Even though we’d discussed it here and there over the past year, I was surprised when Alan David Doane reminded me of the 10th anniversary of Comic Book Galaxy. To be totally honest, even though I’m often quite a sentimental, nostalgic guy, to me CBG essentially died around a year ago, when we relaunched as Trouble With Comics. I like that name better, and for a time was quite energized by hanging out (virtually) with mostly a new group of writers, and some old friends. As we’ve come to learn, everything is cyclical, especially with websites, and so things have been pretty quiet at CBG/TWC for a while. And that’s okay; I’ve enjoyed spending more time on fiction writing, cooking, movies and doomed romances, and flurries of activity on projects like trying to review this or that complete series or keeping up with all the floppies have been exhausting and/or unsatisfying.

But an anniversary does cause one to reflect, doesn’t it? When I started writing for Comic Book Galaxy ten years ago, I was certainly an adult at almost 31 years old and with a newborn son, but in a lot of ways very wet behind the ears. I had been away from comics for a couple years or so (sort of giving them up for my new married life), but got back into them, excited by fresh voices like Warren Ellis and Brian Michael Bendis. I made a lot of contacts at Bendis’ Jinxworld message board, including Alan, and also had a long distance friendship with a Scottish guy in Minnesota, with whom I wrote a screenplay and also cowrote a couple dozen reviews of John Byrne comics for what was intended as a complete examination of his oeuvre. Those two dozen reviews got me into CBG, and probably more by being available and willing and with a similar mindset as Alan’s, I parlayed so-so talent into editing and co-managing the site, a sojourn to a couple other sites, some magazine and book work, an Eisner judge gig, and eventual return to CBG.

What happened during that time was that graphic novels became more commonplace and recognized in literary circles, superhero films (especially those featuring Marvel characters) became successful to the point where it’s no longer a big deal when one is made, lots of publishers came and went, manga became huge and yet still almost invisible to a lot of old comics readers, and talents like Bendis and Ellis became very popular and inevitably perhaps too familiar, eventually supplanted by others in the minds of readers always looking for the next cool guys. 

Personally, two kids, a divorce, a few jobs, many extra pounds and gallons of carelessly distributed semen later, I find I no longer much care about what’s going on at comics news sites on a daily or even monthly basis. I catch up here and there, but mostly focus on a few guys I like to read, and fortunately I’m friendly with some of them. I used to be really combative on message boards or in my column, and now, for the most part, I let people be. An inability to change the behavior of, say, a Graeme MacMillan, informs me there’s no point in attempting it with a Noah Berlatsky. 

I no longer seek out many review copies unless it’s something I’m really interested in, and I don’t get excited by most unsolicited review copies I get. They often feel like a burden, a baby on the doorstep, although one I can throw away with little guilt. 

One thing that’s changed about the comics corner of the internet that does excite me is how much higher the level of quality is. When we started, we were pretty competitive, and looked down our noses at a Silver Bullet Comicbooks or PopImage or Savant, and often rightly so, and now there’s ComicsComics and Comics Reporter and some others doing things better and more frequently than we do. It took a while to accept that, and to accept that the accomplishments I mentioned above really mean very little. Sometimes I’m average, and occasionally I’m good, and I can accept that. I like to write about comics when I want to now, not so much out of a sense of duty or anything like that. It was fun being around for the toddler stage of comics criticism and in the big picture it’s pretty great that others have scampered farther along than us. Very rarely do I feel envious of Jog or Douglas Wolk; mostly I’m just happy to read them, you know? It really doesn’t do anything positive for your work when you think you’re hot stuff. You only get better at tennis playing against someone better.

My main takeaway from ten years of this is a really valuable friendship with Alan, some great camaraderie, and a venue for me to be myself. There’s a lot of embarrassing work, sometimes too mean, sometimes too nice, and often banal, but a few pieces I’m proud of as well. Comic Book Galaxy now exists as a sort of dusty treehouse that I don’t think about every day, and when I do I have to weigh the joys of getting up in it again versus the ache on my aging knees climbing up, but when I do visit, it’s usually worth the effort.

— Christopher Allen