BW: Year Two

Two years ago yesterday BW Media Spotlight. Now almost getting 200 views a day (not quite, but I’m in the high 100’s), I may be closer to my goals. I just need to actually sit in front of the art desk and make some comics besides a mediocre commentary strip.

I’ve learned a few things in this time. For one, waaaaaaaaaay too many people are interested in Incredibles and Ben 10 porn. Seriously, some of the stuff that shows up in my stats scare me. Also, some spambots are incredibly stupid, or at least think I am. Some of the things they think will trick me are insulting and show they now have learned to grab a category title at random. It’s pathetic, but funny.

So what happened in the past year? I got to meet an internet celebrity in person, started a few new article series, mourned the virtual demise of my favorite comic universe, and lost time a few days after the last anniversary because waking up in the morning covered in hives with your face imploding is a freaky sensation. (I’m still not sure what I was allergic to, or if something I was taking didn’t connect with something else I was taking.)

I also spent three whole days at a convention, including the first time I stayed in a hotel room by myself. I learned things from that, too, so I guess this has been my year of learning experiences. But enough rambling. Let’s see what I consider some of my best posts this year and what you can look forward to next year.

from November

• BW: Year One: I actually started one of the article series I listed there. With one entry.
• Clash of the Titans Remade: Why, Zeus, Why?: Wow, even I didn’t know they were going to screw it up as badly as they did. Told you they needed a clockwork owl.
• The Best Super Mario World Game EVER!: I hope they’re still married.

from December

• Now That You Love Them, They Must DIE!: Where I bemoan the fact that they finally do what I’ve been begging them to do for years–make a bad character good–just to kill them off. LAME!
• The Fight I Missed: Where I go over the medical issue that put me on the sidelines and attempt to draw a comic in someone else’s style.
• Feed That World…but fix that line!: Not my least favorite Christmas song, but this article could be considered the precursor for “Sing Me A Story”.
• The Best Surmising of DC’s View of Character Death: If only we had known how far they were going to take that.

from January

• Speed Force-d Out: Apparently Barry Allen’s death didn’t build anyone’s character–to the current DC crew.
• How the FCC Killed Saturday Morning: With a little help from their clueless friends. Link to the most informative Toon Zone article I’ve read yet.

from February

• Marvel Lightens Up…or does it?: Calling the Heroic Age before it even came out.
• U-Con @ UConn: That Guy Panel: Or I met a celebrity and didn’t make a total fool of myself. Only 10% fool–GO ME!
• I Protest!: Sometimes you just can’t help yourself.

from March

• Watchmen lost to THIS movie?: I’m still having trouble believing it.
• The “Death of DC” set: DC was my favorite universe, so deciding that it was essentially dead to me was very hard. That’s why it took three articles to mourn its loss. In part 1 I went over why it the preferred universe. In part 2 we go after the end of the supporting cast and the cheap use of death. In part 3 even the cities are razed.
• The Only Thing I Know and Building a Better Gamer: These are two videos I only posted and had no hand in making. However, it is good to see that gamers are trying to bypass their stereotype. Now if the critics would follow suit… Also check out this follow-up with the two commentators.

from April

• Why I Make Such A Big Deal About The Spider-Marriage: Self-explanatory.

from May

• Anime: The Sub Vs. Dub Debate: Which is better? That’s up to the viewer. However, allow me to defend the dub side.
• Race & The Legacy Character and Legacy Vs. Race: The Fallout Continues: Chris Sims is usually known for his comics-based humor. However, one article took an introspective look at how the destruction of the legacy character in favor of the ones the folks in charge grew up with (notably Green Lantern, the Flash, and the Atom) is killing off the racial diversity they were gimmicked up for in the first place. It took the internet and comics blogosphere by storm.
• Sentry still controversial after death: Someone at Marvel thought the best way to “save” the Sentry as a character was to have him cheat on his wife with Rogue. in addition to all the horrible things he did for Norman Osborne. Oh, and apparently he made everyone better heroes in the Marvel Universe.
• Comics and the price issue: Where I use independent comics to question the price hike in the big name comics.

from June

• A Total Lack of Spider-Sense: Researching one Spidey movie reboot article led me to another thing to rant about.
• The Last Phantom…comic I’ll buy: How Alex Ross screwed up The Ghost Who Walks. Surprisingly, I got a whole bunch of hits from that these past two days.
• The Superman comic that wasn’t: A Saturday Night Showcase every Superman fan should read (and the comic I link to). This could have changed everything we know about the Superman universe decades ago.

from July

• Isn’t That Like A Wonder Woman? Not Really: I may be more disappointed with what JMS did with Superman, but that doesn’t mean I can’t point out how bad Wonder Woman gets it.
• Peter Parker’s next “day”: “One More Day” the arc is over, but the fallout remains. Now we may be losing Spider-Man?
• My Thoughts on ConnectiConners: My first full-event convention experience was very inspiring. Not that you’ll see me cosplaying anytime soon. 🙂
• Interviews from ConnectiCon: Here’s something you don’t see on a Saturday Night Showcase–content I made. It’s not very good, but consider checking these people out.
• Superhero fashion statements: I’ve been putting some old posts in the “anyone with an account gets one” blog at That Guy With The Glasses.com in the hopes that if “Inked Reality” gets its own blogs I may get a writing gig for it, and I had to include my defense of capes and the lack of costumes in so-called superhero live-action shows.

from August:

• Hey Kids? No Superheroes For You: Kids, a great comic, and one of my favorite writer/artist teams get the shaft by Johnny DC’s bosses.
• Art & Story all-ages debate: An episode of the Art & Story podcast leads to an article about what all-ages comics are and their place on the comic shelves.
• Sing Me A Story: Mack The Knife: This is an article I wanted to do before I even have a blog, as I put a classic song…under the knife? 😛
• No More Watchmen, Please: or John Byrne slams Alan Moore.
• The longest “six days” in gaming history”: I actually find a way to combine video game critics, the war in Afghanistan, and a Real Doll in the same article. That’s talent!
• Chapter by Chapter: Another new article series, where I review a novel one chapter at a time. Feel free to read along. Do it quick, the next edition’s tomorrow. 🙂

from September:

• The Furman Files: prologue: I’m hoping to have the next one done this month, before Christmas takes over the spotlight. This is a brief overview of my issues with Transformers go-to scribe Simon Furman.
• Mary Jane pulls a Leslie Thompkins: The destruction of Mary Jane Watson-Parker continues.
• Wildstorm goes bye-bye: DC’s poor treatment of imprints.

from October:

• Get Your Own Revelation!: Why should I bother writing for Superman when anything I write will be pushed aside by the next guy?
• Commercials That Need To Die: Another new article series starts by saying that even if I could eat Slim Jims I wouldn’t because the ads suck so darn hard.

And that’s BW Year Two. I’ve also had creators of the stuff I reviewed pop up to say hi or defend themselves. So what’s in the future? Once the holidays are over I’m throwing myself into the Ninja Ballerina test comic and I have a couple of other projects I let myself be a part of which you’ll see here. I still want to do that “How I’d Run DC” article but I’m so disenchanted with DC these days I don’t really have the desire to work on it. Still, I would like to thank those readers who have been hanging around for a while and hope to bring more interesting content in the future as I continue to explore all forms of storytelling (as long as I have an interest, sorry plays and operas) in my quest to become a storyteller myself.

Related Articles

• Jake & Leon: Year One (bwmedia.wordpress.com)

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