My guess is that you’ve noticed this already, but the comics blogosphere has exploded recently. I think it’s doubled in size since September or so, no kidding. Perhaps, then, it’s a good time to point out why blogs are, when done right, good–and not, as their detractors claim, just a bunch of assholes on soapboxes barking at the moon without bothering with discussion or dissent.
I don’t know what blogs you’ve been reading, but I’m pretty sure that if they’re any good (and I try to make mine “any good”) there’s discussion and differences of opinion aplenty. I’m unapologetic about the fact that my blog has no comments feature and no messboard or forum: This is a dictatorship, not a democracy, and a big part of the attraction of running a blog the way I run mine is to not have to put up with trolls, either of the straightforward namecalling variety or the TCJ.com type who hijack every thread about topics they don’t approve of into endless, resolution-free arguments about whether that topic even deserves to be discussed in the first place.
That being said, I ASSURE you that the discussions and differences of opinion I’ve encountered through the use of my un-user-friendly, heavily-moderated blog are, on average, about a billion times more interesting, intelligent, and rewarding than messboard discussions I’ve participated on about those same topics, or any other topic, for that matter. The comicsphere is diverse, articulate, insightful, and demanding of high quality from comics. The discussions and debates that have gone on between me, Dirk Deppey, Bill Sherman, Alan David Doane, Johnny Bacardi, Eve Tushnet, Franklin Harris, NeilAlien, Jim Henley, John Jakala, David Fiore, JW Hastings, Shawn Fumo, Tegan Gjovaag and on and on (links in the blogroll) are, I submit, the best comics-related discussions you’re likely to find–and they’ve been waged, in the main, through posts on blogs. (UPDATE: I think it’s also important to note, given what appears to be becoming conventional wisdom about comicsbloggers, that as a group these are some of the most passionate, enthusiastic advocates of good comics around. Hell, you could even call me an “activist” if you wanted….)
I think a problem that most people who don’t like “blogs” have is that they picture the least-good blog imaginable and attack that as the norm: Blogs that discuss an article or issue without linking to it, blogs that pontificate and then don’t link to or respond to worthwhile counterarguments, etc. Ted Rall did something exactly like that–saying blogs take stuff out of context, crush free speech, etc. (before, of course, with the charming hypocrisy that has become his trademark, he launched a blog of his own). In that Comics Pimp thread at the Brian Wood forums, Matt Brady just did the same thing, saying that Doane’s little “dancing monkey” gag wouldn’t be clicked through to the original post by its readers–ignorant of the fact that a one-line link is THE link most likely to be clicked through by blog readers, since on the whole such readers really DO want to know the context of things.
I’m not one of these “blogging is the future” people, but I will say that in my experience blogs are a far more useful means of discussing a topic with other intelligent people than any other venue on the web.