20 Years of Blogging, a Retrospective (Part Three)

In Part Three, I want to look at my posts that deal with thoughts about comics. Some of these are quasi-reviews (these include the posts when I go page-by-page on certain “event” comics), but mostly they’re just things I wrote about comics in general. Some are just goofy, but I figured I’d include them anyway, and some are “controversial,” I suppose, and they inspired some superb comments threads. I don’t write too much like this anymore, just because I don’t keep up with comics news, so I don’t know what’s going on that might be controversial (I suppose I could write about a certain Sandman writer, but so many others have already done so, so I won’t) and therefore don’t write about it. So sad! I hope you enjoy these if you choose to check them out!

The strength and weakness of the comics-buying experience. (3 February 2005)
Things I love about comics. (15 February 2005)
A long history of Elisabeth Braddock. (26 February 2005)
Comics anthologies. (28 February 2005)
I didn’t like Planet of the Capes. (12 March 2005)
Are murder mysteries in comics any good? (19 March 2005)
My introductory post at Comics Should Be Good. (22 March 2005)
Comics are mainstream. My first real post on CSBG! (23 March 2005)
Am I Larry Young’s bitch? With comments by the man himself! (27 March 2005)
I fix the X-books! Twenty years later, they still haven’t listened to me. (29 March 2005)
I didn’t love Sleeper and The Losers. To be fair, I think they both got better (31 March 2005)
Somewhat less-than-mainstream comics suggestions. (2 April 2005)
My first post about our current Golden Age of Comics. (12 April 2005)
The politics of comics. Good comments from T., everyone’s favorite grumpy conservative! (27 April 2005)
Things I miss about comics. Some fun comments, too! (25 May 2005)
Why do comic book writers hate democracy? Not surprisingly, some nice comments, too! (7 June 2005)
The lack of overtly religious characters in comics. That got spammed a lot over the years with weird comments! (28 June 2005)
Ordering from Previews. This was years before I started looking at it each month! (10 July 2005)
Jim Aparo died at the age of 72. I like him a lot more now than I did then, mainly because I was able to get a lot of his 1970s work, which is much better than his late 1980s/1990s work. (19 July 2005)
Should we hate Batman? (23 July 2005)
“Compressed” versus “decompressed” storytelling: pros and cons. (1 August 2005)
Responses to my post about decompressed storytelling! (2 August 2005)
I’m proud of some of my purchases. Some fun comments! (11 August 2005)
The best “failed” comic books. Excellent comments! (19 August 2005)
I’m angry at Greg Rucka. Lots of fun comments! (24 August 2005)
Why are people reading House of M and Infinite Crisis? (28 August 2005)
Is Smoke and Guns offensive? Honestly, I still don’t know. (6 September 2005)
Nostalgia for single issues! (9 September 2005)
Why do so many superhero writers hate superheroes? You know the comments were fun for that one! (15 September 2005)
My disconnect from current superhero comics. (28 September 2005)
A few random thoughts, including a brief rant about Gotham Central. (28 October 2005)
Love for AiT/Planet Lar. (31 October 2005)
Re-reading the Jeph Loeb/Jim Lee Batman. (1 November 2005)
If I ran the zoo. The first (but not the last!) time I take over DC! Obviously, lots of fun comments for this post! (11 November 2005)
If I ran the zoo, Phase Two! More fun comments! (13 November 2005)
Choose my superhero trade paperback for me! (15 November 2005)
What superhero trade paperback did I buy?!?!? (19 November 2005)
Why we buy comics. (22 November 2005)
Another reason why comics are awesome. (13 December 2005)
I created a contest! Dave Campbell, from whom I stole “Airwolf” as an adjective, stops by! (18 December 2005)
More contest entries! (21 December 2005)
The winner is … Gordon Dymowski! Gordon is a good dude. We’re Facebook friends, and he’s still out there fighting the good fight. (21 December 2005)
If I’m going to hell, I’m taking Mike Sterling with me! Sterling liked the title of this post so much he used it at the top of his blog for years. (20 December 2005)
The Best Writer of 2005: A compilation! (4 January 2006)
The Best Artist of 2005: A compilation! (5 January 2006)
The Best Ongoing Series of 2005: A compilaton! Hey, I wonder if I should read True Story Swear to God. I wonder how that worked out? (6 January 2006)
The Best One-Shot or Mini-Series of 2005: a compilation! (7 January 2006)
The Best Moment of 2005: A compilation! (8 January 2006)
My “Best of the Rest” of 2005! The first time I gave a “Nuke LaLoosh” Award (for a talent who needed to be “called up” to the “big leagues” – this one went to Jacen Burrows, who took a long time to draw for the Big Two, but eventually did!) and, with Fell not quite reaching epic lateness yet, I gave a “Kevin Smith” Award to the comic that was technically still coming out but was sooooooper-late! (9 January 2006)
