Batman 217

Several years ago, I set out to read the Bronze Age Batman comics (or at least Detective and Batman) straight through in publication order, and blog about my thoughts as I went. I didn’t get too far, and not long after, the external drive I had stored the electronic copies of those comics on pooped out on me. In recent months, DC Comics has been making most of those issues available on Comixology, so I’ve been thinking it’s time to start that read up again. Because I didn’t have much opportunity to write anything else this week, I’m going to start off by reposting those earlier posts. 

I started my Bronze Age Batman reread with Batman 217, written by Johnny Hazard creator Frank Robbins and drawn by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano. The Batcave Companion listed this issue first in their Bronze Age checklist, so that's my guide.

Graham Nolan's Monster Island

It’s been a few weeks since I announced that I was taking a stress-related break from this blog. I’ll give a bit of an update towards the end of this post where things are with that, but the bottom line is, I think I’m ready to come back on a regular basis. And the first book I would like to talk about is an old favorite: Monster Island, by Graham Nolan. Partly because it’s a great comic, and partly to bring attention to the Kickstarter currently running to fund the creation of the next volume.

Taking a Break

It was only a couple of weeks ago that I wrote about rededicating myself to this blog, but I think I need to take a break for a bit. Because it looks like Rumplestilskin is sick.

He might just be a little sick. He might be very sick. Or he might be very, very sick. 

Happy New Year

Three nuts roasting by an open fire on Christmas Day

Happy New Year!

So it’s been about a month since my last post ended with the words, “See you next week!” Clearly, things did not go according to plan. Sadly, later that week, we learned that my wife’s brother had passed away, and the following week we flew out to North Carolina for his funeral. I had to come back home for work, while my wife stayed out with her parents for Christmas. (She had always planned on spending the holiday with her family, but under much less tragic circumstances.)

Between her brother’s passing, the funeral, and my being home alone (well, alone with three cats, a parrot, and a gecko), I wasn’t feeling much like writing anything. It’s been a crappy end to a crappy year that started with needing to put several tens of thousands of dollars into home repair and ended in tragedy, with health issues, work frustrations, and general upset with the state of the world filling in the middle of what turned out to be a misery burrito of a year.

Having said that, we want 2019 to be better, or at least the parts we have control over. So I thought I would talk about some of our plans, and kind of preview what you can expect to see here.

Cherry Smoked Rib Roast

Having written about enjoying prime rib at Lawry’s and elsewhere, I thought this week, I would share my adventures in smoking my own rib roast. I’ve made one before, but this is the first time I took photos to document the process.

I Make Some Hot Wings

I’ve written about the foods that make me happy before. While I love trying new and different things, my comfort foods are pretty basic: hot dogs, steak and prime rib, and fried chicken sandwiches. I also love chicken wings. However, unlike all those other foods, I had never made my own wings, instead getting ready-made ones from restaurants or grocery stores, or frozen ones. Part of the reason is that my wife doesn’t share my taste when it comes to wings. She doesn’t like spicy foods, nor does she enjoy food with bones in it. However, that all changed just a few short months ago.

The Disney Designer Collection

Over the last several weeks, the Disney Store has been releasing a series of limited edition dolls called the Disney Designer Collection. The dolls feature six Disney princess characters, not dressed in their traditional outfits, but in clothing inspired by the fashion of the years in which their movies were released. Released one a week, the collection featured Snow White from 1937, Cinderella from 1950, Jasmine from 1992, Ariel from 1989, Tiana from 2009, and Belle from 1991. The dolls sold out within minutes of their release online, and my wife and I were lucky enough to purchase three of them. They are gorgeous, so I thought I would share photos of them online.