Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Never Too Busy to say goodbye

Last week Colin Smith's blog Too Busy Thinking About My Comics shuttered its doors and windows, seemingly for good. Colin had been preparing for the end of this blog for quite some time, but now it appears the true end has arrived.

I came to Colin's site through a link to his Superman: Earth One essays and they quickly ensured I would keep an eye on his blog; Colin is that rare breed of internet critic with a surgeon's gift for carving up the diseased meat passing itself off as entertainment in today's comics while also possessing a painter's gift for exposing the beautiful things which had always been there in the comics, just a little out of focus.

Colin's ability to reevaluate the Silver Age and pinpoint how those works were effective in their own times and how their meanings have been forgotten is revelatory; his Pop Manifesto expounded on the idea of how the pop art of the Silver Age came to be. Yet this same eloquent passion could also be used to tear down Frank Miller's Holy Terror or Before Watchmen. Colin approaches comics as a scholar - and we don't have nearly enough of those.

I would have likely shuttered up Section 244 years ago but for Colin's influence; Colin inspired my own writing - I'm a better blogger for having wandered under his shadow.

Colin knows how I feel about his blog - my only goal at this time is to mark the occasion of Too Busy Thinking About My Comics' passing and to encourage those who haven't toured his blog to perhaps take some time there; his archives are vast and worth the effort of revisiting.

3 comments:

Gummboote said...

I always thought he was long-winded and sanctimonious, with a good deal of spite underneath the exaggerated courtesy.

Colin Smith said...

Hello Michael:- Thank you for such an unexpected & generous eulogy. It's always a pleasure to pop over here to Section 244, and this made a bleary-headed morning a much kinder place.

All the very best!

Michael Hoskin said...

Gummboote, I'm sorry you don't share my opinion. I will suggest this is perhaps not the best place to be publicly insulting one of my friends?