¡Journalista! est mort...

[Suzanne]

Yes, the rumours are true... the comprehensive ¡Journalista! weblog has breathed its final breath...  

"Final notice

This is my final entry for this weblog. I've tried to find every excuse imaginable for delaying making this announcement, but there's no way around it: I simply cannot edit both a daily, news-oriented weblog and a regularly-produced magazine at the same time.

I should note that I'm not entirely abandoning comics commentary. Beginning with The Comics Journal #262, I'll beginning a regular column of industry commentary, which oddly enough will be called ¡Journalista!, just one of a number of innovations I plan to bring to a newly revamped TCJ in coming issues. I hope you'll give the magazine a try if you aren't already a regular reader.

The weblog, however, is toast. Given that, I'm pleased to see that the comics blogosphere has more than picked up the slack. Since the discontinuation of ¡Journalista!, any number of new comics-related weblogs have appeared, and several attempts have been made to take up the task of gathering the day's newslinks -- the best of the lot is Kevin Melrose's weblog Thought Balloons, which I heartily recommend to anyone looking for their daily fix [...]"

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[Suzanne]

Now we're all alone. After ¡Journalista!, it's now Artbomb that's closing its virtual gates...

when we started the site, the comics internet was a much different place. here we were, with all these fascinating movements upon us -- from a resurgence in self and independent comics publishing to an explosion in manga and european comics, through the emergence of the booktrade and the mainstream acceptance of the "graphic novel" format -- yet very few people were actually talking about them.

and fewer were talking about the books themselves.

most of the real conversation was happening in forums and newsgroups and the such, off the beaten track from the mainstream comics websites of the time. but there was an awfully lot of good books being created that seemed to be going by the wayside.

so we decided to write about them.

and here we are, five hundred reviews later.

if i had my way, i'd keep artbomb running forever. unfortunately, unrelated personal circumstances have made that difficult for now. perhaps we'll come back to it in one form or another some day. i'd hate to say never again, so i won't. in the meantime, we'll be leaving the site up as an archive in its present form.

but i have faith that the mission will continue. there's so many quality websites and blogs being created everyday that are furthering the cause for good and innovative comics that i'm confidant that the conversation has shifted in the right direction.

and i look forward to reading as many of them as i can.

many, many thanks to warren, matt and kelly sue for making it all possible -- they have been dear friends through it all. thanks to brian for designing the damn thing. thanks to adi, tom, jamie, chris, gail, charlie, sam, dan, ian and janet for breathing new life into it. thanks to jessica, colleen, laurenn, andi, matt, and susannah for creating some brilliant web comics. thanks to neil for assisting us in the site launch. thanks to grace for putting up with the late nights. thanks to all the creators, publishers and educators who helped us along the way.

and special thanks to all of the readers who have visited and supported us over the years.

it was a lot of fun.

peter.

Noooooooooo... please come back... please...  

[Michelle]

nooooooooo!!!!! either one would have been bad enough, but both at once is just too much to handle *looks around for a harakiri emoticon*