If you see some dog retiring his blog, you can bet that he's doing it for some job...

Evidently, this isn’t a comics blog; instead, it is a comics-blog-and-site blog. I’m doing the same thing I did yesterday, only in eulogy form. If you’ve arrived here, then you’ve probably already made the blogosphere rounds and seen that John Jakala is hanging up his blogging hat.

Unlike yesterday’s reminiscing about ADD and CBG, I can’t exactly remember where I found John. I’m pretty sure it pre-dated his blog, but I can’t remember. It very well could have been his “spot all the utterly bugfuck ridiculous grammar errors in these sentences from Wizard Magazine” challenge in a column at Broken Frontier, or it could have been before or after that (how’s that for inconclusive?). I do know that he and Graeme introduced me to the blogosphere (not being web-savvy, I didn’t even know what exactly constituted a blog, despite reading Journalista! daily).

While John and Grotesque Anatomy haven’t been an influence on me for the same length of time as Comic Book Galaxy, it may have been more personal. I fucking adore John Jakala, and I’m more than willing to say it. Still, he’s a mate, and I know he’s going on to bigger and better things, doing whatever it is that he does for a living (I still have no idea what his job title actually means).

Sadly, my self-centered and desperate attempts to woo him with showtune parody had no affect on his decision to leave:

“John, be a blogger tonight
John, be a blogger tonight
John, if you've ever been a blogger to begin with,
John, be a blogger tonight

John, let the blogosphere see
How nice your snarking can be
I know the way you've treated other blogs you've linked with
John, be a blogger with me

A blogger wouldn't leave the 'sphere
It isn't fair! It isn't nice!
A blogger wouldn't wander all over the net
Looking for a non-comics vice!

So, lets keep the blogroll polite
You'll never be off of our sites
Stick with us, Johnny, your the blogger we came in with
John! Be a blogger tonight...

A blogger wouldn't leave for work stuff
He'd have soul, he'd have a heart
A blogger wouldn't make final posts like that
Now where's my day supposed to start?

So, lets keep the blogroll polite
You'll never be off of our sites
Stick with us, Johnny, your the blogger we came in with
John! Be a blogger tonight...”

I know you’re just an e-mail away, Jakala, but I’m going to miss your public displays of snark and commentary. You’ve brought a ton of people to the comics blog scene, both as readers and future bloggers.

While I’m on “blogosphere” mode, I’d like to thank everyone for the well-wishes on the start of this. I promise I’ll actually start taking the low road once all the anniversaries and shop-closings settle down. And I’d like to point to one more blog: Johanna Draper Carlson is running a Why Aren’t You Reading Fallen Angel contest on her blog. I’ll admit it – I’m not reading Fallen Angel. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. I’m not against trying it out. I am, however, against people not trying things outside of their normal reading habits, so I’m glad to throw what little support I can towards this contest. You’ve got until September 8th, so get cracking.

Tomorrow, hopefully something non-blogosphere related.