FYC the lost episodes:

I used to write a weekly column for the Pulse, entitled For Your Consideration. It was a review/recommendation column - heavily weighed toward recommendations - for independent, self-published, and web comics. Mostly, it was stuff I really enjoyed and wanted to try and bring to a wider audience.

In the middle of 2008, the Pulse was prepping for a revamp, and the moderator felt it prudent to hold back any columns I had "in the can" because whatever went up before the revamp of the site would ultimately be lost. I agreed, and when the Pulse finally came online with its new look, right around the time we were voting for a new President, I assumed FYC would resume weekly publication.

But that was not to be - the moderator of the site Jen Contino cited the overwhelming task of re-issuing, so to speak, much of the content that had recently been available at the site, but assured me that come the New Year, FYC would be back. And, it was agreed it would then be bi-weekly, alternating with the other "outside" column on the site, "Make With the Funny Comic."

Only one of the columns, which I had sent in almost nine months prior at that point, made it onto the site. From where I sit, it appears the task of keeping the site going took far more of Ms. Contino's time than she expected, though I am unable to verify this as she was not able to reply to my email inquiries. But if you check the site out - here - you'll see that almost every single post, interview, review, commentary, is written by her.

I do not envy her and wish Jen the best as she gave me a great break. But I felt it necessary to cut ties with the site and focus on my fiction. This has been a good thing for me, but I also feel an obligation to those I had contacted regarding doing interviews for the Pulse and FYC. So, through this week you'll be seeing the finished columns that were "in the can" and never got publication, and I hope that someday I will get back to those interviews I never attached to a column and bring them to you here as well. Some of the information may be outdated with regards to the Q&As with the creators, but the books are still great, and I expect you'll be able to find them still whether through ebay or Amazon or your LCS.

Thanks and I hope you all enjoy the next five days of things that never were.

chris