Goodbye and Hello – Part 1 of 1 – The Blog in Review

The Legend 

So I’m bailing, retiring, calling it quits, cashing in my chips, taking my ball and going home. Well only in one respect. I’m saying goodbye to any posting schedule. After almost seven years I feel it is time to move away from deadlines.

My reasons are varied. First off the amount of time I put into my weekly post at times is enormous. I get my books on Thursday and try to have at least two posts done and loaded by Sunday. Almost every post I do is around 1200 words on the short side and often 2000 on the long side. I have had some weeks where I have produced over 4000 words. Of course with self editing it leads to many run on sentences and some unintentional grammatical errors. I say unintentional because I try to keep my post more conversational, which often means the nuances of perfect grammar and sentence structure go out the window. I’m not an English major by any stretch but I also don’t worry about being a grammarian when spewing out my opinions on a blog. So with doing all of that, finding pictures to punctuate the post it can takes me many hours to pull the post together. That takes away from time with my wife, prose reading, catching up with my real job and or just drinking a beer and lounging in the sun.

Second I have certain themes and have hammered them 14 quadrillion times. At times any consistent reader (both of you) knows what I think of a book before I even hit my fingers to the keyboard.  The ideas that true growth and change will happen with any character is something that I’m rational enough to know it is never going to happen. Marvel and DC are run by corporations who only see the value in marketing the same character forever to each new generation. The type of change I’m looking for would only happen if the bottom drops out and they get desperate. We got very close when Grant put Dick Grayson in the Batman costume. It revived the entire Batman line and then it was all flipped with the new DCU. Plus Grant was only allowed to kill Bruce Wayne because he was brining him back. Today I find more enjoyment in reading the Wild Blue Yonder #1 this week then yet another Animal Man story. Even with Jeff Lemire doing a good job on the book I know it can all be flipped in a heartbeat with a new writer. In series like Sex, Bounce, The Answer, Mara, Ten Grand, Red Team and other books we get stories with beginnings, middles and ends. It is never going to happen with the big two. I got locked into wanting this because I got hooked on comics in the early sixties when the Marvel characters were constantly changing and growing. Having nothing to lose made them bold and the characters had no intrinsic value at that time. Success ended all of that.

Third is that since I do the regular posts I feel I have less time for spontaneous posts. Last Tuesday I got ticked off at DC and ran off a rant. I want to write when the muse strikes me or at least inspires me, I don’t need anyone striking me. The week in review is also all about reacting to something and not actually talking about ideas that are being presented in some books. Doing post more when I feel like will hopefully make the posts have a little more pizzazz. Also I think I will feel more comfortable in shooting off a short 200 word missive and not worry about making each post feel substantial.

Now this does not mean I’m gone, regardless of whether the rest of the crew follow suit the blog is not being deleted. I plan to post from time to time as something inspires me to write or I have some time. I think following is the best bet or check in from time to time, but daily maybe a thing of the past for us.

Before I sign off on this post I want to thank Matthew, Thomm, Gwen, Greg, Shawn and a few others for all of their efforts and work to keep this blog have at least a new post everyday for the better part of seven years. I have had the chance to interview people, make some new internet friends, build some relationships and in general have a blast.

Of course the biggest thanks goes out to Lee. When I started the blog I could have never maintained the daily pace I set for myself for very long. Lee joined me shortly after the blog started and has been there almost from the jump. Eventually I turned management of the blog over to him and he has been running it ever since. Lee has cost me way too much money with original art, but it has been a blast working with Lee all these years and I’m happy to call the Patriot, Boston Red Sox loving bastard my friend.

Of course thanks to all of the people who we interviewed and to all the readers.

I’ll be back, just not on a schedule.