BW: Year One

One year ago today, I started the BW Media Spotlight. Defending Spawn (or at least part of it, it’s still a series that is violent and Biblically inaccurate) is probably an odd choice, but for some reason that’s what I went with. While juggling themes the first few months until I found one I really liked most of the features of (which didn’t happen until “Vigilance” came out for WordPress.com), you can still see in the first few postings that was still figuring out how the site works. I still haven’t “fixed” anything, since it’s interesting to see where I’ve been.

However, I set a few goals in that post, and since I seem to be required to bring up the site anniversary (even though my old Transformers site ran longer, even if this has more content–I should do something with that site), I thought I’d see how far I’ve come in a year, even if I don’t have huge numbers of readers just yet.

To be honest, the main reason for starting a blog was because I realized that I was taking up way too much comment space on other people’s blogs. I could have used the blog MySpace gives you, but I’m barely on there, especially these days. (And don’t think I haven’t noticed that I use “especially” a lot.) So while one or two posts have inspired more than one paragraph of comment, it’s easier to just write an article about them.

So, I was supposed to have a comic going this year. That didn’t happen, unless you count the Jake and Leon strips I’ve been using to open my weekly comic reviews. I couldn’t think of a decent way to open the reviews every week, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. On the other hand, I have improved my art style quite a bit, so there is that. And now that I have a somewhat decent “art section” here in the Attic HQ, things are looking up. I still have a ways to go. I did try opening a space on Comic Space, sort of a MySpace for independent publishers and freelance comic makers, but I can’t seem to get an activation e-mail from the site, and no word back from the support section, either. I’ll keep you posted.

A lot of the first year was just me trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Saturday Night Galactica (which even for my numbers nobody read) became Saturday Night Theater which is now Saturday Night Showcase. Personally, I like having at least one article a week that I know will be positive, and trying to screencap a show off of Hulu is a pain when you can’t pause without a big symbol in the way. I started a few article series like Scanning My Collection, which I swear will someday be more than my comics. Honest. I joined the Friday Night Fights because it’s fun and a little promotion can’t hurt. (I just wish we had more people taking part and voting.) I even got to push some Christmas stuff, which I plan to do again this year.

On the other hand, some series just died. OK, just one, the Weekly–then Monthly Pull List. I opted for a sidebar listing instead because it was easier, and gave me more time for other stuff. Then there was the aforementioned theme juggling, trying to find the right layout for the site. There are still a couple of features I wish Vigilance had, like being able to scroll through the articles easier, but for the most part I’ll stick with it until a better theme comes along. I do, however, want to tweak my banner a bit.

So what other plans do I have for the site? Well, I want to fix my sidebar. As of this writing, we lost Comic Coverage, so the RSS feed is taking up room, but I’ll probably move it to the “other blogs” list because it’s still a good resource source. I may also add a site that actually added me to their RSS feed, Crisis on Earth Prime. I usually only catch it on the Friday Night Fights, but any fan of Tangent Joker can’t be all bad. (I just wish he had the site name instead of my screenname.) Still, give it a look see.

There are also a few other series l’d like to start. How I’d Run The DC Universe isn’t about me “saving” anything, since I have little experience in the comic industry. It’s more about me than them, explaining what I’d wish they were doing. If I were in charge, the place would be out of business in no time, I think. The Furman Files I teased about in my review of Transformers: The War Within – The Dark Ages, and will go through what things Furman has done with the Transformers license over the years that bugs me. Again, it’s more about me and my tastes, but also a few things I want to get off my chest, which is what the blog is about. (And what blog isn’t, really.)  Finally, Lost in Adaptation (because everyone seems to love to parody that movie title–a movie I haven’t seen, mind you) will look at how a certain property handles moving to another format, like video games and comics being adapted into novels, shows, movie, and each other among other formats and vice versa. I might come up with others.

Finally, I want to have a section of the site with a huge amount of links for favored sites in key site-related areas, including a list of kid-friendly comics, webcomics, and TV web shows for the benefit of parents. That I’ll probably do slowly over time, since I’ll also have to maintain it.

So I guess I’m supposed to end these “Anniversary” posts with a list of favorite posts over the past year. OK, already did the War Within review and the first post. So what else do we have?

