F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

We would like to thank newest F.O.A.M. member Jonathan Hanna for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!), which helps keep the Shrine continue its mission of covering All Things Aquaman!

Thanks Jonathan, and welcome to F.O.A.M.!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

We would like to thank newest F.O.A.M. member Matthew Burchell for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!), which helps keep the Shrine continue its mission of covering All Things Aquaman!

Bonus--Matthew runs a Tumblr called The AquaCave, all about guess who!

Thanks Matthew, and welcome to F.O.A.M.!

A Message To Our Subscribers

This is a message to all the F.O.A.M. members who subscribed to the Shrine last year, when we first launched the monthly subscriptions option.

I set all the subscriptions to last one year, rather than running in perpetuity--I felt asking people to donate For Life seemed a little much, so I built an automatic expiration date of twelve months. For those of you who were kind enough to sign up immediately, those subscriptions have now ended with the July payment. So if you'd like to continue subscribing, please click the button in the sidebar and you can pony up for another year.

Sorry for any confusion, and thanks for supporting The Aquaman Shrine!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

We would like to thank newest F.O.A.M. member Mark Fairleigh for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!), which helps keep the Shrine continue its mission of covering All Things Aquaman!

Thanks Mark, and welcome to F.O.A.M.!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

We would like to thank F.O.A.M. member Jered Gold for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!), which helps keep the Shrine continue its mission of covering All Things Aquaman!

Thanks Jered!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

We would like to thank newest F.O.A.M. member Michael Fedyk for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!), which helps keep the Shrine continue its mission of covering All Things Aquaman!

Thanks Michael, and welcome to F.O.A.M.!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

We would like to thank F.O.A.M. member Daria Brooks for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!), which helps keep the Shrine continue its mission of covering All Things Aquaman!

Thanks Aqua-Fan!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

We would like to thank F.O.A.M. member Alexander Adcock for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!), which helps keep the Shrine continue its mission of covering All Things Aquaman!

Thanks Aqua-Fan!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

The Aquaman Shrine would like to thank F.O.A.M. member Lee Pigliavento for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!)!

Thanks Aqua-Fan!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

The Aquaman Shrine would like to thank our newest F.O.A.M. member Ashley Giska for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!)!

Thanks Aqua-Fan!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

The Aquaman Shrine would like to thank our newest F.O.A.M. member Blair Elliott for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!)!

Thanks Aqua-Fan!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

The Aquaman Shrine would like to thank the following person for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!).

Bill Bailey

Thanks Aqua-Fan!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

The Aquaman Shrine would like to thank the following people for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!). Names in italics are new F.O.A.M. members!

Ed Evans
Ronny Ling
Joseph Thoms

Thanks Aqua-Fans!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

The Aquaman Shrine would like to thank the following people for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!). Names in italics are new F.O.A.M. members!

Nicolas Gunning
Drew McKnight
Erik Walter

Thanks Aqua-Fans!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

The Aquaman Shrine would like to thank the following people for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!). Names in italics are new F.O.A.M. members!

Faisal Al-Awdi
Max California
James Chatterton
Ivan Costa
Christopher Mac Donald
Matthew Turnage

The Shrine would also like to thank new F.O.A.M.er Matthew Brillhart and current F.O.A.M.er Stephen Peterson for their generation donations!


One final message in regards to subscriptions and keeping the Shrine ad-free: not long after we got the shaft from Google Ad Sense, a bunch of online advertisers have asked about putting their ads on the Shrine.

So far, I've turned them all down, for several reasons: partly because their content was not a good match for the Shrine, but mostly because I really want to make this place self-sufficient, and the way we're doing that is with subscriptions. So if you want to see the Shrine keep going, and keep growing, for the love of Neptune, subscribe!

Thanks Aqua-Fans!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

The Aquaman Shrine would like to thank the following people for subscribing (only $1 a month--cheap!). Names in italics are new F.O.A.M. members!

Daniel Adams
Brent Almond
Scott Anderson
Craig Bostick
Jason Motes Bowles
Shawn Brock
Rev. O.J. Flow
Daniel Hemmann
Joseph Huber
The Irredeemable Shag
Jason Johnston
Andy Luckett
Richard Malkranz
Joseph Mello
Ryan Read
Aaron Scott
Sean Tiffany
Jerome Ty

The Shrine would also like to thank F.O.A.M.ers Kelly James Blank and William Kirsch for their generation donations!

Thanks Aqua-Fans!

The Aquaman Shrine: Now with 100% No Ads!

A warning: this post is about the inner workings of The Aquaman Shrine. For those of you not at all interested in this topic, stop reading now. You can come back in a few hours where there will be new Aqua-content, as always. Those of you who are interested in this topic, please keep reading!

Many of you have noticed by now that the Google-driven ads are gone. This was, initially, not the Shrine's doing. Last Saturday, I received an email from Google Ad Sense telling me the Shrine's Ad Sense account was immediately cancelled. I was of course shocked at this, and inquired as to why.

