So last Sunday, the 6th of January, was the eighth anniversary of the day I signed up for a Blogger account so that I could get back into the practice of writing. And in true Modern Age ISB fashion, I was too busy writing for other things to update the blog. Whoooooops.

But yeah, it was a pretty big milestone. I started this thing when I was 22, working in a comic book store and wondering if I was ever going to be able to write, and now I’m 30, writing professionally, and I had my first OGN (cowritten with Chad Bowers, with art by Scott Kowalchuk and letters by Josh Krach) announced at New York Comic-Con, in front of a room (half) full of people, some of whom were nice enough to comb New York City for Sun Drop and bring us cans to drink on the panel. That’s pretty big, and it’s something that I can trace right back to the day Phil convinced me that blogging wasn’t a self-indulgent waste of time — or at least, that it was, but it’s the kind of self-indulgent waste of time that I like to do.

Last year, my New Year’s Resolution was to write more and not let the ISB get so fallow, and I think I did okay at it. The “problem,” if you even want to call it that, is that I was doing pretty okay as a freelancer, and most of the stuff I wanted to write was stuff people wanted to pay for. So while the ISB got some reviews of 3 year-old video games (which are still good darn it) and exactly one proof-of-concept recap of Impact Wrestling, I wrote some comics, one of which was actually released to the general public where a few people bought it, and did work for ComicsAliance, Grantland, WithLeather and Wired, writing about stuff I liked to write about. It’s pretty cool.

But anyway, before I get too maudlin and sappy, thanks to everyone who’s reading and is not a jerk (up yours if you are reading and are a jerk), whether you’ve stuck with me for the whole time or you’re new, or if you were just doing a search for vaginal ghosts and wound up here. That is my legacy as a critic, and I have come to accept that.