Separating art from the artist. The great debate! Lots of comments, unsurprisingly! (15 January 2006)
A defense of Chuck Austen! Hey, there’s a comment by Jim MacQuarrie! (18 January 2006)
I make a point about All Star Superman and spur a fiery debate! (23 January 2006)
I have questions! (2 February 2006)
Frank Miller doing a terrorist-fighting Batman. Lots of comments, as you might expect, but sadly, it turned into Not-Batman fighting terrorists because Miller’s ideas were just a bit too insane for DC. (14 February 2006)
Frank Miller is a fascist writer. Yeah, that got a lot of people commenting! (28 February 2006)
Whither the Marvel graphic novel? Of course, in the years after this post, Marvel actually did put out some graphic novels (the origin stories ones) and then they retreated from them again! (8 March 2006)
My thoughts on V for Vendetta, the movie. Lots of comments here, obviously! (20 March 2006)
Thoughts about continuity! Oh, you know this got people a-talkin’! (26 March 2006)
Checking out the pamphlet about Civil War. Fun stuff! (9 April 2006)
How I got into comics. This isn’t the last time I will write about this! (10 April 2006)
Comic book masterpieces, part 1. Featuring: Uncanny X-Men #100-138, Moon Knight #1-30, and Incredible Hulk #347-425. Lots of good comments here! (26 April 2006)
Comic book masterpieces, part 2. Featuring: Dreadstar #1-40, Watchmen, Grendel #1-40, Dr. Fate #1-4, #1-24, Sandman, Shade the Changing Man, The Spectre, Starman, Astro City, Preacher, and Transmetropolitan. More good comments! (30 April 2006)
Comic book masterpieces, part 3. A wrap-up, with more good comments! (7 May 2006)
The Time-Mind Sync-Warp! (11 May 2006)
Experience more of the Time-Mind Sync-Warp! (14 May 2006)
The fate of Joe Chill makes my head hurt. (13 May 2006)
A contest! Can you identify the panels? (19 May 2006)
Answers to the panel contest! (23 May 2006)
I felt bad about myself, so I got petty with a quiz! I explain at the link, but basically – in my reviews of the “Infinite Crisis” events, I didn’t know that the Amazons used a “purple ray” and some dude on his LiveJournal claimed I couldn’t review comics because I didn’t know idiotic minutiae like that. I responded with a petty quiz about ridiculous comics minutiae that if you don’t know, you can’t review comics either! (27 June 2006)
Answers to the quiz! The comments in this post got a bit contentious, because in the post, I said I was annoyed that the LiveJournal guy called me a “r-word” (I use it in the post, but not here). A commenter took umbrage with my hypocrisy, thanks to the post I linked to above in which I satirized Frank Miller’s writing in All Star Batman and used the “r-word.” I explained that using it in satire and calling someone that are a bit different, but, this being the internet, the person didn’t want to hear. I told him I had said my piece and was now bored with it, which, of course, didn’t stop him! Yes, I took it a bit too personally, but man, what a bunch of douchebags. You should read the comments in this post – they’re something else. Two decades later, I kind of wish I had linked to the dude’s LiveJournal, even though it’s probably long gone, because on the off chance it’s not, it would have been fun to read his fulminating with the distance of time. Still, saying I can’t review comics because I don’t know about the Amazons’ purple healing ray? Really? (27 June 2006)
Reminiscing about Marvel’s “Year in Review” magazines. (11 July 2006)
A question for female comics readers! (12 July 2006)
Paradigm shifts in comics. Man, I like to bloviate, don’t I? And I reference Gerard Jones, which, like all references to Gerard Jones, hasn’t aged well! Also: lots of Ayn Rand talk in the comments! (23 July 2006)
Comic Book Urban Legends! I did a parody of Cronin’s long-running series. Well, I had fun with it! (The scans didn’t all transfer, so here’s the CBR version!) (6 August 2006)
I don’t like the Avengers. Some good comments, and I find time to bash the Pixies! (12 August 2006)
Comic book readers suck. Is that a Michael Medved reference in the post? Why, yes, it is! (21 August 2006)
What we can learn from the Kree-Skrull War trade paperback. That has the comments, but the many, many scans are here. (26 August 2006)
Being sentimental about comics. This has scans that didn’t transfer, so here’s the CBR version. (15 September 2006)
Talk Like a Pirate Day Fun! (19 September 2006)
Comparing comics to baseball. (30 October 2006)
Some superlatives from 2006. You can find scans here. (9 January 2007)
Why people like Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home? Is this the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever written? I know there are many contenders, but this might be the winner. And yes, Alison Bechdel did find out about the existence of this post! Lots of good comments, as you might expect. (14 January 2007)
