I'll teach you all this in eight easy years

Please excuse the self-reference of a little stuffed bull, but I can't help blowing my little tin horn: it's the eighth anniversary of this here puppet-town cow blog! Yep, eight years ago today I started to talk about comics, post silly panels, and refer to myself online as yours little stuffed truly. Eight whole years! An' I'm only six years old myself. I believe that tachyons are involved in that somehow. Anyway, please have yourself a cupcake (or eight, as I am) to celebrate! Tell 'em Bully sent you! (To the cupcake store.)

As we usually do on such occasions, let's take a quick tour through some of my favorite posts of the previous year (so you don't have to read them again later)!


LISTS 'N' FEATURES

• I really loved spending 366 Days with Alfred Pennyworth. Here's one of my favorite Alfred appearances, and here's the 366th and final installment paying homage to the great man himself.
• The second annual Grover Groundhog Day, which also gave us the greatest team-up in comics history:

• I started my Comics News feature. Here's my favorite news item:

• I did a lot of "Ten of a Kind" posts, but this one on anger management is my favorite.

WRITIN' 'BOUT COMICS

• Jimmy Olsen is no James Bond.
• Speaking of 007, here's the Return of the Indian James Bond comic book.
• With apologies to Mike Sterling: AW GEEZ, DON'T DO THAT, RALPH DIBNY!

• No matter what you do, Batman did it first.
• Catchphrases of the Super-Heroes. I haven't yet gotten to "It's clobberin' time."
• An ode to monsters in little pants.
• Lois Lane killed a dog.

• Johnny Cash is more badass than Darth Vader.
• Who's that girl, who's that girl? It's Jess!

• Everything you wanted to ask about Marvel NOW! but were afraid to ask.
• In 2012 Marvel killed off Professor Charles Xavier (again), and I had quite a bit of fun with it. (Well, more fun than he did.) R.I.P. (Really Inhuman, Professor) • Nothing's more fun than flipping off the Reaper • A Supposedly Human Thing Xavier'll Never Do Again

• DC seemed to think that the Superman/Wonder Woman romance was revolutionary. I remind them about the times they've been romantic before.
• Ten other comic book characters who will be appearing in "Age of Ultron."

HISTORY, HOLIDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES

• Guy Fawkes Day! With Superman!
• Remember when that one guy shot Abe Lincoln?

• Comics Oughta Be Fun was the Official Comics Blog of the 2012 Olympics!
• In honor of her Diamond Jubilee: Queen Elizabeth II's comic book appearances. Part One • Part Two.
• The two hundredth anniversary of Pride and Prejudice. In comic books.

• Halloween in Rutland, Vermont. (Like so many, I never did complete this feature! sigh)
• That day Superman dropped LSD.

THINGS BULLY DID

• I spent 24 days trying to assemble eensy-weensy Lego Star Wars Christmas kits.

• In tribute to Pal Dorian's brilliant long-running feature, I cosplayed Flop.
• I grew a mustache!

MY FAVORITE POSTS OF THE YEAR

• 100 Things That Make Star Trek Great. And that was before Into Darkness!
• Fifty Shades of Jean Grey.
• I outed a long-closeted DC character.
• What If Taylor Swift Lived in the Marvel Universe?

Now is the time of Blogiversary when we dance do a Ten of a Kind with comic book covers based on the number of years this blog has been around! This is gonna get more difficult around year seventeen, but for now here are Ten Covers About Eight!












(More Ten of a Kind here.)

Before I sign off, let me thank all of your who read my blog and who comment on it, with special laurels tossed onto the lovely heads of mega-commenters Sally P. and Blam, both of whom have commented so many times that their comments add up to a bigger blog than mine is. I'm not certain how they do that, either. Thanks, Sally, Blam, and all! Very special little stuffed hugs go out to all my very supportive pals in The Bureau Chiefs, to Jane Wiedlin and Keira Knightley, to my kid sister Marshall and my pal Shelly the Little Otter Puppet, but 'specially to the Queen o' My Heart, the lovely Randi. Finally, this blog itself would be unpossible without the dandy online reference that is the Grand Comics Database, which helps me research those four-color favorites of yesteryear, provide the credits of each story, and without which "Ten of a Kind" would be a very, very short-lived feature. So thanks y'all, and speaking of Ten of a Kind: don't forget to come back here next year to celebrate my ninth blogiversary when you'll see me posting this comic book cover: