Find here all the whatnot I write! Comics Hauls, Reviews, Topic Essays, Let’s Talk Bookish and other games, all kinda stuff! Scroll at your leisure! Doublecheck your measure! Friendship’s your treasure!

It’s A 5 O’Clock World, Or: Have Tombstone, Will Travel
In my life I have been, among other things: A Videomonger At What Was Once Called A “Blockbuster” This was, in fact, the first…

Boyz II Menudo (The Sea Of Monsters, Ch. 13)
TAKE me down to the shipwreck graveyard, where the grass is seaweed and the girls are HYPNOTIC and/or tied to the mast, but in…

Other Pursuits May 2023, or, Bring Me The Lungs Of Dan Marino
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![SUDDENLY KITTEN SALAD [UPDATED]](https://i0.wp.com/itsthebageler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6462.jpg?fit=1125%2C866&ssl=1)
SUDDENLY KITTEN SALAD [UPDATED]
GANG I WAS WALKING IN MY OWN HUMAN HOME, MINDING MY OWN GOOD CHRISTIAN BUSINESS, WHEN I HAPPENED TO LOOK OUTSIDE TO SAY GOOD…

Buttle Me This, Citizen, Or: The Ulukaya Method
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Every Little Bing She Does Is Magic (The Sea Of Monsters, Ch. 12)
COME ON IN, WE’VE GOT THE MANI-CURE FOR WHAT AILS YOU. You’ve selected our mandatory all-inclusive package, and we’ve lined up a whole slate…

Review: Goblin’s Oracle Dice, Or, That Good Alethiometer Shit
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Readin’ Comics Week Of 5.7.23: Axe And Ye Shall Receive, Or, Moriarty’s Revenge
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Forget It Jake, It’s Fabletown, Part 4: The Art Of Urban Barbecue
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Readin’ Comics Week Of 4.30.23: The Dynamite Side Of The Street
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A Fistful Of Bitcoin (The Sea Of Monsters, Ch. 11)
Steamboat shenanigans get OUT OF HAND AND INTO GIANT MOUTH as PJ and his reluctant crew struggle for their own lives and that of…

Books Read December 2022
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Express Train To The Chaos Shrine: Final Fantasy, Part One
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Other Pursuits, April 2023
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Momster & Poplyphemus (The Sea Of Monsters, Ch. 10)
Percy applies for a small business loan, Annabeth refuses to check her biclops privilege, we trade POWERFUL PANCAKE SECRETS, and a special preview of…

Books Read November 2022
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Oofski
YEAH, WHAT TÉODOR SAID Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere–if nothing else, WordPress managed to get my annual re-up fee out of me literally…

Sarcophagus? I ‘Ardly KNOWphagus! (The Sea Of Monsters, Chs. 8 +9)
So, listen, SOMETIMES a Y2K happens and two episodes get their chips chomped EVEN THOUGH THE CLOUD IS A THING.When this happens, three friends…

Other Pursuits March 2023
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Sonic The Hęrdgëhåg (The Sea Of Monsters, Ch. 7)
Percy and ABC mend their wounded friendship through the most powerful healing of all: mutual hatred of an authority figure, divine customer service is…

Books Read October 2022 (Not The Longest List In The World, Just A Tribute)
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![Practical Paul And The Fairy Ring [Courtesy of Scary Stories For The Soul]](https://i0.wp.com/itsthebageler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/William_Holmes_Sullivan_-_The_Fairy_Ring_the_Enchanted_Piper.jpeg?fit=402%2C550&ssl=1)
Practical Paul And The Fairy Ring [Courtesy of Scary Stories For The Soul]
GANG I KEEP MEANING TO DANG TELL YOU, I got to do some guest voice-work for an old classmate/Facebook pal who has a podcast…

Other Pursuits, February 2023
Hi all my buddies, I am sleepy from staying up too late looking into alternate writing systems for Klingon, because the defacto pIqaD system…

Forget It Jake, It’s Fabletown, Part 3: Reporter, I ‘Ardly Know Her
ONCE UPON A TIME, mistakes were made. And as far as community-service sentences go, I reckon yelling about comics while watching Star Trek: Picard…

Bunkey Musiness (The Sea Of Monsters, Ch. 6)
Camp Half-Blood has a latter-day Wacky Races in the parking lot of an HEB, a tradesperson attempts to bamboozle us into playing Magic: The…

Auld Langue Mystique: The Ballistic Omniglossia Of Curse Words
I try preeeeeetty hard to make my posts relatable and have as broad an appeal as possible, but this one? Ohohoho, she is just…

Books Read September 2022
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Forget It Jake, It’s Fabletown, Part 2: Farmful If Swallowed
So, according to these instructions rubber-banded to a can of vitamin soup that just flew through my—thankfully open—window, I’m supposed to review Fables, Vol.…

Like Nick At Nite, But Stabbier (The Sea Of Monsters, Ch. 5)
An upsetting dinner, a sophisticated and agile beverage, casual racism we’re not sure we can tolerate much longer, and surprise visits from Robby the…

Let’s Talk Bookish Week of 2.3.23: Reviews And Spoilers!
Hi how are you, yes, good, I am glad to hear it, what’s that, why yes, I did have to start my 30-hour playthrough…

Other Pursuits, January 2023
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Bloganuary ’23, Day 31: Good Night, Good Luck, And Watch The Skies
Dearly be-bloggéd, we are gathered here today in remembrance of Bloganuary 2023. We all came to it differently—-one-sentence answers, or long rambling essays about…

Bloganuary ‘23, Day 30: Coolest Guy On The Block
I HAVE NO TIME TO HASTILY WRITE AN INTRO, I AM SORRY, I HAVE TO GO TO BOOK CLUB. January 30th: What would you…

Let’s Talk Bookish Week Of 1.27.23: Freebie!
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Bloganuary ’23, Day 29: Dial 1-800-NEWSIES
Would anyone like a terrible, SLIGHTLY MURDERATED CAT who pissed all over my D&D books in front of God and everybody yesterday? Jkjk you…

Bloganuary ‘23, Day 28: Reluctantly Crouched At The Starting Line
Okay so riddle my ass this though: We got an Outback gift card from my folks for Decemberween, right? And my missus has had…
![Bloganuary ‘23, Day 27: [Clever Title To Be Filled In Later]](https://i0.wp.com/itsthebageler.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/952ffec8fca37dc4aeb03d5185b8a675.png?fit=651%2C120&ssl=1)
Bloganuary ‘23, Day 27: [Clever Title To Be Filled In Later]
TWO BIG THINGS HAPPENED TODAY: So be prepared to hear a lot about THAT between terror-barfs in the coming weeks. MAN what a game.…

That Kind Of Moochanism (The Sea Of Monsters, Ch.4)
Aw JEEZ, who let these golden retrievers into our studio?! They’re–NO, MY FICUS! It–PUT THAT DOWN, MR. WORF IS AN ACTION FIGURE, HE IS…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 26: Lingua Frankensteina
Here follows a brief exchange that will give a cursory and shallow but essentially correct example of the dynamic between the personalities in my…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 25: Ten Thousand Candles In The Wind
I started up the Klingon course in DuoLingo, because the reasons to do so had finally become too many to ignore: The only thing…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 24: Parentheticals
I am TOO SLEEPY and FILLED WITH CHICKEN to do much but the actual post, and so IN LIEU of a joke-filled or anecdotal…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 23: Blood On The Sand
I HAVE NO INTRO TODAY, I PUT OUT TWO POSTS FOR YOU PEOPLE YESTERDAY, GO READ THE INTROS IN THOSE INSTEAD, THEY’RE GREAT. Kthxbai.…

Bloganuary ‘23, Day 22: Lost Continent
We had a HEATER REPAIRMAN come today, who dishonored our home by lying and saying he was born in 1998; this is not possible,…

Forget It Jake, It’s Fabletown, Part 1: The Ughly Duckling
Look, it–okay, sometimes, a thing seems like a good idea, SOMETIMES you get a tattoo that says “EZRA MILLER AIN’T JUST A FLASH IN…

Bloganuary ‘23, Day 21: Wherever A Bavarian Is Not Quite Full
TODAY IS MY FATHER’S ONE MILLIONTH OR SOMETHING BIRTHDAY, and he did not require surgery for his TERRIBLE GRIPPER-GOUGE after all. We are very…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 20: Swallowed By The Sea
Hey look I remembered to title this one before posting it!My very first concert was my then-favorite and still high-ranking band, The Moody Blues,…

