Wow, it's been almost a year since I posted a blog. Reviews have been few and far between. If you're still following me here, please leave a "Hi!" in the comments section below to let me know that you're still following me, that you read this; and maybe a thought or two in response.

One of the reasons I visit ComicVine and have a profile here is it is a fan-centered site. I can read a comic from my stash, and post a review here. I've been meaning to get back to reading and reviewing James Robinson's Starman run; then moving on to The Batman Adventures. I've been on a bit of an extended hiatus.

The main reason I've been away is that over the last few years, since 2011, my wife and I have been adopting. We've been making an almost annual trip to Kiev, Ukraine. There is a small village right outside the city, Novisilky, where the Cradle of Children's' Hope Orphanage is. We brought home our son, Justin, in October 2011. December 2012, we brought our son, Ethan, home. Just last May, 2013, we brought our daughter Isabella - Bella - home.

I've been chronicling the journey here and here, but not so much here.

I guess I could have shared my son, Justin's fascination with Smallville and the Superman story.

I could have shared how were becoming a real life First Family, or family of Imaginauts.

I could have shared that I was building my X-Men or Teen Titans team.

The journey that I was on took me away from comic books. Over here, I shared the comics that I brought with to Kiev as creature comforts to remind me of home. In the three eight week trips we made, I found one English book store. That was in the mall in Independence Square in September of 2011. It was gone by December 2012. I never found a comic book store or comic books for sale in Kiev. I saw coloring books and sticker books. I found Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl and The 39 Clues in Ukrainian. But no comics.

Another reason I've been away for awhile is that I've been downsizing my comic book collection. Kids require effort, time and attention... Just like comic books. They also require money. So, hand in hand with losing interest in investing in the latest corporate gimmick, I decided to stick with what I'm actually going to be re-reading years from now. Starman moved me in a way that few other comics have. Same with The Batman Adventures. And Marv Wolfman and George Pérez's The New Teen Titans. I have a stash of Alex Ross stuff, because, Alex Ross! Eventually, I'd like to track down all twenty issues of The Batman Family, but that's a story for another day.

Now as much as I like reading comics and writing reviews of comics. I like to write, period. But my phone ain't ringin' to write Batman, Spider-Man or Spawn, know what I'm sayin'? Especially since I've just been scribbling ideas on napkins and 3x5 cards forever, sayin' "That's a great idea, right there, I don't care who ya are!"

Until now.

No, it's not a comic book. So, why bring it up? It's a start. It's a collection of the blogs I wrote while bringing my son home from Ukraine with my wife. Imagine, Alfred Pennyworth's secret diary. Man, those stories were wacky, am I right? Am I right?

Or, if Jonathan Kent had written about his son. The John Schneider or Glenn Ford Pa Kent, not the Kevin Costner one.

Anyway, I want to share that I am now a self-published author. On Amazon, Kindle and GoodReads, too!

I'll be getting back to reading Starman now, along with Batman '66, too!