#atfw

Dr. Linksano from Atop The Fourth Wall is a feral scientist

1I haven’t been on this blog much lately as I’ve been kind of stressed out thinking (or perhaps overthinking) about the upcoming midterm election. So I thought I’d tell a bit of a happy story since @atopfourthwall recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.  The story of Neutro.

You see back in the 1950s and early 60s Dell comics was one of the biggest players in the American comic market thanks to it’s wealth of licensed books. At one point they had the Disney, Warner Brothers, and MGM licenses all at the same time and their weekly Four Color Comics anthology was the highest selling comic in the world. They also had a few of their own original properties most notably Turok. Then in 1963 Dell’s publishing partner Western Printing (publisher of the popular Little Golden Books) split off from from Dell to start their own comics company Gold Key and took almost all of the licenses with them & Turok to boot. Dell was forced to create their own original intellectual properties to survive and tried it’s hands at Superheroes. The most successful of these was Brain Boy who actually got a revival of sorts by Dark Horse a few years ago. Neutro on the other hand would be forgotten. Well almost forgotten. Kitchen Sink Press featured it in their “Worst Comics Awards” mini-series and Canadian cartoonist Greg Hyland would feature Neutro as a running gag in his superhero parody Lethargic Lad (which now continues as a web comic.)  I became aware of the book through “Oddball Comics” a history/review column that Captain Carrot creator Scott Shaw used to have on Comic Book Resources and after spotting a copy of it for $12 on Ebay I decided to order a copy to read for myself.  That book sat on my shelf for about five years.  Then in 2008 I discovered a new comic review series on Channel Awesome.  I was somewhat familiar with Linkara’s work having read his text reviews and being aware of him through the forum on Superdickery.  I contacted him asking if I can donate some books.   Neutro being one of a handful I sent in.  A total of three  books I sent in over the years were actually turned into reviews. The other two being Strange Adventures #136 and Brute Force #1 (thought I may not have been the first one to send him a copy of that.)  Of course at the time I had no idea that we’d be watching his reviews 10 years later, or that Neutro would end up part of an increasingly complex mythology within the show.

I do hope this won’t mean that the good stuff we did get out of the post One More Day years like Silk for example will vanish from existence and never happened because that would be honestly throwing the baby out with the bath water. I know this is great news for Spider Man fans and I imagine Linkara especially is happy to hear about that but I don’t want to see a character like Cindy Moon AKA Silk that I've grown to like a lot gotten rid of as a result.

Here’s the sitch: things are getting somewhat tight. I want to make this clear, it is in no way urgent. Mel (@roseapprentice) and I have a great safety net in our large and supportive family. Our parents will be covering our rent for the next year, and I’ve still got a bit of a buffer in savings that should cover food and other essentials for a while if necessary. We’re both making a little money, although my hours at my day job are very irregular.

So this is a “please give me your money if you have nothing better to do with it” situation. That is, 1) if you appreciate my content and can afford to contribute to its continued existence and think that is a good use of your money, or 2) if you are literally rich and feel like supporting me just because.

So you can buy me a coffee if you want

or support me by buying my first novel, The Red Glade Peacemakers, and reviewing it on Amazon

or support our household by following my sisters’ blog, @avertingtheflamewars, and donating to their paypal or supporting them on Patreon when they get that up and running

My second book, Tabitha, will be coming out in August. It’s an easier and lighter read, and I’ll have pros on my side marketing-wise, so I’m hoping it gets us a lot closer to being in the black.

If things get tighter, or if people express interest, I may start taking ficlet prompts in exchange for a coffee or two. 

[ I swear to god I didn’t intend this to come across shippy, just kinda platonic intimacy ]

Linkara pushed away from his desk in agitation, pushing his glasses off his face when he heard the door open and a southern lilt fill the room. “I come in peace and I have booze and ch-” without even looking up linkara spoke.

“If you say chicken strips I’m going to actually kill you.” The ringing laugh he got in response making him smile.