All posts by Eric Robert Nolan

Eric Robert Nolan graduated from Mary Washington College in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. He spent several years a news reporter and editorial writer for the Culpeper Star Exponent in Culpeper, Virginia. His work has also appeared on the front pages of numerous newspapers in Virginia, including The Free Lance – Star and The Daily Progress. Eric entered the field of philanthropy in 1996, as a grant writer for nonprofit healthcare organizations. Eric’s poetry has been featured by Dead Beats Literary Blog, Dagda Publishing, The International War Veterans’ Poetry Archive, and elsewhere. His poetry will also be published by Illumen Magazine in its Spring 2014 issue.

Cover to “Batman: The Court of Owls Saga (DC Essential Edition),” Greg Capullo, 2018

DC Comics.

Cover to “24: Stories,” 2005

IDW Publishing.

Throwback Thursday: “Gloria” (1984)

I think we can all agree that “Gloria” is the least remembered of the “All in the Family” sequels. It ran for a single season on CBS in 1984. I seem to remember it leaning a little too far into melodrama, and too little into the over-the-top antics of “Archie Bunker.” (Nobody I knew ever called “All in the Family” by its proper title back in the day; the kids just called the show “Archie Bunker.”)

Anyway, the opening theme here is such an odd little 80’s chestnut that I couldn’t resist sharing it.



Variant Cover to “Daredevil: Unleash Hell” #1, Joshua “Sway” Swaby, 2025

Marvel Comics.

Critterwatch 2026, Continued.

Critters spotted:

  1. house finches
  2. robins
  3. ravens (they are seriously large birds, people, holy shit)
  4. sparrows (the kind with the striped faces, passer domesticus)
  5. northern mockingbirds (the kind with those little white racing stripes on the wings)
  6. the giant, creepy-ass turkey vultures are back! (Or, at least one was.)
  7. giant grasshoppers! (Probably Melanoplus differentialis.)
  8. ugh, earwigs
  9. green lacewings, which are actually really pretty insects


“Vulture,” Antoine-Louis Barye, 19th Century

Cover to “Haunt: The Complete Collection,” Todd McFarlane, 2025

Image Comics.

Giant Grasshopper!!!

For a minute, I thought this was the “Beginning of the End!”

Nah, it was just a larger differential grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis).

Illustration of a Finch from “A Monograph of the Weaver-Birds, Ploceidae, and Arboreal and Terrestrial finches, Fringillidae,” 1888

The artist’s signature reads “F.W.F.”

On Memorial Day, we remember the fallen.

And we are grateful to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Photo credit: Tom McClintock, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons