Year 10

A big round number
Can you believe it? I started this thing a decade ago. Generally at 2 posts a day, not counting whatever I've been doing at other blogs, that's 7424 total posts total as of today. So this is the day of the year when I thank you all for stopping by, reading an article or ten, and perhaps leaving a comment. So thank you. I mean it.

The DCAU, longer than I thought it would be
Though with a short break for new X-Files and Doctor Who reviews, the year' big project has been the DC Animated Universe, and having decided to cover the tie-in comics as well as the shows, we find ourselves only at the tail end of Batman Beyond's second season. Still left are its last, Static Shock (gotta figure out where to find the episodes, the DVDs have been discontinued), The Zeta Project, and of course Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. And a truckload of comics in between. It's been fun and breezy though, so I hope you like them. It's likely to take me another year to complete the project.

The Fire & Water Network
This is the year I was asked to help found the Fire & Water Network, bringing my Lonely Hearts podcast into a group of much more notorious shows like Fire & Water, Film & Water, Who's Who, Super-Mates and Secret Origins, as well as encouraging me to create other shows I was interested in doing, First Strike: Invasion! with my good buddy Bass, and spinning out of the Legion of Super-Bloggers Hot or Not feature, bringing my girls' brand of take-down humor to the Marvel Universe with oHOTmu or NOT? (I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that Shotgun, from that show, teamed up with me to cover the Reboot Legion over at the LSB as well, as a sort of veteran/rookie combo.) When Star Trek celebrated its 50th Anniversary, I felt compelled to create Gimme That Star Trek, a new podcast about just that topic, in a way celebrating this very blog's beginnings as a source for daily Trek.

While for many bloggers, podcasts have become their outlet of choice, I haven't quite given up on the ol' blog yet. Writing is too important to me, and remains a big part of my routine and, to be honest, my identity. Podcasting is a lot of work, and I enjoy doing it, but I also kind of see it as an excuse to post episode information that day while I work on future articles. It's all blog fodder in the end. So if you actual readers out there were ever afraid I'd give up on it in favor of that new-fangled ray-dee-ohhh machine, you need not worry.

Other Year 10 Highlights
Well, this was 2016, so a terrible year, but the blog didn't necessarily let it show:
-It's the year I stopped reading new comics, despite what might have been ready-made click bait in Rebirth and the post-Secret Wars Marvel U. I just ran out of time to read them and couldn't justify the expense anymore.
-I had a laptop blow up on me, but lost almost nothing (which is good). My new one is pretty crappy, all things considered, so I already have to think of alternatives. Also on the technology front, I finally got Netflix, which has certainly changed what gets capsule reviewed in This Week in Geek. (All fodder for the blog, told you.)
-The Jimmy Olsen weekly feature from last year gave way to the complete Krypto chronicles, and it's my continued expectation to cover every one of the super-pooch's appearances until the present day. We'll see how far we get. We're still in the early 60s at this point, but the Silver Age was a very busy time for the Canine from Krypton.
-A new feature I started this year and am unlikely to ever finish is "One Panel", which posts one panel per comic ever published by DC (if I can find one) since the very beginning. At first, I did just one panel/comic per post, but soon realized we'd never get to Superman and Batman that way, so I accelerated things. Still will never see the end of that.
-I made a big deal of covering French-language comics more, but I've failed to produce more than a couple articles to date. I'll get back on the wagon soon, I hope.
-Other article series I started doing in Year 10 include Director Profiles and Films Within Films. You'll see more of them in due course. I also wrote up my own Fiasco playset and have a couple more in the works.
-My favorite articles to write are, necessarily, the big theories, like Doctor Who's Chair Agenda and what The Revenant is really about. I should really put my mind to writing more of those.

So, what's next?
10 years sounds like a good time to stop - big round number after all - but how can I when the DCAU has only been half covered?! When I say a year, I haven't actually checked, and it could stretch longer if I take breaks for X-Files, Who, Trek Discovery, and whatever else I might find the imperative to cover. Otherwise, expect more podcastery (especially as the Network hits its FIRST Anniversary), and more articles about comics, movies, role-playing games, the lot. Hopefully, your favorite features won't fade away, and I'll hit upon new ideas to share with you.

That's why we get together once a day, isn't it?