Believe it or not but, since I started this blog in September 2007, this makes for my hundredth entry! Perhaps a paltry number when you consider that I first started contributing to comics fanzines over twenty-five years ago, but still something worth bragging about! After upgrading to the blog format from a badly copied (and still-worse distributed) paper fanzine, I have actually surprised myself how well I’ve managed to keep it up! A quick calculation suggests that I have averaged slightly more than three posts a month. While some of these have admittedly been short comments or updates, I’m confident that the majority have been more substantial fare.
(In fact I consider one of this blog’s failings to date is that some entries have been too long... at least to be wieldy for the blog format, giving even the most dedicated reader scroller’s cramp. Though in the past I’ve normally chopped these into parts, that always felt somewhat inelegant and I am working on a better and more long-term solution to this... honest, guv!)
And while life has intervened and I’ve often been slower than I intended in getting things down, I can think of only one occasion where I’ve specifically promised something then later had to admit to myself it would never appear. (And a no-prize to anyone who manages to find what I’m talking about there!)
I will confess to treating this blog as a complete indulgence, using it as an excuse to sound off about whatever was in my head at any one time. From Seventies girls’ comics to experimental music festivals, from auto-destructive art to ancient history... such is its eclecticism that I fully expect that the only person interested in all of it was me. I’m sure the readership levels would be higher if it was about something more specific. (Though they aren’t actually as low as the persistent lack of comments might suggest!)
Of course the ‘solution’ here is just to read the bits you feel like reading. In some ways this was something better served by a paper fanzine format. The reader would thumb through it, more naturally stopping only on the bits that interested him or her. On the other hand, dipping in and out is pretty much the way I read other people’s blogs. (There are bloggers I read almost everything by, but they’re the exception rather than the rule.) The dashboard page on my blogger account tells me which of the blogs I’m following has been updated, then I decide which among them I actually want to read. And of course there’s nothing to stop someone opening a blog account (it’s free and easy) just to access that facility. Nor does it limit you to following accounts only in the blogger platform.
The main downside I’ve found of keeping this blog is that it has definitely slowed down my comics creation. The last time I brought out a comic was so long ago I’m not even going to say the date here, but as a clue the cover price was a penny farthing. I spent the last year only intermittently in work, but even that didn’t seem to conjure up enough hours to comfortably stay on top of both. This is partly because looking for a job can be so ***$$$$***ing time consuming in itself, but also because of another secret project... one I’m not letting on about yet! I still consider comics creation to be the primary thing I do, even if I haven’t really had the evidence to back that up lately. Nevertheless, if I had made so crass a thing as a New Year’s resolution, it would be to somehow combine maintaining both.
There’s detailed masterplan for the future of this blog all laid out in Microsoft Project, which mostly reduces to ‘more of the same’. As I make most of it up as I go along, the truth is I can say little else. Perhaps the obvious next post would be on Joe Strummer’s pre-Clash outfit the 101ers, but almost certainly won’t be. I still hold to the idea of writing a series on my top fifty favourite albums. As I have only managed a mighty two so far I’m not sure whether I’ll ever get to the magic fifty, but more of those are planned. I’ve also plans for more comics stuff. (Currently, the casual reader might be forgiven for thinking I don’t read comics any more.) But mostly I’ve got a whole slew of entries planned on quite another topic. (Well, strictly speaking two topics which are kind of related!) About which I’m saying nothing for now in case I curse it!
As they say, watch this space...
Coming next! Will the revolution be paperised?
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