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So, as we hit 300 posts (with this one), I thought it appropriate to look back at our favorite posts in Comical Musings’ existence. If you have been reading from the beginning, this will be a nice trip down memory lane. If you are new to our blog, these are our favorite posts as chosen by Hal, Tim Jenkins, The Black Ness Monster, and myself. It is a little self-indulgent, but it is our hope that it reads like back matter from a cool comic or even DVD extras. This retrospective is for you. Click along. Read along. Tell your friends.
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Our first real post ever was a review of the first story arc of “Dial H for Hero.” This was one of the random series that I had missed and decided to check out when I got back in to comics. It’s funny that this series was being reviewed in our first substantial post ever, and now it’s second outing has been cancelled. And speaking of that…
Another funny post was when Scott Deaux closed the blog down. The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim was coming out, and judging by how much of Deaux’s life was sucked away by The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, he figured that there was no way that the blog could continue. He wrote up a sweet/appropriate send off for the blog and vowed to not post again….hahaha.
Top 5 Avengers That Could Have Ruined The Movie
Cancelling the blog was a bit premature at best and a complete misstep at worst, but another epic misstep in Comical Musings’ history was “The Top 5 Avengers That Could Have Ruined The Movie.” Top 5 lists usually get a bunch of views, and capitalizing on the hysteria of The Avengers movie, Scott and Hal thought it would be fun to collaborate on a Top 5 list together and then have Tim (Jim at the time) post it on reddit. Well, the internet is a fickle mistress, and we had so many views and comments that we were excited to look at, only to discover that we were being eviscerated. There were so many nitpicks and holes found in that post that I couldn’t even begin to fix it, so we left it as a headstone reading “Never Again” atop our open emotional grave.
Now, to the highpoints…
Interviews With The Industry: Rick Cromack
Our first Interviews With The Industry post ever was with Rick Cromack, who has turned into a good friend and an up and coming industry pro. He’s already been promoted once since the interview dropped, and Rick is poised for big things. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Interviews With The Industry: Mike Romo
We hadn’t interviewed anybody super famous when Scott Deaux reached out to Mike Romo from Ifanboy. He was super cool and gave us the benchmark to which all Interviews With The Industry are now measured. Obviously, he’s not Frank Miller or anyone like that, but the success of that interview and how pleased we were with it made Scott feel like a “big timer.”
Moon Knight In The Moon Light or White Batman
Hal has a way of finding great series, highlighting them, and bringing out the best in them by reviewing them. Bendis’ Moon Knight was one of our favorite series, and we all felt like it ended too soon. Hal celebrated it well in his post, Moon Knight in the Moon Light or White Batman.
Top 5 Happiest Moments In The Walking Dead
Tim enjoyed the difficult task of pulling a Top 5 Happiest Moments In The Walking Dead post out of Kirkman’s dark and disturbing series. We received some great feedback about it, and Tim still counts it as one of his favorite things that he has ever written.
A Remembrance Prevents Forgetfulness
Archaia quoted Scott on their website when talking about The Return Of The Dapper Men. To our knowledge, it is the only time that we’ve received such an honor. Very cool.
You may not know this, but at one point we had a bunch of writers producing content for the site. It was a fun and vibrant group of comic book friends known as The Writer’s Blok. We still exist, but our roster is lighter. We held a contest to review the worst comic ever. Romeo Sid Vicious won, but due to scheduling conflicts, was not able to enjoy the honor of reviewing the terrible dumpster fire that is Secret Avengers #13. The Black Ness Monster stepped up to the plate and served us poop like it was covered in caviar…which would still be bad…but you know what I mean.
Goodnight, Sweet Prince: A Tribute To The Fallen
Typically silly, JK Leo bore his soul in his tribute to the death of Damian Wayne. It was surprisingly emotional and obviously well-written. A perfect response to a situation that touched all Batman fans.
Tim holds Hal’s “Fifty Shades Of Grundy,” an obvious joke referencing Grundy’s creepy bondage-looking wardrobe, as the best title of a blog post that we have ever had. Scott Deaux’s favorite is the recently released, “America’s Got Powers…Sometimes.”
One of Scott’s favorite things that he ever wrote was his post about Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy’s Joe The Barbarian. For whatever reason, it emotionally resonated with him and he is still proud of it to this day.
Gratuitous Fan Service Week: X-Men Origins: Gambit “What Could Be?”
At one point, we put the X-Man, Gambit, “On Trial.” It was a very successful post in terms of views, but it birthed something much greater than we expected. JK Leo knocked all of our socks off with his fake X-Men Origins: Gambit movie script. Probably the funniest thing that we have ever published on the blog.
Subtlety: The Secret Language Of Shotguns
We honor all different viewpoints at Comical Musings and at one point, Shiera Carter dropped a post about how much she didn’t like Preacher. JK Leo was very respectful and held his tongue. SC is not afraid to take hard viewpoints. Also, Scott Deaux’s letter from the editor comment was brilliant.
Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man…Now With Added Soul Power
Maybe it’s because he’s some kind of “maverick renegade,” but all of The Writer’s Blok had been trying to get The Black Ness Monster to write blogs about Miles Morales, and he wouldn’t do it. When he finally did, it ended up being Hal’s favorite. I would like to point out that after this blog was released, The Black Ness Monster began to get things published in reputable journals. Coincidence, I think not.
SOUNDTRACK: The Li’l Depressed Boy Volume Zero – Lonely Heart Blues
Romeo Sid Vicious was always trying to think of new things to do with posts. In his write up of Li’l Depressed Boy, he added a cool widget-y soundtrack player. I always thought that was a cool idea. David Aja does it on Spotify when he draws Hawkeye and someday, we might even provide soundtracks to various series that we review. It was super cool and indicative of the good work that he does for ninebullets.net now.
Scott Deaux finds it pretty funny that we put Charles Xavier On Trial right before he died in AVX. It was one of the most topically relevant things we ever did, and it was totally an accident.
Hal was briefly obsessed with how homosexuality was handled in the DC Universe… like for 16 months and multiple posts. It all started with his blog that was brilliantly titled “Dial H For Homosexual.” Incredibly thorough journalism.
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300 posts is a lot! Through good times and bad times, we have enjoyed making this blog for you, the readers, and even for ourselves. Thank you for reading and commenting. Your support is great. To all of our writers still on The Writer’s Blok or not, I am thankful for your inclusion in my/our giant hobby. We hope to continue to do this for a long time. If you have a favorite moment we missed, pop it in the comments section. Thanks again.
~ Scott Deaux ~
