In fairness, I never said which November

Content Warning: Sexual assault, election stuff, violence, everything. Stuff is changing around here, sorry folks. 

Bent

As you might be able to tell by the lack of posting, this has been the most hellaciously busy month or so of the year. Planning to resume posting in November!

47% → 73% → 100%

Remember 2013?

I know, it feels like several lifetimes ago. Let me help. "The Wolverine" was in theaters (remember theaters?), but we were all still coming down from our collective "Pacific Rim" high, still using that jaeger generator. Doge memes blanketed the Internet as thickly as discourse about the sketchy gender politics of "Blurred Lines." Ted Cruz was ascendant, about to shut down the government over Obamacare and not yet reduced to picking proxy fights with Ron Perlman or stoking sieges on his workplace. 

And I started reading beloved children's sci-fi novel Ender's Game. 

Between August, 2013 and July, 2017, I read and wrote about the book for a series I called Ender Bender, which (like every series I've tried to do for this blog—remember when I tried to watch every episode of "Silverhawks"?) started out with regular posts and an ambitious plan that petered out into very occasional posting as I got busy with other things and lost interest. I returned to draft a few more posts in early 2018, intending to finally finish the series, but never published them. 

I'm not a person who leaves books unfinished often. I've thought about the books I've abandoned for one reason or another, and I don't think there's more than two dozen across my whole life. On the Road, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, I remember nearly all of them. Some of them I intend to return to someday. 

I left Ender's Game at 47% complete on my iPad. 

Seeing a percent next to the word "game" triggers something deep in me. I'm the guy who completes every Riddler challenge in an Arkham game. So when I found myself thinking about Ender's Game recently, I decided to see if anyone else out there was talking about how much of this book is about bigoted children who are constantly naked. I understand there's a genocide later that probably dominates most people's memories, but, like, I went into It knowing about the preteen orgy, you'd think someone would have mentioned something. 

In searching for discourse, I came across a series by Will Wildman, also started in 2013 (and, improbably finished in 2013 like some kind of responsible blog series), at the blog Something Short and Snappy, doing something similar to what I would start a few months later. Reading the first few posts there and rereading my own posts got me to decide that I should occasionally try to finish something.

So I'm bringing Ender Bender to a close, for real this time. You can go back and read those old posts like I did, and marvel at how extremely of their times they are (I used the word "transgendered" like it's a verb! I made several references to "Welcome to Night Vale"!). And then feel free to plow ahead, because it's finally happening. The book is finished, the posts are written, and everything is scheduled (or will be before I publish this post). I hope you enjoy it, person who still reads blogs in 2020 2021. 

As you might be able to guess, I didn't write that recently. Back in 2020, when we were all going a little stir crazy, I decided to try to revive and finish Ender Bender. Obviously, I didn't succeed. I left the book at 73%  and don't have a handy screenshot because between then and now, I upgraded to a different version of Marvin on my iPad. 

This year, I've been trying to finish more things. I'm staring down the barrel of one of those round number birthdays and feeling some kinds of existential way. I don't know why Ender Bender is the project I settled on to finish this year. Maybe it's because I noticed that my first attempt to read Ender's Game was precisely ten years ago and that's another round number. Maybe it's because the culture war is currently engaged in genocidal moral panics involving book banning and accusations of child grooming, and this creepy-ass book's never going to enter the conversation because the author is on the same side as the Inquisitors. Maybe it's because of the rule of threes. 

Whatever the reason, I did it, and I did it right. I went all the way back to the beginning this time, rather than trying to rely on memories and my own posts like I did three years ago. And I'm glad I did, because I noticed so much more this time than I did before, both because I had some idea what to expect, and because I'm just more mature and knowledgeable than I was at 29.

And so, I have finished reading Ender's Game. 

