(5/3/2012) No news is good news. Progress on 1985 continues slowly but surely. And (maybe this is bad news for those looking forward to 1986) i'm also accumulating another big pile of back-issues to deal with after 1985.

(4/11/2012) After a major data entry project and some wrestling with JavaScript, some of the features that i was hoping to get with my upgrade of Movable Type this past winter are finally coming to fruition. Although everything's still in a state of flux. Especially for any Internet Explorer users. Working on it! Everything should be working in IE now. If you encounter any problems, please let me know.

First, entries will now have a section for Inbound References. This will list all entries that link to the current issue. Usually that means issues that have footnotes referring to the issue you're reading about, but it could just a link i created because i thought it was relevant. Either way, i think it's interesting to see what issues get referenced a lot. One day i'd like to have the number of links mathematically affect the Historical Significance Rating, although that's something i'll have to think about further.

Second and Third, there's a new link to an Advanced Search on the side bar. There are currently two types of Advanced searches. The first allows you to search on specific fields. For example, you can just search on issues where John Byrne was the penciler. That search also allows you to filter out Continuity Inserts, so if you wanted to see John Byrne's earliest work at Marvel and not have things like Marvel: The Lost Generation get in the way, you can do so. The other search on that page is the Character Intersection search, which is like the Character Search but allows you to search for issues that contain two specified characters, so you can find all the Hulk vs. Abomination fights, for example. I think that is really cool.

I'd actually like to merge the above two search types, but that's turning out to be trickier than i hoped and i didn't want to hold up the "release" of these features any more.

Finally, a subset of the field specific search is now available on the basic side bar search. That new checkbox allows you to limit the search to the series title only. When that box isn't checked, the search looks at all the contents of the entries, which means it picks up every entry that refers back to, say, Amazing Spider-Man #1. With the box checked, it will only search the issue names themselves. This is very helpful in narrowing down the results when searching for a specific issue.

More to come, and refinement is definitely still necessary, but i thought i ought to get what i've done so far out there.

(3/31/2012) I'm debating upgrading my comment system here. Right now i'm using what you get out of the box from Movable Type. Options range from putting in a Captcha challenge, requiring registration before commenting, or installing a 3rd party comment system like Disqus. Advantages of what i have now are it's simple and easy for someone to comment, and i don't want to discourage comments, and there's really no impact on load time. With something like Disqus, there's a number of advanced features, like threaded comments, the ability to "like" a post without actually commenting, ability to go back and edit your comments, and (i'm assuming) better spam control. Right now i've got my spam filter set so strictly that if you put a link in the comments i have to authorize it. But if i don't do that, i get hammered with spam. But i've noticed that Disqus-like systems have an impact on load time and, again, i don't want to discourage comments by requiring a login. I don't get a ton of comments here but i appreciate those of you who do and i want to make sure it's a good experience. I'll continue to research and ponder, but if you have opinions or ideas, please (ironically) leave a comment in the General Comments section.

(3/17/2012) Today's a D&D day, and I'm going to be traveling for work this week, so probably no new entries until next weekend. The good news is i get to carry a stack of old comics on a plane with me, which always leads to interesting conversations, whether i want them or not.

(2/25/2012) Sometimes i'll tentatively place an issue within the year i'm working on and then realize that it needs to be placed further back in publication time. I'll list those in the Recent Updates section so they don't get lost. Two so far for 1985.

(2/24/2012) Work has begun on 1985, and since it was already semi-discoverable (and has been discovered), i've added the year to the list below. But please be advised that it's still very much a work in progress. Only about 14 completed entries so far, and everything is subject to revision as i read and analyze subsequent issues.

(2/08/2012) The most recent wave of back issues has been completed (see Recent Updates on the side bar). I know it seems like i've been doing everything i could to avoid starting 1985, but it really wasn't the case, and in any event, now it begins.

(1/23/2012) I am pleased to announce that my picture gap is one year shorter. 1981 now has screenshots. I still have to add pictures to 1982 and 1983, but that will have to wait for now. As predicted, I picked up some more back-issues while i was beefing up my 1985 collection, and additionally, a friend of mine has trimmed his comic book collection and i inherited his discards. Of the stuff that i didn't already have, it's mostly 1990s crap so it doesn't have much effect on my project yet, but there were a few items, mostly continuity inserts (Flashback/-1s and an issue of The 'Nam turns out that 'Nam issue isn't in continuity; deceiving cover). I'll be adding the stubs for those entries and updating the Recent Updates page soon, and then begin working on those reviews. Less than 20 issues. Then, on to 1985 (finally!).

(1/1/2012) I was invited to write a guest post at FanFix. My post is about bringing Reed Richards back down to non-godlike intelligence, but be sure to check out the regular How Would You Fix...? posts as well as there's a lot of interesting ideas.

