Ok, instead of ranting about Nick Spencer and Marvel’s boneheaded, tone-deaf marketing decisions, I’m going to talk about some awesome things.

I recently received a new Clairefontaine My Essential notebook  to review, and I love it.  I’m a big fan of Clairefontaine anyway, they are one of my top three paper brands.  Come on, who doesn’t have top paper brands?  Anyway, the paper is velvety and smooth.  The My Essential has a sewn binding, and a textured cardstock cover with pockets front and back.  It has page numbers and several pages up front for a table of contents. This thing is begging to be a bullet journal.

The My Essential takes the ink from a wide variety of pens beautifully.  I have used my Namiki Retractable Fountain pens, fine and extra fine, on it with no feathering or bleeding.  I have also used a Tomboy rollerball pen with a fine point, and a Campus extra fine rollerball on it with no bleeding, feathering, or in the case of the Campus pen, occluding the teeny, needle sharp tip.

I would probably have recommended this notebook regardless, because Clairefontaine.  But the texture and quality of the paper are above and beyond even for them.  I really enjoy working with it.

Next up is something I mentioned above, the Namiki Vanishing Point  retractable fountain pen.  I have one in Fine and one in Extra Fine point.  Namiki bought Pilot several years ago, and have blended their brands.  Many folks refer to this pen as a Namiki-Pilot Vanishing Point.

It is currently the only retractable fountain pen on the market, and at its cheapest costs over $100.  The first one I received as a gift.  The second I bought to celebrate the successful completion of a certification.  The Namiki nibs write smoothly, even in Extra Fine, and being able to retract the fountain pen is a lot easier than dealing with removable caps and lids.

There is a downside.  While the click button mechanism is fairly stiff by design, I have damaged both of my pens by dropping them and having them click open, damaging the points.  At least one of them I had to ship to Pilot for repairs and they did do the repair free of charge.  But this is a thing that can happen.

Overall I really enjoy the Namiki Vanishing Point.   Honestly, I do have a tendency to proselytize a lot of Pilot/Namiki’s products.  I really like their Metropolitan fountain pens, as well.

So there’s my happy things post to offset the spike in blood pressure every new press release from Marvel has caused over the last month.

If anyone wants to talk fountain pens at length, hit me up.  I can talk about them for HOURS.

If you like what you read here, please visit my Patreon.  Funds there pay for domains, and for stuff for me to review.  Also, soon for my Patrons a video blog called “Mickey Counts Down” will be coming soon.