Sequential State – the comics criticism archive of Alex Hoffman

A Year In Review: 2014


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I started Sequential State in April of last year after 5 years of blogging at Manga Widget, a blog which I recently pulled down from WordPress. 2014 was a bit tumultuous, but as far as first years go, I think it was a fairly successful one for the website.

Some quick metrics for the interested:

Posts: 78
Books Reviewed: 61
Interviews: 1
Con Reports: 3
Video Content: 1
Followers: 397

But more important than those raw numbers were the people I met and the friendships I built. With the three shows I attended I have met and talked to many wonderful people, and I hope that trend continues.

My plans for 2015 have been in the works for a while:

Shows: Currently the plan is to attend at least 5 shows: TCAF, SPX, SPACE, Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC), and GenghisCon. That’s two more big shows than last year (not sure if CXC qualifies as a big show, but it will in 2016, so I’m counting it now). I was hoping to attend RIPExpo this year, but I don’t think that’s in the cards as long as it’s on my birthday weekend.

Writing: Overall I’m okay with the writing I’ve done – it could be better, and it could be worse. I got roughly 2 pieces done a week. I want to keep up a similar pace, maybe a little higher. I tried Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to start and while I didn’t burn myself out, a lot of extraneous stuff kept me from being as productive as I wanted to be. Starting this year, I’m slimming down on some of those things, and I hope that will let me be more productive in areas that matter more to me.

The majority of my writing this year has been reviews and comics criticism, which is fine, but it’s “easy.” I mean easy in the sense that I don’t have to engage with other folks in order to write; it’s me talking and not so much listening. And to be fair, I like doing what I’m doing right now. But that’s not the only type of content I want to publish on Sequential State. So I’m hoping to bring more interviews and more commentary to the site.

One thing I’m going to continue to shy away from is news blasts and press releases. Other folks do that better and more regularly. I’ll continue rounding up links and info, and I’d like to schedule those types of features to be a more regular event.

Other: One of the most exciting things I did this year was collaborate with MJ Robinson and Cathy G. Johnson to publish the audio for their talk at Oberlin College – as much as possible, I’d like to keep doing things like that. Does this mean me lugging around audio equipment at cons? Probably not. But that type of content and collaboration will be on my mind throughout 2015 and hopefully you’ll get to see more of it.

The site will be getting a refreshed look in the next month or two. I’m very excited for you to see it.

And thank you, dear reader. Thanks for coming along, for sharing and talking and spending your time with me. Here’s to a 2015 full of a lot of great comics and greater people. 


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