13 Minutes Turns 5 Years Old

Today marks the 5th anniversary of 13 Minutes! Looking back into the archives, it’s interesting to find that a handful of my very first reviews included Greg Rucka’s Queen & Country (Oni Press), Warren Ellis and Adi Granov’s Iron Man: Extremis (Marvel), Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly’s Local #1 (Oni Press), along with Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman #1 (DC). This is a pretty illustrious group of books that reflects some stalwart favorites. Although my reading habits have wandered all over the place since, it really does emphasize one of the guidelines I set out to adhere to early on in order to differentiate myself in the “attention economy” of the web, which was to hype books that I enjoyed instead of just offering fleeting and ultimately empty snark. 815 posts later, blogging has proven to be an excellent way to demonstrate knowledge, establish credibility, and network. It’s led to additional writing gigs, being exposed to work that I wouldn’t have been otherwise, various companies featuring pull quotes in digital venues and on the books themselves in print, meeting all sorts of creators along the way, from the indie small press to the mainstream, and establishing many lasting relationships, both professionally and personally.

In honor of 13 Minutes’ 5th birthday, I thought I’d just post this simple, but adorable sketch of our namesake from the amazing Cliff Chiang. Though the urban magi Traci Thirteen first appeared in Superman #189 by Geoff Johns and Pasqual Ferry in February of 2003, Traci and her dad didn’t really rise to any level of notoriety until the brilliantly self-aware Doctor 13: Architecture & Mortality mini-series by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang, where they’re united with other characters whose books have been cancelled, like Anthro, Genius Jones, Infectious Lass, and the crew of The Haunted Tank. The story ran as a back up feature in the lackluster Tales of the Unexpected mini-series featuring The Spectre, but was thankfully later collected independently of that affair in 2007 by DC Comics. As Wikipedia succinctly explains, it is a “...story that repeatedly breaks the fourth wall and comments on the then current state of DC Comics and its continuity. Dr. Thirteen's group fights the Architects, the four writers who were heavily involved in the direction of the DC Universe titles at the time — Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Mark Waid — to convince them to include them in the new universe.” Needless to say, it’s highly recommended and one of my favorite books.