With the new SuperFogeys site came this blog you’re reading right now. (Doesn’t it look so much prettier now? Yes, I’ve heard your cries. The blog and comments have been difficult to read and hopefully all the cosmetic changes we’ve made in the past 24 hours clear up most of the issues. I can’t please everybody–but I think you’ll agree that reading the blog now is a snap. Now, go back and read the all the stuff you missed because your eyes were hurting so bad.) I’ve blogged about everything from the hazards of tipping to watching Star Wars with my kids to how I constructed the story for the SuperFogeys to reviews of movies and music. That’s a pretty wide rang of topics. Lately, I’ve been wondering if that’s such a good thing. Like the second season of Community (and boxes of chocolate), when you tune in to my blog, you don’t quite know what you’re gonna get.
Blog identity. It’s not something I give a lot of thought to. My guiding light is just to write about things I’m interested in and that I think might be of interest to my fellow geeks. What’s my blog about? Ends up being whatever I feel like talking about in the moment. But maybe that’s not good enough.
The question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately is: What do SuperFogeys fans want to read in this blog? After all, this blog does run below a comic. Do you want to only see SuperFogeys stuff? Webcomic stuff? Blogs about writing or art? I put these questions to you. Help me out! What do YOU want to see?
Written by : Brock Heasley
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First off, the lighter post background is a welcome change. Nice work! It’s prettier and everything.
Second, content I want to see: reviews. I don’t know that reviews are the most popular on this blog (no really—I don’t know), but reviews are easier for me to read than long selections of text. When I look at a review, I know what I’m getting into, which means I can find things quickly. I don’t, for example, need to read an entire post about Once Upon a Time to find the pieces that interest me (points where we agree/disagree). The same can’t be said of stories from your life, etc., which are harder to pocket quickly.
That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the other stuff, or that I don’t want to see the other stuff. I guess I decided to answer the question, “What is your favorite type of blog post?” Answer: reviews of music/TV/movies/games/entertainment. That’s why I’m on IGN all the time. I love reviews.
Everything’s readable for me. The biggest problem I’d had with the new site was that it loaded VEEEEEERY slow for some reason. Seems to be fine now, though 🙂
Glad it’s working so much better for you now, Bryan! Wer’e still working out the kinks on the new site, but we’re pretty close now.
I never had any problems with the old color scheme or etc. It was very readable to me and didn’t load slowly. As for what I want to read? I like a wide range of things. I honestly like reading up about things going on in your life because it helps us get to know the man behind the little cartoon Brock avatar image and see you for a real person. Of course, there are reasons why most people online probably wouldn’t prefer it, but I think it’s great because I care a lot more about people than I do about webcomics and movies and video games and etc. But that obviously doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy those things too; I obviously keep coming back to read the webcomic! lol. I’ve enjoyed seeing snippets of your book from time to time. It’s something that means a great deal to you. And I guess investing myself in real people instead of the fictional not only feels better in general, but makes me feel better about myself. But that’s just me and, no matter how much of a punk I can be at times, maybe it stems from my desire to reach out to others and make the world a better place. The caring more about real people than fictional things part, I mean.
Otherwise, if we were talking about why I go to other blog websites that don’t talk about the blog creators’ lives, it’s because I’m trying to find out whether or not Bill Murray is finally going to do Ghostbusters 3 or something, lol. I rarely comment on most blogs. Pretty much only webcomics and yours, Brock. (I stopped commenting on the Ghostbuster blog sites; too much in-fighting about whether or not GB3 should even be made, lol). So I guess if you did want to keep the blogs somehow appropriate, this is my idea: Post news about upcoming Superhero movies and cartoons, etc. Not everything, just the ones you want to blog about. Like that new Superman or Spiderman coming out or the third Batman or the Avengers movie. And when they come out do a review on them. 🙂 I LOVE superheroes. Just throwing that out there. That’s one of the reasons I keep reading SuperFogeys. That, and it’s just plain awesome. There are TONS, literally TONS, of Superhero webcomics out there, but I choose SF to keep coming back to. A part of that is because there’s always new content (unlike my own SuperMilo, ha ha). But I wouldn’t be reading, even with new content, if it wasn’t good. Oops, getting off topic. I’m saying, I’d pair up the superhero webcomic with some superhero news and movie reviews and etc. You can always give heads up on new DC and Marvel or other party supers coming to DVD or even blog about the old shows you used to love or want to see. Shows like the live action TV series Hulk or Fleischer’s Superman (oh my goodness, awesome), the live action TV series Spiderman, or even more recent things ranging anywhere from Batman the Animated Series to Freakazoid to The Tick to TMNT to Young Justice (okay, most of that wasn’t recent; I guess I’m stuck in the 80’s and 90’s). You can even bag on how bad this or that old show was (“Spiderman and his Amazing Friends”? Or “Super Friends”? That one duo has one only turn into water and they have a pet monkey. What’s up with that?), or praise something or even pick it apart on a psychological level.
But I think it’s best to stick with what you currently like and are interested in. The above is what I would do – if I had the spare time. Over at MiloTeam.com, my website, we’ve had a blog underneath the SuperMilo comic for more than two years. I gave that space to my webmaster who expresses a love for reviewing things and what not. We’ve both been way too busy with life to bother fiddling with it though. So, oh well.
Okay, I just saw the site change. There are blue squares encasing the blog posts. Glad that the yellow/orange gradient is still for the webcomic. Haven’t looked at everything around the site yet. I personally liked the old color and design better, but just gotta let this one grow on me is all. I do have to admit that it is easier to separate the different blog posts at a first glance now though.
Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. Sounds like there’s a fan out there for just about any type of blog I choose to do. Reviews. Personal stories. Superheroes. Got it!
I’ve really liked coming here more and more since the big switch awhile back. I haven’t had any issues with the blog or readability that I can think of.
And I’ve also really enjoyed every entry. Thanks for all of your hard work! It’s appreciated and enjoyed.
Ever think about going the message board route at some point?
Thanks, John! I’m having a lot more fun with the site too.
As for a message board… I had one once upon a time but it just kind of fizzled. I have access to a SuperFogeys message board over at the Rampage Network, but I’ve never used it and the two comments that are there are from spammers. It seems to me like the best place to discuss SF is under the strips themselves and in the blogs.