Over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting some reviews of comics / books I've recently acquired. However, please don't send me any more as I don't have a lot of time to review them.
As I've said since the start of this year, this blog will be ending this year so I'm winding things down. I'll continue to preview/review The Tempest and the Treasury of British Comics books/specials (and a couple of other things) but not unsolicited comics and books.
Blimey! was never intended to be a review site as such, and I feel that an emphasis on reviews has moved the blog away from its purpose of focusing on old comics. A few people who clearly never follow this blog have taken it for granted that I'll plug their comics, but never reciprocate by plugging mine, and after a few years of this I think I'm within my rights to call a halt to it. I'm not talking about comics by friends, but by complete strangers who send me press releases marked "For immediate release" with not even a polite request. I'm afraid they go straight in the bin. I find it difficult enough to keep on top of reviews of comics I want to promote, never mind those I'm not interested in.
Anyway, as I said at the start, I do have some comics/books by friends that I'll be plugging here over the next couple of weeks, and the first of those reviews will hopefully appear tomorrow.
UPDATE: No time for reviews this week but they'll appear from next week.
As I've said since the start of this year, this blog will be ending this year so I'm winding things down. I'll continue to preview/review The Tempest and the Treasury of British Comics books/specials (and a couple of other things) but not unsolicited comics and books.
Blimey! was never intended to be a review site as such, and I feel that an emphasis on reviews has moved the blog away from its purpose of focusing on old comics. A few people who clearly never follow this blog have taken it for granted that I'll plug their comics, but never reciprocate by plugging mine, and after a few years of this I think I'm within my rights to call a halt to it. I'm not talking about comics by friends, but by complete strangers who send me press releases marked "For immediate release" with not even a polite request. I'm afraid they go straight in the bin. I find it difficult enough to keep on top of reviews of comics I want to promote, never mind those I'm not interested in.
Anyway, as I said at the start, I do have some comics/books by friends that I'll be plugging here over the next couple of weeks, and the first of those reviews will hopefully appear tomorrow.
UPDATE: No time for reviews this week but they'll appear from next week.
Hi Lew - sad to hear you are winding down the Blimey! Blog, you are the only resource for UK centric comics I've found on the internets, so you'll be greatly missed. But thanks for your work and time in highlighting the great British comic and all who've sailed in her!! And best of luck in you future comics and projects!!
ReplyDeleteThank you. Well, I said six months ago I'd wind it down and I'm still here, but it will be finished by the end of this year. My other blog will continue though.
ReplyDeleteAlso, check out John Freeman's Down the Tubes blog for more in depth UK comics coverage.
Will the blog stay available in some form, e.g. an archive as a historical source? It is a great source of info about comics down the years (and decades) and would hate to see it disappear altogether.
ReplyDeleteThe blog will remain here as always, until either Blogger delete it or the Internet is wiped out. I'll just stop posting. I'm not deleting the blog.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a journalist, "For Immediate Release" on anything always annoyed me.
ReplyDeleteI too will be sad to see the retirement of Blimey!, Lew. It's been a good read for many years.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could consider the time-honoured tradition of British comics and take a "Great news inside for all our readers" approach and amalgamate the two: "Lew Stringer Comics incorporating Blimey!"?
That way you could post the very occasional feature about British comics (say five or six a year) in amongst all of your personal notices.
Just a thought (and not to be taken too seriously).
;-)
I think that might lead to some confusion because clients would expect to see my own work there and not a divergence into other people's strips. However, if, for example I was drawing another strip featuring old characters (like the one I did for the Cor/Buster special) then I suppose a little back history of those characters wouldn't go amiss. On the whole though, I need to promote my own work on my blog because too many times I'm referred to as a "comic historian" or some such (which I'd never call myself) and the fact I'm an artist/writer is overlooked. I'm not a historian to the extent that Ray Moore, Alan Clark, Denis Gifford were (or still are in Ray's case). I know a lot about a little bit, and a little about other stuff.
ReplyDelete