Which means I need to finish writing about it. I wrote several posts back in 2020 and 2021, getting all the way up to Chapter 13: Valentine, and leaving myself cryptic notes like "remember the magicians." I'm going to lightly revise those and then bring the series to a close over the course of the next several weeks, aiming for a post each week, and wrapping up with some kind of summary. I might even watch the dingdang movie. If anyone's still out there, I hope you'll join me on this overlong journey, or at least that you'll come back when it's over. 

Déjà Blog

I deliberately avoided reading my original review of Joss Whedon's Zack Snyder's "Justice League" before I rewatched the movie over the last couple of evenings, because I wanted to go in as fresh as you can with a movie you've seen before. 

Having re-read the post...well, it's good to know that despite all the things that have changed in the last four years, my writing style hasn't. I noticed a lot of the same details, made a lot of the same references and jokes, and generally the biggest difference was that I was a lot less forgiving of the movie's flaws and faults the second time around. 

I suppose it's comforting, in a way, but I apologize if anyone read both posts and thought "why the hell are there two of these here?"

Taking the week off

It's been a wild week, folks, so I won't be posting a new Rocket Trips this Wednesday. I'll have another Rocket Trips up by the 28th, and hopefully sooner than that. I've also been working on something else. I won't say everything about it yet, except that I think you'll find it...electrifying. Stay tuned!

Rocket Trips #0: Origin Stories

Once upon a time, just a little over nine years ago, I started a little series examining the different versions of Superman's origin story, in publication order, on this blog. That series petered out after nine entries, halfway through George Lowther's 1942 novel, The Adventures of Superman. There's half of an entry finishing off that novel's origin story in my drafts from...*cough* 2011. 

Since then, we've had a bunch more Superman origin stories, including flashback sequences in "Man of Steel (vol. 2)" and the current "Superman: Year One." And I'd like to dive back into the Superman origin waters. 

But I'm older and wiser now, and I realize that I made some avoidable mistakes. Chief among them being that I tried to stick to the origins in chronological order. I think there's value to that, in seeing how the myth evolved over time, but it also means spending a lot of time tracking down hard-to-find Golden Age and Silver Age sources. I really dig Golden and Silver Age comics, but I also know there were versions of Superman's origin told in the gap between 1961 and 1978 in that old master list, and I haven't found any clear indication of where they were. 

So I'm going to play hopscotch through the decades, covering Superman origins as I encounter them, and focusing on the key elements that carry over from version to version, as well as the interesting deviations. I can't promise a regular schedule or fascinating writing, but I'm going to try. Blogging may be a dying art, but I'm not ready to close the Fortress door just yet, and this is an easy way to have some consistent content that I can't just dump in the whirlpool of social media. 

Besides, I made a logo:

I hope you enjoy coming on this journey with me! The first installment will post later today!

Walking with Superman: The Contest Update!

If my inbox is any indication, you may be interested in the results of the Walking with Superman Contest. I'll be posting the results within the next week and shipping the prizes shortly after. Just swamped with work at the moment.

Thanks for participating (and caring)!

Sweet Nothings

So, I kind of sat third chair on the Nerdy Nothings podcast this week, and spent a little time talking about Walking with Superman. You can listen to it here or download it on iTunes. I'll note that it was my first time on a podcast, so forgive my lame attempts at humor, my umm-ing and ahh-ing, and my complete inability to remember any of the things I've actually written in the last six months.

Oh, and hopefully they edited out that part where I said I had tiger blood and Adonis DNA. Boy, was that embarrassing.

But that's okay 'cause I've got no self-esteem

Well, that was a bust.

I knew it was probably a bad idea to do a contest with so little forward preparation. I figured it was probably a bad idea to make it so open-ended and free-form. I figured I'd probably get an entry or two from the regulars who comment here occasionally, and that they'd end up with the prizes, and I was all right with that.

But man, not a single entry? Worse yet, my average visits have dropped to, like, half of what they were when I started the contest. And I imagine that several of those 56 hits are mine, what with checking to make sure that things have actually posted when they were supposed to.

