2012 Is Almost Over

Well, another year comes to an end and it's been quite the year. It started off with me losing my job of 9 years and that was just the start of the ups and downs. But hey, I was able to finish off volume 1 of the Bluenoser so that's something right? I attended the first "Ottawa Comiccon" and really enjoyed it (was excited to meet Richard Starkings but was disappointed to miss Herb Trimpe). I thought it was well organized and I look forward to seeing how they follow up in 2013. And of course, there was Fan Expo but that's all documented here. Fan Expo will be adding sports cards/memorabilia and athletes to the line up next year which could be interesting to see how that goes. I was a collector (mostly cards) many years ago but now it just doesn't appeal to me. But the more the merrier I suppose. Especially now that they're taking over the North and South buildings.

And while we're talking about 2013, let's get to the comics of 2012 (this will make sense in a minute, I promise). There will be some books I'll be missing in 2013 as they ended in 2012. Books like DMZ, iZombie, and Scalped (which I haven't read yet, it's on my Christmas list). But there are some new (and old but new to me) books that I'll be looking for like Astro City, Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, Saga, the Manhattan Projects, and I'm really looking forward to checking out Mark Waid's "Indestructible Hulk". And, of course, we still have Fables (and "Fairest"), Invincible, Walking Dead, Elephantmen, Powers, Chew, Sweet Tooth (for now), Locke & Key (for now), Atomic Robo, The Sixth Gun, and Mouse Guard among my reading list so I'm looking at having a lot to read next year. Although some of the above may not actually have another book out until 2014. And there will probably be the odd gem that gets added as the year goes on.

So what else did we have in 2012? We had Amazing Spider-Man #700 causing a ruckus (nothing that new for comic geeks). We had the "Fake Geek" stuff come up yet again, but getting that much uglier. We had the Avengers movie (which I feel Joss Whedon delivered on perfectly) and the Dark Knight Rises (I really can't get behind Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, this one was better than I thought it would be but still not really a thumbs up for me). There was "Before Watchmen" comics. More digital vs print/future of comics talk (it's gotten to the point where just thinking about the discussion makes my head hurt) and the usual behind the scenes drama that comic geeks (like me) that have no clue what's really happening (still like me) can't seem to turn away from. So all in all a pretty solid year I'd say.

And where does this leave me in 2013? Well, for one thing I will want to be more active with this blog but maybe with short blurbs/reviews. As much as I like Twitter I think it would be better for me to post some of that here so it doesn't just get lost in all the other tweeting going on. I may even have a few reviews to post before 2012 closes out (but no promises). But what I will be refraining from posting are any thoughts that come to me on the "future of comics" or "print vs digital" or whatever comics controversy comes up. I have several reasons for this which I won't go into, this post is already getting too long as it is. And no, there won't be a future post on it, it's just the way things are going to be around here. And maybe there will be some more posts about the Bluenoser. And on that note, I'll end this post with the current page I'm working on: