Happy Heptanniversary!

Doug: From 2009 to 2016... I reckon that's about seven years, right? Sheesh... That's a long time! I don't know what is left to say, other than I feel like I've turned a corner in my perspective of the Bronze Age Babies -- this is no longer any anniversary of "Karen and Doug", but rather it's become a way to pause and celebrate the community that gathers here either in the comments sections or just in spirit. Face it -- if no one's reading, if there are no hits in the counters, then those of us who do the writing are basically talking to ourselves. Truly, without those who have become recognized as friends and at the least "associates", we got nuthin'.

Doug: It's no secret that the Bronze Age Babies have received an injection of energy over the past many months due to the Guest Writer "program" (not really - no training, just submit!) but especially due to Martinex1 and Redartz entering the fold as "staffers". These two gentlemen have really broadened what we offer on a daily basis, Martinex1 with his thoughtful covers posts and Redartz in going off this guy's beaten path into humor mags, etc. Their contributions, along with Karen's series on Star Trek TOS have given this space a happy schedule.

Karen: Yeah, what he said. Honestly, when we started this whole deal, I didn't give any thought to how long it would last. Surely not seven years! But here we are, still plugging along. Like Doug, I'm grateful for the many new contributors, including our 'staff' -- it's exciting to open up the listing of coming posts and see regular new posts from Martinex1 and Redartz! There's new vigor and whole areas which wouldn't have been explored without them. So many thanks to all who have brought new ideas to this space. And much appreciation to our community here, who  keep things friendly and interesting. I may not jump into the comments as much as I used to (I blame work for that) but I do read them every day, and it pleases me to no end to see how it has developed.

Redartz: Wow, seven years! If this was a Major Comic Book Company, we would have had at least a couple reboots by now...

Redartz: Karen and Doug, hats off to you both; and a deep heartfelt "thank you" for bringing this great community into existence. Your efforts, articles and comments over the years have provided countless hours of diversion, pleasure and inspiration. You both have devoted so much time and work on these columns;  please know that your labors are truly appreciated. 

Redartz: An equal "thank you" is due to the wonderful array of commenters, readers and guest posters. Actually, I'd prefer call you all "friends", as that is how this community has always felt to me. If only the internet overall displayed the same level of respect and courtesy that BAB does.

Redartz: Finally, one more "thank you" for the kind words. It has been an honor, a pleasure and a lot of fun to contribute in some small way to the Bronze Age Babies. Long live the BAB!

Martinex1: I only started visiting this site about two years ago, but I have had countless hours of enjoyment. I want to share my appreciation to all involved from the collaborators to the visitors and commenters. With the endless stress of day-to-day life and work, it is nice to have a consistent reprieve if even for a few minutes. To return to the amusement of youth and discuss the nuances of comics and other entertainment with friends has become a daily respite. I say “friends” in truth, because though I have met none of you it is nice to find a community that shares and contemplates and debates in such a cordial manner. Most of what we discuss is not that important in the scheme of things, but it is incredibly satisfying nonetheless. And I am grateful for things I learn here whether about Star Trek scripts or John Buscema art! So seven years is a long time, but here is to the next seven! To my modern pen pals, cheers!

Doug: So there you have it -- we all love this place. I don't know how long this venture will last, but as long as we get enjoyment out of doing it and our readers keep coming back, we'll be here. Have a great day, and thanks again, folks!

BAB2K

 2000

Doug: A long time ago and in a mobile classroom during summer school, in collaboration with my partner Karen I set up the first post for bronzeagebabies.blogspot.com. And here we are, almost 6 1/2 years to the day later, publishing post #2000. What a long, strange trip it's been! Honestly, I am in Karen's debt for bringing me along for the ride. She's pretty tolerant of me in many regards.

Doug: I wonder if we have much to say beyond what's been said in our last six anniversary posts, other than to reiterate that this has truly become a community. Sure, we've had many regular commenters come and go through the years (and you're missed if you're one of the "wents"). But this place never fails to provide at least a little respite from the daily grind. I think the fact that we've had 32,000 comments on 2000 posts says it all.

Doug: I can't recall which of us was the first to come up with one of our conversation categories, but you'll see sprinkled throughout the bottom of today's post some memorable logos. Sure, some others were tried and they didn't stick. But many of those below have become mainstays around here, like The Open Forum, Discuss, and our Who's the... twins. Hopefully we always manage to throw out an interesting nugget for your rumination. It's not always easy to be original (as evidenced by the number of times we've repeated ourselves), but we try!

Doug: Lastly, I'd again come back to the notion of community. Back at the beginning of February Karen and I recognized that our lives were in places where we couldn't meet our own expectations. So we reached out to our readers for a little assistance and you rose to the occasion (as you always do when we need a pick-me-up). I'd offer you a stat in support of our pleasure at the success of the Guest Writer request: as you read this we have run 51 guest posts/reviews/strips. That number may be more amazing to me than 2000!

