Goodbye 2016: Another year is in the books – pun intended! As we say goodbye (and some might say good riddance) to 2016, this is my annual look back at my reading and work on this blog. I once again found myself with down time between working assignments, so the reading output picked up some. I finished nine Showcase Presents volumes and 13 Essential volumes. And there were 52 new reviews posted each and every Monday morning.
Showcase Presents volumes read in 2016: Metal Men 1 & 2; Sgt. Rock 1; Enemy Ace 1; Spectre 1; Sea Devils 1; Doc Savage 1; The House of Mystery 2; and Showcase 1. Essential volumes read in 2016: Werewolf by Night 1 & 2; Web of Spider-Man 1; Avengers 8 & 9; Fantastic Four 8; Monster of Frankenstein 1; Moon Knight 1 & 2; Ghost Rider 3 & 4; Marvel Two-in-One 4; and Marvel Saga 1.=======================
Hello 2017: This is going to be a transition year with the blog, as I am starting to see the end approaching. No worries, it’s not going away anytime soon. I still have plenty of books to read and write reviews. But right now, my list has roughly 40 books that I have not reviewed yet, and there are 52 weeks in the year. Do the math!
There may be some weeks that I take the week off. I might not have a review ready to go, or I may be busy with my podcast work. I will still post a quick note to let you know what’s going on.
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Wish List: Through this entire project, I have never asked for anything…. until now. My first rule for this blog was that I would only write a review if I owned and had read the book. Considering that I have published nearly 240 reviews so far, with at least 40 more to go, that translates to a lot of books in my collection. But I don’t have them all. There are around 12 books, mostly Showcases, that I do not own. I know that I can probably track them down, but I thought I would put this out to the world and see what happens.
On the blog, I have posted a Wish List of books I still need to track down to read and review. If you have one of these books and you want to pass it along to me, that would be awesome. I’m not asking anyone to go out and buy these books unless you can find them on the cheap. I’ve promised the family I will not buy any more of these books but I can accept free gifts!
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Marvel Saga: I started a new podcast venture with Nicholas Prom of the Comic Reflections podcast — and please check out his show if you are a fan of the Silver and Bronze Age comics! In each show, we are taking a detailed look at Marvel Saga from the mid-1980s. The comic was Marvel’s attempt to put all of the original stories in chronological order. A new show will go up once a month, with issue 2 posted just yesterday! The show is available in the feeds for both Comic Reflections and Worst. Comic. Podcast. EVER!, so please give us a listen.
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Worst. Comic. Podcast. EVER!: It was another great year with the podcast. We put a lot of time and sweat into the show, but with it came some great rewards. We hosted a lot of panels at shows around the Midwest, we interviewed guests from coast to coast and helped create some incredible experiences that will never be replicated.
In September, I traveled to Portland, OR, for the Rose City Comic Con. There I got to hang out with Ty Templeton at the Hero Initiative booth throughout the weekend, as well as meet creators such as Jimmy Palmiotti, Kurt Busiek, Gail Simone, Ron Randall, and more. The next weekend, we were part of the initial Panel Exploration event in Omaha, NE, where we sat down and talked about the comic book process with the likes of Stan Sakai, Phil Hester, and Cullen Bunn.
- WCPE 2016 Interviews with: Hayley Nitz, Cullen Bunn, Jody Houser, Terry Moore, José Luis García-López, Ant Lucia, Yanick Paquette, Franco Aureliani, Art Baltazar, Rafer Roberts, David Baron, Steve Lightle, Greg Smallwood, Grace Ellis, Phil Hester, Stan Sakai, Allen Passalaqua, Megan Levens, Vivek Tiwary, Rick Stasi, B. Clay Moore, and more.
- WCPE 2016 Panels hosted with: Jeremy Haun, B. Clay Moore, Seth Peck, Alex Grecian, Greg Smallwood, Roland Mann, John Lucas, John Dugan, Dennis Hopeless, Cullen Bunn, Jason Aaron & Jason Latour, Amanda Conner & Jai Nitz, Marv Wolfman, Helen Slater, Lesley Ann Brandt, Frank Conniff & Trace Beaulieu, Ksenia Solo, Aaron Stanford, John Schneider & Tom Wopat, Brian Herring, Peter Shinkoda, Michael Golden & Mike Grell, Stan Sakai, and more.
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Thank you!: We live in an age where we are overwhelmed by requests for our time and attention. Our social media feeds are updated every second with new items that we want to see and read and watch and listen. So with all of the demands on our precious time, I do appreciate each and every one of you who take the time each week to read my musings of these comics. I read the comments, I get a thrill when it is shared or liked. I would finish this project even if no one was reading this, but knowing that YOU are reading it helps me along. So thank you very much for your time and feedback!
Essential Showcase 