There have been so many shocks and surprises and the internet just can’t be broken anymore. It’s become tougher, like when you tear a phone book into pieces and eventually it just won’t rip anymore. How do you tell who’s who and what’s what in this new world out there? Don’t worry. I’m here to comfort and guide. Welcome to the world outside B@N. Welcome to Meanwhile….

Note: It helps to think of this as the “Assistant Editors Month” of Meanwhile.

Dr. Doom and Reed Richards, Superman and Lex Luthor, Sleepwalker and that other dream guy, Dave Campbell and Chris Sims. There are certain rivalries that bring out the best in each other. They make each participant become more than they otherwise would have been. What if these rivalries sat down and decided to ask each other some questions? What amazing insights would be gained? Today we find out.

Chris Sims: Dave, thanks for agreeing to the interview. I know Shane’s really looking forward to it.

Dave Campbell: Shane often displays lapese (Editors Note: “Lapses” not “lapese”, jack-ass.) in judgement, but whatever. If it makes him happy.

Chris Sims: True. Okay, first question: You were in Newsweek. How do you think that compares to something like having someone talk about your blog on television, which is what happened to me?

Dave Campbell: Are you kidding? Newsweek has a circulation of what, 75 million? You were mentioned on a local public access show. Apples/oranges. Of course, geeks don’t read Newsweek, so it’s sort of a wash. I got a question:

Chris Sims: Shoot.

Dave Campbell: Seriously, did you notice a big bump in hits after getting mentioned on the show?

Chris Sims: Yes. And also a bunch of emails asking me if I’d ever seen that website about how Superman is a dick.

Dave Campbell: Awesome. Enjoy these rewards.

Chris Sims: Yeah. Thanks.

Dave Campbell: What’s the biggest thing that has pulled in hits to the ISB?

Chris Sims: Your mom. Ha ha! Just kidding, pal.

Dave Campbell: Probably me mentioning your site, huh?

Chris Sims: The most popular post on the ISB continues to this day to be “Superman and Batman’s Night Together.” It’s been well over a year since I’ve posted that, and I’m still getting hits from people who are just now finding it.

Dave Campbell: Yeah, I get a ton of traffic for my essay about Power Girl’s breasts. And Airwolf: The Adjective. That won’t die.

Chris Sims: I’ve noticed. Now, one of the most striking things that you do stylistically with your blog is that you often do magazine-style pull-quotes that highlight your jokes in a larger text size. Is this so that your readership can get the gist of your posts just by looking at the pictures and reading the big words? Your comments section would seem to bear this out.

Dave Campbell: Ha! Sometimes I wonder if people read the entire post before commenting. I can’t blame them; I’m long winded. How much can one guy talk about a stupid Wolverine comic? Apparently a lot. The magazine style quotes were an effort on my part to break up large chunks of text because of my aforementioned long-windedness.

Chris Sims: You know what works for me? Writing jokes. Try it sometime.

Dave Campbell: Ignoring you now. Do you feel obligated to make all your posts funny? Or try to at least? You know, give people what they came for and all that.

Chris Sims: Well, I like to think that my strong point is humor writing, and even when I do the “Relatively Serious Reviews” articles, I try to keep things pretty lighthearted. Also, it’s often very hard for me to write straight-up reviews about stuff that I think is really good, since making fun of bad comics is a lot easier than praising the good ones.

Dave Campbell: It is, isn’t it? Cheap jokes are fun and profitable. Sometimes I break format and write a more serious piece. People hate that.

Chris Sims: Maybe they just hate you, and really love Mike Deodato’s art from the late ’90s?

Dave Campbell: I have noticed that posting cheesecake images = hits. Plus, you get Google hits if you use words like “breast” “superheroine” “bondage” etc.

Chris Sims: True story: After I made a joke about an old Dennis the Menace strip, I started getting a significant number of hits from people googling “Alice Mitchell Nude.” The fact that they were searching by her actual name is what freaked me out the most.

Dave Campbell: I get a ridiculous amount of traffic from people looking for filthy stuff on Google. I don’t want to know who’s looking for “alfred robin slash porn hot batcave.”

Chris Sims: Your mom often mentions her hot batcave. Anyway, back to my question…

Dave Campbell: Hang on, vomiting.

[Long pause]

Dave Campbell: Okay, I’m good.

Chris Sims: You’re certainly one of the most popular comics bloggers around. Do you often feel the pressure to maintain a high standard of quality from your readership? And does the pressure of a rigorous, “whenever the hell I feel like it” update schedule ever get to you?

Dave Campbell: I don’t know how you post so much, Chris. Not having a girlfriend must factor into it. But yeah, I do feel a sense of pressure. I feel guilty if I haven’t posted in a few days, too. Your stuff tends to be more image heavy and shorter, much like yourself. It must be easier to post a quick shot of Iron Fist punching a puma. Do you keep a backlog of images for posting, or would that be revealing too much?

Chris Sims: I do have a small backlog of images, but mostly what I post is something I read that day. Tell me, is it hard to maintain a blog when you apparently haven’t read any comics since 1997?

Dave Campbell: Oh, snap! I prefer to think of myself as sticking to my format rather than being hopelessly out of touch with comics today. But really, who wants to read more Civil War jokes? I’m serving a niche.

Chris Sims: There are plenty of people who want to read more Civil War jokes. Coughdick.

Chris Sims: Huh. That doesn’t work so well in text.

Dave Campbell: I got it. Question: Do you ever feel, I don’t know, a little low-brow compared to some of the more literary-minded bloggers out there? I mean, you and I focus on funny shit for the most part and hopefully we convey a sense of how much we dig comics, but I sometimes shudder to think of myself as a serious blogger. I’m no Dirk Deppey.

Chris Sims: Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Dave Campbell: Tuna melt? Cause I could go for a tuna melt right now.

Chris Sims: No, you fool! I’m talking about finally getting us the respect we comics-related-humorists deserve! And then maybe sandwiches after.

Dave Campbell: Hey, it’s hard repackaging the same jokes every day! Or every week, as in my case. We deserve some love.

Chris Sims: It’s settled then. Neilalien, watch your ass.

Dave Campbell: We’re just kidding about Neilalien, right? Because he knows a rare discipline of Ayn Randian Black Magic… and could kill us in our sleep.

Chris Sims: You sleep? No wonder you never post.

Chris Sims: And that’s all the time we have. My guest has been Dave Campbell of the banal and hilarious Dave’s Long Box, updated, and I quote, “whenever.”

Dave Campbell: And my tormentor has been Chris Sims of the rib-tickling Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog, updated by monkeys every six hours.

Has Dave Carter found another clue to the existence of the multiverse in the DCU?

Dave also analyzes the top graphic novels on Amazon.

The Only Child by Warren Craghead looks interesting.

Paul Maybury redesigns Namor over at Project Rooftop.

Brill Building calls it quits. Good luck to you, Ian!

I don’t listen to many podcasts, but Chris Sims is entertaining enough.

Rants seem to be “in” these days. It’s a good one though.

I’ve always enjoyed Dorian’s look at the trailers.

Nothing goes together like comics and NASCAR.

NeilAliens blog analysis is always entertaining too.

Jog reviews the prose issue of Batman.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 at 11:32 am and is filed under Meanwhile.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.