All Google Ad Sense would tell me is that the Shrine had participated in "suspicious activity", meaning that some of the clicks generated by the Shrine's ads had, in Google Ad Sense's eyes, violated the rules, which led to the termination of the account, and any money that the Shrine had already accrued (somewhere in the hundreds of dollars) would never be paid.

In the interest of keeping this post short, I will not get into the details of why this turn of events was, in my eyes, completely ridiculous, unfair, and infuriating. I was being accused and convicted of something either A)I didn't do, or B)Had no control over. I'll never know, because Google Ad Sense refused to tell me exactly what the Shrine (or its readers) did that was so wrong (if you want to learn more on this topic, I recommend this page by someone who went through it, too).

This sudden change in the Shrine's operating budget leaves us with a big problem: with Aquaman's dramatically increased presence in the DCU just weeks away, the Shrine had planned to expand accordingly: we're working on an Aquaman Shrine podcast, real-time coverage of events (the midnight release of Justice League #1, for example), more visits to comic cons, commissioning some original content, maybe even buying some online advertising to get the word out.

For years, I (the "I" being me, Rob Kelly) was able to fund the Shrine by myself, the financial loss I incurred by doing so was fairly insignificant. That's because, for most of the Shrine's existence until last year, Aquaman was D-E-A-D in the main DCU, so therefore coverage of him was rooted in the past, not the present or future. It's fairly cheap to talk about some weird Aquaman toy from the 1970s, not so much to go to the New York Comic Con and try to get Dan Didio to pose with a F.O.A.M. certificate.

But ever since the Shrine's audience started growing by leaps and bounds, I had to decide whether to try and keep up with the demand, or simply keep the Shrine the humble little effort it started out as, content to never have it be any more than a nostalgic look back at our favorite superhero. I chose the former, and thanks to Shrine Correspondents Russell Burbage, Andy Luckett, and Joe Slab, the Shrine has gone from that humble little effort to an actual news-and-pop-culture-gathering concern, and that's something I'm very proud of!

So somehow the money we were planning to make from Google Ad Sense and put right back into the Shrine has to be made up. I'm guessing all of you who bothered to read this far have guessed this is where you come in. And you're right.

Starting today, you can "subscribe" to the Aquaman Shrine for the absurdly low rate of $1 a month--yes, that's right, $1 a month. If you click the graphic below this post (it can also be seen in the sidebar), you will be taken to Paypal where you can sign up as a subscriber to the Shrine. Paypal will deduct $1--not a penny more--each month from either your standing Paypal balance, checking account, or credit card. You will receive an email from them every month upon payment, informing you the $1 has just been transferred to the Shrine's treasure chest (I do this for several podcasts I follow).

How did I arrive at this figure? Well, I wanted it to be low enough to be affordable to everyone, but large enough that it would make a difference, and enable the Shrine to be completely self-sufficient, never again needing to run a single ugly ad.

The Aquaman Shrine, across its three main platforms (the blog, Twitter, and Facebook), racks up a couple thousand hits a day, a staggering total considering how singularly focused this blog is. But it's a testament to all of you, who comment, send pics and links in, and just generally give a damn about what goes on here, day in, day out. Without you the Shrine probably would have ended a long time ago, and because of you I (and the other guys!) get to spend a good chunk of my day doing something I truly love.

If just a small sliver of the Shrine's normal daily audience contributes, you will render it solvent in perpetuity, meaning we'll able to expand our coverage, do more, see more, and make The Aquaman Shrine an even better place to honor one of the greatest, most enduring characters in popular fiction.

So if you feel what the Aquaman Shrine brings you day in, day out (for almost five straight years now!) is worth chipping in $1 a month for, click the graphic below and sign up.

Thanks for your attention, Aqua-Fans!

Post Script: A couple of final comments:

1)Any of you who donated a flat amount previously are not expected to subscribe; you've done enough, thank you!

2)Like I stated before regarding the one-time donations, anyone who subscribes and is not already a F.O.A.M. member becomes one! Those of you who already are in the hallowed halls of F.O.A.M. will have the satisfaction of knowing when you see the Shrine each day, you're the reason why its there.

3)The Shrine has one final NSFW message for Google Ad Sense.

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

The Aquaman Shrine would like to thank the following people--er, person--for their generous donation:

F.O.A.M. Member
Jason Motes Bowles

Outrageous! Thanks Aqua-Fan!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

The Aquaman Shrine would like to thank the following people--er, person--for their generous donation:

F.O.A.M. Member
Daria

Outrageous! Thanks Aqua-Fan!

F.O.A.M.'s Fortune

The Aquaman Shrine would like to thank the following people--er, person--for their generous donation:

F.O.A.M. Member
Adam Thibault

Outrageous! Thanks Aqua-Fan!