Meta: Blogiversary reflections

Two years ago today, my husband showed me how to use WordPress and turned me loose with a blog of my own.

Nothing has been the same since.

MangaBlog was originally a sideline for what was supposed to be a Serious Project: A site for parents that gave specific information about content in manga, like the little blurbs next to movie ratings. But within a few days people had found MangaBlog and started commenting and linking, and blogging got to be so much more fun than counting curse words and panty shots that soon it took over completely. Anyway, now Tokyopop is doing the parental-information thing, so I don’t have to.

I have already had the best blogiversary present of all—meeting so many of you at NYCC last weekend. I’m lucky to be part of such a great community, and it was wonderful to meet face-to-face with so many of the the people who contribute to this blog in one way or another. The slugline says “an ongoing conversation about manga,” after all, and I can’t have a conversation all by myself (well, I can but it wouldn’t be pretty). So thanks for all your support, and keep on dropping in!

About Brigid Alverson

Brigid Alverson has been reading comics since she was 4. After earning an MFA in printmaking, she headed to New York to become a famous artist but ended up working with words instead of pictures, first as a book editor and later as a newspaper reporter. She started MangaBlog to keep track of her daughters’ reading habits and now covers manga, comics and graphic novels as a freelancer for School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly Comics Week, Comic Book Resources, the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, and Robot 6. She also edits the Good Comics for Kids blog at School Library Journal. Now settled in the outskirts of Boston, Brigid is married to a physicist and has two daughters.
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12 Responses to Meta: Blogiversary reflections

  1. Ed Sizemore says:

    Congratulations. I wish you many happy years of blogging to come.

  2. ed chavez says:

    HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

  3. Happy anniversary Brigid. Thanks for the link!

  4. Ninja337 says:

    Not really related, but how much demand was there for independent manga content ratings from parents?

  5. Brigid says:

    Judging from the number of parental-guidance anime sites out there, and my own experience, I would say there is a demand. Some parents don’t care what their kids read or watch, but many are picky. I have vetted comics for my sister and for other moms. I have what you might call a comics-positive point of view—I encourage them to let their kids read comics and to consider the work as a whole, rather than ban a book over a panty shot. But if I have concerns about content I’ll say so and let the parents decide. Beyond a certain age, kids will get hold of the books on their own anyway, but there is a brief window where we parents like to think we still have some say.

  6. Queenie Chan says:

    I read your blog everyday – it’s now my main news source for manga news. :D I hope you continue to blog because I really enjoy the things you post up, and you have a good selection of links too.

    Please keep up the good work!! And don’t close down your blog like other great bloggers I’ve been following, because then I’ll be REALLY REALLY sad!!!

  7. gumugum says:

    Time to update that Backstage article ;)

  8. Calvin Reid says:

    Happy Blogisversary B.
    MangaBlog is a must-read for me and for anybody else that loves manga.

  9. Anna says:

    Happy blog birthday!

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  11. ardith says:

    Happy Blogisversary! And many mooooooooore.

  12. dave roman says:

    Congrats! and great meeting you at NYCC!
    Hope we get to chat more at Anime Boston for sure.

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