I'm not usually one to wallow in bitterness, and this time will be no different. I still plan on doing a contest, and I plan on it being successful. I've got at least two more milestones coming up in the next four months or so, and I'm going to make them count. And the first step is actually making this blog popular.

And as someone who spent high school reading comic books and playing chess, I know all about what it takes to be popular.

Seriously, though, any word of mouth and link love would be much appreciated. I've mostly been writing this Superman series for myself, but there has to be some other obsessive Superman fan who would enjoy it, right?

The World That's Coming!!

Feed readers just got a startling glimpse into the world that's coming!! Try to ignore it until Wednesday, folks.

The Bells Are Ringing

Another post eaten by this Blogger scheduling problem. Just pretend this posted yesterday at 3:00.

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Usually when I talk about my personal life on the blog here, it's to give excuses about late posts, or to share something geeky and funny that happened in meatspace. This post is a little different. See, when this posts, I'll be getting married. And shortly thereafter, I'll be going on my honeymoon. Hooray!

On the blog side of things, you need not fear. Walking with Superman will continue to post daily, unless there's a serious snafu. Posts are scheduled through a day or two after the Honeymoon, and I'll be using all that time on the plane to plan some more. I might not get to comments or questions much, though, and my Twitter feed will likely continue to gather cobwebs. Such is life.

As far as the ceremony goes, I've been prepared by years of reading comics, and I totally know what to expect. I think I'll consider the shindig a success if none of the following things happen:

• My fianceé being plucked out of the timestream and all memories of and references to her erased.
  
• An ex-girlfriend showing up in an outfit made of leather straps to wreak havoc, fry the pastor, and try to kill us.
  
• Electro and/or the Spider-Slayer showing up to disrupt proceedings.
  
• Stan Lee and Jack Kirby being turned away at the door.
  
• The event being rewritten at some future point due to a deal with the Devil.
  
• One of us turning out to be a zombie who has hypnotized the other into going through with the wedding.
  
• Changes to the timeline forcing one of us to go back to the past and distracting the other long enough for them to avoid being killed prematurely.
  
• Our technorganic alternate future child showing up.
  
• My father-in-law shooting my best man.
  
• Our deaths at the hands of the dude who has been killing us over and over through a variety of reincarnations.
  
• The wedding being a clever ploy by one of us to exploit the other's mental breakdown.
  
• One of us turning out to be a shapeshifter.
  

I think if we can avoid any of those, we'll be in good shape. In any case, I'll be back and posting post-honeymoon. Take it easy.

Arrrgh.

I'm no longer taking the blame for the late posts. I don't know what's up with Blogger or the scheduling system, but two or three of the last several Walking with Superman posts have somehow gone from "scheduled" to "draft," missing their post times, and I don't know why. I mean, I'm checking after I hit "publish," and it was certainly working a couple of weeks ago. I'm going to spend some time tonight getting ahead and scheduling the posts for noon as usual, but I'll make sure they get up by 5:00 if they don't post on time. Hopefully this problem will clear up quickly.

The Recent Snafus

If you're the kind of person who follows this blog through a feed reader, or if you're checking here every day promptly at noon for the latest installment of "Walking with Superman," then you may have noticed that this week has been a shaky one for the feature. Thursday's post was late by 50 minutes or so, today the post changed dramatically at one o'clock, and now you might be thinking "there he goes again, Tom's going to flame out on yet another promise. Yet another series of posts is going to go the way of Black History Month and Blue Prints and Fridays with Freakazoid and Silverhawks Sunday."

Not so, faithful reader. It's true that this week has been a tough one, but it's only through my stupidity (and a cold I appear to be catching, and a general lack of sleep). I accidentally scheduled Friday's post to appear on Thursday--which wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't specifically filled it with details to commemorate hitting the 1/3 mark on Friday. The post that hit at noon today was initially going to be today's post, but after I tweaked the following posts and my basic ideas quite a bit, I decided to push it back to Monday. Unfortunately, I swapped the titles and timestamps on the posts, and the rough Monday post appeared today. I've corrected the error, but not before people got that ugly look at how the "Walking with Superman" sausage is made.

