I am not sure when it happened but fandom died long time ago. When the internet became a thing for millions the rush to create groups talking about comics, comic comnpanies of the past and characters was like a tsunami. I set up my first Yahoo group in 2002 and blog in 1998. It was almost a full time job answering questions and chatting to members.
Then came The Troll Wars. If you ran a group or forum between 2004-2005 then you were probably involved in it. For the period of a year trolls sent fake messages under other peoples names, sent nasty messages 'from' people involved in comics and then we had the spammers -porn, watches....mainly porn- but in the end Group and forum owners won out with a lot of perseverance.
Comic forums and groups had a major problem that could bot be beaten: people within the comic creators community who, lacking work and attention (and having low IQs) decided to attack and back-stab other creators. Some of the nicest people I knew in comics just came off social media because of attacks on them. All the while these nasty little pieces of human jetsom put on the facade of being "nice guys". I witnessed them smiling and laughing with other creators but as soon as those creators were gone out came the poison coated daggers.
Anyone seriously interested in comics -particularly in the UK- will avoid UK comic forum. Say even "hello" and the forum owner will allow his "nice guy" friend (or person he is terrified of confronting) to not just be rude and nasty but even use obscene language at you. I found this and so did many others. Why? Well, these people worked in comics anonymously for years and now they could release all their built up resentment and bile on others -including people who were far better at the comic work. Suggest everyone get toget5her and start pushing British comics and Small Press and wait for the4 slap-down. I suggested it and one little freak decided to say I had "a Jesus complex"...as far as I know Jesus never worked in the comics industry or wanted to help save it.
If you were a comic fan and saw all this going on and read the vicious little spats going on (still going on in 2020) between comic creators whose work you admired would you really want to keep reading or just go back to reading your comics? People who worked in comics now working to actively stop new comics.
At the ame time comic blogs appeared and disappeared. Yahoo360 was closed without much warninbg and that saw thye end of many...some moved on and I moved to Freeservers, MySpace and on and on -each company either closing or restricting how you could use the "media".
Google+ we had all the Google denials that it was going to be shut down. I had 3 million views then one day (after more denials) "We're closing down.
My Yahoo group had the same fate. As with Yahoo360 there were denials that groups were to go. Then denials that any changes would be made. The week before the Yahoo announcement that it was removing all content other than "email exchanges" they isued a statement that this was all rumour NOT fact. I warned everyone and everyone ignored me. The British Comic Book Archive Yahoo group had 6,000+ images and hundreds of files covering the Penny Dreadfuls, Platinum, Golden and Silver ages -some very rare material. All gone. I warned people that the next step would be closing down groups comp-letely. Oh no -Yahoo gave all the assurances that it would never do this. Last week it announced that it was closing the groups website.
The excuse was that the groups were not used as much these days. In fact, that was true. Despite the huge membership of British CB Archives I was lucky if I got two responses a month and only then after I wrote "Is anyone still interested in this?". It was, as far as I am concerned, my last attempt at forming a British comic book archive. I puhed the hell out of it and in two years of doing that 2-3 times a week not one single new member. So who exactly was saying "We need somewhere to discuss and look at old UK comics?"
I closed down the UK Go0lden Age Comics blog because, lots of views, but I was literally posting to myself. Low IQs, it seems, meant people could grab material I posted for their own use but not even write "interesting" or "Good post".
In fact, most of the blogs I have get high to very high views but on most there have been only 2-3 comments in 11-15 years. Again, material (particularly original material) has been lifted and used by others -including some of those "nice guys"- on their blogs as THEIR work.
Comic Bits Online. At the moment the total number of views stands at 3.9 million. Blogger has a tendency to delete huge numbers of views from stats (never found out why). However, after the last big deletion I started keeping a record. Total views of CBO are over 8 million coming up to 9 million since 2011. Most comments are between myself and people I know to keep in touch. However, there is a world-wide audience for CBO covering every continent and island state (as noted in previopus posts) yet no comments? In one week back at WordPress I got more comments and likes than on CBO in 2 years.
Why?
At the moment it may be CBO vanishes as my old PC is about to nose-dive into concrete. I have, over the last 5 years, pointed out that there were videos, lengthier features and more mega posts that I had p-lanned but it all takes time and that, putting it bluntly, I needed financial support of some kind to keep thing going. I HATE money for nothing so I suggested buying one of my books. Even the cheapest. I don't get huge profits from it but it keeps money coming in and YOU get something out of it. Nothing./ Tried everything I could think of but apparently not one person ut of the 9 million could give a rats ass. Read or take away and screw you. I could have kept all of this stuff in my head.
Of course, if I was young and female and willing to flash a little cleavage I'd be likely getting money and free gifts. Do not even argue on this as a quick glance at you tube channels from comics, toys, arts and crafts, metal detecting and evenh farming have exactly this. Not criticising those people either because at least they can afford to do what they want to based on this. Maybe I ought to show a little bit of flesh? 😱😱😱😱
Anyway, it appears that Blogger (owned by Google) ARE going to start messing things up and even WordPress are in for changes.
Who can afford to buy a web site and guarantee its continuation (as long as the company is going or until some new company buys it out)? It's a lot of cash and to then be told one day "We are closing things down". Nope. Hey, if you get hundreds or thousands of visits per day and no one is interested in supporting you what is the point.
CBO and the other blogs were set up to not just post things but alo get comic fan interaction and conversations going. They failed.
I checked something earlier and found that I wrote, several times, that the "internet age" was coming to an end. It was sinking into a nasty, vile little place where no one really wanted to talk. It was all about site owners making money qand if money could not be made out of bloggers, etc then they'd close it all down. Basically, we saw this with Yahoo and Googl;e and also You Tube. All started out as free -a forum for spreading knowledge as well as having fun....then the greed crept in along with censorship (see how many You Tu8be videos you can find where thge You tuber panics about whether can "say that now?" or whether music someone is playing a quarter mile away and is barely audible will get THEM a copyright strike.
Ten years ago I wrote that the internet killed off the fanzine. It did because everyone came onto the internet to get it all for free. What you are getting now are half-truths, outright lies and worse from 'news sites' that are company mouthpieces. CBO is not a company mouthpiece and anything I write here is what I think or quote sources for and it seems an Independent voice is not wanted. I tell you a certain person is NOT going to become the She Hulk while other sites highlight her career and create mock-ups of her as She Hulk feeding the fake news and then said person states they are NOT going to be She Hulk. Who wa right?
My thought, ten years ago, was that printed fanzines were needed to make a return. With online stores there is no international shipping or tax costs. You order online anywhere in the world and regional printers get to work and you get the publication delivered to your door.
Comic Bits (volume 2) made its return this year after some 14 years and it will continue doing what it does: looking at creators, titles, publishers and characters from the Penny Dreadful Era, UK Golden and Silver Ages. I can't see that situation changing since no one can be bothered.
Until my PC crashes into oblivion you might get the odd post as before but I am not going to work full time on lengthy projects for nothing. Black Tower Comics & Books blog will continue for as long as blogger does as it promotes my books. The rest? I just take silence as meaning that there is no interest.
It is sad that comic fans -I don't mean jump on the band wagon trendies- appear to have been driven away by the nastier side of the medium and now by the very online companies that offered so much at the start until greed moved in.
Let' hope the fanzine makes a comeback and at least that will be one good thing to come out of 2020.
No comments:
Post a Comment