Rebutting Myself?

In the time honored tradition of media outlets issuing apologies for less than professional work, I give you all the first ever Surfing the Bleed Official Apology.

As those few of you who read my blog regularly (which is apparently everyone in the offices at BOOM! Studios) already know, I posted a rather heated response earlier to this years Eisner nominations. While the post remains, it has been edited from its original form. I'll tell you why.

While I stand by my opinions, I don't necessarily stand by the way I delivered all of them. In the original post, I allowed my ire to interfere with my professionalism. I put forth a misinformed opinion about BOOM!'s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and have omitted the entire section that dealt with that book. While I do think it odd that an adaptation made it into the Best New Series category, my knowledge of the book is admittedly cursory and I had no right to dismiss it out of hand. I intend to review Do Androids...in its entirety over the coming week in an attempt to assuage any guilt I feel about jumping to any conclusions.

The original post also made it sound as though I'm not a fan of Mark Waid and Peter Krause's Irredeemable. I personally feel like the last few issues of the book have left something to be desired and don't resonate with the same oomph! that earlier issues did, but it was brought to my attention that those issues in question didn't even occur in 2009 and therefore aren't part of this Eisner nominating process. Irredeemable was one of my favorite titles of the year in 2009 and despite my misgivings about the current story arc, I do still purchase the book each month. I've also kept a few friends who were less sanguine about the future of the series than I from dropping it from their pull boxes. Why? Because Mark Waid has so seldom let me down.

While I don't believe I expressed any opinions in my original post that I wouldn't gladly stand behind, I was, upon reflection, disappointed at how I expressed them. I endeavor, as a blogger and a hopeful creator, to bring a level of professionalism to this blog absent from many corners of the comics internet. I'd like to think of myself as a true celebrator of comics, not just a fanboy with as much vitriol as sense.

While many of this years Eisner nominees troubled me, I can't reiterate more that this is just one man's opinion. If you disagree with it, fine. Great, even! I want to invite intelligent discourse. I realize that my last post, in places, sounded less intelligent than incendiary. I fear that in an effort to be honest or humorous I may have come off as simply mean. That was never my intention.

I love this industry and want very much to be a part of it. That certainly doesn't mean that I'm going to give it a pass or that I won't call something out if I feel like it isn't up to par. But I will try to be less vitriolic in the future (unless the situation really calls for vitriol).