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| Some comics I've recently reviewed |
It's June 2018, and I've been freed from the life-consuming stress of A-levels. With my newfound freedom, all I want to do is read comics all day - but what if I could turn my love for the graphic novel into something more productive?
The name came first. Paperback in Action probably sounds a bit silly, but at the time I thought it was genius and wanted to claim it before anyone else did - so I set up my blog straight away. This site started off with a garish purple and gold colour scheme in a poor attempt to recreate the feel of the poster for Infinity War, complete with an Avengers font and low-res images of various comic book characters. Still, like furnishing a new home, I felt proud of the little internet space I'd created and was ready to get writing.
In my first post, I described Paperback in Action as "a chronicle of all the new books I find, and a place to share my thoughts on some old favourites". My goal was to create a blog for the casual comic reader, or the superhero film fan that's always been a bit curious in the books that kicked it all off. Comics continuity, with all its reboots and re-numbering, can be a daunting thing, but I wanted to demonstrate that it really is just a case of just checking out what you're interested in.
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| The original Paperback in Action banner |
After writing an introductory post, I realised I wasn't quite sure where to really begin. Watchmen is perhaps the greatest entry-point to comics, but how was I supposed to offer something fresh about a work that people have dissected over and over for decades? Luckily, I managed to find my footing by explaining the cultural phenomenon JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, various comic book formats and the work of quirky cover artist Tom Taggart. I was getting there.
The reviews followed soon after - this was an exciting time for me as I was navigating Grant Morrison's Hypercrisis saga, a series of threads across his books (and others') that lead into the mind-blowing Final Crisis. These might not have been the best picks for a blog about easy-to-follow comics, but chronicling the crisis was a lot of fun and kept my mind active.
I published some of my favourite pieces during this period, such as a tribute to Weekly Shonen Jump for its 50th anniversary, and a feature on the fantastic shop Scorch Comics in Eastbourne, right before they moved to an exciting new building. "Are Kryptonians stronger than Saiyans?", which had me place my bets on the most divisive match-up in the comics community, remains my most-viewed blog post with nearly one hundred views from around the world.
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| Superman vs Goku by Brett Booth and Bruno Furlani |
On the 21st night of September, I enrolled at university and got to know a few guys who like cars and loud music, who each run their own blogs. Having a couple dozen articles under my belt put me in good stead amongst these talented trainee journalists, and we continue to inspire each other to keep writing regularly.
University was pretty demanding stuff from the get-go, forcing me to ditch Paperback in Action's former twice-a-week schedule and switch to a weekly format. It was around this time that a very important guy to the comics community called Stan Lee passed away, and I sat up late at night to prepare a eulogy for the blog. While it was hard to do the man justice, I was proud with my efforts and decided to send it to the editor of our uni's official magazine to see if I could get it published.
Platform Magazine has become home to some of my best work, including articles on Mister Miracle and Into the Spider-Verse, which may be two of the greatest masterpieces I'll have the pleasure of reviewing for quite some time - but let's jump back to another significant part of November.
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| Art from Kingdom by Jon McNaught |
The penultimate month of the year marked my return to keeping up with current comics, when I got my own folder behind the desk of Page 45, the most stylish comic shop on the planet. As well as putting my name down for every upcoming Superman book, I joined "Comic Book of the Month" club. This service has introduced me to some excellent indie comics that most people will unfortunately never even come across, such as Kingdom, The Lady Doctor and this month's phenomenal Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me (keep your eyes out for a review).
Reviews of DC's three ongoing Superman titles (Unity Saga, Action Comics and Justice League) and Marvel's brilliant Immortal Hulk have become regular features for Paperback in Action and seem to be quite popular with those of you who are kind enough to visit this humble blog. Don't worry - reviews of these two characters' latest outings are on their way, as well as a review for at least one other ongoing comic that I'm a big fan of.
As you might've noticed, the consistency of my blog's output schedule has completely fallen apart since it began a year ago. A lot of the time I used to allocate for working on this site has been sacrificed in favour of uni work and my new position as editor of Platform's entertainment section - but Paperback in Action is still very much alive. With a nice long summer break ahead of me, I should be able to keep up with my reoccurring reviews and maybe even return to the weekly format for a bit.
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| Al Ewing and Joe Bennet's Immortal Hulk has been a big hit |
The main thing that keeps Paperback in Action going is anybody who takes the time to have a look at what I have to say. If people didn't read this blog, I'd probably still use it to build up a portfolio, but seeing the numbers (no matter how small) add up on each post always makes me glad that all of this is reaching somebody.
I want to say a big thanks to all of you who have clicked this article and others, and an even bigger thank you to those who share and respond when I put them on Twitter and Facebook. It's particularly uplifting whenever anyone says they'll try out a book after reading my review!
This first year of blogging is only the start of a lifelong career as a journalist. I'm going to keep writing for this blog, as well as trying to get more work published for as many websites, magazines and newspapers as I can. I hope you'll keep reading my stuff, and I encourage you to write some articles yourself.
Thank you!
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