I also figured that I'd start by explaining where I've been.
Where I've been is at home, having been lacking two fundamental things; Time and motivation.
With time, the last seven months time has seen that most precious resource be a pretty rare thing to nail down. The reasons for this is that I've had a child to raise, a new job to do and a house to keep in order (not to mention the Arrow-verse has just returned to Sky 1). Also, I've tried to keep my commitments and continue reviewing new comics at least once a week for Pipedream Comics.
I must confess, the lack of time I'm now having has me wishing for my younger years and the opportunity to use the time I had then far more carefully and not waste it like I did.
I must confess, the lack of time I'm now having has me wishing for my younger years and the opportunity to use the time I had then far more carefully and not waste it like I did.
And then there is the motivation. I've discovered that when you are rushed off your feet constantly, your motivation to do anything beyond fall asleep just disappears. This has been the case with my motivation to read and talk about comics, which hasn't been helped by the struggles I've been having with Marvel's new film inspired, X-men hating comic approach as well as a general lack of new titles which really intrigued me and even event fatigue (yep, I suffer from that).
However, you can't keep a good addict down and so I've started to ease myself back into the life. As I said, I'm still reviewing over at Pipedream, but I've let my pull list disintegrate into practically nothing. So now I'm building that list back up, with the new Serenity mini and DC's new Trinity book being added along with my staples of Lazarus and Black Science. This is to (hopefully) be followed by the return of the Legend of Wonder Woman and Black Magick next year (once Serenity ends, which is convenient to my bank balance), allowing for a steady, gradual return to form.
I know it's not much, but it's a start.
I'm hoping that by easing myself back in slowly I can both prevent myself from getting overwhelmed (because, again, time is precious) and not ending up reading too many bad comics which put me off the medium again. Of course, there is the flip side that I might miss out on something great but then, given how few great books I can find at present (in my opinion), that's a risk I'm willing to take.
However, you can't keep a good addict down and so I've started to ease myself back into the life. As I said, I'm still reviewing over at Pipedream, but I've let my pull list disintegrate into practically nothing. So now I'm building that list back up, with the new Serenity mini and DC's new Trinity book being added along with my staples of Lazarus and Black Science. This is to (hopefully) be followed by the return of the Legend of Wonder Woman and Black Magick next year (once Serenity ends, which is convenient to my bank balance), allowing for a steady, gradual return to form.
I know it's not much, but it's a start.
I'm hoping that by easing myself back in slowly I can both prevent myself from getting overwhelmed (because, again, time is precious) and not ending up reading too many bad comics which put me off the medium again. Of course, there is the flip side that I might miss out on something great but then, given how few great books I can find at present (in my opinion), that's a risk I'm willing to take.
Besides, I'll still read plenty reviewing four small press comics a month (at least).
What it means for this blog though is an increase in the amount I post (I hope). Now, this might not be an immediate increase (I'd wager almost as gradual as the increase in my pull list) but I have missed airing my thoughts here and already have ideas about things I'd like to write about going forward.
But time will tell if this is the beginning of a return to form for me or not.
For now though, let's call it a start and go from there.
