ps – guy def give yourself some credit – the mindless crap i post over at zilla’s is embarassing next to some (read: most) of your comic universe writings

Newish comics-oriented mag, kinda wants to be Wizard for the indie/urban market, just relaunched as a “monthly” a couple of months ago. Run by some Latinos out of Miami – which is the embarassing part – and I’m pretty sure Devil’s Due and/or Josh Blaylock have a hand in it.

It’s got a very similar content breakdown to PopCultureShock, with comics, games, music, etc, and a lot of potential that so far has been wasted amidst a horribly dated design (ie: Wired at its excessive 90s worst), fluff interviews, reviews and PR, and an incredible amount of typos. And that’s just the comics coverage. I couldn’t bring myself to read the other stuff.

Erech said: You should totally follow this up with “10 reasons Mary Jane is the hottest chick in comics” though, throw everyone off

My name’s not JD. :-O

Kurt said: Though you’d probably never, ever get a nod from Ellis again.

I’m thinking one nod in a lifetime is enough, lest I risk following Brady and Wieland down the road more traveled! I am aiming for one Scott Pilgrim-type plug in a [Bad Signal] in the next 12 months, though.

Kurt said: I wish I could have a reign of terror. That’s an achievement.

Dude, I’ve reigned terribly before and it’s not all it’s cracked up to be! Right, Stephen?

Donelson said: …the fact that it requires analysis and legwork is exactly why it doesn’t happen.

Very true, both of you. Which is what particularly frustrates me about NEWSarama and CBR, both of whom have their noses so far up—ah, I mean, have all the connections necessary to do real news and yet choose to focus on fluff and co-operative PR for the Big Two. While I believe I have the nose for journalism, and *cue theme music* the passion to use it for good, I don’t have the time do it the way I’d like to. Which frustrates me to no end, especially when something like Lo-Fi comes on the scene and makes me embarassed in ways Wizard never has.

And yes, Kurt, I DO owe you an email. I’ll rectify that this weekend.

Erech said: …or spend a couple days during a month pulling together stuff like this.

Stephen said: If you didn’t have fun writing it you wouldn’t have done it. You would have reviewed X-Factor #1 (which was refreshing).

Actually, that’s what I’m thinking I want to do once things smooth out over at PopCultureShock after the relaunch and all of our contributors are in place and reasonably on schedule. I like doing the reviews, but it’s been a bitch to keep the weekly roundups flush since I stopped writing as many as I used to. The new format, with the shorter reviews, will help once it settles in, and I’m hoping to appoint eventually appoint a Reviews Editor to get that responsibility off my plate.

Writing the Speakeasy piece was a lot osfun, particularly because the puzzle-like nature of it appealed to what Salomé, my wife, has started referring to as my autistic tendencies. Articles like that, I believe, are what will keep me from burning out too soon. They’re also more likely to move me closer to my master plan… Heh heh heh!

As for X-Factor #1, I’m actually planning to review it this week since I thoroughly enjoyed it! Gonna try to work in a Madrox TPB review, too, which I highly recommend!

I then read your colleague’s column from November about John Byrne’s netiquette. While your article has more journalistic integrity, I found her story to be equally compelling. The Byrne piece could be the crown jewel in a future article about the rampant fanaticism & hero worship in this industry.

Point is there’s a time and place for 4,200 word feasts. We don’t need it every week. But I think the comic audience craves journalism. The comic book fan is a reader, a critic, a collector, an artist or an art appreciator. All of those things, to me, describe a person who has the capacity for analysis and who actively analyizes the world and his surroundings (when he’s not daydreaming about how hot Mary Jane is, of course).

Keep writing articles like the Speakeasy one. Besides you liked it. If you didn’t have fun writing it you wouldn’t have done it. You would have reviewed X-Factor #1 (which was refreshing).

And I think you could do the Mary Jane thing in a really serious, journalistic way. Though you’d probably never, ever get a nod from Ellis again.