I'm not out of ideas or time yet, ladies and gents. And I've got some big plans as we get into the next year. I'm working this weekend on getting ahead of where I'm at, and that'll give me a little more buffer as we get into the season of holidays and certain bloggers' impending weddings.

But hey, you know what would be a real non-denominational holiday miracle would be to have a few more comments on these posts. I'd continue doing it until the end even if I didn't receive a single comment from here on out, but it sure would be cool to have a bit of feedback, or even some buzz on some of those big ol' comic news websites. That would be totally awesome.

Finally, since the movie came out this weekend and all, something else that's unauthorized and totally awesome:

I can pretty much die happy now

If I kept up with my podcasts better, I would have known about this weeks ago, but I don't, so I didn't. Anyway, I got mentioned by name on the only comics podcast I listen to, War Rocket Ajax! Episode #44, if you're curious, in reference to this.

So that's pretty cool. My next goal? Getting an interview. I suppose "becoming a published and popular nerdsphere author" would probably be a good intermediate step.

Short Takes

Work and real life are kind of kicking my butt at the moment, but while it's caused me to put the temporary kibosh on "Superman Sundays," it hasn't impacted (and won't impact for at least the foreseeable future) the "Walking with Superman" series. I'm right on track with that series, and every time I think I might be running out of ideas, I find some cool place in my research or think "what's a cool thing that I want to see Superman do?" and I'm all right again.

But that's not what this post is about. This post is about some of the comics I've actually managed to read recently, and other associated thoughts. And so...

---

In the "news to absolutely no one" department, I finally managed to purchase the newest volume of Adam Warren's "Empowered," and it was quite awesome. The increasing continuity in the title has inspired me to go back and read the whole series all at once, probably before my next "Scott Pilgrim" read-through, to be honest.

I could gush for long periods of time about all the awesome stuff in the book, but one thing I think it does particularly well is exploring the idea of a superhero culture. The "Empowered" universe has a superhero 24-hour news network, superhero TV shows, superhero award ceremonies, and radio programs devoted to fantasy-football-style superhero fandom. It's the sort of thing that great books like "She-Hulk" and "Manhunter" and "Bulleteer" and so forth have examined in smaller degrees, and it's something I wish comic creators would put more thought into. In a world where being superhuman is not entirely uncommon, we should expect to see a culture rise up around those superhumans, whether it's the mutant subculture explored in books like "X-Statix" and Grant Morrison's "New X-Men" run, or the ramifications of superhero existence implied by "Damage Control" and so forth. I'd like to see more creators ask "if superheroes existed, what else would we expect to see," and I think Adam Warren is one of the best creators out there in that regard. And that's not even the main focus of the title! So kudos to Warren for one of the best superhero books on the stands, even if it is a little embarrassing to purchase, shrink-wrapped and all, from my local Borders.

---

I also enjoyed the most recent Invincible trade, but I have less exciting things to say about that.

---

My feelings about J. Michael Straczynski's "Superman" ought to be well-known about seventy-one times over at this point, but Paul Cornell is rocking the house on "Lex Luthor's Action Comics." It's been a solid title from issue one, showcasing some of Luthor's eccentricities and weaknesses in ways that don't make him any less threatening or intimidating as a villain.

It also featured Gorilla Grodd wielding a "combat spoon." And that's amazing. I don't know how a book about DC's greatest villain manages to be this crazy and fun, but it does, and I hope it continues that way.

Incidentally, next issue is the one with Death. SPOILER ALERT! I'm not entirely sure how Lex is going to get out of this apparent jam, but I'm interested to find out. That? That was a cliffhanger. END SPOILERS.

