Cool Links for 3/30 including Python, booze and pie

Howdy!

Let's kick this off with the happiest news of the week:

Monty Python is coming to Netflix! All of it! Every episode of Flying Circus, all the movies and more. Leah Schnelbach wrote a lovely piece called The Gospel According to Monty Python. Read it - this is your assignment for the commute home.

The American Distilling Institute announced the winners of this years Best in Class Awards. The entire list can be found here. As with craft beer, these folks work hard to produce some fine hooch, and some of them are probably around the corner from you. Support 'em and spread the word.

Trying to figure what the weekend soundtrack's going to be? This might help - it's just a map of all pop music genres since 1880. That's 1880.

I enjoyed this interview with Neil Young.

FYI - I like pie. I prefer it to cake. I want every pie listed here.

Ok, let's see...Python, booze, tunes, pie, iconoclast...that should do it for now. Bye. Have a tasty weekend!

All blogs go to heaven Part VIII

CBU
The Fractal Hall Journal - all gone now.

The Thom Zahler Weblog - Formerly a Wordpress site and now on Squarespace. Thom's probably best known for Love and Capes and is still very active. Start here.

Renderwrx Productions - Website is gone, and no posts on Facebook for over four years. I guess that's it, unless I hear otherwise...

Cover Date Chronology - Chrono nomo.

The Hero Foundry's MySpace Blog - Forget the MySpace thing, obvs. There is a Hero Foundry FB page, but it's all Twitch & Overwatch related. Don't care at all, even if it is the same people from the old blog.


UAT
The Greatest Cartoonist Of All Time! - Mr. Kyle Baker has resumed blogging at this site this month! Welcome back, Kyle!

Loose Cruse - This site opens the door to Howard's world, which was most recently updated in February. Check it out.

The Time Warp Times - Time's up.

Los Monitos de Ramos - Humberto Ramos is using social media now, primarily Twitter and Instagram.

Inkstuds - This long-running podcast site is full of interviews with the greatest names in Indy and Underground comics; the most recent coming in January.

Cool Links tomorrow? We'll see...

All blogs go to heaven Part VII

I'm back! Let's go...

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Standard Attrition - Big-time Marvel guy Jason Aaron has a Blogspot site (though not updated so much) and is active on Twitter, among others.

Comics on Comics - moved over to Facebook with Soundcloud and YouTube channels as well. Multi-media-tasking!

GutterGeek 2.0 - Formerly a Comics Journal blog, Jared Gardner can be found primarily on Twitter, and does have a (rarely updated) site.

Noetic Concordance - Once upon a time, Vaklam (Brian Cooksey?) ran this and six other blogs. All dormant since 2010. I think that's him on Twitter...

CONSPIRE! - Cartoonist Conspiracy is still posting consistently since 2005. Good for them!

UAT

Society For The Advancement of Dave - Dave is no longer being advanced by society.

Steve Rude's MySpace Blog - The Dude has his own page & blog here. (Man, I loved Nexus!) If you see a MySpace blog pop up here, assume oblivion. MySpace seems to be devoted to music primarily now. I never used or visited MySpace at any time ever, so I really don't know the utility or the history of the platform. 

LEAGUE OF MELBOTIS - So League of Melbotis became just Melbotis, which led to Signal Watch. And Signal Watch is still going! Ryan Stearns is keeping the flame alive by posting nearly every day. Support this guy.

Comic Book Issues - Amanda posted for a couple years, and then quit the gig in 2012.

Masked Mayhem - It just kinda ran outta gas in November, I guess.

(* Permanote: I'm using Comicblogupdates and Update-A-Tron to facilitate this project. Quite a few of the links on these two sites rely on RSS/feeds. Some sites are still there; the provided link is just defunct)

Welcome to ZCB, new people!

A surge in readership over the past week compels me to say "Hi!" to all you newbies. Come on in, have a seat, pour yourself a strong one. Luncheon will be served on the lenai after the floor show.

