Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Return to Comics: There is Another

From the excellent Return To Comics:

I’m always adding new blogs to my blogroll and one notable addition is Zilla’s Journal of a Comics Addict. Zilla has recently returned to comics after a 15 year layoff and as such is viewing things from a similar remove to my own. Do I detect a trend? If anyone is aware of any other bloggers with a similar story let me know. We’ll start a club, with meetings and secret handshakes and stuff. I won’t be able to make the meetings -- cause I’m real busy -- but I’ll provide moral support and maybe send along some of my wife’s brownies.

Well, here's yet another. I enjoy both secret handshakes and brownies.

I've been slowly creeping back into comics for the past couple of months, starting with a hardcover collection or two and escalating from there. I just made the jump to weekly trips to the comic ship, and setting up a subscription with the excellent mailordercomics.com. I write reviews and blogs over at my internet home, OperationSports.com and decided that perhaps I could expand beyond sports gaming, and join the club of Comics' Prodigal Sons.

I've only been gone a little over 5 years, so I'm hoping I qualify. I wonder if this is a trend outside of the blogging world? Are other people in their 30s returning to comics? Are the "new readers" that are so coveted in the industry turning out to be a lot of retreads with children, mortgages, and greying hair?

Though I know some of the current creators, it's largely a whole new world. Mark Millar was writing Superman Adventures, and Brian Bendis was an indie crime-writer, and Geoff Johns was doing Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., I think. Now these guys are basically running Marvel/DC.

And the face of comics on the Internet is a whole different cat. I remember posting quite a lot on rec.arts.comics.* in what were the grand old days of USENET. Now the conversation has increasingly turned to message boards and blogs. Luckily, I found Millarworld, which seems to be one of the lone comics discussions that features both traffic and intelligence. Though if there are other boards I should check out, please let me know.

5 comments:

Mark Fossen said...

Done!

What a great site! Do you have a RSS feed available for us Bloglines addicts?

Brian Cronin said...

I don't know if I would necessarily RECOMMEND it (as these things are generally a matter of personal taste), but I moderate a few of the boards at the Comic Book Resources forums (http://forums.comicbookresources.com)...and since I rock verily, that's SOMEthing, isn't it?

Mark Fossen said...

Thanks! I'll check it out. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of forums, but that probably just takes some getting used to.

And in general, as a board mod myself ... mods that rock verily = boards that rock verily.

Jason said...

Hey, mark, I bet you that in one year from now you'll title your anniversary post "Blogoversary, Ho!" I don't know why - I don't know you - you just seem like that kind of guy.

Well, good luck with the blog and all.

Mark Fossen said...

I don't know you, either, Mr. Rodriguez.

Yet my future-seeing skills see you working with Harvey Pekar in the near future.

Really.