revolution34

When I first discovered the joys of RSS and blogging and that, one of my first must-check sites was Boing Boing, the self-proclaimed “directory of wonderful things”. It seemed to be a good starting point from which to discover some of the more interesting bits and pieces available on the web.

However over the years, as my list of RSS feeds has increased, I’ve realised a few things about Boing Boing

1) There’s nothing there that’s generally not already been blogged somewhere else, often days earlier.
2) With the exception of Cory Doctorow’s anti-DRM rants, there is very little in the way of op-ed. It’s basically a glorified cut-n-paste exercise.
3) There is very little fact-checking of their articles, and the lack of comments make it almost impossible for inaccuracies to be quickly corrected. Occasinally the original poster will ‘update’ a post with correct information, but that relies on someone emailing the poster and them picking up the mail – very ‘old media’ in approach, that.

 These have been small bugbears for me for a while, and I’ve resisted blogging them because to be honest it seems to be somewhat trendy to bash Boing Boing at the moment. Unfortunately, Cory Doctorow’s recent spate of graphic-novel related posts have really got my back up.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great when anyone comes out and recommends graphic novels as being more than a collection of comics, and someone with Doctorow’s readership is in as good a position as anyone to be championing this stuff, but it’s the tone of his recommendations that get up my nose – it’s got the smug “I know something you don’t” tone that permeates all of his posts, combined with a complete lack of background research. Basically, he discovered his new favourite comic shop in October last year and as a result all of his recommendations are pretty much the big-hitters of the non-superhero comic book world. It’s the same problem that I have with Jo Fucking Whiley and the earnestness with which she excitedly recommends a “really good new band” who are, in fact, on their fourteenth album and then proceeds to pronounce their name wrong.

 So, here are my predictions for what we’ll be reading Cory gushing about next:

•  Azzarello and Risso’s 100 Bullets – he likes a bit of the old noir, does Cory, and there are currently 10 volumes of increasingly complicated plot for him to sink his teeth into. Volume 11 is out in a month or so, so maybe The Secret Headquarters will put it somewhere obvious for him.
• Ennis and Robertson’s The Boys – recently dumped by DC and picked up by Dynamite, the trade of the first arc should be out in the next couple of months. Cory will use Warren Ellis’s ‘underwear perverts’ line in his write-up.
• Ellis and Templesmith’s Fell - the first hardcover is out this week, or something. Given that he appreciates both Ellis’s writing and Templesmith’s artwork, this should be a no-brainer.
• Gillen & McKelvie’s Phonogram – The first volume finished in singles a week or two ago so the trade should be on its way soon, and Cory’s something of an Anglophile so Britpop should be right up his street.