Goodbye, Cruel Blogosphere

Or:  "In This Issue, A Blog DIES!"

As you can probably guess from the melodramatic titles, this entry marks the end of the blog known as Grotesque Anatomy.  Recently several events (most notably a new job with much more responsibility) have converged to suck away the free time I used to spend on this blog.  I toyed with the idea of keeping the blog going at a much more sporadic pace, but there's something inherently wrong with a blog that only updates irregularly and infrequently (unless the sporadic schedule is in your blog's name, of course).  So I've decided to pull the plug on the blog rather than let it limp along.  I would have liked to have made it to my one year anniversary, but at least I made over a year's worth of posts, according to Blogger's stats.

And just so this isn't a boring "farewell" post if you've come over here from the Comic Weblog Updates page, here are some scattered comic-related items of note:

• Got my first shipment of comics from DCBS and I'm very impressed:  The packaging was very good (all books still in NM/M condition!) and the packing slip not only showed items in the current shipment but also all upcoming/outstanding items from future orders.  As someone who's a bit anal about tracking his orders, I really appreciated this information.

• Included in the shipment were a host of goodies, including We3 #1 (I'm already hooked); Bone, The One Volume Edition (woo-hoo!); New X-Men Volume 3 hardcover (don't spoil it for me!  I still haven't read these issues and I'm really looking forward to Xorn becoming a full-fledged member of the team); the spiffy new Comics Journal (ooo, color ads!); and three, count 'em, three big fat Marvel Essentials (Iron Fist, Daredevil Vol. 2, and Spider-Man Vol. 6), which I think goes to show that one should never preorder when drunk or excessively nostalgic.  (I kid -- I'm really looking forward to these Essentials, especially the Iron Fist one, but also the Spider-Man one, which features art by Ross Andru, who will always be one of my favorite Spider-artists due to my imprinting on him at a very early age).

• Another comics blogger has hung up his hat.  You'll be missed, Sean.  Best of luck at the new gig.

• As one blogger falls, several dozen rise up to take his place.  Welcome to Ed Cunard and his tantalizingly titled "The Low Road" blog.  I expect great, petty things from you, Ed.  Don't let me down.

• Johanna is running a contest to promote Fallen Angel.  If you've been curious about this critically-acclaimed but underordered series, here's your chance to check out the series for FREE.  And in an interesting twist, Johanna has apparently decided to make this contest squid-free.

• Graeme tracks the unorthodox thought processes of Green Lantern fans, as well as the interesting intersections between critic and creator.

• Matt Maxwell spotted a preview of JLA: Classified over on DC' s site.  I'd have to agree with Matt:  Along with Arthur Adams and Frank Cho, Ed McGuniness does a damn fine gorilla.

• Marc Singer is on a roll with two fine posts examining Ron Marz's work on Green Lantern and Brian Michael Bendis' rigorous storytelling tics.

• Jog deserves some sort of medal of comic genius for this riff on Marvel's What If...? series:  "What If The Punisher Became Captain America and Traveled Back in Time to Invent the Printing Press?"

• Otto discovers The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide in a recent trip to Half-Price Books and reviews the collection of reviews.  (I found an earlier version of the book a couple years ago and greatly enjoyed it despite the flaws Otto points out.)

• Steve Pheley just doesn't care, gosh darn it.

• Scott at Polite Dissent reviews the latest issue of She-Hulk, a series I'm greatly looking forward to catching up with in trade paperback.

• Dorian discovers one of the Bat-villains unfortunately left out of "Hush."  Dorian also explains why it's tough to be a Wildcat fan, and in the process reminds me that this was one of my favorite comics growing up:
  
  
  
  
  
  (I'll let the psychology majors in the audience analyze that revelation.)

• David Welsh finds joy in the form of a frog in this week's releases.  (I still have to track down volume 3, dang it.)

• Mike Sterling continues to work his magic.  I don't think I ever had this comic as a kid, but it still brought back pleasant memories of similarly-themed silliness.

• James Schee reviews Rachel Nabors' 18 Revolutions and Will Pfeifer and Jill Thompson's Finals.

• Ken Lowery implements a new family-friendly design for his Ringwood blog.

• Kevin Melrose continues to be the best there is at what he does, even if what he does isn't very pretty, bub.  (Apologies to Chris Claremont.)  Incidentally, Kevin is interviewed by the fabulous Ed Cunard over at Comic World News.

Finally, in a move that inspires more hope in me for the future of comics as an art form than a hundred blog entries by a hundred of the finest bloggers, I just found out that my wife's book club will next be reading Marjane Satrapi's wonderful Persepolis.  I think this is one book club meeting that I'll actually end up attending.  If I have anything to report, I'll post it to the Grotesque Rampage forum, which will continue even though the blog is being shut down.

Finally finally, thanks to everyone who took the time to read this blog over the near-year I wrote it.  I appreciate your comments, criticism, and feedback.  Now go and explore the fresh new blogs populating the comics blogosphere.  Excelsior!
  ¶ 11:27 PM | |