• “Someone Doesn’t Think Tony The Tiger’s So Grrrrrrrreat!“: I’m all for teaching kids better nutrition, but why blame a lovable tiger?
• “Didio confuses me“: You know, I could write this word for word today and it would still fit? Except for the fact that the “Milestone” characters pretty much got the shaft. Except Static because the cartoon made him famous and junk. But where’s Gear?
• “Saturday Night Galactica #1“: I actually did later make a logo for it. Still nobody interested. At least I didn’t have to make my self watch the “re-imagined” version anymore, which I planned to after getting through the original and Galactica 1980.
• “The War On Saturday Morning“: I remember when Saturday morning was the best part of the week for TV watching. No soaps to get in the way. You could go out after lunch and play out the episodes without worrying about homework. I miss you, Saturday morning.
• “Mary Jane vs the timeline“: I could do a whole series on just why “Brand New Day” bugs me at Marvel, but my main argument comes not from the story but the people behind it.
• “Transformers: The Final Battle That Wasn’t“: My very first Friday Night Fight, and the first of many appearances of Shockwave, leading to the joke in the current “Feet of Fury” tournament.
• “It’s Not About The Shoes“: I defend the song Christmas Shoes from a storytelling and spiritual perspective. The original commenter has taken his video down. He fears me. Or not.
• “The One “Carol” to Rule Them All“: I still want to find this version, but I don’t think it was the one in the now-taken-down video. As a side note, I may go see the CGI one coming out this year. I’ll review it if I do.
• “Millar felled by Crohn’s meds“: I wish I had more to brag about sharing with celebrity than Crohn’s Disease.
• The Eric Larson Set: I’m not into The Savage Dragon (any comic that features God flipping the bird and swearing as an advertisement isn’t a plus for me), but I do like some of his opinions on how the comic narrative should work. See here and here.
• The “Obama” Triumvirate: Three articles dealing with “Obamamania” in comics lately. In “The Adventures of Obamaman“, I kind of defended it; in “Obama Comic Overload“, I changed my mind; and in “Interracial Relations, the Media, and Obama“, I used it to get into a major pet peeve as to how race relations are depicted, especially (there’s that word again) interracial dating/marriage. By the way, you have heard Dr. King’s speech, right?
• “Not so super heroes“: Remember when superheroes fought supervillains instead of each other and “deconstructing” heroes was an exception rather than the rule?
• “Cliches in the Crosshairs“: Hollywood needs some new shtick.
• “Daft Punk! Oh Yeah!“: OK, a “filler video” not really an article, but come on! DAFT PUNK!
• “Yes Virginia, There Are Wholesome Shows“: A reality check for us critics that there are some good stuff out there still. Just not enough. 🙂
• “Push”ing the Limit“: I still want to see this movie, but one bit of promotional worried me.
• “Transformers: Revenge of the Fandom“: Noteworthy because I ended up hating Revenge of the Fallen. It’s like every complaint I heard (and some I had) about the first movie were the only things left in the second one.
• “The New (Old) Galactica“: Why I stayed away from the new series, and a reflection of why “remakes” bother me as a whole.
• “The 15 Strangest College Courses in America“: I defend bad education choices. Wait…
• “Disney/Pixar Character Stuffed In a Closet“: Sometimes we see what we want to see.
• “Scanning My Collection: Transformers/GIJoe“: My first Scanning My Collection article.
• “This Shouldn’t Happen To a (Virtual) Dog“: A group of college students don’t like watching dogs getting killed in video games. I don’t like it when dogs kill me in video games. But it’s the birds that do the most damage. Five pixels away from the other side of the pit. Stupid birds!
• “Legacy Heroes Under Fire“: Eric Rupe of The Weekly Crisis and I disagree about the fate of Green Lantern and the Flash. It was an interesting debate.
• The worst is the Flash though. Check out “Sometime You’re Better Off Dead“.
• “Now Boots Can Play With Her Again“: Not only another example of critics jumping the gun, but you’d be amazed how many views this still gets a month.
• “Millar’s Superlong Superman Movie“: If you thought Superman Returns was a bad idea…
• “I’ve been X-rayed!“: Proof that I’m being noticed. See also Jeff Katz and Jerzy Drozd making contact with me.
• “Fun With TV Edits: Snakes on a Plane“: I still use “monkey-fighting” and “Monday-To-Friday” plane instead of “m****** f*****” because of this. And I’ve never watched the movie.
• “Peanuts + Archie = Spider-Man“: I design my own action figures based on how Marvel appears to see Spider-Man.
• ConnectiCon 2009: My first convention. I took what pictures my camera would let me, picked up some cool stuff, and found some videos for you.
• “How’s That Live Action Doing, CARTOON Network?”: And how much longer can we call them that?
• Saturday Night Showcase 2-parter: Gojira versus Godzilla: I compared the original Japanese and Raymond Burr-added US version. This is the one I’m most proud of, because it looks like I knew what I was talking about. 🙂
• “Scanning My Collection: Spider-Man And Batman“: My favorite crossover.

Hopefully, year 2 will be better than year 1. See how it takes me to fail miserably. 😀 (Hopefully, that’s a joke.)