Comic Book Resources

The Second Coming of Joe! Huzzah!

Dibs on picking which Greg.

Does Tom Beland get a vote?

Great idea. Always nice to see ways of increasing reader participation and all that other stuff.

I suppose I should try to be funny, so...

Well, if they kill off a Greg, don't worry everyone, they'll just bring him back in the next crossover. With a bionic arm or new armor or something so he'll be even sweeter.

Glad to have you back, Joe!

Thanks, Jonah. Now here's hoping this doesn't get me yelled at by my wife.

You don't have to kill one of them off, you just have to give them a tawdry affair... with each other. THAT is a stunt!

By the way, in response to the Lois and Clark ad, who else wants to see Scott Baio as Superman?

Great idea. Always nice to see ways of increasing reader participation and all that other stuff.

While I have no problem with increasing reader participation, I don't get how that applies here.

"By the way, in response to the Lois and Clark ad, who else wants to see Scott Baio as Superman? "

Lex Luthor, stop talking nonsense to Bob Loblaw!

It's sad, but I didn't know that Joe was ever involved with CSBG. But hey, yay Joe's back!

Involved? Godammit! I invented the damn thing!

Who was the original line-up?

Me
Kamandi/Alex
Cronin
Tadghghghg
. . .

Were Teel and Tom in it at first?

An inventor you say, well I expect greatness then. Do not disappoint us, Mr. Rice.

Just for the record, courtesy of a PM from me to Joe on 12/7/04:

By the way...I just came up with literally the coolest idea.

Remember before, when you said, "You guys can all post on my blog?"

Well...how about this...why not just create a NEW blog, and let dudes we know who like to write about comic books post on it - and just about comics- each one of us would be able to create an entry whenever we felt like it. It would just be our comments about comics. We could have Trix, you, me, Alex...Paul Mc if he would like to do it.

And then we would respond in comments, insulting and belittling each other's opinions!

Wouldn't that be the ginchiest idea?

Just for the record.

FILTHY IRISH LIES.

Uh oh, someone made the mistake of asking me to explain myself...

Mr. Cronin, and you'll excuse me if I'm a bit simplistic and patronizing here but as I hardly understand the concepts at play here I only can only relate the basics myself. Anyway, increasing reader participation applies here because, to my mind, when you use the metaphor of "sweeps month" you're appropriating that particular idea and applying it to your own situation. And, to me, sweeps month is what networks - television, radio, and otherwise, I'm sure - use to set their advertising rates. Hence, they want to increase their viewership (readers rather than viewers in this case) as much as possible if only temporarily so that they can increase their ad revenue.

So, they have stunts, they have special events, they have giveaways. The net effect, as I understand it, is that not only do they attract more of the same pool of viewers they also attract new viewers who might not have been attracted before without said stunts and promotion. The same principle applies to sales, raffles, contests, and any other sort of marketing. Which, if you believe in the concept of viral marketing - and if anyone's ever e-mailed you a video clip they found on the net somewhere then you should because it's basically the same thing - then that applies not just to mass marketing but to attracting a single person who'll tell a friend who'll tell their friends and so on. So, any attempt at "sweep stunts" - to me - reads as an attempt to increase your marketing efforts which should result in more people at least looking at your site.

As I'm relatively new to commenting here, having just recently taken the step from just passively listening to participating in the conversation, and not particularly sure exactly why, it was on my mind. I saw that and thought it was speaking to me and everyone else a little hesitant to step forward and needing some sort of excuse but let me assure everyone that I took that first step and I'm thoroughly enjoying my time so far. Sorry to misunderstand you, Mr. Cronin, as I had no intention of putting words in your mouth. It's just that you're not the first site I've seen offer...say, a new feature or a stunt of some sort lately and it seems to me that somehow, somewhere, the collective unconsciousness is turning towards if not increasing readership then how to make a good blog a little better.

That makes sense! Having Joe's Media Reviews here certainly does make the blog better.

To top this, we may have to kill one of the Gregs off in February…

No no, you don't just kill one of them off, you have them fight each other to the death, complete with Star Trek Fight Music! Da da da da da da DA da da DA DA!

Why kill off one of the Gregs? You could just as easily kill of one of the B.C.s!

Thank you SO MUCH, Rebis, for comPLETELY ruining our swerve. Christ. Back to the drawing board.

YESSS!

(In case you didn't know, I'm the also guy whose leaks forced DC into swapping Hawk for Captain Adam. I love ruining twists to dopey comic stunts.)

Dopey?!? DOPEY!??

That's it, we're killing them all. Except me.

...Um. Boss? I don't want to die...not even for sweeps.