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The Calm Before the Storm

Comic Related marks the start of its fifth year on the web!

Today marked the four year anniversary of Comic Related and the start of our fifth year on the web. Each year, we take the opportunity on our anniversary to serve up an annual State of the Site Report looking back on the past year. As September 1st 2008 is marked on the calendar, there's certainly good reason to look back but there's even more reason to look forward!

We here at Comic Related are in the calm before the storm. What do I mean by that? Over the next two months you are going to see significant change sweep across the face of our site. This will be change unlike anything we've unveiled to date. For the first four years of Comic Related, I was the lone site designer constantly tweaking and trying to improve the site. We picked up a lot of amazing writers, but it remained my personal quest to move the design forward. Along the way, there came a point when my skills are capped out. I knew it and I could see that there were better ways to do more with the site and share updates in an increasingly efficient way. It's time to take things to the next level and I decided to step aside and call in professionals.

About a month ago, we called in the big guns. We're now actively working with a graphic design firm to roll out a complete redesign of the visual look of Comic Related. I couldn't be more excited with where this process is headed. Behind-the-scenes, we also have programmers working to implement a content management system which will allow writers to begin contributing stories directly to the site in a much more efficient way.

What does this mean for you the reader?

More stories, more updates and more time for the staff behind Comic Related to begin investigating and going after the comic news stories as they break. We know we're not Newsarama. We know we're not Comic Book Resources. That said, I I will answer those assertions with a single word... yet.

In January of 2006, we had 284,596 hits in one month. In January of 2007, we had 417,052 hits in one month. In January of 2008, we had 1,006,067 hits in one month. In June of 2008, we had 2,324,117 hits in on month. To say we are growing would be an understatement. Where we're going next can be summed up in a simple statement... You haven't seen ANYTHING yet!

First and foremost, we're going to begin going after comic book and graphic novel news stories, announcements and previews as they break. That said, these won't necessarily be the stories everyone else is covering. Comic Related has always been just a little bit different. We march to our own beat and around here we treat small and independent press not as second string players (which is the case with many news sites), but as equals in every sense of the word with mainstream comics. They are the heart and soul of the comic industry, they are the future of our industry and they are the heart and soul of Comic Related. Sure, we'll expand our coverage of the comics and characters you've know for much of your life, but along the way we'll also grow our independent and small press coverage at an even faster rate.

One other change comes in the form of a word your going to hear us say a lot in year five of Comic Related... reviews. Partnering with Peter Simeti, President of Alterna Comics, we're gathering a crew of reviewers that will be sharing quite possibly the widest cross-section of comic evaluation you have seen to date. Amassing an army of as many as 30 reviewers, Peter is in the final stage of unveiling a mix of daily reviews that will rain out of the Comic Related site. With an goal of as many as three reviews a day, you can do the math and see where we're headed. Compare that number to the title count being released in any given month and Comic Related will soon be a force in providing quality opinion on the books coming out across the ENTIRE face of comics. This is in addition to the stories you're already seeing presented on the site each day. There will be a deluge of NEW CONTENT coming your way very soon.

See what we mean about the quite before the storm? Sure, things seem like business as normal right now, but trust me when I say that exciting times lay ahead!

While sharing this update, I want to pay tribute to all of the voices that have risen form the ranks of the comic world to share their thoughts and voice through Comic Related. At the start of year four, Gordon Dymowski was the lone columnist sharing content through the site. Ron Fortier was shepherding the forum and we had a few individuals who were with us as reviewers posting the occasional feature. Overall, we were a spartan crew. Since that time, we've welcomed Russell Burlingame, Cassandra Faust, Bill Gladman, Bill Love, John Wilson and Eric Ratcliffe as regular feature writers. We have more columns on the way and the writing staff is really starting to grow quickly week after week.

We also made our presence known on the convention circuit. It's been an exciting year as we visited and reported on fifteen conventions and comic related events. Considering we're only two-thirds of the way through 2008 and we still have more coverage planned, this has been a good year out on the raod.

This fourth year of the site also marked the dawn of Comic Related's Related Recap, our weekly podcast. We're proud to point out that we've already shared 31 episodes and spoken with over 80 creators through those shows. This new feature is quickly becoming a center piece of Comic Related. Could year five bring co-hosts to the Related Recap? It looks like that will be the case!

From podcasting to convention coverage to commentary to interviews to reviews to columns to photos to nothing less than the future of comics...If it's Comic Related, you'll find it here!

-- Site creator Chuck Moore writing on September 1st, 2008