Wow... was that frustrating.

Doug: Well, what to think of that? As most of you know by now, Blogger went down for some reason late Thursday afternoon (US Central time). Was it maintenance, or a serious glitch? I don't know, but the fall-out has been a pain-in-the-butt. As you may have noticed, anything published on this blog (and I'd assume across Blogger) after Wednesday has been altered. For example, I believe the Side-by-Side post for 1984 was up to 21 or 22 comments; our post on Hawkman and the Angel had also generated almost a dozen comments. All of that is gone. That really bugs me, as it's long been a goal of Karen and I to create a message board for the community that enjoys this blog. Can't do that if your comments are deleted.

Doug: Additionally, our "Spotlight On" for Jim Aparo was set to run today. We had to table that, as I'd written it Thursday. Yep, wiped out in whatever this anomaly was. I'm going to try to get it put back together from memory (yeah, that's easy for an almost 45-year old guy...). Karen had started the second in our Fantastic Four trilogy, and was awaiting my turn with it. Gone. So we're a bit behind the 8-ball, and hope you'll bear with us if we need to take a day off. We try to work ahead, sometimes even a few weeks. But everyday life does "intrude" every now and then, and this may be one of those times.

Doug: But, as long as we have your attention, we'd like to announce that we've decided to continue the Side-by-Side series. Well, perhaps "continue" isn't the right word, as instead of moving forward, we're actually going to start quite a bit in the past. You all have really embraced the series, and it's certainly become a highlight for us each week to see your recollections. So, beginning shortly, we'll begin another 8-week run that we'll call Marvel and DC: Side-by-Side in the Marvel Age of Comics. Given that the Silver Age began at DC in 1956 while Marvel was mired in all sorts of monster and fantasy comics, we'll begin our romp in 1962 and run it through 1969. That end date might give us more fodder for our Bronze Age discussion, as several of you have posited that the Bronze Age may have begun as early as 1968. We shall see.

Karen: As my partner said, a frustrating time around the old bronze age baby clubhouse. We've been trying hard to have new content each day, and this has been a nasty speed bump, but we'll have things spinning along again soon. I'm excited to see your comments on our Marvel Age side by side, as I bet many of you read all the old Marvel reprint titles just like we did, so you'll be sure to have memories of those stories you can share.

Doug: So thanks for bearing with us, and keep stopping by. Hey, if nothing else, get in on an Open Forum that you may have missed earlier when it originally ran! We'll see your comments.

Doug: And one more thing, in news-you-can-use: it was announced today that NBC has rejected the Wonder Woman pilot.