I couldn’t let the sad day go by without mentioning how much I’ve enjoyed Graeme McMillan’s Fanboy Rampage since I’ve been blog-watching.
Beyond being consistently entertaining (even if the entertainment sometimes takes an “I know I should look away, but I can’t” form), I think the blog has provided some very valuable investigative journalism. Developments that might have gone unnoticed (or under-noticed) have come under fuller scrutiny thanks to Graeme’s efforts, and scarcely a week goes by without FBR sparking some very useful discussion.
It’s too bad The Comics Journal couldn’t add one more installment to their on-line comics journalism series, because I think FBR counts in its surreptitious way. In fact, I’d say it counts as much as or more than many of the sites they did cover.
Beyond those valuable contributions, I also like to think Graeme’s remorseless scrutiny of message-board stupidity might have actually made some people more inclined to be civil. If even a handful of people thought before they wrote because they were afraid of looking like a nitwit on FBR, it will have all been worth it.
So thanks, Graeme, for two years of subjecting yourself to some of the worst that the comics internet has to offer and putting it in an entertaining package. I’ll miss FBR a lot.