My End Of The Year Post

I know everyone and their dog are doing the end of year posts whether it's "The year in review" or "Top X comics of the year/decade" but I figured why go against tradition so I might as well join in. I won't be covering the decade or anything, this year was enough for me. It'll be a mix of comics/geek stuff and other things (but mostly comics) so you've been warned.

The year started off not so good for me. Ottawa was still dealing with a bus strike with no end in sight. And considering I don't own a car and am living in the burbs, I wasn't in a happy place. Friends and family stepped up to help with the essentials (work, groceries, etc) but other than that, I was stuck at home for the most part. It was a pretty rough time for me though admittedly, there were a lot of people who had it far worse.

So getting to the comics, this year really continued my transition away from the monthlies. I dropped titles or titles I was reading were dropped. It's got to the point now that after Buffy season 8 ends I will stop buying monthlies and go to trade paperbacks for my two remaining books, the Incredible Hulk and Elephantmen. On the topic of the Hulk, I initially hated the idea of the "new She-Hulk" but the character has grown on me a bit. I'm still not a big fan of her being "She-Hulk" as I'm still a fan of "the She-Hulk" but she's become someone I could follow. I still dislike the "Red Hulk" and Loeb's writing (on the Hulk books at least).

The first highlight in terms of print books was finally reading Sandman. It's a lot to take in but an excellent story. And I'm enjoying Invincible, the Walking Dead, Locke & Key, Fables, Jack of Fables (a recent/Christmas addition), Ex Machina, Umbrella Academy, and Mouse Guard, all in TPB or collected editions. I'm also looking forward to Powers picking up again and the conclusions to Planetary and Scott Pilgrim. So still plenty of reading, just in a different format. And I'll still be picking up the odd mini-series and such in collected forms.

Which leads me to the webcomics world. I was sorry to see "Celadore" and "Night Owls" come to an end, but at least they weren't like "I Rule the Night" which just stopped. I have picked up a few others along the way to fill the void. "Lily of the Valley" seems to be picking up as it goes and the "Abominable Charles Christopher" for instance may be my favourite webcomic. And I think Andy Belanger's "Bottle of Awesome" has been getting better as it's gone on. But admittedly, I have sort of stuck to webcomics on Zuda and DrunkDuck or followed some of the talent from those sites.

A definite highlight to my year was attending Canada Fan Expo 2009. It was my first big convention and I was a bit overwhelmed but it was definitely a weekend to remember. There were the tv/movie celebrities I got to meet (or just see in person) and there were the comic professionals. Most of the people I met were very friendly. I probably bugged Caanan and Andy Belanger the most by dropping by every once in a while to chat (when they weren't busy) but they were nice enough not to show any annoyance.

So that was a brief look at some of 2009 for me, at least the comic/geek related stuff (I'll leave the more personal rants and such for my friends and family). As for the coming year and the future, here are some of the things I'm looking forward to, either in 2010 or beyond. We have Josh Alves' latest webcomic, Heropotamus. It looks to be off to a good start and I enjoyed his Araknid Kid. There is the Guild comic written by Felicia Day (who took the time to comment on the sketch of Codex I did a while back, which was also a highlight of my year). Of course, there's Canada Fan Expo 2010 which I'm already looking forward to. We have Marvel purchasing Marvelman which I'll be picking up as soon as they get the Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman stuff back into print (I was really excited by that news this year). And personally, I'll be kicking off the final chapter of my webcomic, Divine Leap. And of course, I'm looking forward to more great stuff from the above mentioned books I'm reading.

So I'll just end 2009 by saying thank you to everyone who's stuck around to read this blog, to everyone who took the time to comment, and to anyone who just dropped by. I hope 2009 was good to you and that 2010 will be even better.