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!