Version Suicides

I don't have to tell you, Weeklings: Blogging ain't easy. Like pimpin' or being green. What they never tell you is how overwhelming it can seem. You go about your business, reading this piece of news there, taking part in that discussion there, and you start to get a sense of the world. Not the world, though, not exactly. More yours. You start to realize, explictly, what matters and what can't, what'll influence and what'll stagnate. And you what to explain that, want to explain exactly how things look, from your vantage (to purloin a phrase). But there's no time. How do you draw a map of a world, one you've taken for granted for years, using nothing but whatever words you're left with at the end of the day? More often than not, if you're honest, you don't.

Too ponderous? Sorry, Weeklings. Let me say then, simply: This takes it out of you.

Which, now that I'm in it, sounds more like a eulogy than an apology (for whatever it's worth, the latter was intended). We've never really gotten off the ground here. Sure, we've had what I like to think are some clever observations, a turn of phrase or angle of perspective that made it worthwhile to spend some of your time here. But we're not as... precise as I'd hoped we'd be. Not yet, anyway.

Hopefully, this is where that happens. This is the (re)beginning of Wednesday Week, where we recommit ourselves to devoting a healthy portion of whatever found time we have, after work, after rest, after time spent with our families and friends and other people with whom we like to spend time. After that, after all that's left is time for ourselves, it'll go here. Because we love comics, have spent more of our lives than not reading, anticipating, considering, discussing, organizing, hoping for, being disappointed with, wanting, enjoying comics. And, to be honest, a lot of the time, they were crap. A lot of the time, they are crap. But we've always believed they could be better. And sometimes, they are.

So if the comics we're discussing are better, we necessarily have to be, too. Hence, a few changes.

Less drastic will be the changes in format. By which I mean that Wednesday Week, will, in fact, have a format. It'll be simple, nothing too confusing, too avant garde. At the beginning of the week, Sunday or Monday, will be a simple sort of summary, a brief consideration of where we are and how we got here. We'll look to the usual suspects to see what happened over the past seven days, with what'll hopefully pass for an insight into what's to come over the next seven days. This will, tentatively--it'll all be tentatively, for the time being--be called "Happen Stance." Clever, no? On Wednesday, another column. This one will, less cleverly, be called "Wednesday Week"; it will be the obligatory review portion of this particular blog. It'll consist of two "reviews," one of the best book from seven days prior, the other of the most promising from that day's batch (which, I know, will be more of a preview than a review, but let's not get mired in semantics. It's too late to turn back now, as he said). Finally, at the end of the week there'll be a sort of catch-all, where whatever doesn't fit in the previous two columns will go. There will be reviews of older books, close looks at upcoming solicitations, creator profiles, special projects, lists (the cornerstone of any modern pop cultural commentary). It'll be called... well, I don't know what it'll be called. Check back at the end of next week.

But don't check back here. This is the more, perhaps, surprising of the changes. Wednesday Week is changing, will, in fact, no longer even exist much long after this. That is, it'll still exist, as it does now, right now, but it'll never change. Wednesday Week is being replaced by, mutating into, dying and being reborn as, Crisis/Boring Change. The, um, change is being made for a number of reasons. For one, I thought the title, Wednesday Week, referenced an aspect of an culture that I'm not too proud of, felt guilty endorsing. Sure, I've heading for the comic book store on many a Wednesday lunch break, picked up my comics and read them all, a hundred pages or more, between that break and the rest of the subsequent evening. But I'm disinclined, anymore, to treat comics as commodities, something to consumed and hoarded. I'm more of a savorer. Another reason for the change is that, to be honest, I felt sort of weighted down by Wednesday Week, and thought a name change might sort of relieve the burden. It's not that this blog wasn't enjoyable, it's just that its expectations were a little too high, not to mention a little too nebulous. And finally, while I love Elvis Costello like I get paid to do it, "Wednesday Week" is a crappy song. Crisis/Boring Change is a little unwieldy, but it's taken from a great song, possibly my favorite from that particular band, and I think is tonally more illustrative of my regard for comics. Also, I like dashes.

So there you go. Or, hopefully, here you go. This should be exciting, is exciting. It won't be forever, it's true, but hopefully by the time this entire enterprise has lost its lustre, all this accumulated mental meandering will begin to resemble a map, one that shows the way forward as clearly as back.

And I'm hoping I'll get some free swag out of it.