Congrats to ADDTF for one solid year of reading comics naked.

Also, welcome back ADD and In Sequence.

Did I miss anyone?

 
Left The Building



I started this blog a little over a year ago. I was a moderator of a comics forum, and became disillusioned with message boarding, but was looking for another outlet to share my passion. At the same time, on the same site, a series of connected blogs were being deactivated due to disinterest. One person suggested that if the community decided to try its hand at blogging again, it should be more focussed, with each blogger tackling a specific topic. From these two events, I decided to start a comics blog.

At the time, I wasn't aware of other comics blogs (apologies to Neilalien), and I seem to have come in at the same time that comics blogging was picking up speed ( Happy Birthday, Journalista!). I set a goal of posting once a week for a year. I didn't quite get the weekly thing down, but I made up for it on some weeks, so I think I did alright. My hope was to expose some of the hidden treasures in comics (all of comics, not just comic books) to people who may be interested in such things. I didn't care about converting people into comics, but to remind people that odds are they already read comics, and just didn't realize it. I don't think comics needs saving. We just have to remember how many comics there are out there, past and present, that don't fit into our limited view of the medium.

I'm as guilty of this as anyone. In fact, with my limited writing skills, my inability to stick to deadlines and a slippery grasp on history, I'd say I was possibly the worst person to start this blog, but I figured someone had to. Now that a year has passed, and I see so many incredible blogs that have started up since, or blogs I wasn't aware of when I started, I feel redundant. This isn't a bad thing.

The course I'm taking has become twice as hard as the last year. I just wrote my mom and brother for the first time in two weeks, I've received at least three emails asking me if I'm still alive, and there hasn't been a week since school starts that I haven't had to pull at least one all-nighter. Considering I barely passed last year, something, or multiple somethings, had to give. I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining. I'll be a better artist at the end of it, and hopefully that will come through in future projects.

I can say with all honesty that nobody benefitted from this blog more than I did. I've learned more about the medium and its history over the past year than all the other years of my life combined. Maybe sometime in the future, when the dust has settled, I'll restart the blog or take up one of the offers I've had to run a column. I would really enjoy that. Until then, I'd hate to leave you hanging.

I'd like to thank all the people who have popped in to check out my meanderings. I hope you took something away from your visit, and I appreciate your patronage more than you know. To the majority of my audience, my fellow bloggers, thanks for letting me swipe your scoops, and I hope you had ample opportunity snagging mine. Have no doubt that I'll still be popping in to read what you have to say.

Postscript - Thanks to David, Bill, Teresa, Neilalien, Johnny, Dirk and, er, Bill for all the kind words. You're already making me miss the Comics Blogosphere 2 : Electric Bugaloo.
posted by Steven at 1:19 AM