Zombie Cat Bacon is a lot of things. A blog, yes, but also a place where we can cut through the white noise of the internet and read about the interesting, fun or otherwise nifty world around us. ZCB uses Facebook and Twitter, but over time, most of the ZCB content will be found here (here's why). So subscribe today. Our operators are standing by.

Lately, ZCB has been doing a run through a series of old comic book blogs. While the content of these blogs may not interest (most of) you, it has been interesting to see the results so far. A lot have just died as the writer has lost momentum or, as has happened to ZCB occasionally, life gets in the way. Many have moved to platforms such as Facebook/Twitter, others have gone podcast only. A few have gone "pro"; either absorbed by larger entities that can fund such efforts or become so popular that the blog has become an online commercial enterprise unto itself (this is rare). The massive adoption of platforms has changed the internet profoundly, and in many ways, not for the better.

At least weekly, Cool Links will be shared via this blog. These posts seem to be the popular kids in the room, and there's always good compelling stuff to share and read. Never politics, never serious, always Cool. Like Fonzie Cool.

So stick around, and scroll through old posts if you wish, either here or on Zuck's teetering colossus.

Have a great weekend!

All blogs go to heaven Part VI

The ABGTH project continues...

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Comics Cavern - Once a Tumblr site, then a Twitter feed, perhaps also a Buzzfeed page. Silent since 2012.

Blog @ MarkWaid.com - Mr. Waid can easily be found in multiple venues, primarily at Thrillbent (I think - it's been a couple years). Markwaid.com was hacked(?) in 2013, and abandoned(?).

Living Between Wednesdays - Now a regular podcast.

The Legion of Substitute Podcasters - Now a regular podcast, as well. I'm starting to see a trend.

Has Boobs, Reads Comics - Jill Pantozzi is just super and can be found at The Nerdy Bird.

UAT

Loose Pages - A. David Lewis is a comics writer and scholar, and Loose Pages as been absorbed into his extensive site, Caption Box.

Sean Phillips - The Blogger site is gone, but no worries, Sean is right over here.

Fred Hembeck - Hembeck.com hasn't been updated for over 10 years (and the Myspace page is gone), however Fred's a Facebook guy, and is regularly posting there.

Comic Book Sales Stats - Came rushing out of the gate in 2014 with a ton of work on comic sales data, then just faded away within 18 months.

A Comic A Day... - KaraokeFanboy was everywhere for a while, and most of those platforms are still online but not updated. I think this is his latest iteration. I'll look into it. *Note from Russ:

"Hi, Mike,

Thanks for inquiring!  AmazingArizonaComics.com is my most current comic blog, though it hasn't been updated much in recent months, either.  I've had too many events IRL!  I do update my appearances list there as often as I can, so please reference it as my prime destination.

I may revisit KaraokeFanboy Press in the near future; I'll let you know if and when new content goes up.

I appreciate your asking!  If you need any more info, please let me know."

Thanks, Russ!

(* Permanote: I'm using Comicblogupdates and Update-A-Tron to facilitate this project. Quite a few of the links on these two sites rely on RSS/feeds. Some sites are still there; the provided link is just defunct)

Heading out for a trade show for the rest of the week - see you Monday with ABGTH and Cool Links!

All blogs go to heaven Part V, and, yes, Cool Links for Today

Cool Links to follow these important announcements...

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Rokk's Comic Book Revolution - Now found here, there's a podcast, with a couple blogs, one of which is fairly recent. They're still Rokkin' with a podcast posted yesterday.

IGN Comics - Not really a blog (though I think the Beat was hosted here a while ago), its'...well, I'll let them brag tell you: "We are the leading Internet media company focused on the video game and entertainment enthusiast markets." There is a comics news/reviews section.

The Sock Drawer - While trying to find what happened to this one, all I can tell you is there a lot of e-commerce sites for socks.