Karen: I can't add much to that. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since we started this blog, but BAB has been a consistent part of our lives. While it's true that we've both had more on our plates lately, and we haven't been able to do quite as much, it's been terrific to see the community step up and truly transform the blog into more of a group effort. All in all, I'm very proud of this place and very happy to have met my partner Doug all those years ago -even if we still have never met face to face, or even spoken on the phone!

 

 

 

 

Six Years Older... Any Wiser?

Karen: Six years? Wow. Time really does fly. When we were just starting this blog six years ago, one of my nephews was visiting us. He was just a little kid. This last week, he graduated high school. That kind of puts things in perspective for me. I don't think I went into this enterprise thinking much beyond what we'd do the next month, let alone six years later! But somehow, here we are. I have to say, I think the reason it's lasted this long is because so many of you showed up and have taken such an active part in turning this into more than just me and Doug flapping our gums at each other. As always, many thanks for your support and  continued activity here. And this year we took it to a whole new level, with the arrival of guest posts. This has turned out to be a huge infusion of energy for the BAB and we are grateful to all of you BAB bullpen members who have contributed! It's been fantastic, and we eagerly look forward to seeing what new ideas you have to bring to year seven.

Doug: I view the guest writer project as a real opportunity to expand the horizons of this blog. Think about it -- since our readers began submitting posts, we've seen reviews of Donald Duck, Archie, illustrated novels, graphic novels, and a complete mini-series. And all of that is in addition to an off-the-beaten path DC sports comic, as well as a new discussion category (the $1 challenge)! To date we've had over 25 guest posts, and I think that's fabulous. There are a few more in the queue awaiting publication, and I know that also coming soon we'll be able to run the first non-Doug and Karen partner review! So this has just been exciting.

Doug: I have had some guilt feelings, though, because of my lack of writing comics reviews. It seems as all of that heavy lifting has fallen to our readers this past spring. I'm going to rectify that -- next Monday in fact! Karen and I have been talking about this recently. I proposed four comics that I am interested in, and she thought she could provide commentary on two of them. Those books (with no dates -- I want to stay flexible) are :

Showcase #17 (intro. Adam Strange, from 1958!)
Nova #2
The Champions #12
DC Comics Presents #26 (intro. New Teen Titans)

Doug: We appreciate your patience when we attempt new things. Of course, some stick and some do not. The 100-Word Reviews would be an example of an idea that seemed cool, but never really caught on. I say that with the finger pointed at myself as well. I suppose in a way, it ends up being a self-challenge, sort of a word game or something. But who knows -- maybe it will catch on if one of our readers chooses to write up their views on a song, or on a specific television show.

Doug: As always, comments are appreciated and it has been nice of late to see some new folks making their presence felt. But it's that core of a couple dozen of our readers who comment regularly that give this blog a community feel. It's been said 100 times already, but thanks for doing that and for being a part of this on each and every post. Some days are better than others, of course, but there always seems to be some conversation happening around here.

Doug: So in reflection -- yeah, six years is some serious water under the bridge! Instead of being about to turn 49, I was about to turn 43 when this ship started sailing. My oldest was entering his senior year of high school; now he's entering the second and final year of his master's studies and is getting married in five days! I had a heckuva lot fewer trades and hardcovers than I do now (hey, if nothing else the BAB has been a convenient excuse!). And I guess overall, I had fewer "friends" with whom to discuss comics and such. This has been a satisfying space.

How's That for Half a Decade?

Karen: Five years? Has it really been that long? Wow. I can remember very clearly when we started the BAB -everything else is a blur...But seriously, I know both Doug and I feel a sense of achievement making it this far, and most of that feeling comes from you guys, the BAB community, without whose interaction it just wouldn't be the same. I mean, without you guys, it'd just be me and Doug talking to each other, or ourselves, and while that could be fun for a little while, it's not five years worth of hoots and hollers, so hats off to you all, for making this the place that we hoped it would be when we started five years ago.

Doug: Funny story -- way back before we were on our first blog, when the discussion was taking place concerning what we wanted to do about expanding our thoughts on various Silver and Bronze Age comic books, Karen suggested we start a blog. Guess who was skeptical just about up to the date of that first publication? Yup -- me. I think I've warmed to the idea since! And as we've said many times, it's been a labor of love. I want to express again how great this venue has been for me in terms of really getting me back into comics reading. I had been going through the motions in the late 90s-early 00s, buying books that just stacked up, languishing atop the longboxes in my basement comic room. But since I've been a part of two blogging teams, my readership of books I loved (and some I never knew) has taken it's rightful place in my spare time. So I'm thankful to have this forum every day to come and meet some friends for some cordial conversations.