---

Speaking of "Action Comics," despite the fact that I downloaded the Jimmy Olsen preview on my iPhone last week, I never quite got around to reading it until today. The way it treats the Silver Age wackiness of Jimmy Olsen's career with such matter-of-fact panache and uses morse code as a plot point in such a perfectly spot-on Silver Age way, is pitch-perfect awesome. I love the new characters, though it's going to probably take a few stories before we see whether or not Chloe Sullivan is anything like her spunky television counterpart.

A techno-genie. Man, "Action Comics" is amazing.

---

Action Comics also got me thinking about the weird way that some supervillains manage to "graduate." Like, most villains start as villains for some specific hero or team, but some manage to move up to universe-wide villains, villains who would be believable as the focal characters of major crossovers or fighting nearly any other hero. I've made a quick list of villains who started as single-hero foes and made their way up to universal threats:

• Lex Luthor (Superman)
  
• Dr. Doom (Fantastic Four)
  
• The Joker (Batman)
  
• Deathstroke (Teen Titans)
  
• Ultra-Humanite (Superman)
  
• Gorilla Grodd (Flash)
  
• Norman Osborn (Spider-Man)
  
• Loki (Thor)
  
• Magneto (X-Men)
  
• Kingpin (Spider-Man)

And so forth. I don't know exactly what qualifies a villain to make that jump; it seems like some of them start by shuffling around to different heroes (the way that Dr. Doom fought Spider-Man in an early "Amazing") or going after teams that their main rival is on (Loki being the first enemy of the Avengers). But, like, why would Deathstroke take off as a major DCU villain over, say, Brother Blood?

I also think it'd be interesting to compare/contrast this list with the list of villains who became heroes/antiheroes, during the '90s in particular and during other times in general. Deathstroke's on both lists, and arguably the Joker is too, given his solo title in the '70s. The Punisher started as a Spider-Man villain, but then you also have Venom (the "lethal protector"), Morbius, and a host of other characters to choose from. Not to mention the Suicide Squad and Secret Six.

It's interesting fodder for future posts, I suppose.

---

I appear to be the only person in comics fandom who wasn't wowed and wooed by "Chew." I don't know exactly what the problem is, whether it was just too many "innaworld"-type high concepts stuck on top of one another or something else entirely. All I know is that everyone is singing the title's praises with superlative accolades, including lots of people whose opinions I trust, and who have caused me to run out and buy other titles in the past on recommendation alone. But man, it just did absolutely nothing for me. I feel like I need to re-read the book again, or like there's something wrong with me. Rest assured, I'll do the former, and I suspect the truth of the latter.

I expect they'll be by for my comics blogging license any day now.

---

I like that the Green Lantern books are finally dealing with Sodam Yat. His sacrifice, up to and including the way it mimicked that of Hal Jordan in "Final Night"--was obviously going to be a non-death, and it's nice to see some movement on that plotline. That being said, I'm pretty sure that his story is being dealt with in "Emerald Warriors," and I really don't think I'm going to subscribe to a third Green Lantern title. I love Guy Gardner and all, but I think I'll be sticking with the two main titles for now. Maybe I'll change my mind soon, but not so far.

---

The current tragedy of my comic collecting is that I didn't have the funds to pick up "Darkwing Duck" as it was coming out, and so I only have the first issue. The closest shop that has any additional issues is A) not close and B) missing #2. I might ask my new LCS guy if they can procure the additional issues. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow, then. But man, $3.99 an issue sure makes trade-waiting an attractive prospect.

---

Looks like that's it for now. Feel free to tell me how or why I'm wrong in the comments. Especially if you're a "Chew" fan. I'd love to be sold on the series--I bought the first trade, after all, so I'm at least a little invested--but man, absolutely nothing.

Bottomless Nerdity

My fianceé and I have been car shopping for a little over a month. My car is getting to be pretty unreliable, and cleaning up the oil slick in the garage every couple of weeks is fairly frustrating. We'd just about given up recently, having heard little from the local agents we had out looking for us.