The Comics Reporter - This is a comics Mount Rushmore site. Tom Spurgeon has been a leader of spreading the gospel of comics for decades and his Comics Reporter site is a daily stop. In fact, it's my home page.

Prism Comics - Prism Comics is the leading non-profit, all-volunteer organization supporting  LGBTQIA-friendly comic books, comics professionals, readers and educators. However, activity seems to be sporadic, at least on the site. Plenty o'Twittering, though.


UAT

Motime Like the Present - Motime went away in 2012. I hate to say it, but most of the time, this one was waaaay over my head. And I'm smart.

Pop - This was Jeffrey Klaehn's blog, and it's gone now. He can be found as editor and/or writer of many publications, including this one.

Arflovers [Craig Yoe] - Craig's blog is long gone but he's published many nifty comic publications - check them out here.

Aparofan's World Of Comics - Mike Middleton's site is dead, but you can find him (and Jim Aparo-related stuff) here.

Those Fabuleous Fifties - Yes, that's how it's spelled, and Ger Apeldoorn posts vintage comic material nearly every day. Well worth a visit.

(* Permanote: I'm using Comicblogupdates and Update-A-Tron to facilitate this project. Quite a few of the links on these two sites rely on RSS/feeds. Some sites are still there; the link is just defunct)


Ok, here's some stuff...

I don't usually get into ad campaigns, but when I do, they're usually as good as this:

Happy 70th Birthday, Bobby Orr!

My god, I'm so old

This is the Most Important Thing Ever:

THERE'S A BACON AND BEER FESTIVAL HITTING CITIES ALL OVER THE US

And, lastly for today, the fine folks over at Kerrang! have scientifically determined the best metal band in each state. Start the arguments here.

More tomorrow!

All blogs go to heaven Part IV

OK, I get it. You folks aren't into this project. My readership has dropped by 50% since I started the dead blogs project. You want Cool Links? Fine. Cool Links will be back ALTERNATING with ABGTH starting tomorrow.

I like digging through digital graveyards. I find it interesting to see the remains of the wonders of the pre-Facebook world. So I'm gonna keep going until I get bored. So there.

Today's 10 contestants:

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COMIXTALK - Xaviar posted in Jan of '16 regarding his three year Comixtalk absence, and now can be found over at Altertainment. Comixtalk seems to be over now.

Doomsday Thingy - Dead Thingy

Always Bet on Bahlactus™ - Someone from China(?) now owns this blog. I Google-translated from Chinese(?) and I think a bot is having fun with it. Latest post headline? "The idea was not!" I kinda like that.

comiXology - Eaten by Galactus Amazon a few years ago, comiXology is now e-commerce only.

cliffchiang.com - Paper Girls is keeping Cliff busy, and that's fine by me. No posts since 2014.

Again With the Comics - Blogger redirects to AWTC's own URL, but nothing to be found there.


UAT

The Aquaman Shrine - Nah, nothing. Just a placeholder page now.

Jim Salicrup’s Addicted to Comics - Jim is now EIC at Papercutz, but he's not involved in the blog there. Probably busy making great graphic novels for kids. And this blog is gone anyway.

Portrait of the Artist - Randy is still going strong! That's good to see.

News and Views by Chris Barat - Damn. Chris passed away three years ago. RIP.

Pensive Mischief - Stuart Moore has been working on Deadpool comics lately, among other things. He's been away from PM for a couple years, working on Botfriend as well.

(* Permanote: I'm using Comicblogupdates and Update-A-Tron to facilitate this project. Quite a few of the links on these two sites rely on RSS/feeds. Some sites are still there; the link is just defunct)

See you with some Cool Links tomorrow. And MORE DEAD BLOGS.

All blogs go to heaven Part III

More bloggy updates...

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SuperHeroHype.com - Long since graduated to full fledged website with nearly 200K followers on Facebook. Part of the Crave Online family, which also owns Sherdog, a leading MMA site.

