Blogging about blogging is a sin.
So for some reason, I had the highest traffic ever on this site yesterday without having an artificial bump caused by being Boing Boinged or Waxied or some such thing. Just, for whatever reason, a whole bunch of you decided to all converge on my site at once, out of your secret interest in Swamp Thing or Googling for images of Smallville stars in the altogether (none on this site, though that doesn’t keep folks from trying), or whatever. But if you’re new here, and you’re actually reading what I’m writing and not desperately scanning the page for nekkid pics…hi! How are you? I promise I do more than just write about writing for a weblog, honest.
And speaking of weblogs, I think most of us now know that Dirk Deppey is reviving the Journalista weblog, which is currently living at Mr. Deppey’s own domain, working out some of the kinks and waiting for the eventual Comics Journal site relaunch. This revival is very good news, as Journalista was one of the most informative and most influential weblogs in the comicsweblogosphere, and its loss was greatly felt.
On a more personal level, Mr. Deppey occasionally linked to my site in its early days during the first iteration of Journalista, and I’ve often credited those links for giving my site an early boost in readership. And (as I’m sure some of you are sick of hearing), the link to my site in his last official entry brought me significant traffic for nearly a year afterward…and also provided a “pull quote” for my rotating link thingie to the right, there. The quote may be a little out of date (“this year” referring to 2004), but it’s only getting removed over my dead body, so deal with it.
What I’m trying to say is…yay! Journalista‘s back! Between this and Tom Spurgeon’s always-excellent Comics Reporter, I think that’ll be all the comic news ‘n’ linkage anyone can handle.
Yesterday was Jack Kirby’s birthday, which I apparently celebrated by posting something about Swamp Thing. Well, Mark Evanier has something to say about it, as should be expected, and pal Ian posts a couple choice Kirby covers. Booksteve has covers for volumes 1 and 2 of The Jack Kirby Treasury…and, if you’re a Kirby fan, you should be looking at the Jack Kirby Comics Weblog every day.
I got to meet Jack Kirby once, at a convention in the early ’90s. I shook his hand, told him “thanks for the great comics,” and got to briefly chat with both him and his wife Roz for a minute or two.
He lived only about a 30 or 40 minute drive from where I did. His number was listed in our local phone book, and once in a while I’d think “Hey, I wonder what would happen if I called him….” Of course, I never did. That’s okay, because I doubt I would have been able to come up with anything to say beyond “thanks for the great comics,” which I got to do face-to-face with him anyway.
Here’s one of my favorite Kirby images, which I posted a couple years back. Some of the stuff the man came up with was downright peculiar, but God bless him for it.
8-30-06: Journalista is now live at the revamped Comics Journal site. Go, enjoy.
