100*One Hundred*100

Well, here it is. I'm closing in on my first calendar year and have hit that magic base-10 milestone of the 100th post at 13 Minutes! It's been quite a hectic year. For the most part, I've managed to hit all of my original goals when I started the site. I've kept up with the weekly posts, never missing a single one. Of course, there were a few occasions where I only had time to simply *list* (not actually read) the books I acquired with some casual observations, but those were few and far between. At least one post went up every single week, and I'm proud of that regularity, and typically it was two or three. On top of that, I also kept up the promise of the recurring Graphic Novel Of The Month review, in fact some of the more recent monthly posts included multiple offerings, because there were simply so many (too many!) fine titles to choose from. Additionally, we had San Diego Comic Con International coverage, Eisner Awards coverage, and a lot of other miscellaneous ramblings. I managed to sneak in the Top 10 lists for the year (something I plan on doing again at the end of this calendar year), and was pleasantly surprised by the number of creators who stopped by and all of the various places on the web that linked to 13 Minutes (or ran 13 Minutes reviews). The only significant thing I'd really like to add in the coming year will be commentary from some guest contributors. In fact, I have a few contest ideas in mind to search for new talent to contribute to the 13 Minutes reviews. More to come on that!

One more thing I'd like to do is create a 13 Minutes ComicCast (ie: Podcast). I've talked to a few people in the industry who've tried this and have been listening religiously to Fanboy Radio and Augie De Blieck's Pipeline Podcast to get a feel for what I like and don't like, and mainly what my key market differentiator would be. I've been researching recording software, RSS feed file hosting, as well as the latest and greatest in mic capability (thanks to my pal Lawrence Ingraham, whose tech skills dwarf my own, thanks Law!). Looking to get that started during the calendar year.

As if that weren't enough on getting the comic book review message into the world, I also accepted a Freelance Writer position at the East County Californian (California's Oldest Weekly Newspaper! That's San Diego's East County, for those of you keeping score at home...) where I write a weekly column titled Sequential Essentials. Keeping up with the hustle and flow of a frenzied weekly paper and being somewhat accountable to an Editor (I'll resist the temptation of my inner Spider Jerusalem and not refer to her as my "pig-fucking Editor") was interesting. But, at the end of the day the ECC crew has been most hospitable and let me do just about anything I wanted. It's a paying gig and getting the "word" out to the un(comic)educated masses has been rewarding.

Still scratching that incessant itch to write, I've been slowly making progress on some scripts. I was quite active cranking them out and passing them onto up and coming friends of friends on the fringe of the industry in the 2000-2003 era and then hit a bit of a lull. Thankfully, I've been jumping back in. I recently completed a script titled Generosity, USA which is a biographical tale about my Grandfather's exploits in the Army Air Corps during World War II. I'm also putting together some ideas for a second arc of The Adventures of Galaxy Dog (first 11 issues in the can, thank you very much!). My most recent writing project is actually an 8-issue Batman mini-series. There's no way in hell I think I'm ready to write a big property and DC flat out doesn't accept unsolicited submissions, so I started doing this self-imposed writing "assignment" mostly for the practice. I had an idea pop into my head that no Batman scribe has ever attempted and felt like fleshing it out. Before long I was doing tons of research online, had the first 3 issues plotted and decided to just finish it out. It's not fully scripted yet, but suddenly I was writing a one page proposal and seeking out DC Editors. I'm just about to pitch the one page proposal, fingers crossed!

In the middle of all that, work (my "real job") has been ridiculously intense, full of tight deadlines, a budget crisis, laying off a few people, unexpected emergency incidents popping up (bomb threat in Houston, anyone?) and the return of business travel for yours truly.

So, that's lucky #100. Thanks for reading!