Well, I should start out saying I’ve got a nice chunk of wonderful news — it’s looking quite likely that I’ll soon be able to buy a house and move out of my apartment. It’s been almost a year of looking at houses and getting the best ones sniped out from under me by investors, but, cross your fingers, knock on wood, I think I’m close to being able to close the deal on a nice place here in Denton.

It comes with a bit of bad news — namely, I’m going to be too busy some evenings to get any blogging done. I’ve got documents to peruse, emails to send, old bills to shred, books to pack, and many, many other chores to attend to before I can get moved. And stuff like that is going to have to hold precedence over the blog from time to time.

And I think today is going to be the first time I’ll have to skip a post so I can focus on other chores around the apartment. I’ll try to limit them as much as I can, but sorry to say, blogging will sometimes have to lose out to real life concerns.

For the sake of including some actual content in here, let me toss out the following observations:

• I finally got to watch HBO’s “True Detective” series over the weekend, and thought it was just dang great. Part of it was the fantastic acting and mystery, part of it was the cool hints of cosmic horror, part of it was the rural Lousiana scenery, which I got to see for the first time last Christmas and which I’ve been wishing I could see more of in recent months.
• This roundtable discussion of the Wonder Woman costume from the upcoming Superman/Batman movie is pretty good for the discussion of what works and what doesn’t in the uniform, but it’s also lots and lots of fun for all the tangents about the coolest WW costumes and interpretations.
• The bright side of this is that there’s no way that wastes-of-protoplasm Opie and Anthony will ever make it back on mainstream radio again.

I got a whole big bucket of stuff I wanna talk about today, and comics reviews ain’t even a one of ’em.

ITEM 1:

They’ve announced the cast for the rebooted Fantastic Four movie. And for the most part, my lone reaction is a colossal shrug — I’m not very good at mass-media consumption anymore, and I didn’t recognize the names of any of the actors. But what’s really got certain members of the racist douchebucket fanboy brigade up in arms is that Johnny Storm is going to be played by Michael B. Jordan, a black actor.

There are two proper reactions to this: braying mockery or really excellent commentary examining race in the comics.

Ultimately, this is about smart casting — Jordan is a well-respected actor, it gets the movie a quick pop of controversy, thanks to the never-shutting-up racist population, and it gives comic book movies the opportunity to grow out of the These-Are-Only-For-White-People niche they’ve been locked into for too long.

ITEM 2:

A bunch of bigots in the South Carolina legislature actually want to cut funds from a university for suggesting students read Alison Bechdel’s brilliant “Fun Home” graphic novel.

One of the legislators, a Republican from Greenville, SC named Garry Smith said, “One of the things I learned over the years is that if you want to make a point, you have to make it hurt.”

And one of the things I’ve learned over the years is that if you find a moralizing Republican lawmaker in South Carolina, you’re pretty damn certain to find out that he spends his free time having sex with barnyard animals. All it takes is enough patient research into Rep. Smith’s background.

ITEM 3:

I’m looking forward to the next week or so here in Denton — it’s the beginning of GeeKon, a celebration of all things geeky and awesome. It’s mostly geared toward college students, but I hope I can enjoy some of the events without anyone complaining too much about the middle-aged fat guy in the crowd.

I’ll probably end up missing out on a lot of events — some of the film screenings will be taking place during work hours, and some of the other events are really geared so strongly toward geeks in their 20s that I think I’d feel much too awkward being in the audience — but I’m really looking forward to the UNT Comics Studies Conference, which focuses on academic approaches to comics.

And finally…

Greg Abbott is a dillweed.

A racist, sexist, homophobic, cowardly dillweed.

When I take over this state, Greg Abbott is going to get escorted to the nearest state line and told to get out and not come back.

And when it comes to the nearest state line, I intend to start measuring from Galveston.

Yeah, isn’t it great when your computer service goes completely kaput?

