Comic Strip of the Day

My friend Mike Peterson runs a fine blog called Comic Strip of the Day (CSOTD), which does what its title says. Every day Mike reads a couple hundred comics and picks out those that inspire an essay or provide an interesting juxtaposition. He's a very good writer and it's a daily stop of mine.

When I heard Mike would be going into the shop for a tune-up, I offered to take over CSOTD while he recovers. I made it sound like I was doing him a favor, when in fact he's doing me one: I love comics, I love to write, and I like the discipline of having to produce something daily on deadline. This'll be fun.

Also, when you get a bunch of readers in the habit of checking in with you every day, never give them an excuse to get away. I'm hoping Mike's readers will stick with CSOTD while I fill in. Maybe I can even convince someone who knows me but doesn't know Mike to start reading CSOTD. That'd be cool.

My first CSOTD is Tuesday, July 12. Mike has already linked to this blog and I'll cite it a few times myself, so by way of introduction: I'm a writer, journalist, cartoonist, and creator of comics you can learn more about by clicking those links to the right. Further down are eight years (!) of my blog archives.

I'm doing CSOTD my way, not Mike's, and Mike's OK with that. Mike's Prime Directive is that he never singles out comics for snark and abuse. It's also mine. I'll be less political than Mike. I don't do politics online; in my experience it just makes people mad and never changes anybody's mind. I also don't think I'll have time to read a couple hundred comic strips per day. But I hope to have interesting things to say about comics, and I have some surprises planned.

I have no idea how long I'll be guest-hosting while Mike recuperates. Probably between two and six weeks. I think Mike's tough and stubborn enough to hit the low end of that range.

I'll leave the lights on for you, Mike.