Happy (Belated) 2nd Bloggiversary, Comics Should Be Good!

I'm going to do something a little different for the people over at Comics Should Be Good. Usually I fill these short little posts with links to all my favorite posts, but there's two years worth of content over there, and the vast majority of it is indexed by tags.

No, instead, I'm going to thank the Comics Should Be Good guys, for inspiring me to start this here Fortress of Soliloquy. Way back in June 2005, I had just recently discovered comic blogs. I mean, I'd been reading Newsarama and Comic Book Resources and the Superman Homepage regularly for quite some time, and I started reading The Fourth Rail a few months prior. But that late spring and early summer, I started finding actual honest-to-goodness comic blogs, and I liked what I saw. The Absorbascon and Suspension of Disbelief were some of the first ones I checked regularly.

And Comics Should Be Good. I liked Comics Should Be Good for their clever terms (like "Paternalistic Continuity") and their humor, and of course, for the then-fledgling "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed." But when it came to "mature" comics, specifically of the "Identity Crisis" sort, I didn't like them. In fact, I disagreed pretty vehemently. I've changed my views quite a bit since then (not the least of which because of this), but at the time I felt like I was the only person in the whole of comic fandom who liked reading in comics what I could watch in Law & Order. And that became my fourth post: a defense of "mature" comics storytelling and an attempt to debunk the notion that this was a new development in superhero comics, basically directed at the CSBG crew. There was a period of time where I felt a kind of rivalry toward Brian Cronin; you know, that kind of polite resentment where you respect someone and like some of their work, but really, really don't like what they have to say? Like that.

It didn't last long. What can I say? Brian's a fantastic guy and a better blogger than I'll ever be. Plus, he taught me how to truncate my posts. Eventually, I learned to stop worrying and love Comics Should Be Good. And I was reminded through this that I could disagree with someone and still enjoy what they have to say.

But Brian Cronin's not the only member of the Comics Should Be Good crew. If I ever stop being dead to Greg Burgas, perhaps he'll accept my saying that I think he's one of the most consistently entertaining people in comic blogging. I frequently disagree with his reviews, but he's a fine writer, whether at CSBG or at that other blog of his which I read frequently. Plus, we share the musical love that dare not speak its name.

And there's the rest, and I feel like a heel saying that. But, I don't check the bylines before I read the individual posts, so anything I say about Greg Hatcher, Bill Reed, Harvey Jerkwater, and Chris Burton's contributions to the blog would be somewhat less than sincere. Suffice it to say that CSBG is one of the best blogs around, and they therefore are among the best bloggers around. By the time their third Bloggiversary rolls around, I'll have something more substantial to say.

And Comics Should Be Good is one of the best blogs around. It has great commentary, good reviews, and awesome features like the aforementioned Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed to the always entertaining Judging Books By Their Covers to more recent features like Watching the River Flow and Snark-Free Corner. But you know that already. If you're reading my blog for the comic content, you already know about and frequently visit Comics Should Be Good.

Happy Bloggiversary, guys, and thanks for the inspiration. Keep up the good work.