Doug: Looking back over the past year, there are some innovations and milestones worth mentioning. First off, forming a presence on Twitter has brought us new readers and commenters, as well as a wonderful opportunity. Through use of @bronzeagebabies, we have been fortunate to meet several other wonderful bloggers, and those new associations and friendships gained us a part of the second and third renditions of the Super Blog Team-Up. Speaking for Karen (if I may), we were so proud of our first post in this series, when we took a tour through the convoluted history of the Vision and the Original Human Torch. I will again laud Karen for her research in kicking off that post so that we could both then run with it. And it was our presence on Twitter that got us close enough to Kurt Busiek to be able to email him a couple of questions. Those of you who read the post enjoyed his lengthy explanation of his thought process in explaining some of the ways he "undid" the damage wrought by John Byrne in the pages of Avengers West Coast. As to our more recent offering in the SBTU on the Frightful Four, the deadline approached during a somewhat trying time for each of us. Again, if I can speak for Karen, I don't feel that either of us was satisfied with our output on that post. Perhaps it was due to the personal life factors, perhaps it was due to our chest-puffing over the Vision post... but I would never say that we put our best efforts into the FF post. I think I can say publicly, because I don't know why it wouldn't happen, that our pal Osvaldo Oyola will be bringing The Middle Spaces to the ranks of the SBTU on our next go-round in the early autumn.

Doug: As to the milestones, you may recall that we recently published our 1500th post; today's offering is #1544 for those scoring at home. Also for you numbers geeks, either today or tomorrow someone will make the 23,000th comment on the BAB. I guess that more than anything brings a sense of satisfaction to us that we've done what we set out to do -- seriously... 23K comments? Please hear my applause directed at you, the reader. You've done what we wanted you to do when we started five years ago -- to partner with us in a venture that would electronically create the feeling we may have gotten in years gone by, standing at the spinner rack or newsstand the day new comics came out. One more number: tomorrow I'll review Detective Comics #363 from the recently-released Tales of the Batman: Carmine Infantino hardcover. It will be the 489th review by the Bronze Age Babies.

Karen: Now I know some of you might have wondered what's been going on here lately, as I've been less active in these parts. It was even brought to my attention that a few thought there might have been problems brewing here between Doug and I . Nothing could be further from the truth! As we're moving forward I feel like I owe you all an explanation. Back in September, my Dad was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer. As you can imagine, this was devastating news. Over the last nine months my life was pretty much consumed with this situation. Then last month, Dad passed away after fighting so hard. Throughout it all, Doug has been just outstanding in his support for me. I could not have asked for a better blog-partner, or friend. It took an enormous load off of my mind knowing that I did not have to worry about the blog during this time. I'm very thankful to him for everything he's done, and continues to do, here. However, going forward, I have started to think about my priorities, and I realize I do want to spend some more time with my husband and loved ones, and I need to achieve some goals I've had for myself for some time. This being said, something has to give, and for now, that means fewer partner reviews on the blog. They just take an  incredible amount of time for me. But that doesn't mean we won't still do some! Things are just changing a bit, and I hope you understand why.

Doug: I've of course been very supportive of Karen, and she of me. Not wanting to wreck a good thing, I nonetheless questioned the direction of the BAB with her fading into a less-regular role. I told her (in one of our editorial meetings -- do you know how hard it is to buy/bring the donuts to a meeting when the person you are meeting with is over 1500 miles away?) that I thought we had two "spirits" of the BAB: our partner reviews, and the great community of readers who rally around this space daily. I even offered an opinion that we close this down and immediately re-open on another blog where we'd operate a bit more as individuals -- I was thinking of our readers and your expectations of us and of this blog. I think in the end her advice is very sound -- we need to keep the BAB going, as our readers have adapted to every new idea we've thrown your way through the years (even the clunkers here and there). So when you come by tomorrow, we'll both be here -- as David Byrne said, "Same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was". But a seven days a week schedule? That's probably not to be seen for awhile, unless one of us throws something together quickly on a weekend.

Doug: And speaking of the beginning of the 6th year (sheesh!), here's what you can expect -- my solo reviews of the first four issues of Frank Miller's turn on Daredevil, as well as a George Perez Wonder Woman, and then in August to celebrate the release of the Guardians of the Galaxy film, we're going to get back into that partner review saddle and bring the BAB treatment to the first four Guardians (the real Guardians, no less) issues of Marvel Presents. And, Karen did note to me Saturday that it is a shame that our Giant-Size July feature will go on hiatus this year, so for old time's sake we're going to squeeze in a partner review of Fantastic Four Annual #5. So, the more things change, the more they stay the same, huh? Oh, and to Edo Bosnar? You know how you're always singing the praises of DC's Blue Ribbon Digest? I have a new discussion-based category coming your way this week, with that title. Just wait -- it'll be fun!