Hello, I Must Be Going: Final Thoughts from a Former Editor-in-Chief

There’s a type of article that you see crop up from time to time on certain websites. Every website has their fair share of staff members and personalities that stand out and resonate with an audience, and sometimes the people behind those personalities leave their writing establishment for whatever reason. Then comes the long goodbye posts about it, some sentimental and some funny – but that’s not really my thing. If anything, I’d want to hit a middle ground.

So to cut a long story short and at the behest of Scotland’s own Colin Bell (probably the last time I’ll get to write that joke), tl;dr – I’m stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics.

Flex Mentallo #4

Here’s the Cliff Notes version: over five years ago, I started a blog that became a relatively successful comic-culture website. It was unexpected but really swell. Then in November of last year I started resigning from some of my regular duties as Editor-in-Chief of the site for personal reasons and, in January of this year, made it official that my tenure leading the world’s most successful X-Men Origins: Wolverine fanblog had come to an end.

To some this may seem a bit of a shock. I told a few people about this before our public announcement, that I had made the decision to move on, and the most consistent response I got was, “How are you feeling?” I think people expect me to say that I am sad, which is perhaps inevitable; how could anyone not be in this situation? After all, when you spend over five years of your life working and developing something like this, it’s not exactly easy to just pack your bags and go.

But I’m not sad, nor do I think should anyone else be. If I could, I’d make a video montage of all the fun memories and things I’ve gotten to do because of this site overlayed with “Eternal Flame” by the Bangles, because I have nothing but warm thoughts and fuzzy feelings for the site, its past with me and its future without me. I couldn’t be more proud of the site and everyone here, all the accomplishments and the adventures we’ve shared; from our various annual charity events at conventions, to late nights out until 3:00 AM or that time I got food poisoning at a White Castle while rooming with 5 other staffers during a con. This site and its staff encapsulate some of my favorite people and fondest adult memories.

And all of it was a fluke! Who could have known anything would be achieved in the first place, right? But somehow we did it together, and starting this site and getting it as far as it has come has opened up such an array of interesting and unique experiences that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. I mean, how many people can say that they got to fly to San Diego to lose a prestigious award in front of a crowded room full of people who’d never heard of them? That’s something not everyone gets to do in their lifetime, but I got to — and I got to eat at an overpriced faux-60’s sci-fi diner afterwards!

As much as I like to put myself down (that’s just my weird sense of humor), none of that is disingenuous. I’m very proud of everyone here and everything we’ve accomplished as a site, something that has always been a team effort, and I’m proud of what I’ve been able to do for myself. For example, in terms of my writing I went from “just awful” to “good enough, I guess,” which will really help me out now that I finally have time to write my Great American Novel about a sad, brooding white dude pulled out of his existential post-graduate funk thanks to a kooky, weird indie rock chick and her fondness for albums by The Smiths.

But seriously: the site has changed my life. The things I’ve gotten to experience, what I’ve learned, the people I’ve met, the friendships I’ve made? All of it life-altering and defining in their own way, and for that I am grateful.

Alas — I don’t want to whine on and on. If you’ve read this far, you get the point: I’m leaving, it’s sad, but don’t be sad, blah blah blah.

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However, if I could bend your collective ear for a moment, there is one last thing I’d like to say.

Casanova Gula #4

When the site started picking up steam and gaining members besides myself, we very quickly developed a mission statement: to be a site for people who love comics, by people love comics. It’s not the most original slogan, I’ll grant you that, but it’s one that I’ve always tried to keep close to my heart. Maybe not everything I wrote was ostensibly positive and I’ve done my fair share of negative reviews, but all of it came from an inherent place of love — of wanting comics and everything surrounding comics to be great in its own way.

Not only that, but one of the first regular columns of the site was something called Friday Recommendation. Originally started because I knew I had to have a regularly weekly column or I’d give up writing, it was a place to pick any book that meant anything to the writer and give it a spotlight for the day so that people could go find it over the weekend and maybe see if they could find what the original post author did in the material. And while we did end the column, the idea behind it has always been here in the background of everything else going on at the site.

So what I’d like to ask of you in this post is ask a favor, of you and anyone you might interact with. All I want is for you to share your love of comics in the most unabashed, fanboy/fangirl-y way you can. Grab your favorite book and shove it into the hands of an unsuspecting friend or relative or stranger; maybe it’s “Flex Mentallo,” maybe it’s “Casanova,” maybe it’s “Starman” or maybe it’s something else — I don’t know, just pick one of your favorite books and pass it on. Take these things that mean so much to you and I and just make sure that other people have the same opportunity to be as moved and affected by it as you were, or are.

That’s sappy, sure, but I think we need more of it. I love comics to death, but there’s a lot of negativity that hovers around us at all times. Not that it’s unwarranted, of course; our overall culture is far from perfect and there is a lot we need to work on, to grow and improve upon — but at the core of it all, there are these beautiful books of sequential artwork that can really have an impact on someone in the right circumstances. Whether you’re alone and reading “Green Lantern” comics while compartmentalizing your anxiety against the emotional spectrum, or whether it’s late at night and you’re reading a graphic novel so moving that the next morning when you wake up you call your parents just to say “hey, I love you,” comics move us a great deal. If they didn’t, none of us would blog about the damn things every single day, right?

So if there is one thing that I want to leave behind as my legacy at this site, it’s the hope that my enthusiasm for picking up and sharing comics could be in any way infectious. It doesn’t matter if you like to dig deep and annotate the crap out of comics and their secrets or if you just want to pick up a book and have a good time with it — find what works for you, and then help get that book into the hands of someone else.

So. What’s next?

The site will be continuing on without me to stay in your lives, bringing you the type of content you’ve come to love from us — from reviews and interviews to think-pieces, theme weeks/months and beyond. I’m sure whatever plans the site staff is already cooking up will be great, and it’s actually kind of neat to for once not be in the know; it’s my first chance ever to just be part of the readership of the site, which is a strange and new experience for me that I look forward to. As for me, I’ll be staying on to help with the transition for a bit, as well as acting as an occasional contributor for smaller pieces (such as the Agent Carter reviews).

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To everyone that has come to the site in the five-plus years since it began, if you have read, responded to and enjoyed (or even loathed) something that I’ve written: thank you so much. I’m overwhelmed that the site ever received the response it did, and despite being unable to shut up when writing sometimes I find myself at a loss for words when trying to convey my extreme gratitude to you, our readership. I never meant to start a site or a successful blog or whatever MC is; I only ever meant to defend a movie that probably didn’t merit defending. And yet, here we are.

I hope you continue to enjoy Muliversity Comics as it grows and becomes its own thing without me telling it what to do or when it has to go to bed or study for a physics final. I will remember my time at this site fondly, and I hope you will as well – or, at the very least, I hope you will remember me for that time I snuck “All-Star” by Smash Mouth into the playlist for our NYCC 2014 charity event without anyone noticing until it was far too late.

And with whatever comes next for me, I hope you’ll enjoy that too. I won’t hold you to it, though.