No Child Left Behind?

The moral of this story?

Egyptian goddesses make lousy high school teachers.

One Year Later

Three-hundred and sixty-five days ago, the Fortress of Fortitude opened its doors to the blogoverse.

At our grand opening, a somewhat huffy Keeper wrote …

the Fortress has been established as a haven for characters and stories that evoke the sense of wonder that attracted so many to the medium over the years. There’s nothing wrong with heroes or fun, a fact that slavish devotion to overly grim realities will never erase.

Well, it’s one year later and comics haven’t gotten any less grim. Just ask Robbie Baldwin …

Despite such disheartening developments, however, we’ve enjoyed carrying out the Fortress’ mission statement. This blog allowed the Keeper to reconnect with such great underdog heroes as the Pre-Crisis Supergirl, Iron Fist, The Shroud and Spider-Woman.

(Our own personal Legion of Fortitudinous Champions … or, if you’d like, the Mountain View Avengers.)

It’s also been nice to have a forum for our opinions, given the sad fact that most of our friends, family and co-workers and family over the years have had little or no interest in comics.

It’s no fun spouting off on ridiculous topics if nobody’s listening, right?

Along those lines, the Keeper would like to thank everyone who’s ever visited, linked, or left a comment to the Fortress. As many of you know, it takes a great deal of effort to maintain and it always means a lot to receive feedback - even when someone is calling you a moron.

We’d also like to thank the site that inspired the Keeper to open up shop in the first place: Robby Reed’s Dial B for Blog. It’s currently on hiatus, but in our opinion Robby is the Jack Kirby of bloggers. We eagerly anticipate his return.

There are countless others out there who entertain and enlighten us daily in the comics blogosphere, but the Keeper would especially like to tip his hat to Bully and Calvin Pitt - the first two individuals to actually leave comments on this site!

(They became regular visitors too! You like us, you really like us!!!)

Finally, we’d like to thank Mrs. Keeper for putting up with this insane hobby for 13 years and Fortress Boy, who constantly reminds us that super-heroes truly belong to the young and the young at heart - no matter what insecure fanboys and professionals would have you believe.

As for the Keeper, we plan to keep on keepin’ on.

From the sublime (Saga Of The Swamp Thing #32, which contained the heartbreaking tale of “Pog” and is perhaps our favorite super-hero comic) to the ridiculous (Ms. Marvel #7, where the world’s most put-upon heroine is nearly seduced by Modok), we’ve loved reading comics for nearly 37 years.

It’s a passion that won’t disappear anytime soon.