GMU Pop Culture Journalism

Website Response – Comic Book Resources

There is only one website (that I know of) that has everything a person needs to know everything that is currently going on in the world of comics: Comic Book Resources.

They truly have it all: interviews with creators, reviews of each week’s comics, analyses of each month’s sales, videos, blogs, a twitter page and a popular message board.

One of my favorite blogs hosted by CBR is “Comics Should Be Good,” which is posted on by a few regular writers, but mostly by it’s creator, Brian Cronin. Cronin rarely reviews individual comics, but writes more about the people who create comics in his “Comic Book Legends Revealed” feature. He often takes a comical approach to his writing and tends to poke fun at comics and it’s creators, an approach that is normally rare from comic book fans that see writers and artists as gods that can do no wrong.

Also one of the best features of the website is its message board. There, fans can argue to no end on what comic book company, series, hero, villain, etc. is better. It’s always fun to read the crazy crap people write.

One of the biggest drawbacks to this site is that they focus mainly on mainstream comics like Marvel and DC, and not some the smaller and independent companies. Which brings me to my first story proposal.

I propose a monthly feature column in which a comic book is highlighted as something good that an independent company is doing, and would be worth buying. This would do better than just a simple review that people tend to pass over indie reviews on their website and this would be given a prominent space.

Second, I would love to see a NCAA bracket type competition where super heroes or villains are matched up against each other, and fans who go to that site would vote to see who would beat the other character in a fight or who is more popular. This is something I’ve seen done on other websites, but never on CBR.

Third, I would also propose a weekly or daily section were they highlight and review an old comic. This would help remind people that comics aren’t just about what’s new, but also what’s old. Plenty of people search for good back issues to buy, and having a feature that highlights older comics would help fans find the best of the back issues.

Other than those ideas, I’m not sure what else I can add to CBR because, like I said, they already do so much and do it well. If you ever want to know what’s going on in the world of comics, go to CBR.

Tags: Comic Books, website response