It’s a contest! Of course, all the images are corrupted, so check them out here even though, you know, the contest is no longer viable. (15 January 2007)
Here are the answers to my contest. Sadly, I can’t reach it on the Wayback Machine, so no comments! (24 January 2007)
How do we choose the comics we read? This has changed a bit – artists are slightly more important to me than writers these days – but not too much. Lots of good comments in this one! It led to Joe Rice’s column about art not being subjective, which was pretty much directed at me and has some great comments! (2 February 2007)
Comics you bought after they jumped the shark. (23 February 2007)
An important question about Civil War! (2 March 2007)
Comics were better in the Seventies. (14 March 2007)
… or were they? (7 April 2007)
Comics are puritanical. This is one time I wish there was a CBR link (occasionally they just don’t exist!), because the images I’m writing about are corrupted! (6 April 2007)
The failure of Gødland, the death of the postmodern superhero, and why Grant Morrison is partly to blame. Some of the scans are important, so you can find them here, but the comments on the old version are fun! (19 March 2007)
Two things Marvel does a lot better than DC. This is still kind of relevant, actually. It got a good number of comments, but I can’t get it at the Wayback Machine! (9 May 2007)
Pitch your dream crossover! This one, as you might expect, got a lot of fun comments. (13 May 2007)
My issues with Darwyn Cooke’s Spirit book. (5 June 2007)
The thrill of the hunt. (9 June 2007)
Contest time! (5 August 2007) (Here are the answers.)
365 Reasons to Love Comics #258: Miracleman. A guest post for Bill Reed’s still-unfinished year-long series! (15 September 2007)
Dazzler: Ahead of its time? (26 September 2007)
What are “fun” comics? Some good comments, as you might expect! (8 October 2007)
Voting for your favorite X-Men era! Over 100 comments, because the people love their X-Men! (20 November 2007)
Breaking down the eras of the X-Men! (26 November 2007)
365 Reasons to Love Comics #331: Transmetropolitan. No comments because it’s a CBR link, but I remember convincing at least one person that Warren Ellis actually wrote the Pogues song of this same name. That’s something! (27 November 2007)
I ask a question about the end of “One More Day,” and get a LOT of responses! (29 November 2007)
Why review comics? (1 January 2008)
The Best Comics of 2007 – a group post! (7 January 2008)
My best comics of 2007! (14 January 2008)
A humorous look at the O’Neil/Sekowsky “New Look” Wonder Woman. Sadly, the scans did not survive and this isn’t on CBR, but it’s still somewhat fun! (10 February 2008)
The concept of “Rogues’ Galleries.” (9 March 2008)
It’s a thought from Contentious Curmudgeon, which generates some fun comments! (10 March 2008)
Thoughts on Dick Hyacinth’s “Best of 2007” list. (17 March 2008)
The Japanese are being clever! (20 March 2008)
Brian Bolland recolors The Killing Joke, and I have thoughts about it! (25 March 2008)
My revelation regarding Secret Invasion. Mind you, it’s not a terribly original revelation, but it spurred a lot of comments! (6 April 2008)
Free Comic Book Day in Mesa, Arizona! Only a few comments, and the scans didn’t travel, so check out the CBR link here, where you can see photos of the Image founders and Jonah Weiland himself! (4 May 2008)
The price of comics. Lots of comments on that one! (19 May 2008)
I just post random Seth Fisher panels. Most of them are still visible, which is nice, but you really should buy as many Fisher comics as you can find (sadly, there are a limited number). And his mom stops by in the comments! (1 June 2008)
Confessions of a comic book nerd. All the nerdy things I’m NOT into. I’m very vexed that I can’t find this on the Wayback Machine, because, as you might expect, the comments were pretty copious. (10 July 2008)
The Joker vs. V. I’m really mad that this isn’t on the Wayback Machine – there’s a huge gap in where you can enter during 2008, and it’s hard to track down everything – because of course this spurred some really cool comments. Dang it. I still like this post a lot. (10 August 2008)
This is still pretty funny, even though it’s about a nicer time, politically. (18 September 2008)
Is DC publishing “torture porn”? I wonder if this spurred lots of comments? (6 October 2008)
Death and Sex in Comics: Dark Horse’s Conan. I was hoping to do a lot more of these, but I think I only did … two? (13 October 2008)
The 20th anniversary of my comics-buying habit! (26 October 2008)
What’s next for DC? With Final Crisis coming to an end, I predicted what DC would do … which is sort of what they did, about two years later! Behold my predictive power! (30 October 2008)
Another contest! (22 November 2008) (With answers here.)