Comics212 - Chris Butcher's Wordpress blog is still alive, but perhaps Chris has moved to other platforms as the only recent work is three posts from 2017. Comics212 was a regular stop for me a decade ago.

Blog von Brad Meltzer - You didn't really think this Myspace page would still be around, did you?

Super Friends of Dorothy - Nope

Polite Dissent - "Error establishing a database connection" - a temporary problem?

UAT
Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog - John Martz shut it down in 2013. You can find John at Tumblr - this post is a nice explainer for, what I'm guessing, is the reason for most of these blog deaths.

Sariling Atin Komiks [Romeo Tanghal] - There never really was a ton of activity on Romeo's blog. His website is here.

JetLagIdeas - Marco was blogging briefly between 2010-2013. That is all.

SEQUENTIAL - Sequential has reeaaallly tailed off in output over the past couple years. 10 years ago, this was also a regular stop for me.

Shadowhawk's Shade - Shadowhawk is very active on Twitter but the blog posts stopped in 2014.

(* Permanote: I'm using Comicblogupdates and Update-A-Tron to facilitate this project. Quite a few of the links on these two sites rely on RSS/feeds. Some sites are still there; the link is just defunct)

30 blogs down, a gazillion-30 to go...

See you Monday!

All blogs go to heaven Part II

Continuing on from yesterday...

As I said yesterday, I'm using Comicblogupdates and Update-A-Tron to facilitate this project
(Note: a lot of the links on these two sites rely on RSS/feeds. Some sites are still there; the link is just defunct)

CBU

Fanboy@50 - @dead

Left Turn Only - not a trace of it to be found

WildStorm: The Bleed - The Wildstorm comics blog has been eaten and completely digested by DC. Nothing is archived at the DC site either.

Vertigo: Graphic Content - A spelling error ruins this CBU link. The proper link is here, and the latest post is a recap of NYCC '12. So, yeah...

4thletter! - Now this one I remember well. Though the blog ended in 2014, David Brothers had a great crew, and is still active in other places. Go here for a rundown on DB's activity, and check this out too.

UAT

JH Williams III - One of the finest artists working in the field, his blog is still active but infrequent. Visit occasionally if only to see some very pretty pictures. By the way, if anyone has five large lying around, you can buy me this now.

Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict - The blog seems to be gone, but there is a Facebook page. However, the latest post from Sept '17 said "something's coming!". I'll reach out...

The Pulphaus Publitorium - "This page has been reserved for future use". I think this was Brandon Schatz' blog. If so, he can be found at the Beat and Twitter. UPDATE - yes, this was/is Brandon's thingy.

Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center - This is the proper link, and there are four blogs to be found onsite, all of which have been updated in the past year

Studio Foglio [Kaja and Phil Foglio] - Girl Genius is still an ongoing and they ran a very successful Kickstarter last year. This is where you want to go for everything Foglio-related.

20 blogs down, a gazillion to go...

See you tomorrow!

Old comics blogs never die, they...well, actually they do, mostly

While looking for something in my bookmarks (remember those?), I found a link to Dirk Deppey's final post for Journalista on the Comics Journal website. As I re-read it, I started reminiscing about those glorious days of yore, when comics blogs roamed the earth, and I could spend hours just reading commentary, reviews, essays and other nonsense, instead of, you know, reading comics (and books and magazines and watching movies and TV).

I also wondered if any of those blogs were still functioning. I am actually in the process of weaning myself off Facebook and returning to email newsletters and visiting sites directly. (It's all an attempt to do my part in helping support those that actually create stuff. In your face, Facebook!). A few years ago, I figured out a way to use Facebook as a newsreader, and receive everything from my "Likes" (not including friends) in chronological order. As of February, I had nearly 400 different sources in my custom feed, and still, I missed posts just by not being on Facebook 24 hours a day. I have a life, you know.

