Cavemengo's One Year Anniversary!

I have difficulty expressing how grateful I am that so many of you have followed Cavemengo, but on her one year anniversary I feel inclined, especially if I wish to call myself a writer, to express that gratefulness in words.

It would be difficult to thank each individual who has made this experience fantastic for me. First, I would like to say that my love goes out to, but is not limited to, each and every one of you reading these words. Second, I want to celebrate you, me and the blog we share with a series of anniversary posts. Expect to see these within the next few hours:

CAVEMENGO: YEAR ONE

I've stolen the title from the Frank Miller comic Batman: Year One, but where that comic tells the origin of Jim Gordon and his ally Batman, Cavemengo: Year One is dedicated to my influences, the blogs and bloggers who made the first year of Cavemengo possible.

CAVEMENGO ANECDOTES

Several friends of Cavemengo, including graphic artist Adam Friedli, have agreed to write short anecdotes regarding their time spent with the blog and some of the events that led up to particular blog posts. It takes a village, and I think it is fantastic that some of the village people are speaking out.

CAVEMENGO: YEAR TWO

Cavemengo: Year Two is a look forward to what Cavemengo's second year holds in store for all of us. I've got some big projects coming up and I'd love it if you could be there with me when they come to fruition.

If you've been silently reading the blog, now is the time to let your voice be heard, be it a celebration or a criticism. Drop me a comment. Subscribe. Heck, unsubscribe if I'm not doing you right. Share Cavemengo with your friends. Tody I want to know who is out there, so make yourself known to Cavemengo in some overt way. Once I know you're out there it will be that much easier to send my love your way.

Batman: Year One

Batman: Year One gained a great deal of acclaim a couple of years ago when Christopher Nolan noted it as one of the main influences on his film Batman Begins. When it comes to comic book story arcs, however, Year One stands on its own two feet, especially considering that its success convinced DC comics to continue the Year One line for a couple of decades. (I saw a reference to Green Arrow: Year One in an issue of Countdown that I recently read.) Of Frank Miller's Dark Knight stories, it is the most widely accepted for its depiction of Batman and it is the only story that is canon in both the mainline DC universe (Earth 1) and Miller's Dark Knight universe.

Curiously, this beloved Batman storyline is not about Batman so much as it is about Commissioner Gordon. The story begins and ends with Gordon and Gordon is the clear protagonist. Batman's coming of age as a hero is a foil to ally Jim Gordon's rise in influence as a good cop in the den of thieves that is the Gotham City Police Department.

Batman: Year One introduces readers not just to Jim Gordon and Batman, but also to District Attorney Harvey Dent (who will one day become Two-Face) and prostitute Selina Kyle (who will one day become Catwoman). He also plays out the interesting relationships between Batman, Gordon and Dent, possibly the only three people in Gotham with both the desire and the power to fight against the city's corruption. Year One sets up for many of the greatest Batman stories ever told, worth reading both because of its solo story and the influence this story has had on everything since.

And with the hype surrounding Nolan's third Batman flick The Dark Knight Rises, it can't hurt to get caught up on your Batman stories. Batman: Year One is a superb place to start!