Here’s my post about the long wait for the end of The Winter Men. This is one of my favorite posts, to be honest. Lots of fun! (11 January 2009)
The most Morrisonian comic ever … not written by Morrison!!! (14 January 2009)
Death and Sex in Comics: John Byrne’s Next Men. The second of these … and, sadly, the last. (6 January 2009)
A very quick thought about Gail Simone. (7 January 2009)
An outrageous retcon of a beloved character’s origin! (18 February 2009)
My best comics of 2008! I noted that Chris Burnham should be snapped up by one of the Big Two, and whattayaknow? he was! (27 January 2009)
My old Playmobil comic gets some scrutiny! This is another post I love. (24 February 2009)
The NBA declines to pay DC a licensing fee! (3 March 2009)
Racism in 1940s DC comics. Yeah, that got a bunch of comments, as you might expect. (28 March 2009)
Fear … the hand!!!! (26 April 2009)
Free Comic Book Day in Mesa, Arizona! (2 May 2009)
Is Diamond the Devil? Given how they’ve driven their business into the ground in the years since, I’ll go with “Possibly, but maybe they’re just terrible at business?” (5 May 2009)
Checking out an issue of Tripwire. (10 May 2009)
Some fun lists. Everyone loves lists!(17 May 2009)
The scariest panel in Marvel history? (24 May 2009)
Some links, only a few of which still work! (But they’re still fun.) (4 July 2009)
Paramount didn’t screen G.I. Joe for critics, and lots of people had thoughts! (4 August 2009)
A link that still works! (6 August 2009)
Remember when Diamond was planning to skip a week in December 2009 and the kerfuffle that ensued? Good times! (22 August 2009)
Disney bought Marvel. There were many thoughts in the comments! (31 August 2009)
My daughter got some cool toys. (22 September 2009)
Fun motivational poster. (3 November 2009)
3 comics, 2 companies, 1 rant. These are quasi-reviews of Image United #1, Justice League: Cry for Justice #5, and Blackest Night #5, which leads into a rant. I love a good rant! (1 December 2009)
Thoughts on comics as we enter a new decade. I used “chuffed” incorrectly, dang it! (1 January 2010)
Marvel sues to keep the copyrights of Spider-Man and the X-Men, and the comment section is pretty fun! (8 January 2010)
My best comics of 2009. (18 January 2010) (The images are here if you’re interested.)
Thoughts on S.W.O.R.D. getting canceled. Oh, the comments! (19 January 2010)
Name that artist! You can see the images here, but you can’t read the comments! (6 February 2010)
Sexy times in the funny pages! And yes, you need to go here to see what I’m talking about! (7 February 2010)
Phonogram: The Singles Club #7 and the joy of comics. (9 February 2010)
The political leanings of superhero comics … revealed! Man, you knew this would spark something, and 294 comments later … yeah, it certainly did! (1 March 2010)
How Kurt Busiek ruined superhero comics! You know people had thoughts about this! And Busiek stops by and has a good sense of humor about it! (22 March 2010)
Casanova returns at Marvel. (19 April 2010)
A new comic strip by A. David Lewis, which you can still access, apparently! (20 April 2010)
I have some issues with The Brave and the Bold #33. Oh, so many comments! I did make one commenter leave the blog altogether, so … score! (2 May 2010)
Comics: The most versatile art form? Lots of interesting comments, and a nice side discussion of Italo Calvino! (8 August 2010)
ESPN commissions drawing of NBA players as Marvel superheroes. Boy, the Kobe Bryant lovers were out in full force for this! You can see all the scans (a few were corrupted in the Wayback Machine link) here. (22 October 2010)
My best comics of 2010. (26 January 2011)
Page-by-page with Fear Itself #1. (11 April 2011)
A call for more experimentation in mainstream comics. Lots of comments on that one, as you might expect! (18 April 2011)
Page-by-page with Flashpoint #1. (16 May 2011)
Thoughts on my 40th birthday. (19 May 2011)
Frank Miller gets Raptured! (23 May 2011)
I bought a CD because Jamie McKelvie drew the cover. (26 May 2011)
My suggestions for Nu52 books and creative teams! You know, I still think a lot of these would work! (15 June 2011) (And here, Caanan Grall shows what his version of Milagro Reyes, Green Lantern of Earth, would look like!)
