We’ve had a lot of comments here lately.
With exceptions (ahem!) this is a good thing. While we’ve always had a fairly regular supply, it was usually just a handful on any given post.
But this bounty isn’t without its difficulties. I can’t read, much less moderate, them all at the moment. Also, the long threads mean that comments on some of the shorter threads can get lost, even if they convey information of interest. For example, this one from yesterday, which probably David P. was the only one to read before it got swallowed up. Also, the discussions can veer wildly off topic. There’s really nothing wrong with that, except for that I’d like to keep things a little more focused, and have better control of what happens at the site.
Fortunately, a solution is already built in. Several years ago, Jesse Willis of SFFaudio, a longtime friend of the site, set up a VWOP Yahoo group. It’s seen its ups and downs, but it hasn’t been used much lately. I thought about trying to revive it a few months ago because I always liked it, but didn’t get around to the attempt.
But now that the comments section here has gotten busy, with many posts acting as de facto open threads, I think now is the time.
I think now is the perfect time. We always see a burst here when a new Darwyn Cooke title is released, and one is coming in June. The movie version of Flashfire will follow about six months after, so there will be another bump there. I’d like to get ahead of that by getting the forum going again as an outlet for the interest those projects will inevitably generate.
When I was considering an attempt to revive the group, I thought this e-mail from a fellow in Belgium who came to the novels through Darwyn Cooke’s comics would make a good starting point, because I knew it would generate plenty of thoughts:
I was wondering if you could give me some tips concerning the Parker Novels.
I got interested in Parker after reading the fantastic Darwyn Cooke adaptations and now I want to start reading the novels. However, I’d like to start with a story I haven’t read before and that stands more or less on it’s own. Also, for now I’d like to avoid novels that Cooke will adapt in the future (The Score and Slayground/Butcher’s Moon). Normally, I’d just start at the beginning, but with these self imposed restrictions, I’m a bit at a loss.
I won’t post my response until later. Have at it!
To encourage that, comments on this post are closed. ;)
Update: I should have mentioned that I honored his self-imposed restrictions when responding, so that is your challenge.
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