Tangent: I am a compulsive reader. I hate to miss things written about things I like, or might like. At first Facebook seemed to be the answer to my obsessive need to be constantly fed information in real time, and it still is. There is one major problem with this: Facebook keeps you on Facebook. When you click a link to read an article about, say, the resurgence of pinball or the new trend of axe throwing bars, the writer and originating website is not "credited" with the visit. Facebook is. Therefore advertising dollars stay with Facebook, and the writer opens another package of ramen.

At the same time, I began to really hate Yahoo as an email service, for reasons I can't explain, to be honest. Yes, I know, Yahoo...haha etc. I got the email back in the 90's and stuck with it due to laziness mainly. So I started moving everything over to Gmail. I use Chrome, I have a Chromebook, others I work with use Docs blah blah.

So, in an effort to streamline my digital life, I am returning to reading things online in their original state (plus books. Always books. Paper ones.) I am in the process of signing up for email newsletters from most of those 400 sources (about 95% of them offer a newsletter service). Already I'm seeing a difference - I am getting all the content I can eat plus I'm eating it at their house. Win-win, I think.

My relationship with comics has been somewhat estranged over the past five years. I sold my collection, I stopped my pull list at my LCS, and have focused buying trades online, almost exclusively. Other than visiting Heidi, Tom and Mike, I haven't been immersed in comics culture in quite a while. Back to my original point, there were many blogs that were an absolute delight to read, and I miss them now. So let's go back to a more innocent time, when the information superhighway was a random chaotic place where only AOL and their insidious chatrooms seemed to be the biggest threat.

For this exercise, I'll use Comicblogupdates and Update-A-Tron as my online sherpas, and I'll start at the bottom of these lists. That's the place to find the bones.

(Note: a lot of the links on these two sites rely on RSS/feeds. Some sites are still there; the link is just defunct)

CBU:

Neurotic Ninja - dead and gone

Tales from the Longbox - Chris Mosby posted a note about Peter David about a year ago, but really lost momentum a couple of years before that. I've contacted him regarding the status of TFTLb.

JASON MICHELITCH - "Permission denied - This blog is open to invited readers only" Well, then, there's that.

Half Hour Wasted and The Legion of Dudes - now a podcast. A blog link exists but really nothing bloggy since 2015

AiT/Planet Lar: Making Comics Better - now known as Spectacularry; but other than 5 posts from 1/1/15, dormant since 2013.

UAT:

Product Management Meets Pop Culture - Christopher Cummings is still there on a semi-monthly, but not all posts are about comics. Some are about product management. I guess that makes sense actually.

Chuck Dixon - Hmm...it appears as though someone has hijacked Chuck's site. There's still a Dixonverse post pinned at the top, but unless you're into baseball stadiums, reputation management or water heaters, go elsewhere.

Broken Glass Makes Me Laugh - another permission denied/invite only situation

Marv Wolfman - Marv moved over to Facebook about seven years ago and is active there (the FB link on his site is out of date)

Paul Gravett - still going strong, both on his site and via FB/Twitter

That's all for today. Stay tuned for more hot dead blog action!

Cool links for 3/1/18

It's March already?!

OK, that means Winter is on it's last legs for the year (I think I may have just accidentally conjured a blizzard/ice storm/slush fest). I'm ready to be warm again.

And as it gets warmer, I begin to think of enjoying a nice crisp cold hard cider. It's the Ultimate Lawnmower Beer (so to speak). Wanna check out the fast-growing world of cider? Here's some good work done by Eric West at his site CiderGuide - I believe it to be a fairly comprehensive listing of every cider fest in North America.

Does anyone know of a well-detailed, chronological, Marvel Comics reading order, starting with Fantastic Four #1? I'm thinking of starting a new reading project...

Next up for me on Netflix:

The thing to buy today - these t-shirts depicting fictional bars from your favorite shows support Feeding America and local food banks:

While you're spending your hard-earned bucks on a worthy cause, why not give the bees a hand by supporting one of these local apiaries. Seriously, we need those little guys to get the job done and keep our overall ecosystem working right.

The weekend's almost here. Enjoy!