humanist + humorist

Wrote up recs for a couple webcomic collections, and got them into this 13 Best Books With Gay Protagonists list! (Pretty sure it’s not “13 best” so much as “the only 13 recs we got,” but still. A little good publicity never hurts.)

“The numbers just look worse with every new change, and Diamond didn’t change the things that I think most [local comic shops] actually are concerned about the most (like shipping costs) ” From 2022, but the nerdy business details are enlightening.

“Critics came up with a narrative that I was promoting shoplifting. Which as you might know is crimes, and thus should be mocked and ridiculed. But something was different this time…”

“…books by marginalized authors are more often tagged with triggering content than books by white authors on The StoryGraph (where readers can tag books with triggering content). […] Another issue surrounding trigger warnings and marginalized authors is how often these get tagged for content that does not exist on the book.” When readers have unlimited power to tag works, that power gets weaponized against the most vulnerable.

Ranking of the top 50 most-trafficked Arts & Entertainment websites in the world. A couple years ago, AO3 was #7 (topped only by Youtube, Netflix, Wikia, Spotify, IMDB, and the Chinese entertainment site Bilibili). Now it’s down to #12 (bumped by HBO, MiguVideo, Aniwave, DisneyPlus, and Pixiv). Can’t begrudge Pixiv the traffic, and AO3 is still #1 in terms of Sites To Read Fiction On. (Wattpad is a ways below, fanfiction.net no longer shows up in the top 50.)

“Nona lives in a genre where the back blurb is, ‘How do you deal with the world’s most embarrassing family — AND school?! How do you cope when the biggest jerk in the universe … turns out to be your secret crush’s out-of-town cousin?!?!’ Everyone else in the book is living in a docudrama where you get a message at the beginning saying, ‘Caution: Disturbing scenes will follow.'” Fun Tamsyn Muir interview from before the NtN release.

“I spent five years trying to get this stupid job and now that I have it I’m not going to hire it out to somebody else. The whole pleasure for me is having the opportunity to do a comic strip for a living, and now that I’ve finally got that I’m not going to give it away.” Not sure Bill Watterson has done new interviews for decades, but this is an old one, and a fun read.