUST 2018

Kirby + Ditko + Abominable Snowman = awesome, yeah we’re never getting a new reprint of this story, thia Popeye comic wasn’t entirely what I expected but it was still pretty great anyway, and just how were we exposed to Popeye anyhoo, the origin of Mike the Comics Retailin’ Man, Brother Power the Plant Elemental, it’s more Death of Superman talk – how do I do it, and then I go on about Knightfall, the great Jon Bogdanove.

SEPTEMBER 2018

THIRTY YEARS OF BEING IN COMICS RETAIL, here we go with the Death of Superman again, I’m glad to see the rest of the world is catching up to my love of Nancy and Sluggo, more old comics promo stuff, and even more, DC Universe streaming is giving me a revised opinion of Super Friends cartoons – they’re actually good, more DC Universe talk, this is the worst title for a discussion about Batman: Damned, the unexpected Dennis the Menace Winchester Mystery House variant, so long Norm.

OCTOBER 2018

The only Doomsday Clock #7 review you’ll read where it says “a good year for penises at DC Comics,” the best West Coast Avengers cover, probably spent more time defining parameters than I did providing answers, the scintillating sounds of Swamp Thing, let your freak British flag fly, I secured the site so much that I broke images in feeds — still working on it!

NOVEMBER 2018

Come for the Badger fan film, stay for MY GIANT HAND, catching up on comics I missed back in the ’80s, somehow I got away with writing an entire post about assembling comic boxes, so long Stan, MY GIANT HAND in exciting live video, I’m still getting a boatload of emails about this screen-used prop comic, if only I’d known I could have cornered the market on this rare catalog I assembled nearly decades ago, direct sales vs. newsstand variants talk.

DECEMBER 2018

Er, yeah, pretty much just my “eye problems” post.

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:


…the redesign of his profile page:

…and the redesign of his own website:


Well, shucks. That Neilalien is a swell cat.

Thanks, pals, and I’ll be back with more goodies in short order.

A brief note regarding the next couple of weeks.

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin 15 Comments

There’s going to be some Low Content Mode action (or rather, non-action) for the next two weeks at Progressive Ruin Dot Oxnard Dot Gov, as I’m going to be going in for that eye surgery that all the kids are raving about these days. This Monday, as this post goes up, I’ll be having an early morning check-up, just to make sure I won’t croak on the operating table, and then the following Monday I’ll be having a breakfast serving of a vitrectomy, which is just as much fun as it sounds. I’m told it’s a very routine procedure, and I’ll barely notice it happening as it’s happening, thanks to the “happy juice” (as the doctor calls it) that’ll be in my system, so let’s hope.

Anyway, what does this mean for you, the Progressive Ruin reader, aside from the nausea after Googling “vitrectomy?” It means a short post today, which you’re reading right now, presumably…then I’ll likely post on Wednesday and Friday as normal. Then next week, after the operation, don’t expect a whole lot. I’ll try to check in if I’m up to it, but otherwise, consider it a vacation from my usual yapping.

Also, most tragically, I’m probably skipping the End of Civilization post this month. Yeah, I know, I’m sorry, but I’m just not finding the proper time to get one in there right now…but we’ll see as we get closer to Christmas, when traditionally everyone has plenty of free time on their hands.

So that’s that…I figure getting the fluids changed in my eyeball is a good enough reason to slack off on the site a bit. I’ll be back up and running as normal in short order, I’m sure, so thanks for reading, pals, and I’ll see you again…hopefully with two working eyes, finally…soon enough!