From the In Box: From the Reading Pile V
Big thanks for the heads-up, and the terribly kind and insightful review of The Comics Interpreter. It was a very pleasant surprise.

It's true that seemingly everyone in small press comics pays fealty to Jordan these days, if only because he either has a hand directly in the design of their books or has lent invaluable advice via phone or email regarding layout, marketing, or niggling technicalities of printing. I'm happy to say that TCI interviewed Jordan a bit before everyone jumped the ever-expanding Crane bandwagon, and a good two years prior to The Comics Journal turning the reins of one issue over to Jordan and Highwater Books impresario Tom Devlin.

Now skipping away from any noxious ME-centrism: All of the reviews in Media Diet were exceptionally well-written, and I was immediately inspired to nab at least of few of the zines you covered. Certainly you seem to know a helluvalot more about comics than I do (which I guess is no big feat).

Anyway, who knows why you do it, but regardless I'm sure Media Diet is vastly appreciated by the unwashed minions of neurotic, self-pubbing types out there who aren't exactly sure why they're doing it either. -- Robert Young

Thanks for the kind words, Robert. Perhaps we should start our own little Mutual Appreciation Society! Heh. Because sometimes doing this sort of stuff is frustrating. Case in point: I don't know what Media Diet's traffic is, but I can tell you that very few people ever visit. This is even more true in the discussion forum adjacent to Media Diet. So even though I feel like I'm shouting into a canyon sometimes -- doing this blog is way different than when I used to publish zines because then at least, I knew that I had 250 copies floating around somewhere; with Media Diet, it's all electrons -- I really enjoy keeping this going.

Why do I do Media Diet? I haven't really thought about this, but here's a stab at a rationale:

to document and catalog some of the small-press ephemera that crosses my path (I donate everything I receive to DePaul University's library in Chicago)

to help improve the state of self-publishing and DIY media by highlighting some of the best (and worst, sometimes) examples of personal media -- and connecting the respective media makers

to meet creative, productive, fun, talented, and slightly crazy people

to get the proverbial free stuff occasionally

I like telling people I don't know what I think, feel, and do

I doubt I know more about comics than you do. It's all in the appearing to be smart -- just like it says in ReadyMade.

Why do you do what you do?