Thursday Night Thinking!

It's that time again, time to get introspective...TO THE EXTREME!!!!

...Okay, not so much. But here are three of the Endless to get the wheels turning.

Incidentally, it's also apparently my Bloggiversary. To mark two whole years of sporadic posts, unfinished series, and broken promises, I present you with a second image, one of my favorite scenes from all of The Sandman, and that's sayin' something. Wish I could have found a better quality scan, though. Click for a larger image. Then, turn off the computer, go outside, and take a good long look at the stars. If you can't see them where you're at, drive a few miles down the road until you can. Just stand up or lie down and stare at the vast, silent beauty of the cosmos. Learn the meaning of the word "awesome."

Here's to another great year at the Fortress.

Happy (Belated) 2nd Bloggiversary, Comics Should Be Good!

I'm going to do something a little different for the people over at Comics Should Be Good. Usually I fill these short little posts with links to all my favorite posts, but there's two years worth of content over there, and the vast majority of it is indexed by tags.

No, instead, I'm going to thank the Comics Should Be Good guys, for inspiring me to start this here Fortress of Soliloquy. Way back in June 2005, I had just recently discovered comic blogs. I mean, I'd been reading Newsarama and Comic Book Resources and the Superman Homepage regularly for quite some time, and I started reading The Fourth Rail a few months prior. But that late spring and early summer, I started finding actual honest-to-goodness comic blogs, and I liked what I saw. The Absorbascon and Suspension of Disbelief were some of the first ones I checked regularly.

And Comics Should Be Good. I liked Comics Should Be Good for their clever terms (like "Paternalistic Continuity") and their humor, and of course, for the then-fledgling "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed." But when it came to "mature" comics, specifically of the "Identity Crisis" sort, I didn't like them. In fact, I disagreed pretty vehemently. I've changed my views quite a bit since then (not the least of which because of this), but at the time I felt like I was the only person in the whole of comic fandom who liked reading in comics what I could watch in Law & Order. And that became my fourth post: a defense of "mature" comics storytelling and an attempt to debunk the notion that this was a new development in superhero comics, basically directed at the CSBG crew. There was a period of time where I felt a kind of rivalry toward Brian Cronin; you know, that kind of polite resentment where you respect someone and like some of their work, but really, really don't like what they have to say? Like that.

It didn't last long. What can I say? Brian's a fantastic guy and a better blogger than I'll ever be. Plus, he taught me how to truncate my posts. Eventually, I learned to stop worrying and love Comics Should Be Good. And I was reminded through this that I could disagree with someone and still enjoy what they have to say.

But Brian Cronin's not the only member of the Comics Should Be Good crew. If I ever stop being dead to Greg Burgas, perhaps he'll accept my saying that I think he's one of the most consistently entertaining people in comic blogging. I frequently disagree with his reviews, but he's a fine writer, whether at CSBG or at that other blog of his which I read frequently. Plus, we share the musical love that dare not speak its name.

And there's the rest, and I feel like a heel saying that. But, I don't check the bylines before I read the individual posts, so anything I say about Greg Hatcher, Bill Reed, Harvey Jerkwater, and Chris Burton's contributions to the blog would be somewhat less than sincere. Suffice it to say that CSBG is one of the best blogs around, and they therefore are among the best bloggers around. By the time their third Bloggiversary rolls around, I'll have something more substantial to say.

And Comics Should Be Good is one of the best blogs around. It has great commentary, good reviews, and awesome features like the aforementioned Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed to the always entertaining Judging Books By Their Covers to more recent features like Watching the River Flow and Snark-Free Corner. But you know that already. If you're reading my blog for the comic content, you already know about and frequently visit Comics Should Be Good.

Happy Bloggiversary, guys, and thanks for the inspiration. Keep up the good work.

Happy Bloggiversary, Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin!

Um, so, usually when a blog I read regularly and really enjoy has a Bloggiversary, I put together a post that's light on text but heavy on links to articles they've done in the past that I really enjoy.

Well, Mike Sterling, ever the industrious blogger, has gone and done my job for me. And of course, with three years of high-profile comic blogging experience under his belt, he has done it far better than I ever would have.

I could gush, but I'll just say that every day, I find something at Progressive Ruin that I enjoy. And I've never even really gone looking through the archives. I'd say you should go if you haven't been there, but who am I kidding? Everyone in the comics blogohedron has been to Progressive Ruin.

And for good reason.

Mr. Sterling, you are an inspiration to us all. Keep up the great work!

Secret Origins...

And the doors of the Fortress of Soliloquy (better name pending) open wide for all to see. That's right, none of that "gigantic golden key that could only be lifted by someone with the strength of a hundred men" nonsense; this ain't some crystalline arctic hideaway. This is a nice outlet for my desire to make a bigger, better review site than most of the others out there.

Okay, that's not quite true. But, here's the process that led to this site's creation.

I spend a lot of time on comic-related review sites. The Superman Homepage, The Fourth Rail, and so on. Some are arse-kissing pandering fanboy dreck (*cough*TheComicFanatic*cough*). Others are really good--the comic reviews on the aforementioned SH are top-notch, and while I don't always agree with Randy Lander, The Fourth Rail is beyond compare.

So, why this blog?

Because there aren't enough places that do both comics and other comic-related media (i.e., TV shows, movies, etc.). Because, fantastic though the Superman Homepage may be, their Justice League episode reviews are (understandably) biased toward episodes featuring Superman-related characters, and (less understandably) frequently miss the point. Because I'm tired of the backlash against "more mature" comics. Because I'm an opinionated loudmouth and I want to get it out of my system. That all seems about right.

So, here's the format I'd like to have. How this works in reality will be apparent soon. But, each week I'd like to have:
"First Response" - A feature including my initial reactions to the week's comics, JLU episodes, news, etc.
"Monitor Duty" - Reviews of DCU animated episodes, both new releases and classic episodes from "Batman: The Animated Series," "Superman," "Batman Beyond," "Justice League/Unlimited," and even the occasional "Static Shock" and "Teen Titans." Also, any other media adaptations of comic-related stuff, from "Smallville" to "Batman Begins."
"Panopticomic" - Weeklyish comic reviews, covering the new releases and the occasional TPB/Graphic Novel.
"It Came from the Long Boxes!" - Reviews of issues and arcs from my collection and other comics that can't be reasonably considered "new."
"Bloodlines" - Random musing that no one cares about. Kind of like the "Bloodlines" crossover and the resulting characters. Anyone seen Argus lately? Gunfire? Anima? Didn't think so.

So it begins.