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Saturday, December 10, 2016

BRB

You know what I hate? Finding a blog about a topic in which I'm interested and seeing that it hasn't been updated in months.

So now that I'm on the other end of it...Sorry about that. No posts since September. And even this one is really just to address that very fact. Because when this type of site goes dead, it's easy to assume that:
  • The person in charge has lost interest.
  • There is nothing worth reporting on. 
Neither is true. At least not completely.

I have absolutely not lost interest in comics, or other storytelling formats, which feature Canadian characters in Canadian settings. Admittedly, with Chapterhouse apparently doing nicely, it feels less like a "mission" now. But still. It's very rewarding to help, in a small way, independent creators and publishers get their product out. I don't plan on stopping.

I have, however, lost interest in Marvel and DC, at least where Canadian content is concerned. I've just been stung too often. Justice League Canada was basically false advertising and I have no interest in Alpha Flight as Captain Marvel's jobbers.

There are too many sources of disappointment to list when it comes to those publishers. At this point, I can't get excited about anything they offer without being suspicious.

As to there being nothing to report on...

There are two parts to this. I was in "waiting mode" for a while there. I recently received the second volume of Psychosis and only last night received my Auroraman perks from contributing to that Kickstarter campaign. And I'm waiting on a couple of other still, quite eagerly (Canadian Corps, NORTH, Deborah Daring, etc.). In that sense I'd hit a bit of a dry spell.

My other problem is self-inflicted. When Chapterhouse makes news, for example, I feel like sharing it is pointless because they have a greater reach than I do anyway (based on social media and such). I used to feel the same about Heroes Of The North. They worked social media very well. What good is mentioning them here going to do?

Yet, I've never come across anyone who has been anything but grateful when a project has been shared here, so...why not do it? It's just a habit to get into and a mentality to break.

So with all that in mind...I need to change things up. This little blog had been going regularly since January 2012. It's about to hit its fifth anniversary and, if we base ourselves on DC Comics, it's time for a reboot (I couldn't possibly keep up with Marvel's bi-monthly reboot schedule).

So many things on TSOG are outdated. When I checked the other day, about half the links in the columns on either side were dead. Between websites being updated, books changing publishers, etc, there was hardly any point in having them.

Five years ago, I found it interesting to stumble upon obscure characters and share them with whomever might happen to visit this blog. But there were more than I'd anticipated and now it feels as though they clutter things. It's harder to find a character that is currently being developed when he or she is surrounded by characters that showed up in two issues of some long-gone indie publisher's team book in the early 90s.

Also, most of the projects that inspired me to start the blog in the first place are now dead. Heroes Of The North went totally silent suddenly. Richard Evans got fed up with the comics industry and his desire to continue writing his Legion stories seems to fluctuate, based on his blog.

So I want to freshen things up and focus them a bit better. Construction has begun on the next version of this space, likely under a new name, hopefully with a few more features.

If things go more or less according to plan, it should be ready to go right around the same time that this one started five year ago, early January or so. In the meantime, since I may not post here again, thanks for visiting and enjoy the holidays. :-)

4 comments:

  1. We can't thank you enough for all the support you have shown the Canadian comic community. We in turn, will continue supporting this site and any incarnation of it. Best of luck!

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  2. Looking forward to the new site and thanks for keeping up your great work!

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  3. Big fan of your blog since I stumbled upon it while researching for my site captaincanuck.net.

    Love your stuff and i'm looking forward to seeing the new site.

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  4. Thanks, guys! I didn't respond right away, but believe your comments and support didn't go unnoticed.

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