Sunday, April 25, 2010

New Blog: Power of the Atom

Howdy "Silver Age Sunday" and other fans. If you've been by in the past week or so, you've noticed a new look and title for the former "Atom: The Mighty Mite" blog. As you may recall, this blog was created as a stand in for Damian Maffei's The Tiny Titan to take part in the yet unfinished Crisis On Earth-Blog: The DC Challenge multi-blog crossover last January. I rather faithfully reconstructed (with Damian's consent) the old site, down to the layout and out of date links. I'd also tried to write in Damian's style, which I never achieved, but it did help break me out of the more cool, dry voice I'd developed for my Martian Manhunter blog. The similarity between the two blogs caused a bit of confusion, and has inhibited me from trying new things here, so I decided it was finally time to make this place my own companion/continuation rather than a botched clone.

The new banner isn't the easiest to read, isn't as cool as Damian's, and has some rough "lettering" by yours truly, but it'll keep for a while. Some folks really dig it, and I don't have time to start over or apply major tweaks. The actual "ATOM" logo was an unused Rian Hughes piece that evolved into the one sported on The All-New Atom series starring Ryan Choi. I dig that retro vibe, and wanted something that would be easily distinguishable from the classic logo Damian employed.

The new blog name came from the 1980s Power of the Atom series, which had a logo font even creator Todd Klein finds boring today, which is why I went a different way. It might come into use at a later date, though.

I hope folks like the new layout and colors. I experimented with colored backgrounds and text, but when you're playing with reds and blues, it can get to be quite a pain in the eyes. I also like a certain uniformity between my super-hero blogs, including the sidebar links, 400 px wide standard images, and so forth found at the Manhunter and Justice League Detroit blogs. Suggestions and criticisms are welcomed.

As for "Silver Age Sunday," well, that's going to see some changes, I'm afraid. I want to sync up coverage between my three main hero blogs, and since the Atom's series doesn't tie into the Manhuhunter's Justice League of America coverage until fourteen issues in, I've got some serious catching up to do on that blog. In the meantime, I'll still offer roughly bi-weekly write-ups of the Atom series up until #4 (where everything would sync up,) aided by the book's bifurcated format (usually two stories per issue.) I'll also be bringing back Bronze Age coverage with the Sword of the Atom series, as well as more varied posting subjects to launch this May.

Between now and then, my posting will be erratic, as I have a couple of tests coming up that I must study for. I just wanted to give ya'll a head's-up in the meantime, and the knowledge I'll have something (a Sword probably) for ya'll between now and then...

2 comments:

LissBirds said...

I rather like the banner. It's pretty dynamic lettering!

Diabolu Frank said...

Yeah, the unused Atom logo is cool and retro. My "Power of" add-on is the crumby part, but I've given up on ever taking the time to pretty it up. Besides, I'll eventually have an alternate banner or two, since there are characters I inherited from Damian to cover, and others I'll add myself. I've got to get the one guy appearing regularly first, though.

I'm glad you commented. Amidst the design changes, I forgot to do away with word verification and switch to a pop-up window like my other blogs. I like this much better!