See you, Space Cowboy

Well, folks, it looks like it’s time to power down The Webcomic Overlook for a while. As some of you already know, in a short while, El Santo is getting hitched! So you’ll probably be calling me “Mr. El Santo” in the near future, I suppose. Also, the updates will probably slow to a trickle. It’s already been rather difficult to update this site lately, what with all the picking up relatives from the airport and wrapping up wedding favors and scheduling spa appointments and coordinating with the bridal party and such.

Yes, this will be one of those weddings of epic proportions. (Really. My fiancee’s brother had to seriously re-do their own wedding plans because they knew that they had to do something at least equally awesome if they had to follow us up. Mwahahaha. Beat the best or die like the rest, I say. I think I’m writing that into my vows. Along with “San Dimas High School football rules!” You children of the 80’s know what I’m talking about.)

After the wedding is honeymoon preparations, paperwork, and the long period when Mrs. El Santo and I are settling into the married life. So, long story short, I have no idea when I’ll get back to this blog I don’t plan on abandoning it permanently, but I do plan on taking a rather long hiatus from this point on.

So what to do in the meantime? Well, you’re lucky I’ve put together a handy-dandy activity sheet for you Webcomic Overlook Readers.

1.) If you’re planning to propose or have a wedding, check out how some webcomic personalities do it.

Not too long ago, I posted a link to David Willis’ online proposal at Shortpacked! Geeks Next Door recently finished a long arc that documented the couples’ real life wedding. (I have no idea if plastic light sabres were really part of the event or whether they were only part of the comic. To be honest, that just might be a little too dorky for me. At least get some Lord of the Rings replica swords, guys. Those look classy, and — for me, at least — it would match our harpist’s instrument, which is totally decorated in the leaves of Lothlorien.)

The most interesting piece I found was Eric Burns-White’s online proposal, which employed a series of strips drawn by several webcomic artists.

2.) Read the Webcomic Overlook archives.

So maybe you’ve read one or two reviews on this site, yet you haven’t delved into the archives because there’s just lot of material look at. And I don’t blame you, really. There’s 55 of the bigger reviews (labeled “WCO Big Review” due to some over-arching branding initiative), 19 of the One Punch Reviews, and a bunch of other various reviews scattered here and there. Where to start?

The Wisdom of the Masses theory states that the collective opinions of a group is better and more accurate than the opinion of an individual. Now, I doubt that this theory is always applicable. Heck, I don’t think it really applies to reviews on this site. Frankly, I think it was invented by a really annoying college student who wanted to validate his opinion by crying, “We’ll I can’t be wrong if everyone’s agreeing with me, huh?” Then he rode his theory all the way to the top, eventually becoming a billionaire that the rest of us decided to pay attention to because he had a lot of money, and how can someone so rich be wrong at all?

Anyhow, in case you do subscribe to the Wisdom of the Masses theory, here are the site’s Top 25 Most Read reviews. Should I be worried that my Top Two both involve anthropomorphic cats? Mayyyybeeeeeee.

The Top 25 Most Read Reviews on The Webcomic Overlook

1. WCO#35: VG Cats (1 Star)
2. WCO#46: Sequential Art (3 Stars)
3. WCO#22: Thinkin’ Lincoln (3 Stars)
4. WCO#17: 8-Bit Theater (4 Stars)
5. WCO#7: Marry Me (2 Stars)
6. WCO#36: Fanboys (4 Stars)
7. WCO#53: Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi (2 Stars)
8. WCO#18: Savage Chickens (5 Stars)
9. WCO#25: Gunnerkrigg Court (5 Stars)
10. WCO#28: Applegeeks (1 Star)
    
    
11. WCO#44: The Order Of The Stick (4 Stars)
12. OPR#1: The Critic Webcomics (Webcomics are Awesome, Shmorky, Comicspresso, Ctrl+V Derivitaries)
13. WCO#21: The Adventures of Dr. McNinja (4 Stars)
14. WCO#32: Horribleville (5 Stars)
15. OPR#4: Aliens, Zombies, and Scary Little Girls (Alien Loves Predator, Thorn, and Awkward Zombie)
16. WCO#40: Alpha Shade (2 Stars)
17. OPR#11: Kate Beaton (5 Stars)
18. WCO#52: Erfworld (4 Stars)
19. WCO#10: WICKEDPOWERED (5 Stars)
20. WCO#37: Subnormality (3 Stars)
    
    
21. OPR#7: Darths & Droids (4 Stars)
22. WCO#2: Year One (3 Stars)
23. WCO#45: Better Days (1 Star)
24. WCO#16: Lackadaisy (5 Stars)
25. WCO#55: Jump Leads (4 Stars)

3.) Hang out at someone else’s blog/podcast.

Over on the right-hand column, I have a handy list of blogs and podcasts you may want to follow for a short while. Here are the ones that I think are the best:

• Webcomic Weekly – Great chemistry between four of the most popular webcomic artists out there: Scott Kurtz, Dave Kellett, Kris Straub, and Brad Guigar. Even if you’re not a fan of their respective comics, they do provide valuable insight on what it’s like to be at the forefront of the brave now world of webcomics.
• ComixTalk – Not just because I’m one of the review writers. It always surprises me of the things Xaviar Xerexes manages to cover, such as interviews with long forgotten web personalities to picking up on business stories that are only tangentially related to the webcomic business.
• The Floating Lightbulb – Part review site, part trade chatter, The Floating Lightbulb always provides a fresh perspective on the art of making webcomics.
• Comic Dish – Right up there with Webcomics Weekly as one of the best webcomic podcasts out there. Other podcasts tend to sound very amateur. Comic Dish, though, keeps things moving along, and the hosts are generally chatty and personable. The Brad Guigar interview was one of the best interviews I’ve heard.
• Comic Fencing – Lots of reviewers, plenty of different perspectives. What’s great about this system? If you identify yourself with a reviewer’s perspectives, there’s a good chance you’ll feel the same way about the comic they’re chatting about.
• This Week in Webcomics – Webcomics from the perspective on a diehard fan. It’s got the comfortable, free-form style that makes it sould like a pal is just shooting the breeze about the latest webcomic storylines. Truly one my favorites to follow week in and week out.

Well, I think that should tide you over for now. Thanks to all you great readers who’ve been check this site for the past year. WordPress says I was getting something like 470 pageviews a day in September, which is truly humbling. Not bad for a silly little blog that started off gushing about Nedroid’s marathon stick-figure session and eventually ballooning to some ridiculous 2,000+ word essays about, say, a sentient poo spawned from a turn-of-the-century novelist in Baltimore. Or a couple of vagrant cats who talk exclusively in internet memes. Or a ninja that is also a doctor. Or a boxing otter that talks purely in symbols. Or incestual furries.

I hope I introduced a lot of you to the wild and crazy world of webcomics yet entertained you at the same time. It’s kills me that I’m abandoning this blog just when I seem to be attracting a decent amount of readers, but a man’s got to have his priorities straight, amirite? Besides, it’s not like I’ll be gone forever.

See you, Space Cowboy.