This is Russell Burlingame, reporting for Blog@Newsarama. I’m on the road today, away from Manhattan for an extended holiday weekend with my family, and so have decided that while I wait for some things to gel, it’s not a bad idea to take Michael C. Lorah’s example and let readers know who the heck I am.
Since February, I’ve become known as the head writer for Comic Related, a fast-growing comics news site where we cover basically nothing but comics. A few movies every so often, and video games and the like might come up in someone’s blog…but it’s mostly just comic books over there, something that appeals to me because I feel like whenever someone like Wizard or Newsarama take on too much video game or movie news, it overtakes the comics, simply on the strength of its mainstream appeal.
One of the things that appeals to me about covering nothing-but-comics is that people don’t give comics enough credit. Comic books aren’t just superheroes and I think anyone here at Newsarama would have to know that, but it’s something that even the comics-savvy sometimes have a hard time putting in perspective. In the last couple of years, my favorite graphic novels have been Matt Silady’s The Homeless Channel and Alex Robinson’s Too Cool To Be Forgotten. There’s a lot more in the comics industry and the comics medium to cover, than most reporters choose to cover or have the opportunity to cover when under a lot of editorial guidance. That’s one thing that I’ve always loved at Comic Related–Chuck Moore over there lets me do more or less anything I want, as long as the story doesn’t suck–and that’s what’s appealing about the Blog@ forums. How often do you get to go on Newsarama and plug some book just because it’s good and out, without worrying about newsworthiness? Score!
Anyway, over at Comic Related, a site that focuses a lot of its energy on indie and underground comix, I’m kind of “the mainstream guy,” with some connections and friends that I made when I was a kid interning at Wizard magazine (save the slings and arrows, I’ve heard them all and it’s been almost ten years since I was there anyway). I write the weekly Hot Shot of the Week piece, as well as monthly (or as close as I can get) columns that sit down the the writers after Booster Gold, The Perhapanauts, Manhunter and Deadpool come out. There’s a bunch of other feature columns I work on, which I’m sure will come up at some point, and I’m also a “real” reporter who does interviews and breaks news and things…sometimes.
I’ll still be at Comic Related, doing my thing…and some of that might bleed over into here, but I’m trying to keep the two gigs fairly separate. I’ve got a number of fun articles for Blog@ coming up soon–a look at the New York comics scene including some of the off-the-beaten-path stuff like Molly Crabapple’s small-but-very-well-promoted “Dr. Sketchy’s” events, an interview with Jim Infantino of the geek-rock band Jim’s Big Ego, and let’s face it–if anyone here knows my work it’s impossible to imagine a month going by without my writing about at least a half-dozen mainstream superhero comics.
Should be a fun ride–welcome aboard, and hopefully I won’t steer anybody into an iceberg or something.