What’s even better is when you call ’em for service, get the Cloyingly Helpful Computer Voice that talks you through all the usual reboot procedures — shut down your modem, shut down your computer, shut down your router. Of course, I’d done all those in the morning when I first noticed the problem, but I gamely went along with the Cloyingly Helpful Computer Voice’s suggestions again. What the hey, can’t hurt, might help. There was no improvement, though, so I figured, okay, finally, I’ll be able to try to schedule some time when a repairman will come out and look at the problem.

But nope, this time, the Cloyingly Helpful Computer Voice wanted me to start reconfiguring the wiring on the back of my machine. You want me to do that — turn the computer around so I can reach the back, unplug wires, and replug wires — while I’m trying to stay on the telephone? Screw you, Cloyingly Helpful Computer Voice.

Seriously, Charter Communications, when you get to that point in the troubleshooting process, shut down the Cloyingly Helpful Computer Voice and put a real person on the line so they can get more relevant and helpful information or figure out when they can send someone in the fix the lines. We all know at that point that it’s not a problem on my end — it’s always a problem on your end.

Long story short — no blog today, and we can all blame Charter Communications for our lack of comic book goodness.

Oh, I can never keep a hiatus going as long as I say I’m gonna, can I?

It’s the end of the year, and this time, I don’t feel much like enumerating the best comics of 2013. Too many of the best comics are getting cancelled, or they’re published by a certain comics company that I prefer not to read anymore. So instead, let’s talk about how awesome I am. I know, I mostly do reviews, and they’re mostly pretty boring, but sometimes, I do get to do some blog posts I’m pretty happy with. Here are my favorites from 2013.

• Guns n’ Posers
• Let’s Talk about Sextillion
• A World Without “Superhero” Trademarks
• Irritated Again
• What is Best in Life?
• All the Things are Great
• How to Fix DC Comics
• Drawing the Line
• This Week in Comic Book Diversity

Hmph, just nine posts in 12 months? I’m slacking off, ain’t I?

Here’s to a better 2014, no matter how unlikely that may be…

Sorry, folks, no blogging from me for today. I got stuck with a screaming headache most of the day yesterday and could barely stand to look at the computer screen.

I don’t even think I can blame the long weekend, as I spent the whole time being restful and quiet. Probably just one of those my-brain-doesn’t-want-to-blog-so-here’s-a-headache headaches.

I’ll make it up to you. Okay, I won’t actually make it up to you, but I reckon I’ll blog another day instead.

Sorry for the lack of content lately. It hasn’t helped that I haven’t had a lot of inspiration for comics blogging. And it really didn’t help that Charter Communications, my Internet provider, suffers from frequent slow connection problems. Usually just for an hour at a time, but yesterday, it was all evening long. Rebooting the modem multiple times didn’t do diddly. I wasn’t able to even check e-mail ’til this morning.

But that’s Charter for you. Probably not the worst company in the country, but that’s just because they don’t kill puppies, sell poisonous baby formula, or publish DC Comics (trying to figure the right profit margin, I reckon).

I’m not even sure there’d be any point in trying to contact ’em, ’cause this is how it’d go:

Charter: “Did you reboot the modem?”
Me: “Yes, rebooted the modem and the router. Even rebooted the computer, even though there’s no reason rebooting the computer would have the slightest effect, but I knew you douchemooks would want me to do that.”
Charter: “Can you reboot all those things right now?”
Me: “No, I can’t. I’m at work.”
Charter: “Can you go home and reboot all those things?”
Me: “No, I can’t. I’m at work. I have a job, and they’d rather me not spend half the day jumping through hoops for you. Have you checked for any outages? Maybe you need to boost the signal at the line nearest my apartment? That’s what you had to do last time there was a problem like this.”
Charter: “We never have outages. We never admit fault. The problem is obviously on your end, because shut up, that’s why. Bye, remember to pay your bill on time!”

Maybe this’ll be a continuing problem in the evenings from now on, but I hope not.