A guest article about lettering a comic! (20 September 2011)
Minck Oosterveer died. (23 September 2011)
I wonder about good conversations between men in comics. Of course, that gets me trouble, as me thinking about comics often does! (25 October 2011)
Ranting about comic companies and creators blaming readers for their own poor marketing decisions. Oh, it’s a good rant with a lot of comments! (4 December 2011)
Taking a look at The Annotated Sandman. Some of the scans didn’t transfer (but some did!), so you can check them all out here. (7 January 2012)
My best comics of 2011. (19 January 2012)
What “The War That Time Forgot” can teach us! Usually, the posts on the Wayback Machine that have a lot of scans are also on CBR, which this one is … but without the actual scans. Sorry, but most of the images have been corrupted. I’ll still link to it, but it’s definitely not as fun as it used to be, when you could see all the images! (6 February)
Milt Caniff (died 1988) has some tough words for present-day comic book artists! (11 February 2012)
What should we call this era of comics? Lots of comments, as you might expect! (5 May 2012)
A few spoiler-filled questions about The Dark Knight Rises … with spoilers! Lots of comments, naturally! (18 August 2012)
I bought comics at a sale! (26 December 2012)
My best comics of 2012. (15 January 2013)
Superhero comics versus superhero movies. (25 February 2013)
A COMICS FACT! (10 April 2013)
The stupid saga of Saga #12. More than a few commenters got mad at me about this, but more agreed with me! (11 April 2013)
Different ways of reading comics. (14 April 2013)
Why I don’t trust Scott Snyder. Weirdly, I think this was the column that got Snyder to friend me on Facebook. I guess he didn’t take it personally! And, to be fair, he’s gotten better at endings in the years since! (14 June 2013)
Seth Hahne and I compile our five funniest comics ever! I’m not sure if I’d change anything on mine, even a dozen years later! (7 July 2013)
Writing about art in comics reviews! Once again, I direct you to the CBR link if you want to see images! (14 July 2013)
An announcement about the book about Transmetropolitan that I contributed to. T., as he does, hijacks the comments by complaining about Chad Nevett! (12 August 2013)
Page-by-page with Infinity #1. (16 August 2013)
Page-by-page with Forever Evil #1. The images didn’t make it, so you can check them out here. (6 September 2013)
Culling the comic book list, plus a look at all the money I spent on comics over several years! (30 December 2013)
My best comics of 2013. (7 January 2014)
Thoughts about Futures End and Original Sin and the state of comics in general. The fun images are gone, but you can see them here. Lots of interesting comments! (8 May 2014)
Your opinion is invalid! Obviously, lots of fun comments here! (29 August 2014)
Year of the Artist: Lucy Bellwood! I won’t link to these posts individually because I’m not quite that insane, but this is a nice, long interview with Bellwood, so I thought it was worth it. (31 October 2014)
A quasi-Best Of list for 2014! (24 January 2015)
Page-by-page with Dark Knight III: The Master Race. The CBR version is here. (27 November 2015)
My best comics of 2015. As is the case far too often, the format is crap, so here’s the CBR link. (16 January 2016)
Page-by-page with DC Universe: Rebirth. Fun images are here, although the format on the first one is fine. (26 May 2016)

You’ll notice how the number of these slowly dwindled over the years. They did take a long time to write, and over the years, I just found less time to do them! Anyway, these often inspired so many fun comments, and I feel bad – as I note – when I couldn’t find them on the Wayback Machine, because the CBR versions don’t have comments. Dang it! I hope you enjoyed these, if you found some to click on. Have a nice day!