Soon perhaps to be the #1 Google result for Teaser and the Blacksmith.

§ September 20th, 2010 § Filed under blogging about blogging is a sin, fantagraphics § 11 Comments

Some of you may have noticed that I had sort of an impromptu Low Content Mode on the site last week, aside from Thursday’s post when I just kinda went on and on. No particular reason for it, other than, you know, having some other things to occupy my precious, precious free time. Like doing a little interior house painting. Or shooting people getting shot repeatedly on Red Dead Redemption. Or actually reading the occasional comic book. Or getting my usual daily dosage of five hours of sleep.

Plus, it doesn’t hurt to ease off a bit to recharge the batteries. I have been doing this daily for nearly seven years, when, after working all day slinging funnybooks at customers, I come home and write about funnybooks on the internet for free (well, mostly free, he said, gesturing desperately at his Amazon links). Please don’t begrudge me doing some “easy” posts once in a while. (And I put “easy” in quotes, because sometimes the simple posts end up taking as much time to put together as the more content-ish posts.)

I’m overreacting…it’s not like anyone really complained or anything, and traffic on the site has been up, and it seems like a lot of you folks have enjoyed the last week’s worth of entries…so consider my behavior encouraged. But I sometimes do feel like I’m skimping a bit when I do a lot of scan-heavy posts in a row, so…well, there you go. I’m a victim of my own guilt.

By the way, remember how like every year I say “okay, I’m going to stop updating every day” and yet I still keep posting every day? There’s something wrong with me, man.

BOO HOO I DON’T WASTE TIME ON THE INTERNET PROPERLY. Okay, enough of that, let’s move on to this:

I’ve been trying to use the category/tagging function of this site a little more frequently, mostly because I’m tired of seeing all my posts read “filed under Uncategorized” and, okay, fine, to make things easier for the readers, too. I’ve been a bit silly with some of the tags…I don’t know that I’ll ever use “worm-suit” again, but I’m sure someday I’ll once again find use for the “tampons” tag. I think my favorite category is “freak-out”…be sure to click that and scroll down for an old favorite of mine (after the much more recent post).

• • •

So Tom Spurgeon did one of his regular “Five for Friday” polls where he asked folks to list five favorite Fantagraphics publications that weren’t by Chris Ware, the Hernandez Brothers, Charles Schulz, Dan Clowes, and Peter Bagge. For once I managed to participate in the poll, and you can see my entries about a third of the way through this list of results, somewhere.

I found myself wanting to list far more than the five allowed…I did mention in a note accompanying the list I emailed Tom that the only reason I didn’t list James Sturm’s The Cereal Killings was that he’d already used it in his example list. (And come to think of it…has The Cereal Killings ever been collected? I can’t recall that it has. (For those unfamiliar, it’s sorta like the Watchmen/League of Extraordinary Gentlemen of cereal mascots, only far more low key and melancholy than those comparisons may suggest. Also, it’s brilliant.)

One title I did mention was the sadly uncompleted Eye of Mongombo, but when I Googled it up just to make sure I had the spelling correct, I found the blog for Mongombo creator Doug Gray! Specifically, this post featuring newly (as of 2009) commissioned Mongombo art! Pretty cool. Gray also mentions trying to work on the book again, and I sincerely hope he does.

There were several Fantagraphics publications I wanted to mention, like their excellent Popeye collections, or their Zippy books, or any of their Kim Deitch releases, or the pure evil of Scott Russo’s Jizz, or the assorted J.R. Williams magazine one-shots — but I did list his series Crap. Yes, that’s right…Jizz and Crap. Ask for ’em by name! I also thought about mentioning Don Rosa’s Comics & Stories but wasn’t sure if that counted…but looking at that Comics.org entry which lists Fantagraphics as the publisher, yeah, I guess it would have.

And then I saw other people mentioning Amazing Heroes and Comics Journal in their lists, and I was thinking, damn, why didn’t I think of that?

Oh, man…and there’s Real Stuff, and Anything Goes, and Schizo, and….

Anyway, not sure what the point of all that was, other than “I like a lot of stuff from Fantagraphics and should talk about them more on the site.”

Didn’t see anyone mention Teaser and the Blacksmith, a comic that was…certainly something. Not even sure how to begin describing it, and given the Googling I just performed, if I did describe it I’d become the go-to source on this book and I’m not sure if I’m ready to shoulder that responsibility. (EDIT: Ah, here’s a brief article that notes the premise of the story.)

I was also genuinely surprised no one listed Wendy Whitebread, from Fantagraphics’ Eros division. C’mon, the thing went through multiple printings, and I know I sold a ton of them…some of you have this comic. Don’t deny it.

11 Responses to “Soon perhaps to be the #1 Google result for Teaser and the Blacksmith.”

  • C. Elam says:

    I own all of the “Anton Drek” books, but this is because I am a huge fan of Don Simpson’s work. Really. Stop looking at me like that.

    I also own Simpson’s King Kong mini-series, in which the interiors are wonderfully at odds with the covers. That came out through “Monster Comics”.

  • Tim O'Neil says:

    We’ve been doing this for almost seven years? That’s half a century in dog years.

  • Smicha1 says:

    I was very pleased to see you mention Scott Russo’s Jizz. Amazing comic. Whatever happened to him?

  • Old Bull Lee says:

    That frog taking all those bunnies…I’m calling Bucky O’Hare.

  • Jason Langlois says:

    Your “low content” posts seem to have more content than most other people’s “high content” posts.

  • Leroy Hart says:

    I spend far too much time on the internet, but if it means anything, yours is one of the top three sites I visit first, before and after work (since your auto-updater has usually kicked-in by the time I’m off). The other sites I frequent for an unacceptable amount of time are ComicBookResources, ComicsAlliance, The ISB, and Topless Robot…so in nerd terms, anyhoo, I think you’re in good company. I get the largest share of laughs from yours, I’d say, as we seem to think the same things are hilarious.

    …I guess that was a long-winded way of saying, “THANK YOU FOR WASTING YOUR TIME ON THE INTERNET IMPROPERLY FOR ALMOST SEVEN YEARS, MIKE STERLING!”

    Also…that frog gathers both bunnies, and happy thoughts. He took mine.

  • Ray Van Buskirk says:

    Go Wendy Whitebread! Loved that when it came out along with that other EROS comic (can’t recall name) but Bill Willingham wrote and did the art. And I have Teaser and the Blacksmith too! Ah, those were the days before kids came along and I had to hide my “stash” of undergrounds!

  • Doug Gray says:

    Mike: Thanks very much for the kind words! I really appreciate it when people remember Mongombo. I am still working on it, but I’ve been stalled out many times by the need to make money ( a common story these days I’m sure)…but I’m still gonna do it. I’m going to finish this thing if it kills me (but hopefully a bit before then). Thanks again!

  • Brimstone says:

    The Cereal Killings sounds like an epic, Watchmen style cereal mascot webcomic… can’t remember the name though

  • Matt says:

    The webcomic you’re thinking of is Breakfast of the Gods, and that was my first thought too.

    I’d like to give to read Cereal Killings, but I can’t find it online anywhere. Well, I found the first issue, but none of the others.

  • Martin Wisse says:

    Eye of Mongombo! I’ve only ever seen the ads for it in Amazing Heroes but those were enough to make me giggle.