Until yesterday. I got the call shortly after work that they had found pretty much precisely what we'd been looking for. It was amazing. It's got almost all the features I wanted, and it's a beautiful iridescent blue. We made our down payment, and we'll be picking it up in a week or so. I'm quite excited.

So naturally I was still thinking about the car--and its gorgeous blue color--when I texted her a little later:

I'm thinking "Classy, and Relative Dimension in Space."

Asian Spam Update

You may recall my attempt to reach out to the Asian Spammer community, in an attempt to understand their motivations and desires. Well, there's some news on that front. In the past few days, I've gotten four or five e-mail notifications that there were new Asian spam comments on my various recent posts, but when going to delete them, I find no such comments. So apparently Blogger is cracking down, which is fantastic.

As to the spammers: sorry guys. I've got no control over this one. Sayonara.

"Things never were the same. Change is...it's what we get."

This post is not about Scott Pilgrim. It's not about Superman either, for that matter. It's about something much more personal.

My comic shop, Stand-Up Comics, is closing.

The news came pretty unexpectedly for me. Though I knew business hadn't been great, I didn't know it was nearly this bad. I suspect it's largely due to the economy--when you've got to choose between comics and food, eventually food wins. I haven't bought comics in over a month for precisely that reason. Things suck all over, and it's hard for any small business in a niche market to stay solvent in the current climate.

I've applied superlatives to Stand-Up Comics in the past, and I stand by them. It is seriously the best comic shop I've ever been to, and brother have I been to a lot of comic shops. They have a wide selection of comics, displayed in a sensible, organized manner, and with excellent discounts. They offer more than just geek paraphernalia; while most comic shops' attempts at diversification usually lead to gaming materials and used paperbacks and porn, Stand-Up Comics brought in local bands and held comedy shows. The shop is spacious and well-lit, welcoming and friendly. My fianceé always appreciated the "girlfriend couch," a place where she could sit and relax while I browsed, rather than following me around like, in her words, "a lost puppy," given that she's a lot less interested in the material than I am. That's a lot more than most stores offer their customers' significant others, or girls in general, for that matter.

Stand-Up Comics is still going to be around for a few more weeks, though you won't be finding the most recent books on the shelves this coming Wednesday. Still, everything in the store will be marked down, and it sounds like there might be some end-of-an-era events in that time as well. I don't know if I can make it to the shop in the next few weeks--I'm living pretty lean until my next paycheck or two--so I'm asking my readers for a favor: Drop by. Stop in for everyone who can't, for the people like me who are too damn broke to help out good friends. Buy some books and boards and boxes, not out of charity, not out of pity, but out of recognition. Stand-Up Comics tried new things. They aren't a conventional comic shop, and they're better because of it.

And I don't think you can say they failed. I've seen small businesses with much wider appeal than comic shops flare up and die away within weeks or months around me; when I drive around my town, I see dozens of empty storefronts, some of which have never actually been rented, others the remains of short-lived businesses from just the last few years. It doesn't help that there are several other comic shops in the same general vicinity, or that Chicagoland is home to one of the largest comic shop conglomerates in the country. That Stand-Up Comics managed to stay open and popular for nearly five years, run by a bunch of comic fans with no formal business training, is nothing short of fantastic. The owners should be proud, and I know they are.

It's bittersweet, because the last thing I want to see is my friends forced into bankruptcy by a dying business, but I also hate losing a shop I've patronized faithfully, if remotely, since they opened. I've never had a comic shop close on me before. Today, I filled out the subscription form for that same conglomerate, and it felt like defeat.

But I'll get over it, and I'll move on. All of Stand-Up's customers will, and the owners are already moving on to new things. Sometimes change hurts. And often, change sucks. But change is what we get.