Let’s Talk Bookish Week Of 1.20.23: Collecting Books
TODAY, I taught some small boys how to play TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, and was afforded the privilage of claiming Donatello as my permaturtle as…
No Bloganuary Post Today
My dad was hospitalized last night and will be having surgery today; I am very stressed about it and just want to watch horror…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 18: Big Hug
Okay, listen: I forget how we got there, but this morning my wife said she was starting a charity for people born without butts,…
Bloganuary ‘23, Day 17: YOU MAY NOW KISS THE BAGELER
So, every day, WordPress gives you a free writing prompt; usually nothing so focused or fertile as Bloganuary’s provocations, but just a little somthin’…
Bloganuary ‘23, Day 16: I Told You I Was Freaky
I don’t have any new cold open material! It’s been A DAY, YOU GUYS, and my life is not that eventful! I went to…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 15: A Tribe Called MapQuest
THERE IS A NEW FERAL CAT OUTSIDE, presumably lured by the hey-sailor charms of Mama Hallie Ween. A handsome gentleman of the tabby persuasion,…

Bloganuary ‘23, Day 14: The Bleating Edge Of The Meadium
ONE DAY, when my wife was a young vet tech the mere sight of whom in her scrubs would’ve killed me outright both then…

Bloganuary ‘23, Day 13: “Hey What Do I Call This Post?” “Done.”
Y’know, maybe I should stop just writing ‘alskfjasld;fjasl;dkfj’ in this space as a placeholder and trusting Future Me to remember to put something else…

Let’s Talk Bookish Week of 1.13.22: Problematic Inspiration
Normally, I try to start my posts off with an unrelated mini-thought, a kind of cold open, but tonight I am without even the…

Noo Doot Aboot It (The Sea Of Monsters, Chapter 3)
Oh are you kidding me–gang I’m so sorry, I left my wallet in the pool, does anybody have exact cab fare to…HELL???PJ & Co.…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 12: Y’all Punk-Ass Grackles Don’t Know Me
GANG I WALKED SO MUCH AT THE PARK TODAY, I GOT THREE MILES AND BURNED LIKE 400 CALORIES AND CAUGHT SO MANY FRIGGIN’ POKÉMON,…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 11: Red Shell Blues
[Exterior: the park, this afternoon] [My newphew/grandson-type-boy (shut up life is complicated, focus) and I are playing Mario Kart by running around the perimeter…
Bloganuary ’23, Day 10: THAT IS ALL.
No intro! NOTHING HAS HAPPENED SINCE LAST NIGHT, JEEZ. January 10th:Has A Book Changed Your Life? (Obligatory reminder to subscribe to my once-monthly newsletter here,…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 9: The Aggro Craig
So this is fun, remember that meeting I was super mad about being forced to go to on my day off instead of just…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 8: Combat Acoustics
Listen though: SOME OF THE TIMES, you stay up too late reading because you can’t stop switching back and forth between A Memory Called…

Bloganuary ‘23, Day 7: Yitzbin
I HAVE NEVER WRITTEN FICTION THAT WASN’T A PLAY BEFORE. This is an idea I’ve had kicking around for a while. I have no…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 6: Oh God Why
Gang–homies–squad???–I had a long, rough day, and I sat down to write this without a damn thing to say for the intro. What do…

Let’s Talk Bookish Week Of 1.6.23: Reading & Blogging Goals
It’s me! Hi! I’m the problem! But I’m your problem, and there’s something to be said for that. It’s twenty and twenty and three…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 5: Lisztomania
GANG: It is Cloudy and Cold, the feral kittens outside chomp on the bikkies they dupe us into giving them by peeking cutely through…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 4: Nine For The Tomb
I HAVE JUST RETURNED from a three-and-a-half-hour work meeting on my day off, which AS ONE MIGHT IMAGINE was an infuriating waste of my…

Bloganuary ’23, Day 3: A Fickle Siren Song
Day 3! Of the year, of Bloganuary, and of the rest of our lives! If we all keep the pact we made that terrible…

Bloganuary ’23 Day 2: Bravely Default
Okay, yesterday’s prompt was kinda abstract, hopefully today will be a little more straitfo–OH COME ON. January 2nd:How Are You Brave? (Obligatory reminder to…

Bloganuary ’23 Day 1: Goals For 2023
LET IT BEGINUARY. For those unaware, Bloganuary is a daily writing-prompt…game, I guess??? in the style of your Let’s Talk Bookishes and Top Ten…

Other Pursuits, December 2022
More like Deez Nutz roasting on an open fire, ha-HA! …wait. But then wouldn’t that—no that’s right, it—hang on lemme do some math on…

Resurrected Review: Comic Bento November 2015
[Long before I began to Blog, I would periodically do reviews of stuff on my Facebook, frequently the subscription-crate services that were all the…
The Blamethrower (The Sea Of Monsters, Ch. 2)
Listen: Sometimes you blow up your school. Sometimes the Lord of the Flies reenactment goes horribly right. SOMETIMES, JOE BOB LOVES BABYCAKES. And for…