In happier news, though still non-comics-related, I’ve been losing a good deal of weight. Not sure about the actual poundage, but I’ve had to tighten my belt two notches, which is certainly a good sign.

And the seemingly-abandoned cat from next door, which I was considering adopting despite serious cat dander allergies and an un-catproofable house, just to keep it from starving to death or freezing in the winter, has already been adopted by one of my neighbors. I gave the guy the cat food I’d bought this weekend to encourage him to treat Kitty nicely.

Okay, here’s some comics-related stuff. You guys like horror comics, right? Nod your head, of course you do. Well, Amazon is currently selling giant collections of the horror art of Richard Corben and Bernie Wrightson for relatively cheap. Frankly, they were pretty cheap already, but the current discounts make ’em a lot more affordable. So check ’em out if you love beautiful horror art and if you can spare the scratch.

See y’all later, when I’ve got bloggable stuff to write about… and if my ‘net connection holds up.

Well, now, here’s the thing.

A couple weeks back, I came home from work and had a great idea for a story I wanted to write — not something for the blog, but something I could potentially send in to publishers and get money for. But before I worked on that, I had to write up the next day’s blog post. And by the time I spent the usual hour or two cooking it together, I was sick of sitting in front of the computer and not much feeling like doing anymore writing anyway.

Then the same thing happened the day after that. And the day after that.

Many a week goes by where I don’t have time to write because I’ve got to work on the blog. Heck, it’s even hard to find time for gaming or reading or lots of other fun things.

Of course, I could still find time to write, I’m sure, but the blog is becoming a too-convenient excuse, and so I’m seeing it less as something I enjoy doing, and more as something that’s an unpaid, low-readership, somewhat odious, and mostly unshirkable responsibility.

And that way leads burnout.

I’m not interested in quitting the blog — it has its own intangible rewards. But I’m also not real happy that it seems to control so much of my free time.

So this is what we’re gonna try: I’m going to cut my blogging back from five days a week to three. You can expect blog posts here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I might still post something on Tuesdays or Thursdays, if there’s something particularly interesting I want to talk about. But for the most part, posts will appear on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays only.

Let’s see how this works out, ‘kay?

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, put on your party hats and pump up the volume. This is my 1,000th post on this blog!

I know the Better Class of Comics Bloggers would, at this point, provide links to their best, most insightful, most entertaining posts. But I’m not one of the Better Class of Comics Bloggers, and I’ve sure never written anything insightful or entertaining, so let’s just check out some funny and vaguely-topical comics covers instead….

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off for my new One Thousandth Post Mansion to celebrate with Scarlett Johansson, Christina Hendricks, and a few bottles of Dom Perignon and — what’s that? You say that’s the reward for the Better Class of Comics Bloggers? Well, what do I get? The One Thousandth Post Chicken Shack, a six-pack of warm Keystone, and a nubile young donkey named Darla? Siiiigh. Here’s to joining the Better Class of Comics Bloggers someday, Darla…

Hey, folks, I’m taking a very short break from the blog — I’ll be back on the job on Monday, but I just feel the need for a couple extra days of enjoying the beautiful weather, working on some other projects I’ve had on the back burner, and not thinking too hard about comic books.

So it’s basically two days off. Y’all can survive without me for that long. There, there — no need to cry…

I done got me a brand new computer! It showed up on my doorstep yesterday, and it was so cute in its little baby bonnet, I had to bring it in and give it a ham.

So I’m taking a short blogging break. Probably just a day or two, to make sure I’ve got everything plugged in correctly. The video card on the old machine had been giving me trouble, so I haven’t been able to play my beloved “City of Heroes” since before Christmas. So I’m jonesing bad to head over to Paragon City and smite some evildoers. So yeah, I gotta do that, too.

Ya never know, might take a bit longer, if I’m having too much fun with “City of Heroes,” or if the machine don’t work, for some reason. But more than likely, I’ll be blogging normally in a day or two.

You guys be good and don’t set anything on fire while I’m gone…