So good luck to Eric, Pat, Brian, and the rest of the Stand-Up Comics crew and customer base. I'll be seeing them around, and you should be seeing them too. I know I have readers scattered all over Chicagoland and northern Indiana, I've seen the referral logs. Take a trip down to 3429 Ridge Road in Lansing, IL, and show a little love for a shop that dared to try something more than Magic: the Gathering and Pokémon tournaments. In a world where comic shops are all too often run by people like this jackass, I think actual, quality shops should be rewarded. It's in our interest as customers to encourage comic shops to be as open and friendly and innovative as Stand-Up Comics, because it's one of few antidotes against the increasing insularity and homogeneity of comic fandom. Like it or not, comics are dependent on the direct market, and the direct market is dependent on new customers. And you can only get so far in that direction by stocking up on board games and D&D books.

I'm going to stop gushing and ranting, I think. You get the idea. Now get on down to the best damn comic shop in the multiverse before it, like all good things, comes to an end.

Walking with Superman: By the Numbers

I did a bit of planning for the "Walking with Superman" feature today, and I thought it might make an interesting, quick post to show where the series is and where it's going. So, a few brief facts:

• I've written a total of forty-one posts for the series so far. I'm trying to stay at least two weeks ahead, and there are three posts in addition, scheduled for the more distant future. Right now, the post that's scheduled farthest in the future will show up on (about) March 8, 2011.
  
• This means I've written a little over 1/10 of the entire series.
  
• I've either written or planned posts for thirty-one states so far.
  
• On average, Superman will have seven adventures in each state. This won't be entirely accurate, since some adventures take place in non-state areas, like the Gulf of Mexico and the District of Columbia. I haven't yet decided if there'll be any adventures in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or any other non-state territories.
  
• If I make it through the whole series as I've planned, it would be the equivalent of 365 issues of a Superman comic. Released monthly, this series would last 30 years and 5 months. If appearing in both Superman and Action Comics, thus coming out biweekly, the whole series could be released in a mere fifteen years, two months, and two weeks. If I were writing this in the late '90s, when "Adventures of Superman" and "Superman: The Man of Steel" were still being published, this series would last 7 years, 7 months, and 1 week. At the height of Superman publication, when the quarterly "Superman: The Man of Tomorrow" was being released, it'd be just 7 years and 1 week.
  
  So, the reasons for not doing this whole series as I've pitched it are pretty obvious. Even if it were weekly, it'd take seven years.
  
• I would gladly write Superman for the next thirty years.
  
• I have a philosophy behind this series, which I'll talk about in more detail in the 366th post.
  
• The last time I wrote a post that wasn't about Superman was July 30th, 15 days ago. I do feel bad that this has become the all-Superman blog, but I'm posting more and having more fun doing it than in quite some time. I do have some things to say about Scott Pilgrim, so there's that coming up.
  
• I feel a little worse that my more academic "Superman Sunday" series has suffered in recent weeks. I plan to have another post in that series ready for tomorrow, hopefully closing out the Lowther novel. I recently found out about another origin, so that might be the next piece.
  
• That last bullet wasn't actually about "Walking with Superman."

That's the state of the union so far. I'm excited about this series, and I'm percolating with ideas (true fact: so far, I haven't used a single one of the pitches and story ideas that I've saved up in case I ever actually get to write Superman--not that I wouldn't use some of these, too). I don't know if I'll manage to get through 365 without repeating myself, but I think there's enough places and interesting things in this fair country to easily support that many stories.

So here's to the next...what is it, 341 days? Awesome.

Posts...from the FUTURE!

If you read "The Fortress of Soliloquy" through some kind of feed aggregator, you may have gotten some brief glimpses of the future last night. I'm doing my best to stick to the "Walking with Superman" daily schedule, so I've queued up over two weeks worth of advance posts, plus a couple for farther in the future. It's been a blast coming up with fun and interesting plots for Superman's cross-country trip, and I'll be trying to keep it going regularly. So check back here at 5:00 Central Time (I might change that eventually) every day for another capsulized pitch...and if you'd like to spread the word, I certainly wouldn't mind that either.

Even though I talk about Superman an awful lot, I do have some other things in the wings. Of course, I'm always open to ideas, so if you have anything you'd like to see me tackle, let me know in the comment section.