Well, today is the last day of my first year writing this blog. Coincidentally this is also my 200th post on it (actually, not that coincidentally -- I really hoped I could make it here in this amount of time). So I was gonna be lazy and just post a list of links to some of my old articles that I liked but for whatever reason never really blew up on the internet. If you wanna see that, just hang on a minute.
Because! Today is the day the feature interview I did with Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter went up, and if you want to read anything having to do with me right now, it should definitely be that. It's a good 13,000 words and change so it ought to keep you busy for a while, and I'm really happy with/proud of the way it turned out. Tom and I talked about pretty much all of my favorite comics of the year (with the exception of my very favorite one, which I hadn't read yet when we did the interview), and we also spent a good amount of time on the Big Questions of where comics are now and where they're going in the future. All that, plus I totally talked about myself! If you've ever wondered who I am personally (and how could you not), this interview's got the Secret Origin of Matt Seneca all set out for yuh. Go read it, I couldn't have imagined a better way to top off my first year on the comics internet.
If when you finish that you want even more of me blathering on, then maybe you should check out this little Q and A I did with up-and-coming pop culture blogger Adam McIlwee. It's not as intensive on comics, but given that what we talked about instead is drugs and music I'm sure you can still find plenty in it to keep your eyes on the screen.
So yeah! One year in writing-about-comics-on-the-internet. Not tryin' to go all Oscar acceptance speech here, but I want to thank every single person who's read anything at all I've written over the past 365 days -- yeah, I mean you -- for giving me your time and attention. I've been incredibly lucky to have had so many people showing up here, and it's made me think harder and work more at doing this than anything else could have. If I've made even one of you think about something you wouldn't have or find beauty in something you never did before the way writing for you made me do so many times, then this year would have been worth it at twice the word count. And I want to give extra special thanks to anyone who's ever dropped a comment on one of my articles, even if it was just to tell me you dug one of the scans or you think I'm high for liking Rob Liefeld's art. It's the only way I can tell I'm making anybody think about anything, so please keep it up, and if you've wanted to comment but haven't I hope you will start. I'm prouder of some of the conversations I've had in comments sections here than anything I've written by myself; the articles are only my side of the conversations I want to start, so I hope you all continue to fire away.
Here are some people I want to give particular credit to for inspiring me or challenging me or helping me along or just being nice and saying hi: Joe McCulloch. Tucker Stone. Sean Witzke. Tim Callahan. Tom Spurgeon. Chris Mautner. David Brothers. Dirk Deppey. Derik Badman. Frank Santoro. Noah Berlatsky. Jason Overby. Brandon Soderberg. Tony Robertson. Tim Hodler. Dan Nadel. Chad Nevett. Andrei Molotiu. David Pepose. Laura Hudson. Jimmy Palmiotti. Jim Steranko. Gary Panter. Heidi McDonald. Sean T. Collins.
My everlasting gratitude to the three interview subjects who sat through what had to be some pretty boring interrogations this year:
Michael DeForge
Robin Barnard
Shaky Kane
And to all my blog and twitter followers (you should become one).
yeah
Now here are a few articles I never got much response to but wished I had, so I thought I'd throw them out there again in the hopes that maybe this time some of you guys would tell me what you think of them.
Into The Void, an in-depth, multi-part look at Steve Ditko's years at DC Comics
Fly In Amber, a brief chronology of Guido Crepax's Valentina (which is my favorite comic ever)
Iceberg Tips, a quick romp through some comics that have escaped modern critical attention but deserve all the availability and analysis (and in some cases, translation) they can get
Greatest Comic of All Time, an autopsy on Mike Sekowsky's lost gem Manhunter 2070
Inst'nt Classik, the modern hero-comics marketplace considered through the lens of Brendan McCarthy
Some notes on Driven By Lemons, probably my favorite comic of last year (the last few years, really)
A Missing Link, review of the year's best reprint book, Roy Crane's Captain Easy volume 1
Welcome To The Jungle, a look at Olivier Schrauwen's fascinating Chromo Congo
annnd, to wrap it all up, here are some comics I drew.
That's it for a bit! Seeya Monday with the year's last panel, and then after that with my list of 10 From 2010. Happy holidays you guys!
7 comments:
Everyone should be thanking you for consistently dropped excellent material. Congratulations on year one. I eagerly await year two and beyond.
Thanks so much for everything you post, Matt. DTTU has very quickly become one of the best parts of the comics blogosphere.
(P.S. Brendan McCarthy totally drew a story in 2000 A.D. last week!)
Excellent interview, even if I must confess to not knowing most of the names dropped. Keep up the good work. The web needs more prolific blogs like yours.
Matt,
Congrats on your first year of blogging, and thanks a lot for the amazing insight. I only discovered your blog recently, and it has been truly inspirational. Not only has it widened my perspective on comics, it's reinvigorated my enthusiasm to create my own comics, so hopefully soon I'll have some stuff to share too.
Congrats again, and the best for next year!
Matt Seneca has taken over the comics blogosphere like Michael DeForge took over art comics this past year. Just sayin'.
I read the CR interview while on the register all day yesterday at Comic Relief. I had said 'hello' to Todd for you the week before via ComicsComics without having more than a fuzzy idea of who you were ("Maybe it's that guy who wrote all these CR Recommends cards?"). I've worked at the shop for a year and a half; this is my last week there as I'm heading up Seattle for a few months. The interview you gave Tom had portions of it that gave me nostalgia for a Comic Relief that I never worked at, and it also gave me something that I've felt I've really lacked in this year, which is a lot of really enthusiastic recommendations for stuff I hadn't read. Upon coming to the store I really wished I had somebody there to guide me a little bit more through the 'canon' stuff, or talk about my comics interests (mostly alt, art comics, and eurocomics) but with everything that's happened there in the past 1.5 years, everyone's focus was elsewhere. That makes me really bummed that I didn't start reading your posts 6 months, a year ago, as it would've offered something I don't, didn't have. However, in the final moments, it'll do me some good: I'm taking a stack of books to Santa Cruz for the weekend... a couple of your recs made it in: the earliest Krazy & Ignatz collection and the big red Acme book which has always seemed so daunting. And I'll start following here now, too!
Oh, and there's a stack of your laminated recommendations still lying around. Want 'em?
Well, the Comic Relief of yore had its problems too, especially during the last year or so before Rory passed when his money troubles were starting to become really apparent. But all in all, yeah, it was incredible. Probably still the fondest years of my life. I wish I had had someone guide me through the medium when I was working there too -- like argh, why didn't I grab those cheap Zero Zero issues! How did I not read the Ranxerox books we had just sitting around! I filed so many Paul Gulacy comics without even looking at them! But it's always that way, the stuff is there and finding it can be as fun as reading it sometimes. Glad you found my site now anyway -- Ware and Herriman, HELL of a place to start!
I'd really love it if you could send me those recommendations, actually. Shoot me an email and I'll give you an address. Thanks for getting in touch!
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