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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 4h

SKYDANCE TREK: The Starship Magaprise encounters an alien race that is black on one half of their bodies, and black on the other half. "Get a load of THESE guys," announces Captain Don.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 12h

Why can't I get false alarms at the shop at like 10 minutes before I show up to open instead of two or three in the morning like I usually do.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 15h

My holiday-themed screen name is too long, and also it is too real.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 15h

There's a version for Atari computers, that maybe restores some of the graphic fidelity to the arcade game, and adds back the planes, but oddly doesn't seem like it's quite as fun as the 2600. Just little generic explosions take out the cities. I've not played it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAWh...

youtube.com

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 15h

The *one* caveat is that it feels odd to play the game with a joystick, but your targeting thingie zips around quickly enough so that's okay. Apparently someone did create a "hacked" version of the original program that will work with trackballs and mice, if you are so inclined.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 15h

The cities explode in little mushroom clouds, where perhaps it's weird to say "that's a nice visual touch," but, y'know, it is. When the game is over, you don't get the huge "THE END" message like in the arcade, but you get a pretty ominous booming sound which is about as effective.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 15h

You have one base to shoot from instead of three, a couple of the enemies are gone (like the planes that would fly by and shoot more missiles at you), but otherwise, This Is The Game. Even the typical 2600 flickering is restricted to the missile trails, where it works nicely.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 15h

The Atari 2600 conversion of MISSILE COMMAND is a master class in scaling down the original arcade experience into something that's playable on the 2600's hardware, while still looking and sounding absolutely right. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJij...

youtube.com

Atari 2600 Longplay [005] Missile Command

YouTube video by World-of-Longplays

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 15h

Huh. Wonder what's going on (aside from "the internet is glitching again").

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 15h

Okay...can you see the video linked in this post? I've got a couple of people who say they can't, and I have no idea why that would be. (It's just a Bale/Nolan-ized reworking of the '66 Batman opening.)

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Reposted by Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November

Joe Rosales @joeartguy.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

RIP Matt Howarth, writer/artist of the indescribable comic Those Annoying Post Brothers (and others). Howarth was known for both for his anarchic stories and minutely detailed art, often with elaborate hatching—and, incredibly, for being probably the fastest artist in ALL of comics.

Cover of Those Annoying Post Brothers Annual No. 1 (1995), showing jolly, capering, beer-drinking Russ and Ron Post firing uzi submachine guns in front of a pressing crowd of Lovecraftian monsters and abominations.

Cover of Those Annoying Post Brothers No. 2 featuring Russ Post standing and whistling while holding a submachine gun in front of an elaborately hatched Lovecraftian horror seemingly part of and rising up from the ground behind him.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Pull list customers primarily wanting the Midnight variants, it seems.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I did a quick check on the comics database, but didn't spot any obvious contenders. I'll look again.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I had a different title initially, but I figured you wouldn't want post with the title "And now, pornography" attached to your name!

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Weird, right? But Madonna? "When was the last time you thought about Madanna? Here are 16 new stories about her to catch you up."

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This happened to me a while back with Madonna news on some outlet or 'nother, and it's like, why? When did I ever show interest in Madonna news?

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I have...opinions on how successful or unsuccessful they may be, but I really can't get into that 'til Wednesday!

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

To give a very general answer, I would say...yes. If you're looking for new horror-themed takes on these Marvel heroes, that's what you get. If you only can buy one, get the FF book.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Anyway, this new series I'm thinking of would only be about...nine parts, perhaps? If I include a prologue and an epilogue? Still in the planning stages.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Oh, and "Sluggo Saturday" is still going, if very, VERY sporadically. And I still have a couple of reader questions to answer. This is why I'm still doing a comics blog. There's no real good place for me to stop!

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Think I'm about to start *another* post series on my site, on top of "My Fantastic Four-ay" (which will not be finished within my lifetime) and "Final '90s Countdown" (which I'm actually within' spitting distance of completing). And my "Variant Cover-age" posts, which technically are still a thing.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Some of my all-time favorite weirdo comics. I treasure my full run of these!

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

There are lots of shaved heads in these comics, I think we're okay.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I'm going to assume the person who just asked me "what city is this?" is just from out of town and driving through, but based on his behavior, I can't say that 100% for sure.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

LANTERNS finale: John Stewart: "Sinestro? What are you doing here?" Sinestro: "You see, just like Sirius Black in the Harry Potter novels, the movies currently streaming on HBO MAX, and the new series coming soon to that very channel, I escaped prison to help you."

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

To be REALLY honest I'm not sure my eyes are up to that screen anymore. I'll have to see one in person to test my ability to use it.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I left a request with my previous place of employment, once I left to start my own store, to keep an eye out for used Vectrex systems, as they were also dealing in used video games as well. Alas, one never popped up.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I'll get into it on the ol' blog on Wednesday, when I'm officially allowed to talk about them.

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Mike Sterling, A Halloween Comic Shipping First Week of November @mikester.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I may have read Three Big Comics coming out next week as part of an imprint launch. ...Well, two of them understood the assignment.

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