(12/28/2011) Huzzah! My big list of back-issue additions are complete! See the Recent Updates link on the side nav for the list.

(12/23/2011) It may seem like i'm almost done with my back-issue-athon, but i actually still have 22 issues of X-Men: The Hidden Years to go through, plus Eye of the Camera. Hopefully they won't be as difficult to integrate as Code of Honor (which still isn't in the right place and if you have any thoughts on Cloak & Dagger's appearance in issue #2, let me know) and Monsters on the Prowl...

Anyway, i'm on "staycation" for the next two weeks. Most likely that means some days of increased output, and some days of no output. I'll be finishing up my back issues, and then i'll probably focus on closing a year's worth of my "picture gap". I'm also going to upgrade Movable Type, which may mean a day of the site being down, pulling my hair out, broken comments, or worse, but when it's done i think i'm going to be able to add a few cool new features, plus implement a Captcha system or similar to reduce spam. Only after all that will i start 1985. The stubs are in place now in a very preliminary order that i'm sure will need to change as i read through the issues. Looking forward to the challenges of Secret Wars II and the Wraith War.

Also, i've noticed a few gaps in my 1985 collection so i'll probably be hitting the back issue bins and i can't promise that i won't also pick up some older issues, but i'll announce that here and on the Recent Updates page if i do, and i'll try to restrain myself.

(12/13/2011) I had the opportunity to work on some UI features for this website today (don't worry - it didn't cut into my review time: i had access to a computer but not my comics!). Three "improvements". Nothing major.

• Reorganized the category pages (i.e., the Year pages) a bit, added some pictures and broke up the text. Some minor text revisions as i moved stuff around.
• Changed the search results order so that they are ascending instead of descending, so older issues are now at the top. This puts them in the same order as the category pages (and MCP's listings) for easier comparison.
• Made it possible to highlight entries on both the category pages and the search results by clicking the checkboxes. It's a little ugly right now (especially for multi-issue entries, like in the Monster Age) and i'll tweak the design some more, but this makes it possible to highlight a bunch of entries if you are doing some sort of comparison. It's probably more for me than any readers, since it's main value is for me to highlight all the relevant issues that i'm considering when dropping in something new (like, Captain America has to appear between here and here, but Iron Man has to appear between here and here, etc.).

(11/24/2011) Whoo-hoo! Back issue wave #1 completed! Since the past 20 or so entries have covered Denny O'Neil's Daredevil run, i feel like i'm remiss in not including the final part of the Micah Synn storyline. But it'll have to wait until 1985. Before that, i've got plenty more back issues to cover. Actually the waves will be meaningless to readers of this site. You should continue to see a steady stream of entries added. The waves are just based on when i acquired the back-issues. So i guess, umm, nevermind...

(11/22/2011) In the never-ending battle against spam comments, i sometimes adjust my anti-spam settings. But i don't want to block your comments. So if you ever find yourself being moderated or blocked, let me know. I have added a new link on the side nav to contact me.

The new Contact page also allows comments outside the context of a specific entry. So if you want to leave a general comment about the site, you no longer have to pick a random comic entry to do it.

Finally, also on the side nav now is a Recent Updates link, which lists the back issues i've been working on (same page i used to link to from here). Progress on back issues continues apace!

(11/06/2011) Entries have been trickling in (see the back issue link below), but i'm going to be traveling this week so there won't be any new entries until probably next Sunday. Also, and i'm not sure if this is good news or bad news, i've continued to go crazy with the back issue purchasing, beyond what i've already listed on that page. I originally said i'd start working on 1985 this winter. I had meant that i'd start working on 1985 in the beginning of the winter, but now i may wind up concentrating on the back issues and not start 1985 until late winter.

(10/16/2011) I'm beginning to input the entries from my back issues, so you may encounter stub entries as you navigate the site. The full list of back issues to be added can be found here. I'll make the titles links as the entries are completed.

(9/14/2011) I've added pictures to 1980. There's still a "picture gap" from 1981-1983, but i'm shifting over to adding a rather large stack of back issues into my project. I'll post an updates page when they are available. I've also come to realize that i was much more conservative in posting pictures when i first started, which means i've neglected a lot of great Silver Age art. So i will occasionally be going back and adding more there, but that'll be on an ad hoc basis and i won't be posting a list of updates for that.

(8/26/2011) 1984 is done! If you've been holding back comments waiting to see where things ended up, it's now safe to let me know where you see mistakes. I'm not going to be moving immediately into 1985. I have a "picture gap" for my entries from 1980-1983, and i'm going to spend some time working on that. I've also picked up a bunch of back issues that i'll have to work into previous years; i'll post a list of newly added entries when they're ready. That all said, my hope is to start working on 1985 this winter. In the meantime, you are welcome to hang out on the main blog (and here's the comics category if you can't stand my political posts - and believe me, neither can i). I'll announce updates here and on that blog.