If you’ve followed the comics blogosphere at all (and presumably you have, or you wouldn’t be here), you’ve seen first-hand how influential, invigorating and inspiring the work of Dirk Deppey has been to those of us following in his footsteps. (Or toiling in his shadow. Or picking at his leftovers. Hey, whatever works.) I’ve said repeatedly that it took Dirk’s relentless and comprehensive blogging to give the comicsphere a focal point, and enable it to reach the level it’s at today. I’ve got no idea what things will be like without a daily visit to Journalista to tie the whole enterprise together, but I’m sure we’ll be the poorer for his absence. Free speech issues here and abroad; editorial cartoon kerfuffles; mainstream-media successes and disasters; manga and its discontents; the bookstores and the direct market; legends and up-and-comers; the Big Five and the SPX set; brilliant and thought-provoking reporting and op-ed pieces; the desire, and the talent, to give comics the journalism it deserves–such was the beat of Dirk Deppey, blogger. He’ll be missed.
The only consolation is that now the most prestigious comics magazine in the country will be in his eminently capable hands.
But for that to happen, Milo George had to be fired, and that’s a bad thing. Milo and I have had our differences over the past few years: As a young upstart making my bones on the Journal’s message board, I found his rhetoric unnecessarily confrontational, occasionally dismissive, and sometimes downright abusive–which was a shame, since it reflected public perception of the magazine all too well. But in time I got to know Milo pretty well. As he explained his decisions and policies to me, I grew to like and respect him and his work more and more. I should have known this might be the case, though, considering I enjoyed the hell out of every issue I bought during his reign. Even where I still disagreed with his approach or vision for the magazine, I appreciated his passion for the medium and his desire to produce the best magazine possible despite an array of uncontrollable and adverse conditions. He tended to be on the right side of Comics Journal conflicts, and I think that the issues produced during his tenure will serve as a testament to this for a long time to come.
I hope that Dirk will be able to build on Milo’s successes, and that he’ll be given the freedom to change what needs changing (and there’s still quite a bit of that). I’ve got a lot of confidence that he will, of course–he’s one of us.
Good luck, fellas!