Year 1: the rearview mirror
How this blog came to be
Today's post represents attainment of a personal goal that, while perhaps small, nonetheless represents a lot to me. Due to a variety of factors, exactly one year ago I decided I needed a project of some kind over which I would exercise total creative control. Since I'd always enjoyed superheroes, that something wound up being the blog you're reading.I knew when I started that gaining attention would be difficult. There were (and still are) a lot of comic blogs and websites out there. In seeking to find a relatively under-served niche, I started thinking about what most of those blogs seemed to be doing, and asked myself, "What would I want to do differently?"
It struck me then--and still does--that most of the others heavily emphasize either: (1) supposed "behind-the-scenes" histories of particular artists, writers, etc. in the industry; or (2) up-to-the-minute industry news. I wasn't that interested in the former category--at least not enough to devote the majority of my scarce research/reading time to looking up biographical facts. Similarly, I don't care for most of what I've seen turned out from the "major" publishers since about 1989, so trying to go the "up-to-the-minute" route seemed a waste of time that would only leave me frustrated in the end.
So what did I care about?
In-depth character knowledge
Thanks to sites like The Digital Comic Museum there are a wealth of public domain Golden Age stories available online. Being a child of the 80s, most of these stories are totally new to me. The bulk of my writing pretty quickly became synopses of existing stories. Thus far, I've focused on the Golden Age adventures of Midnight, a hero I always thought looked cool...but didn't really know much about.Original fiction
In July I introduced a regular Friday post I called "Fiction Foundry." The idea was to give myself an outlet to try writing my own superhero fiction. While it's been fun, it's also been very slow-going...and frankly, it just hasn't generated much interest from readers. While I will continue to do my own writing, the specific form this will take will be changing in the blog's second year.Web comic reviews
One of my goals was to provide some additional free publicity for good web comics I run across. I think this is needed because, frankly, there is a whole lot of junk out there. (I suppose it's the necessary curse that goes with the blessing of lowered publishing barriers).To help enhance the objectivity of an inherently subjective activity, I instituted a rubric reflecting 8 vectors of value that are particularly important to me. It represents the kind of information I really like to know before devoting time to a story, so I thought others might appreciate it as well.
While I've not necessarily gotten a whole lot of views for those posts, they are the ones that have generated the most comment from readers. Bottom line, I still think they're worth it. I'm going to attempt to get more reviews posted in the next year.
Bi-weekly posting
I guess everyone who starts blogging regularly learns a few things about themselves along the way. One of the most important is to get a realistic perspective of how much writing you can produce how consistently. After a year of floating between one and three posts per week, I finally settled into a twice-a-week pattern that seemed to fit pretty well with my other obligations in life.Year 2: the crystal ball
Bye bye "Fiction Foundry"; Hello "Friday Fights"
Fridays will no longer be devoted to the "fiction foundry" series. Instead, I'll be trying out a speculative series that will (hopefully) be fun an interactive (hint, hint!). I'm tentatively calling it, "Friday Night Fights." The basic idea is that each week, we'll conduct a "Who would win?" poll for two specific characters, as they are depicted in specific stories and within a given setting. At the end of the week, we'll tally the votes (or if there are none, I'll just pick a winner and attempt to justify my decision), and declare a winner! They'll then advance to the next round.Friday Fights will be a true multiverse. We'll be dealing with open source characters, Golden Age public domains, Marvel and DC properties, independent characters, etc...so now's the time to unlock your inner fanboy/fangirl. Your favorite characters (and their creators/owners) are counting on you. Don't let 'em down!
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