I won't stay in a world without snark
Apologies to Lennon and McCartney.
Fanboy Rampage packed it in yesterday. It had been coming for some time, really. And that's okay. Because if he stuck with it, Graeme would become the Johnny Lydon of snark: meteoric and incandescent before burning out and appearing on The Surreal Life. None of us really wants that, do we? I didn't think so.
FBR!!! at its best was a place that demanded not simple snark, not just a rapier wit and thirst for blood. It demanded outrage. Outrage born out of jesters cavorting and fiddlers fiddling while Rome burned. It was the only appropriate response to the Hype Age of Comics, bent on deflating egos and savaging naked emperors (of which there no shortage - nor are there today).
Sadly, the comments section dipped into self-parody more than once. Or twice. Or thrice. And yet, we still came back for more, knowing that sooner or later the trolls summoned in from various other messgaeboards would give up (or the peanut gallery's attention would be diverted elsewhere.) Somehow, FBR!!! remained essential reading, even in the midst of the pain and anguish of Paul O'Brien's dark night of the soul or the stab of the arctic shit-knife. Graeme, like Peter Finch's character in Network, was Mad As Hell And Not Going To Take It Anymore. At least not quietly. Only flimflam artists and sycophants had anything to fear.
Odd that people are talking about the death of the comics blogosphere right about this time. Funny, but I don't see that. Sure, a lot of the more prominent early booggers hung it up, or went on to gigs that paid them for their time and effort. Some of them are even trying to actually get work in comics and watch what they say (/me raises hand), but that hasn't stopped others from firing up their own blogs and getting the word out. Whatever word that is (and there's as many opinions as there are bloggers and commentors). Perhaps people are regretting a missed opportunity for comics bloggers to save comics and enforce a positive (from their perception) change. That, of course, is a cherished notion that is largely bunk. I dont' see too much change to the industry having come from the fan communities. Sure, some of those fans became creators and exerted influence (arguably detrimental as a whole, depending who you talk to).
But I don't think that's the point. Blogs aren't supposed to save the world. They might get people talking, but they, much like mailinglists and USEnet and messageboards, aren't likely to change anyone's mind. Or rescue the medium.
However, I'm off-track. I really should be saluting Graeme and his many thankless hours of work and ultimately his inspiration. Without him, I wouldn't have written a single column or started this here blog. Well, maybe I would have, but he made it look so damn easy that I figured I could do it too.
Bottoms-up, ye wee bastid! Here's to yeh!