HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2018 hits tomorrow, so as usual it's time to reflect on the past year and look forward to what the next will bring.

After cutting Wednesdays from my regular posting schedule back in mid-2016, I stuck with a Monday-Friday (and occasional Sunday) format in 2017, too. Frank Miller's DAREDEVIL, supplemented by a Black Widow serial from Ralph Macchio and George Pérez, filled Mondays from January through September, at which point the Spider-Man newspaper strip by Stan Lee and John Romita took over for, more or less, the remainder of the year.

Fridays, meanwhile, continued my tradition of starting most years with a manga series by covering the adaptation of BIG O by Hitoshi Ariga. Following that, we jumped to DC Comics for GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams, then an Aquaman serial called "Death of a Prince", which took us into May. At that point it was an IDW grab bag consisting of several stories including Dave Stevens' THE ROCKETEER and Darwyn Cooke's adaptations of some of Donald E. Westlake's PARKER novels. Then came this year's summertime project, a look at the FLASH GORDON comic strips by his creator, Alex Raymond. Fridays in the fall and winter switched, as usual (and probably for the last time) to the Transformers, by way of Devil's Due Press's various G.I. JOE VS. THE TRANSFORMERS mini-series.

And along the way, we also saw one-shot posts for a number of items -- though, owing to the more cram-packed than normal schedule this time, there weren't as many as in past years -- including BARBARELLA, RED ONE, BLACK BEETLE, and THE UNTOLD LEGEND OF THE BATMAN. Plus the X-Men hardcover and trade paperback review project I had started back in 2015 concluded early in the year, and we had the regular monthly Unboxing as well -- though it unexpectedly took a four-month break from August through September!

The coming year looks to be pretty packed as well. Tomorrow I'll announce the next series of Monday posts, a DC-themed project which I expect to last all year. I'll begin the year with a Friday manga run as well, which should run through February. After that, I plan to check in with UDON and Marvel for some more modern comics in the spring, followed in June by an obscure graphic novel series from the eighties by a couple of men better known for their comic strip work. Then it'll be on to the summertime and some vintage adventures of an iconic toyline from my youth.

Come September, I'm not sure yet what I'm going to look at. I've done something Transformers related every autumn since starting this blog, but after the Devil's Due run, I've visited pretty much every finite continuity that interests me. Thus I suspect I'll move along to something else, and given my recent interest in newspaper adventure strips, I wouldn't be surprised to see one fill that slot. But that's still nine months away, and there's plenty to do until then!

As far as supplementary Sunday posts this year, The Unboxing will continue as always, now including digital purchases too, and hopefully we won't have another four-month gap like we did last time. I also want to put up in-depth reviews of the recently released CLASSIC X-MEN OMNIBUS as well as the upcoming X-MEN: LEGION QUEST book when it comes out. It took a long, long time, but my life has settled down somewhat since my son was born in 2016, and I should finally have time to take the photos those reviews would require. I've got one or two other ideas for Sunday posts knocking around in my head too, so we'll see what finally shakes out in the end.

Lastly, as always, my profuse thanks to those who drop by here on a regular (and even an irregular) basis to read my ramblings. I only write about stuff I'm interested in, so I'm very grateful to have an audience willing to follow along!