One Year Birthday of Comics And... - The Blog

It is hard to believe that it has been a year since I started this blog. In order to mark the occasion Lee suggested that each one of us write down our thoughts and provide a link to the first post. As each of us have adopted a "color" when posting together we start with Gwen, Lee and end with me.

I started blogging before my Dad did - he's managed to keep up with it much more than I have. I had to stop doing posts when I went back to school and it's nice to know that if I get the urge to write something I have this blog to do it on. The pressure to keep updating my own became too much.

I believe the first real post I did was http://comicsand.blogspot.com/2007/01/mordru-v-bubonicus-pt-2.html which was really written in response to Lee's crazy idea that Bubonicus was cooler than Mordru - and man did I show him ;) I really enjoyed doing this post and as I had already done 100+ posts on my own blog I had already had my learning curve. It was fun to get good use out of my new scanner though.

My Dad's been wanting me to take over a permanent post slot for awhile and I may be able to do that this semester, I just need to see how intense my course schedule is going to be first. I've enjoyed working on the blog and have already been able to do more recently by participating in the DC solicitations. We've had Red 5 Comics ask us to do reviews which was exciting and we've even had creators stop by the site to offer thanks for the reviews of their books. This has all been a lot of fun and it's been great to get to know Lee and work with my Dad. I think this blog will continue to improve over the next year and I hope to see it reach an even wider audience.

Year End,

Well, it's not really the year end but it's been one year since Jim started this blog. I wasn't there in the beginning and honestly, I don't even remember how I got sucked into this escapade. But, I joined the team in December and my first post was December 28th http://comicsand.blogspot.com/2006/12/day-christmas-went-deaf.html

Rereading that post after all this time, I think it holds up pretty well. Having practiced writing on a weekly basis since then, I would change some of the structure and wording but I am still happy with it. I have to say this past year has really given me a true appreciation of how hard it is to be creative every week. If you think this is easy, I recommend trying to come up with a new topic one a week, little less once a day like Jim does.

There are many, many things I like about the blog including occasionally assisting Jim with his "spel chicken" or pointing out when he forgets to complete a . But, the best thing, it has helped me enjoy my children and savor the little moments that I have with them. This isn't to say that I wouldn't have anyway, but now I am more aware of the silliness that is inherent in parenting. I watch for the crazy things they do and that occur naturally. And, in case I forget, I shall always have a record of their (and my) adventures.

My first post (http://comicsand.blogspot.com/2006/08/i-have-enjoyed-reading-many-other.html) was just a brief introduction, but still speaks volumes to the way I approach new ventures. I usually limit my preconceived notions of what I want something to be and let it grow intuitively into whatever it will become.

I did a little reading on blogs and two main things I learned what in order to have any success with a blog you must have fun with it and try to create new content on a daily basis.

Having fun with it is paramount. While at times it can be a job to make sure something gets posted, it is still about trying to express an opinion or provide a small spotlight onto some subject matter. As comics has been a passion of mine for many, many years the focus on comics is a natural one. I'm also political and have lost faith in the process to a large degree and enjoy the occasional political rant. Even with all of that I quickly found that trying to do a daily post 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year was going to be almost impossible. It was at that point that through means lost to me that I invited Lee, Gwen and Jeff to join in with me. Jeff turned me down and Gwen's schedule has not allowed for her consistent participation, but Lee has been a huge part of any "success" this blog has had. THANKS LEE - from catching my multiple misspellings and trying to save me on all my typos that I miss trying to be my own editor.

What has been so much fun is doing the preview reviews and slowly developing certain thematic pages for certain days. Monday is what I'm getting that week, Tuesday is Best to Worst, Wednesday is Lee's fun looks at raising children (which is great as it always brings back fond memories of raising my two daughters). The preview reviews and reviews of other comics has garnered the blog having contact and making friends with various creators and publishers. The comic community is a great place with a lot of creative and great people in it. As a side note when Lee and I started to do the preview review Lee suggested doing the back and forth as others have done. I think we have developed a nice rhythm in our comments and now adding Gwen into the mix for DC has been fun. Different perspectives (even laced with sarcasm) are a good thing.

Now measuring success is difficult as I have no clue how many people ever glance at the blog, but having had so many different people hit the page tells me we are reaching a wider and wider audience. As time goes by I believe the blog has become a little more poised over time. but still has room for the occasional non sequitur and odd rant or random thoughts.

Finally you start to learn about "html", spacing concerns, adding pictures, adding labels for searching and I believe that we may have to stay static with our opening of "Comics And...The Revolution Starts Here" to make it an easier search.

Thanks to everyone who ever commented or e-mailed us, thanks to Chip Moser, Todd Farmer, Vaneta Rogers, Jeff, Ron, Shawn, Arielle and many others who have been a part of adding their comments and thoughts to the blog.

I hope over the next year to create more of a focus on the independent books and add more reviews of these books as they come out or before they come out to hopefully get more support for the smaller press guys.