Books Read August 2022!
I don’t wanna straighten upI don’t wanna fly rightI just wanna drive around a whileAnd bust a couple things up with the bad kids

Resurrected Review: Lootcrate December 2015
[Long before I began to Blog, I would periodically do reviews of stuff on my Facebook, frequently the subscription-crate services that were all the…
Litmus? I ‘Ardly KNOW Mus! (The Sea Of Monsters, Ch. 1)
PJ’S BACK TO BRAVE THE SEA OF MONSTERS AND SO ARE WE, FOOLS!What the HELL is happening outside the fifth-story window? Why is Saint…

Books Read July 2022
(Obligatory reminder to subscribe to my once-monthly newsletter here, which rounds up everything I wrote in the preceding month, grants access to a curated…

Books Read June 2022!
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Books Read May 2022
(Reminder, if you don’t wanna miss any of my articles, you can sign up for my once-monthly newsletter here, which gives you a link-laden…

Basilisk Of Baker Street (Scions Of Camp Half-Blood, S1.E3)
It’s all come down to this! WHO can answer the fiendish riddles three of the Korn Pixies? WILL Mr. Coffee get the wee rat-jacuzzi…

THE FIRST EVER YEAR-LONG SCAVENGER HUNT!
While–y’know what, perhaps even whilst–browsing the latest from all of my pals in the WordPress reader, I was hit SQUARE IN THE PIE-PLATE by…

Readin’ Comics Week Of 11.28.22
Hey shut up, listen: Hi! I guess I’m doing this now? Unclear. But I wanna write about comics and evidence indicates that you, for…

Other Pursuits, November 2022
I AM BACK, and have not rested upon my laurels but labored and learned, like Hercules and like Smartcules, his buff cousin who wears…

A Change In Format
Good news and bad news, gang! And then another good news! Good News #1 Ya boi got his dang degree earlier this year! The…

New Comics Haul Week Of 11.2.22
Okay listen: You know I love you people but my wife’s job is doing a cake for her birthday in forty minutes, and like,…

Other Pursuits, October 2022
BEIN’ SPOOKED, END OF STORY.Nah jk I probably did some other stuff too, like quit Twitter; lemme have a rummage. (Obligatory reminder to subscribe to…

Let’s Talk Bookish Week Of 10.28.22: Halloween Freebie!
As far as I can tell, I think one Let’s Talk Bookish every month is a free space, for whatever book-topic you’ve been chewing…

New Comics Haul Week Of 10.26.22
AS BEFITS THE SPOOKITY SZN, our yard has been claimed as the home, albeit probably temporary, of TWO BLACK CATS ₐₙd ₐₗₛₒ ₐ gᵣₑy…

Let’s Talk Bookish Week Of 10.21.22: Do Book Titles Matter?
How much do book titles matter? Unfortunately, I would have to say that titles matter, sometimes a great deal but but maybe not quite…

New Comics Haul Week Of 10.19.22
Well, my wife just called them ‘vampire seeds’ after mishearing me say I was going to have some sunflower seeds, so OBVIOUSLY that’s all…

New Comics Haul Week Of 10.12.22
CHARCUTERIE UPDATE: Asiago? Asiag-no. Thank you; as you were. (Obligatory reminder to subscribe to my once-monthly newsletter here, which rounds up everything I wrote in…

New Comics Haul Week Of 10.5.22
Pop quiz, gentle readers! Are we watching several small children while their parents travel for a funeral, or looking after very drunk friends who…

Word Crimes: Suspect #1
I…love words. I love learning them, love learning about them, love using the exact right one, love using far more of them than are,…

Other Pursuits, September 2022
Hark, fools, the NINE-MONTH OF THE SEVEN-NAME has failed to kill me for the 33rd time. Better luck next year, fucko. N–not really, actually,…

New Comics Haul Week Of 9.28.22
READER: My brain is on fire. Not (or at least not only) for comics reasons, nor for fever reasons because I’m the only one…

Let’s Talk Bookish Week Of 9.30.22: Tracking Reading
This week’s LBT was Choose Your Own Adventure! So I looked back into the LTB Archives to see what would catch my eye like…

New Comics Haul Week Of 9.21.22
Guys, I…think I did a bad thing. At the end of a work meeting today, the Executive Husks passed around this deck of corporate…

Let’s Talk Bookish Week Of 9.23.22: Reading Seasonally
Against all expectation and odds given by local bookies I am back for my second week of LTB, because I got the dang bug…

I Crave The Cronch (Scions Of Camp Half-Blood, S1.E2)
The second episode of our Percy Jackson & The Olympians-based miniseries in the Scion TTRPG system! Join us for the inaugural Camp Half-Blood Annual…

Let’s Talk Bookish Week Of 9.16.22: Tips For Newbie Bloggers
I’m…fairly sure I’m allowed to do this? I’ll be the first to admit that mine is a very new site, at six months in…

New Comics Haul Week Of 9.14.22
Hm. Forgot how I start my posts.Well, that’s probably as good a way as any; find below a CURATED SELECTION of the finest graphical…
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New Comics Haul Week Of 9.7.22
Shortly before beginning this article I received an Alolan Sandshrew in Pokémon Go, courtesy of an egg sent to me by a pal in France; her name is Shrew Barrymore, and I’ve only had her for half an hour but if anything happens to her I will Faint everyone in this gym and then myself.…

New Comics Haul Week Of 8.31.22
HELLO. I come to you 𝒶-𝓌𝓇𝒾𝑔𝑔𝓁𝒾𝓃’ in the mucous grip of a wee sickness, a vaguely but profoundly uncomfortable eel hoisted from my rightful mire into a rowboat rented for a poorly-conceived bachelor party. Will they figure out how to cook me before Clarf is reduced to a skeleton in a corduroy tux? Will Glebra…

Bulletproof Joie De Vivre (Scions Of Camp Half-Blood, S1.E1)
Friend of the show Isaac kidnaps us and takes us to Camp Half-Blood, where he forces us to create personas according to strict and baffling rules, some of which may be in French! Come meet our characters for this inter-season RPG miniseries, and their animal familiars that you’re gonna care about more than the characters…
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It’s A 5 O’Clock World, Or: Have Tombstone, Will Travel
In my life I have been, among other things: A Videomonger At What Was Once Called A “Blockbuster” This was, in fact, the first three jobs I had, and is still my favorite one to this day. Of course, a good chunk of that has to be that I associate it with the freedom of… Read more
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Boyz II Menudo (The Sea Of Monsters, Ch. 13)
TAKE me down to the shipwreck graveyard, where the grass is seaweed and the girls are HYPNOTIC and/or tied to the mast, but in fairness that’s the one we brought with us. WILL Annabeth achieve her dream of constructing a Neo-Mannahatta and the far wilder, more outlandish goal of having a stable, functional family? CAN… Read more
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Other Pursuits May 2023, or, Bring Me The Lungs Of Dan Marino
(Obligatory reminder to subscribe to my once-monthly newsletter here, which rounds up everything I wrote in the preceding month, grants access to a curated members-only Spotify playlist, and includes a piece of exclusive bonus collectible content I will NEVER repost anywhere else, ever!) Articles Of Interest This began as a six-episode miniseries on 99% Invisible examining the history… Read more
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SUDDENLY KITTEN SALAD [UPDATED]
GANG I WAS WALKING IN MY OWN HUMAN HOME, MINDING MY OWN GOOD CHRISTIAN BUSINESS, WHEN I HAPPENED TO LOOK OUTSIDE TO SAY GOOD MORNING TO OUR CLOWDER OF YARD-CATS (WHO ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF MESA’S ECOSYSTEM AND FEAST LIKE KINGS UPON THE CITRUS-FUELED ROOF-RATS) AND WAS CONFRONTED WITH A SIGHT FOR WHICH I… Read more
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Buttle Me This, Citizen, Or: The Ulukaya Method
(Obligatory reminder to subscribe to my once-monthly newsletter here, which rounds up everything I wrote in the preceding month, grants access to a curated members-only Spotify playlist, and includes a piece of exclusive bonus collectible content I will NEVER repost anywhere else, ever!) I HAVE NEVER DONE one of these daily-prompt boondoggles before (except this year’s Bloganuary event,… Read more
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Every Little Bing She Does Is Magic (The Sea Of Monsters, Ch. 12)
COME ON IN, WE’VE GOT THE MANI-CURE FOR WHAT AILS YOU. You’ve selected our mandatory all-inclusive package, and we’ve lined up a whole slate of activities for you, such as: -Nutritional Evaluation and Gradual Glamification Including New Garments -Non-optional waxing session (turtles provided) -Our famous celery buffet, with entertainment provided by the world-famous Teachin’ Ed… Read more