Max Riffner

The Parlor

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Big Week

A good amount of work has been done this week – you may have noticed some of it around here in the form of subtle site changes. I’ve spent some time strategizing how this site should be used and whether or not I should build other sites for various purposes. I believe that right now, however, I need to focus on keeping this site not just good but great by keeping all of my various ideas under the MaxRiffner.com umbrella for now.

Just because it is easy to build other sites doesn’t mean I should, and I think that keeping everything under one site reflects value in the content of this site. Not only can you get a good dose of Max-created comics (including a full graphic novel), but also a selection of high quality Pinups, and hopefully some entertaining reading here in the Parlor.

Which brings up another point: the writing in the Parlor hasn’t been as good as I would like. Adding comments here was interesting, as the highest commenting would come from more personal posts, and I think I got somewhat addicted to the comments for awhile. When I would post anything professional, comments would drop to zero most times. Hence, not many professional posts to feed my comment addiction. By doing that, however, my audience hasn’t grown a whole heck of a lot either. I want to be writing more on comics, independent publishing, design, how the internet affects these subjects and the business of all four. There is going to be more of that. There will still be personal anecdotes, too. I value the audience that is here now. I think I now have something to offer in those other areas also.

So let me give a quick hit of all the subjects here in one post:

• Blooks are books based off of blogs. Lulu is sponsoring a new literary award especially for this new form of publishing, title the Lulu Blooker Prize. The entries will be judged by Cory Doctorow (of BoingBoing.net), Paul Jones and Robin Miller. Damn right I already entered Golden Boy.
• Speaking of Golden Boy, I’ll be signing copies of the book tomorrow at Krypton Comics with Norm Breyfogle, Ethan Van Sciver, and Chuck Satterlee.
• I’ve redesigned my footer to act as a hub or an anchor for everything you could need from the site; after reading about the Powazek.com redesign, I got inspired. Also, comments are enabled with Gravatar, which is like a little icon for yourself when you post. Sign up, associate an image with your email address, and any blog that is Gravatar enabled will post your icon with your comments. Otherwise, you’ll get the default one I provide for you. No big deal either way, just an opportunity to personalize yourself a bit more here.
• I am now getting paid to blog – more on that later.
• The Chief and I are gleefully planning on dressing up Quincy for Halloween. We’re thinking Superman, mostly because all the shots we see of the costume has a westie already in it. And yes, it was actually the Chief who brought up a superhero costume.

You can also browse through the Parlor archives.