Random Thoughts

First, for anyone still reading.... My apologies for the lack of posts here. My comics reading is more behind than ever.

Second, the anonymous spammy comments submitted for approval are getting more bizarre than ever. The ones complimenting me on making a difficult subject understandable -- submitted comment on my post about George Perez retiring -- are laughable. I don't see links, either, so I'm not sure what Anonymous Spammer hopes to gain by having comments posted. But rest assured, "Anonymous," I will not approve your comments for publication here.

Third, some noteworthy comics. My love of Bucky Barnes has been rewarded by the first comic to feature him in a long while. (I'm not counting his guest turn with Hawkeye in what was actually a Black Widow story in the recent, and excellent, Tales of Suspense.) The new Winter Soldier comic has Bucky trying to help others escape a life of crime as a way to atone for his dark acts. The art is nice and the writing is heavy on character development. Just perfect. The first issue of The Invaders was good, too, even if Bucky just has a cameo this time. The PTSD plotline re: Namor  is intriguing.

Catwoman, Captain Marvel, and Black Widow are worth reading, too, and I'm eager to see what the new creative team brings to Ms. Marvel.

Comments

Argh! Blogger won't publish my own comments on my own damn blogs. I don't know why. It seems to not notice I'm logged in, but it lets me comment on other people's blogs just fine. So I am reading the few comments this blog continues to get, but I can't answer anything. If it's important, I'll answer in a post. *sigh*

Finally an Offensive Comment

I started moderating comments because of spam commenting, but today, I got my first offensive comment. Only it made me laugh for some reason, because really, I'm not easily offended. Here's what Anonymous said about this post from 2006:

"You stupid whore, go make me a sandwich."

Truly, I've been called worse in my job. After all, I work with the public, and they are not always happy and pleasant. So, now my question is: Turkey, ham, or rye?"

Idiots.

Dear Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

I have not published your comment on one of my review posts. I will not publish it (well, I did once by accident as my poor eye-hand coordination led me to click publish instead of reject, but I quickly deleted it forever) no matter how many times you try posting it. I didn't mention the art. You want to read reviews where the art is always mentioned, this isn't the place for it. I'm more likely to mention the art when I don't like it, and when I do like art, it's most because I like how the faces are drawn and not for some aspect of the artistic storytelling, since I am untrained in that and can't really tell when it's good or not. My main interest is that I can tell the characters apart and they look the way I want them to.

Also, I allow anonymous comments so people would be able to post a comment even if they don't have Blogger accounts. I do prefer, however, that they at least give a name or nickname somewhere.

Comments, here and on my other blogs that have comment moderation on, are published at my discretion. On the ones without moderation, they're left or deleted at my discretion. My blogs, my choice.

Thank you for your understanding,
Shelly's Comic Book Shelf Management

Reviewing the Reviews

A comment on my Manhunter review post has prompted this post. I'm not sure why I feel I should say this, but I will, because it's my blog and I get to post what I want. ;)

This blog is fun. It's probably the one I enjoy the most, even more than Cyber Chocolate. I blog for me and I'm thrilled when people read what I have to say and extra thrilled by how many folks read this blog.

I'm not going to please everyone or agree with everyone and that's fine. I appreciate comments and will allow any opinions, differing or otherwise as long as they aren't nasty, spam, insulting, or... well, you get the point. And as the blogger, I get to decide what's nasty, insulting, etc.

My reviews usually don't include the creators. Sorry, mea culpa and all that, but that's how it is. I don't spend hours writing a post. I sit here and type off the top of my head and sometimes, have to double check the names of characters (I think I got Damon right on the Manhunter review and I don't recall his last name at all.). Sometimes, I'll include the name of the writer and/or the artist if it occurs to me when I'm writing the review. I don't edit. I trust my FF spellcheck extension to catch typos. I might fix typos after the fact if they jump out at me after posting. Same for my non-review posts. I have 12 blogs of various levels of activity and I don't have time to dot every i and cross every t.

If I've neglected to mention something be it the writer, artist, pertinent fact and you want to point it out, do so in a comment. I'll probably thank you. But there's a big difference between:

"In all those paragraphs, you never said who wrote/drew X" and "Just thought I'd mention that Mr. Z and Ms. A. are the creative team."

Comments that are helpful instead of snarky are helpful to everyone. When I get snark, I usually give it back, because I'm a snarky person at heart (well, more on the sarcastic side, but close enough).

The only time I carefully mention creators in a review is when I review books on my book blog, with author and title at the top of the review. Comics, like movies and tv shows, are more collaborative to me and my concentration in comics reviews tends to be on the story, whether or not I liked the art, and the characters. And that's not going to change.

Delurker Issue 0

So, it's Delurker Day or Week or whatever. It's so hard to keep track of this stuff. So, if you're reading this, don't be shy, say hi. In the comments. Thanks and hugs and kisses.

The Flying McCoys did a Batman joke today. A bit lame, but I had to share.